CP Setup for CP160 MNB VMA: The Red Tree

kylewwefan · March 2020

In this game where everyone is so hyper focused on DPS; Damage mitigation is so often overlooked, especially at low level.

(I’m actually at CP174 now) working my way through VMA, I find myself taking too much damage. Stuff I would normally laugh at or find a way to deal with is pretty much insta-death at low level.

I have to admit, I skipped out on some things I should had done by now that could make a bit of difference. Stuff like undaunted, for some extra stat; Mages guild 10, and Psijic.

Nope. I chose the route of grinding up and getting gear. It hasn’t been a quick and easy task any way about it. But time could had been better spent I will admit.

My red tree has %5 direct damage and Damage over time, 2% physical and spell damage, %2 quick recovery, and a few into spell shield. There’s not many CP to play around with at this level and they seem to do very little for you.

TL;DR : my question would be: is it better to just buff spell or physical damage resistance instead of the percentage reductions?

They’re so minimal it feels like they don’t make much of a difference. If that makes sense.

If still interested: I started VMA Monday got through first 3 rounds in 20 minutes. Tuesday, got through fourth and fifth round in 30 minutes. Today is Wednesday. I’ll get through 6 and maybe see how 7 is.

I won’t do it for more than 30 minutes a stretch. Trying to keep it fun and got other characters to work with.

Character is a Breton Magblade with BSW/Julianos/Iceheart 6 light one heavy, legendary infused inferno front bar w/absorb magic, purple infused Lightning stave back bar w/berserker. Using Apprentice mundus for more spell damage.

Danksta · March 2020

Iirc 660 resistance is equal to 1% damage mitigation.

kylewwefan · March 2020

Thanks Danksta!

I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 12k resistance. So that should be about %18 mitigation. Pumping around 40 some odd CP into spell shield only brings me up to near 16k resistance for about a %6 increase.

It seems their damage mitigation balance is right in tune, and this is probably also not enough to really notice a difference.

Guess it’s best to just deal with these small little increments.

Beat the 6th round, but it was tuff. Not so much getting through the rounds but the boss. I kept dying to the spit. It would have like 70 stacks on it. I thought those were from the little spider Daedra, but I killed them quick so it shouldn’t had been them.

When she finally went down, it was definitely by the skin of my teeth and I did have to play the mechanics by clearing the totems. Where I would normally be fine just keeping 2 clear.

I fooled around in the 7th for a minute. It’s not gonna be as bad I think. Just managing resources better so prepared for execute.

Pushing for a low level clear is bringing me more entertainment than a high level score push. It’s fun!

kylewwefan · March 2020

Thursday I beat the 7th and 8th round. Not too bad.

I’d swear the game picks the difficulty up for a first clear though.

The fourth round of the 8th level where the 2 healers and 2 Kyngard come out. They just nuked me about 5 times in a row. It took a minute to work it out; my usual strat was no good.

I’d target the one kyngard by the defense sigil, both healers instantly start healing him through. The one on the left instantly starts spinning. Go to him for interrupt and then the first one starts spinning. Cause he should had been dead but I’m having issues. It was such a pain.

Low CP and no false god makes a huge difference. Mostly the CP though I think. You take so much more damage.

I went over my 30 minute limit. Was having fun.

Worked on the ninth up to Solkyn Voriak. Pfhhhh. He’s gonna be tuff. I couldn’t get out of the crystal phase alive. Gonna have to split it up and that just kind of blows.

Also gonna have to buy some good tripots and maybe level up alchemy. Gonna need every little edge I can get just to make a clear.

kylewwefan · March 2020

I forgot to update this. Did end up beating Maelstrom on Tuesday evening. So it was a week and a day long progress.

I should have leveled my character up properly and it would had gone a little smoother. Alchemy was my big hang up. And having just a couple few nice crafted tripots. Undaunted would had been nice. Mages guild, at least to Inner light level.

TL;DR: Stormproof at CP 196 got a Maelstrom Inferno first run.

Recent · April 2020

kylewwefan wrote: »

I forgot to update this. Did end up beating Maelstrom on Tuesday evening. So it was a week and a day long progress.

I should have leveled my character up properly and it would had gone a little smoother. Alchemy was my big hang up. And having just a couple few nice crafted tripots. Undaunted would had been nice. Mages guild, at least to Inner light level.

TL;DR: Stormproof at CP 196 got a Maelstrom Inferno first run.

You say undaunted would have been nice and yet in another comment you say youve been using the undaunted orb (which you get at undaunted lvl5) on your magblade since before Alcast started using it .

You sound like youre trying to brag and make out that you did vma with no skills and bare minimun cp....[Snip]
[Snip]

[Edited for bait]

kylewwefan · April 2020

[Snip]

By undaunted, I meant to level 9 for the passives to get %6 extra resources for a 511 setup.

Same with mages guild. The extra max magic and empower are great to have.

Finally leveling the alchemy skill line For the longer lasting potion effects was something I should had not undervalued.

Necrotic orb has been on the radar since well before it was fotm, but the reason to use it here over something like soul trap is I can pre load it while moving on to next target. So you don’t have to wait for something to fully spawn in.

I wanted to be Stormproof at CP 167 or so, but I missed the mark. To me, working on VMA at low level was more fun and entertaining and challenging than a max level character.

Far as insecurity’s; well that’s just something we’re working through.

[Edited for removed content]

StytchFingal · April 2020

Recent wrote: »

kylewwefan wrote: »

I forgot to update this. Did end up beating Maelstrom on Tuesday evening. So it was a week and a day long progress.

I should have leveled my character up properly and it would had gone a little smoother. Alchemy was my big hang up. And having just a couple few nice crafted tripots. Undaunted would had been nice. Mages guild, at least to Inner light level.

TL;DR: Stormproof at CP 196 got a Maelstrom Inferno first run.

You say undaunted would have been nice and yet in another comment you say youve been using the undaunted orb (which you get at undaunted lvl5) on your magblade since before Alcast started using it .

You sound like youre trying to brag and make out that you did vma with no skills and bare minimun cp....[Snip]
[Snip]
[Edited for bait]

Your imputations are misguided.

Perhaps read the guy's signature and note that he has over 1000 CP on Playstation NA, but under 200 CP on PC NA, and that his original post was about how to best set his red CP for the PC account.