Veteran Modes for Old Dungeons - Here are some ideas!

TheDarkRuler

Additional Veteran dungeons based on the regular Group Dungeons already included in the Main Game. Recently ZOS published Cradle of Shadows and Ruins of Mazzatun as new dungeons in normal and veteran mode but there are still Group Dungeons without a veteran mode and without Monster Helmet set in it. So for the next huge update perhaps a few of them could get one. This post is picking up the old quest line and is trying to bring forth another quest idea for Veteran variant and Monster Helmet sets. Feel free to comment and bring forth own ideas.

The dungeons which currently do not have are veteran mode are …

Aldmeri Dominion
- Tempest Island
- Selenes Web

Daggerfall Covenant
- Volenfell
- Blackheart Haven

Ebonheart Pact
- Arx Corsinium
- Direfrost Keep
- Blessed Crucible

All Factions
- Vaults of Madness

Since I am working on concepts with guilds mates I will constantly post some more ideas.
See the reference links behind the dungeons above.

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT!
COMMENTS ARE WHAT KEEPS COMMUNITY ALIVE!

TheDarkRuler

Dungeon Walkthrough

First Stage : Neidir The Fallen One
The player starts at the very same beach the No-Veteran dungeon starts but is confronted with five torn open rifts between the very fabric of the world. Lots of thunder and light creatures ranging from Storm Atronachs, Wispmothers and Thunderspirits* are crawling out of the rifts.

* = Small Will o'Wisp creatures with lightning attacks and a devastating self-explosion on death. Swarming around in numbers of eight or more creatures in a pack. Small hit-poit scale.

Each rift has to be closed by focussing energy for 10 seconds. The closing process will spawn enemies which will try to attack the player currently closing the rift. If the player takes too much damage the player is struck with a lightning (about half their maximum health as lightning damage) and the process is canceled.

When all five rifts are closed the first boss will spawn. 'Neidir The Fallen One' is the former End Boss of the No-Vet dungeon. His background will be that when he was defeated and imprisoned for his crimes and was awaiting trial in the prison of Marbruk he chose to kill himself with the little magicka he had left.

Neidir is constantly surrounded by a wind shield area of effect with deals minuscule damage of about five-hundred to one-thousand damage per second. The area is pretty huge with around seven meters diameter. When Neidir calls out and starts channelizing the area will shrinken but the damage will increase exponentially to all those in the remaining area of effect. Being in the area at its minimum size is supposed to deal around ten thousand magic damage per second. When the area reaches its minimum size an electric discharge will take place dealing a one-hit-kill to all those caught in the area. While fighting Neidir will constantly shoot lightning from the sky hitting the area a player is standing. The lightning requires three seconds to strike. If the players are keeping up the movement they will be pretty safe. Neidir the Fallen one drops parts of the Set 'Stormbound'.

Second Stage – The Thunderous Trinity
After defeating Neidir the way will lead to the cavern the player used to fight the boss Sonolia in No-Veteran dungeon. On the way will be even more rifts that needs to be closed because ads are constantly crawling out of the rifts making it very difficult to proceed if left open.

When reaching the dungeon a huge rift appears in front of the party. The rift will be torn open by itself pushing away the group and spawning the Boss The Thunderous Trinity. This boss is composed of a huge Wispmother. The Wispmother deals massive area damage with its thunder rain and spawns Thunder Spirits that will constantly seek out the group with the area suicide rush. The Wispmother has three stages. During the first stage which ranges from 100% health to 66% health she will mostly focus on spawning Thunder Spirits and Thunder Rain abilities with occasional knocking back players from herself. When reaching the second stage which ranges from 66% health to 33% when will enter a more furious mode. All remaining Thunder Wisps will instantly die and explode when she reaches that stage dealing damage to all players caught in the area. In this mode the boss will have a “trail” of Thunder Rain that moves where ever she moves in a short delay. She uses teleport abilities and in combination with large area of effect thunder discharge similar to the abilities regular NPC storm mages use. However the area is much larger and has a knock-down effect attached for all players who do not block. When reaching the third stage after beating her down to 33% health will trigger a huge explosion. The boss will levitate and can only be attacked by ranged attacks during that time of around 15 seconds. While she's levitating the emits strong wind-waves which spawn right below her and that are expanding infinitely. The damage of the wind-waves is increased by 10% for each meter the waves are passing. So the closer you are the less damage you will get. However when the levitating ends she will immediately call down a thunder strike right below her so you have to keep a good balance between too close and too far. The Thunderous Trinity drops parts of the Set 'Thunder Incarnate'.

Third Stage – Verèth the Storm Monarch
Upon defeating the Trinity you will proceed to the place where Valaran Stormcaller used to be in no-veteran mode. There will be a unique mechanic from now on that independent from any enemy occasional thunder strikes will hit an area close to a player. The strike will deal lots of damage and stun all targets hit by it.
When reaching the area a huge thunderstrike will hit the mountain blinding all players and destroying the entrance to the cave. It will also spawn five Strom Atronachs around the players which need to be destroyed as soon as possible because they will have the unique mechanic of charging themselves up whenever they are hit by a lightning strike indicated by a mage-light orb surrounding it. When an atronach has three charges it will split into two Atronachs with the same stats and the same health as the original one. So keep killing them fast or you will be outnumbered fast.
When all atronachs are done for the Monster Helmet boss Verèth will spawn. He's a giant storm atronach with a unique battle mechanic. He is invulnerable most of the time. Verèths invulnerability can be broken by discharging his electricity. This will be done by the enemy itself. When he charges a huge amound of void zones will appear where gravity and laws of physics are out of place. A player stepping inside is trapped and damaged over time but can be freed by an ally using a Synergy. Trick is to lure the Monarch into the void zones he's creating. Doing so will make him vulnerable for the time being in the void zone. However he will break the void zone in approximately ten seconds and be invulnerable again. The trick is to avoid the zones itself and luring the boss in. When reaching 40% max health the Monarch will enrage. This will result in the Void zones getting a very slow movement. Verèth the Stormmonarch drops parts of the Set 'Stormrunner'.


Fourth Stage – Final Boss 'The Transcended One'
Defeating the Storm Monarch will unlock the Storm Cage surrounding the player. Since the cave entrance is done for the group has to walk a small mountain track laid free by the thunderstrike. However due to the rain and the constant lightning strikes there will be rock falls on the area which will swipe players off the track forcing them to revive at the last plateau below. So keep track of the surroundings. Sometimes the rocks can be destroyed by the groups to make them slide prematurely so they won't pose a threat anymore when a lightning strikes them. By using the sideway the group will reach the pinnacle of the mountain.

There will be a huge amound of trash mobs composed of Thunder Wisps and Storm Atronachs and as a Mini boss there will be 'Stormblade'. It is an Air Atronach charged up with lightning damage. It can do a whirl attack dealing high damage and it can do a slash-projectile dealing high physical damage and knocking places over in the projectile trajectory. When reaching 50% health Stormblade will swirl around 20 seconds and randomly shoot lightning cuts all across the area in a 360 decree angle. His attacks will damage players and enemies as well. After the 20 seconds have passed the boss is exhausted for 10 seconds resulting in getting Major Breach and Major Fracture. After ten-seconds the swirl begins anew.

Defeating all mobs and finally reaching the pinnacle where Neidir was once defeated. Reaching it will result in a vibration of the air and making the players on the pinnacle getting blinded. When being able to see again the whole pinnacle is blasted away and only a flat area and one huge Welkynd-Stone remains. A huge rift will break open and the last boss 'The Transcended' will appear. It is an aetherical Wamasu with the effect of thunder form of the Sorcerer Skill Tree. The Wamasu will instantly howl resulting in a cage imprisoning everything in the area with lightning strikes. Touching the cage will be one-hit-kill. While fighting the boss the frequency of the environment thunder strikes will be doubled.

The Transcended One will use lightning breath, and charge much like a normal Wamasu but due to its increased size the area size and damage will be increased as well. Also the Transcended One will sometimes call for help resulting in rifts opening across the plateau swaming enemies. The rifts here can be closed much faster and only require 5 seconds. One in a while the boss will disappear in a rift and be invulnerable in this phase. While doing so the plateau will be struck with insane amounts of lightning strikes and wind blasts. Keep track of the area effects until the boss comes back. Beating the boss below 30 percent will result in a optic change. All lightning strikes will not be redirected to the boss. Each strike heals the boss for around ten-thousand life and gives him Empower increasing next attacks damage by 20 percent.

The Welkynd Stone mentioned above can be Synergized. If done so it will be a steal all lightning from the plateau to itself. But after twenty seconds the welkynd stone is destroyed. Not using the Welkynd Stone is the Gold Key Condition for the Undaunted Pledges. Defeating the Final boss grants 1 Skill Point and has a chance of dropping 'Verèths Helm'.


The Sets

Stormbound
Light Armor Set, Old Elves Style, Amulet and Rings available, Weapons: Staffs only

(2)Increases maximum magicka
(3)Increases spell critical
(4)Increases spell damage
(5)When life is dropping below 30 percent health, enclose yourself in a defensive shell of lightning for 4 seconds. While active, the next attack against you will strike the attacker with two times the damage their attack would have done. If you attack while being enclosed in the lightning shell, it will break the shell. Cooldown: 1 Minute.

Thunder Incarnate
Medium Armour Set, Old Elves Style, Amulet and Rings available, Weapons everything

(2)Increases stamina regeneration
(3)Increases weapon damage
(4)Increases weapon critical
(5)Dealing weapon damage to an enemy has a 15 percent chance of marking them with a thunder token. Striking them again with weapon damage will either force a lightning strike go down, dealing lightning damage or force a wind surge come out knocking down the enemies around you for 3 seconds. Cooldown 5 Seconds

Stormrunner
Medium Armour Set, Old Elves Style, Amulet and Rings available; Weapons everything

(2)Increases stamina recovery
(3)Increases maximum stamina
(4)Increases weapon critical
(5)Dodge rolling has a 50 chance of giving you the 'Storm Runner' buff for 6 seconds reducing Sprint and Dodge roll cost by 33% while active. Also running leaves a lightning trail behind you that will deal lightning damage for every enemy stepping inside it. The Trail will remain for 15 seconds. No Cooldown

Monster Helmet Set „Verèths Demise“
Almost every boss in this dungeon somehow affects large area scales and lightning damage. It was only logical to make a correspondent monster helmet set as well consisting of the same effects. Concerning the optics I would suggest that the set would be make out of Verèth the Storm Monarch's body to make a connection with the corresponding element. The Set would look like an Storm Atronach then.

(1)Increases Spell Damage by 129
(2)Inflicting damage to an enemy with an area of effect-skill has a 6 percent chance of calling down a thunderstrike in a small area around the victim dealing 4000 lightning damage and charging up the area for 800 lightning damage every 0,5 seconds for 4 seconds. No Cooldown. sh

The effects are triggering on area effects like the Impulse of destruction staffs or similiar. The downstrike is somewhat similiar to Valkyn Skoria but deals another damage type, it deals less damage at once but makes the impact area a danger zone with 800 damage per half-second. Also thsi is one of very few sets that only give straight Magic Damage boost.

stevepdodson_ESO888

out of all the dungeons anywhere at any level (normal or vet) my absolute favourite is Vaults of Madness (followed closely by Direfrost Keep) due to the story line and the amazing layout/design/artwork, so I would be interested to see what ideas you would have for this

TheDarkRuler

Right now we are working on Volenfell and Direfrost Keep Veteran mode.
But we brainstormed some ideas for Vaults of Madness in the group so it will probably be next after we released content ideas for Volenfell and Direfrost.

Darius771

Definitelly a great work to think in all this. But unhappy I think all zos effort is turned to Tamriel One, and we have a long time since a dungeon earned a veteran mode. But, who knows eso future...

Qbiken

Nice to see someone putting some work and thougths into something like this. Nice work . Do you have simillar ideas to other "non-vet" dungeons as well?

TheDarkRuler

@Qbiken
Like i wrote above we are currently planning on Direfrost and Volenfell.
Others will come later

@Darius771
Hm one vet dungeon at a time is definitely not that hard a work.
It does not have to be all vet dungeons at once. Slow progress is better than no progress at all.