VMA Crystal Strategies

Talyndor

So...thanks in advance for all who have helped me progress as far as I have in VMA.
I am running a two pet, one bar build.
I am at the final boss. I am comfortable getting past the first five pre-stages.
I have stage one of the boss pretty down pat and I can get upstairs now without dying with a "reasonable" degree of consistency.
it's the crystals killing me.
I am working on learning the mechanics of the crystals.
I tried a immovability potion, but that seems to have limited use.
Mostly what is causing me trouble, and what i am asking for help with is: i am constantly being knocked off the crystal plateau. I have been trying to watch the boss (as I study the mechanics), and I seem able to either block or dodge his skull throws. But he seems to rise in the air then drop, and when he does, I get knocked off. At least, I think that's what is happening.
I am trying to understand the mechanic for me getting knocked off. It's my biggest hurdle right now as I learn these mechanics.
Help, please!

Milchbart

If you get knocked off kill the guard and go up again ...

If you want to stay up on the balcony hide behind the moving shield ( its slow at its first round )

Talyndor

Milchbart wrote: »

If you get knocked off kill the guard and go up again ...

If you want to stay up on the balcony hide behind the moving shield ( its slow at its first round )

I have tried that. It's not working for me. I can sometimes kill the CG downstairs, but he is enraged and tough to kill. Not impossible. I know that b/c I have done it.
What I am trying to understand is WHAT is knocking me off. Is it the skulls? Am I not correctly blocking them? I just know I seem to remember seeing boss rise in the air and come down, and when he did, I got tossed off.

I DO understand about the walls. Maybe I need a better understanding of their strategy.

Moridin_82

When u see that is hands together dogde it in 3 secs

Haquor

You need to stand with the rotating wall between you and him when he drops and does the aoe knockback.

So so dodge/block his skull throws, set your pets and dots on the crystals to dps them down, and when he raises up there is always a small wall that spawns and starts rotating around the inner section of the platform between you and him. If that wall is between you and him when he drops and does the knockback then it explodes and protects you from being knocked off. Then just go back to burning crystals.

Sometimes it moves to fast so your best not to chase it. Run in the opposite direction of its travel to get behind it and then run with it to keep it between you and him as he does the knockback.

So yea the reason you are getting knocked back is because after he throws a couple of skulls (which are a single target knockback that you can block or dodge) he does a big aoe knockback that you can only avoid by hiding behind the rotating wall. Just look for that wall that spawns and starts moving aroynd the inner ring and it will make sense.

Talyndor

Haquor wrote: »

You need to stand with the rotating wall between you and him when he drops and does the aoe knockback.

So so dodge/block his skull throws, set your pets and dots on the crystals to dps them down, and when he raises up there is always a small wall that spawns and starts rotating around the inner section of the platform between you and him. If that wall is between you and him when he drops and does the knockback then it explodes and protects you from being knocked off. Then just go back to burning crystals.

Sometimes it moves to fast so your best not to chase it. Run in the opposite direction of its travel to get behind it and then run with it to keep it between you and him as he does the knockback.

So yea the reason you are getting knocked back is because after he throws a couple of skulls (which are a single target knockback that you can block or dodge) he does a big aoe knockback that you can only avoid by hiding behind the rotating wall. Just look for that wall that spawns and starts moving aroynd the inner ring and it will make sense.

Thank you very much!
Got it. I think.

So.....he does in fact do a massive aoe that knocks me off, correct? When he "drops down"?
And I need to use the walls to block it, correct?

If the answer is yes to both, I will work on that mechanic.

Talyndor

Moridin_82 wrote: »

When u see that is hands together dogde it in 3 secs

Not sure I understand this.
Do I have three seconds to doge it?
Do I wait three seconds to dodge it?
Can I in fact even dodge it? Or do i HAVE to use the wall?
I am just trying to understand the mechanics. 'Sorry.

Taleof2Cities

Talyndor wrote: »

Moridin_82 wrote: »

When u see that is hands together dogde it in 3 secs

Not sure I understand this.
Do I have three seconds to doge it?
Do I wait three seconds to dodge it?
Can I in fact even dodge it? Or do i HAVE to use the wall?
I am just trying to understand the mechanics. 'Sorry.

Three seconds after the hand animation starts to dodge the flaming skull, @Talyndor ... though it's a LOT easier to just block it since your space on the second floor is limited.

Dagoth_Rac

Talyndor wrote: »

Moridin_82 wrote: »

When u see that is hands together dogde it in 3 secs

Not sure I understand this.
Do I have three seconds to doge it?
Do I wait three seconds to dodge it?
Can I in fact even dodge it? Or do i HAVE to use the wall?
I am just trying to understand the mechanics. 'Sorry.

Both! It is separate mechanics. There are frequent skulls thrown at you. If you block or dodge them, you are good. If you do not, you get knocked back and usually off ring (but not always - depends on your location). Then there are less frequent AoE knockbacks. Those you must hide behind spinning wall or it is guaranteed you get knocked off ring.

Talyndor

And now I am confused. I am grateful for the advice, but I need to clarify this.
Can the knockback aoe be blocked or do I have to use the wall?

Taleof2Cities

Talyndor wrote: »

And now I am confused. I am grateful for the advice, but I need to clarify this.
Can the knockback aoe be blocked or do I have to use the wall?

The knockback AOE and flaming skull are two separate mechanics.

For the knockback AOE, there is no other option except standing behind the wall. Otherwise, you get knocked down to the bottom.

Haquor

Talyndor wrote: »

Haquor wrote: »

You need to stand with the rotating wall between you and him when he drops and does the aoe knockback.

So so dodge/block his skull throws, set your pets and dots on the crystals to dps them down, and when he raises up there is always a small wall that spawns and starts rotating around the inner section of the platform between you and him. If that wall is between you and him when he drops and does the knockback then it explodes and protects you from being knocked off. Then just go back to burning crystals.

Sometimes it moves to fast so your best not to chase it. Run in the opposite direction of its travel to get behind it and then run with it to keep it between you and him as he does the knockback.

So yea the reason you are getting knocked back is because after he throws a couple of skulls (which are a single target knockback that you can block or dodge) he does a big aoe knockback that you can only avoid by hiding behind the rotating wall. Just look for that wall that spawns and starts moving aroynd the inner ring and it will make sense.

Thank you very much!
Got it. I think.

So.....he does in fact do a massive aoe that knocks me off, correct? When he "drops down"?
And I need to use the walls to block it, correct?

If the answer is yes to both, I will work on that mechanic.

The answer is yes to both. Keep doing what youre doing. Block or dogde the skulls , burn the crystals as fast as you can, Then use the rotating wall when it appears to line of sight him when he does his big aoe knockback.

Worst case if you get knocked down you kill the daedroth amd clanfear and go up the portal again. Rinse and repeat.

idk

For the CG below do not stand your ground when they breathe fire. Rotate around them and they do not turn as fast as you can move so you avoid the damage. Then burn them once they stop spewing fire. This is the strat you should use for them until you can burn them down before they breathe fire.

Up top just lay your dots down (which includes pets active abilities) and stay with the shield. Be patient while you are learning the fight. When I say patient I mean keep an eye on the boss and rotating shield while your dots do the work.

Make sure to keep your health up. If you are not running crit surge I expect you are using the healing matriarch. Tri-stat pots are great in this round as they give you everything you need.

UntilValhalla13

An easy way to deal with upstairs is kill the first crystal while dodging the skull toss. By the time that goes down, he should be preparing to do the "soul churn" blast attack. You should see a small floating wall appear circling around the upstairs. Just hide behind it as it circles, while dpsing another crystal.

When he does the aoe knockback blast, it destroys the little wall and he will start tossing skills again. Work on destroying the second crystal, then VOLUNTARILY jump down into the middle. Kill the crematorial guard that's waiting for you and take the portal back up. This resets the speed of the subsequent walls. The longer that you're upstairs, the faster the moving walls will move.

For the last crystal, get it down to like 6 %, refresh your dots on it and jump back down into the middle. Your dots will destroy it, and you'll avoid the final knockback. The boss will teleport down and will immediately need to be bashed or interrupted. (Or just pick up the shield sigil to shut down his skull attack.)

Work on collecting the gold ghosts with utmost priority. After the third ghost, hit the stun synergy, and just nuke the boss.

zvavi

Up voting all answers before me,
upstairs two separate knock back mechanics,
the wall which you need to hide behind,
and the heavy attack that you need to block/roll dodge.

Always keep eye on the boss to see if he does one of those two the sneaky pasta, get used to those two mechanics and you will make it.

Edit: when i started vMA it was easier for me to roll dodge the heavy. Now days i block to waste less stamina and lose less dps, but back in the day blocking and avoiding the aoe together was pain, watch put for the red aoe though when you dodge, if you dodge into it, you will be stunned and then the heavy hits you with the knockback, nasty.

Dagoth_Rac

zvavi wrote: »

Up voting all answers before me,
upstairs two separate knock back mechanics,
the wall which you need to hide behind,
and the heavy attack that you need to block/roll dodge.

Always keep eye on the boss to see if he does one of those two the sneaky pasta, get used to those two mechanics and you will make it.

Edit: when i started vMA it was easier for me to roll dodge the heavy. Now days i block to waste less stamina and lose less dps, but back in the day blocking and avoiding the aoe together was pain, watch put for the red aoe though when you dodge, if you dodge into it, you will be stunned and then the heavy hits you with the knockback, nasty.

Not sure if OP is an Altmer (it is a good choice for a pet sorc), but this fight is one of the few places in game where that Altmer passive of, "Gain 640 of your off-resource when you use a class skill," is actually useful! Assuming an Altmer is a magicka build, that works out to maybe 200 bonus stamina regen, which is like a "free" block every 20 seconds or so.