Post vMA First Completion: LF Advice

Taylor_MB · January 2017

-Unusual Build Alert-
Blazing Shield Templar (at least I think it's unusual for vMA)

Monster Set: Grothdarr or Infernal (purple)
Body Armour: 5x Leeching Plate (purple)
Jewellery: 3x Soulshine (blue cause I'm broke AF)

Front Bar: 2x Endurance (sword and board blazing shield bar)(purple)
Back Bar: 2x Soulshine (swords sharpened)(purple)

Attributes: 64 HP
Enchants: All max HP and magicka regen
Traits: Divines small, infused large, reinforced chest
Race: Altmer

Front Bar Stats | Back Bar Stats:
• HP 45.8k (15.5k BS) | 39.2k
• Stam 10k | 10k
• Magicka 13.6k | 13.6k
• Magicka regen 2.7k | 2.5k
• Spell Crit 25%
• Penetration 10.3k
• CP 561 normal distribution I guess
• *because I use Soulshine, measuring spell damage not possible, so my front bar Dark Flare is 6.3k unbuffed

Front Bar Skills:
• Invigorating Drain
• Repentance
• Blazing Shield
• Defensive Stance
• Structured Entropy
• Devouring Swarm

Back Bar Skills:
• Channeled Focus
• Dark Flare
• Radiant Glory
• Toppling Charge
• Ritual of Retribution - primarily to proc Grothdarr
• Soul Assault

Obviously I've only cleared once so I don't know how efficient this build is, but I suspect it's pretty low damage. Nonetheless, all dps checks cleared, I did have to do the crystals on the last boss in two stages (jumping down and going back up again). It's a fun build to play, Crem Gaurds are no threat, use them to feed my BS to kill the.... summoners?

My only specific question is do the meteors in the crystals stage (last boss) go through all damage shields and hit HP, or just blazing shield? Apart from that am I missing anything regarding my build and/or skills? Any modifications (keeping in mind I'm broke as all hell) I can make?

Thanks all!

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Got Nirnhoned 2H Sword.

Qbiken · January 2017

First rule of vMSA: The more damage the better. I personally don´t see how you shall do enough dps with this build

Taylor_MB · January 2017

Qbiken wrote: »

First rule of vMSA: The more damage the better. I personally don´t see how you shall do enough dps with this build

Weird thing to say seeming I've already done it and it has "enough" dps. I'm asking if anyone sees any changes I can make to my skills and/or gear to boost dps whilst keeping the general BS tanky setup? (64 points into HP is a must, seeming this is my PvE tank for everything except vTrials (so far)).

That is a terrible rule, try something like: "the most damage you can do without excessive amounts of dying". Can't dps when you are dead.

Lukums1 · January 2017

Taylor what you're doing is not good.

You asked for suggestions Qbiken made a very solid point and you disregarded it completely.

You do realize if you get 65-70% crit 3k spell damage the speed you'd be clearing at will increase dramatically.

Get rid of leeching and go Julianos, get the magic crit and the spell damage.

The weapons, which you already mentioned you're "Broke AF" however this will increase you're dps in a major way. "If you like" I can show you my farm material spot during one of my twitch streams which will allow you to farm 18-20 tempers in a couple days.

Inner light should be on your front bar to get crit buff.

You cleared it with those stats good on you, but if you want to become sufficient with running it you'd want to be doing what I've mentioned above.

A lot of increases will come from investing in money, I mentioned julianos because of the crit but also because it's 6 trait which many people will do without asking for any type of payment apart from the mats.

At the end of the day, - you asked a question what could be changed I firmly believe that the gear changes suggested above and the placement of inner light on your front bar (main dps bar) will help you substaintially also changing 64 points into magicka.

Champ points would also probably be changed seeing as you're running a really tanky setup my concern would probably be your blue tree without seeing those setups I'll never know.

If you're open for ideas and further suggestions I'm happy to help you with all aspects of Maelstrom but you will need to keep an open mind.

Luke

Sylphex · January 2017

Lukums1 wrote: »

Taylor what you're doing is not good.

You asked for suggestions Qbiken made a very solid point and you disregarded it completely.

Luke

Hardly a solid point. Telling someone who's admitted to running an unusual build to deconstruct their build and go with a more usual build without much further input is probably not a strong point. OP was right to dismiss it. It's a blazing shield tank not a stam sorc.

Taylor_MB · January 2017

@Lukums1 Thanks for the suggestion mate, you actually offered advice unlike the first reply (who said he doesn't know how I "shall" do it even though it's already been done), so that is appreciated.

I can barely farm for 5minutes without getting bored, so farming 18-20tempers in a few days is not going to happen.

I have tried bringing this build into PvP with minimal success, which is why it's my PvE tank. I found that when I swapped my enchants to magicka and swapped out Leeching for Julianos, I wouldn't have enough HP for a defensive BS and not enough spell damage to get any decent BoL. Although healing is doubled in PvE so maybe it's worth trying a more traditional damage build again?

As for my blue CP tree it's a mix of tanking and dps (mainly tanking), could definitely put more into Elemental Expert. Does Thaumaturge boost towards BS? It is counted as a DoT but never knew for sure, dumped 30 points into that ages ago.

Again, does anyone know if the meteors up top in the crystal phase go through all damage shields? I was super surprised when it left my BS untouched but did bulk damage straight to me HP.

Cheers

Edit: I can shuffle skills around to get inner light on my dps bar, thanks for the suggestion!

Lukums1 · January 2017

Hello Taylor,

What you'll quickly figure out is IMO it will go Scathing Mage Set (from ICP) and then (Julianos) for DPS Temp Magicka.

The crit is so handy it's stupid.

I thought the exact same who the hell wants to farm nodes but honestly? I did it yesterday for 4 hours... yes a long time but got over 2.5k raw materials 21 Kuta 8 nirn crux and 6 potent nirn crux I was AMAZED. All comes down to finding a nice quite spot which I have if you're interested let me know other wise I won't bother putting up a video for you. (that sounded rude but not intentional)

With more Spell damage you'll heal more for sure.

Damage of crit hits in blue tree is a must also, I wouldn't heavily invest in defensive.

The more you dish out in damage the less incoming you'll receive this is the way to go.
I'm not sure about shielding, but as a nut shell you'll never actually want to get hit by the meteors it would be good practice to just avoid, but I'm sure if someone knew they will tell you yes or no.

And Slyph: His point was this: First rule of vMSA: The more damage the better. (Which is 100% correct). But not constructive I agree.

I can go deep into depth Taylor but I'm going to need to understand what you're willing to change and what is not negotiable for change.

As a tutor myself in VMA (almost every night) the best info you can take away including yourself is do what works for YOU.
If you find that tanking through it works and you're happy just make that minor adjustment with inner light and place julianos on.

In any respect let me know how you travel and if I can offer more help or advice please let me know.

Luke

Taylor_MB · January 2017

I'll take this build to near max vMA efficiency before completely overhauling it and dropping BS in place of more traditional dps setup. By that time I would hopefully have accumulated some more gold and mats through my other activities XD. Still happy to take suggestions for future even if not implementing them immediately.

22 points into Elfborn, will shuffle them around a bit if more is recommended?

Lukums1 wrote: »

The more you dish out in damage the less incoming you'll receive this is the way to go.

That's why I'm hooked on Blazing Shield on my main PvE toon, the more damage I take the better, cause I just reflect that all back out (sometimes it's slow when few ads or low damage boss, but then bar swap and work in a dark flare). I first put on Soulshine in the ice island arena (to kill the trolls) and it worked well for the rest of the arena to kill things I couldn't stand next to.

I know the meta exists for a reason, for the time being I'm going to rely on Blazing Shield as my only defense and primary offense.

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My main is a stamblade that is stuck on the final boss, it is fully specc'd into damage but you cannot make a single mistake.... and with 350 ping inside vMA you don't even need to make a mistake to die. So I am nervous about turning my blazplar into a less forgiving dps orientated serup.