Official Feedback Thread for Maelstrom Arena

OrphanHelgen

Question about this arena:
Will the leaderboard be splitted into alliances?: So 3 leaderboards x 4 classes?

Is the Maelstrom weapon droprate the same in normal as in vet?

Does the vr15 Maelstrom weapon drop in normal and vr16 in vet?


thank you

PBpsy

For now I completed only normal a few times and I am now working on vet. This is only feedback for the normal version since I haven't played enough of the Vet to really form an opinion.
[*] What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?VR
VR 16 - NB Magicka- 300CP.
1st bar Destro -Swallow soul/Crippling grasp/Structured entropy/Dark Cloak/ inner light /Shooting Star
2nd Dual Swords - Impale/Sap Essence/ Reapers mark /Mirage/ Inner light/Devouring swarm.
[*] Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
Both. Finished normal .Only Second one vet.
[*] On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
Normal. -A number does not really work here. The Normal version is overall to easy say (2-3) but has some difficulty spikes that are nasty and may be overly difficult for some player/class/build combos. It needs a little bit of a general buff in difficulty and some mechanics require a bit of smoothing out .
Vet is pretty damn hard .
[*] Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
Seht's Balcony . The blades are cool.
[*] Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
Vault of Umbrage .Invisible poison explosions and the the final boss's scream clunky interrupt unless using CS.
[*] Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
Spiral Shadows
Spiders. The pillar mechanic is a bit fuzzy.
[*] If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
I need more time for this one.

[*] How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
Every round. Isn't this how it works?
For normal version the rewards are bad. I am not interested in any of the sets so doing it is actually a waste of time in terms of rewards. I would actually prefer 2-3 random V16 mats per round.
[*] What was your favorite reward?
The soul gems.

Petros

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for Maelstrom Arena. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes:

• What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
• Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
• On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
• Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
• Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
• Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
• If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
• How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
• What was your favorite reward?

DK, Heavy Armor, Sword and Board. Armor Mastery w/ Footman 5 pce. I'm the tankest as they come.

Vet mode

10

This Arena was not made for actual tanks

Could not get past 1st boss due to low dps

Maybe you could have made this a 2 man arena

PBpsy

Petros wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for Maelstrom Arena. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes:

• What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
• Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
• On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
• Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
• Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
• Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
• If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
• How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
• What was your favorite reward?

DK, Heavy Armor, Sword and Board. Armor Mastery w/ Footman 5 pce. I'm the tankest as they come.

Vet mode

10

This Arena was not made for actual tanks

Could not get past 1st boss due to low dps

Maybe you could have made this a 2 man arena

Why should the solo Arena be balanced around any trinity role that only has any meaning in group content? This isn't for actual DPS or Healers either and it is great.

asneakybanana

• What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level? Magicka dragonknight, 5l1m1h, 5 kagrenacs, 3 Willpower, 3 magnus. 100 pts in elf expert, 58 in elfborn, 6 spell erosion, 3 staff expert, 100 magician, 67 arcanist, 46 quick recovery, 27 block reduce, 13 LA expert, 13 spell shield, rest split between ele defendrr and hardy
• Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both? Vet. Got to stage 6 boss round. Could have gone further with a little more time.
• On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran. 9
• Which Arena was your favorite, and why? 6. It was the hardest, and the mechanics for the final boss are awesome.
• Which Arena was your least favorite, and why? 3 because the strangers are broke and stunning through block and giving you acceleration warp when they pull you from max range.
• Which Arena gave you the most trouble? 3. 6 Actually took longer but was no where near as frustrating. The stranglers really just felt like it was using broke stuff to make the arena hard and not actual mechanicsmechanics.
• If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be? The stranglers getting fixed.
• How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received? Every 2-3 rounds and no because the gear is all meh when a crafted set will probably end up becoming BiS.
• What was your favorite reward? Medium armor pet set because it made me laugh so hard.

Contraptions

[*] What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
Sorceror, both summons, magelight, crushing shock, mages' fury, batswarm. Other bar both summons, magelight, hardened ward, healing springs.

[*] Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both? Normal.

[*] On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran. 7. Normal.

[*] Which Arena was your favorite, and why? Seht's Flywheel. The aesthetic was great, and the fights were not too challenging. Mechanics of the boss and arena were familiar and not too punishing. Lack of dps races. Fight seemed well tuned, mob spawns were ok. Only complaint is the swarm of dwemer spiders in one round. That could prove annoying for certain builds.

[*] Which Arena was your least favorite, and why? Both Spiral Shadows and Igneous Cistern. Clunky mechanics, mobs hit too hard. Warding stone mechanic was just tedious since they couldn't be targetted properly. Spiral Shadow poison bomb mechanic was annoying to target in the middle of combat. Dps race mechanic in Spiral Shadows was especially annoying. Valkyn Tephra fight was just long and boring, especially because of the bugged stone targetting.

[*] Which Arena gave you the most trouble? Igneous Cistern. See above.

[*] If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be? Remove the stranglers in Drome of Toxic Shock.

[*] How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received? Drop rate of sets were ok, but sets were mostly useless. Traits and weight were random, making them doubly useless. Not satisfied at all. Add more gold and soul gems to the chests please.

[*] What was your favorite reward? None.


General feedback:
MA is extremely biased towards ranged builds. Due to environmental hazards and other mechanics melee builds are going to have much more trouble than ranged. Suggest removal of PBAOEs from bosses and mobs in favour of other mechanics. Arenas are also too large, especially Igneous Cistern and Vault of Umbrage. Certain mobs have CC and stagger that goes through block. Efficiency of kiting and LOSing is reduced as most mobs turn when casting conals or other supposedly targeted effects. Suggest making all champions of each round CCable, but give them CC break to compensate. Also suggest removing the snare and stagger effect of some enemies, as they seem to be quite common.

Arena 1: Mild dps race at boss, should be removed entirely and replaced with other mechanics.

Arena 2: Blades move too fast and dodging them constantly gets old. Suggest reducing speed and limiting to one per ring, but increase damage and DOT to compensate.

Arena 3: Stranglers are really buggy, will stagger you even through block, and cause warping when pulling from too far away. Suggest removing entirely. Suggest moving islands slightly closer to allow crossing without touching water.

Arena 4: Suggest adding red interrupt telegraph to Dwemer sentry when they are charging in their ports. Dwemer spider swarm could be reduced slightly.

Arena 5: DPS race mechanic of final boss should be removed entirely. Suggest replacing the platform breaking with an interruptible smash that breaks ice if not interrupted, similar to trolls in that round. Conal sweep lines of boss/Giants are hard to see, suggest adding red circles to indicate danger zones. Platforms are too far apart, move closer to allow for melee builds.

Arena 6: EXTREMELY clunky mechanics, too much is happening at once. Suggest boss fight be separated into distinct phases to stop various mechanics from colliding. Eg. Add phase, webspinner summon phase (with empowerment if not completed properly), spider swarm phase, hoarvor phase etc. DPS race should be greatly reduced or removed entirely. (Xivilai Toxicoli is just a copy and pasted Ibomez lol.)

Arena 7: Argonian Venomshot's poison spray effect looks identical to the poison bloom effect, suggest changing. Poison blooms explode too fast and seem to hit outside the red telegraph. Wamasu's Storm Bound effect is invisible, Impending Storm indicates interruptible red lines but is not interruptible. Argonian Behemoth's stomp attack goes through block, and similar to the ice lines could have red circles added to them to indicate the actual danger zones. The "ground shockwave" visual effect seems much smaller than the actual trigger_hurt. Argonian Venomshots do not have the audio "taking aim" warning when charging their shot. Trolls seem to randomly empower themselves and are immune to damage while doing so. Trolls also turn when throwing boulders, making it seem that they can somehow hit you even when you are behind them. Suggest removing the turning effect.

Arena 8: Warding stones are untargettable with skills, suggest fixing or reducing health greatly. Suggest spawning enemies closer towards center, as this arena seems much larger than previous ones. Valkyn Tephra's Heavy Smash CC goes through block. Overall fight with Tephra just felt too long and boring, suggest reducing health. Infernal Lurcher's Lava Tremor is almost impossible to avoid as they turn while casting, and the stagger from that goes through block. Suggest reducing speed of projectile movement or stop the mob from turning to allow proper kiting. Lurcher's Thorny Backhand DOT also passes through block. Flame Knight seems to spam certain attacks like Unstable Flame or DK Standard. Flame Knight also lacks Daedric V/O. (I actually think they just copy and pasted the female Dragonknight boss from WGT and just changed her appearance without changing her skills. Lazy imo.)

Arena 9: Pets should not target Voriak Solkyn's charged Clannfear to avoid killing it before it reaches the portal. Suggest better indication of boss's teleport to other level.

Gilliamtherogue

• What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
  -Nightblade, Stamina build (1st bar, dual wield. Steel tornado, Quick Cloak, Surprise Attack, Relentless Focus, Camo Hunter. Ulti Soul Harvest) (2nd bar, 2h. Executioner, Siphoning Strikes, Rally, Resolving Vigor, Reaper's Mark. Ulti Soul Tether)
  CP cap of 501; Warrior distribution dependant on stage. Thief 100 into stamina regen, 20 into bonus return on HA, 27 tumbling, 20 sprinter. No points in cost reduction because it's broken and not reducing costs (gg zos) Mage 100 mighty 22 precise strikes 45 piercing strikes. v16
• Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
  -Veteran only.
• On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
  -10, only because this ridiculous battle spirit and cost reduce bug.
• Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
  - Visually, 5. Its beautiful. Nothing really stands out to be really "fun" combat wise, much too stressful with all the bugs atm.
• Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
  - 3 or 4. Stranglers bug your character out and let the boss simply wail on you with no counter play. 4 gets hectic since the boss health bar covers the compass that shows enemy's positions, preventing you from knowing if sentries are trying to bolt to the ground. How are these things not thought through?
• Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
  - 6, the boss is too much to handle with my lack of shield spamming (I have 0 shields as a NB stam build) and the battle spirit bug. Once this gets fixed it'll be cake.
• If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
  - Battle Spirit being in muh PvE's. Totally destroying all fun that Maelstrom could be. We could be chillin' but you buggin'.
• How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
  - One ever 2-3 rounds, unfortunately all of the sets have 0 interest to a min/maxer stam build. Caster/healer's have some nice stuff to get though. /Jellyintensifies
• What was your favorite reward?
  -Killing stage 3 and 4 boss and flipping their corpses the bird.

I'll combat and update this after you fix these game breaking issues.

Wollust

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
Sorcerer
Light armor PTS Template with 2x Spelldamage and 1x Regen on the Jewelry. Destro/Resto. 16k Health, 32k Magicka, 14k Stamina.
300 CP, 100 into Thaumaturge, 50 Magician, 50 increased magicka regen, 100 into bastion.
Destrobar: Hardened Ward, Crushing Shock, Liquid Lightning, Crystal Frag, Elemental Drain and Meteor.
Restobar: Healing ward, Mines, Surge, Lightning Form, Proximity Detonation, Overload.

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
Normal, simply because I didn't have the time and patience to go for the veteran while the outgoing damage is still that low.

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
I played the normal and it was rather easy even though my damage output was ridiculously low compared to the tooltips. I never died except for the volatile explosion and I used 1 sigil (haste or whatever, speedy one) in the whole run, which was by accident and wasn't meant to. I have to say I am quite good at both PVE and PVP, making this kinda thing rather easy for me. I'd give it a difficulty of 1 for the more hardcore players, probably a 6-7 for casual players (as soon as the damage bug is fixed).
This level is totally fine, keep it like this. Give people like me the superhard Veteran arena (just heard about it being a 10 with the template and the bugs) and give the casuals the normal.

Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
The Arena with the golden ghosts and the spider one. Those were cool and made the fight rather hectic and required me to keep my eyes open on my surroundings instead of just focusing on the mobs and boss.

Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
The one with the volatile explosion, because instead of figuring out how it works I just went full dps and killing everything as it spawned, which was a mistake. But it is actually quite the good idea with those mechanic you came up with.

Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
The one with the poison and volatile explosion, as stated above.

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
Well.. fixing the damage mitigation would be cool. Otherwise I can't really tell much, as I didn't try the veteran. But I will edit this post as soon as we have the character copys and the fix to the bugs.
Oh yeah and the Arena with the lava and the mini Valkyn Skoria, where you have to break those stones: The targeting for the stones is kinda bugged, I'd recommend taking a look at it. Was a pain to single dps them, that's why I just used Liquid Lightning.

How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
I received after every stage a set item, except for one time. I was satisfied, even more as they were all infused and divines, except for one heavy piece which was reinforced, that makes sense though. Keep the droprates like this with those traits, but make them bind on equip instead of pickup (maelstrom weapons ofc BoP). Give people the chance to trade pieces instead of just making it another gear grind. Believe me, people are kinda sick of the geargrind from the dungeons and the sewers. If you add even more sets you have to grind for, you will make 99% of your costumers unhappy.

What was your favorite reward?
I got a lot of the set items, but I don't really need them, I'd prefer the maelstrom weapons.

Gelassenheit

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?

Vr 16 Magicka Templar - 421 CP

100 thaumaturge , 40 spell erosion
80 reduce magicka cost, 60 increase magicka regen
30 spell spell shield, 37 of each resist type in red tree

bar 1: DW
puncturing sweeps, breath of life, channeled focus, structured entropy, inner light, shooting star

bar 2: resto staff (main)
healing springs, siphon spirits, mutagen, purifying ritual, inner light, aggressive warhorn

bar 2: inferno staff (off)
force pulse, elemental susceptibility , radiant aura , purifiying ritual, inner light, aggressive warhorn

4 x VR 14 Martial Knowledge (Gloves, Pants, Boots, Belt)
1 x VR 16 Molag Kena (Shoulders)
2 x VR 16 Torug's Pact (Helm, Chest)
2 x VR 16 Torug's Pact Swords (nirnhonred)
1 x VR 16 Torug's Pact Restoration Staff (precise)
1 x VR 16 Torug's Pact Inferno Staff (nirnhoned)
3 x VR 16 Willpower (all arcane)

5 light, 1 medium, 1 heavy. Gold armour & weapons, purple jewelry

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?

Normal first, then vet

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.

Normal 2.5 / 10
Veteran ?? - I cannot give this an accurate rating because of the damage/mitigation bug against mobs, and the absurd magicka costs.

Puncturing sweeps hits for 6k+ per tick with structured entropy + elemental susceptibility up on some targets, and target with higher than average magic resistance, it ticks for 5.1 - 5.2k on live. It is hitting for a maximum of 2.5k per tick in current PTS. As a result of this, adds pile up too quickly, and I cannot sustain heal myself (because of the super high magicka costs in current PTS).

I gave up on stage 6 of Veteran mode.


Which Arena was your favorite, and why?

The ice one with the trolls that are summoned from the centre of the arena, move towards one of the three ice platforms and ground smash it. I found it fun because I found that it had the most prioritization of targets. That is to say, you couldn't just kill whatever you felt like in whatever order you felt like killing it.

Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?

The poison arena (third?), where there are the mushrooms on the ground that act as proximity bombs. They were often failing to show up for me (I was playing on minimum settings at the time), and I would randomly be hit for 30k+.

Which Arena gave you the most trouble?

The poison one, see answer above.

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?

Make the normal version more of a challenge.

How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?

I received 4 blue set pieces doing the normal version, and none doing the veteran version. Overall, the rate of rewards seems okay.

What was your favorite reward?

None. I don't plan on using any of these sets. Perhaps the new Maelstrom restoration staff, if I ever receive a Molag Kena helmet.

Merlight

• What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
  
  vr16 template Dunmer Magicka DK
  300 CP: steed 30, lady 60, lord 10; tower 20, lover 70, shadow 10; apprentice 80, atronach 0, ritual 10 (unused mage 10)
  7pc light armor: 4 pc Martial Knowledge, 2pc Malubeth the Scourger's, 1pc Torug's Pact (+ staff, i.e. 2pc bonus)
  Mundus: Atronach
  
  Started with Mace&Shield/Resto; switched to Destro(Fire)/Resto after the 4th arena.
  
  Bar 1: Crushing Shock, Deep Breath*, Dragon Fire Scale, Volatile Armor, Elemental Drain; Ferocious Leap
  Bar 2: Degeneration, Dragon Blood**, Healing Ward, Igneous Shield, Razor Caltrops; Shooting Star
  * replaced with Dampen Magic for the Poison arena
  ** didn't know which morph to pick, so I went with unmorphed
  
  
• Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
• On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
  
  I'd give it 6 (not too easy) - Normal, without using sigils.
  
  I've never played DK outside Blackwater Blade, so I have no idea what are "normal" damage numbers in PvE. But if there's some serious damage reduction bug, then I'm afraid fixing it might make the arena too easy (for 300 CP, that is).
  
  
• Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
  
  Argonian Behemoth (Poison)
  + the Scream
  + NPCs dying to the Scream
  + NPCs not dying to the Scream (bubbles)
  
  
• Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
  
  2nd and 4th - the Dwemer ones. I just don't like destroying stuff in Dwemer ruins. But it kind of makes sense that automatons are not as smart as live creatures, so a dull fight is to be expected.
  
  
• Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
  
  Poison. Numerous times I was killed by 30k "Volatile Explosion", yet couldn't figure out where it came from. I suppose it's some area damage, and those two green "pools" are supposed to protect me. Thing is I never saw any cue before dropping dead. Sometimes the green pool disappeared after I ran into it, sometimes it remained (and prevented damage to NPCs that followed me in). I must be missing something...
  edit Oct 31: reached this arena in veteran mode and I can finally see the exploding mushroom telegraphs, they just didn't render when I was doing normal mode
  
  
• If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
  
  Champion of Atrocity - that Spit when you fail to protect obelisks... not liking it. Why does an inexplicable one-shot even need to be there? If I don't have a resonating obelisk to run to, I'm about to die to the next spawn wave. If you're worried that I might just run around and not die, then throw a large web (snare) over the area when all obelisks are webbed.
  
  And please do something with the glands in the spider arena, they're a bit difficult to use. I died in red circles while trying to hit that tiny spot where I get the (X) prompt, or while aiming the bomb at an obelisk. Eventually I figured out it's 100x simpler (and safer) to just pull the venomous hoarvor to an obelisk and kill it there.
  
  Extra: Make Dwemer arenas larger.
  
  
• How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
  
  Ended up with 6 blue vr15 armor set pieces, 1 blue vr16 armor set piece, 1 blue vr15 non-set armor piece and 1 blue vr15 non-set staff. Nothing I'd use on live. Personally I don't care about rewards, but non-set stuff is trash, get rid of it.
  

ThaJollabyb14_ESO

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
v15 Orc Sorc template. geared n hundings rage/ravagers with master daggers and 2h
DW: bound armor stam morph, flying blade, steel tornado, streak, crit surge
2h: bound armor, crit rush, wrecking blow(because no sorc stam direct damage), thundering presence, executioner
Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
normal
On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
playing on normal I found the arena to be pretty easy, about a 5 with the exception of the Vault of Umbrage. this fight I would list as a 10.
Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
My favorite was the final arena, the ghosts made an interesting mechanic and preventing the mobs from summoning the bone colossus was a neat challenge.
Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
My least favorite was the Vault of Umbrage, though I don't remember which number that is. The fight was just infinitely more difficult than all the other arenas for me.
Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
Again, the Vault of Umbrage, I found this arena to be incredibly difficult for melee range fighters and stamina builds. I had an extremely hard time with the poison plant mechanics even with the high mobility of streak and critical rush. The combination of the high damage from the plants (~30k? against my 18k hp) with the slow and having to run to the green zone to purify plus multiple archer npcs made the fight super difficult for a stamina build without a cleanse or powerful healing.
If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
I would tone down the damage on the poisonous plant mechanic in this arena and I would not make the set gear Bind on Pickup. Which leads me to the next question.
How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
I only got one set piece per 3 chests. whether this is RNG misfortune on my end or the intended drop rate, I feel that it is far to low to make the set items Bind on Pickup. I was dissatisfied with the loot drops because I only received one medium armor set item throughout my entire run. Considering that the NPCs in the arena do not drop loot, the chest reward should be greater than a soul gem, a blue item, and a modicum of gold.
What was your favorite reward?
My favorite reward would have to be the blue gloves of the Hunt. This was the only medium armor drop I received and thus the only item i might use. I really do like the set idea of a stamina build pet sorc, but my sorc pet's damage is scaling off of max magicka, meaning I would have very low pet damage while costing me an ability slot on both bars to get a single pet toggle. Would this set also proc on other pets like the Undaunted spiders from trapping webs or the Daedroth from Maw of the Infernal? This set really piques my interest and I look forward to future beta testing if the sets are released and given to template characters in the future like IC sets were. I believe the set gear should be bind on equip rather than the current bind on pickup. This solo arena forces players to separate and grind gear individually and often get gear they will simply deconstruct and I feel like the time invested in grinding the arena is not worth a simple blue to deconstruct.

Kas

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?

templar v16 template
swapped everything around a lot.
harness magicka and force pulse weaving turned out to become a crucial part of my build.

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
vet

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
10 - took me several tries and skill swapping to even beat the first stage (boss)

crahed during second (loadscreen to char select, arena quest reset). went to bed

Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
What was your favorite reward?
n/a due to crash

n/a due to crash

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?

from what i've seen - more things to interrupt. stages 1+2 seemed like a game of moving and killing only



[/list]
[/quote]

asneakybanana

Kas wrote: »

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?

templar v16 template
swapped everything around a lot.
harness magicka and force pulse weaving turned out to become a crucial part of my build.

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
vet

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
10 - took me several tries and skill swapping to even beat the first stage (boss)

crahed during second (loadscreen to char select, arena quest reset). went to bed

Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
What was your favorite reward?
n/a due to crash

n/a due to crash

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?

from what i've seen - more things to interrupt. stages 1+2 seemed like a game of moving and killing only



[/list]

[/quote]

The interrupt thing comes later on. Crushing shock will make your life a whole lot easier

Rayste

Arena 3 needs some work. Not only the stranglers, but the random explosions. I couldn't tell where they were coming from most of the time.

asneakybanana

Rayste wrote: »

Arena 3 needs some work. Not only the stranglers, but the random explosions. I couldn't tell where they were coming from most of the time.

Explosions? Are you talking about the ground aoe poison dot or the ground aoe lightning or something else?

shugg

Zos , this is a good idea but with the other changes this will be problems for tanks - we will have to put so much points into tanking abilities and points to run dungeons which is great but this zone is about dps - healers can at least use there magiv pool, most tanks have points in health... This is the same issue for pvp.

Tbh the only way i see this getting fixed is turning health into somthing usful as a dps for tanks maybe the more health you use while wearing 5heavy the more damage you do ...

Yhis will be a constant issue for tanks to enjoy the whole game, if not fixed more will move away from the roll

Kas

tbh I think the templates should really includ the typical food/potions - if not also V16 armor.
I get that even copied characters struggle due to the high mitigation bug, but so far I found playing with a template char pretty frustrating in the vet arena.

the key stats on the char sheet are so much lower than those of my EU char on live. apart from that I even find myself slotten entropy where i don't wnat it, simply because i don't have access to the right pots. makes it REALLY hard to test vet arena

seitekisaki

Yo what is that 19k spit in the Spiral Shadows arena on the final round when the boss is around 40% hp. pls ZOS. Pls... I don't like it lol it makes the arena unfair because it one shots me and impedes my progress every time.

Nevermind figured it out.

Rayste

asneakybanana wrote: »

Rayste wrote: »

Arena 3 needs some work. Not only the stranglers, but the random explosions. I couldn't tell where they were coming from most of the time.

Explosions? Are you talking about the ground aoe poison dot or the ground aoe lightning or something else?

Not really sure, it was late when I made it to 3. I couldn't see what was killing me. Perhaps the lag didn't register the ground aoe?

Dymence

So as I've a pretty good understanding of the arena by now, time for some much needed feedback!

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?

I'm playing a sorcerer template at VR16. My skills were as following:
- Bar 1: Force Pulse, Crystal Fragments, Elemental Drain, Bound Aegis, Inner Light, Shooting Star
- Bar 2: Power Surge, Healing Ward, Hardened Ward, Bound Aegis, Inner Light, Energy Overload

Currently at 317 champion points and the distribution is as following:

The Apprentice:
- Elemental Expert 79
- Elfborn 5
- Spell Erosion 1

The Atronarch:
- Staff Expert 10

The Ritual:
- Thaumaturge 10

The Steed:
- Block Expertise 20
- Spell Shield 5

The Lady:
- Hardy: 20
- Elemental Defender 20
- Thick Skinned 10

The Lord:
- Quick Recovery 20
- Bastion 11

The Tower:
- Magician 60
- Arcanist 46

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?

Veteran.

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.

Difficulty scale 10, veteran mode as stated above.

Which Arena was your favorite, and why?

I'm not sure if I have a favorite, but I think the 5th and 7th arena were the most enjoyable for me to play through all together, due to having to keep your eyes open more so than other stages.

Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?

Arena 6. I hate the mechanic, and the damage incoming from everything all together is absurd. The difficulty for this arena is out of place, as Arena 7 and 8 are both much easier than 6. I often felt this arena is 'too much' in the sense that you have to look out for too many different things at once. There's 3 different parts of the mechanic you need to keep an eye on at all times, and in the meanwhile you have to deal with overwhelming amounts of adds. The slightest error in your tactic means instant death.

Which Arena gave you the most trouble?

If we're talking about a bug free world, then it's either Arena 6 or Arena 9. They're the most difficult overall in terms of how much damage the mobs deal, what type of mobs you have to look out for and how the mechanics play into it.

I'm always stuck forever on the 8th arena boss though, but only due to 2 of the 3 obelisks having targetting issues, e.g. being unable to target them from most angles. Timing is crucial in all of the arenas, no less in the 8th arena boss fight, but the targetting bug with the obelisks throws off your timing by a lot, often to fatal extent.

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?

For the most part, I think the arenas are pretty spot on in mechanics and difficulty levels. I've also heard you guys are fixing the mitigation bug, but increasing mob hp to try and keep the 'time to kill' on the same level as it is now. I think this is good, because if it becomes much easier with normal damage you'll just be able to skip mechanics. There are still some arenas which are problem cases, in my opinion, namely the following:

Arena 3

Such a simple and straight forward arena. Yet it is often one of the stages in which I die the most. I've had runs where I ended up dying 3 times in this arena, whilst only dying once in the 6th arena which is significantly harder.

Why? Because of RNG. The stranglers that pull you in this arena are so incredibly random that they often cause unnecessary deaths. The strangler pulling mechanic in itself is fine, I think. The problem with it is that you don't have a counter to this mechanic. Normally you should be able to block strangler pulls, as you can in veteran DSA with a similar arena. Here, you don't get pulled if you block them, but you still get stunned for about 2 seconds. It's stupid and unnecessary. Even if you just break out from a stun from any other source, and you have CC IMMUNITY, you still get stunned by the strangler pulls.

So my suggestion to this arena would be able to block the strangler pulls, without negative concequences for blocking it. This at least allows some counter play to the completely random mechanic.

Arena 9

And there we are, at the last arena. All in all I think the difficulty level for the actual rounds is just borderline OK, similar to the difficulty of the 6th arena rounds. The problem is the boss. Now I'll just have to rant about this for a bit..

Yes, I know it's the final boss of the arena, and I know it's supposed to be harder than the other bosses. But this? There are no words to describe this level of difficulty. I think the mechanics of the boss are fine (even though I haven't seen them all yet, as I haven't been able to push him past his first mechanic), but the damage numbers are absolutely over done and bring a new definition to the word absurd. It really makes me wonder, have your testers even tried this fight on veteran?

Allow me to elaborate on the fight itself. Let's ignore the fact that there are random wraiths flying around the entire arena and if they just happen to decide to suddenly switch direction and move into you, you instantly take 9.6k damage.

The boss starts off in the center. His light attacks hit for a meager 3.6k per hit. Seems alright huh? Then he will shoot a skull at you shortly after, which you can dodge to evade the damage. Then he will port away into a random location, and you will need to run to him like an absolute madman to bash him because he will start a channeled attack which you need to interrupt because it shoots out bolts that hit for 13.2k damage per second. 13.2K DAMAGE PER SECOND? Are you mad?

Okay, let's say, no problem, you can bash him and everything will be fine. This is true for the most part. Then a fire/healing mage mob will spawn together with a daedroth. But not just any daedroth, no, that would be too easy wouldn't it? It's a daedroth from white gold tower. The ones that spit fire at you and leave this insane DoT. You would think: Ah, but they wouldn't do the same amount of damage there as they do in a 4-MAN DUNGEON, would they? Well too bad. They deal the exact same amount of damage.

So you have to deal with this healing mob as fast as you can, otherwise he'll start healing the boss back up, and then you need to get rid of the daedroth. The daedroth that hits with his light attacks for 8.4k and if you don't kill him fast enough (Please note he has about 132k HP), let's say 15-20 seconds, his flame DoT will start ticking on you for 10k per second. All the while he will still hit you with light attacks, and spit fire at you that also in itself deals 2k damage per second. But let's not forget the fact that this is just an add in the boss fight. You still have to care for the boss, dodge his skulls, interrupt his channeled attack if you don't want to get oneshot even with 2 shields stacked on yourself.

If you then manage to miraculously kill the daedroth, you'll be able to have some quality time with the boss itself. Well, he spawns a healing add right after you kill your daedroth, but you can kill that fast enough anyways. So then you can take about 10% of the boss's hp away, leaving him at around 80%. But guess what? You thought you were safe after you killed that daedroth, didn't you? Well too bad. Here's the next daedroth with a new healer mob. Are you kidding me?

Okay, let's assume you manage to kill that pair aswell, with a lot of blood sweat and tears. You'll then be able to push the boss to 70%. Congratulations! You have now reached the first mechanic. The boss will proceed to teleport up to the second level of the arena, and will stop dealing damage to you. Ghostly clannfears will spawn and you need to lure them onto special platforms where you kill them and it activates a portal that allows you to go up. Well, since the boss mechanic just kicked in, we wouldn't be getting more daedroths, would we? WRONG AGAIN. Because we all know everyone loves daedroths!!! At least you'll be able to enter the portal to go up to the second level, and the daedroth's not going to be able to do anything to you for quite a while.

While you're upstairs, you need to dodge the skulls the boss shoots at you, and you can't directly damage him yourself. There's 3 crystals you need to destroy, all the while the boss does some weird mechanic where you have to stand behind a moving rock wall otherwise you'll get kicked off the top area and die. But when you get back downstairs, guess who's waiting for you? That's right, your best friend the daedroth. This is about as far as I've gotten, so the rant ends here.

TL;DR: Stuff deals WAY too much damage, and the daedroths are spawning WAY too frequently. If the time to kill is going to remain the same as it is currently with the bugged mitigation, I still don't know if anyone is going to complete this as the damage you take is just absolute madness.

How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?

The drop rate of the new sets seemed pretty decent, I've got quite a lot of pieces already, though I seem to be dropping a lot of belts, but that's probably just RNG. The only thing that seems to be very rare are rings, and I've only dropped Para Bellum rings so far. I'm not sure if they start dropping after reaching a certain arena, or if they're just really rare.

What was your favorite reward?

Being able to progress through the arena itself

No seriously, I don't have any particular bias towards the items I drop, though I would naturally prefer light armor set drops as I'm playing a mage. I guess one of the maelstrom weapons would be my favorite reward, but that requires me to have actually finished the arena first.

Contraptions

Another piece of feedback, although this isn't entirely related to the arena content:

There is no reliable way to "reset" the arena, unlike group instances which can be reset instantly by disbanding and reforming group.

Exiting the instance before completing the quest after the last arena will mean that your instance will never reset, being forever stuck in the theater scene at the end where Fa-Nuit-Hen summons the Baron. Even after completing the quest, I exit the instance, logged out, logged in, and reentered the Arena, but the instance was still not ready.

I heard that waiting 15 minutes or so after logging out will reset the instance, but that seems like a lazy fix that just wastes the player's time. It also doesn't work if you don't complete the quest, see above.

Fix asap please. No dungeon lockouts should be in this game.

@ZOS_RichLambert

Dymence

Contraptions wrote: »

Another piece of feedback, although this isn't entirely related to the arena content:

There is no reliable way to "reset" the arena, unlike group instances which can be reset instantly by disbanding and reforming group.

Exiting the instance before completing the quest after the last arena will mean that your instance will never reset, being forever stuck in the theater scene at the end where Fa-Nuit-Hen summons the Baron. Even after completing the quest, I exit the instance, logged out, logged in, and reentered the Arena, but the instance was still not ready.

I heard that waiting 15 minutes or so after logging out will reset the instance, but that seems like a lazy fix that just wastes the player's time. It also doesn't work if you don't complete the quest, see above.

Fix asap please. No dungeon lockouts should be in this game.

@ZOS_RichLambert

If you want to reset the dungeon:

Go out, switch the difficulty mode, enter again, leave, switch back to what you want it to be and there you go.

It's a bit of a hassle to do it like this, but it works.

tordr86b16_ESO

Petros wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for Maelstrom Arena. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes:

• What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
• Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
• On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
• Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
• Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
• Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
• If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
• How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
• What was your favorite reward?

DK, Heavy Armor, Sword and Board. Armor Mastery w/ Footman 5 pce. I'm the tankest as they come.

Vet mode

10

This Arena was not made for actual tanks

Could not get past 1st boss due to low dps

Maybe you could have made this a 2 man arena

How about this - wear something else that increase your dps oh and, use the damage boost.

AhPook_Is_Here

If you are going in there thinking you should bring a specialized build you are wrong. You need a generalized build with generalized gear, and the ability to swap gear and skills around for different fights. Thinking of yourself as a tank, or healer or even a pure dps role won't get you far, you need to be all those things without giving up too much damage.

Soleya

First I tried the arena with a V16 Stamina Nightblade and couldn't even come close to completing. Tried again with a V2 sorc and had a much easier time, still no complete.

Just completed with my V12 sorc, here are my thoughts on my completion.


What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
12 Vampire Sorcerer Wood Elf.
Magicka 25118 Recovery 1506
Health 20131 Recovery 186 (stage 4 vampire)
Stamina 9292 Recovery 621
Spell dmg 1712
Spell crit 38.4%
Spell Resist 11433
Phys Resist 9452

Gear:
5 Pc Julianos Set
2 Pc Maw of the Infernal
2 Pc Warlock
2 Purple V12 rings enchaned with recovery (tried damage but needed way more recovery. 1506 still seemed too low)
Destruction and Restoration Staves (Julianos 5th piece)

Bar 1 Destro
Mages Wrath, Crushing Shock, Liquid Lighting, Pulsar, Elemental Drain, Ice Comet

Bar 2 Restro
Boundless Storm, Rapid Regeneration, Healing Ward, Hardened Ward, Power Surge, Energy Overload

298 Champion Points
Steed 30
Lady 30
Lord 38
Tower 45
Lover 51
Shadow 0
Apprentice 30
Attronach 0
Ritual 68


Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
Normal

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were
playing Normal or Veteran.
My ranking for each level
#1 = Difficulty of 2
#2 = Difficulty of 4
#3 = Difficulty of 5
#4 = Difficulty of 5
#5 = Difficulty of 7 (however without a ranged interrupt this is a 9 in difficulty)
#6 = Difficulty of 7 (took forever to figure out the mechanics, before figuring it out, it was impossible My V2 and V16 didn't get past this)
#7 = Difficulty of 9 (Without a ranged interrupt, nearly impossible)
#8 = Difficulty of 10
#9 = Difficulty of 10

Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
#4 Seht's Flywheel. This one the mechanics to beat it seemed most understandable.

Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
#8 and #9. Both seem to be DPS race, and way too much crowd control over and over. If I didn't beat the boss really quickly the adds spawn in faster and faster until there are just too many.

Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
The last 2. Both seem to be a DPS race. I finally completed the 2nd last one by nuking down the boss really quickly earlier on.

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
Player really really needs crowd control immunity. Some of the arenas feel a like pvp. Just hit by wrecking blow, wb, wb, wb, dead. Wasn't uncommon to be crowd controlled 3-4 times in a row which meant no healing, defense or getting out of red rings.

How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
Just about every round I got something decent. Mostly happy with that reward system. I would like to see V15 versions of the Maelstrom Weapons on the final chest of normal mode. I really feel the majority of players won't be able to complete Veteran. The way it currently is, I feel average players won't be able to complete normal either.

What was your favorite reward?
Don't have enough for the set, but the Elemental Succession one looks like it might be fun.

Overall completion time was about 3.5 hours.

cedheimb16_ESO2

1. What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?:
   Breton Templar VR16, Magicka based.
   Main bar Inner Light, Toppling Charge, Structured Entropy, Puncturing Sweep, Radiant Opression
   Buff bar Inner Light, Channeled Focus, Breath Of Life, Purifying Ritual, Balzing Shield
   Champion Points (Focus magic damage and cost reduction): Tower: 75, Lover 25, Apprentice 30, Ritual: 70, Steed: 75, Lady: 25
2. Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
   Finished on Normal (Gave up on first boss on Veteran)
3. On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
   8 / 10 (Normal), 10 / 10 (Veteran) Although I was using template gear, which is VR14 and for magicka users not very defensive and was getting one shotted in veteran.
4. Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
   The final arena, was fun mechanically although far from the most difficult.
5. Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
   The early swamp one was kind of frustating because of the flowers and boss that pull you arund. Just felt irritating.
6. Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
   The argonian swamp one was the most difficult and frustrating. I assume the flowers on the ground cause the poison, these should be indicted better (red ring), as a melee character it was hard to avoid when ranged mobs camped the flowers.
7. If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
   I would stream-line it, Remove some adds, some of the more simple arenas. A run will probably go faster in the future but right now I definately don't want to do it again. This kind of arena combat is just not fun, espescially when solo.
8. How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
   I think I got a set item on every encounter although I got the same item several times (Helm of Glory and Winterborn Sash). As a VR16 I was a bit disappointed that I did not get VR16 loot except on the last encounter for my effort.
9. What was your favorite reward?
   Winterborn sash is the only one I could see myself using.

In conclusion, not fun content, too long and too frustrating.

BugCollector

Didn't play Maelstrom Arena myself, but judging from others' posts, it seems like the vet mode is far too difficult. I think it should probably be the same difficulty like playing vet DSA with four.

asneakybanana

BugCollector wrote: »

Didn't play Maelstrom Arena myself, but judging from others' posts, it seems like the vet mode is far too difficult. I think it should probably be the same difficulty like playing vet DSA with four.

OH God no dsa is stupid ea St and has been since like 1.5 when they nerfed it into the ground. Vet MA needs to be a 9 or a 10 in difficulty right now just due to the way that difficulty decreases over time. The hardcore players get their shot of farming it now and the casuals get their chance to farm it when they get new gear and maybe a level increase. It's how all mmos cycle. Hard content becomes farmed content becomes levelling content.

ThaJollabyb14_ESO

Arena #7 is just stupidly hard right now, I'm taking 28k from the Argonian behemoth bleeding? 25k from a flower explosion that carpet bombs the whole floor and then spawns new flowers in under a second? killing the caster that causes the plants to explode does not stop the plant explosion even if they have not gotten to the point where they spawn the red circle. The NPC can't be interrupted, it has to be killed to stop the plant explosion sequence.The blast zone is so large that I can't escape with a single roll and it's so fast that there's barely time to react. I didn't die on any of the other arenas but I have failed almost 30 times on this one. My alliance war cleanse doesn't remove the damage from the flower poison or the argonian behemoth's bleed damage. The massive damage mechanic would be okay if I was only against melee enemies so i could run to the green circle to cleanse, but I'm taking too much damage from the plant poison and ranged NPCs plus something in there is hitting me with a 70% slow. This arena is just infuriating for me. I could only beat this arena with one of my characters and the rewards are too lame to justify the frustration. I'm getting a single blue set piece once in 4 chests, the rest have contained a mere blue v15 to deconstruct and some have had white items.This place feels like a slap in the face.

jakeedmundson

asneakybanana wrote: »

BugCollector wrote: »

Didn't play Maelstrom Arena myself, but judging from others' posts, it seems like the vet mode is far too difficult. I think it should probably be the same difficulty like playing vet DSA with four.

OH God no dsa is stupid ea St and has been since like 1.5 when they nerfed it into the ground. Vet MA needs to be a 9 or a 10 in difficulty right now just due to the way that difficulty decreases over time. The hardcore players get their shot of farming it now and the casuals get their chance to farm it when they get new gear and maybe a level increase. It's how all mmos cycle. Hard content becomes farmed content becomes levelling content.

because the casual crowd is going to just... pay like everyone else... then wait around until the next dlc so they can get old, outdated gear?... yeah, good luck with that idea. Where do people get this, "i'm more hardcore of a gamer and deserve more than everyone else" baditude? They can't base the game on the select few who have 12 hours a day to put into a game. It doesn't work like that. If you're good enough to go through everything quickly... great. Try playing a different character and level everything again. But don't try to say that the casual crowd will just have to wait and/or not even get a chance to get the gear.
If the arena requires a player to spend an hour per level (8-10 hours total continuous play just for a chance at a mal weapon) and a complete respec for everyone to play solo then eso will lose tons of people; myself included. IC wasn't good enough to keep people playing... and so far this one isn't looking amazing either. Many people will be sucked into this arena and it will leave very few to play group dungeons. This will probably move whats left of the tanking crowd away from group play.