VMA Werewolf and 1-Bar Mage Sorcerer Tips PLEASE!

Talyndor

I am really (REALLY) trying to get this VMA down, and I am at a loss. I am stuck right now on the frozen section.
I am fairly certain it is because I am missing tips and tricks that I may not understand.
(I am well over CP 810, have Alessian armor, and have tried both Mighty Chudan, as well as Troll King gear). I am using necro and Ice King gear on my sorceror.
All the videos (including Alcast's) leave out some important tips, and I can really use the help.
I think I am not using all my skills properly and am relying too much on the build itself.
For example, I can use some advice on what mobs to block, what types of werewolf skills (other than the obvious pounce, heal, and claws of life) are useful during fights and when to best use them.
I think blocks are taking place on the videos I watch, but they are not explained. Ditto with other werewolf skills. Ditto with my sorceror.
Can someone provide some thoughts, guidance as to what other skills I need to utilize, where and how to do so.
I have literally spent hours and hours and hours over weeks and weeks and cannot get past frozen on my ww and poison spiders on my mage.
I have come to believe it is because I am not properly utilizing other skills at the right times.
Thank you in advance.
I am just trying to learn this as best I can, and I have hit a wall.
A seriously BIG wall!

Talyndor

Also....are there ways to minimize mob spawns? And I keep running out of magicka to heal myself. I'm just at my wit's end!

Reverb

If you’re stuck on stage 5 (ice) on your WW the best thing you can do is slow dps. The boss fight is incredibly difficult until you fully understand how to handle it. I’ll quote @Joy_Division here because it’s a great explanation:

Boss: This is extremely *hard* if you do it wrong (too much DPS...the only fight in the game where DPS punishes you) and super manageable once you have a strategy. The key to this fight is the boss destroys the ice and the adds spawn based on health. So YOU control the pace of the fight. Be intelligent and not in a rush. If you are low on resources, just heavy attack and reset the fight so to speak. If you try to burn her too quickly, you will get overrun by adds. K, first priority in this fight are the trolls; if they succeed breaking an ice flow, you will lose because you cannot stop the boss from breaking two ice flows. You need to learn the tell for when the boss breaks an island because it is a one-shot if you are even near the island. The following strategy works every single time:

Start on the island you first spawned at (the one with the haste sigal). DPS the boss a little and grab the haste.
Troll + adds spawn at the same time. You go to the island where the troll goes. Kill the troll. Kite/CC melee (you are hasted, should be easy). Kill archer. If you are on the island with the 2 sigals, MOVE BACK TO THE FIRST ISLAND.
DPS boss + regain resources.
Boss will break island
Troll + nereid spawn. Kill them while kiting boss. Again, if you are on the island with two sigals, get off
When boss around 55% or so, second adds appear. Kill priority is: troll, mage, Nereid, melee. If you are magicka, I like using destro ultimate for this situation. If you are on the island with two sigals, get off
Boss will break island, be sure the last island you have is the one with 2 sigals.
Go to the 2 sigal island, grab the power boost.
Deal with troll + nereid, DPS boss.
Two ranged adds will spawn the third wave at about 30%. Immediately grab defensive sigal and just LAUGH at how you can ignore this otherwise very difficult tasks of killing the adds, healing yourself, and DPSing the boss before she breaks the third platform. You can just concentrate on boss and execute her (though if a troll sneaks in there, kill it. Neried is also a range attacker so she can be ignored as well).

Works every single time and turns the most difficult part into a breeze. You need that be on the island with two sigals for last phase.

SirLeeMinion

While completing stage 5 on various characters with different DPS, I've noticed that DPS matters. Reverb's advice above is dead on, slow down your DPS on the main boss. That said, if your DPS on the adds is too low, this round will eat your lunch. When I did it on my tank with a max of 13K DPS single target, it was double plus unfun. A solid DPS toon that pulls 3 times that, and this is a cake walk. Looking at the sets you are using, I wonder what sort of DPS you are getting on a 3M or 6M dummy.

WW is a good bit harder than it was a year ago. The heals cost way too much, the pack leader morph is useless, and builds don't pull nearly the damage they did. But, the fear now roots NPCs in place and that's a bit more useful on stage 5 in particular. Archers and casters need to die quickly, fearing mobs can buy you time to get them down. With the WW resists, you might be able to go with a more damage oriented monster set, you have to balance tank and spank, and going too tanky at the cost of DPS makes vMA a pain.

One bar Pet-sorc is also harder than it was a year ago. Sustain is an issue and walking around slowly as you heavy attack tends to leave you open to a lot of damage. Then, you go to heal and your bird is dead and it takes forever to raise it again. If you have one of those builds with liquid lightning on the bar, replace that skill with something cheaper until the next patch drops.

For the spider level, if you are on PC, consider an add-on like Bandit's UI or the like that warns you when those pesky spiders spawn so you can put them down quickly.

General thoughts:
I find that changing enemy damage color is a huge help for avoiding AoE. The first time I went through, it was the difference between failing and getting past the upper part of the final part of arena nine.

Essence of spell crit or essence of weapon crit potions that heal and also bump damage are nice for solo work.

Make it a mini-game to use almost all the sigils every round of every arena. Seriously. Even with the easier ones. You'll find you get through them faster, with less stress, and your character will have more resources going into the next round.

To re-iterate because it's really important. DPS matters. If you are pulling less than 15K on the 3M dummy, vMA stinks. Figure how to get your DPS up while maintaining some survivability, then try again. Somewhere around 25K DPS, vMA becomes relaxing.

Alienoutlaw

mechanics................mechanics...............more mechanics, build is only a small part of VMA

MerguezMan

Frozen stage is the first where you get those annoying one-shots from distance.

The DK reverb helped a lot, but as a sorc you can't do that. Shields up ?
Also, the 4 buffs on the ground are not really "optional" on your first run.

Any WW build requires heavy attacks once in a while, and vMA is mostly about timing.
Use potions (as long as you're on learning phase, I'd suggest base red/green/blue potions instead of top-quality ones).

Don't resurrect in stage. Rez at wayshrine, so you can breathe before stepping in again.
You don't loose progress if you stay in vMA.

As said above, there is a priority for targets, if you don't kill them in order, you get fast in trouble.

macsmooth

Talyndor wrote: »

I am really (REALLY) trying to get this VMA down, and I am at a loss. I am stuck right now on the frozen section.
I am fairly certain it is because I am missing tips and tricks that I may not understand.
(I am well over CP 810, have Alessian armor, and have tried both Mighty Chudan, as well as Troll King gear). I am using necro and Ice King gear on my sorceror.
All the videos (including Alcast's) leave out some important tips, and I can really use the help.
I think I am not using all my skills properly and am relying too much on the build itself.
For example, I can use some advice on what mobs to block, what types of werewolf skills (other than the obvious pounce, heal, and claws of life) are useful during fights and when to best use them.
I think blocks are taking place on the videos I watch, but they are not explained. Ditto with other werewolf skills. Ditto with my sorceror.
Can someone provide some thoughts, guidance as to what other skills I need to utilize, where and how to do so.
I have literally spent hours and hours and hours over weeks and weeks and cannot get past frozen on my ww and poison spiders on my mage.
I have come to believe it is because I am not properly utilizing other skills at the right times.
Thank you in advance.
I am just trying to learn this as best I can, and I have hit a wall.
A seriously BIG wall!

What’s ice king set?

The thing to remember about Alcast is and he even states this in the video of his maelstrom run is he knows where and when every mob spawns so he knows who to prioritise, you don’t so use his builds as a guide not exactly adapt them to your needs while your learning, run a two bar heavy attack build if you can handle bar swapping, if not put long lasting buffs on your back bar that you can activate at the beginning of the round ie boundless storm crit surge and bar swap the once to stay as a one bar for the fight

The other thing to mention is everyone is saying slow your dps down this only applies to the very last boss of stage 5 not the adds, your goal should be the first platform the one you start on damage the boss until adds spawn kill nuke adds learn their location for your next attempt, priorities the troll runner heavy attack and “crushing shock” Destro skill helps with him if your on your sorc (the most vital skill in vma on a magicka character, except when the last boss of round 7 is screaming then you just heavy attack him and use crushing shock the rest of the time in the fight), once adds are down then you can move the boss back to the platform you started on if you moved him off there that is, then damage the boss and when he shouts move to the top right platform from where your starting platform is and repeat, the third platform when you get him over there take the two sigils shield and axe and drop your ultimate on this platform if your using your sorcerer, job will be done

Take the platforms as sections of the fight progress is to get to each platform and then it will just come together, I think it’s dotz gaming that has a very good video about this stage he points everything out a lot better than Alcast does

I can’t stress this enough on your first clears of vma, use sigils they respawn after every round

thadjarvis

Talyndor wrote: »

... I am stuck right now on the frozen section.
I am fairly certain it is because I am missing tips and tricks that I may not understand.

That is highly likely. Are you getting killed by island smashes? Do you have more than 3 adds up at one time? I banged my head against the wall doing that for hours over many hours/weeks. When I learned the mechs to avoid that I got past it in one go!

Talyndor wrote: »

I have literally spent hours and hours and hours over weeks and weeks and cannot get past frozen

Then you likely know the individual MoB AOE's and spawn point by now. Shred the ranged mobs ASAP sidestepping (dodging if needed to get out of big AOE). Once ranged is down, kill melee.

Don't know what class your werewolf is but if it's a DK or Warden (or you have one) you can flip this process by ignoring ranged and killing the melee first which is loads easier imo.

By now you know the individual mobs I gather. The builds you have were constructed patches ago and a good chunk of the damage has since been reduced significantly. Remember in solo play any cooldown spent not damaging means more things alive killing you. Less damage in general means you need more sustain to heal/shield/dodge and to use attack skills. I think at this point, you should consider increasing damage over mitigation. Right now you are tank/healing vMA, which can be quite brutal. In later rounds that style becomes more punishing and adds complexity.

Talyndor

I want to thank everyone for their tips and advice.
As I have worked and worked this, I have come to understand the importance of the mechanics of each level.
I finally got past the spiders in level 6 (I managed to uncover all the obelisks, stun boss, and get her dps down low enough that i could finish her off).
I found levels 7 and 8 much easier. Maybe b/c I started to really work the mechanics.
Now comes the grind for the final boss. Wish me luck.
BTW--I am running this on my magsorcerer. I gave up (for now) on my WW). The sorcerer has proven to be easier to heal and do dps on.

FrancisCrawford

Are the Troll breakers in Round 5 really on a boss-health timer, or are they an exception that is timed by the clock? (E.g., I've seen a claim of 30 seconds.)

macsmooth

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

Are the Troll breakers in Round 5 really on a boss-health timer, or are they an exception that is timed by the clock? (E.g., I've seen a claim of 30 seconds.)

They are on a timer, the adds that spawn are on boss health basis

If you’re mag just slot crushing shock to stop them from smash bash

yRaven

Forget this ''specialized builds'' and go with a normal DPS, a found much easier to finish it with a normal build, also took my cute Flawless Conqueror

Also, on Arena 5, forget the bosses and focus on the mobs, they're the ones who will kill you

LadyNalcarya

yRaven wrote: »

Forget this ''specialized builds'' and go with a normal DPS, a found much easier to finish it with a normal build, also took my cute Flawless Conqueror

Also, on Arena 5, forget the bosses and focus on the mobs, they're the ones who will kill you

Pretty much this.
Those "easy" builds might be helpful for people who cannot use regular builds for one reason or another (for example, if they have arthritis and cannot weave), but in general a dps build with a heal/shield would make everything much easier. Dps these days can be pretty high, and vMA simply wasnt built for this kind of dps (in Orsinium we only had stuff like Julianos/Willpower, and even 20k dps was considered really good).
It's not possible to skip learning the mechanics, regardless of the build, but higher dps means shorter fights and less chances to screw up and die.