My first experience with vMA.

GreenSoup2HoT · April 2016

Hello. I'm going to just start a little discussion about vMA. After getting all the way to the last stage and boss of vMA i think it's about time i give my opinion on the arena. Have i completed it yet? No but i will explain why later in the post.

To note, i attempted vMA on a Imperial Stamina Nightblade.

Gear used:
-5 v14 gold hunding rage (all divine)
-2 v16 purple marksmen infused (2 piece regen)
-v16 gold agility 2h and bow
-3 endurance (gold wep damage enchant's)
-mundus warrior
-orsinium health / stam regen food

I have used multiple guide's. Alcast and Dealtia are two that are worth mentioning. I have also watched many people play though vMA on twitch and have become very familiar with all the mechanic's etc.

Stage 1

Stage 1: This stage is completely fine and a great opening stage to the arena. The npc's are fairly week, easy to prioritize and put down. The boss is the first occurrence in the arena that need's what most would call "a dps check". You need to kill npc's and the boss at the same time to kill him. In my first run though this stage, i was using under par gear. So my dps was low. However i was able to complete this boss by focusing the npc's first and the boss later. Sure the boss teleported a couple more times then usual compared to experienced players, but i was still able to kill the boss.

Stage 2

Stage 2: This arena was fair easy as well. It took some time to get used to avoiding the spinners. I was able to complete this boss by kiting them around the outer circle until they died.

Stage 3

Stage 3: This arena was a pain in the beginning stage's. If you died early on, more of the un-mobile plants would remain and deal to much damage for you to survive. After learning this it was easy to progress. I was able to complete this round by killing everything very quickly and doing a little bit of kiting between each island. The boss is not that bad if you can handle the add's.

Stage 4

Stage 4: I think this is the easiest stage. Once i learned you could not be hit by he fire stage of the boss if you were far enough away made this a piece of cake.

Stage 5

Stage 5: Range add's are annoying. That's really all i have to say about this arena. It's not that bad.

Stage 6

Stage 6: I had a lot of trouble with this boss. The boss is very hard to put down if you have low dps. It takes to long to kill her small add she spawns while focusing on all the other mechanic's. I was able to finish this one but it took me over 50+ deaths for this one boss. Was the most frustrating boss to deal with. One thing i learned was you need to get close to her for her to explode and become un-enraged if that makes any sense. Her spider minion she spawns has my biggest complaint, to much hp.

Stage 7

Stage 7: This arena is okay. However i dislike how much range is in this arena. There is a rotation that spawns 3 archers. As a stamina nb, im pretty much required to take the reflect sigil or die. The boss was not to bad. All i did was slot poison injection and keep my distance. I found melee was to risky. I think this one is not to bad once you figure it out. Completely do-able with low dps.

Stage 8

Stage 8: This is where my low dps started to show. I was able to complete this stage but it was difficult. I had to ignore the fire atro's and dps the boss. After using soul tether and volley on them they eventually died. It took some time to realize it was best to kill all 3 pinions with the flame atro's still alive. This gave me the best opportunity to dps the boss. Overall i did not have that much trouble.

Stage 9

Stage 9: Rounds 1 2 3 and 4 are pretty straight forward. Kill everything as quick as possible. Stage 5 would be pretty much impossible if i did not use sigils. Since i do not have a maelstrom bow to handle the add's, i needed to use reflect and dps the titan. After it expired, i had to use bolstering darkness and finish him off. Then its a clean up of the add's.

Stage 9 Boss round: I cannot finish this boss. There is only one thing that stop's me. It's the amount of hp and damage the cremitoral guard has/deal's. The problem is i had to use a sigil of healing every time to stay alive against this thing. My dps was low but not that low. I could not kill him that fast. I was able to reach the top section of the boss fight and continue to the ground. This is where i had an issue with any other cremitoral guards spawning. I only have 1 sigil, even with bolstering darkness, it took too much time to dps this nps. I know i had low dps and thats my problem but i was fine up until this point. I now have quit trying and have gone to get better gear etc.

I want to note, i know i am not using the best of the best when it come's to gear. However i was still able to manage very well this setup. I want to encourage more people to attempt the arena. My biggest concern is how most of the stages relie on only damage and you cannot use sustain and smart play to win. Stages 1,2,3,4, 7 and 8 all are very good at this. You do not necessary need to have the best dps to complete it. However in some of the other stages, you will loose no matter what you do if you do not make the cut.

Now after i have said everything above. I'd like to go into any changes i would like to see.

1: Reduce the frequency certain npc's/boss's damage you. (Seen most with the longbow archers in stage 7 and Stage 6 boss splitting. )
2: Reduce the health of a couple npc's: Cremitoral Guards stage 9, the spider queens add she spawns in stage 7.
3: Reduce the damage dealt by Cremitorals fire breath ability OR make the ability interrupt-able.

I know what you guy's are thinking. These changes i have listed would all be solved if i just had better gear, had more practice etc. These are just suggestions from my personal experience that may come in handy for the developer's. I would like to see these changes made to make it more plausible for players to go in under par and still manage to complete the arena if they use sigils.

Thanks for reading. If you have thoughts you would like to add feel free to chime in.

I am now in the process of acquiring better gear to complete vMA in the future. However i do hope what i have said speaks out to anyone who is also having trouble with vMA.

OrphanHelgen · April 2016

You can block the cream guard bleed I think.
But yes I agree, that one is one of the most annoying dmg in the arena.

If you have more dmg, you will be able to kil crem guard before it attacks you. I usually use my ultimate on it. Sorcs overload it, DKs corrosive armor it, I dont know nightblades, but I think that aoe ult with dmg reduction should make it work. Dont save your ult on last stage. Use it, I even ult the pillars on 2nd floor.

GreenSoup2HoT · April 2016

OrphanHelgen wrote: »

You can block the cream guard bleed I think.
But yes I agree, that one is one of the most annoying dmg in the arena.

If you have more dmg, you will be able to kil crem guard before it attacks you. I usually use my ultimate on it. Sorcs overload it, DKs corrosive armor it, I dont know nightblades, but I think that aoe ult with dmg reduction should make it work. Dont save your ult on last stage. Use it, I even ult the pillars on 2nd floor.

You are very correct!

As a nightblade i was using bolstering darkness to reduce the damage from the crem guard by 60%. Even so i felt like his health was way to much compared to everything else i had experienced as a "sub boss type" in vMA.

In my opinion, its one of the only things that is really stopping my progress.

I know many people will say this "you need more damage", which is true but it sucks to be able to get so far and not complete vMA because of this one npc even with mediocre damage.

If i could change one thing about vMA it would be this one specific ability from this npc. Make it interrupt-able so its more manageable for a melee to go up against.

code65536 · April 2016

Have you tried using Veil of Blades instead? Less mitigation, but that extra DPS is quite substantial. Oh, and your signature suggests that you are a vampire in vMA? Get that cured!

If everything goes right on the boss round, you won't have an unassisted kill of the crematorial guard.

The first guard, you can kill under the protection of the defense sigil. Since that also reflects the boss's channel, it also helps push the boss to 70% quickly, so you won't have to deal with another crematorial guard before you go up.

Try to kill all three crystals upstairs before being knocked down. It does take quite a bit of practice to get the cadence of the upstairs fight down. When I first did that part, it felt like destroying all three before being forced down was impossible. But after many wipes and all the practice and experience that came with it, it does become much easier, and now I can destroy all three with an abundance of time margin (usually during or right after the second wall). Anyway, if you can destroy all three in one go, it makes life so much easier because you won't have to deal with that really nasty combination downstairs of crematorial guard, clannfear, and lich crystals.

Once you destroy all three crystals and the boss is forced down, any existing crematorial guards will instantly die. Now prioritize ghosts. With practice (read: lots of wipes), you'll get a hang of the cadence of this part of the fight--you'll get an instinctive feel of when the boss does his channel that needs bashing, when he does the skull that needs dodging, and even the timing of the golden ghost spawns. If you can grab every ghost, then you'll have a stun synergy for every crematorial guard spawn.

The final boss fight is actually very easy... if you make no mistakes. It's brutally unforgiving, though, and the punishments for missteps are quite severe. More than any other part of the arena, this fight benefits the most from experience (read: lots and lots of wipes and frustration).

OrphanHelgen · April 2016

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

OrphanHelgen wrote: »

You can block the cream guard bleed I think.
But yes I agree, that one is one of the most annoying dmg in the arena.

If you have more dmg, you will be able to kil crem guard before it attacks you. I usually use my ultimate on it. Sorcs overload it, DKs corrosive armor it, I dont know nightblades, but I think that aoe ult with dmg reduction should make it work. Dont save your ult on last stage. Use it, I even ult the pillars on 2nd floor.

You are very correct!

As a nightblade i was using bolstering darkness to reduce the damage from the crem guard by 60%. Even so i felt like his health was way to much compared to everything else i had experience as a "sub boss type" in vMA.

In my opinion, its one of the only things that is really stopping my progress.

I know many people will say this "you need more damage", which is true but it sucks to be able to get so far and not complete vMA because of this one npc even with mediocre damage.

If i could change one thing about vMA it would be this one specific ability from this npc. Make it interrupt-able so its more manageable for a melee to go up against.

The dmg from it are insane. I have 25k ish shield on my sorc and are champion point capped with a good chunk of cp in fire dmg reduce. Still, that fire from crem guard feels like a oneshot. For all we know it can be bugged.

Edit: I did it on stam sorc. Both minor and major armor/spell ressist buff on me. 22k health. My hp bar melted.

GreenSoup2HoT · April 2016

@code65536

Thanks for the advice. To be honest im already very comfortable with all the mechanics in that boss stage. It's just the cremitoral guard that i cannot handle.

To much health and to much damage when he does his fire breath. It always makes me wonder if using the monster helmet that spawns that npc would be good for pvp haha.

I put in 20 attempts with the current setup and called it a day after making no real progress. Just frustrations with that one npc.

Once i get better gear going ill give it another shot. I still believe that one particular npc needs to be toned down. I don't think anyone would object to it, i bet its a thorn in many players sides too.

OrphanHelgen · April 2016

code65536 wrote: »

Have you tried using Veil of Blades instead? Less mitigation, but that extra DPS is quite substantial. Oh, and your signature suggests that you are a vampire in vMA? Get that cured!

If everything goes right on the boss round, you won't have an unassisted kill of the crematorial guard.

The first guard, you can kill under the protection of the defense sigil. Since that also reflects the boss's channel, it also helps push the boss to 70% quickly, so you won't have to deal with another crematorial guard before you go up.

Try to kill all three crystals upstairs before being knocked down. It does take quite a bit of practice to get the cadence of the upstairs fight down. When I first did that part, it felt like destroying all three before being forced down was impossible. But after many wipes and all the practice and experience that came with it, it does become much easier, and now I can destroy all three with an abundance of time margin (usually during or right after the second wall). Anyway, if you can destroy all three in one go, it makes life so much easier because you won't have to deal with that really nasty combination downstairs of crematorial guard, clannfear, and lich crystals.

Once you destroy all three crystals and the boss is forced down, any existing crematorial guards will instantly die. Now prioritize ghosts. With practice (read: lots of wipes), you'll get a hang of the cadence of this part of the fight--you'll get an instinctive feel of when the boss does his channel that needs bashing, when he does the skull that needs dodging, and even the timing of the golden ghost spawns. If you can grab every ghost, then you'll have a stun synergy for every crematorial guard spawn.

The final boss fight is actually very easy... if you make no mistakes. It's brutally unforgiving, though, and the punishments for missteps are quite severe. More than any other part of the arena, this fight benefits the most from experience (read: lots and lots of wipes and frustration).

Same tactic as me, and it works. Only problem is that he dont have the dmg to take boss down to 70% after first crem guard done I think. Also, I kill the 2nd healer before the clanfear, that healer wont go away after 2nd floor are done.

code65536 · April 2016

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. To be honest im already very comfortable with all the mechanics in that boss stage. It's just the cremitoral guard that i cannot handle.

To much health and to much damage when he does his fire breath. It always makes me wonder if using the monster helmet that spawns that npc would be good for pvp haha.

I put in 20 attempts with the current setup and called it a day after making no real progress. Just frustrations with that one npc.

Once i get better gear going ill give it another shot. I still believe that one particular npc needs to be toned down. I don't think anyone would object to it, i bet its a thorn in many players sides too.

Have you tried strafing/circling him? It helps. But what really helps, though, is to not have to worry about them at all in that final boss fight--and that means getting all three crystals before coming down and getting all the ghosts so you have a stun for every guard.

GreenSoup2HoT · April 2016

code65536 wrote: »

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. To be honest im already very comfortable with all the mechanics in that boss stage. It's just the cremitoral guard that i cannot handle.

To much health and to much damage when he does his fire breath. It always makes me wonder if using the monster helmet that spawns that npc would be good for pvp haha.

I put in 20 attempts with the current setup and called it a day after making no real progress. Just frustrations with that one npc.

Once i get better gear going ill give it another shot. I still believe that one particular npc needs to be toned down. I don't think anyone would object to it, i bet its a thorn in many players sides too.

Have you tried strafing/circling him? It helps. But what really helps, though, is to not have to worry about them at all in that final boss fight--and that means getting all three crystals before coming down and getting all the ghosts so you have a stun for every guard.

Strafing and Circling is not all that effective from my experience. It almost seem's like the npc is broken and tracks you way to well. This is why i proposed reducing his health or damage to make it easier to burn through him or sustain though the barrage of fire. You could even make it stationary or interrupt-able.

I think the biggest problem is their is not much counter play. I swear im more scared of this npc then the boss on stage 7.

After the crystal stage to, im pretty sure their is a guard that spawns before you obtain 3 ghosts to get that stun. So if i were do to this perfectly, i would need to use my ultimate on the first guard, healing sigil on the second and ghost stun the third and hope i finish off the boss before any more come around.

I'm not going to try again until i get better gear though. It's a little to much to handle you know what i mean. Even with the best gear that one npc is very dangerous. I'm so jealous of Sorc's too, 3-4 shots of Overload and it dies..

code65536 · April 2016

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

After the crystal stage to, im pretty sure their is a guard that spawns before you obtain 3 ghosts to get that stun.

Nope. The guard spawns around the same time the third ghost spawns. I usually am able to get the synergy before the guard comes into range (depending on where the ghost spawns relative to my position). It's always one guard per three ghosts, so as long as you never miss a ghost, you'll always have a stun available.

I usually even have some time after getting the ghost to kite the guard a little to position him and stun him when he's close to the boss. Then I can drop an ultimate that hits them both.