you shouldn't have sustain issues with VO. just kill the things.

StamSorc's issue is survivability. Crit Surge can outheal the smaller damage, but when you're facing multiple enemies or harder hits, dodge, block, run away. Funny thing is I couldn't get Stormproof on my MagSorc, but when I made her Stam I went back and did it. Just remember, you don't have a shield anymore and Crit Surge doesn't outheal everything.

You can do this OP!!

If I, as a really crappy player now who can no longer get over 22k dps after the heavy attack weave nerf, and other nerfs to stam sorcs, in addition to my disabilities, can get to the final round of Stage 9 (That's where I've stopped for now), then you can beat it.

Stage 5 has a tendency to be the worst for sheer number of enemies and the power of the Ice witches. They hurt a lot.
There is one youtube vid, specifically made with a Stamsorc, who slows things down enough, for you to be able to see approximately where these enemies are popping up.

Now, you said you PVP... this should be an advantage to you... movement is your friend... you will use it often... also, as many AOEs as you can.
My tactic for this round was to first place as many AOEs over the initial spawn point and then go to the next one, and take down the second most important enemy. Then as more enemies would pop up, I would lay my Caltrops and Endless hail in the middle area between all ice pads and have the enemies follow me into there. I never stopped moving... I would have whirlind on and run circles around enemies, lay more dots and keep moving from one platform to the other, heavy attack, light attack, flurry, rapid strikes, move, move, move...

You may have to use slightly different abilities now, like slotting out another ability for rapids to give you that speed boost when you need it.. you'll of course need Vigor and lots of different pots.

The next PITA stage I found was Stage 7... The poison stage, but it is pure RNG. If the poison spawns under the shield, you are screwed no matter what.

Stage 9 for the most part, isn't bad, until you get to the Crystal stage.... after you break the 3 crystals, you need to take out the summoner and a daedroth if it is up... (I've been told one shouldn't be up right away at this stage, but when I was doing it, it was always up), just, take the summoner out and find the damn shield and grab it right away.

Again, more pots... stock up on hundreds of repair kits, take a few different armour sets with you. Take a heavy Chudan set if you need it. Or Earthgore for o'crap heals.

Redo your CP.... take the points out of Crit Damage and put them into other resistances.. You are much better served with them spent properly to help mitigate the damage you are taking.

Eventually I'll get it done, I just don't have the drive to go back in there for a while. Not until my character is back in a place I can work with it.

But, try not to let it get to you.. Take a break from the place if you need it.. sometimes a week of rest away from the place helps.

You could try with a 2h, Brawler is very good for survivability in VMA. I don't have any Vicious Ophidian, wish I did, but with my StamSorc I used Briarheart, Hundings, and Stormfist, mostly because that's just all I have and I don't feel like grinding out something else lol.

The heals from Briarheart, Surge, and Vigor, and the shields from using the 2h were way more than enough. If you want to even be more safe, you can use Evasion from the Medium Armor tree to reduce AoE damage by 25%, which is good in some areas, especially if you die a lot from the Daedroth at the last arena.

With Sustain, just keep in mind you don't have to do your full rotation every time, a lot of enemies die too quickly for it, and when you're running up over to an enemy, you can start a heavy attack along the way.

If you start to get low on health and Surge and the other heals aren't cutting it, just spam Brawler to get back in control, even if there's only one enemy, it's still a pretty nice shield, especially now that it has resistance stats. Heck, I've even used it when there were no enemies sometimes for a little shield just to keep me alive a couple of extra seconds, to get back on my feet lol.

My first vMA clear was on a stam sorc double bow build (and I am quite scrubby).

Critical Surge and hurricane are amazing. Also try to keep VO 5 pieces on the body so you never lose the sustain on bar swap.

I think you're just not used to play stamina, I was successful on my stamsorc by being completely crazy and relying on crits to heal myself,l with crit surge and hurricane.

Think it's mostly because not used to playing stamina. Everything becomes harder when you use a new build or class. You can't do stuff automatically and with muscle memory on a new character. Stuff like best positing and movement is different to and you have to re-learn.

Sustain issues on a new builds&class often comes from the fact that you're spamming unnecessary things, because panic or lack of experience. Can also be because taking unnecessary damage and that's why you have to spam more. It's not always the build that's the main problem.

Only advice i can give other than practice, is to play more aggressively and with less hesitation. You have better burst om stamsorc, so take advantage of that.

zvavi wrote: »

... (surge is over powered)...

You may not know this, but at release Surge had no cool down (it is once per second now) and healed you for a large % of the crit damage done. It was ridiculously strong.

Now it's just very good.

abzdeman wrote: »

Slimecraw (crit & 8% extra damage)
5 vo nirn & infused weapons. Poison & absorb
Maelstrom bow (must have) infused. Wep dmg
5 night mothers ( all divines ofc)
Bi food / dubious. (Go Bi food)
Rings - 2 infused 1 bloodthirsty all gold gear ofc min max

Practice Practice Practice.

Even when you die you make sure that you try and finish it even if you have to save the quest and leave your character there. Learn spawns and mechanics and don't panic. I used to be really bad it takes time.

I'm flawless conqueror on my stam sorc and his race is khajit so not even redguard which is bis. I'm not changing next patch because I don't care about meta never have never will.

Can't get a job without experience; can't get experience without a job ...