vMA Should Come With A Health Warning

TeIvanni

So.. prior to today. The last time I attempted vMA was almost two years ago, a few months after orisinum was released.
It was one of my worst gaming experiences ever... The run lasted 11 Hours and 15 minutes (4 of those hours were spent on the final boss) and ended with me giving up with 250 deaths
^This experience is one of the reasons I quit playing ESO for almost two years.

Today, however. I am proud to announce that I successfully completed vMA for the first time ever.
The run lasted about 3 hours (most of that time was spent dying to cheesy mechanics on the argonian level... Is it possible for poison buds NOT to spawn inside the mender's shield EVERY SINGLE TIME?).

Anyway.. what should have been an exciting accomplishment was tainted by the fact that I felt physically ill.
Those three hours of intense mental strain really did a number on me...

I had a massive headache and I couldn't see straight for about 45 minutes afterwards.

vMA should come with a health hazard warning.

sekou_trayvond

My wife suggests that it come with a divorce warning as well...

Ratzkifal

I agree. vMA is the most infuriating experience I know that this game has to offer. 4 Hours in vWGT with the main dps leaving on the last boss and bugging the whole instance making us unable to find a replacement and making it all in vain was bad. My vMA experience has always been worse. I haven't done this arena in a long time and by now I am probably strong enough to do it, but at this point I really stopped caring about MA weapons. Master weapons however..... Anyway! Seeing how I need to do MA to get the trophy furniture even of the bosses I already beat made me angry and sad and scared.

I honestly doff my hat to all of you who actually grind that. You people have nerves of steel and skills I cannot fathom.

bebynnag

Ratzkifal wrote: »

I honestly doff my hat to all of you who actually grind that. You people have nerves of steel and skills I cannot fathom.

it gets easier!

LadyLethalla

I agree...
I gave up on stage 7 because lag here just makes it impossible to complete a round without fluking it. Last attempt though, prior to Morrowind, I too had a massive headache.

ForsakenSin

Aaa VMSA ... you will cry you will laugh, you will want to throw the controller towards your tv, you will rage quick you will swear like never before and in the end you will be disappointed with RNG and ready to do it all over again ...

SoLooney

It should come with a rage warning as well and the possibility of broken controllers and TV.
But obviously it gets easier the more you play it. The only thing that really pisses me off is round 7 final boss when in the shield and a stupid ass poison plant explodes right there and youre a stamina character...

Diminish

Ran vMA like 15 times yesterday and the day before, got like 8 daggers. vMA needs a health warning, sure, but the RNG loot needs to be accompanied with an obituary because by time you get the drop you're after someone will be writing one for you.

Zvorgin

VMA is simply not fun, even the people who have mastered farming it complain about it being not fun. I've never heard anyone say they like doing it.

Tigeracer

I enjoy it. I haven't finished it yet, still up to stage 6, but I still enjoy it. I do agree that it's infuriating though. I get so frustrated that I want to punch my screen sometimes.

WhitePawPrints

I have never felt a sense of accomplishment when beating Maelstrom. It comes down to BiS gear, good reaction to mechanics and a fair amount of luck. I never felt that it improved my gameplay or I became more skillful; I just felt like I'm luckier sometimes by good timing on mechanics. Nothing fun about that. imo

WeyounTM

I only started doing this abomination of a play mode after all the nice Morrowind nerfs. Started with my Khajiit Magplar no less. Got to stage 6 somehow and then was slaughtered by the boss over and over and over because if you lack the DPS she will eventually just one shot you outa nowhere.
Gave up with my main and went in there again with my Khajiit Magsorc. I couldnt believe how much easier that went but I am still stuck at the very last boss. I kinda should be proud of myself for even getting there, but I aint.
If you lack the recomended 3 trillion DPS a second you will have a bad time. And even if you manage to get around some of the cheese mechanix, a small slip up will just be your doom.

I get it that hard content should be hard. But some of the mechanics are simply a mess and unfair. I cant imagin doing this for fun ever. I only just wanted to complete it once on my main...but since Templars are on the bottom of the foodchain anyway and I aint no good player or min-maxer...this isnt for me.

Araxyte

It's posts like these which prevents ZOS from making more difficult solo content. Some of us actually like content which requires half a brain to complete. A lot of my new friends to the game completed it at 160-200cp. The solo content of ESO is far far easier than in other mmo's. I'm afraid this is a case of git gud.

pdebie64b16_ESO

Iam trying to complete Vma since it came out, i did countless runs, spent a huge amount of soul gems, repair kits and gold for repairs, tried many gear and skill setups and finaly made it to the last boss round.

Now Vma is all about learning the mechanics, knowing the spawn points and fast reactions, now iam an older player and in my fifties so my reactions arent that fast as someone who his 20 or 30 years younger, but i managed to reach that final boss.

I died mostly by the rng like the stage 7 boss, but in my opinion the rng at the final boss is abit to much.

The problem starts when you need to kill the clanfear near the portal when the boss goes to the second level, the boss cast that Nerieth aoe on you and the lava spits red circles as well, a few times after killing the clanfear on the portal and pressing my key to go up at the same time the boss drops his Nerieth aoe and at the same time the lava fireball drops on you and i got killed while i was porting upstars preventing me doing anything.

Same sort of thing happens upstairs when a red circle and black circle (dont know the name of this ability) drops at the same time on you, but it stunlock you preventing dodgeroll or brake free and you die.

Now iam ok with mechanics i can counter but the above issues cant be countered and that bothers me.

I really hope ZOS will tweak the rng abit on the last boss.

Diminish

WeyounTM wrote: »

I only started doing this abomination of a play mode after all the nice Morrowind nerfs. Started with my Khajiit Magplar no less. Got to stage 6 somehow and then was slaughtered by the boss over and over and over because if you lack the DPS she will eventually just one shot you outa nowhere.
Gave up with my main and went in there again with my Khajiit Magsorc. I couldnt believe how much easier that went but I am still stuck at the very last boss. I kinda should be proud of myself for even getting there, but I aint.
If you lack the recomended 3 trillion DPS a second you will have a bad time. And even if you manage to get around some of the cheese mechanix, a small slip up will just be your doom.

I get it that hard content should be hard. But some of the mechanics are simply a mess and unfair. I cant imagin doing this for fun ever. I only just wanted to complete it once on my main...but since Templars are on the bottom of the foodchain anyway and I aint no good player or min-maxer...this isnt for me.

For the last boss I find it easiest to nuke him early, get up top and drop AOE on the first crystal to your left. Run toward crystal to your right and be ready to block the skull he throws, DPS the second crystal until the wall spawns that you need to hide behind. Run toward 3rd crystal and drop AOE and hide behind the rotating wall. This will bring you back by the 1st and 2nd crystals. Drop AOE on one, turn and DPS the other. Block skull throws as necessary and watch for the wall to spawn again. When it does get to it right away! After it is destroyed, block the skull throws as you get to the last crystal and nuke it down.

Once you get back down low, grab the defense sigil and DO NOT bash the boss; the shield will reflect his attacks back at him. At this time grab 3 golden ghosts. Do what you can to survive until he teleports to an area close to the sigil of power. Hit your synergy, grab the sigil of power, drop an ultimate on the boss and nuke him.

If you are not going for a no sigil score run and just want a clear this is a pretty easy strategy. It takes practice; especially taking out the crystals without getting wiped or knocked back down, but once you have it down it only gets easier.

My 1st run was like 7 hours trying to beat stage 9. Took a break from the game for a few months, came back and had a clear in about 7 hours start to finish. Ran it again right afterwards and got a clear in like 1h45m. Have shaved time off each run ever since. It does get easier...

Diminish

Araxyte wrote: »

It's posts like these which prevents ZOS from making more difficult solo content. Some of us actually like content which requires half a brain to complete. A lot of my new friends to the game completed it at 160-200cp. The solo content of ESO is far far easier than in other mmo's. I'm afraid this is a case of git gud.

I doubt your "new friends to the game" cleared vMA at CP 160-200; especially post Morrowind. If by chance they did, I will say first hand that they must have lived in there trying to get a clear.

Huyen

TeIvanni wrote: »

So.. prior to today. The last time I attempted vMA was almost two years ago, a few months after orisinum was released.
It was one of my worst gaming experiences ever... The run lasted 11 Hours and 15 minutes (4 of those hours were spent on the final boss) and ended with me giving up with 250 deaths
^This experience is one of the reasons I quit playing ESO for almost two years.

Today, however. I am proud to announce that I successfully completed vMA for the first time ever.
The run lasted about 3 hours (most of that time was spent dying to cheesy mechanics on the argonian level... Is it possible for poison buds NOT to spawn inside the mender's shield EVERY SINGLE TIME?).

Anyway.. what should have been an exciting accomplishment was tainted by the fact that I felt physically ill.
Those three hours of intense mental strain really did a number on me...

I had a massive headache and I couldn't see straight for about 45 minutes afterwards.

vMA should come with a health hazard warning.

Our brain does get addicted to stress due to hormones and other stuff. When suddenly after so many time the stress-factor is removed, your brain suffers from the effects that a drugs-addict would have in his entire body, with the difference at this point that you gain a massive migraine-attack (been suffering from it for years). Try to keep the stress down while doing vMA and it should go a lot better.

Araxyte

pdebie64b16_ESO wrote: »

Iam trying to complete Vma since it came out, i did countless runs, spent a huge amount of soul gems, repair kits and gold for repairs, tried many gear and skill setups and finaly made it to the last boss round.

Now Vma is all about learning the mechanics, knowing the spawn points and fast reactions, now iam an older player and in my fifties so my reactions arent that fast as someone who his 20 or 30 years younger, but i managed to reach that final boss.

I died mostly by the rng like the stage 7 boss, but in my opinion the rng at the final boss is abit to much.

The problem starts when you need to kill the clanfear near the portal when the boss goes to the second level, the boss cast that Nerieth aoe on you and the lava spits red circles as well, a few times after killing the clanfear on the portal and pressing my key to go up at the same time the boss drops his Nerieth aoe and at the same time the lava fireball drops on you and i got killed while i was porting upstars preventing me doing anything.

Same sort of thing happens upstairs when a red circle and black circle (dont know the name of this ability) drops at the same time on you, but it stunlock you preventing dodgeroll or brake free and you die.

Now iam ok with mechanics i can counter but the above issues cant be countered and that bothers me.

I really hope ZOS will tweak the rng abit on the last boss.

There is literally no RNG mechanic in the VMA stage 9 boss, it's all time and HP based (apart from which pad you have to take up upstairs which is too easy to be called a mechanic). You are invulnerable when you start to float up to the next level, the nerieth and lava balls AOE's can't hit you, so you either had bad lag or this just isn't true. And as for the upstairs aoe and stuns you need to block/ roll dodge. ALL of these mechanics can be countered.

Blackbird_V

Diminish wrote: »

Araxyte wrote: »

It's posts like these which prevents ZOS from making more difficult solo content. Some of us actually like content which requires half a brain to complete. A lot of my new friends to the game completed it at 160-200cp. The solo content of ESO is far far easier than in other mmo's. I'm afraid this is a case of git gud.

I doubt your "new friends to the game" cleared vMA at CP 160-200; especially post Morrowind. If by chance they did, I will say first hand that they must have lived in there trying to get a clear.

Actually, he did. vMA is about skill, and since ESO seems to be catered towards bad players, obviously a lot of people find it hard because they have no idea that red = bad, or how to actually deal with somehwhat challenging mechanics - they rely on better players too much.

It's honestly a case of get good & learn to actually play. vMA will 100% help players do that if they continuously repeat that content until they actually learn how to deal with situations

LadyNalcarya

WeyounTM wrote: »

I only started doing this abomination of a play mode after all the nice Morrowind nerfs. Started with my Khajiit Magplar no less. Got to stage 6 somehow and then was slaughtered by the boss over and over and over because if you lack the DPS she will eventually just one shot you outa nowhere.
Gave up with my main and went in there again with my Khajiit Magsorc. I couldnt believe how much easier that went but I am still stuck at the very last boss. I kinda should be proud of myself for even getting there, but I aint.
If you lack the recomended 3 trillion DPS a second you will have a bad time. And even if you manage to get around some of the cheese mechanix, a small slip up will just be your doom.

I get it that hard content should be hard. But some of the mechanics are simply a mess and unfair. I cant imagin doing this for fun ever. I only just wanted to complete it once on my main...but since Templars are on the bottom of the foodchain anyway and I aint no good player or min-maxer...this isnt for me.

Its not about dps. The stage 6 boss can be burned, but if you follow the mechanic, you can just stun her by cleansing pillars (when you light up all of them, it stuns the boss and all adds).
The last boss can also be done even with 2 crystal phases. You also dont have to kill all 3 crystals at once, if the stone wall becomes too fast you can just jump down, kill the deadroth and mage and continue.
I know that for sure since everyones dps was significanly lower in Orsinium patch and we didnt have stuff like destro ulti.

Araxyte

Diminish wrote: »

Araxyte wrote: »

It's posts like these which prevents ZOS from making more difficult solo content. Some of us actually like content which requires half a brain to complete. A lot of my new friends to the game completed it at 160-200cp. The solo content of ESO is far far easier than in other mmo's. I'm afraid this is a case of git gud.

I doubt your "new friends to the game" cleared vMA at CP 160-200; especially post Morrowind. If by chance they did, I will say first hand that they must have lived in there trying to get a clear.

Actually took him 6 hours with some julianos gear and a bit of advice. And if you're using the defence sigil you're basically invincible for 30 seconds which is enough time to clear half, sometimes all of a round.

Diminish

Araxyte wrote: »

pdebie64b16_ESO wrote: »

Iam trying to complete Vma since it came out, i did countless runs, spent a huge amount of soul gems, repair kits and gold for repairs, tried many gear and skill setups and finaly made it to the last boss round.

Now Vma is all about learning the mechanics, knowing the spawn points and fast reactions, now iam an older player and in my fifties so my reactions arent that fast as someone who his 20 or 30 years younger, but i managed to reach that final boss.

I died mostly by the rng like the stage 7 boss, but in my opinion the rng at the final boss is abit to much.

The problem starts when you need to kill the clanfear near the portal when the boss goes to the second level, the boss cast that Nerieth aoe on you and the lava spits red circles as well, a few times after killing the clanfear on the portal and pressing my key to go up at the same time the boss drops his Nerieth aoe and at the same time the lava fireball drops on you and i got killed while i was porting upstars preventing me doing anything.

Same sort of thing happens upstairs when a red circle and black circle (dont know the name of this ability) drops at the same time on you, but it stunlock you preventing dodgeroll or brake free and you die.

Now iam ok with mechanics i can counter but the above issues cant be countered and that bothers me.

I really hope ZOS will tweak the rng abit on the last boss.

There is literally no RNG mechanic in the VMA stage 9 boss, it's all time and HP based (apart from which pad you have to take up upstairs which is too easy to be called a mechanic). You are invulnerable when you start to float up to the next level, the nerieth and lava balls AOE's can't hit you, so you either had bad lag or this just isn't true. And as for the upstairs aoe and stuns you need to block/ roll dodge. ALL of these mechanics can be countered.

You can actually take damage as you activate the pad and begin the animation to port up top. I've had it happen numerous times. The timing of you activating the portal has to be just right with incoming attacks though. This would usually happen as I buffed up before porting up.

Diminish

BlackbirdV wrote: »

Diminish wrote: »

Araxyte wrote: »

It's posts like these which prevents ZOS from making more difficult solo content. Some of us actually like content which requires half a brain to complete. A lot of my new friends to the game completed it at 160-200cp. The solo content of ESO is far far easier than in other mmo's. I'm afraid this is a case of git gud.

I doubt your "new friends to the game" cleared vMA at CP 160-200; especially post Morrowind. If by chance they did, I will say first hand that they must have lived in there trying to get a clear.

Actually, he did. vMA is about skill, and since ESO seems to be catered towards bad players, obviously a lot of people find it hard because they have no idea that red = bad, or how to actually deal with somehwhat challenging mechanics - they rely on better players too much.

It's honestly a case of get good & learn to actually play. vMA will 100% help players do that if they continuously repeat that content until they actually learn how to deal with situations

Red = bad; sure. I play with combat cues off. There is no "red"

BNOC

TeIvanni wrote: »

So.. prior to today. The last time I attempted vMA was almost two years ago, a few months after orisinum was released.
It was one of my worst gaming experiences ever... The run lasted 11 Hours and 15 minutes (4 of those hours were spent on the final boss) and ended with me giving up with 250 deaths
^This experience is one of the reasons I quit playing ESO for almost two years.

Today, however. I am proud to announce that I successfully completed vMA for the first time ever.
The run lasted about 3 hours (most of that time was spent dying to cheesy mechanics on the argonian level... Is it possible for poison buds NOT to spawn inside the mender's shield EVERY SINGLE TIME?).

Anyway.. what should have been an exciting accomplishment was tainted by the fact that I felt physically ill.
Those three hours of intense mental strain really did a number on me...

I had a massive headache and I couldn't see straight for about 45 minutes afterwards.

vMA should come with a health hazard warning.

Yeah, if you're doing it right then it's actually very rare that that will happen - You have to literally get a summoner spawn at the exact time you kill the first mage - That or you didn't kill it before, they also die 1s into the scream so you shouldn't get caught by them too much.

Blackbird_V

Diminish wrote: »

BlackbirdV wrote: »

Diminish wrote: »

Araxyte wrote: »

It's posts like these which prevents ZOS from making more difficult solo content. Some of us actually like content which requires half a brain to complete. A lot of my new friends to the game completed it at 160-200cp. The solo content of ESO is far far easier than in other mmo's. I'm afraid this is a case of git gud.

I doubt your "new friends to the game" cleared vMA at CP 160-200; especially post Morrowind. If by chance they did, I will say first hand that they must have lived in there trying to get a clear.

Actually, he did. vMA is about skill, and since ESO seems to be catered towards bad players, obviously a lot of people find it hard because they have no idea that red = bad, or how to actually deal with somehwhat challenging mechanics - they rely on better players too much.

It's honestly a case of get good & learn to actually play. vMA will 100% help players do that if they continuously repeat that content until they actually learn how to deal with situations

Red = bad; sure. I play with combat cues off. There is no "red"

?

=========

Diminish wrote: »

Araxyte wrote: »

pdebie64b16_ESO wrote: »

Iam trying to complete Vma since it came out, i did countless runs, spent a huge amount of soul gems, repair kits and gold for repairs, tried many gear and skill setups and finaly made it to the last boss round.

Now Vma is all about learning the mechanics, knowing the spawn points and fast reactions, now iam an older player and in my fifties so my reactions arent that fast as someone who his 20 or 30 years younger, but i managed to reach that final boss.

I died mostly by the rng like the stage 7 boss, but in my opinion the rng at the final boss is abit to much.

The problem starts when you need to kill the clanfear near the portal when the boss goes to the second level, the boss cast that Nerieth aoe on you and the lava spits red circles as well, a few times after killing the clanfear on the portal and pressing my key to go up at the same time the boss drops his Nerieth aoe and at the same time the lava fireball drops on you and i got killed while i was porting upstars preventing me doing anything.

Same sort of thing happens upstairs when a red circle and black circle (dont know the name of this ability) drops at the same time on you, but it stunlock you preventing dodgeroll or brake free and you die.

Now iam ok with mechanics i can counter but the above issues cant be countered and that bothers me.

I really hope ZOS will tweak the rng abit on the last boss.

There is literally no RNG mechanic in the VMA stage 9 boss, it's all time and HP based (apart from which pad you have to take up upstairs which is too easy to be called a mechanic). You are invulnerable when you start to float up to the next level, the nerieth and lava balls AOE's can't hit you, so you either had bad lag or this just isn't true. And as for the upstairs aoe and stuns you need to block/ roll dodge. ALL of these mechanics can be countered.

You can actually take damage as you activate the pad and begin the animation to port up top. I've had it happen numerous times. The timing of you activating the portal has to be just right with incoming attacks though. This would usually happen as I buffed up before porting up.

I've never ever ever taken damage after activating pad. As soon as you press E you're completely invulnerable. So you taking damage is either your reaction times being too slow, or it's ping issues.

Gargath

Fortunately one can be strong enough in most game content without the MA weapons. With so much diversity of sets/monsters the vMA still remains curiosity for such people like me - not dreaming about being the most powerful in the game. Did the normal MA once, got a title and no need for more such stressful challenges .

Avnr

TeIvanni wrote: »

The run lasted about 3 hours (most of that time was spent dying to cheesy mechanics on the argonian level... Is it possible for poison buds NOT to spawn inside the mender's shield EVERY SINGLE TIME?)

lol yeah hade the same problem exacly
But now i learned to control the boss location, so i nuke fast the close umbrella person and run to the other umbrella person sec before the scream , timing
rng is that green lady spawn with the scream , nothing i can do

BUT , big but , i learned that you can bypass all mechanic if you have very good dps

for ex -
last boss spawn and if you nuke him to 65% he go up and you dont face the alt boss
same for all stages , crazy dps alow you a nice vma run

i remember build a very good magicka dk tank with ok damage , thinking myself , ok takes time to kill but i dont care.
but there 2 stages that if you dont kill fast you dead , like the ice stage and that spider queen that spit over 185k if it's taking to long
Felt very bad , dk is my love , i can do vma with sorc or m_nb only
(mag_dk with destro skills is like sorc for me , so better take sorc.... spawn shields , i realy want to see all those youtubers running vma with a tank or healer , all builds the same)

(sry for very bad english:)

FoolishHuman

Araxyte wrote: »

It's posts like these which prevents ZOS from making more difficult solo content. Some of us actually like content which requires half a brain to complete. A lot of my new friends to the game completed it at 160-200cp. The solo content of ESO is far far easier than in other mmo's. I'm afraid this is a case of git gud.

What prevents them from making more content like that is that barely 100-200 players play it because noone else is interested in it. If the weapons werent recommended in so many guides online almost nobody would play maelstrom arena. And how does this require brains? It's all about reaction times. This isn't a strategy game. People with slow reaction times will just get frustrated and not play the content.

Araxyte

FoolishHuman wrote: »

Araxyte wrote: »

It's posts like these which prevents ZOS from making more difficult solo content. Some of us actually like content which requires half a brain to complete. A lot of my new friends to the game completed it at 160-200cp. The solo content of ESO is far far easier than in other mmo's. I'm afraid this is a case of git gud.

What prevents them from making more content like that is that barely 100-200 players play it because noone else is interested in it. If the weapons werent recommended in so many guides online almost nobody would play maelstrom arena. And how does this require brains? It's all about reaction times. This isn't a strategy game. People with slow reaction times will just get frustrated and not play the content.

Placing DoT's down at spawn locations, using ults at the right time, pulling adds together, using boss mechanics to your advantage, wearing the right item sets, using the right abilities, time management... much more. This isn't just some trial where you have to roll dodge this, block that. If you want a good score it's not just about "reaction times". Many players find solo content fun because it's a true test and challenge of their own skill in the game, it's a shame we don't have more trials like this.

sparafucilsarwb17_ESO

Maelstrom weapons are no longer a must have. I don't do vma anymore as I have better things to do with my time than doing solo content.

Araxyte

sparafucilsarwb17_ESO wrote: »

Maelstrom weapons are no longer a must have. I don't do vma anymore as I have better things to do with my time than doing solo content.

Bow. lol