Hello all so I would like to quickly share my VMA build for Magicka Nightblade. It is a poor man's build with minimal farming and CP. Hopefully a new or struggling Mageblade will find this helpful.
So I found out that playing Normal Maelstrom is kind of pointless and will give the player a false sense of confidence. My suggestion is to run it maybe once through just to get a feel for the levels but after that just play Veteran.
Gear is 5 piece crafted Julianos but Twice Born Star is also a great choice, and arguably better.
3 Piece Willpower Jewelry. I use 1 healthy and 2 arcane.
2 Piece Valkyn, Kena, or Engine Guardian.
If you find sustain lacking go Engine, otherwise the DPS from the other two sets is the way to go. A little farming here but not much.
1-2 piece Torugs. This is a flex set spot and you can choose.
Should go without saying but CP160 gear gold everything. You want to squeeze every stat out of your slots. I go full magicka enchants.
DW Bar: Impale/Crippling/Inner Light/Swallow Soul/Sap Essence/\Soul Harvest
Resto Bar: Siphoning Attacks/Merciless Resolve/Refreshing Path/Rapid Regen/Healing Ward/\Shooting Star
VMA is tough. Very tough. This DW/Resto combo affords High DPS without costing us too much sustain. Destro staff is also a great option and if you can make sure to weave in attacks the DPS is on par with DW and magicka won't be an issue.
Champion Point allocation for a CP 300 character is:
10 Blessed/27 Elf Born/63 Elemental Expert
25 Magician/ 75 Arcanist
11 Thick Skin/32 Hardy/32 Elemental defender/ 25 Bastion
CP really shines here. I wouldn't say it's impossible to clear this content as a lower CP but the difficulty is ridiculous. So if you are a fresh CP160 struggling in here, it might be best to do some other content first and stack those champion points before giving it another go.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask away. Good luck out there and don't get discouraged. You can all clear VMA!