Best vMSA Set up for Magicka Sorc?

x_Demogorgon_x · October 2016

Skills, gear, champ points, race, all that. Need all help I can get. Haha. Thanks yall

Stoopid_Nwah · October 2016

I'm assuming it will be your first time through vma so I'll give you a basic setup that should get you through fine (if I gave you what I would use for fast times, you'd need maelstrom weapons, end-game trials gear, and hours of practice runs in the arena). Also keep in mind I main mag nbs so I do not claim to know the ins and outs of magsorc, this is just similar to what I used to clear it on my alt.

Race: High elf or dunmer
Attributes: All magicka

Bar 1 Destro, fire, sharpened with spell damage enchant
Ele drain
Inner Light
Hardened Ward
Force Pulse
Crystal fragments
Ult: Meteor (might change with destro ult, haven't played one tamriel so I haven't a clue if it's any good here)

Bar 2 DW (Swords are best but anything works tbh, sharpened)
Boundless Storm
Inner Light
Power Surge
Liquid Lightning
Flex Spot, but streak is nice to move around some stages at first
Ult: Overload

You could also get rid of ele drain and the flex spot to put in bound aegis for more magicka (more damage), but first time clears tend to be learning experiences that kill resources so it's nice to have some breathing room.

CP (Again I have no idea how many you have so these are just general allocations)
Orange: Elemental defender, hardy, on the final round put some in thick-skinned for the guards
Green: Arcanist and Magician
Blue: Elemental expert and elfborn

Gear: 2 elegance sharpened 1 hand weapons, 3 elegance jewelry, 5 pieces of tbs or julianos, 2 pieces of ilambris (or nerien'eth works well, kena can but don't use it on your first run through it will kill your resources, two torugs works for spell damage boost also here). You'll notice I didn't put anything for your staff; ideally I'd say go Maelstrom but since you don't have that, you can use anything (or go torugs inferno sharpened with one torugs head/shoulder and one kena). If your undaunted is maxed go 5l, 1m, 1h if not 7l, 0, 0.

Mundus: Thief & Shadow or just Thief if you're not using TBS

Basically you weave staff attacks with force pulse to proc a frag. Keep liquid lightning up as best you can. On bosses you swap and overload them down (or at moments you need to like with the crematorial guards). Your ward is your panic button/when you anticipate a lot of damage (maelstrom is full of huge damage numbers), surge will help keep you healed.

Each stage has specific mechanics, so I suggest watching some videos and then practice, practice, practice. Once you get through the arena it will be much easier the next times through and with multiple clears you'll be able to change your bars up. I got to a point that I just equipped random gear sets with weird bar setups just for something different.

Elara_Northwind · October 2016

I used 5x necropotence, my clanfear never dies apart from in round 8 from time to time, never in round 9. He was also useful as an 'Oh ****' heal

with 3 willpower, 2 torugs swords and a destro fire staff. I found 2 Infernal Guardian (monster helm) invaluable, as in there I was spamming my shield constantly and it killed mobs, and even broke stones/crystals and killed webspinners/ casters in round 7 for me

Molag Kena gives me a tiny bit more damage but was not as useful!

My sorcerer is a high elf, and her bars change slightly depending on the round but in general:

DW
Streak - to escape when needed
Liquid lightning - to place DoT's on bosses ect. when concentrating on other things
Power Surge - For obvious reasons
Bound armour
Rex the Dinosaur
Ulti - either shooting star or now, elemental rage. The tooltip for shooting star says more, but elemental rage covers a wider area and in many cases deals more damage and is better (at least for me) in some rounds

Fire Staff
Crystal Frags
Crushing Shock - Great interrupt, but in round 7 change to destructive reach, because you must not interrupt that boss when he does his main attack.
bound armour
Rex again

Ulti - Overload, does tonnes of damage, and during the last stage of final fight, I found necessary.

I used the spell power mundus because with my chosen sets my spell power was too low without this. I found the whole thing to be 100% easier with the new drink from witches festival which gives max health, max magicka, and magicka recovery

For CP's I put 100 in arcanist, 67 in magician, 20 tenacity, 80 elemental expert, 11 elfborn, 11 blessed, 30 thumaturge. 30 spell shield, 65 elemental defender, 40 hardy, 52 bastion.

This setup did me very well

Izaki · October 2016

As offensive as possible. You'll witness the amazingness of Power Surge healing. Keep your Liquid Lightning and Elemental Blockade up at all times. Literally never let them go out. Never let Power Surge go out. Be quick with a Hardened ward, but play as offensive as possible.

Believe me, I tried going in there with a resto staff, but I never cleared a boss fight with one on my first time. I always found that the more damage I do the easier it got. A resto staff prevents you from doing that. Also check out @Joy_Division guide for vMA really great advice for your first clear, with detailed mechanics explanations and everything. Alcast also has a video guide that looks pretty good (I didn't really watch all of the 4 hour explanations

)

Rez at way shrine say your gems. Bring around 500 generic magicka potions. And around 300 tai-stat potions for the last boss. That's about what I went through on my first clear.

Buildwise? @Stoopid_Nwah pretty much nailed it, except I don't think you need Elemental Drain or Streak in any of the fights. I used this set-up if I recall correctly.

Bar 1 Destro, fire, sharpened with spell damage enchant
Elemental Blockade
Inner Light
Hardened Ward
Force Pulse (you might want to use Crushing Shock instead for the interrupt which will save you a lot of trouble)
Crystal Fragments
Ult: Overload (use it only on DW bar, this is just to prevent casting a Meteor like a *** which I used to do a lot before I changed it)

Bar 2 DW (for Overloading bosses)
Dark Conversion/Boundless Storm/Rune Prison (depending on what you feel like you need)
Inner Light
Power Surge
Liquid Lightning
Harness Magicka (always good to have shields on both bars to prevent stupid deaths and it helps to sustain during the last stage)
Ult: Overload

Also I don't recommend any of the monster sets he listed for your very first clear though hehehe. I think you should stick with Engine Guardian (#DeltiaIsThatYouControllingMyMind?) its amazing for your first clear. Yeah I know I said be as offensive as possible, but it will help you to be offensive by restoring your resources.

Mundus Stone? THE THIEF! That crit chance is very very good.

Stoopid_Nwah · October 2016

IzakiBrotheSs wrote: »

Also I don't recommend any of the monster sets he listed for your very first clear though hehehe. I think you should stick with Engine Guardian (#DeltiaIsThatYouControllingMyMind?) its amazing for your first clear. Yeah I know I said be as offensive as possible, but it will help you to be offensive by restoring your resources.

Reminds me of when I went through with a random pvp setup by accident once with my magnb haha. I had on engine guardian and while it was a slow run, it was a super safe one (added to the fact that magblades never really struggle anyway with resources). But yeah if you swap out ele drain for blockade, engine would be nice for resources, just make them count (if you get green, block/dodge liberally or it's a waste).

Sidenote, I am a girl lol. Happens all the time with stoopid n'wah as a gt

.

Extra sidenote to the OP, slot rune cage on the final round of the final stage (this negates the pesky summoners so you can ignore them and dps the boss), and of course you can also use it in any other rounds you find certain mobs to be annoying (looking at you venom archers of stage 7).

darthsithis · December 2016

^^^ tune prison for summoners is great, plus you can drop a liquid lightning and wall of elements (even destro ulti) and they are still cc'd because tune prison only breaks under direct damage. In round 8, I kill the random Mage girls 500 ft away while single targeting a giant rock instead

darthsithis · December 2016

For cp, a many time flawless conqueror watched my twitch and said to do like 60-60 hardy/elemental defender, 20 bastion, rest in quick recovery (keep up surge!)
-green the usual 100 magician rest arcanist
-blue 100 elemental expert, 60 elfborn, 20ish thaumaturge.

I wear do 3 infal aether jewelry, 5x elegance clothes, ilambris (kena for last round), maelstrom/any sharpened staff until you get maelstrom staff (gl btw lol), 2 torugs swords!

Destro

Frag
Pulse
Ward
Inner light
Elemental blockade
Ice comet for max mag and more regen (try not to cast unless absolutely necessary)

Dw:
Velocious curse
Liquid lightning
Harness magicka (great for rounds 8&9)
Power surge
Boundless storm (dps, resistane, and hot with good surge uptime!)
Overload!

Overload:
-Execute (I use endless fury for mag)
-Dark deal or conversion (I use deal for stamina in the fight against voriak)
-ward (srsly do it, not worth a laggy overload-exit-animation-induced-death)
-inner light
-rune prison for dealing with ranged op ads and last round summoners.

Gl!
~Turbo

Lukums1 · December 2016

... Just do the below for your first clear.

Bar 1. Force Pulse, Crystal frags, Wall of Elements OR harden ward, bound agies, inner light, EYE of the storm if you don't have meteor
Bar 2. Liquid lightning, power surge, harden ward, bound agies, thundering prescense, energy overload
Bar 3. Power Surge, Mages Wrath, harden ward, bound agies, inner light, energy overload

You don't need dark con, you don't need any silly little tricks.

You don't use MAX/MAX food you use 5000 Health 497 Magicka Recovery.

I've flawlessed it on a magicka sorc with 25k Magicka and 16k HP for LOLS.

I can 100% tell you for fact that this is what I tell people and they have smashed out Maelstrom runs from where they were experiencing nothing but trouble.

As mentioned Power surge, liquid lightning and wall of elements will keep you alive.

However double baring harden ward on front and back bar may be required for you depending your play style and experience.
Thundering Prec and Power Surge will 80% of the time keep you alive in close proximity of mobs so I would stress too much, harden ward for back up.

If you need tricks for certain rounds feel free to pm me on forums and twitch as many others do and I can show you easier ways to clear certain waves and bosses.

Luke

darthsithis · January 2017

pro tips-

ice round last boss punishes fast dps in a way. after losing 1/6th of his health he will spawn ads. another 1/6th and he breaks platform. repeats until done, so go slowly, deal with ads as they come, and on the last ice platform, grab power and defense then nuke with overload after laying aoes.

spider round boss, must clear all obelisks within ~2 minutes or you wiill insta-wipe.

argonian round boss- don't interupt the boss or he enrages. NO CRUSHING SHOCK ON HIM WHILE HE IS SCREAMING!

round 8- the further you are from the 2hand wielding daedra, the harder their crit rush hits. Last boss make sure you kill the mage before destroying last stone

darthsithis · January 2017

you really use max health and mag recov food? gonna try that out. does the ~5,000 less max mag make a huge impact on dps?

and how are your champ points set up?

and any tips on stage 8 round 4 beginning?

Lukums1 · January 2017

darthsithis wrote: »

you really use max health and mag recov food? gonna try that out. does the ~5,000 less max mag make a huge impact on dps?

and how are your champ points set up?

and any tips on stage 8 round 4 beginning?

Hello Darth,

When learning for sure, even when farming the 5k Magicka you can't tell the difference in damage promise.

You also won't be needing to slot dark convergence which I HATE using.

Champ points 80 cost reduction, 100 recovery, the rest can't remember top of my head.
Blue Tree - 100 elemental 50 crit rest in therm
Red - 100 bastion, tried the hardy/elemental defender didn't work for me 100 in bastion rest split between elemental defender, hardy and the other one

Personally I've been farming almost a year now with many different builds on almost all claases.

So far running recovery food when you (aren't sure) how you're going to go with resources is undoubtedly the way to go.

For lols, I've completed Maelstrom Arena on Magicka/STAM using under 25k STAM/Magicka and 16k HP it's really quite manageable especially when people just need clears and poping sigils at certain times.

Masel · January 2017

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/comment/3536396#Comment_3536396

If you want an alternative build, you can check my infallible infinite wizard out. Very easy to play and clears in around 45 minutes.

FriedEggSandwich · January 2017

I don't recommend putting any cp in bastion for vma. 100cp in bastion = 5k more ward, seriously it's the difference between a 20k ward and a 25k ward, not worth imo. With no cp in bastion you can afford to have 72cp in both hardy and elemental defender which is equal to 20% less poison, physical, magical and elemental damage. And also 43cp in thick skinned which is a 13.4% reduction in damage from dots.

These damage reductions apply to your ward too, so they work with your ward up or down whereas bastion only works when your ward is up. The fact that the damage reductions apply to your ward obviously means your ward is tougher and will last longer, but you will also when your ward is down. This means less ward casts and more time doing other things.

With 100cp in bastion you can only afford about a 14% damage reduction from hardy and ele defender and nothing from thick skinned. So do you want 5k more ward from 100cp in bastion? Or at least 6% less damage taken at all times (20% - 14% = 6%)? I say at least because I didn't factor in the 14% dot damage reduction from thick skinned that you lose from 100cp in bastion. Dots are a big thing in vma.

That 100cp from bastion spent in hardy, elemental defender and thick skinned will reduce damage by more than 6% at all times, which is worth more than 5k more ward imo.

Lukums1 · January 2017

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

I don't recommend putting any cp in bastion for vma. 100cp in bastion = 5k more ward, seriously it's the difference between a 20k ward and a 25k ward, not worth imo. With no cp in bastion you can afford to have 72cp in both hardy and elemental defender which is equal to 20% less poison, physical, magical and elemental damage. And also 43cp in thick skinned which is a 13.4% reduction in damage from dots.

These damage reductions apply to your ward too, so they work with your ward up or down whereas bastion only works when your ward is up. The fact that the damage reductions apply to your ward obviously means your ward is tougher and will last longer, but you will also when your ward is down. This means less ward casts and more time doing other things.

With 100cp in bastion you can only afford about a 14% damage reduction from hardy and ele defender and nothing from thick skinned. So do you want 5k more ward from 100cp in bastion? Or at least 6% less damage taken at all times (20% - 14% = 6%)? I say at least because I didn't factor in the 14% dot damage reduction from thick skinned that you lose from 100cp in bastion. Dots are a big thing in vma.

That 100cp from bastion spent in hardy, elemental defender and thick skinned will reduce damage by more than 6% at all times, which is worth more than 5k more ward imo.

I dunno guess I"m used to not having my ward up a lot, the damage I take is really minimal I suppose myself knowing spawns and things dieing in a second flat doesn't help my arguement at all.

I pop my 25k ward knowing exactly when I expect big incoming damage. Generally I feel like If I'm going to die I'm going to die kind of thing on my magicka sorc so I've never really experimented with the points I tried it... honestly didn't like it but that's me and my play style I'm sure the math behind it is well placed.

I'm just stuck in old ways it seems.