VMA weapon with bad traits -> DPS loss?

LeeroyGankins · November 2016

Hey guys

I have a nirhorned axe and a decisive dagger now. So let's suppose it's a 10% DPS loss compared to having DW sharpened.

Am I still getting a DPS increase due to the maelstrom enchants? My guess is yes, and I don't mind golding them out to make my subsequent VMA runs easier.

Yinmaigao · November 2016

Ironically, stam vMA weapons (besides the bow) are bad for VMA. Stuff dies too fast to get the benefit.

As for traits, you are usually better off with set sharpened over vMA random trait weapons.

Sharpened is that good -_-

LeeroyGankins · November 2016

Yinmaigao wrote: »

Ironically, stam vMA weapons (besides the bow) are bad for VMA. Stuff dies too fast to get the benefit.

As for traits, you are usually better off with set sharpened over vMA random trait weapons.

Sharpened is that good -_-

Yup VMA dagger are bad for trash mobs. However I do find that higher DPS helps a lot with some bosses, because you get to skip a round of mechanics.

Damn #makeothertraitsgreatagain

alexkdd99 · November 2016

If you could get precise then maybe. But decisive you can throw out. What is dumb is they nerfed nirnhoned while adding it to vma items. All they did was replace nirn with sharpened.

CultOfMMO · November 2016

realistically the only time vMA weapons will really be useful is maybe stage 4 and stage 7, other bosses are too mobile or have too little health for it to matter

try it for a few runs, you'll probably end up with the same conclusion as most people did.

maybe if you have 2 sharpened vMA DW then it'll be a fast run, but lets be real here if you already have that you wouldnt be running anymore.

ZOS_PeterT · November 2016

We have moved this thread to: Dungeons, Trials & Arenas

f047ys3v3n · November 2016

It really won't make your vMA runs easier for the reasons mentioned. I do believe that, just in the case of dual weild, the weapons are actually OP enough to make wrong traited weapons worth running in trials though I have not tested this.

A lot of things that are best elsewhere are not best in vMA. I don't run my llambriss in there for instance because everything moves too much with the constant kiting. Think carefully about what you run in vMA and how it will behave in the unusual circumstances of no tank, no healer buffing or giving resources, lots of kiting, very high heal checks, and lots of stuns.

It is unusual content. For my part I run a very vanilla, no rng proc stuff in there. 5 julianos, 4 infal, 1 kena, 1 vMA / 1 vDSA staff. For stam I would be inclined to do 5 Hundigs, 5 VO (as VO unlike infal is very good in 5 pc), 1x kena. I would drop the kena and run all vMA weps if right traited but not if not right traited.

SkylarkX · November 2016

I did some math on the back of an envelope and in certain scenarios nirnhoned weapons aren't that bad. The scenario I looked at was my pvp nightblade using a maelstrom nirnhoned 2H instead of a non set sharpened.

Working from 40% worth of weapon damage buffs (12% medium, 20% brutality, 8% dawnbreaker) the nirnhoned gives an extra 485 weapon damage overall. Based on my nightblades stats this equates to an ~8% boost to base damage.

Taking 10k damage as an example, I tested the ~8% damage boost vs the ~8% penetration from sharpened:

10,000 damage (nirn) vs 9,120 damage (sharp)

10,000 damage vs target with 50% mitigation = 5,000 damage (armor hard cap)
9,120 damage vs target with 42% mitigation = 5,290 damage (armor hard cap / 8% penetration)

10,000 damage vs target with 30% mitigation = 7,000 damage (typical pve boss resistance)
9,120 damage vs target with 22% mitigation = 7,114 damage (typical pve boss resistance / 8% penetration)

10,000 damage vs target with 25% mitigation = 7,500 damage (equiv ~15k armor)
9,120 damage vs target with 17% mitigation = 7,570 damage (equiv ~15k armor / 8% penetration)

So based on this scenario sharpened does do about 3% more damage at max resistances, declining as the targets resistance is lower. If the targets resistances were below 8% (from debuffs etc) then nirnhoned would start to do more damage. The side benefit of nirnhoned is that the non damage abilities (e.g. vigor, rally) get an 8% buff due to the bonus weapon damage.

For raw damage yeah, sharpened is better when the target has more than 8% mitigation, but the difference is bordering on marginal - which might make nirnhoned worth using (in certain scenarios).

Oreyn_Bearclaw · November 2016

As people have said, for VMA itself, i would only use the bow on a stam Character. Things die to fast for the buff to be useful. I run Double Sharp Nightmother's daggers in VMA. This allows me to wear a Monster set as well as 5VO/5NM and a VMA bow on the back bar. Sharp really is that good.

As for other content, I think as long as you have something DPS oriented (Precise or Nirn), you are better off with VMA weapons on long fights. I still run a precise bow, and it's certainly worth running.

As for the staffs on a magic toon, its sharp or nothing on the front bar. If you back bar is just for DOTs and Buffs, again, you can get away with Nirn or Precise.