Not going back to veteran Maelstrom Arena until it is nerfed on consoles.

Yamakaziing

I tried it again earlier today and got to the last boss in record time but ran into the same problem.

i popped the speed sigil and tried to down the crystals but I keep getting one shorted by those meteors. I will keep at it until I get it. because I'm sure I'm just making a simple mistake but it's frustrating for many people who don't play video games as religiously as we do. So that's why people complain about it.

so save that destro for those daedroths you say? I will try that. I've been using meteor but I'm also running around the room and if I make the slightest wrong turn... boom Lich crystal one shots me

nnargun

Yamakaziing wrote: »

Okay what about sets tho. People telling me I should use julianos, moondancer, and Valkyn skoria. But I still have trouble surviving the one shots. That's my only problem. I'm wicked good about keeping my shields up. But I get hit once and my entire shield is gone plus 5k of my health. Also I am using magplar.

You need to figure out what exactly is killing you or hitting you so hard and then avoid that. It's either the skull, the crem guard or the one you have to interrupt. All of those are avoidable. Key skills for my first clear were Harness Magicka, Crushing Shock (for ranged interrupt) and destro ulti.

nnargun

Yamakaziing wrote: »

I tried it again earlier today and got to the last boss in record time but ran into the same problem.

i popped the speed sigil and tried to down the crystals but I keep getting one shorted by those meteors. I will keep at it until I get it. because I'm sure I'm just making a simple mistake but it's frustrating for many people who don't play video games as religiously as we do. So that's why people complain about it.

so save that destro for those daedroths you say? I will try that. I've been using meteor but I'm also running around the room and if I make the slightest wrong turn... boom Lich crystal one shots me

Yeah, know where (always right next to boss) and when crem guards spawn and drop the ulti just before to deal some really good damage to boss and kill guard in no time.
Your gear is fine.

Yamakaziing

Okay I'll try that

nnargun

Here is what I do in phase 1:

- dps on boss
- block skull
- run to boss in middle - > boss ports
- interrupt boss - > crem guard spawns
- drop destro ulti on boss while walking backwards, do as much dps as possible - > crem guard dead
- dps - > phase 2

Edit: Just drop the ulti immediately after interrupting him. This should get you to phase 2 reliably.

Edit2: Somehow I missed the part where you were in phase 2 already. If you fall down grab the defense sigil, kill the guard and get back up. The crystals are actually easier in two sessions if you lack dps.

AtraisMachina2

No thanks

Yamakaziing

Yeah I'm trying so hard... wasting so much time... how people think this is competitive.. I'll never understand.. it's a great big frustrating waste of time for an overpowered weapon imo... (ranting cause I'm in the arena now and frustrated) also sometimes my game just bugs out and my skill bar turns dark rendering them useless so I just die instantly... did I mention that? And the fact that I will probably not get the weapon I want is even more frustrating to think about and makes me not want to do it all together.

Anyways.. fall down... grab defense sigil

Somber97866

I thought the same thing! But when I finally beat it ..... BLAM SO FREAKIN AWESOME! I'd never ( and still haven't ) felt that kind of accolishment in the game. I want them to make 5 more new ones to sink my teeth in and rise above and conquer! I still wear " stormproofed" as my title. Now I'm going for flawless conquer! Don't quit!

Yamakaziing

I will continue. But I'm just face planting. At the same place over and over and over again. Going through 50k in repairs each time I go back to it..

Lukums1

Justice31st wrote: »

I am tired of seeing a majority of these 1% players who keep posting veteran Malestrom Arena videos who have the best gear, items, maxed out champion points and the majority being sorcerers (for an much easier run). Many use keyboard macros and some use other cheats or have addons to also help do the work for them. I don't know why ZOS even uses the 1% as the epitome of the current dungeon difficulty. In reality, the majority of ESO players are struggling to even complete veteran maelstrom arena once; let alone have a chance at the new master weapons (especially on console). Just look at the leader boards or trophy % achievement. I do not understand why ZOS wants the majority % of eso players to be set up for failure or even rage quit the game. @ZOS_BrianWheeler @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert (Tagged just to hopefully get a "soon" or /lurk) @ZOS_Alex ( tagged because he enjoys giving me warnings)

@L2P_Groupies @elitist (And also tagged inb4 the elitist and L2P groupies.)

Here is a quick list of reasons why Malestrom Arena needs to be nerfed on console.

1. 9 trait gear needed.
2. Massive repair, food, potion cost.
3. Horribly designed catered to ranged and primarily sorcerers.
4. Having to respect to a min/max build in order to get the best chance possible.
5. Champion point heavily dependent.
6. No addons on consoles which give a big advantage.
7. Class imbalances

Solution: Drop the current difficulty of veteran Malestrom Arena and there should be three difficulties added into the game to keep the PC players (with there unfair advantages) happy. Normal, Veteran, Hardcore. The vMA and hMA would both have a % chance at dropping the master weapons. But with hardcore Maelstrom Arena also having the higher percent chance of dropping a master item with a better trait.

People claiming that their needs to be content for solo players is fine. However, end game gear only obtained by solo gameplay should NOT be included in an MMO. This goes against the very nature of what an massively multiplayer online game is; playing and grouping with other people.

Feel free to add to the list below with your own frustrations about the veteran Maelstrom Arena. And thanks for your time.

Um I'm sorry.

Have you not seen my videos (not trying to sound rude)

Stam Sorc - NMG 6 trait - (any monster helm) seriously - Agility rings/neck (if you don't have vo)

Most of your statements are very wrong, and you've also probably misunderstood many tasks/mechanics along the way.

Yes Sorcs have it generally easier - CP is not (an absolute must) but CP placement and allocation IS especially lower/which may have to reset for some levels/encounters - WE ALL had to do it at some point.

vMA is achieveable with all blue gear 22k STAM (in first person) - again not trying to be rude.
I'm more than happy to spend time/show you ways to get it done. I've helped hundreds of people via shareplay as well as spending my own time via psn partys discussing ways to overcome issues players face.

I don't particularly like seeing these posts but I feel someone should actually offer you an alternative.

If you want the help, the offer is there.

I've completed it on all classes on much much lower CP and generally leader board weekly - but first things first as mentioned if you want the help happy to spend the time with you.

Luke

Alcast

Also I got tons of runs and guides here on my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWqnQ2EfnFBjjRGjeiTAGygMS8eckAKpS

Ainikki

Yamakaziing,
you can complete it. Its just learning and dieing a lot on your first complete!

Check Alcast or Lukums1's Videos out, theyre really good for beginners:).
Nearly forgot it, or Dealtias Videos, he did a "how to do" vma walkthrough for every stage.

Asared

"December 2015"

Yamakaziing

Asared wrote: »

"December 2015"

Is the thread closed? If not than don't waste a comment saying that.

Yeah I've watched deltias. I'll watch the others. Keep on trucking along. I think I need to feed to drop a stage of vampirism before I enter the last boss

Yamakaziing

Alcast wrote: »

Also I got tons of runs and guides here on my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWqnQ2EfnFBjjRGjeiTAGygMS8eckAKpS

Oh awesome nice videos man. What are you using to do that much damage? Mine seems a bit low. On my magtemplar. Dark elf

Lukums1

Ainikki wrote: »

Yamakaziing,
you can complete it. Its just learning and dieing a lot on your first complete!

Check Alcast or Lukums1's Videos out, theyre really good for beginners:).
Nearly forgot it, or Dealtias Videos, he did a "how to do" vma walkthrough for every stage.

Thanks for the shout out at @Ainikki

I've been reading a lot of posts here few things to keep in mind.

1. Defense sigil at the start is a game changer especially if you're struggling getting to top.
2. MANY if not all guides (other than mine) don't have the POWER of suppression field, by using suppression field you can COMPLETELY nullify the CG which will stop him breathing fire, from here all he does is 5k claw hits. (very manageable on any class)

It does all come down to practice but so many people make so many silly little errors which effects the ability to obtain clears, once you sort better CP allocation and tweak skills that work for you! not the 1% of godly players you'll discover how "easy" things quickly become!

Again offer is always there to help out whomever (whenever)

Luke

KrisG_83

One thing that really helped me as a stamina nightblade was i didnt have points in tumbling, i was stuck on the last boss for 2 months and did it for the 1st time last week getting a bow on my 1st try, thanks RNGesus , anyway i found i could only do it by getting the crystals down in 1 go, i basically took every sigil before going up top just so i could get the crystals down.

The trick is to keep your camera on the boss and dodge roll/block when he shoots a skull, the meteors you should be able to just move out of the way really, and get behind that wall when it appears. I found that i didnt need the sigils when i got down as making sure you stay by the boss, interrupt straight away and get the 3 ghosts you can use the synergie just as the crem guard spawns, my dps is just over 23k and i managed to burn the boss down before he recovered from the synergie.

I feel your pain mate, just dont give up your so close!

Solohope

I beat vMA on a stamblade with less that 15k health and whack gear (5 spriggans, 5 hundings, 2 veli, random unenchanted bow) with 514 cp, at the time. You don't need to be a sorc or have BiS gear to beat it, just determination. The truth of the matter is that it was designed to be extremely difficult and it gives you unique rewards based on that. Just practice and try to understand what you did wrong. You'll beat it eventually.

Izaki

Casdha wrote: »

Simple request, and I applaud the ones who do it ahead of time.

To: Someone who can complete Vet Maelstrom

Please make a video of completing it with all add-ons turned off.

Thanks,

Hundreds of console players clear vMA every week without a single add-on.

For example: the first Nightblade (done on a Stamina Nightblade) 600k vMA clear was done on Xbox EU, which means that there were no add-ons at all and 0 chance of macros or cheat engine being used. Was done by this guy: @Supernatural . So yeah.

Seriously, vMA is all about practice. No kind of add-on or gear will make you pass the arena without fully understanding and mastering the mechanics. And its entirely possible (and already been done) to do all of the above without add-ons or perfect best in slot gear.

If i take myself as an example, when I switched to PC, I did my first vMA run at about 200 or 300 CP, with 5 piece Night Mother's Gaze, 2 piece Kra'gh, 2 piece Hunding's Rage and 3 piece Vengeance Leech. Oh that was with purple weapons and armor and with every single armor and weapon piece in the Training trait. So yeah, basically mostly crafted gear, jewelry that costs about 300 gold per ring/necklace and a monster set from one of the easiest vet dungeons in the game. With the worst possible trait for damaging, healing or mitigating damage. And back when I did vMA for the first time on console, which was about 2 years ago, I did it with 237 CP, 5 piece Hunding's Rage 3 piece Agility and 3 piece Night Mother's Gaze, again all purple gear. On a stamina nightblade, AKA a melee character.

Pretty sure that my comment just crushed all of the points that the OP raised about vMA.

Izaki

acw37162 wrote: »

It's brutal.

So funny watching the few hundred players who can beat it tell the other thousands that try to go play normal or learn to play.

@zos anyone just publish the data to webcode if it's not already there or better yet give a website or interface where every player can go and look to see.......

How many players attempted
How far they got
Race, build, and abilities used
Time to clear
Number of deaths
Etc....

Open source all the Malestrom data, he'll open source all the game data I guarantee you that if you get thousands of people looking it they will see things the forty or fifty (guess) you have working on the game might miss out of familiarity.

All this I beat it, I have dozens of friends that beat it, someone I know beat it with 150 CP while white VR1 gear with no potions is great reading and all but show us the hard data and let us sift through it.

On top of the absurd difficulty, on top of it being slightly harder in console for a couple of reasons (no add ons, and for some reason weapon swap is less responsive on console) I also suggest there are rare to no stamina builds beating Vet Malestrom without Vigor (the lone exception being Stam sorcs b/c well crit surge) a pure PVP skill, if that's the case a not news news flash, that's a balance problem.

Keep in mind that the "few hundred players who can beat it" have also spent countless hours trying to clear it for the first time, who have had over 200 deaths on the final boss alone, who had to change their build specifically for each stage of the arena and who almost gave up at every single death throughout the instance. People who cleared it aren't just "better" or something, they just kept going at it and overcame it. And why do you need all that data? This place was intended to be insanely hard to beat, almost Dark Souls level of hard. All that data you so badly want is going to prove is that ZOS accomplished their goal.

What's wrong with Vigor being in the Alliance War skill line?

Dubhliam

People beat it at CP 160.

You only need half a brain and a lot of determination.

BNOC

Justice31st wrote: »

I am tired of seeing a majority of these 1% players who keep posting veteran Malestrom Arena videos who have the best gear, items, maxed out champion points and the majority being sorcerers (for an much easier run). Many use keyboard macros and some use other cheats or have addons to also help do the work for them. I don't know why ZOS even uses the 1% as the epitome of the current dungeon difficulty. In reality, the majority of ESO players are struggling to even complete veteran maelstrom arena once; let alone have a chance at the new master weapons (especially on console). Just look at the leader boards or trophy % achievement. I do not understand why ZOS wants the majority % of eso players to be set up for failure or even rage quit the game. @ZOS_BrianWheeler @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert (Tagged just to hopefully get a "soon" or /lurk) @ZOS_Alex ( tagged because he enjoys giving me warnings)

I commented on a post in May 2017 saying the following to an equally dramatic and misinformed post:

BNOC wrote: »

The only 2 stats he needs to compare are:

Maelstrom Arena Champion - 0.79%
Maelstrom Arena Conqueror - 0.24%

That's a base 30% completion rate based on the amount of people that have completed Normal.

It doesn't say how many people have been in there on Vet, how much time they've invested, what level/Cp they were, or any of the other 1,000 factors that would increase this completion percentage.

Let's remember that completing the content on Vet gives you the Normal achievement, so let's get rid of the players that can complete both as they're a redundant addition to the Champion achievement.

0.79% becomes 0.55%

So:
0.55% of players can only complete Normal.
0.24% of players can complete both difficulties

~30% completion on Vet for a figure that's probably closer to or upwards of 50% when you account for everything isn't a problem, stop.

Today, this has become:

Maelstrom Arena Champion - 0.89% = + 0.1%
Maelstrom Arena Conqueror - 0.27% = + 0.03%

So, in the past 7-8 months that completion rate has remained roughly the same. 30% of players (FACE VALUE) can complete both difficulties. Everything in that post still stands true.

Justice31st wrote: »

Here is a quick list of reasons why Malestrom Arena needs to be nerfed on console.

1. 9 trait gear needed.
2. Massive repair, food, potion cost.
3. Horribly designed catered to ranged and primarily sorcerers.
4. Having to respect to a min/max build in order to get the best chance possible.
5. Champion point heavily dependent.
6. No addons on consoles which give a big advantage.
7. Class imbalances

People claiming that their needs to be content for solo players is fine. However, end game gear only obtained by solo gameplay should NOT be included in an MMO. This goes against the very nature of what an massively multiplayer online game is; playing and grouping with other people.

1. No it's simply not, MSA has been done by 160CP characters in training gear.
2. This I agree with, it's cheaper now but still dear (I'm talking about trial costs here but it's the same) -
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/3330294#Comment_3330294
3. What? Stam builds fly about in there and for as long as I played, used a bow, without fail.
4. Yes, when it comes to 'chance' obviously a better more tuned build is better. Would you expect a street car to beat a race car on a track? No lol, but the street car could still get around the track.
5. Arena was designed around 300CP, changes made since effect that but not massively, 160CP players can still complete this.
6. PC has always had advantages, but unless you're pushing for World Rank 1, you're not going to really be affected by them.
7. Exist, have changed over time and will continue to. Templars and Dk's have never had NB/Sorc completion times, luckily enough, they don't share a leaderboard so you're at just as much of an advantage/disadvantage as everyone there with you.

A team is only as good as it's weakest link; gear locked behind solo content helps to point them out. (Excusing healers/tanks)

WhoSlappedThePie

Just level up, make a sorc, get decent gear, increase champion points to at least 300, take a pet build and hardened ward, and LEARN It.

I swear if you just learn the mechanics it will be easier, if you complete it at least one time with the above mentioned setup, you will know where things are, what to prioritise and understand boss mechanics.

Or... just don't do it. You don't have to jeeez. It's END GAME, HARDEST solo content there is. Why would you want it to be easy?

It gives you something to work toward while you're just doing dungeons, trials whatever...

When I first did it, on my stam DK, i couldn't get past stage 6 even THOUGH i had all the best gear. It was me. I actually rage quit ESO because it got to me so much that i was obviously bad.

...then I made a sorc, necro, pet build... bam.. it still took me ages to do it but it was a good learning curve, felt like I was progressing and then i finally learnt how to complete a run. Must have spent like 10hours on the final boss alone... but I did it.

Now I can do a run in ~1 hour and got all the shiz I need.

TL:DR just make a sorc, learn it, get pissed off, quit for a bit, return and try again... and complete it.

Solohope

I legit beat it on a stamblade with less that 15k health on the back bar and 15.1k health on the front bar. I'm running spriggans/hundings/veli. No golded gear. I'm on pc, I don't use macros (Don't see how they would help) and yes I died a fair bit (3-4 times per arena). If I can do that you can do it too.

dendisu

My first vMA clear took me days if not weeks of trying.
My 2nd clear took me 3 hours (mainly in stage 5 and stage 9)
My 3rd clear took me 2 hours.
It is all based on practice. What felt impossible has become second nature. I remember struggling so hard with rounds 6 and 7, now I breeze through them like they're nothing. Learning the mechanics is far better than gear. Console lag can get pretty bad, with utilizing some prompts getting you killed (eg, ps4 X is interact with portals in stage 9 but also jump, getting you killed by shards because game misreads command).

beetleklee

My first VMA clear took me a few days total. I spent a few hours over two days total on Stage 5, and a few hours over three days on stage 9. The last boss was definitely the most frustrating. I used pet MagSorc. My damage on MagSorc is subpar because I never play the class, compared to my 30k+ StamDK DPS. I didn't feel the pet helped much with aggro as most mobs would always come running for me, but it definitely helped deal some damage while I was shielding/healing.

I did my 2nd run with MagDK and it was much quicker. I did stages 1-8 in one go, but got frustrated again with the final boss and called it a night (vMA also gets laggy when you've been in it for a while and that was causing issues for me.) Went back the next day and beat it.

Currently doing it on StamDK and 1-4 were a breeze due to the class's high damage and having the vMA bow definitely helped. Had to stop at Stage 5 because I didn't have wings which is helpful in this stage, so went to get skyshards and level the skill up. Been a bit busy though the past couple days and haven't been back yet. Lack of shields so far hasn't been as big of a problem as I'd thought it'd be. Vigor is a terrific heal (better than dang dragon blood...)

It's mostly mechanics and knowing what to expect, and what to focus on. On your first try you'll die...a lot...until you stop and think "what was killing me? What could I do better?"

RazorCaltrops

“December 2015”:

-Most players weren’t even at cp cap on consoles yet people still managed to beat after hours of frustration

- One button overload spam mag sorc was the most efficient playstyle, stamina classes were cancer. No vicious ophidian, mostly wrecking blow spamming.

-Cp cap was 501, thaumaturge increasing magic damage instead of DOTs

- No guaranteed weapon drops from last chest, no guaranteed weapons from weekly mail (yes)


February 2018: Everything listed above changed, there are hundreds of builds/guides for VMA.

If you didn’t have that “oh crap” moment when Crematorial Guard was running towards you, you started this game a bit late.

Mister_DMC

@BNOC My healer and Tank have Stormproof

BigBadVolk

Gonna be short here: My first clear prob take half a year or so, then got some advice and help from guildmates and nowadays I can do it within a 35 min range if I dont *** up or lag out and such

SmellyUnlimited

It all works absolutely fine. I saw a cp201 with Stormproof the other day. It takes a lot of practice, but before long you can do a run in an hour and a half.

If you keep trying but can’t make progress, after consulting more experienced players and possibly changing your class/build, you may (no offense) not have the requisite skill to complete it. You can’t compare anything else in the game to it, because it is unlike everything else.

“But I beat vMoL, vHoF, and all then HM’s!,”. make absolutely no difference. Can’t compare group content to solo.

And for the absolute last time - console VMA is FINE!! I beat VMA on Saturday, and last Tuesday without a single bit of lag or buggy mechanics. Enough is enough.