Help required for vMA Stamina DK (Stage 2 Bosses)

j_s · October 2016

I'm struggling with the Stage 2 of Veteran Maelstrom Arena.

Especially the spinning blades are giving me a hard time. They do too much damage.

Could you guys, who have successfully completed it, please give me a piece of advice if my gear and CP level are both good enough to complete the arena and what I can do to pass stage 2?

I'm currently wearing 5x Twice-Born Star and 5x Vicious Ophidian with 2 Ashen Grip weapons (Dual Wield and Bow).
I have only 347 CP (THIEF : 93 in Warlord, 22 in Mooncalf, MAGE: 100 in Mighty and 15 in PreciseStrike, WARRIOR 100 in Medium Armor Focus and 16 in Hardy)

My mundus stones are Thief and Shadow for high crit % and crit dmg. On Bow I have 77,3% and on Daggers I have 66,3%.

Like I said, all my health drops mainly due to the AOE and DOT of the spinning blades.

Also, should I stick to Dual Wield or use Two-Hander?

Here's a photo of my stats. please check out Physical resistance and let me know if it is high enough?
My regen is also pretty low, but it's a trade of for weapon damage.

All help appreciated! Thanks guys!

beekalad · October 2016

Does your screenshot show stats before eating food? 13k health is far too low and you will definitely struggle with 27k stam with only 700 recovery.

Trublz · October 2016

My main is a DK as well but I run vMA with a Stam sorc. Crit surge really carries me through.
Idk how people do vMA with a DK. The only healing they have is dragon blood(which sucks) and the fire claws( I forget what it's called. The opposite morph of venom claws) which can be good but it has like a 6 sec or so timer you have to wait before you get health back or you can use it twice for instant healing but the healing isn't great if you do that. Only other option is vigor.
Maybe slot vigor on both bars and make it part of your rotation at all times. That's only thing I can think of.

Edit: forgot to mention blood craze and the other DW healing/dmg ability but those should be a given.

Brrrofski · October 2016

Have you got food on in this picture?

Also, champion points into Hardy, elemental defender and thick skinned is better than medium armor focus.

Is all your gear gold? I honestly recommend dropping twice born and ashen for hunding's and velidreth. That bust helps so much in vma.

What skills are you running?

j_s · October 2016

Not buffed by food, no.

X3ina · October 2016

Pull the levers to stop the spinning blades and USE healing sigil. Use magma instead of standard if needed.

Or you're trying to do a leaderboard run with 347cp ?

j_s · October 2016

Yes, all gear is gold, except for the jewelry.

AgentSylo · October 2016

I did this on my dk when I was at cp 310, my gear was nmg and the rest was hundings (at the time) all gold. Max stam/weapon damage glyphs, full divines.

My weapons were dw/bow, the 2 heals from dw (blood craze,blood thirst) helped alot, however you need to do damage to get those heals, so your other main self heal ability should be resolving vigor, this is your main heal and a must imo where you're at.

Your cp set up seems a bit off to me.

Green- reduce cost-Recovery- tumbling

Blue- mighty-thurmatage-precise strikes-bit of penetration

Red- elemental defender-hardy-quick recovery (for more self heals from vigor etc very noticeable).

I put the cp in order of what I focus on 1st (have more points in) and spread the rest out nicely.

Edit: your health seems very low, try taking a good max health/stam food, this will help a lot, try getting the highest recipe possible.

KingYogi415 · October 2016

Dk's need to use the other morph of rapid strikes for healing.

boldscot · October 2016

You should take those cp out of medium armour and spread them between hardy and elemental defender. Are you wearing all medium?
At that cp level you should make use of the sigils, you will need to use vigour often on that stage because the blades are just unavoidable for a stamina dk.
You should definitely stick to DW, take the Blood thirst morph of flurry, that combined with vigour should be enough healing.

My setup in the VMSA on stamina dk is 5 VO, 5 NMG and 2 velidreth. Sharpened weapons.

Tyrion87 · October 2016

To be honest, I don't like TBS in any places other than trials. It is good in trials when your group members take turns in buffing you up with aggresive warhorn etc. but in the other places, especially the solo ones like vMA, Hunding's Rage (from craftable sets) outperforms TBS in terms of DPS and burst dmg is what is the most important in vMA.

Burst + sigils + pulling levers asap = job done.

xblackroxe · October 2016

Get Vigor

Asmael · October 2016

Really need to know your skill bars setup, but what you'll need is Bloodthirst and Resolving Vigor to keep yourself alive.

Use a max health / max stamina food buff, less than 16k health is asking to get one shot.

Your CP distribution is off, physical resistance is all nice and sweet, but Hardy provides much more mitigation. Usually, the red CPs are an even spread between Hardy and Elemental defender.

You can stick to TBS since it's already gold, but in a solo environment, Khajiits benefit from it the most, so Nord be like "huh". It's very minor, and vMA has already been completed at cp160 with meh quality gear.

But now, since you're struggling with the blades in this specific round: stick to the inner circle, move clockwise, and when the spinning blade is about to catch up on you (if it does), dodge roll thru it, then start running clockwise again. Just stick to Poison Injection to get rid of adds from a distance. It doesn't matter how long it takes, you're going for completion, not leaderboard.

Since you mention sustain issues, slot a magicka to stamina dump, be it Igneous weapons or Igneous shield, and avoid using crafted potions, the basic ones will do.

j_s · October 2016

Lots of very useful information coming from you guys, thank you so much. Currently not in game, will post my bar setup later. Running clockwise is a sound advice and attributing my CP points anew also. As well as using Blood thirst (I have slotted the other morph). Thanks again!

Sallington · October 2016

Vigor + Rally should make the blades bleed a non-issue. Just be sure to run against them, not with them, or dodge them as best you can.

MaxwellC · October 2016

@j_s

Your CP setup is pretty weird at-least for the warrior. You should have your warrior CP into something like reduce physical damage or magicka damage; any extra can get dumped into reduce DoT damage.

Rotation wise I use is this (I run 5VO 5 hunding 3 maelstrom -1 axe, 1 dag, and 1 bow).
Rapid strikes, Blood craze (for healing), venomous claw, noxious breath, and rearm trap (Bar 1)
Arrow barrage (wider radius), igneous shield (takes damage for me + gives me awesome heals), Igneous weapons (buff), poison injection (Execute + another DoT), and Vigor (healing) (Bar 2)

Ultimates for Bar 1/2 = Smiting dawn breaker and Corrosive armor.

If you do not have vigor then you need to run a 2H for rally because health sustain for you will not be anywhere good and you will die almost always. If you think that using a 2H will give you a horrible score then check this out.
xboxdvr.com/gamer/Maxwell/video/21584127 Unfortunately I didn't record the score but it was 15/15 life bonus and the end score was 501k using 5 hundings and 5 marksman and a 2h/bow.
Get rid of TBS for and go hundings rage.

I should also add I'm a redguard so my sustain is pretty set with high damage. I'm not sure what buffs nords provide but hopefully it's good too.

GreenhaloX · October 2016

MaxwellCrystal wrote: »

@j_s

Your CP setup is pretty weird at-least for the warrior. You should have your warrior CP into something like reduce physical damage or magicka damage; any extra can get dumped into reduce DoT damage.

Rotation wise I use is this (I run 5VO 5 hunding 3 maelstrom -1 axe, 1 dag, and 1 bow).
Rapid strikes, Blood craze (for healing), venomous claw, noxious breath, and rearm trap (Bar 1)
Arrow barrage (wider radius), igneous shield (takes damage for me + gives me awesome heals), Igneous weapons (buff), poison injection (Execute + another DoT), and Vigor (healing) (Bar 2)

Ultimates for Bar 1/2 = Smiting dawn breaker and Corrosive armor.

If you do not have vigor then you need to run a 2H for rally because health sustain for you will not be anywhere good and you will die almost always. If you think that using a 2H will give you a horrible score then check this out.
xboxdvr.com/gamer/Maxwell/video/21584127 Unfortunately I didn't record the score but it was 15/15 life bonus and the end score was 501k using 5 hundings and 5 marksman and a 2h/bow.
Get rid of TBS for and go hundings rage.

I should also add I'm a redguard so my sustain is pretty set with high damage. I'm not sure what buffs nords provide but hopefully it's good too.

Nice! Yes, why certain people shunned or ridicule 2H, I don't get it. Certain people could just be so ignorant. 2H DK can do some damages.. and with rally, igneous shield and/or vigor, I'm usually one of the last one standing if things get rough in a trial or dungeon, vet or not. I think non-2H folks just don't understand the damages output with 2H when you combine heavy/wrecking blow attack; which can be over 40k dps being put out, and with crit, you can dish out 50k or over, per combo. Plus, with the heavy being part of it, stam is being given back constantly. If working right, I literally can be heavy/wrecking blow any big boss non-stop, particularly with a tank; be baseball batting all day. With good self-healing and some brutal damages output, it's why making soloing world boss pits or running vet level events a bit easier.

Oh, for @j_s, yes, folks are right, your 13k health is way too low, particularly if adds are dishing out 15k or more damages. Eat a blue food that gives 5300 more max health and 4900 more max stam or if you also want majicka, use that purple tri-food and pull the lever every chance you get.. or you can take a break until you get much more CP. Heck, I'm way over 531 CP (much over 600 CP, to be more precise), my health is a bit over 30k, and I'll admit it, I still have a bit of problem with certain stages in vMA. I still take long breaks before heading back in to tackle it. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of TBS or Hunding's Rage and still looking for a better combo to mitigate more damages during vMA, cause man, those no-death youtube clips are still boggling my mind on how folks are still breezing through all stages of vMA and seemingly not getting damaged at all. Kudos for that, but just seem too unreal!

Joy_Division · October 2016

it's just a heal heck.

Always run in one direction. Always have vigor up. Just kill stuff fast as opposed to trying to dodge the blades. If you use a lever on boss fight, the bosses heal so I wouldn't use them. If you are going to use dual wield, you lose rally so maybe slot igneous shield just for this round since it is a heal rather than DPS check.

DeadlyRecluse · October 2016

This comment will be less than helpful, but:

I knew a guy who passed vMA on stamDK with 100 points in bastion and brawler spam. So that's a (probably horrible) thought.

SublimeSparo · October 2016

Avoid blades, spam vigour like your life depends on it (hint it does)
Corrosive armour can give you a break from the damage, all else fails put a 2h on back bar with rally and Igneous shields
Major mending + vigour n rally op
Or pick up the defensive, healing and damage sigils

sparafucilsarwb17_ESO · October 2016

I use the 2hand skill brawler as well as crit rush on stage 2. The blades won't even bother you. Throw in rally and vigor and you are set.

Destyran · October 2016

I barely read your post already i think you should use 5VO 5night mothers. On your weapons. Then use a monster set like velidreth. On dw front bar use blade cloak you take 20% less aoe damage and maelstrom is all aoe. Keep your vigor up. And at the end of each round try to pull a lever and stay out of the blades for 10seconds to get that dot off you. When you get to the three bosses. Stand infront of one. Then let the next run to you and so and so after that so you have a boss triangle and burn those ***

Aeaeren · October 2016

j_s wrote: »

I'm struggling with the Stage 2 of Veteran Maelstrom Arena.

Especially the spinning blades are giving me a hard time. They do too much damage.

Could you guys, who have successfully completed it, please give me a piece of advice if my gear and CP level are both good enough to complete the arena and what I can do to pass stage 2?

I'm currently wearing 5x Twice-Born Star and 5x Vicious Ophidian with 2 Ashen Grip weapons (Dual Wield and Bow).
I have only 347 CP (THIEF : 93 in Warlord, 22 in Mooncalf, MAGE: 100 in Mighty and 15 in PreciseStrike, WARRIOR 100 in Medium Armor Focus and 16 in Hardy)

My mundus stones are Thief and Shadow for high crit % and crit dmg. On Bow I have 77,3% and on Daggers I have 66,3%.

Like I said, all my health drops mainly due to the AOE and DOT of the spinning blades.

Also, should I stick to Dual Wield or use Two-Hander?

Here's a photo of my stats. please check out Physical resistance and let me know if it is high enough?
My regen is also pretty low, but it's a trade of for weapon damage.

All help appreciated! Thanks guys!

Vigor, lots and lots of Vigor. In fact if Vigor isn't running then you are doing it wrong. You need to include Vigor in your rotation. Get the hint just VIGOR already!