Molag Rattlebug - the easiest flawless vMA build for any class or race

yake82 · January 2017

Hello forums.
I'd like to share my vMA build. It works with any class or race.
So far i've done flawless runs with 6 chars. 3 templars, bosmer, altmer and imperial. Also orc dk, dunmer nb and breton sorc.

The build is based on Rattlecage set and is full 7 piece divine heavy armor. While you might think that heavy armor doesn't have the sustain or damage for vMA but it does.

The build

5 pieces of Rattlecage
1 Kena piece
4 Thunderbug
vMA staves

The gear is identical for all classes or races.
The best thing about the Rattlecage is that it allows you to drink tri-potions. That extra hp and stam gets you nearly always out of tight spot... Unless the game really wants you dead...
Thunderbug is somewhat unorthodox set for vMA but it nicely adds survivability and spell dmg. I also tested Storm Knight too but wasn't impressed.
Thunderbug jewels are healthy only. There are named arcane Rattlecage jewels so its possible to use them to reduce hp and increase magicka a bit.
Magicka regen glyphs on jewelry for sustain.

Champ points are what standard dmg dealer would have.

Skill bars:
For me it has been important that skill bars work exactly the same regardless what class i play. The less you make wrong keystrokes, the better you'll do.

Destro bar
1 Elemental Blockade
2 secondary dmg - (Vampire Bane, Engulfing flames, Debilitate, Shock clench)
3 The Main Spammable - (Jabs, Burning Embers, Swallow Soul, Force Pulse)
4 Execute, reflect for DK
5 Inner Light
U Destro staff ulti, which ever you prefer

Resto bar
1 Class aoe - (Spear shards, Eruption, Twisting Path, Liquid Lighting)
2 Rapid Regen
3 Healing Ward
4 The Buff - (Channeled Focus, Volatile Armor, Merciless Resolve, Power Surge)
5 Inner light
U Meteor

Sorcerer relies on desto staff skills for the main dps. Rest of the classes have healing or other buffs from their main spammable and secondary dmg skill. Sorcs gets dmgdealin-healin with Surge.
I heartily recommend using Lightning staff for sorc because of the stun and splash dmg from the Shock Clench.
The type of staff doesn't matter that much for other classes i think, as long as they are sharpened.

I spent 300-400 soul gems before my first clear and honestly thought that i'd never get Flawless with DK.
But this build really works

Some of my flawless times:
1h 23min - Orc DK
1h 11min - Imperial Templar
1h 14min - Dunmer NB

Thanks for reading

Waffennacht · January 2017

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say OP, it's more you than your build.

Not taking away from your build, but I don't see anything that'd make vMA a cake walk.

Congratulations, thank you for sharing your build with us. I will take the time to learn about your build, I'm just thinking your skill is not to be discredited.

aLi3nZ · January 2017

I am not familiar with rattle cage. I have thundering though. What is rattlecage and what is your stats with these sets buffed and unbuffed.

I haven't got past stage 7 with the spiders due to god dropping to 15 and abilities not showing when the little spider swarms come out.

Mojmir · January 2017

Waffennacht wrote: »

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say OP, it's more you than your build.

Not taking away from your build, but I don't see anything that'd make vMA a cake walk.

Congratulations, thank you for sharing your build with us. I will take the time to learn about your build, I'm just thinking your skill is not to be discredited.

True, it's memorizing spawn points,and muscle memory. Hell I did it once and unless it's better drop and a sure thing I get what I'm after,I'm never going back.

AAbrigo · January 2017

Im no expert at Vma, but thunderbug vs storm knights really depends on the enemys.

Are they doing physical dmg or non-physical(spells)?

It all comes down to that, but like the other says it is all about learning the mechanics and not so much the gear.

psychotic13 · January 2017

AAbrigo wrote: »

Im no expert at Vma, but thunderbug vs storm knights really depends on the enemys.

Are they doing physical dmg or non-physical(spells)?

It all comes down to that, but like the other says it is all about learning the mechanics and not so much the gear.

He's not using 5pc thunderbug so that doesn't matter, I assume it has better other set bonuses than storm knight

yake82 · January 2017

Well of course the people who are attempting flawless run should be already familiar with the arena. Spawn points, when to drop ultimates or eat sigil etc.
I wish to promote the Rattlecage-set, its simply magnificient for vMA. I believe that not many people have taken the vMA in full heavy armor, fearing the lack of sustain and/or dmg.

With this build you probably wont make it to the weekly lists, maybe dk being exception. This build adds survivability without sacrificing dps too much. Sure thing the stats might not look that impressive, but imo its the best combination of survivability and dps that i've found. For my playstyle and skill atleast.
Btw my best score ever was just barely over 500k, not with this build but more dps. I just end up dying couple of times with standard builds.

Im using 4-piece of Thunderbug, its just fits perfectly to this build. Healthy, spell dmg bonus and resistances. So yeah, it has better stats, its not the type of mobs that matters. Storm Knight was ok but i'd rather take the spell dmg bonus from Thunderbug than the hitpoints from Storm Knight.
The 5th bonus from Storm Knight and Thunderbug is too insignificant for vMA.

aLi3nZ wrote: »

I am not familiar with rattle cage. I have thundering though. What is rattlecage and what is your stats with these sets buffed and unbuffed.

I haven't got past stage 7 with the spiders due to god dropping to 15 and abilities not showing when the little spider swarms come out.

Redguard Magblade
Left side unbuffed, right side food and armor buffed. NB gets armor buffs from passive, Twisting Path triggers it nicely.
Spell damage does actually climb higher because the Wrath heavy armor passive.

Rattlecage is heavy armor that drops in Vault of Madness. 5 piece set adds permanent Major Sorcery. So if you have Inner Light in your skill bars then you have permanently both spell dmg buffs.

I did that flawless run today btw. 1h 13min.

dpencil · January 2017

Rattlecage is redundant for sorcs, though. Power Surge is easy to maintain.

AAbrigo · January 2017

psychotic13 wrote: »

AAbrigo wrote: »

Im no expert at Vma, but thunderbug vs storm knights really depends on the enemys.

Are they doing physical dmg or non-physical(spells)?

It all comes down to that, but like the other says it is all about learning the mechanics and not so much the gear.

He's not using 5pc thunderbug so that doesn't matter, I assume it has better other set bonuses than storm knight

My fault. Didnt noticed that

yake82 · January 2017

dpencil wrote: »

Rattlecage is redundant for sorcs, though. Power Surge is easy to maintain.

Its being used mainly because of the healing. All other classes receive healing from their main spammable. And lets not forget heavy armor passives.

To me its very important that all classes work almost identically with this build. Once you have learned it with one character, you can easily do it with others too.

STEVIL · January 2017

@yake82

Any suggestions for what to do before having vma staves?

Docmandu · January 2017

yake82 wrote: »

To me its very important that all classes work almost identically with this build. Once you have learned it with one character, you can easily do it with others too.

To be fair.. same is true for other gear...

It's cool of you to post your setup.. but fear some people will now think they can suddenly do VMA if they just get this setup.. doubt it will pan out that way

yake82 · January 2017

STEVIL wrote: »

@yake82

Any suggestions for what to do before having vma staves?

TBH as long as its sharp and golden any would do. Maybe 5th piece of the Bug?

I've gotten 7 flawless titles with this build and rotation. I couldn't do it with regular builds.

Lord_Wrath · January 2017

AAbrigo wrote: »

Im no expert at Vma, but thunderbug vs storm knights really depends on the enemys.

Are they doing physical dmg or non-physical(spells)?

It all comes down to that, but like the other says it is all about learning the mechanics and not so much the gear.

Even if you did use the full 5 pieces, id say thunderbug wins. I think you have a higher chance of that shock burst hitting the physical attackers that are in your face.

jarrandub17_ESO · January 2017

One piece of pirates will get you the 2nd and 3rd piece bonus from thunderbug. Rattlecage + DPS set + pirate shoulder/helm.

datgladiatah · January 2017

dpencil wrote: »

Rattlecage is redundant for sorcs, though. Power Surge is easy to maintain.

Crit surge and potion use/entropy may be a better option though. 500 extra health a second can make a difference in some instances

kylewwefan · January 2017

I put together a set of these last night. I was telling my guildies about it and they helped me farm. I used 5/5 and plain non set sharp legendary Lightning staff.

I can tell you it's pretty good setup really. My Crit went to 42% so I figured, drop the thief and pick up apprentice my Crit dropped to 30%. But spell damage around 3100 un buffed. Resistance sat around 20k, but jumped to 25k with lightning form. My magic regen is pitiful at like 700ish. I might switch to Wrothgar food.

The survivability of full heavy is great! I put 100 elemental Expert, 75 thaumturge, rest staff expert. With SPC and other healer buffs, spell damage jumped to 4K.

So, my damage wasn't exactly through the roof, but was respectable. To try it out, we ran Vet CoA2. Tank, 2 DPS, Healer. I was the only 561, others were around 480 CP, but they are solid. most of my gear was blue, not optimal and I only put purple enchants on jewelry and I changed all gear enchants to magic purple.

Wiped twice at the firemaw but that was it. Totally rocked the rest of the dungeon. Everyone was pretty happy doing CoA in under an hour. We've all had a rough time pugging.

Sounds funny, but rattlebug is good setup, I'd recommend to anybody at least to try.

oTheTownDrunk · January 2017

dpencil wrote: »

Rattlecage is redundant for sorcs, though. Power Surge is easy to maintain.

And essential for heals as well.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · January 2017

Very interested in this idea. I actually was thinking about Rattlecage to go after flawless on my DK. One question, one your DK do you not run either whip or force pulse? It looks like your front bar would be: Blockade, Engulfing Flames, Burning Embers/Forcepulse (you mentioned both), Wings, Inner Light, Destro ulti. I feel like you really need a spammable at all times and embers would be hard to drop because of the heals.

My only pushback is that Monster Sets are just so strong in there. I would consider 3 Willpower and a Monster set. Grothdarr for damage, and was also thinking pirate skeleton. This set procs constantly and makes you super tanky.

Edit: Was just looking up some stats:

4 Piece Thunderbug plus One piece Kena gives: 1935 Phys Resist, 1935 Spell Resist, 129 Spell Damage, 129 Spell Damage.

One Piece Pirate Skeleton, One Piece Kena, , 3 piece Willpower Gives: 1935 Phys Resist, 1935 Spell Resist, 129 Spell Damage, 1451 Max Magic, 193 Spell damage.

Unless I am missing something, one piece of Pirate Skeleton does what 3 pieces of Thunderbug does.

Edit 2: Somebody already beat me to the punch on that. Haha @jarrandub17_ESO

Edit 3: Seriously, Pirate Skeleton is kinda OP.

kylewwefan · January 2017

I may switch up to that for some extra magic and a few more spell power.....but it doesn't sound cool as rattlebug.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · January 2017

kylewwefan wrote: »

I may switch up to that for some extra magic and a few more spell power.....but it doesn't sound cool as rattlebug.

Honestly, I think the best bet for this build would be 2 piece pirate skeleton and 3 piece willpower. PS basically procs on cooldown and is like adding a second set of armor to your build. I am surprised there is not more forum rage about this set, but I guess because its pure Defense.

kylewwefan · February 2017

So, I was messing around with this build last night and I couldn't find a pirate skeleton shoulder, so just using head. It looks really bad BTW. Especially on a big toon. The head is so small.

Rattle, willpower, molag, pirate....plain gold staff. Jut about 4K spellpower 23k resistance w/boundless. I did have some trouble maintaining magic, it was a bit better with tripot.

pjwb16_ESO · February 2017

This build just allows you to make more mistakes before you actually die, but it'll take longer once you learned your stuff

Oreyn_Bearclaw · February 2017

kylewwefan wrote: »

So, I was messing around with this build last night and I couldn't find a pirate skeleton shoulder, so just using head. It looks really bad BTW. Especially on a big toon. The head is so small.

Rattle, willpower, molag, pirate....plain gold staff. Jut about 4K spellpower 23k resistance w/boundless. I did have some trouble maintaining magic, it was a bit better with tripot.

I think I would only ever use this build, and I plan to once I get some time, if going for flawless. This would not be a good score build. In that case, just grab the speed sigils. They boost all stat regen. While your at it, grab the other three as well. haha.

Also with rattlecage, you can spam trash pots on cooldown.