As a stamdk, is it possible to do vmsa without VO?

WhoThenNow7

And if so, what gear would be recommended?

getemshauna

It is, but having VO makes it ten times easier. You can replace it even with hundings and add some recovery glyphs, but getting VO in normal sanctum will take you one evening.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

Try http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Vengeance_Leech

Best sustain in vma.

GrumpyDuckling

Yes it is. It's not the best build ever, but you could get some use out of this setup:

5 pc Dreugh King Slayer (weapons and jewelry)
5 pc Bone Pirate (armor)
1 pc Kra'gh (helm)
1 pc Velidreth/Kena or magicka recovery piece (shoulder)

Dreugh King Slayer will give you major expedition after every kill (and keeping the healthy jewelry will likely allow you to run a drink to activate Bone Pirate). Bone Pirate is great for sustain and adding max stamina. Kra'gh offers penetration (you'll also want sharpened on your weapons and probably the lover mundus). Dreugh is available through the easiest dungeon in the game (Fungal Grotto 1) and Bone Pirate in Blackheart Haven is pretty easy too (if you can't find people to run it with, then you could even chest farm it).

The last armor piece could be flexible. Magicka recovery sounds odd, but depending on your place style it might help to have better sustain on wings (if you struggle with ranged opponents). If not, you could wear Velidreth or Kena for damage.

You also won't need to run Igenous Weapons for major brutality, effectively freeing up a skill slot.

Kanar

Easily. I got Flawless with pariah + briarheart. Used lavafoot food.

boldscot

Yes ofcourse you can, you can try vengeance leech if you want to make up the stamina return but this set hinders you a bit on boss fights.

I ran it a few weeks back with Vipers + Morag Tong sets, dropping VO means you will be getting around the place slower and will have to heavy attack more.

TeamSeinfeld

I know this wasn’t the OP’s question, but I have farmed VO. Just getting started with VMA. I’m planning on pairing it with Hundings. Anyone think I should pair VO with something else. If that pair works, any monster set suggestions? Should I just stick with Veledreth?

mr_wazzabi

TeamSeinfeld wrote: »

I know this wasn’t the OP’s question, but I have farmed VO. Just getting started with VMA. I’m planning on pairing it with Hundings. Anyone think I should pair VO with something else. If that pair works, any monster set suggestions? Should I just stick with Veledreth?

Briarheart is a great one. Problem with hundings is if you use a vma bow backbar, you lose the bonus when on your backbar, which you'll be consistently on 20-30% of the time. So while you're reapplying your dots and buffs your weapon damage will suddenly drop by 300.

If you have briarheart, the 449 weapon damage proc stays on for a period of time, allowing you to reapply dots and buffs with that extra wd.

WhoThenNow7

Kanar wrote: »

Easily. I got Flawless with pariah + briarheart. Used lavafoot food.

I'm assuming you had pariah jewelry?

Alcast

I did a Maelstrom run without VO and around 335 CP on the NA server a while ago, here the video. Sustain is tough but with enough heavy attacks (or stamina recovery) you can do it.

https://youtu.be/A34pnvtcy3Q

TeamSeinfeld

Thanks for the tips. Will definitely start putting together Briarheart.

Alcast, that video was awesome. I was LMAO with your commentary. Was your setup the same as you currently have on your website? Or was this done a while ago? A lot of folks reference using the VMA bow but like the OP, we haven’t done VMA to completion yet so don’t have access to it.

WhoThenNow7

Yes thank you for the tips. I am definitely going to try and run normal sanctum a few times to get VO if I can find a group. VO will likely be the best way for me since i've never completed vmsa.

Brutusmax1mus

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

Try http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Vengeance_Leech

Best sustain in vma.

So amazing, hidden gem.
Some boss fights just switch with agility.

Brutusmax1mus

I like vo for the speed, helps you get to where you need top be quicker.

AverageJo3Gam3r

TeamSeinfeld wrote: »

I know this wasn’t the OP’s question, but I have farmed VO. Just getting started with VMA. I’m planning on pairing it with Hundings. Anyone think I should pair VO with something else. If that pair works, any monster set suggestions? Should I just stick with Veledreth?

I did my flawless with VO+hundings+mighty chudan on my StamDK.

Masel

As others said, go get yourself some vengeance leech, velidreth, two agility daggers and an agility bow and any stambased five piece and you're good to go.

Asardes

If you are a beginner I would recommend going 2H front bar for a number of reasons, and running Corrosive Armor on back bar for the tough moments. 2W is certainly better if you know all the mechanics and try to maximize your score, but leaves less room for error; lots of damage in vMA is targeted damage so Blade Cloak won't mitigate that much. Why 2H?
- Reverse Slice - an execute that does a lot of AoE damage, very good in some situations where you have boss with adds around it.
- Brawler - gives you a shield, which is good since there are plenty of hard hitting mobs out there
- Rally - gives you Major Brutality, and also a burst heal you can activate to go full health, if it has been running for a few seconds; running Weapon Power potions is not a good idea unless you have a lot of cash to spare or big plant stocks since you'll die a lot on your first runs and burn trough hundreds of those.
- Forceful passive - yet more AoE damage especially when running Molten Armaments, your heavy attacks will do a lot of AoE damage
- Battle Rush passive will help sustain, especially if you're running high base recovery, for example Ozorga's Tripe Trifle Pockets or Dubious Camoran Throne with Bone Pirate Tatters.

Gear setup is not that important. You can run pretty much any 2 x 5 piece and monster set and still finish. As for Vicious Serpent, it's quite easy to get. People are PuG-ing normal Craglorn trials, and especially nHRC all the time lately (for Advancing Yokeda), so you can join a group from zone chat since it's quite easy. If not you can use Bone Pirate Tatters or Vengeance Leech, and pair it with Hunding's Rage, Briarheart etc. for some damage. Just be sure to keep your HP above 16K for a margin of safety by putting attribute points in health, using healthy jewelry from one of the sets (if readily available w/o transmutation) or putting 1-2 health glyphs on your armor.

kylewwefan

I have been using 5 VO, 3 Vengeance Leech jewelry and Masters Daggers on StamBlade. You could swap in Accuity or Shacklebreaker daggers for extra 129WD.

I was using spawn of mephala on DK cause someone told me it was good. Veledreth, Selene, Stormfist or even Skoria, may be better options. IDK

VO + Vengeance Leech gives you so much sustain. It’s really strong at least for VMA.

DK has been the roughest class I’ve taken through there.

WhoThenNow7

All great suggestions. I have been playing for quite a while but I am most definitely a beginner when it comes to vmsa. That said, I have always used DW and bow on my stamdk. I will likely either try to PUG sanctum or go the vengeance leech route. Or both.