VMA journal of a casual PVE stamblade!

ImmortalCX · November 2018

This is one of the hardest achievements in the game. This journal is intended to document the preparation and effort involved in clearing vma the first time. Many of you have been here before, this is done to share the experience of a typical pre-trial casual who spends 70% of his time farming, questing, and trading.

I did try vma one night at cp275 and got rekt. Repeatedly. That was before i had vigor and caltrops. It put fear into me, so i avoided vma for 300 cp levels.

Monday, tuesday, and wednesday (today) i cleared normal ma to learn the mechanics. Overall pretty easy.

My skill setup is very close to my pve setup. I replaced spectral bow on the backbar with the magica/shadow skill that gives major evasion (forget name). Caltrops, hail, leeching strikes, poison inj. Because i lost minor berserk from spectral, i am using Slimecraw monster set for 8pct dmg bonus.

Front bar is not really optimized, im using my trash frontbar, but replaced rending slashes with vigor. Surprise, killers blade, whirling blade, hidden daggers. Im doing it this way because my fingers know this setup. Each bar has only one new skill making it easy to run. Cp allocation...is loosely based on alcast stamblade.

Gear is gold Briarheart weapons and 2pcs. For vma, i farmed a 5pc Sunderflame set, 3 jewelry, 2 divines armor. I tested the nerfed sunderflame and the 5pc 5k HA bonus makes heavy attacks do as much dps as any of the spammables. Playstyle is lay down dots and circle with heavy attacks. Frontbar attacks (sa, daggers) are used for debuffs. Killers blade for execute.

Because of all the heavy attacks dodging and sprinting is almost free. There isnt any green bar anxiety. Braised rabbit food. I put two health enchants on the sunderflame for 18k health.

......

Today i played an hour of vma. Cleared the first room without any deaths! (Maybe its not as hard as they say...) My three normal clears trained me pretty well on running these skills.

On the second room, i died in first round, but after that, got to the bosses. Then i kept dying on the bosses. I would die because i let my buffs drop and eventually i would get tripped up and cleaved by a boss. I looked up a youtube vid of this stage, and found out i was missing a mechanic. If you damage both of the first bosses to 75%, a third is spawned. Fighting three with mediocre dps is difficult. I tried two more times with my new knowledge and still died, but only because i was burned and low energy. Im confident i willpss tomorrow. Time to quit for the night. Deaths on this stage so far: seven.

Tannus15 · November 2018

I dunno if you can get your hands on it but VO is amazing for any stam build in vMA.

You're constantly killing adds so you basically get all the stam you could want along with major expedition. Even with the duration nerf, it's still solid.

GL and have fun with the vMA, you'll come out the other side much better at the game.

Kel · November 2018

Keep it up!
I admire you for going in on a stamblade the first time. I had to use my sorc.
Don't let failure get you down either. I must've run vMA a hundred times before I beat it. I thought my heart would pound out of my chest!

ImmortalCX · November 2018

I forgot to mention i didnt use any powerups. Thanks for the positive feedback.

Quantum_Knight · November 2018

I've been slowly picking my way through VMA for a while now on my StamDK. I'm currently on arena 8, and eventually will finish it, though I've been distracting myself with doing other things that don't feel like rubbing my face on a cheese grater.

firedrgn · November 2018

If i spelled out the number of deaths i. That place you would be reading all night.. good luck. Keep us posted.

An_An · November 2018

Do not leave through the Wrothgar portal or you will painfully discover as I did today that it doesn’t save progress.

My vMA journey -
- took a week to get to stage 5. kept wiping at it. Abandoned quest.
- Restarted vma and cleared 8 stages in one day. Kept wiping on stage 9 final boss for a week. Abandoned quest.
- Restarted vMA yesterday, reached stage 5 with moderate difficulty at best. Decided to take a break and try today. Turns out it didn’t save my progress and I had to start again from Stage 1. Abandoned quest. Abandoned ambitions.

Total soul gems used - 400+
Total repair kits used - a lot

Came to terms that I’m no PvE god. Maybe I’ll try again once I reach CP cap (currently at 550CP)

Vildebill · November 2018

An_An wrote: »

Do not leave through the Wrothgar portal or you will painfully discover as I did today that it doesn’t save progress.

My vMA journey -
- took a week to get to stage 5. kept wiping at it. Abandoned quest.
- Restarted vma and cleared 8 stages in one day. Kept wiping on stage 9 final boss for a week. Abandoned quest.
- Restarted vMA yesterday, reached stage 5 with moderate difficulty at best. Decided to take a break and try today. Turns out it didn’t save my progress and I had to start again from Stage 1. Abandoned quest. Abandoned ambitions.

Total soul gems used - 400+
Total repair kits used - a lot

Came to terms that I’m no PvE god. Maybe I’ll try again once I reach CP cap (currently at 550CP)

Why would you abandon the quest if you were at last stage? Not to be rude or anything but that sounds pretty dumb if your ambition was to clear it.

OP, the best advice I can give you is to focus on the mechanics and where the adds spawn. If you get the hang of that, you can chill out a bit and focus on how to play, to focus on the right adds, later your gear etc. No gear in the world will help you if you don't know where adds show up, and what they do.

You've maybe heard the advice that a lot of DPS helps out, lets you skip mechanics etc, and that is absolutely true, but not for new players. Take stage 5 boss for example, waves of adds spawn, and boss destroys platforms at certain HP percentages. If you just pull out a lot of DPS you might get overwhelmed by all the adds. I know a lot of people who struggled on that arena because they stressed it, instead of playing it cool until they knew spawns and such like the back of their hand.

And probably most importantly, take a break once in a while, vMA makes people angry when learning it

An_An · November 2018

Vildebill wrote: »

Why would you abandon the quest if you were at last stage? Not to be rude or anything but that sounds pretty dumb if your ambition was to clear it.

I suffer from anxiety issues IRL and constantly failing for a week was starting to affect my well being.

RodneyRegis · November 2018

Don't use soulgems, just Rez at wayshrine. Just as quick. Plus you can repair at the tutor. And always use sigils!

AndyMac · November 2018

GL with it - I can definitely recommend VO for vMA. I just cleared it on my stamplar and VO was the money.

Best advice is to read the guides- knowledge is power in vMA. Also don’t be shy about using sigils - especially the shield and axe power ups - they can really help you crash through some of the harder parts when you are just learning.

Juhasow · November 2018

VMA so hard on stam...

https://youtu.be/NraXZtHn6NE

fred4 · November 2018

I finished vMA recently, after 3 years of trying it occasionally. DPS is terribly important. Not having enough DPS gets you into more trouble than not being tanky enough, as you'll be overwhelmed by additional foes. This was brought home to me because of the enchant changes the first week of Murkmire. I went in with a double dual-wield, Infused Torug's Pact build, which was basically OP, and finished vMA for the first time. I am now able to complete it without that, although I mostly play magicka templar right now.

In the absence of VO, you might try Vengeance Leech, which should be cheap to buy. In the stages that have Daedra, e.g. 1, 6, 8, and 9, use a weapon with an Infused Prismatic enchant. It works wonders for your DPS. In general, as a stamina character, Shrouded Daggers are your friend. Cheap enough to spam single target, but hits up to 3 mobs. I made a point of getting Stormproof on several characters, including stamblade. On the nightblade I would run:

Shrouded Daggers
Blood Craze
Evil Hunter Resolving Vigor
Quick Cloak
Surprise Attack
Dawnbreaker of Smiting

Arrow Barrage
Leeching Strikes
Relentless Focus
Razor Caltrops
Shadowy Disguise
Bolstering Darkness

Why?

Shrouded Daggers is just too good a spammable for this content. However it does not give you Major Fracture, nor Major Resolve / Major Ward. Use Surprise Attack occasionally for that.

Blood Craze, Arrow Barrage, and Caltrops are important to get your DPS up, and the latter two are something you can lay down at a spawn point, before the enemy appears. I highly recommend an Infused bow with a non-weapon damage enchant. Consider Absorb Stamina and Prismatic enchants first, Poison and Disease enchants second. Prepare multiple weapons and swap in the Prismatic enchant only on the needed levels. Because of the way enchants work now, Arrow Barrage will proc the bow enchant every 2 seconds, even after you switch bar. Forget raise weapon damage enchants. This is better. You might even still go Torug's Pact, which should work well with Arrow Barrage, since that hits every 0.5 seconds, allowing you to take full advantage of Infused Torug's cooldown reduction.

Use all Infused weapons. With 3 weapon damage skills on the front bar, Daggers, Quick Cloak, and Blood Craze, as well as light attacks, you generate plenty of proc chances.

Use Dawnbreaker of Smiting, not Flawless. Having a CC will help in the final level, when you can knock down the slow zombies that will spawn a terrible mini-boss, if you don't CC or kill them quickly enough.

Relentless is there primarily as a passive damage buff.

Bolstering Darkness will give you Major Protection in some critical situations.

Shadowy Disguise allows you to cancel "Taking Aim" NPCs when you can't get to them quickly enough to bash or kill them. Only cloak once, though, or you're liable to reset the fight.

I don't particularly recommend running an execute. You'll be too busy, and trying to burn a boss is generally a mistake, especially when you're still learning. You might make room for Poison Injection, I suppose, or Venom Arrow could be useful for the ranged interrupt.

If you are not tanky enough on round 2, those spinning blades are a real pain. You need to be somewhat tanky, and you 100% need Vigor. I recommend Troll King as the monster set. I tend to run medium Fortified Brass for tankiness. The last set could be Torug's Pact or a sustain set, such as Bone Pirate or Vengeance Leech + 2x Agility. In terms of sustain, go Serpent Mundus and Dubious Camoran Throne. Don't forget Torug's will buff that Absorb Stamina enchant, thus it also adds to sustain. Always keep up Leeching Strikes for sustain and heal. Add stamina regen enchants, as needed, otherwise run weapon damage enchants.

The best jewelry trait for this content is probably Protective. Speed can also be very, very useful, and you might consider Shuffle to clear snares in round 3. The Swift meta is kind of at an end, though, and you have Quick Cloak in this build anyway. That skill is useful for the AOE damage and enchant proc, but you could swap it for Double Take to make use of your magicka pool instead.

The first 4 rounds are relatively easy, and you'll figure them out yourself.

For the boss fight of the 5th round, it is worth knowing that you control the pace:

90% of boss health = two adds spawn
75% of boss health = she destroys the first island
60% of boss health = more adds spawn
45% of boss health = she destroys the second island

Make sure to start on the island that has the speed sigil, so she destroys that first. Then go to the island with the health sigil, and use it when the adds spawn (60%). On the final island, use the power and defense sigils, and burn the boss.

Stage 7 is the odd one out in terms of skill setup. Quick Cloak, or any AOE directly around you, will get in the way of what you need to do, so swap it out for Double Take or Shuffle.

RodneyRegis · November 2018

That's just taking the ***.

itsJylerTAG · November 2018

I got as far as the argonian/poison arena with a bow/bow stamblade on vet, but thats all i could manage. I give you props for trying, just don't give up and keep up the hard work. Sooner or later you'll get there and so will i.

Latios · November 2018

Cool. Stamina has a tougher time because they lack shields, so you really need to UP your overall damage to compensate. It also makes vigor much stronger if you increase your weapon damage and stamina.

Good luck. My first clear was on a magicka Templar(very easy), but I’ve been using only a stamina templar for a very long time now. High DPS is the way to go. Keep it up!

fred4 · November 2018

I am not a big fan of the sigils, nor the switches in round 2. Whenever I try to find and get to the right synergy, I get myself killed instead. I found them surprisingly unhelpful while learning, but now I have memorised the arena better, I use some of them strategically in some boss rounds. Ironically I am also much better placed to not use them by now.

fred4 · November 2018

Latios wrote: »

Cool. Stamina has a tougher time because they lack shields, so you really need to UP your overall damage to compensate. It also makes vigor much stronger if you increase your weapon damage and stamina.

Good luck. My first clear was on a magicka Templar(very easy), but I’ve been using only a stamina templar for a very long time now. High DPS is the way to go. Keep it up!

I wouldn't say magicka templar is very easy. It kind of is until it fails. I don't find it particularly good in round 7, and in round 9 Sweeps is fine to face tank one Daedroth, but it's healing power tends to fail when you have to deal with boss stuns and other adds at the same time. Each class and build has different places in the arena where you suddenly hit a wall and have to rethink your approach.

Sun7dance · November 2018

fred4 wrote: »

On the nightblade I would run:

Shrouded Daggers
Blood Craze
Evil Hunter
Quick Cloak
Surprise Attack
Dawnbreaker of Smiting

Arrow Barrage
Leeching Strikes
Relentless Focus
Razor Caltrops
Shadowy Disguise
Bolstering Darkness

I think you mean Vigor instead of Evil Hunter, right?

Latios · November 2018

fred4 wrote: »

Latios wrote: »

Cool. Stamina has a tougher time because they lack shields, so you really need to UP your overall damage to compensate. It also makes vigor much stronger if you increase your weapon damage and stamina.

Good luck. My first clear was on a magicka Templar(very easy), but I’ve been using only a stamina templar for a very long time now. High DPS is the way to go. Keep it up!

I wouldn't say magicka templar is very easy. It kind of is until it fails. I don't find it particularly good in round 7, and in round 9 Sweeps is fine to face tank one Daedroth, but it's healing power tends to fail when you have to deal with boss stuns and other adds at the same time. Each class and build has different places in the arena where you suddenly hit a wall and have to rethink your approach.

Well, Maelstrom is more mechanics than anything else in the first place. Without knowing those, even a magblade is tough.

The more you prioritize DPS, the harder it will become in certain rounds if you don’t know exactly what you are doing. However, if you have low DPS, some punishing mechanics take their toll, like higher exposure to Plant RNG in round 7 or the Daedroth you mentioned. I can melt a daedroth in 4 seconds with my stamplar. If I dont do that, I have to vigor and block through his breath, or I’m toast. What I mean by “magplar is very easy” is because they have access to a burst heal in BoL, or can just resto staff in backbar. Get hit by a plant in stamplar and you are dead. Get hit by a plant as a magplar, and you can still burst heal until you hit the pool. I say this because I’ve cleared vMA way over 100 times, just with these 2 setups.

I prefer stamplar because it’s simply frenetic. All the moving around, all the dodge rolling and bar swapping like crazy. Makes the run less boring overall. Think about round 5: isn’t it much easier to just DPS from range? That’s where I see magicka advantage over stamina in general.

ruengdet2515 · November 2018

I'm 8xx+ cp never run n/vMA, still run trial for gear and for some skill point.

One day i should run it when everything ready.

fred4 · November 2018

Vildebill wrote: »

OP, the best advice I can give you is to focus on the mechanics and where the adds spawn. If you get the hang of that, you can chill out a bit and focus on how to play, to focus on the right adds, later your gear etc. No gear in the world will help you if you don't know where adds show up, and what they do.

You've maybe heard the advice that a lot of DPS helps out, lets you skip mechanics etc, and that is absolutely true, but not for new players.

I beg to differ. I first did vMA when Orsinium was released and I could not get past stage 1. This was at a time when my understanding of DPS was undeveloped and the boss would constantly spawn more adds. I could neither kill the boss nor the adds fast enough. I got overwhelmed.

What you say is true for a player who has had enough investment in the game to develop their DPS on a target skeleton and has perhaps already done some high-end group content. I've met new players, especially those coming from other MMOs, who your advice would be spot on for. I still suspect there are many more casual players, though, who never developed their DPS and are struggling on that account.

Stage 5 is the obvious example where it's better to pace the fight, but the only one where your control is that pronounced. Even so, the longer a fight drags on, the more scope there is for getting into trouble. I used to take some time to kill the first two adds in stage 5, final fight. If you can't just finish them and get onto the troll who has marched onto another island, you're already in trouble. The key problem in that fight isn't too much DPS, it is too much AOE DPS that nukes the boss sooner than you want.

fred4 · November 2018

Sun7dance wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

On the nightblade I would run:

Shrouded Daggers
Blood Craze
Evil Hunter
Quick Cloak
Surprise Attack
Dawnbreaker of Smiting

Arrow Barrage
Leeching Strikes
Relentless Focus
Razor Caltrops
Shadowy Disguise
Bolstering Darkness

I think you mean Vigor instead of Evil Hunter, right?

Did I forget Vigor? Oops. I was trying to piece a build together that I would run past the Infused fixes. I do like Evil Hunter as I tend to use tri-pots. Is there a Crit, stam, health pot? That would be ideal, and drop Evil Hunter.

Have amended my post as suggested, although I'd be tempted to drop Relentless for Vigor and keep Evil Hunter. I like a passive skill for the zero opportunity cost.

John_Falstaff · November 2018

@An_An , it's safe to leave through the portal (if you're not doing a score run, since it forfeits one) as long as you keep the quest. Quest is what keeps your progress through arena, as long as you have it, you can leave for a month and start with same stage (only round within the stage resets).

fred4 · November 2018

Latios wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

Latios wrote: »

Cool. Stamina has a tougher time because they lack shields, so you really need to UP your overall damage to compensate. It also makes vigor much stronger if you increase your weapon damage and stamina.

Good luck. My first clear was on a magicka Templar(very easy), but I’ve been using only a stamina templar for a very long time now. High DPS is the way to go. Keep it up!

I wouldn't say magicka templar is very easy. It kind of is until it fails. I don't find it particularly good in round 7, and in round 9 Sweeps is fine to face tank one Daedroth, but it's healing power tends to fail when you have to deal with boss stuns and other adds at the same time. Each class and build has different places in the arena where you suddenly hit a wall and have to rethink your approach.

Well, Maelstrom is more mechanics than anything else in the first place. Without knowing those, even a magblade is tough.

The more you prioritize DPS, the harder it will become in certain rounds if you don’t know exactly what you are doing. However, if you have low DPS, some punishing mechanics take their toll, like higher exposure to Plant RNG in round 7 or the Daedroth you mentioned. I can melt a daedroth in 4 seconds with my stamplar. If I dont do that, I have to vigor and block through his breath, or I’m toast. What I mean by “magplar is very easy” is because they have access to a burst heal in BoL, or can just resto staff in backbar. Get hit by a plant in stamplar and you are dead. Get hit by a plant as a magplar, and you can still burst heal until you hit the pool. I say this because I’ve cleared vMA way over 100 times, just with these 2 setups.

I prefer stamplar because it’s simply frenetic. All the moving around, all the dodge rolling and bar swapping like crazy. Makes the run less boring overall. Think about round 5: isn’t it much easier to just DPS from range? That’s where I see magicka advantage over stamina in general.

I take your point on round 7, although the times I've managed to burst heal and get to a pool without being totally out of magicka by the end, and screwed anyway, have been few and far between.

This is going off on a tangent, but by and large, in PvP as in vMA, I prefer heals over time. I'd much rather have a magicka Vigor than Honor the Dead. I think the relative ease of magplar in solo PvE comes from Puncturing Sweeps, not Honor the Dead. I rate both Honor the Dead and Soothing Spores as crap skills for solo play. For emergencies only. It's not so much of a problem with warden, but magplar doesn't have a good HOT, and that's a problem. I've played ice staff and 1H+S. You have to be tanky to make the reactive heal work, but lately I have switched to get as much HOT as possible (health regen, mutagen, absorb health enchant), while blocking less, and it works better for me.

ImmortalCX · November 2018

An_An wrote: »

Do not leave through the Wrothgar portal or you will painfully discover as I did today that it doesn’t save progress.

My vMA journey -
- took a week to get to stage 5. kept wiping at it. Abandoned quest.
- Restarted vma and cleared 8 stages in one day. Kept wiping on stage 9 final boss for a week. Abandoned quest.
- Restarted vMA yesterday, reached stage 5 with moderate difficulty at best. Decided to take a break and try today. Turns out it didn’t save my progress and I had to start again from Stage 1. Abandoned quest. Abandoned ambitions.

Total soul gems used - 400+
Total repair kits used - a lot

Came to terms that I’m no PvE god. Maybe I’ll try again once I reach CP cap (currently at 550CP)

You are so close! When i played normal ma, the ninth round was easier than some of the others.

fred4 · November 2018

ImmortalCX wrote: »

An_An wrote: »

Do not leave through the Wrothgar portal or you will painfully discover as I did today that it doesn’t save progress.

My vMA journey -
- took a week to get to stage 5. kept wiping at it. Abandoned quest.
- Restarted vma and cleared 8 stages in one day. Kept wiping on stage 9 final boss for a week. Abandoned quest.
- Restarted vMA yesterday, reached stage 5 with moderate difficulty at best. Decided to take a break and try today. Turns out it didn’t save my progress and I had to start again from Stage 1. Abandoned quest. Abandoned ambitions.

Total soul gems used - 400+
Total repair kits used - a lot

Came to terms that I’m no PvE god. Maybe I’ll try again once I reach CP cap (currently at 550CP)

You are so close! When i played normal ma, the ninth round was easier than some of the others.

Yeah, 9th round is mechanic heavy, but it's fairer and more fun than round 7.

Vildebill · November 2018

fred4 wrote: »

Vildebill wrote: »

OP, the best advice I can give you is to focus on the mechanics and where the adds spawn. If you get the hang of that, you can chill out a bit and focus on how to play, to focus on the right adds, later your gear etc. No gear in the world will help you if you don't know where adds show up, and what they do.

You've maybe heard the advice that a lot of DPS helps out, lets you skip mechanics etc, and that is absolutely true, but not for new players.

I beg to differ. I first did vMA when Orsinium was released and I could not get past stage 1. This was at a time when my understanding of DPS was undeveloped and the boss would constantly spawn more adds. I could neither kill the boss nor the adds fast enough. I got overwhelmed.

What you say is true for a player who has had enough investment in the game to develop their DPS on a target skeleton and has perhaps already done some high-end group content. I've met new players, especially those coming from other MMOs, who your advice would be spot on for. I still suspect there are many more casual players, though, who never developed their DPS and are struggling on that account.

Stage 5 is the obvious example where it's better to pace the fight, but the only one where your control is that pronounced. Even so, the longer a fight drags on, the more scope there is for getting into trouble. I used to take some time to kill the first two adds in stage 5, final fight. If you can't just finish them and get onto the troll who has marched onto another island, you're already in trouble. The key problem in that fight isn't too much DPS, it is too much AOE DPS that nukes the boss sooner than you want.

I don't understand where your opinion differs from mine, or why yours differ in your example. Sounds like we are describing the exact same thing. If you weren't able to kill the first boss first round your DPS must have been extremely low. I certainly don't think you need to practice your DPS on a skeleton to be able to complete vMA. As I stated before, of course it helps with high DPS, but without understanding of mechanics, high DPS will get you nowhere in certain stages. Like we both said

And with stage 5, you are right if the DPS isn't high enough (I'm repeating myself a lot here :P), but stage 5 boss is a round where you can ignore everything and kill the boss directly if you have enough DPS, just like a lot of other rounds.

Asardes · November 2018

The first 4 arenas are basically warm-up. #5 & #7 are a real pain though, and so is the boss stage in #9; #6 & #8 are pretty easy as well. Sunderflame is a bad choice for NB since you don't do HA that often, and mobs in vMA already have low resistances, more like overland ones (9K) than dungeon ones (18K) so the Minor Fracture debuff is not that useful, considering that you already have access to Major Fracture from Surprise Attack; proc damage is not great either, since your CP won't buff it much on a stamina char, neither will it benefit from any debuff. If you have problems with sustain/survival I would recommend you to swap Sunderflame for Vicious Serpent, which is easy to farm in Craglorn trials - they're pretty easy on normal, and people group for them in Craglorn readily. Also switching from 2W to 2H would help you a bit since you can access Brawler (nice shield, AoE bleed) and Rally (Major Brutality, burst heal) - you don't really want to use potions while learning since there's no point in that, and Power Extraction is not that good. Monster set is not that important, but since most fights are trash heavy I would recommend something with AoE - Velidreth or Stormfist - the latter is actually better for learning since it gives recovery, and also it is easier to farm, since Tempest Island is easier than Cradle of Shadows. But other options such as Selene or even Kra'gh will do.

In a nutshell that's the kind of build I would use:
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=52123
If you find that the heal from Rally, Briarheart and Leeching Strikes is not enough you can ditch some of the other skills for Vigor.

ImmortalCX · November 2018

Asardes wrote: »

The first 4 arenas are basically warm-up. #5 & #7 are a real pain though, and so is the boss stage in #9; #6 & #8 are pretty easy as well. Sunderflame is a bad choice for NB since you don't do HA that often, and mobs in vMA already have low resistances, more like overland ones (9K) than dungeon ones (18K) so the Minor Fracture debuff is not that useful, considering that you already have access to Major Fracture from Surprise Attack; proc damage is not great either, since your CP won't buff it much on a stamina char, neither will it benefit from any debuff. If you have problems with sustain/survival I would recommend you to swap Sunderflame for Vicious Serpent, which is easy to farm in Craglorn trials - they're pretty easy on normal, and people group for them in Craglorn readily. Also switching from 2W to 2H would help you a bit since you can access Brawler (nice shield, AoE bleed) and Rally (Major Brutality, burst heal) - you don't really want to use potions while learning since there's no point in that, and Power Extraction is not that good. Monster set is not that important, but since most fights are trash heavy I would recommend something with AoE - Velidreth or Stormfist - the latter is actually better for learning since it gives recovery, and also it is easier to farm, since Tempest Island is easier than Cradle of Shadows. But other options such as Selene or even Kra'gh will do.

In a nutshell that's the kind of build I would use:
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=52123
If you find that the heal from Rally, Briarheart and Leeching Strikes is not enough you can ditch some of the other skills for Vigor.

1) I never said sustain was a problem.

2) This playstyle is based around heavy attacks. Making constant heavy attacks gives me so much sustain that I can dodge or sprint whenever I want. I know that Sunderflame is not "meta" for VMA, but it works just fine. Maybe it should be.

3) I am doing VMA before trials so I don't have access to VO. That is just my decision, a matter of pride doing it with a stamblade without easy button VO.

4) The resistance debuff from sunderflame is 1/4th that from Surprise Attack, thats not why I'm using the set. This is a build by/for a casual and having looked at the set bonuses, I think Sunderflame is a hidden gem for VMA. One of the great things about thinking for yourself is that you discover new things.

5) Have a good day.

fred4 · November 2018

Asardes wrote: »

Also switching from 2W to 2H would help you a bit since ... Rally (Major Brutality, burst heal) - you don't really want to use potions while learning since there's no point in that, and Power Extraction is not that good.

He gets Major Brutality from Shrouded Daggers.