Help me with VDSA 7th Round Boss and beyond

kylewwefan · March 2017

Im not sure what makes this level the stumbling block for many a groups I've participated in, but it starts getting more challenging here.

Group was doing an excellent job with the sacrifices. I was tanking...getting pummeled by the 2H and the Mage....trying to chain in the adds and get interrupts. After 3 attempts, I have a random dc, comeback and the group disbands....or kick me IDK? Everything was going alright til here.

My tank is Stamina redguard DK lord warden/Ebon/Alkosh. I have several different sets to use. Not sure what could have been better here. I was having some issues with resource. Thinking about magic regen enchants to replace the block cost.

The best attempt got the mage down to about 30%, then I missed interrupt and she heals almost all the way back up. So, I think it may be better to take the 2H out first then work on the mage.

Magdalina · March 2017

Well for starters you might want to get a more solid group - especially for the first run in there. Friends or guildies, ideally on voicechat(not necessary but it's easier, also can tell them you dc'd and didn't go for a walk out of the blue), who won't kick you for crashing or disband after just 3 wipes.

It gets a bit more challenging there I suppose. It sounds like you had the sacrifices part down since you got to bosses(it's even more important to kill them in time when on bosses mind you). That aside, if everything goes perfect it's easier to kill mage first but since it's rarely does, it is generally easier to kill the melee since he won't heal.It's also very hard for a tank to keep up with melee and keep interrupting mage boss, especially given they drop aoe ultimates on you(Nova and Negate) that you HAVE to get out of which puts you too far away to bash. Generally you can have your healer or even one of the dps interrupt, imo easier done with crushing shock if they have it, alternatively have healer stand on top of mage and bash bash bash her. If you go for melee first it's less important though and she's heaps easier to kill when you only have her(well, and the little ads) to worry about. Really though it all depends on group, should just try different approaches and see how that goes for the specific group you're in.

...as for the next arenas, well that'd take a while lol. You might want to take someone experienced on your first run I think so they'd explain it all to you

Or just watch one of them video guides.

Dasovaruilos · March 2017

Best way to tackle Stage 7 is to have the healer glue to the Mage and get the interrupts. Tri-pots, purple food and Crushing Shock helps. Let the healer attack the Mage in the center of the arena so he will go there and the healer can still heal people killing the sacrifices.

If you can get the sacrifices, you are good. Just need to keep interrupting and when DPSs are near the Mage they help so the healer can get stamina back.

For Stage 8, inexperienced groups might want to send 2 DPSs down, while tank and healer hold the bosses upstairs. With experienced players, one DPS goes down, another one stays up doing damage.

Last boss is kind of complicated to explain. Better to watch some videos on YouTube. I've ever only done it with the tank bringing the boss all the way close to the entrance gate, DPS burn him until 75%, then healer taunts main boss and bring it to the gate (where fire lines don't go) and it is just DPS, DPS, DPS while tank grabs the other mini bosses when they spawn. Tank needs to pay attention and go back to healing range when the boss does the pull or it is a wipe.

I've done it with experienced and inexperienced groups.

Stage 7 is where you will get stuck if DPS is not enough.
Stage 8 will be the end of the line if the tank is not on point to hold the 3 bosses while DPSs take care of downstairs.
Stage 9 every single one has to be on point. If healer or tank misses one strategy, it is most likely a wipe. If DPSs can't burn the boss to 75% and then to 0 after repositioning it is a wipe too.

But, after you get the mechanics down, it is not really that hard.

mateoz · March 2017

I generally start with taking aggro of both boss and run to the far left of the arena until the mage is spot on the stone thing.
Then you run melee to the mage to bash her every 5s while holding both the warrior & mage. Call for spear shard often and call for overheal when you get the bad nova, btw I don't move out. DPSer must clear their walkers but the healer should stay focus on the tank. at 30% or less skip the walkers and burst the mage down (very important) then the tank can move , aggro the harvester if you have one, stabilize and stay far from each others, down the warrior & adds skip the last walkers phase, and execute the warrior

kylewwefan · March 2017

Thanks for the help everyone. I finally beat it yesterday with a different group, and I was healing this time instead of tanking. We had 2 Magic Sorc, NightBlade Tank, Templar healer.

I used SPC/IA/1 troll king. Tank used......Resilient Yokeda/ Leeching/ Chudan. Both DD were very strong. I've no idea what they used, probably whatever is BIS.

Honestly the DD's made 7 round look like cake. They killed the sacrifice so fast and were on the boss so much, the tank and me didn't have to struggle as much with interrupt.

There were a few hang ups on the ghost round.....the portals spawn or accidental fall in throws a wrench in the plan. It was also around this time I put blazing shield on. The one shot frost mage things were difficult for me to see coming.

The last boss is something else. Once we got the plan hammered out....it still took a few tries to execute it right. Tank goes out and gets fire dot, brings boss back to us. Ulti Dump to 75% then healer take agro. Tank takes the adds, we go burn boss by the gate. Healer pulls boss off to side and tank grabs the other adds. It starts getting real difficult...the boss is almost dead. Then the tank dies. All I see is fire everywhere. Boss has a sliver of health left as I die. Then the DD pulls it off with an awesome clutch mages wrath to save the day. It was hanging on the edge epic win.

I'm not sure the plan could be executed better to make it not such a nail biter ending. It feels better to go in there and just rock the place. It did work though. Haha!

Masel · March 2017

kylewwefan wrote: »

Thanks for the help everyone. I finally beat it yesterday with a different group, and I was healing this time instead of tanking. We had 2 Magic Sorc, NightBlade Tank, Templar healer.

I used SPC/IA/1 troll king. Tank used......Resilient Yokeda/ Leeching/ Chudan. Both DD were very strong. I've no idea what they used, probably whatever is BIS.

Honestly the DD's made 7 round look like cake. They killed the sacrifice so fast and were on the boss so much, the tank and me didn't have to struggle as much with interrupt.

There were a few hang ups on the ghost round.....the portals spawn or accidental fall in throws a wrench in the plan. It was also around this time I put blazing shield on. The one shot frost mage things were difficult for me to see coming.

The last boss is something else. Once we got the plan hammered out....it still took a few tries to execute it right. Tank goes out and gets fire dot, brings boss back to us. Ulti Dump to 75% then healer take agro. Tank takes the adds, we go burn boss by the gate. Healer pulls boss off to side and tank grabs the other adds. It starts getting real difficult...the boss is almost dead. Then the tank dies. All I see is fire everywhere. Boss has a sliver of health left as I die. Then the DD pulls it off with an awesome clutch mages wrath to save the day. It was hanging on the edge epic win.

I'm not sure the plan could be executed better to make it not such a nail biter ending. It feels better to go in there and just rock the place. It did work though. Haha!

What I can suggest is to save two destro ultis for 50% and have a healer do warhorn then. Enables us to straight burn the boss to 25% before the second add wave even spawns

Dasovaruilos · March 2017

Masel92 wrote: »

kylewwefan wrote: »

Thanks for the help everyone. I finally beat it yesterday with a different group, and I was healing this time instead of tanking. We had 2 Magic Sorc, NightBlade Tank, Templar healer.

I used SPC/IA/1 troll king. Tank used......Resilient Yokeda/ Leeching/ Chudan. Both DD were very strong. I've no idea what they used, probably whatever is BIS.

Honestly the DD's made 7 round look like cake. They killed the sacrifice so fast and were on the boss so much, the tank and me didn't have to struggle as much with interrupt.

There were a few hang ups on the ghost round.....the portals spawn or accidental fall in throws a wrench in the plan. It was also around this time I put blazing shield on. The one shot frost mage things were difficult for me to see coming.

The last boss is something else. Once we got the plan hammered out....it still took a few tries to execute it right. Tank goes out and gets fire dot, brings boss back to us. Ulti Dump to 75% then healer take agro. Tank takes the adds, we go burn boss by the gate. Healer pulls boss off to side and tank grabs the other adds. It starts getting real difficult...the boss is almost dead. Then the tank dies. All I see is fire everywhere. Boss has a sliver of health left as I die. Then the DD pulls it off with an awesome clutch mages wrath to save the day. It was hanging on the edge epic win.

I'm not sure the plan could be executed better to make it not such a nail biter ending. It feels better to go in there and just rock the place. It did work though. Haha!

What I can suggest is to save two destro ultis for 50% and have a healer do warhorn then. Enables us to straight burn the boss to 25% before the second add wave even spawns

Isn't 50% the mark when he does the pull? I've only completed this 6 times so I'm not overly certain of the mechanics since everything is so chaotic for the healer that fight, but I thought healer using Warhorn at 55ish% was better? Or save it for after the pull mechanic?

Masel · March 2017

hugocbp wrote: »

Masel92 wrote: »

kylewwefan wrote: »

Thanks for the help everyone. I finally beat it yesterday with a different group, and I was healing this time instead of tanking. We had 2 Magic Sorc, NightBlade Tank, Templar healer.

I used SPC/IA/1 troll king. Tank used......Resilient Yokeda/ Leeching/ Chudan. Both DD were very strong. I've no idea what they used, probably whatever is BIS.

Honestly the DD's made 7 round look like cake. They killed the sacrifice so fast and were on the boss so much, the tank and me didn't have to struggle as much with interrupt.

There were a few hang ups on the ghost round.....the portals spawn or accidental fall in throws a wrench in the plan. It was also around this time I put blazing shield on. The one shot frost mage things were difficult for me to see coming.

The last boss is something else. Once we got the plan hammered out....it still took a few tries to execute it right. Tank goes out and gets fire dot, brings boss back to us. Ulti Dump to 75% then healer take agro. Tank takes the adds, we go burn boss by the gate. Healer pulls boss off to side and tank grabs the other adds. It starts getting real difficult...the boss is almost dead. Then the tank dies. All I see is fire everywhere. Boss has a sliver of health left as I die. Then the DD pulls it off with an awesome clutch mages wrath to save the day. It was hanging on the edge epic win.

I'm not sure the plan could be executed better to make it not such a nail biter ending. It feels better to go in there and just rock the place. It did work though. Haha!

What I can suggest is to save two destro ultis for 50% and have a healer do warhorn then. Enables us to straight burn the boss to 25% before the second add wave even spawns

Isn't 50% the mark when he does the pull? I've only completed this 6 times so I'm not overly certain of the mechanics since everything is so chaotic for the healer that fight, but I thought healer using Warhorn at 55ish% was better? Or save it for after the pull mechanic?

Activate it with the pull and the destro ultimates at 50%. The pull animation at 50% takes a while. After that, he does another animation and THEN summons the second wave of adds IF he is not at 25% already. If you push him to 25% in that timeframe he will skip summoning the adds.

Dasovaruilos · March 2017

@Masel92 Thanks! We will try the destro ulti. We were using Shooting Star and getting him to 28-27 but never quite making it.

Magdalina · March 2017

Glad you beat it, grats OP

I would suggest using Annulment instead of Blazing if the damage gets too overwhelming by the way. It scales with magicka rather than health plus one of the morphs returns magicka if hit with spells. For comparison, my templar healer's Annulment is something about 15k and Blazing...not sure...she has about 18k health though so should be something like ~7k?