vMA advices

Bevik · March 2018

I looked up many guides even finished vMA 5 times with 3 different chars (magblade, petsorc, stamsorc). Got Nirn Inferno, Powered Bow which I turned into a Nirn Bow so I'm using it on my stamsorc with double poison.

Got Moondancer+Necro, Moondancer+Julianos, VO+Hunding sets on these 3 chars. I'm still on the learning stage so seeking advices how can I make my life easier. Proper vMA CP setups for these chars, 3 stat food, pots for last stage maybe. Honestly finished vMA with fancy pots and without aswell so I'm good to go. I don't feel very bad but still dying a lot. Making stupid mistakes. Just take my time to learn, use the sigils more? Work more on the rotations? Lover mundus instead of the Apprentice?

Sixty5 · March 2018

If you aren't already grab the sigils.

People seem to be adverse to it for some reason, but honestly, unless you are going for an uber leaderboard run, just make your life easier and grab the things.

antimawkish · March 2018

What's your goal? To die less or get on the leaderboard?

In general, starting out or just farming gear, I'd say:

Use sigils regularly, only saving them for specific fights where you know you want them on a specific stage (e.g., grabbing the power+shield sigils before burn boss phase on most rounds).
Go slow and observe a few attempts. Except for the dps burns (e.g., ice round), it's good to figure out where and when the trouble mobs spawn (e.g., I'll smash a couple extra buttons to burn down crematorial guard before they can get bad breath over glass cannon characters), what special mechanics can help you (e.g, that sweet green circle below the stage 4 boss), and what abilities can smooth a difficult round (e.g., reflect projectiles on ice round).
Try different strategies. Sometimes, I love to go defensive and spam bubbles with my infernal guardian set up. I can live through anything that isn't a guaranteed 1-shot and my hat is exploding everything on the map. Sometimes, I like to abandon all patience, accept that I might die a couple extra times (or more) and burn things to death by pre-dropping all my aoes on portals spawns and depending on abilities that heal off damage or the healing sigil to survive.
Pay attention to the leaderboards. If you can clear vMA without leaving it on a warden (i.e., get any score above zero), you will get on that leaderboard and get a bonus gold weapon+set item at the end of the week. That's like two runs for the price of one, and your second weapon is already upgraded, so it's worth doing once a week even if it takes almost twice as long as an easier class.

Bevik · March 2018

Gonna try hard, I will get used to it. Feels bad that I know the mechanics I can kill fast still dying from stupid things like not paying attention to the boss on the ice stage and while killing adds the boss kills me with destroying the ice. Funny moments which come from focusing on the wrong stuff.

Anyway finished on my stamsorc the 2nd time and I got the Lightning Staff. Infused so now I only need to collect some crystals to change it to Nirn. Basically I got the 3 most desired weapons in 6 runs. Fire, Lightning, Bow. I'm happy.

Still my plan is to improve in vMA. Means learning spawn points, dying as less as posibble, focusing on the right things. Leaderboard doesn't matter for me for long probably nor achievements just to get the hang of the whole arena with less than 15 deaths.