How to farm masters weapons?

LadyLethalla · August 2021

I couldn't get past the round with the sacrifices (7?), solo.

FrancisCrawford · August 2021

The two-part trigger for these questions is of course:

The Year One event, starting 8/26, will have double DSA drops.
Update 31, coming 8/23 on PCs and any month now on consoles, will make the Master's Ice Staff a lot more interesting.

Also, companions could make duoing DSA a little easier. But it sounds like there could be rounds in which companions are likely to "stand in stupid", get pulled into pits with ghosts, or otherwise have difficulty contributing.

Pevey · August 2021

To answer your questions:

There are still no saves.

I think the differences between vet and normal are mostly just whether or not the mechanic can be ignored or is something that could kill you. Like there is a round where you have to keep a fire lit. On vet, you have to pay attention, but I don’t remember doing that on normal (it’s been a while). And the round where you have to drop down in the skelly circles—pretty sure you don’t have to bother on normal. The desert round where you have to stand on the tile when you get the circle on your feet, also don’t have to do that on normal, I think. Normal is super, super easy.

I’m sure quite a few people could do it with a companion. Certainly it is doable by two people and two companions.

Amottica · August 2021

ccfeeling wrote: »

VDSA , it's a very old 4 man dungeon , 25k dps is good enough to complete .

In VDSA , it's all about the mechanism , watch some youtubes and the written guide before you go , not really hard .

It takes about 1.5 - 2 hr .

Pretty much this. If the rest of your group is experienced and knowledgeable of the mechanics then it will take as much time as this person noted. If the group is less experienced and trying to figure out the mechanics expect it to take several hours as others have noted.

You ask about your role and if you should tank. That really depends on what you are better at and also who else is in your group. People tend to handle new content better in the role they are most comfortable in.

kargen27 · August 2021

Zacuel wrote: »

Took 4 hours for my first clear.

So I'd say farming is off the table. Just worry about getting it done.

That can be dropped down a bunch if you have one player that knows the mechanics well and the rest of the group listens.

Ippokrates · August 2021

LadyLethalla wrote: »

I couldn't get past the round with the sacrifices (7?), solo.

Me too, Dark Mage is awful & she heals herself.... And RNG factor is crucial (to get banekin not titan three times in row^^).

But than Blackwood came and companions with it, soooo... Now you just need to turn one into tank, stick it to the Dark Mage with heavy attack (and heal him from time to time) and then you are free to clear the map from second boss and all sacrifices.

Then in final round you are doing similar thing - stick companion to boss, slowly drop his HP to 80%, kill both minibosses and once you finish, go for DPS burst and kill main boss before you will be overwhelmed by other minibosses.

FrancisCrawford · August 2021

Pevey wrote: »

I’m sure quite a few people could do it with a companion. Certainly it is doable by two people and two companions.

That is the base case plan for my wife @DarcyMardin and me.

We're not elite players. Dungeons we have duoed, but found challenging even in the Companions era, include nWGT and vVoM. How might nDSA compare in difficulty to those?

FrancisCrawford · August 2021

Ippokrates wrote: »

LadyLethalla wrote: »

I couldn't get past the round with the sacrifices (7?), solo.

Me too, Dark Mage is awful & she heals herself.... And RNG factor is crucial (to get banekin not titan three times in row^^).

But than Blackwood came and companions with it, soooo... Now you just need to turn one into tank, stick it to the Dark Mage with heavy attack (and heal him from time to time) and then you are free to clear the map from second boss and all sacrifices.

Then in final round you are doing similar thing - stick companion to boss, slowly drop his HP to 80%, kill both minibosses and once you finish, go for DPS burst and kill main boss before you will be overwhelmed by other minibosses.

So a tank who doesn't position bosses very accurately and doesn't chain adds is plenty tank enough?

mzprx · August 2021

whoever wants to do vDSA on PC-EU hit me up (@Inquisixion in game), my friends and i we do it quite often, i love it in there. no idea why. it's always a fun run with a ton of banter along the way. the best time we had was around 45 minutes, but it usually takes us around 1 hour 20-40 minutes. always easy runs with are a ton of fun for everyone involved. and i do NOT mean carry runs. we have taken a lot of players through vDSA and we do it because we enjoy the content, not for gold. so if anyone wants an easy and, most of all, extremely fun vDSA run let me know. any roles, any CP (well, 160 minimum, as you want to use the weapons you get from there)..

p.s.: we always blame the healer. as you do..

Ippokrates · August 2021

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

Ippokrates wrote: »

LadyLethalla wrote: »

I couldn't get past the round with the sacrifices (7?), solo.

Me too, Dark Mage is awful & she heals herself.... And RNG factor is crucial (to get banekin not titan three times in row^^).

But than Blackwood came and companions with it, soooo... Now you just need to turn one into tank, stick it to the Dark Mage with heavy attack (and heal him from time to time) and then you are free to clear the map from second boss and all sacrifices.

Then in final round you are doing similar thing - stick companion to boss, slowly drop his HP to 80%, kill both minibosses and once you finish, go for DPS burst and kill main boss before you will be overwhelmed by other minibosses.

So a tank who doesn't position bosses very accurately and doesn't chain adds is plenty tank enough?

She (Dark Mage) is standing in the same position, close to spawnspot, in the corner of the arena & companion is taking aggro only from her - and that is enough to clear rest of the arena without constant crystal frags, stuns & silence

gariondavey · August 2021

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

Pevey wrote: »

I’m sure quite a few people could do it with a companion. Certainly it is doable by two people and two companions.

That is the base case plan for my wife @DarcyMardin and me.

We're not elite players. Dungeons we have duoed, but found challenging even in the Companions era, include nWGT and vVoM. How might nDSA compare in difficulty to those?

You can faceroll ndsa solo, so with 2 + 2 companions, it should be even easier

TwinStripeUK · August 2021

russelmmendoza wrote: »

If you can do vet ma you can do this too.

Its just mechanics like vma.

Goodluck and happy hunting.

Groups doing vdsa is quite rare and scarce.

I still think DSA should be added to Dungeon Finder, as it's not that different from other 4 man content.

Some of the gear is really good but nobody runs it anymore (outside of events)

Fennwitty · August 2021

I don't suppose anyone's found a way to hurry up the NPC dialog? Seems like that's the main time sink

Pevey · August 2021

Fennwitty wrote: »

I don't suppose anyone's found a way to hurry up the NPC dialog? Seems like that's the main time sink

Yes, the dialogue and wait times in dsa are truly OP.

And, yes, Francis, I think you and your wife should give it a go. I think it is probably easier than most dlc dungeons on normal. Except perhaps the last boss if you can’t burst him down. And for that there are various strategies you can find on YouTube.

ImSoPro · August 2021

Just do nDSA. It’s easy as hell to solo. I don’t have the patience to solo vDSA. That takes too long to complete even once, forget about farming 😭

Merforum · August 2021

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

Pevey wrote: »

I’m sure quite a few people could do it with a companion. Certainly it is doable by two people and two companions.

That is the base case plan for my wife @DarcyMardin and me.

We're not elite players. Dungeons we have duoed, but found challenging even in the Companions era, include nWGT and vVoM. How might nDSA compare in difficulty to those?

It's actually pretty easy. Just soloed nDSA today with my pet sorc and Bastian, about 1.5 hours. The bosses are actually easier than DLC/Vet dungeon bosses. Their attacks are based off player skills, like one has crystal frag, mines, one has NB sap essence or soul siphon. I would say that there are only 2 hard parts

1. in the 2nd to last I think arena, there are dudes walking to altars who will turn into dragons if you don't kill them fast enough, and in the last fight one of the bosses keeps healing herself, I found that ignoring her and killing all the adds and melee boss first, while killing all alter dudes, then focus last boss where you can interrupt her healing spell and burn her down

2. the last boss who is pretty weak by himself but if you can't burn him down fast enough, he will reanimate ALL the other bosses from all arenas, typically I'll have 10+ bosses chasing me on final boss when I am solo, some of them have tons of CC, like fossilize, etc. I found that using an immovable Pot in that fight works very well if you are solo, and just focus the main boss only, all the others die when you kill him, I used heavy attack build with vamp ult in final too, didn't use it but mist might help too

BTW with 2 people and 2 companions you should be fine.

Vevvev · August 2021

Mariusghost84 wrote: »

Wow, holy crap. Had no idea it was such a huge endavor. Thank you for the reply. Basically masters weapons are off the table for a while. Cant imagine finding a group that is able to spend 4 hours on a clear.

Took my one group an hour and a half after getting 2 DPS that knew what they were doing. Veteran is where the mechanics matter, and the big pug killer is the vampire level where the DPS have to kill the ghosts in the bottom levels. The final boss can be cheesed but the healer needs to be able to tank and hold taunt on the main boss while the main Tank tanks everything.

AlnilamE · August 2021

In normal, 2 people and 2 companions is pretty easy. And it's a good way to level companions as well.

oterWitz · August 2021

Good reminder about the double drops in DSA as well Francis.

I'll probably do some solo runs of nDSA during the event looking for the Master's Ice Staff also. If anyone wants to group up let me know here or in game: PC/NA @oterwitz, though I tend to play after American primetime. I also wouldn't mind some vet if people are up for it. The extra line for the Perfected Master's Staff is 103 spell damage, which I'm thinking would be nice on the front bar.

robpr · August 2021

LadyLethalla wrote: »

I couldn't get past the round with the sacrifices (7?), solo.

Depends on class you play, I did it on magden and magdk already. That boss is nasty but doable if you 100% focus on one first. Melee dude's attacks are stronger when Dark Mage is around (detonating the Nova with blinding flash) so I always focus him first no matter how annoying the mage is. More than healing enough stamina for rolling is important, so tri-food+tri-pots are recommended. Use Ring of the Pale Order if you are able.
As for sacrifice dudes if you dont kill them its not end of the world and depending on what armor they are wearing you can quickly decide if you want to ignore them or not. Cloth armor will spawn couple of Scamps. Medium armor dude will spawn Harvester, heavy armor dude will spawn a Titan, that is always 100% priority to kill.