Another VMA last boss post, advise needed!

Veinblood1965 · March 2021

Ok stuck on last boss for two days, I'm finally asking for advice. Running a templar magic based, Julianos, Spell Strategist, and the ring from scrying that heals you for a percent of your damage. It's a tough setup the first 8 stages were difficult and got stuck here and there until i learned the mechanics.

I cannot for the life of me get to the point where I'm up top damaging the three crystals. I've got that far about a times now but more often than not I die before that. I start out damaging the boss, once he shoots away I interrupt him then kill the healer, then kill the big add while damaging the boss and him if I can at the same time. I die a lot at this point, I try either damaging the boss and the big guy OR kiting the big guy around, if I get past that part I usually get up top. I know his rotation, what mobs spawn when if I get past that point.

Question is, is there some other armor sets I could use that would help? My main is a crafter, I've thought about switching out to Julianos heavy armor and getting lore boos to get my toons magic skills high enough to get Meteor(he's a new toon). Suggestions all?

MerguezMan · March 2021

1) You don't have to destroy the 3 crystals in a single go. You take constant and increasing damage for the time you're up there. You can destroy 1, get down to cooldown the AoE damage, kill summoning guy, get back up, and destroy another, etc. It's longer, but safer.

2) There are basically 3 things that are death threat on this stage:
- crematorium guards DOT, which requires you to kill the guard asap
- boss attack that can be bash-interrupted when he spams fire skulls
- game lag, which cannot be avoided if you play on saturday nights

3) Changing sets wouldn't help that much, considering those sets brought you so far already. That being said, swapping skills can be a huge gamechanger in vMA. Have you tried to slot reverb skills like Bone shield or Living dark ? Or invisibility potions (that one requires good timing, but can save you lot of time) ? Or that magic dash move that also interrupts enemies ?

4) Meteor won't help much as it's super long to build up, and you need fast, spammable skills. Take something cheaper. Sword and Shield Ultimate can be surprisingly good in some situations.

Mind you that I cleared this nightmare on Xbox with a stamDK, no purge, no bow, no addons, no keyboard, lots of patience.
Keep faith, your Templar can do it.

Syrusthevirus187 · March 2021

Take the defense sigil when he does his channel attack. It will send him upstairs everytime. Then you have heaps of time to practice crystals.
Take the other sigils when you drop down for final kill.

zvavi · March 2021

When fighting the fire crocodile hug him and spin around while killing him

Oreyn_Bearclaw · March 2021

My guess is that new gear is not your answer. This is a mechanic heavy fight, with a 3 soft DPS checks. I am generally going to advise keeping your damage high rather than going extra tanky. Definitely be sure you have a shield, and that you are keeping up Rune for your major armor buffs.

First question, what is actually killing you? Are you generally full on stamina and magic when you die? Or are you running out of resources and unable to stay alive at that point?

If you are killing the healer and the guard, I am confused as to what the real issue is. You do understand how the portal mechanic works right? Kill the ghostly clanfear on top of the portal that is illuminated.

Safe strat goes something like this:

Phase 1: Start out by burning the boss. Its important to get ground dots applied before he spawns so you can put a good burn on him. Once he ports, make sure you interupt his channel. Slotting crushing shock is handy for this, but shouldnt be mandatory. You definitely want use sweeps as your main damage spammable. Any other skull attack can be blocked or dodged. Once the Crem Guard spawns, take him out. This is ultimate worthy if you have one. Destro ult is hard to beat in VMA. Once the guard is dead, push boss to 70%, then kill the healer, then use the portal. Make sure to not leave a healer alive, but technically, you can leave the Crem Guard alive, especially if a second spawns.

I try to avoid grabbing any sigils until I am ready to go upstairs, then i think the best for the top is the speed sigil (it boosts all stat regen). Running out of stamina is the number one cause of death upstairs in my experience. Tri pots work here as well if you struggle with stamina.

Phase 2: You have three crystals to kill. There will be one immediately to your left. Law down ground dots, and start to DPS. Once a wall spawns, move in the opposite direction it is traveling to get to it. With good DPS, you should be able to take out at least one crystal before the wall, but nothing requires you to do so. Stay behind the wall do damage where you can, perhaps dot up another crystal, but dont get caught and get knocked off, as it will probably kill you. There are two other mechanics you need to pay attention to. There are ground AOEs going off, dont stand in them, and the boss will charge heavy attacks. I think these are better if dodgerolled. It gives immunity and allows you to stay on the crystals.

Repeat until the third wall. If you are very close to the last crystal, kill it. If you are not, jump down in the center on purpose before the third wall blows up. Better to jump down ready to fight, then get knocked in the lava. There will be a guard in your face, kill it, and go back upstairs to finish the job. Try to be sure you are shielded and at full health before you kill the last crystal. With timing you can jump to the center, but likely you are going to get thrown in the lava most of the time.

Phase 3: STEP ONE, DO NOT PANIC!!!! If you are near the shield sigil, grab it. If not, priority number one is interrupt the boss as he will immediately start his channel, either with bash or crushing shock. Then grab shield and damage sigil. Grab the healing one too if convenient. You then have a few options, but most important, get the golden ghosts and focus the boss. Burn boss at that point. You should be able to ignore the summoners, but if your DPS is low, you probably want to take them out. Save the third ghost Spectral Explosion for when the Guard spawns, kill the guard while the room is stunned (and any summoner at that point), rinse and repeat.

Once you get the hang of it, it goes like this:

Drop alt and Nuke boss to 70% where he stands. Go upstairs, kill three crystals by end of first shield stage, drop down, interrupt boss, nuke boss, win. With good DPS you wont see a crematorial guard in either downstairs phase, a second shield when upstairs, or a second ghost when downstairs.

Toppling Charge can also be a handy skill for this fight. It covers your interrupt needs and also gives really good mobility with the crystal phase. Radiant glory (as opposed to radiant destruction) is also really nice for the downstairs to keep you alive as you execute. Probably wouldnt run either for score runs, but for a first clear, they are handy.

tsaescishoeshiner · March 2021

If you're not using Dampen Magicka, you should try it. It's like a 12k shield depending on which food you're using. You can use it when the Crematorium Guard spawns and then focus on damage for 6 seconds. It synergizes well with Pale Order and other heal-over-time skills, since you can use a damage shield and heal underneath it.

Djennku · March 2021

https://youtu.be/EpHMwmZAu-k

That should help you beat it.

Veinblood1965 · April 2021

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

My guess is that new gear is not your answer. This is a mechanic heavy fight, with a 3 soft DPS checks. I am generally going to advise keeping your damage high rather than going extra tanky. Definitely be sure you have a shield, and that you are keeping up Rune for your major armor buffs.

First question, what is actually killing you? Are you generally full on stamina and magic when you die? Or are you running out of resources and unable to stay alive at that point?

If you are killing the healer and the guard, I am confused as to what the real issue is. You do understand how the portal mechanic works right? Kill the ghostly clanfear on top of the portal that is illuminated.

Safe strat goes something like this:

Phase 1: Start out by burning the boss. Its important to get ground dots applied before he spawns so you can put a good burn on him. Once he ports, make sure you interupt his channel. Slotting crushing shock is handy for this, but shouldnt be mandatory. You definitely want use sweeps as your main damage spammable. Any other skull attack can be blocked or dodged. Once the Crem Guard spawns, take him out. This is ultimate worthy if you have one. Destro ult is hard to beat in VMA. Once the guard is dead, push boss to 70%, then kill the healer, then use the portal. Make sure to not leave a healer alive, but technically, you can leave the Crem Guard alive, especially if a second spawns.

I try to avoid grabbing any sigils until I am ready to go upstairs, then i think the best for the top is the speed sigil (it boosts all stat regen). Running out of stamina is the number one cause of death upstairs in my experience. Tri pots work here as well if you struggle with stamina.

Phase 2: You have three crystals to kill. There will be one immediately to your left. Law down ground dots, and start to DPS. Once a wall spawns, move in the opposite direction it is traveling to get to it. With good DPS, you should be able to take out at least one crystal before the wall, but nothing requires you to do so. Stay behind the wall do damage where you can, perhaps dot up another crystal, but dont get caught and get knocked off, as it will probably kill you. There are two other mechanics you need to pay attention to. There are ground AOEs going off, dont stand in them, and the boss will charge heavy attacks. I think these are better if dodgerolled. It gives immunity and allows you to stay on the crystals.

Repeat until the third wall. If you are very close to the last crystal, kill it. If you are not, jump down in the center on purpose before the third wall blows up. Better to jump down ready to fight, then get knocked in the lava. There will be a guard in your face, kill it, and go back upstairs to finish the job. Try to be sure you are shielded and at full health before you kill the last crystal. With timing you can jump to the center, but likely you are going to get thrown in the lava most of the time.

Phase 3: STEP ONE, DO NOT PANIC!!!! If you are near the shield sigil, grab it. If not, priority number one is interrupt the boss as he will immediately start his channel, either with bash or crushing shock. Then grab shield and damage sigil. Grab the healing one too if convenient. You then have a few options, but most important, get the golden ghosts and focus the boss. Burn boss at that point. You should be able to ignore the summoners, but if your DPS is low, you probably want to take them out. Save the third ghost Spectral Explosion for when the Guard spawns, kill the guard while the room is stunned (and any summoner at that point), rinse and repeat.

Once you get the hang of it, it goes like this:

Drop alt and Nuke boss to 70% where he stands. Go upstairs, kill three crystals by end of first shield stage, drop down, interrupt boss, nuke boss, win. With good DPS you wont see a crematorial guard in either downstairs phase, a second shield when upstairs, or a second ghost when downstairs.

Toppling Charge can also be a handy skill for this fight. It covers your interrupt needs and also gives really good mobility with the crystal phase. Radiant glory (as opposed to radiant destruction) is also really nice for the downstairs to keep you alive as you execute. Probably wouldnt run either for score runs, but for a first clear, they are handy.

This is extremely helpful. I think it is the interrupt im missing, I'm running over and bashing him right after he ports but after that I'm running, a ranged interrupt will help. When the Jeff the Guard spawns that's where I die a LOT, while I'm killing Jeff the boss is hitting me with his interruptible skill. If I can get Jeff down I can usually get up top. Last night I got all three crystals down and then died when the boss came down most likely due to not interrupting him since that's when I die at first.

I did not know crushing shock interrupts, I'll add that tonight. I haven't used any AOE's other than once that generate from myself(I forget the name). I'll slot that tonight I know which one you are referring to, my main is a Magsorc, this new toon is a hybrid of a lot of things but he's darn fun to play. I mainly use sweeps as my dmg spammable, resources are never the issue in fact I'm at full magic all the time almost. I could use more stamina for the rolling and blocking, I'll switch out some CP's tonight to that.

I hope I get that darn staff first try, I ran normal VMA about 30 times and no staff yet. Thanks all and thanks you a LOT for typing this up Oreyn.

tsaescishoeshiner · April 2021

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

I haven't used any AOE's other than once that generate from myself(I forget the name). I'll slot that tonight I know which one you are referring to, my main is a Magsorc, this new toon is a hybrid of a lot of things but he's darn fun to play. I mainly use sweeps as my dmg spammable, resources are never the issue in fact I'm at full magic all the time almost.

You definitely want AoEs for solo arenas, even against single targets. It increases your damage a lot, and lets you cleave smaller enemies while focusing on big ones.

If you're always at full Magicka, you probably want to swap in some damage—maybe switch 1-2 Magicka Recovery glyphs for Spell Damage. Or, like I said, and I don't meant to be repetitive, spend the Magicka on a damage shield like Annulment or Radiant Ward when Jeff shows up.

I've completed vMA a lot, never once with a ranged interrupt. But it could make the difference for you—everyone's different.

Veinblood1965 · April 2021

Thank you everyone. I switched out to ranged interrupt yesterday, slotted some AOE's and swapped out some of my magic (with CP points although the glyph swap to more spell dmg might have been better. The ranged interrupt worked great, my problem was before on the first teleport I had to run to the boss, bash him, then run to the healer and most of the time Jeff had my back for toast. After that change to ranged it was easy.

I then had to learn a little more about the boss patterns which didn't take long and I started getting up top to the crystals quite often. I managed to go the boss down to the bottom several times last night and down to 200k health I then ran out of time sadly and had to go to bed. Tonight he is mine! After a change out in glyphs!

Btw the AOE's were awesome, I tested the new setup prior to jumping back in and things died like flies. I really want thank each of you for the advise. It's been fun running this I'm sure I'll be running it again as I have a few other toons that need weapons lol!

Vevvev · April 2021

Save the defense glyph for the final stage of his fight and when it's active don't interrupt his channeled attack. It'll reflect all his damage back at him and make the fight far easier. I did a no cp run of him the other day and I recorded it, but I accidentally recorded my house audio at the same time like an idiot. I'll put in a spoiler the timestamp of when I did the final boss. It's basically a DPS race where you need a lot of heal over time effects.

Also while you're hitting the crystals keep the boss in your field of view because he'll launch an attack at you that'll knock you off the platform. You can either block it or dodge roll from it to avoid that attack.

https://youtu.be/pVkb5H1mKcA?t=4705

Veinblood1965 · April 2021

Vevvev wrote: »

Save the defense glyph for the final stage of his fight and when it's active don't interrupt his channeled attack. It'll reflect all his damage back at him and make the fight far easier. I did a no cp run of him the other day and I recorded it, but I accidentally recorded my house audio at the same time like an idiot. I'll put in a spoiler the timestamp of when I did the final boss. It's basically a DPS race where you need a lot of heal over time effects.

Also while you're hitting the crystals keep the boss in your field of view because he'll launch an attack at you that'll knock you off the platform. You can either block it or dodge roll from it to avoid that attack.
https://youtu.be/pVkb5H1mKcA?t=4705

"Save the defense glyph for the final stage of his fight and when it's active" Which defence glyph do you recommend? And how do you tell when it's active? Does it act like a normal shield status effect? I've not used defence glyphs before.

Vevvev · April 2021

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Vevvev wrote: »

Save the defense glyph for the final stage of his fight and when it's active don't interrupt his channeled attack. It'll reflect all his damage back at him and make the fight far easier. I did a no cp run of him the other day and I recorded it, but I accidentally recorded my house audio at the same time like an idiot. I'll put in a spoiler the timestamp of when I did the final boss. It's basically a DPS race where you need a lot of heal over time effects.

Also while you're hitting the crystals keep the boss in your field of view because he'll launch an attack at you that'll knock you off the platform. You can either block it or dodge roll from it to avoid that attack.
https://youtu.be/pVkb5H1mKcA?t=4705

"Save the defense glyph for the final stage of his fight and when it's active" Which defence glyph do you recommend? And how do you tell when it's active? Does it act like a normal shield status effect? I've not used defence glyphs before.

I meant the defense powerup, my bad. It is the blue shield on the ground and what it does is boost your defenses as well as give you a shield that reflects all projectiles fired at you.

The arena has 4 glyphs on the ground. Defense, healing, speed, and power. Speed gives movement speed and regeneration, healing grants you a large heal over time, power boosts all damage you do, and defense does what I said in the paragraph above.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · April 2021

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

My guess is that new gear is not your answer. This is a mechanic heavy fight, with a 3 soft DPS checks. I am generally going to advise keeping your damage high rather than going extra tanky. Definitely be sure you have a shield, and that you are keeping up Rune for your major armor buffs.

First question, what is actually killing you? Are you generally full on stamina and magic when you die? Or are you running out of resources and unable to stay alive at that point?

If you are killing the healer and the guard, I am confused as to what the real issue is. You do understand how the portal mechanic works right? Kill the ghostly clanfear on top of the portal that is illuminated.

Safe strat goes something like this:

Phase 1: Start out by burning the boss. Its important to get ground dots applied before he spawns so you can put a good burn on him. Once he ports, make sure you interupt his channel. Slotting crushing shock is handy for this, but shouldnt be mandatory. You definitely want use sweeps as your main damage spammable. Any other skull attack can be blocked or dodged. Once the Crem Guard spawns, take him out. This is ultimate worthy if you have one. Destro ult is hard to beat in VMA. Once the guard is dead, push boss to 70%, then kill the healer, then use the portal. Make sure to not leave a healer alive, but technically, you can leave the Crem Guard alive, especially if a second spawns.

I try to avoid grabbing any sigils until I am ready to go upstairs, then i think the best for the top is the speed sigil (it boosts all stat regen). Running out of stamina is the number one cause of death upstairs in my experience. Tri pots work here as well if you struggle with stamina.

Phase 2: You have three crystals to kill. There will be one immediately to your left. Law down ground dots, and start to DPS. Once a wall spawns, move in the opposite direction it is traveling to get to it. With good DPS, you should be able to take out at least one crystal before the wall, but nothing requires you to do so. Stay behind the wall do damage where you can, perhaps dot up another crystal, but dont get caught and get knocked off, as it will probably kill you. There are two other mechanics you need to pay attention to. There are ground AOEs going off, dont stand in them, and the boss will charge heavy attacks. I think these are better if dodgerolled. It gives immunity and allows you to stay on the crystals.

Repeat until the third wall. If you are very close to the last crystal, kill it. If you are not, jump down in the center on purpose before the third wall blows up. Better to jump down ready to fight, then get knocked in the lava. There will be a guard in your face, kill it, and go back upstairs to finish the job. Try to be sure you are shielded and at full health before you kill the last crystal. With timing you can jump to the center, but likely you are going to get thrown in the lava most of the time.

Phase 3: STEP ONE, DO NOT PANIC!!!! If you are near the shield sigil, grab it. If not, priority number one is interrupt the boss as he will immediately start his channel, either with bash or crushing shock. Then grab shield and damage sigil. Grab the healing one too if convenient. You then have a few options, but most important, get the golden ghosts and focus the boss. Burn boss at that point. You should be able to ignore the summoners, but if your DPS is low, you probably want to take them out. Save the third ghost Spectral Explosion for when the Guard spawns, kill the guard while the room is stunned (and any summoner at that point), rinse and repeat.

Once you get the hang of it, it goes like this:

Drop alt and Nuke boss to 70% where he stands. Go upstairs, kill three crystals by end of first shield stage, drop down, interrupt boss, nuke boss, win. With good DPS you wont see a crematorial guard in either downstairs phase, a second shield when upstairs, or a second ghost when downstairs.

Toppling Charge can also be a handy skill for this fight. It covers your interrupt needs and also gives really good mobility with the crystal phase. Radiant glory (as opposed to radiant destruction) is also really nice for the downstairs to keep you alive as you execute. Probably wouldnt run either for score runs, but for a first clear, they are handy.

This is extremely helpful. I think it is the interrupt im missing, I'm running over and bashing him right after he ports but after that I'm running, a ranged interrupt will help. When the Jeff the Guard spawns that's where I die a LOT, while I'm killing Jeff the boss is hitting me with his interruptible skill. If I can get Jeff down I can usually get up top. Last night I got all three crystals down and then died when the boss came down most likely due to not interrupting him since that's when I die at first.

I did not know crushing shock interrupts, I'll add that tonight. I haven't used any AOE's other than once that generate from myself(I forget the name). I'll slot that tonight I know which one you are referring to, my main is a Magsorc, this new toon is a hybrid of a lot of things but he's darn fun to play. I mainly use sweeps as my dmg spammable, resources are never the issue in fact I'm at full magic all the time almost. I could use more stamina for the rolling and blocking, I'll switch out some CP's tonight to that.

I hope I get that darn staff first try, I ran normal VMA about 30 times and no staff yet. Thanks all and thanks you a LOT for typing this up Oreyn.

I would be sure that you are using at least two ground dots. The obvious ones are Elemental Blockade/Unstable wall from the Destro line (unstable is better IMO), and Blazing Spear, templar skill. Barbed trap is also surprisingly good. Easy to put on the boss before he spawns, works on crystals, keeps up minor force for more damage, and the real kicker, it will stop a summoner in his tracks. Gives you a ton of time before having to worry about them. I prefer channeled acceleration for minor Force in VMA on magic toons, but trap works.

Both Crushing Shock (not force pulse) and Toppling charge will act as an interrupt. CP points into Dodge roll and bash are nice as well. You could also just use crushing shock as your spammable and drop sweeps. With Ring of Pale Order, both will heal you. DEFINITELY use a damage shield from the light armor skill line.

Gun to my head to get a flawless title on my magplar, my bars probably look like this.

Front: Sweeps, Crushing Shock, Radiant Destruction (or Glory), Dampen Magic, Inner Light, Meteor.
Back: Shards, Unstable Wall, Channeled Acceleration (or Trap), Channeled Focus, Extended Ritual, Destro Ult.

Inner light and meteor are just there for the passives. Not the end of the world if you dont have them.

If trying to speed things up for score, I would probably just use CS (or even force pulse) as a spammable and add another DOT. I would definitely use Radiant Destruction over Glory, and use Ritual of Retribution over Extended Ritual.

Prefight: Channeled Accel/Trap, Channeled Focus, Ritual, Shards, Wall, Spam the crap out of jabs or CS when he spawns. You can also drop an alt at that point, but if DPS is low, probably better to hold for the Guard that spawns. I wouldn't use any alts upstairs, save the second one for the downstairs phase.

Before you go upstairs, recast Channeled Focus and Acceleration if using it, When you get upstairs, Shards, Wall, Trap (if using it), and Ritual, All get thrown on the first crystal and any subsequent crystal. I would also reapply Channeled Focus (and Acceleration) and reapply your shield right before killing the last crystal.

Once downstairs, Make sure you put down your ground dots after you interupt, but usually dont reapply again until the boss ports. Otherwise, keep up with your spammable. Spammble becomes Radiant Destruction (or Glory) when boss or cyrstals is are about 30%. One nice thing about RD is that its not the end of the world if you dont finish a crystal and have to move to the next one. I have had clears where I dont kill any crystals on the first go aroudn, go downstairs, come back up and just beam all three to finish them off.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · April 2021

Vevvev wrote: »

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Vevvev wrote: »

Save the defense glyph for the final stage of his fight and when it's active don't interrupt his channeled attack. It'll reflect all his damage back at him and make the fight far easier. I did a no cp run of him the other day and I recorded it, but I accidentally recorded my house audio at the same time like an idiot. I'll put in a spoiler the timestamp of when I did the final boss. It's basically a DPS race where you need a lot of heal over time effects.

Also while you're hitting the crystals keep the boss in your field of view because he'll launch an attack at you that'll knock you off the platform. You can either block it or dodge roll from it to avoid that attack.
https://youtu.be/pVkb5H1mKcA?t=4705

"Save the defense glyph for the final stage of his fight and when it's active" Which defence glyph do you recommend? And how do you tell when it's active? Does it act like a normal shield status effect? I've not used defence glyphs before.

I meant the defense powerup, my bad. It is the blue shield on the ground and what it does is boost your defenses as well as give you a shield that reflects all projectiles fired at you.

The arena has 4 glyphs on the ground. Defense, healing, speed, and power. Speed gives movement speed and regeneration, healing grants you a large heal over time, power boosts all damage you do, and defense does what I said in the paragraph above.

Definitely agree with this. You can use in the first phase, but I think its a mistake. Its much easier to interrupt manually early in the fight then having to worry about it at the end. And honestly, with a little practice and good burst, you can burn him to 70% where he stands, especially if you open with a destro ult, and properly pre buff your ground DOTs.

The easiest way to finish the last phase is to honestly grab the shield and damage sigil, dont interrupt the channel as mentioned, and just nuke him. I dont even both with the summoners or the gold ghosts unless they are right on top of the boss, in which case I do grab them. Not 100% sure on the mechanics of it, but I do believe he gets some sort of buff when he grabs a ghost. If he gets all three, its game over, but with good DPS you can kill before the third ghost spawns.

Veinblood1965 · April 2021

Thanks all I completed it last night, was quite fun. Ended up with a perfected mace and sword. I wasn't aware we received two weapons, my other toons will appreciate those lol!

zvavi · April 2021

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Thanks all I completed it last night, was quite fun. Ended up with a perfected mace and sword. I wasn't aware we received two weapons, my other toons will appreciate those lol!

You receive 1 weapon set, since s/b are coming as a pair, (need 2 of them) you get both. Same for dual wield. But staves, bows, 2h weapons drop on their own.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · April 2021

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Thanks all I completed it last night, was quite fun. Ended up with a perfected mace and sword. I wasn't aware we received two weapons, my other toons will appreciate those lol!

Grats. It will be way easier the second time.

Veinblood1965 · April 2021

Oh ok that makes sense. I ran it again yest

zvavi wrote: »

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Thanks all I completed it last night, was quite fun. Ended up with a perfected mace and sword. I wasn't aware we received two weapons, my other toons will appreciate those lol!

You receive 1 weapon set, since s/b are coming as a pair, (need 2 of them) you get both. Same for dual wield. But staves, bows, 2h weapons drop on their own.

Thanks that makes sense. I started it again yesterday and didn't die once until the 5th stage. Kind of fun now actually.

SickleCider · April 2021

Congrats!

Just a general tip for resists: I've found that running two light Chudan pieces is a good concession when I need more armor that doesn't severely impact my damage output. It's a very economic monster set. I use this in vVH.

Veinblood1965 · April 2021

Versispellis wrote: »

Congrats!

Just a general tip for resists: I've found that running two light Chudan pieces is a good concession when I need more armor that doesn't severely impact my damage output. It's a very economic monster set. I use this in vVH.

I forgot about that set but it does look like a good set for VMA. I think I have the head and shoulders in a chest somewhere.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · April 2021

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Versispellis wrote: »

Congrats!

Just a general tip for resists: I've found that running two light Chudan pieces is a good concession when I need more armor that doesn't severely impact my damage output. It's a very economic monster set. I use this in vVH.

I forgot about that set but it does look like a good set for VMA. I think I have the head and shoulders in a chest somewhere.

Once you clear VMA once, go glass cannon and never look back. The best defense is an overwhelming amount of offense. Sets like Chudan can be great for a first clear, but you are already there.

GreenHere · April 2021

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Versispellis wrote: »

Congrats!

Just a general tip for resists: I've found that running two light Chudan pieces is a good concession when I need more armor that doesn't severely impact my damage output. It's a very economic monster set. I use this in vVH.

I forgot about that set but it does look like a good set for VMA. I think I have the head and shoulders in a chest somewhere.

Once you clear VMA once, go glass cannon and never look back. The best defense is an overwhelming amount of offense. Sets like Chudan can be great for a first clear, but you are already there.

This seems like laughably bad advice for people who are just starting to get clears in vMA... but it's true! :P

I remember when I started learning and finally beating vMA for the first times, and I also remember reading advice like "go full damage spec!" at the time and thinking that that was just people trolling players who didn't know better. After all, I'd just gotten my first clears so I knew for a fact that you needed good defense and healing in addition to damage. How could people seriously be recommending glass cannon builds for vMA?!

But sure enough, as I got more comfortable and began sacrificing this n' that for more damage more damage more damage, things just started to fall into place. Turns out when you just o b l i t e r a t e fools before they even have much of a chance to attack you, vMA really does start to feel easy! And more fun, too! Less stressful, at the very least.

I'm not a pro or anything, but I am to the point where I don't have to feel like I need to psyche myself up for vMA anymore, and a run that takes over 50 minutes would be an exceptionally bad run for me now. I spent a LOT more time than was necessary doing things the "hard" way though, before finally going in with the highest damage I could manage; mostly because I just didn't believe or understand that you really can bully the arena with enough DPS.

All that is a long-winded and probably unnecessary way of saying, "Yeah, I agree with @Oreyn_Bearclaw on this! Go glass cannon as soon as you can manage it!" I just wanted to share my perspective, in case there are any of my fellow skeptical dummies out there who didn't initially see the wisdom in that advice. haha ;P

Good luck in future runs! : )

Veinblood1965 · April 2021

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Versispellis wrote: »

Congrats!

Just a general tip for resists: I've found that running two light Chudan pieces is a good concession when I need more armor that doesn't severely impact my damage output. It's a very economic monster set. I use this in vVH.

I forgot about that set but it does look like a good set for VMA. I think I have the head and shoulders in a chest somewhere.

Once you clear VMA once, go glass cannon and never look back. The best defense is an overwhelming amount of offense. Sets like Chudan can be great for a first clear, but you are already there.

That's pretty much what I did the other night the second time around, just beat the crap out of the bosses and mini bosses. I'm at vault of umbrage now. Seriously this is the funnest thing I've done in ESO in a long time. I actually like the new vatershan hollows also but I'm PVE not PVP and didn't see any rewards in there worth trying again for.

H3rBie · April 2021

vma is fun any, also like it a lot.

you may have noticed it already, but crushing shock is can cause problems at arena 7 endboss xD

Oreyn_Bearclaw · April 2021

GreenHere wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Versispellis wrote: »

Congrats!

Just a general tip for resists: I've found that running two light Chudan pieces is a good concession when I need more armor that doesn't severely impact my damage output. It's a very economic monster set. I use this in vVH.

I forgot about that set but it does look like a good set for VMA. I think I have the head and shoulders in a chest somewhere.

Once you clear VMA once, go glass cannon and never look back. The best defense is an overwhelming amount of offense. Sets like Chudan can be great for a first clear, but you are already there.

This seems like laughably bad advice for people who are just starting to get clears in vMA... but it's true! :P

I remember when I started learning and finally beating vMA for the first times, and I also remember reading advice like "go full damage spec!" at the time and thinking that that was just people trolling players who didn't know better. After all, I'd just gotten my first clears so I knew for a fact that you needed good defense and healing in addition to damage. How could people seriously be recommending glass cannon builds for vMA?!

But sure enough, as I got more comfortable and began sacrificing this n' that for more damage more damage more damage, things just started to fall into place. Turns out when you just o b l i t e r a t e fools before they even have much of a chance to attack you, vMA really does start to feel easy! And more fun, too! Less stressful, at the very least.

I'm not a pro or anything, but I am to the point where I don't have to feel like I need to psyche myself up for vMA anymore, and a run that takes over 50 minutes would be an exceptionally bad run for me now. I spent a LOT more time than was necessary doing things the "hard" way though, before finally going in with the highest damage I could manage; mostly because I just didn't believe or understand that you really can bully the arena with enough DPS.

All that is a long-winded and probably unnecessary way of saying, "Yeah, I agree with @Oreyn_Bearclaw on this! Go glass cannon as soon as you can manage it!" I just wanted to share my perspective, in case there are any of my fellow skeptical dummies out there who didn't initially see the wisdom in that advice. haha ;P

Good luck in future runs! : )

Haha, Yep. VMA at the extreme end of things is about Spawn Killing and Boss Nukes. The only boss that I dont nuke where they stand at this point is stage 5. I can do a platform 2 nuke, but its a bit dicey. Most of the rounds come down to Camp Portal A with ground Dots, Nuke Portals B and C as they come to you. That of course takes a bit of practice.

I wont say that defense is not important. If I am going for a flawless title on a new toon, I might run a bit more health and regen (by swapping a glyph or two), but otherwise, its damage all day long. I never think about anything but straight damage sets or DPS bars for the most part. A shield and a HOT is all you need for defense (and the shield is optional).

I used basically the same build to get Flawless on all 6 magic classes (sorc and Nightblade I did a long time ago with different builds, but have done them again with these).

Front Bar: Force Pulse, Shield, Inner Light, Class Apex Damage skill (frags, Merciless, blastbones, Deep Fissure, Etc), Flex (execute or just one more DOT), Meteor
Back: Unstable Wall, Channeled Acceleration, Class Ground DOT/Orbs, Class HOT, Class Sustain Tool/Defensive buff, Destro Ult

You can certainly break from that to optimize each class, but it works very well. Necro literally took me one try, and warden only took 2. I was just so used to where everything was, that changing classes really didnt matter.

Gear was False God, Mothers Sorrow, Grothdarr, but now I would probably make room for ROTP if Flawless was my goal, because why wouldn't you.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · April 2021

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

Versispellis wrote: »

Congrats!

Just a general tip for resists: I've found that running two light Chudan pieces is a good concession when I need more armor that doesn't severely impact my damage output. It's a very economic monster set. I use this in vVH.

I forgot about that set but it does look like a good set for VMA. I think I have the head and shoulders in a chest somewhere.

Once you clear VMA once, go glass cannon and never look back. The best defense is an overwhelming amount of offense. Sets like Chudan can be great for a first clear, but you are already there.

That's pretty much what I did the other night the second time around, just beat the crap out of the bosses and mini bosses. I'm at vault of umbrage now. Seriously this is the funnest thing I've done in ESO in a long time. I actually like the new vatershan hollows also but I'm PVE not PVP and didn't see any rewards in there worth trying again for.

Daggers are Meta for some stam Specs, assuming you can flank the boss. That staff is fun in PVP if you like rage tells. Haha. It sounds crazy, but play VMA a few times and then hop in PVP. You will feel much stronger. VMA is a great training ground to get a handle on ESO combat mechanics, and those mechanics are applicable in both PVP and PVE. I am not saying they are identical, but they are closer than most people care to admit. Anyone that says they suck at PVP but are great at PVE are lying to both you and themselves. LOL.

ccfeeling · April 2021

Stormproof!

Veinblood1965 · April 2021

Well last night ran final boss and did it the first time without dying. I loaded up on DPS and used crushing shock. Still no inferno staff! My alternate toons will appreciate the weapons though.The only thing that is a pain is getting the ghost spell to fire off as on PS4 you have to hit triangle and circle at the same time, it would be nice if we could map things to the left up down and side arrows. Especially the emote button who needs that during a fight?

Thanks all!

simple_specops · April 2021

Look at the death recap and see what's killing you! When the boss spawn in middle do as much dps as you can, if you can nuke it to 70% then you good, if you cant save destro ulti for when he ports, so you kill crematorial guard in aoe. Crematorial guard MUST BE ALWAYS A PRIORITY!! Once you go up be careful not to be hit by the skull he throws, and be aware of the moving wall mechanic! If the dot damage gets too much you can always go down kill crematorial guard and go up again. Once all the crystal are broken go down and get SHIELD AND WING SIGIL! This way all the ranged damage you get bounces back to the boss. On this stage you MUST PRIORITIZE GOLDEN GHOST, if boss gets 3 then you die. If you manage to get 3 then get the AXE sigil and nuke boss, if he gets back up then use the CHALICE SIGIL ,focus and execute the boss. On my first try it took me 8hours just to kill last boss! Your setup is good maybe replace spell strategist with mother sorrow , but is mandatory, mechanics kills you in VMA! Also, once you finished in front of you will spawn the chest of disappointment, so get ready!