Vma stamblade

huschdeguddzje

Planning on doing vma with my stamblade, using two hander for the shield from brawler.
Wonder if I should use vigor or rally as my heal.
Oh since it's my first time doing vma I probably won't be using weapon power pots.
I can hit 28k dps with two hander and about 31k with dual wield.
Originally I was planning on making a petsorc for easy vma, but time is running short and there aren't any people in my guilds doing skyreach anymore.
I don't have any money since, I spent most of it getting my spriggans and hundings gear.
Anyway all tips and tricks are appreciated.

JooPi

I have no experience for a stamblade, but I run vma once a week on my stamplar.
I used a twohander for my first clears, not for brawler but for momentum-heal.
And you are gonna need a lot of heal the first few times...

Beardimus

I don't know much about sblades but know a stamblade got the consoles first 600k+ score. So that's promising.

I was hitting vMA regularly before dummy came out taking around an hour to find I only had 18-20k DPS lol. So your stats look good.

Hopefully someone with Stam knowledge will come.

PS, first time in total or this toon?

huschdeguddzje

Beardimus wrote: »

I don't know much about sblades but know a stamblade got the consoles first 600k+ score. So that's promising.

I was hitting vMA regularly before dummy came out taking around an hour to find I only had 18-20k DPS lol. So your stats look good.

Hopefully someone with Stam knowledge will come.

PS, first time in total or this toon?

First time total, wanted to avoid it at first but the dps increase you're supposed to get from maelstrom bow is just to good to pass up

Neeno

vigor is a must for stamblades in vMA
also if you plan on using duel wield then i suggest using deadly cloak as well

dont get frustrated if you die 1000 times literally once you pass it the 1st time , it will become easier and easier.

Runefang

You really need VO gear, it'll make it much much easier.

the_broo11

I don't play my stamblade much these days, but I did learn vma on it (first clear midway through orsinium dlc). I'd recommend not running brawler and instead going with DW/blade cloak as noted above.

My advice: always keep in mind that extending the fight (taking too long to kill things) will increase your chances of making a mistake. Mistakes almost always lead to death in vma, so try to avoid prematurely sacrificing damage for survivability.

Try to watch a video of each round just prior to entering that round. Know what mechanics are certain death, and how to avoid them. Obviously you won't be optimal by watching just a video, so remember that well-timed sigils can help you catch up/recover. It will be frustrating, but it will get easier with time.

SmellyUnlimited

huschdeguddzje wrote: »

Planning on doing vma with my stamblade, using two hander for the shield from brawler.
Wonder if I should use vigor or rally as my heal.
Oh since it's my first time doing vma I probably won't be using weapon power pots.
I can hit 28k dps with two hander and about 31k with dual wield.
Originally I was planning on making a petsorc for easy vma, but time is running short and there aren't any people in my guilds doing skyreach anymore.
I don't have any money since, I spent most of it getting my spriggans and hundings gear.
Anyway all tips and tricks are appreciated.

I think an excellent two-piece set for Stamblade VMA is Vicious Ophidian + Briarheart + Velidreth

VO I think is a god send in VMA. You can swap out Briarheart for War Machine or Mechanical Acuity. Most regular enemies in VMA have 9K resistances, and bosses/mini bosses have 18k. I wouldn’t recommend Pen sets unless you want to drop point so in Thurmaturge and Precise Strikes and not so many in Piercing. But remember Surprise Attack already lowers their resist by 5280.



If you find you need more healing, you can throw on Bloodthirst (Flurry morph) / Blood craze. Probably would want to swap out surprise attack if so, but that plan is only if you really find you need more healing.

I would definitely second running DW over 2H. Not for Deadly Cloak (not necessary in VMA), but for steel tornado. A lot of rounds have some hard hitting dudes, and being able to hit them at range with the weapon power of DW is a HUGE benefit. Plus, steel tornado does considerably more damage the lower the enemy health bar. Also, DW ult “Rend” is an amazing way to get life back and do solid damage.

But if you wanna run 2H, certainly doable. Rally on 2H bar, Vigor back bar.

I’d run my abilities like so:

2H Bar

-Killers blade (or Execute if you’re running an Asylum 2-handier)
-Rearming Trap
-Surprise Attack (still your main heavy hitter; applies Major Breach, activates some Shadow passives, and hits like a truck).
-Brawler (A Master’s 2Hander from VDSA adds a lot of damage on to this)

*Note - Brawler improves with more targets hit, but in VMA there aren’t a lot of enemies, but the ones there are strong. Might not be the best idea here.

-Rally
Ult: Soul Harvest (if you want to toss on Flawless Dawnbreaker for the undead/daedra rounds, that works too)

Back bar - Bow

-Poison Inject
-Arrow Hail
-Relentless Focus (if you find you are missing the proc on you’re back bar, you can swap to front and drop Rearming Trap back bar)
-Resolving Vigor
-Flex spot (if you have decent stamina, can run Caltrops / Shuffle for dmg mitigation / Ambush if you want to gap close more quickly (very helpful on Ice Stage), Leeching Strikes for more health + stamina return).

Ult: Ballista

Immovabiity with Stamina/Health pots on some stages can be a lifesaver (I found them super helpful the first few times, especially at the very last stage).


Otherwise, again, would recommend DW over 2H. Brawler doesn’t provide too strong a shield in VMA. ON DW, you have so many more options for life gain and will likely do more damage. Especially as a NB using daggers or dagger/axe since you have innate crit damage bonus through hemorrhage, and DW should 99% of the time always equate to higher critical chance.

ForsakenSin

Neeno wrote: »

dont get frustrated if you die 1000 times literally once you pass it the 1st time , it will become easier and easier.

THIS is so true trust me took me months and months on and off trying to finish VMSA and was stuck on last boss for a long long time and one night i finished it at 4 am lol ( started at 10 pm) the whole time i was like 2m from the tv lol ohh the felling when i finished i yelled lol (ps i also broke my xbox elite controller the right bumper)

BUT now.. i lie down in bed relax and just play and finish it not stressful just few BS lag that you don't have any control over ,
ive tried many other combination of armor sets for more dps low dps and honestly its kind of the same.

i know how you fell....when somebody told me "ohh it gets easier when you finish " i wanted to punch them in the face because i could not finish it once and stuck on same stage for day .. but now i can understand what they are saying was truth



https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/357668/ive-done-it-after-over-8-months-of-pain-swearing-nearly-braking-my-controller-its-over#latest

LiquidPony

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

huschdeguddzje wrote: »

Planning on doing vma with my stamblade, using two hander for the shield from brawler.
Wonder if I should use vigor or rally as my heal.
Oh since it's my first time doing vma I probably won't be using weapon power pots.
I can hit 28k dps with two hander and about 31k with dual wield.
Originally I was planning on making a petsorc for easy vma, but time is running short and there aren't any people in my guilds doing skyreach anymore.
I don't have any money since, I spent most of it getting my spriggans and hundings gear.
Anyway all tips and tricks are appreciated.

I think an excellent two-piece set for Stamblade VMA is Vicious Ophidian + Briarheart + Velidreth

VO I think is a god send in VMA. You can swap out Briarheart for War Machine or Mechanical Acuity. Most regular enemies in VMA have 9K resistances, and bosses/mini bosses have 18k. I wouldn’t recommend Pen sets unless you want to drop point so in Thurmaturge and Precise Strikes and not so many in Piercing. But remember Surprise Attack already lowers their resist by 5280.



If you find you need more healing, you can throw on Bloodthirst (Flurry morph) / Blood craze. Probably would want to swap out surprise attack if so, but that plan is only if you really find you need more healing.

I would definitely second running DW over 2H. Not for Deadly Cloak (not necessary in VMA), but for steel tornado. A lot of rounds have some hard hitting dudes, and being able to hit them at range with the weapon power of DW is a HUGE benefit. Plus, steel tornado does considerably more damage the lower the enemy health bar. Also, DW ult “Rend” is an amazing way to get life back and do solid damage.

But if you wanna run 2H, certainly doable. Rally on 2H bar, Vigor back bar.

I’d run my abilities like so:

2H Bar

-Killers blade (or Execute if you’re running an Asylum 2-handier)
-Rearming Trap
-Surprise Attack (still your main heavy hitter; applies Major Breach, activates some Shadow passives, and hits like a truck).
-Brawler (A Master’s 2Hander from VDSA adds a lot of damage on to this)

*Note - Brawler improves with more targets hit, but in VMA there aren’t a lot of enemies, but the ones there are strong. Might not be the best idea here.

-Rally
Ult: Soul Harvest (if you want to toss on Flawless Dawnbreaker for the undead/daedra rounds, that works too)

Back bar - Bow

-Poison Inject
-Arrow Hail
-Relentless Focus (if you find you are missing the proc on you’re back bar, you can swap to front and drop Rearming Trap back bar)
-Resolving Vigor
-Flex spot (if you have decent stamina, can run Caltrops / Shuffle for dmg mitigation / Ambush if you want to gap close more quickly (very helpful on Ice Stage), Leeching Strikes for more health + stamina return).

Ult: Ballista

Immovabiity with Stamina/Health pots on some stages can be a lifesaver (I found them super helpful the first few times, especially at the very last stage).


Otherwise, again, would recommend DW over 2H. Brawler doesn’t provide too strong a shield in VMA. ON DW, you have so many more options for life gain and will likely do more damage. Especially as a NB using daggers or dagger/axe since you have innate crit damage bonus through hemorrhage, and DW should 99% of the time always equate to higher critical chance.

Don't agree with not using pen sets. The best scores I've seen use either NMG + VO or TFS + VO, for the most part (Blockmore or LZH, for instance). I would say that NMG + VO + Velidreth is the "classic" stamblade setup for vMA, but TFS sees more use now that we're mostly using Nirn/Infused weapons rather than 1 or 2 Sharpened.

Also, the breakdown of resistances in this post is, as far as I know, incorrect.

The mobs in vMA mostly have 9.1k resistance if they are "caster" types (light armor), and 12.1k resistance if they are archers or other medium armor types or creatures (Crematorial Guards, Trolls, etc.).

Bosses (and for the most part mini-bosses in the same stages, but not always) are: 9.1k in 1, 6 and 9; 12.1k in 2, 3, and 5; 18.2k in 4, 7 and 8.

SmellyUnlimited

LiquidPony wrote: »

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

huschdeguddzje wrote: »

Planning on doing vma with my stamblade, using two hander for the shield from brawler.
Wonder if I should use vigor or rally as my heal.
Oh since it's my first time doing vma I probably won't be using weapon power pots.
I can hit 28k dps with two hander and about 31k with dual wield.
Originally I was planning on making a petsorc for easy vma, but time is running short and there aren't any people in my guilds doing skyreach anymore.
I don't have any money since, I spent most of it getting my spriggans and hundings gear.
Anyway all tips and tricks are appreciated.

I think an excellent two-piece set for Stamblade VMA is Vicious Ophidian + Briarheart + Velidreth

VO I think is a god send in VMA. You can swap out Briarheart for War Machine or Mechanical Acuity. Most regular enemies in VMA have 9K resistances, and bosses/mini bosses have 18k. I wouldn’t recommend Pen sets unless you want to drop point so in Thurmaturge and Precise Strikes and not so many in Piercing. But remember Surprise Attack already lowers their resist by 5280.



If you find you need more healing, you can throw on Bloodthirst (Flurry morph) / Blood craze. Probably would want to swap out surprise attack if so, but that plan is only if you really find you need more healing.

I would definitely second running DW over 2H. Not for Deadly Cloak (not necessary in VMA), but for steel tornado. A lot of rounds have some hard hitting dudes, and being able to hit them at range with the weapon power of DW is a HUGE benefit. Plus, steel tornado does considerably more damage the lower the enemy health bar. Also, DW ult “Rend” is an amazing way to get life back and do solid damage.

But if you wanna run 2H, certainly doable. Rally on 2H bar, Vigor back bar.

I’d run my abilities like so:

2H Bar

-Killers blade (or Execute if you’re running an Asylum 2-handier)
-Rearming Trap
-Surprise Attack (still your main heavy hitter; applies Major Breach, activates some Shadow passives, and hits like a truck).
-Brawler (A Master’s 2Hander from VDSA adds a lot of damage on to this)

*Note - Brawler improves with more targets hit, but in VMA there aren’t a lot of enemies, but the ones there are strong. Might not be the best idea here.

-Rally
Ult: Soul Harvest (if you want to toss on Flawless Dawnbreaker for the undead/daedra rounds, that works too)

Back bar - Bow

-Poison Inject
-Arrow Hail
-Relentless Focus (if you find you are missing the proc on you’re back bar, you can swap to front and drop Rearming Trap back bar)
-Resolving Vigor
-Flex spot (if you have decent stamina, can run Caltrops / Shuffle for dmg mitigation / Ambush if you want to gap close more quickly (very helpful on Ice Stage), Leeching Strikes for more health + stamina return).

Ult: Ballista

Immovabiity with Stamina/Health pots on some stages can be a lifesaver (I found them super helpful the first few times, especially at the very last stage).


Otherwise, again, would recommend DW over 2H. Brawler doesn’t provide too strong a shield in VMA. ON DW, you have so many more options for life gain and will likely do more damage. Especially as a NB using daggers or dagger/axe since you have innate crit damage bonus through hemorrhage, and DW should 99% of the time always equate to higher critical chance.

Don't agree with not using pen sets. The best scores I've seen use either NMG + VO or TFS + VO, for the most part (Blockmore or LZH, for instance). I would say that NMG + VO + Velidreth is the "classic" stamblade setup for vMA, but TFS sees more use now that we're mostly using Nirn/Infused weapons rather than 1 or 2 Sharpened.

Also, the breakdown of resistances in this post is, as far as I know, incorrect.

The mobs in vMA mostly have 9.1k resistance if they are "caster" types (light armor), and 12.1k resistance if they are archers or other medium armor types or creatures (Crematorial Guards, Trolls, etc.).

Bosses (and for the most part mini-bosses in the same stages, but not always) are: 9.1k in 1, 6 and 9; 12.1k in 2, 3, and 5; 18.2k in 4, 7 and 8.

@LiquidPony

It was more a generalization than specific round-by-round analysis. I just used the high-low - @Supernatural for the very detailed post on resistances.

(https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/373925/vma-physical-and-spell-resistances)

You're right, TFS would be a strong contender. But I was just going off OP's post; he said he spent all his money on Spriggans, so assumed he didn't have TFS. Honestly I wasn't even sure about VO, but figured it was too good not to mention.

I mean with Surprise Attack/CP, you should be just about hitting the 12k mark. Is it worth it to try and get as close to 18k as possible, even at risk of over-penetrating the majority of enemies?

LiquidPony

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

LiquidPony wrote: »

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

huschdeguddzje wrote: »

Planning on doing vma with my stamblade, using two hander for the shield from brawler.
Wonder if I should use vigor or rally as my heal.
Oh since it's my first time doing vma I probably won't be using weapon power pots.
I can hit 28k dps with two hander and about 31k with dual wield.
Originally I was planning on making a petsorc for easy vma, but time is running short and there aren't any people in my guilds doing skyreach anymore.
I don't have any money since, I spent most of it getting my spriggans and hundings gear.
Anyway all tips and tricks are appreciated.

I think an excellent two-piece set for Stamblade VMA is Vicious Ophidian + Briarheart + Velidreth

VO I think is a god send in VMA. You can swap out Briarheart for War Machine or Mechanical Acuity. Most regular enemies in VMA have 9K resistances, and bosses/mini bosses have 18k. I wouldn’t recommend Pen sets unless you want to drop point so in Thurmaturge and Precise Strikes and not so many in Piercing. But remember Surprise Attack already lowers their resist by 5280.



If you find you need more healing, you can throw on Bloodthirst (Flurry morph) / Blood craze. Probably would want to swap out surprise attack if so, but that plan is only if you really find you need more healing.

I would definitely second running DW over 2H. Not for Deadly Cloak (not necessary in VMA), but for steel tornado. A lot of rounds have some hard hitting dudes, and being able to hit them at range with the weapon power of DW is a HUGE benefit. Plus, steel tornado does considerably more damage the lower the enemy health bar. Also, DW ult “Rend” is an amazing way to get life back and do solid damage.

But if you wanna run 2H, certainly doable. Rally on 2H bar, Vigor back bar.

I’d run my abilities like so:

2H Bar

-Killers blade (or Execute if you’re running an Asylum 2-handier)
-Rearming Trap
-Surprise Attack (still your main heavy hitter; applies Major Breach, activates some Shadow passives, and hits like a truck).
-Brawler (A Master’s 2Hander from VDSA adds a lot of damage on to this)

*Note - Brawler improves with more targets hit, but in VMA there aren’t a lot of enemies, but the ones there are strong. Might not be the best idea here.

-Rally
Ult: Soul Harvest (if you want to toss on Flawless Dawnbreaker for the undead/daedra rounds, that works too)

Back bar - Bow

-Poison Inject
-Arrow Hail
-Relentless Focus (if you find you are missing the proc on you’re back bar, you can swap to front and drop Rearming Trap back bar)
-Resolving Vigor
-Flex spot (if you have decent stamina, can run Caltrops / Shuffle for dmg mitigation / Ambush if you want to gap close more quickly (very helpful on Ice Stage), Leeching Strikes for more health + stamina return).

Ult: Ballista

Immovabiity with Stamina/Health pots on some stages can be a lifesaver (I found them super helpful the first few times, especially at the very last stage).


Otherwise, again, would recommend DW over 2H. Brawler doesn’t provide too strong a shield in VMA. ON DW, you have so many more options for life gain and will likely do more damage. Especially as a NB using daggers or dagger/axe since you have innate crit damage bonus through hemorrhage, and DW should 99% of the time always equate to higher critical chance.

Don't agree with not using pen sets. The best scores I've seen use either NMG + VO or TFS + VO, for the most part (Blockmore or LZH, for instance). I would say that NMG + VO + Velidreth is the "classic" stamblade setup for vMA, but TFS sees more use now that we're mostly using Nirn/Infused weapons rather than 1 or 2 Sharpened.

Also, the breakdown of resistances in this post is, as far as I know, incorrect.

The mobs in vMA mostly have 9.1k resistance if they are "caster" types (light armor), and 12.1k resistance if they are archers or other medium armor types or creatures (Crematorial Guards, Trolls, etc.).

Bosses (and for the most part mini-bosses in the same stages, but not always) are: 9.1k in 1, 6 and 9; 12.1k in 2, 3, and 5; 18.2k in 4, 7 and 8.

@LiquidPony

It was more a generalization than specific round-by-round analysis. I just used the high-low - @Supernatural for the very detailed post on resistances.

(https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/373925/vma-physical-and-spell-resistances)

You're right, TFS would be a strong contender. But I was just going off OP's post; he said he spent all his money on Spriggans, so assumed he didn't have TFS. Honestly I wasn't even sure about VO, but figured it was too good not to mention.

I mean with Surprise Attack/CP, you should be just about hitting the 12k mark. Is it worth it to try and get as close to 18k as possible, even at risk of over-penetrating the majority of enemies?

Not trying to get to 18k. The target is around 12k. Piercing + Surprise attack doesn't get you anywhere near 12k ... even with 100 points in Piercing (which is 5280 pen) you're only getting 10,660 total pen, and I doubt most people run half that. I usually stick around 30 points there.

You're not going to actually hit most targets with Surprise Attack. Just bosses and some priority adds. For the most part Steel Tornado is going to be the primary attack on trash, so with just Piercing CP you're only going to have 2-3k penetration or something along those lines.

Something like TFS (same story with Spriggan just not quite as good) you're right around 12k pen on a priority single target with Major Fracture on it (4300 + 5280 + 2500) and 7k on trash that you're just hitting with Steel Tornado and other AoEs. The advantage of NMG over Spriggan/TFS is that you can front bar NMG and have the VO 5-piece always on.