Beating vet Maelstrom as dk

BossXV

I was already noobing it before patch and now I'm lost, please help, what gear and how to do it
Thanks

DocFrost72

Stamina or magicka?

Your CP count?

Have you entered the arena yet, and become stuck? If so, on what round?

Have you done the normal mode?

Will try to help where I can!

BossXV

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Stamina or magicka?

Your CP count?

Have you entered the arena yet, and become stuck? If so, on what round?

Have you done the normal mode?

Will try to help where I can!

Imperial, DK, CP 255, all stamina

Stuck on round 2 boss

Haven't beat normal, have beaten dark souls

I watched some YouTube vids, and honestly their Dps was wayyy better than mine

I've tried 5 viper, 5 hundings, 2 Selena, ,

5 heavy/1/1 for undaunted perk

I've tried duel wield and 2H, I miss a set piece when I run 2H,

I don't think skill is the issue, my rounds lasted muchhhhh longer than these great YouTube builds, so I think I have the skill

I just need the gear, and the updates on how to fight with updates, and actually Ive never animation cancel

Sigtric

You mention Dark Souls and not sure the reasoning behind that but it would be best to not factor that into anything.

The difficulty in VMA is nothing to do with combat (attack timing and mitigation/avoidance) like Dark Souls, and everything to do about killing the right mobs at the right time while still having enough healing to live through the pain, and learning how to deal with the mechanics and environmental hazards.

BossXV

Sigtric wrote: »

You mention Dark Souls and not sure the reasoning behind that but it would be best to not factor that into anything.

The difficulty in VMA is nothing to do with combat (attack timing and mitigation/avoidance) like Dark Souls, and everything to do about killing the right mobs at the right time while still having enough healing to live through the pain, and learning how to deal with the mechanics and environmental hazards.

I feel like each round took me twice as long as some folk, and I feel like if I could do the same DPS (because I do attack as much) I could do it, I don't know how to do 32k damage but thanks for tip, I will watch more vids and order of which enemy to strike

Sigtric

Vids will help some but it's going to take a lot of learning for each arena. Honestly, your first clear is likely going to take hours counted in tens and a hundred deaths. This seems to be most people's experience.
Just keep trying it and learn from every death.

BossXV

Sigtric wrote: »

Vids will help some but it's going to take a lot of learning for each arena. Honestly, your first clear is likely going to take hours counted in tens and a hundred deaths. This seems to be most people's experience.
Just keep trying it and learn from every death.

Thanks, what I meant by "I've beat Dark Souls" is I'm willing to die a billion times and have the ability to have the skill to beat whatever challenge,

Do you have any gear advice? How can I do insane DPS?

inked1

@BossXV you can have all the dps in the world but if you don't learn the mechanics you are never going to get through it. VMA is learning what to do when. What to kill first and what not to kill. What to interrupt. Where to stand. The entire arena is about mechanics. You can get through it with your current gear if you are willing to learn the mechanic.

coplannb16_ESO

I think stamina builds will have a harder time in vma now due to Vigor cost increase and general sustain nerfs.

Id suggest #1 get Vicious Ophidian (damage and sustain). There is also a 3-item set in Cyrodil that helps with Stamina Sustain (do not recall the name) which stacks with VO. Also try to put cost reduction enchants on your jewelry. You need to do damage and heal yourself without running out of resources.
If you want to stick to heavy armor, I heard people were having success with the 7th Legion set (the effect could stack multiple times in Homestead, dunno if that is still true). A sustain monster set can also help (that dwemer automaton thingy, engine guardian?).

You do not need 30+K dps imho. I can do 20-30K DPS in ideal circumstances on a dummy (magicka dk), but in vma I am only at about 15 K most of the time cause you have to keep moving all the time and I cannot keep them mobs inside my cinderstorm and wall of elements all the time and have to reshield often to stay alive which disprupts my rotation. Still it works if you know the mechanics and as others have mentioned know what to kill first and where it spawns.

Masel

coplannb16_ESO wrote: »

I think stamina builds will have a harder time in vma now due to Vigor cost increase and general sustain nerfs.

Id suggest #1 get Vicious Ophidian (damage and sustain). There is also a 3-item set in Cyrodil that helps with Stamina Sustain (do not recall the name) which stacks with VO. Also try to put cost reduction enchants on your jewelry. You need to do damage and heal yourself without running out of resources.
If you want to stick to heavy armor, I heard people were having success with the 7th Legion set (the effect could stack multiple times in Homestead, dunno if that is still true). A sustain monster set can also help (that dwemer automaton thingy, engine guardian?).

You do not need 30+K dps imho. I can do 20-30K DPS in ideal circumstances on a dummy (magicka dk), but in vma I am only at about 15 K most of the time cause you have to keep moving all the time and I cannot keep them mobs inside my cinderstorm and wall of elements all the time and have to reshield often to stay alive which disprupts my rotation. Still it works if you know the mechanics and as others have mentioned know what to kill first and where it spawns.

The cyrodiil set is called vengeance leech

Cost reduction is worse than recovery in vMA (and on most other places) because recovery will help you in between rounds, stages. Cost reduction isnt helping once you're low on resources...

Saturnana

I may be stating the obvious here... but maybe try to complete a normal run first?

Was watching someone else try out nMA yesterday and it looked pretty hardcore to me. I've yet to try normal OR veteran (pretty sure I'd get my butt handed to me either way) but seeing as there are two 'levels' of MA, starting on the second one may be reaching a little too high? At least when just starting out? Like others said already - MA doesn't seem to be solely about doing damage, it's more about mechanics. Doing a couple of runs on Normal and getting familiar with everything that goes down in those boss fights may just give you that edge you need.

Brrrofski

You said you're wearing 5 heavy right?

That's your first problem. Lower crit, weapon damage and sustain mean lower overall damage.

Go 5 medium, 1 heavy 1 light. You'll notice a difference for sure.

Morgul667

A lot of surviving in VMA is about : killing mobs fast enough (and in the right order), avoiding mechanics. This really is the key.

Id go with medium armor VO and make a normal run first.

Sigtric

lnsane wrote: »

I may be stating the obvious here... but maybe try to complete a normal run first?

Was watching someone else try out nMA yesterday and it looked pretty hardcore to me. I've yet to try normal OR veteran (pretty sure I'd get my butt handed to me either way) but seeing as there are two 'levels' of MA, starting on the second one may be reaching a little too high? At least when just starting out? Like others said already - MA doesn't seem to be solely about doing damage, it's more about mechanics. Doing a couple of runs on Normal and getting familiar with everything that goes down in those boss fights may just give you that edge you need.

Running normal will give you a taste but unfortunately it does nearly nothing to prepare you for the vet version IMO. The difficulty gap between the two settings is gigantic.

FrancisCrawford

If you haven't beaten nMA, there's no way you should try vMA.

I can beat Maelstrom Arena in normal mode, but when last I checked it still wasn't easy for me. I'm not going to even try vMA until I do in fact find nMA easy.

DocFrost72

Some great advice here. If you can get vicious ophidian, do it. I still need a set (sadface).

If not, buy a set of jewelry for the "vengeance leach" set. Gives you health magicka and stam on kill, comes in healthy.

You may be used to heavy armor, but if you can try running 5 medium for the passives.

Try running normal a bunch to learn mechanics. Just like dark souls, knowing what to do and when to do it is the difference between victory and watching your character die in spectacular fashion. That, and the first time you see the mechanics for round 5, 6, or 7, you may be more than a little surprised.

Otherwise, I wish you luck!

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Run normal 3-4 times for the mechanics. What others are saying is true for the most part, big DPS doesnt help if you dont follow mechanics. The counter to that is that with enough DPS, you are going to skip a fair amount of them. That is the problem with watching speed runs of VMA. They wont see half the mechanics that you do at first.

I dont care how "skilled" you are, I only know one person that beat VMA on their first attempt, and he has set several world records. You are going to need to bang your head against it for a while. The reality is that if you cant beat nMA with less than 1-2 deaths, you have no business in vet.

Another thing to consider, maybe it doesnt bother you, but a low CP stam DK would not be my first choice for learning the arena, especially after the nerf fest on monday. You are going to struggle with DPS and resources. Vicious Ophidian gear would help tremendously if you can get your hands on it. Also, until you are clearing in under an hour with minimal deaths, grab every damn sigil in that place.

FlyLionel

No idea how flexible you are with getting gear but i'll ease up for this.

5p Spriggans and 5pc TBS(health bonus, use thief and shadow mundus as usual), run infector weapons with weapon damage/crusher enchant on DW(double daggers or one axe/dagger).

or

5pc NMG or Hundings(hundings and spriggans seems best) when on DW bar and use velidreth(preferred)/kragh/skoria(health bonus is nice), try and go 5-1-1 for more survival here if you can sustain. Jewelry and 2p on body can be anything man, I'd just go spriggans because the penetration plus you have major fracture with noxious will do great damage on single target boss fights. Thief mundus all day.

Keep vigor up for that second round man, gotta keep it up always. I'd recommend running corrosive armour on back bar and rend on front bar, both give survival and will upgrade dps. Dawnbreaker is better for trash but that shouldn't be your problem in VMA. Also if you want more of an advantage it wouldn't hurt to farm more CP before you continue.

Izaki

Vicious Ophidian. Farm it. Even if the jewelry is blue, farm it. Its going to make your life so much easier. Then use Hunding's Rage on the DW weapons and 3 body pieces. Use Velidreth as monster set.

Good luck!

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Every one is going to have a different take on gear, but those saying farm VO are correct. IMO, you really cant beat this setup (its what broke the 600k score barrier for the first time).

Jewelry: Vicious Ophidian x3
Head, Shoulders: Velidreth x2
Chest, Belt, Legs, Gloves, Boots: 3 night mothers, 2 vicious ophidian (doesnt really matter what is what)
Weapons: 2 Night Mothers Daggers, Either both sharp, or one sharp one infused, and a sharp NM bow on the back bar.

You would do a little better probably with spriggans or TFS instead of nightmothers, but that means you need to farm weapons which is a nightmare. This allows you to craft weapons in perfect traits. This setup requires you to only farm a monster set from VCOS and trial gear which can drop in Normal SO.

A week ago I would have said 2 sharp daggers, but the changes to CP mean we dont need as much penetration. It looks like the new DW meta will require 1 infused weapon with a weapon power glyphs, and one sharp weapon.

For your armor, if you have undaunted you could go 6 medium 1 heavy, or even 5 medium 2 heavy for a little extra tankiness. you want divines on everything. Enchants should be Stamina and weapon damage, but one healthy glyph and one stam recovery glyph is not the worst idea when learning. Make sure you have at least 18-19k health when learning on stam.

Soleya

My first complete was on Stam Sorc using 5 Hundings 4 NMG and 3 Endurance Jewerly. I then switched to 5 VO, 5 Spriggan, 2 Velidreth and it was unbelievable how much better that was. (btw, I went spriggan over NMG cause at the time I only had VO armor, couldn't get any jewelry, but spriggan Jewelry is easily obtainable).

I also suggest doing Normal first, it doesn't really prepare you for how hard vet is, but it does at least give you a feel for each level and what can happen.

To give you an idea, last time I ran normal, it was on a Level 4 Mag DK using the tutorial armor and a level 4 white crafted resto staff. Each round I equipped whatever armor it dropped completed it with no death. On Vet, it takes me at least 2 hours on my best character, and I'm no where near close to a flawless on vet.

My other suggestion is use sigils...a lot.

BossXV

Soleya wrote: »

My first complete was on Stam Sorc using 5 Hundings 4 NMG and 3 Endurance Jewerly. I then switched to 5 VO, 5 Spriggan, 2 Velidreth and it was unbelievable how much better that was. (btw, I went spriggan over NMG cause at the time I only had VO armor, couldn't get any jewelry, but spriggan Jewelry is easily obtainable).

I also suggest doing Normal first, it doesn't really prepare you for how hard vet is, but it does at least give you a feel for each level and what can happen.

To give you an idea, last time I ran normal, it was on a Level 4 Mag DK using the tutorial armor and a level 4 white crafted resto staff. Each round I equipped whatever armor it dropped completed it with no death. On Vet, it takes me at least 2 hours on my best character, and I'm no where near close to a flawless on vet.

My other suggestion is use sigils...a lot.

Does using glyphs lesson your reward?

Toast_STS

BossXV wrote: »

Soleya wrote: »

My first complete was on Stam Sorc using 5 Hundings 4 NMG and 3 Endurance Jewerly. I then switched to 5 VO, 5 Spriggan, 2 Velidreth and it was unbelievable how much better that was. (btw, I went spriggan over NMG cause at the time I only had VO armor, couldn't get any jewelry, but spriggan Jewelry is easily obtainable).

I also suggest doing Normal first, it doesn't really prepare you for how hard vet is, but it does at least give you a feel for each level and what can happen.

To give you an idea, last time I ran normal, it was on a Level 4 Mag DK using the tutorial armor and a level 4 white crafted resto staff. Each round I equipped whatever armor it dropped completed it with no death. On Vet, it takes me at least 2 hours on my best character, and I'm no where near close to a flawless on vet.

My other suggestion is use sigils...a lot.

Does using glyphs lesson your reward?

It will lower your score at the end for the leader boards. It won't hurt the rewards you get in the arena. Don't worry about leader boards for your first time so go ahead and grab the sigils as much as you want..

Toast_STS

double post sorry.

DHale

You need VO 5 piece and likely twice fanged serpent. Found in the vet hard mode trials and normal trials.

KanedaSyndrome

Contemplating whether or not it's even possible for me to do Maelstrom Vet with my Stamblade now that the sustain nerf hit.

S1ipperyJim

Worry less about gear and more about knowing the mechanics and survival.

You don't need more than 15k dps to beat VMA, more DPS just makes it quicker and you can skip some mechanics or make them less repetitive