Flawless vMA questions

RisenEclipse · March 2022

So I recently tried my hand at vMA and found I made it through most of the arenas pretty easy. I died only a few times, and the first was my bad because I burned down the giant boss in the ice arena too quickly and got overwhelmed by mobs.

Right now I'm CP 968. I'm wondering what CP level I should be to try to get flawless? Should I wait until I get more CP to go for the achievement? Is the achievement even that big of a deal anymore and even worthwhile still to try and get?

PvP_Exploiter · March 2022

I would say its a worthwhile personal achievement irrespective of others opinions.

Personally it got way too easy to achieve when they introduced the Ring of Pale Order which devalues it. There's no way to tell if someone used it and they could lie, but the achievement doesn't hold the prestige it once did.

You should be fine with your CP, the boss of Arena 5 and the flowers on Arena 7 are the most common places to die afaik. 5 is just an experience thing, you'll learn how quick to push the boss and when to kill adds. 7 is kinda luck / rng, again comes with experience.

Go get it.

Tannus15 · March 2022

you don't need any more cp than you have. it's really just not getting wrecked by flower rng on the poison stage.

the achievement is still worthwhile, but to be honest, most people don't even know what flawless means. i saw a poll which put maelstrom arena champion (normal clear) ranked higher than flawless or stormproof.

People who DO know what it means probably have done it at least on their main, if not on multiple characters and it's more like a nod of recognition that you know what you're doing rather than "wow, that guy must be amazing". Before AwA I usually put the flawless title on my tanks because it amused me to do so.

ShawnLaRock · March 2022

Doomaflitchy / The Gameroom has some great builds for both vMA and vVH flawless clears - as well as one bar, and literally one button flawless clears.

S.

Electrone_Magnus · March 2022

If you can do stormproof easily, then if you play a bit carefully flawless can be done. Sigils can be used which help alot with preventing deaths.

Selminus · March 2022

Pale Order is noob bait. Nobody good has ever needed that. Make a durable build, take your time and ignore the timer.

Tannus15 · March 2022

Selminus wrote: »

Pale Order is noob bait. Nobody good has ever needed that. Make a durable build, take your time and ignore the timer.

i think of it more as a way to level the classes somewhat. sorc and magplar always had an easier time in vMA because of their build in healing, crit surge and jabs. pale order really just granted other classes like DK that option.

Vevvev · March 2022

My advice is don't move around a whole lot in arena 7, and when going a no death run do not be afraid to pick up glyphs. You're not score pushing so picking them up when you need them to assure a victory is totally acceptable.

Another thing about arena 7 is only kill one of the menders and then hide under the umbrella of the other when he does his roar. Never interrupt that roar and you'll get a lot of free damage in.

Folkb · March 2022

Psh flawless is for noobs you want s real title go for master angler :P

Bat · March 2022

Don't wait if you want it, remember you can use *all* sigils throughout the entire arena. I accidentally got it at CP670 something on PC-NA because I barely had the survivability for it so used a lot of sigils lol.

fred4 · March 2022

Tannus15 wrote: »

Selminus wrote: »

Pale Order is noob bait. Nobody good has ever needed that. Make a durable build, take your time and ignore the timer.

i think of it more as a way to level the classes somewhat. sorc and magplar always had an easier time in vMA because of their build in healing, crit surge and jabs. pale order really just granted other classes like DK that option.

I agree. There are any number of survival options that don't take away too much damage. If you're going to be snobbish about Pale Order, you will quickly end up in a rabbit hole. Sweeps, Crit Surge, Swallow Soul, Sap Essence, Brawler, newly minted Burning Embers, Hexos Ward, health regen (Sithis, Strategic Reserve CP, gold food). Even just something like Vicious Ophidian, while not strictly about survival, makes the arena easier and has always existed. Among the newer options, speed is possibly underrated too, e.g. Race Against Time. Then there's the pet sorc option or something as simple as light or medium armor Aetherial Ascension. You can be at the resistance cap in light or medium with the full sustain and damage / crit / penetration buffs of those armor types (Hexos Ward is more damage, though). The list probably goes on.

tsaescishoeshiner · April 2022

My completely unhinged advice for Stage 7 is to pop the poison spores intentionally and in advance. If you run towards them and sprint away BEFORE you see their AoE, you can despawn them and have a temporary nice little clear patch. I got my first flawless by accident.

Finishing vMA was the point at which I considered myself a PvE graduate. Once I learned vMA, I realized I could do any world boss or veteran DLC dungeon, including hardmodes. I'm not the best parser or the highest DPS, but it's all about learning how to pump out DPS while focusing on mechanics. Getting flawless was like a nice extra thing for me, because it felt like just a matter of practice. If vMA felt not hair-pullingly hard for you, flawless might feel like that next big accomplishment.

nickl413 · April 2022

RisenEclipse wrote: »

So I recently tried my hand at vMA and found I made it through most of the arenas pretty easy. I died only a few times, and the first was my bad because I burned down the giant boss in the ice arena too quickly and got overwhelmed by mobs.

Right now I'm CP 968. I'm wondering what CP level I should be to try to get flawless? Should I wait until I get more CP to go for the achievement? Is the achievement even that big of a deal anymore and even worthwhile still to try and get?

If it didnt seem hard for you, then it's only a matter of knowing all the spawns and mechs really well and you should be able to pull off flawless after a few practice runs. If your dyeing in the same spot every time, I recommend redoing that one round over and over again until you got it down pat. Thats what I did with stage 5. Now I only die on that stage if I zone out and miss a Troll. I also recommend finding a reference point in the arena to fight from. If you're always fighting from the same spot, or at least know where you are in relation to that point, you know where the next bad guy is coming from.
Stage 7 boss is the one that takes a lot of practice to clear flawlessly. Because other than the trash mobs, stuff spawns in random places, like the spores, the lady that makes them erupt, the guys with the shields. Some times you accidently kill both of those guys and bashing is the only option.
Took me over 50 runs to get my first flawless and took months to just clear it the first time. It's way easier now though. There's so many self heals now plus higher health, you can just about turn your brain off in there and get a flawless run.