Veteran Maelstrom Arena help

Lyrebon

Okay, I tried vMaelstrom at V10, obviously too difficult what with not having many CP points, but now I'm V16 with ~220 CP, almost all legendary V16 gear with V16 glyphs and I still struggle the same as when I was V10. There is no comparable difference, either I burn through stamina (even with Siphoning Attacks), get two-shotted or don't do enough damage.

I'm a stamina Nightblade, running 5 Hunding's Rage and 3/4 Night Mother's Gaze. Dual daggers and greatsword and V15 jewellery with 1 weapon damage glyph and two absorb stamina glyphs. With food I'm running at 27k stam, 17.6k health, 1504 stam recovery and 2374 weapon damage (75.3% crit. daggers). I can swap out two one ring for weapon damage at the cost of 145 stam recovery, but it gives me 2534 damage.

I just can't seem to find a good balance. I watch people like Deltia and use almost the exact same methods and I know how to play Nightblade, it's something I'm very effective with in other solo content, but I can't seem to match the damage output and stamina recovery.

It feels like Maelstrom is designed only for those who have maxed out their CP and attained the best possible gear, it just feels like poor design rather than a challenge and it's kind of irritating because I loved the idea of the Arena when it was introduced.

OrphanHelgen

maxed cp is nice to have yes, but I still think its possible to farm maelstrom without max cp.
I had full vr16 legendary gear and maxed cp first time I did arena, and I struggled alot, so yes it is hard. Tips is to use sigils every round.

you need vr16 jewlery, go with agility, thats a safe choise. Put kuta enchant weapon dmg and you will get crazy stats. Then focus on recovery in gear/mundus/champion points. With those jewlery, hundings and legendary weapons, you should be above 3500 weapon dmg buffed and have good enough recovery for sustain. Dont block before you have to, same with roll dodge. And try to heavy attack in between for stamina back.

Btw what race are you? I have done vet maelstrom with 800 stamina recovery but that was pain. Usually I have 1300 ish.

Lyrebon

Thanks for the advice, and I'm bosmer so I know I have the advantage with racial stam regen.

If all I need is 1300 stam regen I can get that without having to change Mundus stones. I'm running Shadow for the 12% crit damage. I've maxed out medium armor skill line and currently have 50 CP in Mooncalf. Though I suppose I might notice a difference when I bring Warlord and Mooncalf up more. I might put some into Tumbling (maybe 10-12) so I can roll dodge without worrying about it eating so much stamina.

I'll grab some kuta as well if they make that much of a difference. I was put off by their price and felt Repora was enough for the job, since I could get them with Tel Var stones quite easily.

code65536

First, familiarity with the arena will help, as you won't be wasting as many resources correcting your errors, and you will be doing things more efficiently. And I don't mean watching a video, but actually practicing a round over and over. Just as you can't learn to ballroom dance just by watching two people dance, you do need to practice and experience it yourself, and it will get better. I had a lot of CP (not capped, but over 400) when I first beat vMA, and I died over a hundred times on just the final boss fight. But now can easily beat him without ever dying. It wasn't better gear or stats--just practice and familiarity.

All that having been said, though, your low CP is a pretty substantial handicap.

First, you get a direct bonus to damage from CP spent in the various damage-related perks.

Second, every red/green/blue CP point that you spent increases your max health/stamina/magicka. It's not a lot per point, but when you're talking about 100 points, it's quite a bit. That's better survival (health), more resources, and more damage (since damage scales off of max resources).

Third, CP gives you sustain, so you can spec more into damage and less into resource sustain.

Low CP and stats won't hurt as much if you're familiar with the arena. And practicing the arena won't be so bad if you have high CP and stats. But the two put together doesn't make for a good combination.

And, finally, your other handicap is that you're a stamina build. vMA is harder on stamina builds. vMA is harder for melee than for ranged. That's just the way it is.

My personal recommendation is to respec your character for magicka, at least for vMA. VR15 purple gear should suffice (well, make your staff VR16 gold). I wouldn't recommend this if you had more CP, and I wouldn't recommend this if you had already completed vMA on another build and know the cadence of the fights. But you're trying to get a first clear, with a stat handicap, and on one of the hardest build types for vMA. Beat vMA with a magblade, get that hands-on experience, and maybe you'll find it easier on a stamblade afterwards.

As a magblade, (1) your main attack spam will reliably heal you, (2) you are ranged, and (3) you get Major Expedition mobility from a skill (Cripple) that you'll use in your regular DPS rotation.

Sunburnt_Penguin

I haven't done vMA - so I'm not sure if this will be of any help - but what I find for great stamina resource management is the synergies of bow, relentless focus and siphoning attacks.

Make sure both are active and light attack weave with poison injection when you need to be at a distance. This should maintain stamina fairly well.

When your stamina is completely out just use light attacks with the above and proc assassins will. It somewhat offsets the loss of dps when compared with normal just light attacks.

Lyrebon

I've taken some of the advice into account and managed to get to stage 3. I got a full set of Agility and applied kuta glyps (2 weapon damage and 1 stam recovery) which gives me, with Rally, ~3500 weapon damage. Also switched out daggers for bow and noticed a nice 16.7k crit with Lethal Arrow.

I made some tri-pots as well with my alchemist, they're been helping out nicely.

So, yeah, thanks for the advice.

Sunah

I actually finally did my 1st vma this morning. Huge rush when finally killing last boss. It really just takes persistence and knowing what to change. Such as killing this guy before that one, or standing here when this add spawns so I can burn him instantly and not worry about him.

After wiping on last boss for id say 6 hours I feel real confident that I can do it again in maybe 2 or 3 tries now haha. Just learn what you did wrong and try to fix it one thing at a time.

One example is on last boss when on the top ledge, the comets that rain down was getting me killed, but after doing it so many times its kind of ingrained in me and I don't notice them anymore.. like my body just expects them to come so my muscle memory just makes me move in a zig zaggy pattern haha.

Bobby_V_Rockit

Congrats on finishing it, I need a tonne of help. Specifically, what mundus and champion points are stam users doing?

Martol

I beat it firsst time at 380cp i started at 324