I need vMA help

January1171 · February 2020

So I'm on a magden main, have been able to progress to the final boss of the last stage

But for the life of me I can't get past him

have probably spent 7-8 hours on this boss alone

I can get up to the crystals pretty consistently now (even found out last night I can actually get them all in one go instead of jumping down in between)

Seems like my problem is that when I jump back down and have a crem guard, he's standing right on top of a necrotic stab point. So when I try to kite the crem guard to get him down, I'm getting clanfear damage, necrotic stab damage (and ususally a wraith too even though I'm trying to avoid them), and I die

Any tips to avoid necrotic stab damage while trying to avoid crem guard damage too?

furiouslog · February 2020

what sets are you running?

January1171 · February 2020

furiouslog wrote: »

what sets are you running?

I have Iceheart, mother's sorrow, and necropotence

(Part of my motivation right now- I want to clear this before iceheart gets nerfed haha)

MellowMagic · February 2020

Try saving the heal and shield sigil till after you destroy the crystals. Makes the crem guards damage negligible, and when he channels his flare type attack itll bounce right back at him helping u finish him off, I usually prioritize the gold ghosts after I destroy the crystals so I can just drop an ult and melt him

xWarbrain · February 2020

Crem Guard - Stay on him, run in a circle around him, making him spin in place, while light attacking him.

To avoid Nectrotic - Kill everything a bit faster. Keep your shields and HoTs up even more than you normally do. You may have to change your food to Tri Food if you're not already using it.

vgabor · February 2020

try steed mundus, it gives just enough speed bonus to get out of the necrotic stabs and outrun the guard and clanfear

Myrddin1357 · February 2020

The last phase of the last boss can be very easy. Before you go up to the platform it is important that you kill the healer npc - dont leave it alive when you port up. When the crystals are done and you get thrown down, only the boss should be there. Grabbing the shield and speed sigils at this point is very helpful. Dps the boss as much as you can but your number priority right now is to grab the golden ghosts. Three golden ghosts will come out before the crem. guard (this is always the case for me). If you grab all of them, the crem guard in not a problem at all as you can stun it and kill. If your dps is high enough once you get three ghosts, fight is over as you can burn the boss down while everything is stunned. Only if you miss grabbing one of the ghosts, you have to deal with the crem guard and the fight becomes a lot tougher.

Also, if you have false god gear try replace MS or Necro with that. The speed boost you get from false good makes a big difference. The entire last boss fight you have to be in constant motion .. you stay still for even a second and you take too much damage ..if you are always moving you should not be taking any damage from necrotic stabs at all.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

furiouslog · February 2020

xWarbrain wrote: »

Crem Guard - Stay on him, run in a circle around him, making him spin in place, while light attacking him.

To avoid Nectrotic - Kill everything a bit faster. Keep your shields and HoTs up even more than you normally do. You may have to change your food to Tri Food if you're not already using it.

This is my strat for dealing with the CG on my magplar, but I spam sweeps which procs Iceheart reliably and kills him fairly fast. You could maybe drop forest and do the circle attacks, hit with wall, fletcher and bird first (or block cast them before starting the circle), then LA and keep the dots up. Running around him in a circle is the key though. I don''t worry about the CG - ghosts and the boss upstairs are what usually kill me.

NordSwordnBoard · February 2020

Zooming almost all the way out can help with ghosts sneaking up on you.

Donny_Vito · February 2020

You have to keep moving upstairs...not running, just keep walking in one direction as you attack. Drop dots on stuff and then single target attack while you are moving. Once you get the pattern of how often he'll shoot the skull at you and then when the wall comes...it's the same every time.

If you know you're not going to make it behind the wall, then get close to the center of the ring as his knock back won't completely throw you off if you're close enough.

kylewwefan · February 2020

Do you have the ultimate “barrier” from alliance skill line? It’s majorly helpful in tight spots.

Also, the red CP tree “Bastion” affects the size of your ice heart shield and Barrier. That was a major game changing tip for me.

Ice heart is still gonna be good next patch and the Mother Ciannasti monster set coming out is nearly the same as ice heart but has max mag instead of Crit bonus and some minor sustain help too.

remilafo · February 2020

Your running too much dps imo...

vma really doesn't need anything more that 20K dps..

Need more defence, maybe more health and/or more armor and/or more healing..

I have flawless conqueror on two characters, i know what im talking about.

vMA is NOT a rush/dps slogfest...

Get your defence to the point where having a Crematorial guard present is not stressful and you could withstand the situation you are talking about..

Iceheart and a slotted heal skill alone are not enough imo for vma..

idk · February 2020

Guards cannot be kited. When they are breathing fire they move fast enough to still damage you.

They cannot turn fast enough to keep up with you so rotate around them when they breathe fire. Afterwards burn them down and keep this practice until you can burn them down before they breathe fire.

As for what you seem to be experiencing, basically everything at once, I would need to see a video to understand. Do not understand why you are getting a clanfear if you cleared all the crystals for one thing.

January1171 · February 2020

I guess I should clarify- when I say I'm kiting the crem guards I'm running a tight circle around them (I used dottz vma guide for most of my prep and that's how he referred to it, and it stuck in my head)

January1171 · February 2020

@kylewwefan didn't know that about bastion, I'll give it a try

although how is iceheart still gonna be good? the shield is being cut by half and damage reduced. the mother c set doesn't really help me because it procs off of channeled/cast time skills, and i have two that meet those conditions: channeled accel and bear ulti, neither of which make sense to rely on proccing off of

January1171 · February 2020

@idk I can get all of the crystals in one go, but not reliably. Up until my last few runs I thought that getting all of them at once was just impossible for me, so it was a surprise to realize it wasn't

January1171 · February 2020

@remilafo When I'm not dealing with other things, I can get the crem guard down just fine, unless I just make a stupid mistake. I can avoid most of the crem guard damage (i get a couple of swipes, but not the breath damage). The issue i keep running into is that while I'm running around the guard, there's a necrotic stab aoe that does 12k damage. Added to everything else that's when I die

idk · February 2020

January1171 wrote: »

@idk I can get all of the crystals in one go, but not reliably. Up until my last few runs I thought that getting all of them at once was just impossible for me, so it was a surprise to realize it wasn't

If you come down early then kill the guard and then kill the clanfear. Use a shield to help mitigate damage from the clanfear while killing the guard.

I will be frank. You are on the toughest fight for a first clear. Ironically it will become much easier after even a few clears and will become much less challenging. That fight is all about getting the mechanics smoothed out and eventually they will no longer be much of a challenge. Yes, I know that does not help you today.

January1171 · February 2020

@idk pretty much haha there's a streamer I watch that has a one-button flawless vma build and makes it look so easy

I can tell I'm progressing (I can get him to crystal phase 90-95% of the time barring really bad rng or stupid mistakes, i even got him down to around 10% once) but in the meantime it's just practice practice practice and try to get tips on how to improve

sekou_trayvond · February 2020

Mind you, I've only cleared it once and have zero inclination to return anytime soon, but I found myself in a similar spot as you (frankly worse, as you appear better at getting the darn crystals done with) . That all being said, as some others have pointed out, defense is your friend- especially when you're trying to get that first clear. Can't learn the mechanics if you're ded

good luck. Keep at it. Soooo close. It is super satisfying when you finish it.

Shantu · February 2020

First, be patient with yourself. 7-8 hours on the last boss is not a lot of time on your first clear. People have easily spent that many weeks on trying to get hm down.

Here's a method I've used many times:

1. Kill everything before you go up to the platform.
2. When you come down, run directly to the defensive shield and grab it. This will reflect his skull attack back at him.
3. Run directly to the boss and drop your ultimate on him.
4. Run directly to the power sigil and grab it.
5. Run back to the boss. Keep moving around him dropping AOE's and direct attacks. This should take care of the CG also.
6. Do a happy dance over his dead body.

Keep your shield up at all times. You can watch for the golden ghosts and grab them if you can, but it's not necessary (though it makes things easier). If you have a source of heals, also keep it running running at all times. Always stay on the boss, moving and burning him constantly.

It's a dance. Just keep at it. If you've gotten this far, it's just a matter of time. Once you beat him, on subsequent tries, you'll wonder why you had problems to begin with. Good luck!

kylewwefan · February 2020

Sorry dude. I tried it on the pts and assumed it was working just like icehearts. (I ran maelstrom on the pts with it in place of ice heart) now I’m upset and disappointed too.

I don’t use the bear ultimate, I go with barrier backbar/ Ice Comet front. The netch counts as pet and will still proc necropotence. Plus it gives you a sweet little heal if you spam it when idle or where you can fit it in.

I used to use necropotence and winter born. Now I use False god and war maiden. War maiden might not be so great tbh, IDK?

I don’t often use offensive ultimates and will sit on a barrier til needed. Also, I don’t slot a shield. You could throw the vines on or maybe lotus?

Circle the cream guard while trying to avoid the ghosts. It’s kind of rough to get used to. Pop a barrier or chug a tristat potion and you’re golden. The purple crown store ones are fantastic and they make a lovely “Cha Ching” cash register sound every time you use one.

Wheresthetea11 · February 2020

I’d suggest the 2-1 crystal run.

When the fight starts, burn the boss to 70 as fast as possible, I suggest saving your ult for this portion. If the boss teleports, interrupt and kill the healer. Then back to the boss.

Depending on your burn, you may have a crem guard for deal with. Circle and burn. Once it’s down, make your way over to the pad with the clanfere.

Port up and focus down 2 crystals, dot up one, move to the left (right? Can’t remember. You wanna run opposite direction of the shield to minimize the distance) and start using direct damage on the second before reapplying your dots. Survive the blast using the shield, dodge or block the knockoff mech and finish up your 2 crystals by the second blast. If you finish early, roll off towards the middle, of you don’t, use the shield, finish up and step off. If you finish right as the shield hits, just let the blast push you off.

As you hit the lava, heal or pop a potion. Then, immediately make a bee-line for the healing sigil. Pop it and burn the crem guard. The healing sigil heals A LOT. It’s saved my butt quite a few times. You still wanna try to circle the crem guard while you burn to minimize damage, but the sigil will usually save you from some mistakes that would be lethal without it.

Once it’s down, take the clanfere to the pad. If you’re low on resources, you can kinda kite and heavy attack, you’ve got a bit of a cool down before another guard comes.

Once you’ve ported back up, dodge or block the knockoff mech and immediately burn the last crystal. Try to not use your ult, unless it’s cheap, save it for the very end. Once it’s down, you’ll be knocked off.

Relax, pop a potion if you have it, or heal up. As you hit the arena, grab the shield and damage sigil. The interruptible boss attack will bounce off you and do a lot of damage to him. Don’t interrupt it. Drop an ult if you have it and dps him down. Make an attempt to grab the gold ghosts before they touch him. It’s not run-ending if he grabs one, I’ve been able to burn him pretty quickly even with one on him. If you do grab the ghost, keep focusing the boss.

As he teleports, he’s going to wind his arm back for the knockback mech. Block or dodge before resuming ghost collecting / dps’ing the boss down. You’ll eventually get this pattern down and will block and dodge instinctively.

If you manage to grab three ghosts, the boss should be doing an interruptible attack right as you grab the third ghost (based on my experience and the timing of the fight) Interrupt the boss, spectral explosion, and burn him down. Viola, you’ve beaten maelstrom arena on vet.

If you don’t manage to grab all three ghosts, focus the boss, the crem guard when it pops up, and back to the boss. Ignore the summoners. Because once the boss is dead, what they’re doing doesn’t even matter. Crem and boss are you main priorities in the end. And learning to recognize the arm motion of the boss for the knockback attack.

Best of luck to ya!

remilafo · February 2020

January1171 wrote: »

@remilafo When I'm not dealing with other things, I can get the crem guard down just fine, unless I just make a stupid mistake. I can avoid most of the crem guard damage (i get a couple of swipes, but not the breath damage). The issue i keep running into is that while I'm running around the guard, there's a necrotic stab aoe that does 12k damage. Added to everything else that's when I die

exactly... as you say "but not the breath damage" and " unless I just make a stupid mistake" and "necrotic stab aoe that does 12k damage."

- Your build should be able to withstand the breath damage.
- Your build should allow you to make some mistakes.
- And your build should handle 12K damage without issue.

Again all opinion but when i got my first flawless victory my build ran 33K hp, 25K armor, 19K shields and 4K/s healing. This was probably a bit overkill but it should give you an idea..

remilafo · February 2020

Oh i want to mention one more thing.. Seems two other commentators don't think it's important.

On the last boss when he is back down IT IS IMPERATIVE you ALWAYS get the golden ghosts and not the main boss. If you let him get a golden ghost he will one shot you with his next Necrotic blast.

krachall · February 2020

remilafo wrote: »

Your running too much dps imo...

vma really doesn't need anything more that 20K dps..

Need more defence, maybe more health and/or more armor and/or more healing..

I have flawless conqueror on two characters, i know what im talking about.

vMA is NOT a rush/dps slogfest...

Get your defence to the point where having a Crematorial guard present is not stressful and you could withstand the situation you are talking about..

Iceheart and a slotted heal skill alone are not enough imo for vma..

I struggled with this fight for hours as well. My first vMA I probably died 20 times in this fight. My last one (my fifth completion) took me 7 tries. But I went a different route and I play a stamblade so this may not be applicable.

I take my time with the crystals. I will make two trips up and use my second trip to build resources before breaking the last crystal. Most of my deaths in Phase 3 come from being out of stamina and unable to bash, roll-dodge, or attack.

Once the last crystal breaks, I drop down and immediately run for the shield sigil. I'll also grab health if it's on the way to the boss. I use ballista ultimate and go ham while the shield sigil is up so I can ignore his machine gun. I only do about 30k dps on a dummy so I'm not able to drop the boss at this point. He will teleport and machine gun again.

This is when I grab the axe sigil and bash the boss to interrupt. I spin while DPSing hard to execute mode then spam execute. I've usually got Dawnbreaker up at this point and will hit that too.

again, I've only completed it five times so far but as a high damage, low survivability stamblade, I can't survive long enough to do the gold ghost mechanic.

Asardes · February 2020

Upstairs DoT the crystals and don't try to burst them straight away, if you break one or two the wall will spin faster and faster. The DoT shouldn't be a problem since you can easily shield trough it, only roll dodge or block the skulls and move out of the meteors from boss as you do it; optionally you can grab the healing sigil before you go up to make it easier. Leave the crystals with low HP, and after a boss burst phase break 2 of them, DoT the 3rd until it's almost down then jump straight below; if it breaks while you're already down you won't get stunned into the lava. Then grab the shield sigil, optionally the damage one as well if you feel your DPS is low. While the shield sigil is active don't interrupt the boss channel since this attack is reflected back to him and he takes quite a bit of extra damage. and start grabbing the ghosts, DoT the boss after he is down, and kill the mage that comes to summon from the center. After you grab the 3rd ghost one stun the boss, and execute.

thadjarvis · February 2020

Even when I started out earlier last year with sub 20k dps builds I wouldn't go through a lot of the complexity noted above. That's enough DPS to just grab a sigel or two and focus strictly on the boss.

I main magden now. An easy way to solve the current challenge would be to cast Bird of prey, grab damage sigel, bash boss, cast north strom, and then burn the boss. With north storm, iceheart, and vines rolling you can take tons of damage (block CC from skulls though). I use destro ulti in vMA but North storm isn't much less DPS when accounting for mag buff.

Hm, I've never seen the fire dude after jumping even when I had close to minimum DPS. Could be he spawns before going up and he's left alive? Maybe kill him before going up and boss should die before he spawns again.

I always thought stunning the boss was for burning him before he goes up not after. Running around getting ghosts afterwards seems to be counterproductive (with current DPS level in ESO) as if you can keep up rotation while collecting ghosts your DPS is probably high enough to kill the boss in one or two positions anyway. Ie I suggest focusing on killing at that point.

SidraWillowsky · February 2020

I use Crystallized Slab and Enchanted Growth, and when I hit that phase I run to the Crem Guard then alternate DoTs/AoEs (Blockade/Fetcher/Revenge/etc) and heals/shields.

If you have it, I'd highly, highly recommend False Gods over Mother's Sorrow. Partly because it helps with potential sustain issues caused by spamming heals and shields during this phase >.>

gatekeeper13 · February 2020

I cant tell what skills to use with a magicka warden since I ve completed 5 times with my pet magsorc, but I ll tell you what I did in the last stage, after jumping down for the 3rd phase.

1) Instantly go and pick up Shield + Haste Sigil. You need to deflect back to the boss the necrotic swarm.
2) Make sure to grab all 3 golden ghosts. They are priority.
3) Make sure to kill the summoners.
3) Use the Spectral explosion (after you got the 3 ghosts) when the Crematorial Guard appears.
4) Take out the C G first, then pick up Axe sigil and burn the boss down with an ultimate, preferably with Thunder Rage.

Thats how I pass this stage every time. In my opinion, its the most difficult stage in vMA cause you need a good resource sustain.

Note that the Crematorial Guard is a pain if not taken out with the spectral explosion. Also dont let the summoners spawn the Colossus. Also note that after the stun, boss will tp to another place so let him do that first so that you dont waste your ultimate.

zvavi · February 2020

Ceremonial guards need to go asap, i recommend just laying down aoe DoT and spammable the heck out of them before they even have the chance to open up their mouth.