POST YOUR MAGICA SORCERER VMA BUILD

firefighterGONZO · March 2017

Hey guys so I just recently got my first clear on stamsorc. Was looking to put together a magica sorcerer build for VMA. Here is what I have and sets Id like to try. I have 480cp now so take that into consideration.

I have INFAL, BSW, SKORIA, GROTHGAR, ILLAMBRIS
and am currently farming NECROPOTENCE

THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT

wookikiller95 · March 2017

5xnecro
3xmoondancer
2xIlambris
1x Mahlstrom Fire
1x Mahlstrom ice

dpencil · March 2017

Agree with wooki. You can use Willpower and random staffs if you don't have what he mentioned. Did you need skill and cp loadouts too or just fear suggestions?

WarpigFunk · March 2017

I have yet to get sharpened maelstrom weapons.

I run a safe, effective, easy build for VMA since I'm new to it - only have about 25 or so clears. Still takes me well over an hour etc ..

But what I run.

5x Necropotence (4pc divines, 1pc infused)/ 3x Moondancer (jewelry, all spell damage) / 2x ilambris (1pc divines, 1pc infused)
5 light / 1 med / 1 heavy
Random gold sharpened inferno staff front bar
Random gold sharpened lightning staff back bar

front bar:
force pulse, hardened ward, crystal frags, volatile familiar, bound aegis- shooting star
back bar:
elemental blockade, liquid lightning, power surge, volatile familiar, bound aegis- elemental rage

Food:
Blue Health / Mag regen for some stages.
Blue Health / Max Mag for others.

Potion:
Essence of Spell Crit - crafted using Lorkhans/ Hyacinth/ Bugloss/ Smock

Stats with normal buffs: 2400 spell damage/ 57% crit/ 50k mag/ 850 recovery/

CP: (I have 427 to spend)
50/50 Hardy and Ele defender, 40 in bastion, 3 in thick skinned
75 Arcanist, 67 Magician
57 Elemental Expert, 10 Elfborn, 75 Thaumaturge

Still need a sharp maelstrom destro for my back bar and a moondancer staff for my front bar.
This is a 30k+ self buffed single target DPS build with high survivability - and sustain is solid provided you're potioning regularly, so, not cheap.

WuffyCerulei · March 2017

Do note that 3 pieces of Infallible Aether jewels can substitute well for 3 Moondancer. The 2 piece bonuses are only different. Both give minor slayer for 3 pieces.

dpencil · March 2017

I would add to Warpig's build the following adjustments:
- Swap out Bound Aegis for Twilight Matriarch
- Swap out the destro ulti for Energy Overload, put Power Surge and Boundless Storm or Dark Exchange on there
- Replace Power Surge on the back bar with Daedric Prey
- 600cp should be 100 Ele expert, 75 Thaumaturge, 15 Elfborn, 10 Spell erosion
- Double lightning staffs

Raghul · March 2017

https://youtu.be/REcVS6NVagM

psychotic13 · March 2017

X5 necropotence
X2 Ilambris
x4 Aether
x1 vma staff on backbar (used any lightning staff till I got one)

Inferno
- crushing shock
- Frags
- Inner light
- Hardened Ward
- Volatile Familiar
- Ice comet

Lightning
-surge
-blockade
-Liquid lightning
- dark conversion / ele drain
- Volatile Familiar
- destro ult

This made vma a breeze

Asmael · March 2017

2x Ilambris
5x BSW / Julianos
4/3x Moondancer/Infallible Aether (or 3x Willpower)
1x vMA staff backbar (or another Moondancer/IA/Random sharp staff)

All sharp / divines

INFERNO STAFF 1
<shield>* / Inner light / Bound Aegis / Force Pulse / C.Frag // Destro ult**

INFERNO STAFF 2
Power Surge / Inner light / Bound Aegis / Liquid Lightning / Elemental Blockade // Energy Overload

OVERLOAD
<shield> / Inner light / Bound Aegis / Dark Conversion** / <flex> // Energy Overload

* Anything really - Dampen magic, Hardened ward, Harness magicka or even Empowered ward for the duration + minor intellect, I usually pick a class one for the extra spell damage
** Y U NO USE LIGHTNING STAFF FRONT BAR 4 BETTER ULT??!!!1 No, stuff dies in less than 10 seconds anyway, not worth it
*** For use between waves to get magicka back and not during the waves, 'cause I'm a pleb who can't manage magicka properly

Basic magicka pots, no need for crafted ones.

Thief mundus, Max HP / magicka food.

5L/1M/1H for armor weight.

Pets... huh. Pets too slow in vMA to me, by the time they run to the next target, stuff is already dead. If you're on PC and use an addon to swap gear, you could have a pet build for boss fights tho.

Rotation: roll your head over your keyboard. You can basically turn off your brain for the whole run. For minimum amount of thinking required, just use the defensive sigil on fights with a bunch of ranged attacks (since it reflects those).

Blue CPz:
100 in Elemental Expert
71 in Elfborn (lots in there to be able to kill basic mobs with 2 abilities max)
29 in Thaumaturge
0 in Spell Erosion (we're already passively overpenetrating a few mobs)

aLi3nZ · March 2017

Using this build which isn't ideal but i get flawless runs with it. I don't want to farn aether or moondancer at this stage as I pvp a lot.

Good thing about this Build is how tanky it with 51.5k magika and increased health from set peices.

5x necropotencs, running clandflare for tanking and heals.

5x clever alchamist
1x Infernal guardian
1x lambirs

Running duel wield on backbar with overload. I have 54.5k magika on overload bar and 3750 Spelldamage with clever alchamist proc. Bosses go down pretty quick with that damage.

BNOC · March 2017

You've only completed it 25 times so you're probably still waffling around a bit on rounds, because of that - You'll find it easier with Julianos and will have a better time with Julies until you're doing near perfect, top of the leaderboard runs - At which point, BSW could be better if your timings and DPS are right (For ease, Julianos will always be better and more mistake-friendly)

BSW will give you quicker boss fights if you've got no downtime (With your proc up)

Moondancer is a flat increase (Same as Julianos) to damage so you get a better return from it over 3% crit but if you're relying on crit healing then its up to you.

Change 75 Arcanist, 67 Magician to 95-100 Magician / Remainder Arcanist - That'll be a minor drop in recovery but will work out better.

Jim_Pipp · March 2017

I'm just finishing off a pet sorc build for vma, it is still untested, but I am fairly confident (haven't found any other pve content tricky yet).

5 necropotence
5 spinners
1 monster helm that gives +max mag

Here is the weird bit, use charged shock staves instead of sharpened. The minor vulnerability (concussed +8% damage) gets applied to almost all mobs straight away, wall of elements sets them off balance, which is another +10% damage with the exploiter cp passive. Heavy attacks also do much more damage (+40%) and let you sustain all the aoe and shields. Spinners + 5 light armour still gives full penetration on most mobs, and ele drain can be used on tougher bosses.

I want to get my undaunted up before running vma, but if anyone has any feedback on the build please let me know.

Masel · March 2017

You will find all of the easiest combinations and a full run here:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/comment/3904371#Comment_3904371

This build (with a few variations depending on preference) has become one of the most popular ways to farm the arena.

Jim_Pipp · March 2017

Regarding the post above. I should have credited @Masel92 because it was the discussion in that thread that led to my build idea (two posts up).

WarpigFunk · March 2017

dpencil wrote: »

I would add to Warpig's build the following adjustments:
- Swap out Bound Aegis for Twilight Matriarch
- Swap out the destro ulti for Energy Overload, put Power Surge and Boundless Storm or Dark Exchange on there
- Replace Power Surge on the back bar with Daedric Prey
- 600cp should be 100 Ele expert, 75 Thaumaturge, 15 Elfborn, 10 Spell erosion
- Double lightning staffs

I wouldn't swap out aegis for matriarch since I dont need the heals, and her dps in marginal. The magic bonus from aegis adds damage to my scamp and my destro ulti.

I dont use Overload in VMA at all. Shooting star for magicka bonus and regen - destro ulti for nuking.

Power surge is my only heals and most things die too quickly for Daedric prey to be a viable replacement.

Inferno/ lighting = more ilambris procs. Inferno front bar is 8% more damage on frags, LA, and pulse.

What you're suggesting isnt adding to the build it's a whole new one really. An effective one, yes - the heavy attack spam pet build is super easy in VMA I've tried it and cleared with it. But my playstyle in there is what it is.

dpencil · March 2017

@WarpigFunk Sure, I respect your build as it stands. I wasn't trying to suggest that you need to make those changes but that they would be an alternative. It was just saving me from copying most of your build data and just adding on my own adjustments.

I will say that I view vMA more as a series of boss fights, since trash dies fast no matter what. If we think of the target skeleton like a vMA boss, the better parse should mean a more effective boss fight. I have personally found that the Matriarch actually out-dpses Bound Aegis when Daedric Prey is maintained. Yes, it's not worth applying on trash, so damage against them will be a little lower.

Similarly, I've found double lightning to get me better parses, even with the lack of fire procs from Ilambris. Also, since I'm usually doing about 70% of all my damage from aoe, I benefit more from having the lightning buff up all the time.

I don't use Overload actively either, except maybe on the crystals at the end, but I like having a third bar, so I make do with either Shooting Star or the destro ulti on my front bar.

I will grant that you'll probably get a better overall tIme in vMA focusing on taking trash down as fast as possible. My build would be a bit slower but also a bit safer and potentially stronger on the actual boss fights.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · March 2017

Masel92 wrote: »

You will find all of the easiest combinations and a full run here:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/comment/3904371#Comment_3904371

This build (with a few variations depending on preference) has become one of the most popular ways to farm the arena.

I second this build 100%. When they nerf lighting staff into the ground, this build will be the reason why. Haha. It is frankly OP AF in there. My second run through with it was a 554k no sigil flawless. I am not saying it's the fastest way, but I am very comfortable saying it's the easiest way. I have cleared on every class combo except stamplar, and nothing is easier. You have huge shields that be kept up 100% because it's basically impossible to run out of magic. You also have ridiculous AOE DPS and enough single target to skip the vast majority of boss mechanics. I did not see a crematorial guard on the last boss fight, and the ash titan didn't even get off his AOE attack.

I am still debating about the twilight pet or just slottinh bound armaments. You really don't need the heal, but it is certainly very strong in an oh crap moment. My instinct as that you would probably speed it a bit with bound armamanets, but twilight is better if simplicity is your goal.