i did most of my vateshran runs on either a mag dk, or mag warden

the mag warden was the "safe but slower" route and the mag dk got me the trifecta (a bit more dmg, but survival was a bit more dicey)

the warden build i used at the time was ice furnace (weapons/jewelry) + iceheart + icy conjurer

the mag dk i used at the time was pale order ring + auroran + blackrose destro (front bar) + maelstrom destro (back bar) + monster set (i think at the time i was zaan before they nerfed it)

i will say though, gear is only a portion of it, another is actually practice and knowledge of the arena and game mechanics, for example if you read my mag dk setup i used for that, i used auroran and most people dont think that set is very good lol, but i liked it lol

I don't know if this is great advice, but I prefer to rely on maxing out my dps as much as possible to essentially avoid mechanics or dying from ads. I suppose that's risky, but I found the longer you drag out fights, the more opportunities there are to mess up or run out of sustain. If you're not score pushing, then whats the harm in making the runs faster, but beatable.

So for me, that meant just running a meta dps parse setup like Rele body + Advancing Yokeda or Pillar front + MA 2H back on Stam Sorc.. I slot Pale Order instead of Kilt, Reaving Blows CP (7% direct damage healing) instead of Wrathful Strikes, and maybe adjust my red CP a bit. I like 10% movement speed, 30% for 6s on kill, 1500 resource on kill, and 90 regen stars.

Maybe swap any morph you can where there is a dps vs aoe/survival option. Eg. Bloodthirst instead of Rapid Strikes.

If I had Sul-Xan's Torment, I would definitely use that instead of Relequen, but my trial set farming is at the bare minimum right now.

Make sure to collect the secret HP and Resource bonus of your choice. If you're not sure how, google it. Super helpful and easy.

DigiAngel wrote: »

I've tried a couple...the onebar mage one lasted ok until I got to run around in the lava...I make it to the three mages that shoot at you and never had time to apply any defense.

You should try aggroing them while dodging so no projectiles hit you, mobs in pve don't attack you every sec so you'll have some time afterwards

I just completed the no death, no sigil in 45 minutes achievement on my Stam Arcanist and it was by far the easiest attempt of all my classes (which is all classes). I've always found stamina to be easier as there is a lot of running in there, you can pretty much run past all the mobs. Heartland Conqueour + Pillar of Nirn and Pale order. DW with Nirn first dagger and either precise or sharpened for second, Heartland doubles the traits so its like having a nirn and precise 2 hander equipped at the same time.

For the fire mages, just have a shield or strong heal and run straight to the final platform with the Daedra Lizard on it, tab target him as you approach and focus entirely on him. Once he's dead all other adds despawn, including the mages. Stamina is also a easier "route" as you go blue, red then green. Green boss fight is just about patience and sticking to the 20 second mechanics - whereas Blue is far more challenging if its the 3rd option (when its the first option you can literally ignore all mechanics and just dps your way through with pale order)

Edit for clarity: Get the first fireorb shield, run to platform with the skymps & either ignore them or kill them but get that fire orb shield then run straight to the last platform. If you have major gallop (pvp assault line passive) the shield will expire about 2 seconds before getting to the platform so pop a shield about a second or two after turning around the bend. This is what makes arcanists so much easier, access to strong shields on a stamina build.

Thanks for the advice all!

I really only took an archer nightblade into vateshran some years ago, the damage felt right for solo gameplay like that, high enough short and heavy bursts between snipe, merciless, killers blade that can knock out things that need to die quickly, acid spray and power extraction for aoe, endless hail can be stuck strategically to a spot from far away

My build was Tzogvin, slimecraw, pale order, maelstrom bow, and relequen to keep up damage on bosses, it seemed to let me bypass a lot of mechanics, and damage avoidance was pretty easy since I was fighting while walking back just out of range of most damage

Back when I first got my perfect run, I was using a fairly straight forward False God, Mother's Sorrow two bar sorc with Pale Order.

More recently, I've found the one bar heavy attack oaken sorc to be the most efficient, even with some of the very recent changes.

My current oakensorc setup: Sergeants, Nobles. 1 Slimecraw, Oakensoul. Still running this despite some of the set changes and it is still effective.

Bar is a flex between these two options imo:
Option 1: Matriarch, Scamp, Prey, Surge, Hurricane, Atro
Option 2: Hardened Ward, Hurricane, Surge, Wall of Elements, Caltrops, Atro(Meteor)

In option 2, you can flex the ultimate to almost anything imo. Atro works for a quick max health boost based on the updated passive, but if you want consistent stats, Meteor, or even dawnbreaker will work. Hardened is a good heal if you don't want to run pets.

I think option 1 will give you more damage though. But both are fairly viable. Option 1 can do a vet run of Vat in ~25 mins or so now. Option 2 will give you a ton more AOE, which may be a bit more forgiving now after the changes to the way lightning staff splash damage works. Plus the AOE breech with caltrops.

Edited to add a really good tip for the heavy attack builds with Matriarch or even Hardened, is to pre-load the heal during your heavy attack. So that once the attack ends, the matriarch heal or the shield immediately get cast.