Vault of Umbrage Question

Talyndor · March 2020

I have gotten thru this several times, but it is becoming the hardest phase for me (worse than final boss).
So...a question: I have seen references in several forums to being able to trigger the poisonous flowers so that they won't get you at the worst possible time.
Is that correct?
Does anyone know the mechanics of it?
If this can be done, do they respawn (making the entire process not so helpful after all)?
Thanks in advance!

xWarbrain · March 2020

Yes. Run full speed just to the side of them to activate them. DO NOT SLOW DOWN. You need full speed (maj expedition helps) to out run the AoE

xWarbrain · March 2020

They always respawn in different locations. If you have 6 of them in the middle you need to pop a few of them.

fred4 · March 2020

xWarbrain wrote: »

They always respawn in different locations. If you have 6 of them in the middle you need to pop a few of them.

This. Don't do it, if they are nicely spaced already.

I only seem able to pop one flower at a time. There seems to be a cooldown afterwards. It's not all that helpful. Of course, if there was an on-screen timer for when that cooldown ends, that would be extremely helpful...

Depending on your character, you may end up sprinting or throwing in a dodge roll. Also not that helpful from a stamina management point of view.

Watch for any flower(s) just behind the final boss, when it spawns. If you're on a melee character you sometimes can't go near him until he moves towards the middle, which is frustrating.

As ever, high damage helps. The shorter the fight, the less of a chance to screw up. Also, if you ever screw up the mechanics, such as by killing both of the lightning mages, you can still bash the boss and keep going for a while, but he is enraged and the lightning mage spawn times go all out of whack with his screams. It would be fun, if you could keep going - I like messy fights - but you're better off throwing in the towel, mainly because the enraged boss hits too hard.

High speed helps in this round as it does throughout the arena. I've occasionally run it on Steed + all Swift + Major Expedition characters. It's such a joy. It's probably not optimal from a damage / score perspective, but it helps you get to the poison mages or cleaning pools faster or even just out of the way of the flowers. You don't need to run all Swift, but I'd still rate Vicious Ophidian as the set of choice for stamina characters for that reason and believe there now is a similar magicka set.