Joy's now updated (Morrowind) guide to beating Maelstrom Arena

Lord_Wrath

Wow, that bone colossus on the final stage spawned even though I had killed the summoners. Even healing ward fired off a few times after I had respawned. This game is screwed up, id have beaten this long ago if ZoS would actually fix issues.

alexkdd99

Had to come drop by and offer my thanks for your guide. After many many tries I finally beat VMA! But sadly now I must become much much more proficient at it.
Thanks alot for the guide.

Edit: just did a second time. All this time people were saying it got much easier after first clear were correct. Honestly thought everyone was full of it but now I see what everyone was saying.

Is nirnhoned battle axe any good?

AJTC5000

I play on a Mac, and play on the NA server whilst living in the UK . . .

If I didn't have to deal with constant ~500 ping and shite FPS, I probably would have done it by now

Mutagem

Thanks alot for the guide and videos. On last stage now

Ivalice

Beat it last week and now can clear it in an hour and a half tops, thank you for the helpful tips and videos

Dubhliam

Wifeaggro13 wrote: »

Thank you for the Guide. but i have no interest in playing a DPS metric , specifcally a DK caster. Just like everything that was designed in the first two years of ESO's development its Caster scrolls on line. Excellent guide though and thank you for it. Its very sad they fired Sage and left the direction to Fior

Despite what other people might tell you (even in this thread), Heavy Armor builds are very viable in the Arena, if you have a good understanding of how the game mechanics work.
I regularly beat vMA with my HA mag DK build.

There are many different HA vMA builds out there, just google it.

The key thing you have to realize is: you are alone in there. There is nobody to help you.
There is nobody to kill stuff for you.
There is nobody to heal you.

Joy_Division

Finally got around to updating this for the Morrowind release.

On the whole, while I will say vMA is more difficult now than it was during homestead, I still think vMA is easier than it was say than the Thieve's Guild Patch so don't be discouraged not to run it if that's a goal of yours.

I will try to make it prettier in the future

Demolitionary

I don't usually post or comment on anything and also didn't want to necro a thread but considering the time and effort you put in this guide I have to post (gives it a little bump too)


I am new to ESO and I am still working out the main mechanics of the game, I will definitely favorite this guide for when I do decide to take on the MA.

Many thanks!

Waffennacht

This was my guide for my first finish. Ty Joy

Reverb

I have no idea how I managed to miss this thread until today. This is great! Thank you Joy, for putting this together and keeping it updated.

Every person who post about not being able to finish vMA should be directed here. Everyone who complains that vMA is "too hard" should be directed here.
Hell, I should've been directed here in the months between my rage quitting vMA and finally going back to finish.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Joy_Division wrote: »

Finally got around to updating this for the Morrowind release.

On the whole, while I will say vMA is more difficult now than it was during homestead, I still think vMA is easier than it was say than the Thieve's Guild Patch so don't be discouraged not to run it if that's a goal of yours.

I will try to make it prettier in the future

LMAO. I am reading what I wrote about VMA in Jan of 2016 in this thread. Things sure do change. Haha

Trashs1

thank you so much! @Joy_Division

i beat vma the first time last week with this guide and a video for help. i needet 287 deats and about 35k gold for rep but i beat it

now after 1 week i get through vma with 25 deaths only and i can farm it in 2 hours^^

AAbrigo

Was my first try at VMA today and stopped after stage 5 round 3, but will try again and use this guide

MissBizz

Just posting to let you know this guide is still awesome and I always come back to it. After ragequitting VMA on the Morrowind PTS, I decided to try it on my magplar who has never tried before. At round 8 now!

EttinTheBreton

MissBizz wrote: »

Just posting to let you know this guide is still awesome and I always come back to it. After ragequitting VMA on the Morrowind PTS, I decided to try it on my magplar who has never tried before. At round 8 now!

Awesome! I've had this guide bookmarked for long time, and I can't wait to try vMA out. I'm a magplar too, so hopefully I can make it all the way. Go go go!

MissBizz

EttinTheBreton wrote: »

MissBizz wrote: »

Just posting to let you know this guide is still awesome and I always come back to it. After ragequitting VMA on the Morrowind PTS, I decided to try it on my magplar who has never tried before. At round 8 now!

Awesome! I've had this guide bookmarked for long time, and I can't wait to try vMA out. I'm a magplar too, so hopefully I can make it all the way. Go go go!

@EttinTheBreton Pre-Morrowind I was completing it on my Sorc, pretty reliably too. If you have a a mag sorc, highly recommend learning the arena with it. I think I'm doing alright on my magplar just because I already know the arena and mechanics. Getting to know the mechanics and what's going to happen is the biggest hurdle, so pay attention! Good luck!

Earrindo

I have read this wonderful guide through repeatedly, but I have been having a lot of trouble on my stam-warden. I dont have access nor time to farm trial gear, so I am stuck with overland/guild trader/crafted gear. Any suggestions for completing vMA?
I am currently a bit stuck on the icebergs round, which is frustrating because I KNOW the really hard rounds are yet to come and if I am struggling there, then I will definitely struggle later.

pkuronen

The last boss was a real pain. Must have taken around 200 attempts before I could learn every twitch by heart. It is very unforgiving but to my surprise the fire breathing daedra or whatever it is who comes with timer turned out to be very manageable without any of the buffs. Just have quick feet and nuke him when he takes breather and he melts away fast.

Actually i forgot to use any of the buffs.

About the 3rd stage: I could not just nuke the boss fast enough in the 3rd stage and had to kill the summoner, catch gold ghosts, run circles around boss dodging red circles and the fire breathing beast while spamming them both spells and ultimates. Cannot describe the feeling of relief when he fell down!

Joy_Division

Earrindo wrote: »

I have read this wonderful guide through repeatedly, but I have been having a lot of trouble on my stam-warden. I dont have access nor time to farm trial gear, so I am stuck with overland/guild trader/crafted gear. Any suggestions for completing vMA?
I am currently a bit stuck on the icebergs round, which is frustrating because I KNOW the really hard rounds are yet to come and if I am struggling there, then I will definitely struggle later.

@Earrindo I really wish I could offer more relevant advice, but it's been a real long time since I've run stamina.

That being said, I would say the following:

• I think people overrate gear by quite a bit. Sure Trial gear may be "BiS," but there are times when I forget to change my PvE healer gear for PvP and only notice like after an hour or so of playing. Hunding's rage + Nightmother's Gaze + Agility is a strong DPS setup (you'll need some source of stam recovery though). I think the dubious Camlorn Drink is something really good for people learning vMA, try to pair this up with a DPS set like Hunding's and have enough health so you're at around 18K; you can use your Mundas, another set, and jewelry enchants to ensure you have the right balance between damage and recovery.
• The Iceberg stage is I believe the hardest stage until the last. Lot of people get stuck there.
• As a stam Warden, you really want to use the Mushroom heal as a burst and Vigor as a HoT.
• The Subterranean Assault skill should be used on cooldown.
• Bow is your back bar; volley is always down and poison inject everything that needs to die.
• Use the defensive sigil at the right time. Learn when there are multiple ranged adds in a wave and be sure to grab it then.
• If you move all the way to the back on an island, you can entice the ranged adds to move onto the island, which can help a melee oriented build.

Lukums1

@Joy_Division

A lot of useful information but for me.

Please please add suppression field in your notes for sorcs stam and mag. Please.

xD

Vapirko

@Earrindo I’m no expert on vma but I think stamwarden isn’t a great class for it. They just lack when it comes to overall dps and solid dps is really necessary to avoid certain mechanics are extending the time you need to stay alive. I think you’re gonna have a hard time using a warden for the first time through. I think stam sorc might be one of the easier stam classes to complete vma with.

jkloza

What class would be the “easiest” to learn the arena on out of mag warden/Templar/nightblade? As others have said I’ve got decent gear (non raid) epics & yellow weapons, and most decent magicka monster sets. I’m just looking for some motivation from folks who have completed it before!

Joy_Division

jkloza wrote: »

What class would be the “easiest” to learn the arena on out of mag warden/Templar/nightblade? As others have said I’ve got decent gear (non raid) epics & yellow weapons, and most decent magicka monster sets. I’m just looking for some motivation from folks who have completed it before!

Magicka NB followed by magplar followed by mag warden.

jkloza

Thanks joy! I started practicing on my magicka NB last night, trying different gear sets. Any recommendations on optimal setups for a beginner in VMA? I’ve tried 5 Juli, 3 willpower, 2 ilambris, with just a random set of gloves. I’ve also thought about trying spinners/Juli with one monster set. I’ve also looked through alcasts recommendations from a few months back, and I think the recommendation was Juli/seducers.

Or is it not really a gear thing as much as a learn the pitfalls thing?

GrigorijMalahevich

jkloza wrote: »

Thanks joy! I started practicing on my magicka NB last night, trying different gear sets. Any recommendations on optimal setups for a beginner in VMA? I’ve tried 5 Juli, 3 willpower, 2 ilambris, with just a random set of gloves. I’ve also thought about trying spinners/Juli with one monster set. I’ve also looked through alcasts recommendations from a few months back, and I think the recommendation was Juli/seducers.

Or is it not really a gear thing as much as a learn the pitfalls thing?

Yes it is all about learning. Juli with willpower and illambris is much better than juli and seducer and you can't equip two crafted sets without jewellery

Joy_Division

jkloza wrote: »

Thanks joy! I started practicing on my magicka NB last night, trying different gear sets. Any recommendations on optimal setups for a beginner in VMA? I’ve tried 5 Juli, 3 willpower, 2 ilambris, with just a random set of gloves. I’ve also thought about trying spinners/Juli with one monster set. I’ve also looked through alcasts recommendations from a few months back, and I think the recommendation was Juli/seducers.

Or is it not really a gear thing as much as a learn the pitfalls thing?

Yep, it's all about just getting used to vMA.

Julianos + Willpower + Monster is about as solid non-trial gear as it's going to get.

I like Grothdar or Valkyn better than Illambris. Illambris means you are using two destros, which means you aren't using a restoration staff. I can do vMA without a resto staff. Someone asking for advice shouldn't and probably can't.

Besides, Valkyn gives health which means you can use witchmother's brew without worrying about your health being too low.

jkloza

Understood, I’ll have to revisit the guides. Most guides I’ve read are for double destro, and not resto staff. I assumed I could use harness magicka and night blades passive heals (funnel/swallow soul/aoe heal which the name escapes me) to keep health / shields up.

I don’t have 2 valkyn but I do have well trained grothdar.

Joy_Division

jkloza wrote: »

Understood, I’ll have to revisit the guides. Most guides I’ve read are for double destro, and not resto staff. I assumed I could use harness magicka and night blades passive heals (funnel/swallow soul/aoe heal which the name escapes me) to keep health / shields up.

I don’t have 2 valkyn but I do have well trained grothdar.

Double destro is the most optimal setup and it's going to get the fastest time and highest score. Harness + Hots is more than enough to carry a NB through. It's just that without have spawn memorized, trying to learn mechanics, etc., means more healing is typically needed.

Morgul667

Very nice guide

Thanks

jkloza

Joy,

Thanks so much for the replies a few posts back! I just finished VMA for the first time tonight. I completed on my mag warden (without optimal gear, 4 Juli, 5 Necro, 2 Grothdaar).

I think the most frustrating stage is 5, but 6 is nothing to laugh at either, there's a bunch of mechanics going on you really need to pay attention to. The last boss seems very RNG to me. If everything went perfectly, I could burn the boss down prior to the CG spawning, but I found it easier to actually just grab the healing or defense sigil and go to town with AOE on the boss/mage/CG. The crystals, once learned, were a cakewalk. I could get them down in 2 rounds, just being safe jumping down and killing a CG, and resetting the DoT.

The last phase, again, isn't too terrible. I don't have the DPS to burn the boss down (25kish), so I grabbed 3 ghosts, stunned as the CG spawned, and it was smooth sailing. All in all it probably took me 100 tries and a ton of repairs, but it was fun learning the instance.

For the first time, the drop wasn't too shabby either (resto staff / precise)... Not too bad.

Thanks again for the guide, I'm sure you've made this dungeon better for so many folks out there.. Without this guide, I'd have never attempted it.