vDSA round 8+master weapon questions

jakeedmundson

Round 8.... how the 4311 do you not die from that meteor the boss drops?
Tried roll dodging at different times and it always kills one of us and it always seems to happen on the 40% mark when she spawns the 4 dwemer giants... so we end up wiping.

Master destro staff.... Any idea on how much dps this would actually add? Sorc pet/heavy attack/clench build. Using one of the popular setups posted everywhere... but the last piece to the puzzle is a master lightning staff.
I can hit 33k on the dummy with an off-set infused lightning staff (mal back bar). If i ever find the masters lightning staff... would it add another 1-2k? Using clench in every rotation. Or would it be better to farm for an IA lightning staff to get the 4th bonus to add to the jewelry.

Front - off set lightning - infused - shock enchant (This needs the replacement)
back - mal lightning - infused - flame enchant
2 illambris
5 necro
3 IA jewelry

Jaxaxo

jakeedmundson wrote: »

Round 8.... how the 4311 do you not die from that meteor the boss drops?
Tried roll dodging at different times and it always kills one of us and it always seems to happen on the 40% mark when she spawns the 4 dwemer giants... so we end up wiping.

Just block / shield block
Meteor ignores roll dodge. It's undodgeable mechanic.

Mureel

Jaxaxo wrote: »

jakeedmundson wrote: »

Round 8.... how the 4311 do you not die from that meteor the boss drops?
Tried roll dodging at different times and it always kills one of us and it always seems to happen on the 40% mark when she spawns the 4 dwemer giants... so we end up wiping.

Just block / shield block
Meteor ignores roll dodge. It's undodgeable mechanic.

The other thing we do is interrupt. Have your healer interrupt (cshock or someone near can bash). Although, it was lonnnng like 8 mos since I’ve run it and idk if anything has changed in that time...? I usually am the healer and have just interrupted her with crushing shock.

I’ll do a run shortly and post back - unless anyone can let me know I’m wrong in the mean time.

kylewwefan

The meteor itself I don’t think kills you, but you have to move after it hits you. The area becomes tainted. But you can’t see it.

jakeedmundson

kylewwefan wrote: »

The meteor itself I don’t think kills you, but you have to move after it hits you. The area becomes tainted. But you can’t see it.

I'm almost positive i died each time from the impact.. but i also wasn't blocking or shielding.. literally in the middle of my roll dodge when it hits - instant death.

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO

jakeedmundson wrote: »

kylewwefan wrote: »

The meteor itself I don’t think kills you, but you have to move after it hits you. The area becomes tainted. But you can’t see it.

I'm almost positive i died each time from the impact.. but i also wasn't blocking or shielding.. literally in the middle of my roll dodge when it hits - instant death.

Have not tested in a while but I know after meteor was changed to unreflecible the NPC one could still be reflected again it’s been some updates since my last test but it’s worth a try.

kojou

I think the Meteor question is covered...

For your Master Destro Staff question, my tests on it showed that I was better off having a 4th piece of Master Architect, Moondancer, or Infallible Aether with 129 spell damage. The buff to clench is really not that much damage...

If you are running Willpower jewelry then it is better than having a staff with no bonus.

jakeedmundson

ztyhurstub17_ESO wrote: »

I think the Meteor question is covered...

For your Master Destro Staff question, my tests on it showed that I was better off having a 4th piece of Master Architect, Moondancer, or Infallible Aether with 129 spell damage. The buff to clench is really not that much damage...

If you are running Willpower jewelry then it is better than having a staff with no bonus.

thanks!

I'm still going to do some vdsa... since after all these years i never actually did it... but i'll start farming some old trials and get that IA staff eventually to get the 4 piece.

WrathOfInnos

I have had good results with the Master Lightning staff. Clench/reach with a Master Lightning seems to be better and cheaper than Force Pulse (unless you have a perfected Asylum staff). It also synergizes well with the Netch set, since your spammable can be pure shock damage.

If used once every 8s (guessing at your rotation), the extra damage on clench works out to around 500 DPS. If it's more of a spammable for you (I use it 4 times every 12s) the benefit is much greater and can outweigh a 4th piece of IA. The other benefit is the massive cost reduction of clench/reach. It typically costs about 4K, down to around 2.8k base with the Master staff. If you cast it every 8s this equates to 300 magicka regen, if you cast it every 3s it is more like 800 magicka regen.

Depending on the content the stun can be very nice too. Clench/reach as a spammable makes vMA easy (since frags no longer stun), but is not really sustainable without the master staff.

Edit: Also want to add that the bonus damage applies to the splash on Shock Clench, making it a decent AoE with the Master lightning.

Clench can also be useful if using either morph of wall of elements. It's range is about 1m shorter than wall, so if your clench is hitting you can be confident that your wall will hit while staying near max range.

kojou

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

I have had good results with the Master Lightning staff. Clench/reach with a Master Lightning seems to be better and cheaper than Force Pulse (unless you have a perfected Asylum staff). It also synergizes well with the Netch set, since your spammable can be pure shock damage.

If used once every 8s (guessing at your rotation), the extra damage on clench works out to around 500 DPS. If it's more of a spammable for you (I use it 4 times every 12s) the benefit is much greater and can outweigh a 4th piece of IA. The other benefit is the massive cost reduction of clench/reach. It typically costs about 4K, down to around 2.8k base with the Master staff. If you cast it every 8s this equates to 300 magicka regen, if you cast it every 3s it is more like 800 magicka regen.

Depending on the content the stun can be very nice too. Clench/reach as a spammable makes vMA easy (since frags no longer stun), but is not really sustainable without the master staff.

Edit: Also want to add that the bonus damage applies to the splash on Shock Clench, making it a decent AoE with the Master lightning.

Clench can also be useful if using either morph of wall of elements. It's range is about 1m shorter than wall, so if your clench is hitting you can be confident that your wall will hit while staying near max range.

I tested with 4 Pieces of Moondancer, 5 Netch, and a VMA backbar with the typical ~8 sec Sorc Heavy Attack rotation. I didn't save the parses (it was enough for me to know which was better), but they where fairly consistent (~37k range) and done on a 50M dummy. I found it is actually a DPS loss to use Clench every rotation, and it is better to replace it with an ultimate whenever the ultimate was up (to keep the rotation consistent) which hurts the use of the Master's staff a little bit more. Since I am using a HA rotation the cost reduction of the staff does nothing for me. The DPS was not that much different, it was just consistently little bit more for the setup that included a Moondancer staff on the front bar.

WrathOfInnos

ztyhurstub17_ESO wrote: »

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

I have had good results with the Master Lightning staff. Clench/reach with a Master Lightning seems to be better and cheaper than Force Pulse (unless you have a perfected Asylum staff). It also synergizes well with the Netch set, since your spammable can be pure shock damage.

If used once every 8s (guessing at your rotation), the extra damage on clench works out to around 500 DPS. If it's more of a spammable for you (I use it 4 times every 12s) the benefit is much greater and can outweigh a 4th piece of IA. The other benefit is the massive cost reduction of clench/reach. It typically costs about 4K, down to around 2.8k base with the Master staff. If you cast it every 8s this equates to 300 magicka regen, if you cast it every 3s it is more like 800 magicka regen.

Depending on the content the stun can be very nice too. Clench/reach as a spammable makes vMA easy (since frags no longer stun), but is not really sustainable without the master staff.

Edit: Also want to add that the bonus damage applies to the splash on Shock Clench, making it a decent AoE with the Master lightning.

Clench can also be useful if using either morph of wall of elements. It's range is about 1m shorter than wall, so if your clench is hitting you can be confident that your wall will hit while staying near max range.

I tested with 4 Pieces of Moondancer, 5 Netch, and a VMA backbar with the typical ~8 sec Sorc Heavy Attack rotation. I didn't save the parses (it was enough for me to know which was better), but they where fairly consistent (~37k range) and done on a 50M dummy. I found it is actually a DPS loss to use Clench every rotation, and it is better to replace it with an ultimate whenever the ultimate was up (to keep the rotation consistent) which hurts the use of the Master's staff a little bit more. Since I am using a HA rotation the cost reduction of the staff does nothing for me. The DPS was not that much different, it was just consistently little bit more for the setup that included a Moondancer staff on the front bar.

Good info, I think our findings are compatible. I would agree that with a clench every 8s, the 129 spell damage (even on one bar) outweighs the ~500 DPS from using a Master staff. If instead, the rotation allows for more casts of clench, then the damage ends up about the same for MD vs Master staff, and master ends up far better for sustain.

I also agree that when having to work ultimates or elemental drain into the rotation, clench is definitely the skill to replace. And as your lowest DPS skill, the replacement is a better option than lengthening the rotation by 1s and letting Better DoTs drop off.

I'm guessing from your 37k on a 50m target you are using a rotation that involves the scamp and Daedric prey. I'm doing a 12s petless rotation that uses haunting curse, and has more space to fill with spammables. It hits 35-36k self buffed on a long fight, 37k-38k on a 3m.

Even with more uses of clench, sustain is fine with my heavy attacks every 6s. It's more for content like vMA and vDSA where the reduced cost really shines.