Joy's New and Improved Guide to Beating Maelstrom Arena

rikimm16_ESO

Thanks for the guide! Was able to complete it with 253 CP... lots of wipes thou. Got an frost staff... was hoping for light or fire thou.

Bam_Bam

This guide is like, beautiful. EXECTLY what I've been looking for. I'm about 3 hours into trying to complete the spider stage (6) and it is driving me crazy - you describe the emotions perfectly but the advice you have given in the guide is just whatI'm looking for. A couple of quick questions:

• It's actually possivble to log out and the game will make sure you are on the same stage when you return - is this supposed to happen?I I hope so lol! I logged out earlier to take a break. Logged onto my crafter to do my writs and then logged back on to my Maelstrom char and they were still abel to continue the stage they were at.
• The grenades on stage six - where do they come from? is it the same thing tha the horvors' drop that you use to deweb the obelisks?

Many thanks for a great guide! Bara

Ciovala

Yeah stage 6 ‘grenades’ are just if you kill a horvor when it’s not near a webbed obelisk. Go over the spot where it died and then you can toss them somewhere. If you wait too long they explode where they are and do some poison damage I think, and then you can’t toss them.

Joy_Division

Baranthus wrote: »

This guide is like, beautiful. EXECTLY what I've been looking for. I'm about 3 hours into trying to complete the spider stage (6) and it is driving me crazy - you describe the emotions perfectly but the advice you have given in the guide is just whatI'm looking for. A couple of quick questions:

• It's actually possivble to log out and the game will make sure you are on the same stage when you return - is this supposed to happen?I I hope so lol! I logged out earlier to take a break. Logged onto my crafter to do my writs and then logged back on to my Maelstrom char and they were still abel to continue the stage they were at.
• The grenades on stage six - where do they come from? is it the same thing tha the horvors' drop that you use to deweb the obelisks?

Many thanks for a great guide! Bara

Thanks for the kind words.

I thought the Spider boss was the hardest encounter all the way up to the last boss. If you can beat her, you can definitely beat the arena.

I believe so regarding logging out. It makes you ineligible for a Leaderboard time though (I think), which isn't a huge deal for folks just looking to beat it. I know ZoS made it so logging out would not reset the arena.

As explained above, the grenades come from the Horvors you need to kill. It is easier and highly advisable you kill them on the webbed pillars (which will explode he grenades), but in case you kill the horvors away from a pillar, the grenade still gives you the opportunity to deweb them. Watch the ground AoEs though.

jimmulvaney

I am so lost as to where my 650 CP should go. I am a DK Nord, who usually Tanks so DPS is very new to me. I looked around at a lot of mDK builds but they all hinge on dual destro staff and Dunmer race. Any help in rounding it out for Destro/ Resto would be appreciated.

I might actually change my char to Dunmer too if needed.

Still no viable way for a tank to farm vet Maelstrom hunh? So much for "play your way" - zos.

Joy_Division

jimmulvaney wrote: »

I am so lost as to where my 650 CP should go. I am a DK Nord, who usually Tanks so DPS is very new to me. I looked around at a lot of mDK builds but they all hinge on dual destro staff and Dunmer race. Any help in rounding it out for Destro/ Resto would be appreciated.

I might actually change my char to Dunmer too if needed.

Still no viable way for a tank to farm vet Maelstrom hunh? So much for "play your way" - zos.

Don't need to change your race. I did this on a Nord. There are better races (namely all of them), but the difference is not enough that it's going to make or break you.

CP allocation, yep. That's got to change. Can't block things to death. You just have to do damage. that being said, there is no reason to repeatedly change you CP. Orient them to do some DPS and some tanking and I'd just leave them. I do this with my own end game characters. It's nice to have option; besides with the diminishing return and fact that half the CP stars aren;t very good anyway, you won;t be losing that much.

In the 4th post on the front page, I have a video of me doing this on a destro/resto DK with 300 CPs. You can pause the video in the beginning to see how I distributed the CPs. You could also watch the video in places you get stuck to see how one example of a mag DK that is not min-maced end-game cleared the content.

Deveraux

Hey Joy

Thanks for the guide mate. Getting close now, got up to phase two of the final boss Theatre of Pain last night on cp465 Stam NB. Probably not the best class to try it on first as it's tough without shields etc but I'm a one char dude heh.

I started vMA tentatively a few months back and when I got to Rink of Frozen Blood (stage 3 I think) I stalled and proceeded to pull my hair out and question my resolve, haha! Then found your guide which has helped a lot... control the DPS, target priorities, smart sigil use and nailed it not long after so thanks again.

I know I haven't quite completed it just yet but the people who are still trying, stick with it! Personally for me I have probably been through about 1000-1200 soul gems (I know lol), tens of thousands of repair bills and I think my two innocent daughters have a healthy explicit vocabulary now, but the feeling when Runa and the spider Daedra finally kick the bucket is worth it imo, I think I have woken the family up a couple of times with some "silent" celebratory fist pumps!

It seemed impossible when I first started. I died 3 or 4 times in the first wave of the first arena! However I can guarantee that the more you understand the mechs and target prioritisation the easier it becomes until you wondered why you died here so often before.

Anyway, can almost taste my Maelstrom Bow... back to it!!

Thanks again.

thedude33

Great read. Might be time to start the journey. Now I just have to decide between my magblade and mag sorc. Kind of leaning towards the magblade with all the combination damage/healing skills.

Trashs1

joy, a hail to you

i used this guide some months ago on my first atemp of vma.

now i get it done with below 5 deads and a hour.

its one of the best guides in this forum and it was ofc the thing which helped me through the stages

best regards
a thankful reader.

Joy_Division

Trashs1 wrote: »

joy, a hail to you

i used this guide some months ago on my first atemp of vma.

now i get it done with below 5 deads and a hour.

its one of the best guides in this forum and it was ofc the thing which helped me through the stages

best regards
a thankful reader.

Thanks!

thedude33

Decided to use my sorc instead. Double pets and a lot of heavy attacks with some DW overload thrown in. Figured i might as well do Normal first to get an idea what to look for. Hit a roadblock at stage 7. Keep getting spit on !

Vet mode? Vegas doesn't like my chances. Big underdog.

jimmulvaney

Joy_Division wrote: »

Don't need to change your race. I did this on a Nord. There are better races (namely all of them), but the difference is not enough that it's going to make or break you. ...

Hey Joy, just wanted to thank you for your reply and this great thread. It has really helped me out a lot. I ended up going with Xynode's Swamp Raider Stam DK build, didn't end up putting much time or money into it either. Still a Nord too, but another thing is that Bow is very new to me and I am still leveling my poison injection skill. Weaving attacks with a ranged weapon takes practice. Still working on that part too. As fun as it has been to pop a magic dot, get those green hands then just coat all my enemies in poison and walk away while Skoria rains death from above... I still do miss my destro/resto magic DK a bit.

That being said, I might actually just switch my race to Imperial. They seem to be a good, well-rounded race for Tanks, as well as both Stam and Magic DPS, mainly because they focus primarily on health passives. When I have what I need from both VMA and VDSA, I will be going back to tanking anyways.

Not to minimalize what has been done here, but I can highly recommend the Swamp Raider build for people who like Stam DPS DKs. Other classes, not so much. DKs just have alot of options and bonuses when it comes to poison.

Anyways, thanks again!

jimmulvaney

Oh, one last thing, slightly off-topic but worth mentioning. I have been watching a lot of Xynode recently and I gotta say... as PC Master Race as I tend to be... I have a new found level of respect and admiration for console players. I watched them on PS4 with no add-ons, basic timers, basic settings, and control pad-based menus just blow through VMA in no time flat. That can not be easy in an MMO such as this game. So hats off to console players from this PC player.

Deveraux

@Joy_Division Hey mate

I know you mentioned Stamblade wasn't your forte as such but just wanted to see if there is anything else I can do to survive voluntarily jumping down from the crystal phase.

I can consistently get upstairs with 90% of my stamina now but I do need to use the heal sigil as I can't quite burn him to 70 to prevent the CG spawning (I have once but it hurts my resources).

So I make it up ok and manage to stay on top of the soul churn and destroy 2 crystals. Can do this most times now but as you mentioned this is stamina intensive and the one time I destroyed all crystals and made it back down I got owned due to lack of stamina.

So next step was to jump down to reset the churn and gather resources but I seriously can't seem to survive to initial fight with the CG, clannfear and lich crystals. I even prefire vigor and collect the defence sigil but still get nailed consistently. For some reason there seems to be more incoming dmg than the first CG fight.

I'm running VO and am a redguard so I feel my stamina shouldn't have been the issue but alas. Maybe the more prudent question is how to burn crystals, dodge skulls, hit vigor every rotation while retaining enough stamina to continue the struggle hah.

Will post a video tonight if I get a chance and figure out how to get it off my ps4.

Joy_Division

Deveraux wrote: »

@Joy_Division Hey mate

I know you mentioned Stamblade wasn't your forte as such but just wanted to see if there is anything else I can do to survive voluntarily jumping down from the crystal phase.

I can consistently get upstairs with 90% of my stamina now but I do need to use the heal sigil as I can't quite burn him to 70 to prevent the CG spawning (I have once but it hurts my resources).

So I make it up ok and manage to stay on top of the soul churn and destroy 2 crystals. Can do this most times now but as you mentioned this is stamina intensive and the one time I destroyed all crystals and made it back down I got owned due to lack of stamina.

So next step was to jump down to reset the churn and gather resources but I seriously can't seem to survive to initial fight with the CG, clannfear and lich crystals. I even prefire vigor and collect the defence sigil but still get nailed consistently. For some reason there seems to be more incoming dmg than the first CG fight.

I'm running VO and am a redguard so I feel my stamina shouldn't have been the issue but alas. Maybe the more prudent question is how to burn crystals, dodge skulls, hit vigor every rotation while retaining enough stamina to continue the struggle hah.

Will post a video tonight if I get a chance and figure out how to get it off my ps4.

There is more damage because the clanfear tail swipes actually do hit hard, in addition to all the crystals you have to dodge.

VO actually isn;t going to help very much this round because you aren't killing very many things. I do think a stam nb is going to have issues jumping down. A magicka player can cast shield and has DPS skill that heal them at same time so it's not a big deal.

If I were you, I'd try to burn the three crystals up top. What I do on my stam warden is hit vigor every 5 seconds, and I use blood craze so I have two sources of incoming healing, which is enough to survive. As long as you destroy the 3 crystals while the 3 rd wall is up, your fine. None of my characters have great DPS, so if I can do it so can you. The key isn;t DPS, it's being efficient. You DotS kill those crystals, not surprise attack. When the walls from, you dont want to chase them, you want to dot up the crystal you leaving, then dot up the crystal where the wall is going. My jump down strategy was legit for 2016 when our DPS wasn't good, now, if you practice it, you can get the burn without tanjking your resoruces (DoT + heavy attack + Vigor, that sort of thing). you'll get used to the time so, that's the way I'd go.

Deveraux

Thanks mate.

I rewatched your vid and think I can do a couple of things better. I think you're right with Stamblade, all bets are probably off if you come down mid crystal phase (at least for me).

Might look at using my untouched 10k of magicka on another healing source.

Might look at taking the power sigil up to the crystals with me, If I follow the step by step process instead of burn in phase 3 I may not need the power sigil?

DoctorESO

Wonderful guide, @Joy_Division! You certainly live up to your name!

mzprx

howdy mate,

first of all thanks for your guide. thanks to it and my guild mate (howdy Gus) i have been able to get to the last boss of vMA with my StamSorc. it was a looong and perilous journey and i haven't been able to finish it (yet), but one day, man, one day...

anyways, i started the journey again, this time with my MagSorc. sets that i use - 1x Illambris, 5x Necropotence and 5x Withered Hand. sustain/health issues? never heard of them. anyways, this is where i need your (and/or anyone's) advice..

to be honest i have no idea how i managed to get through this stage on my StamSorc run. i simply tried over and over again and it just happened - i managed to de-web all the bloody pillars in the (6th?) Spider Boss stage, the boss got stunned and i killed her. before that it was always the same - i fought, then "spit" and i was dead. i got to this stage with my MagSorc with relative ease. just spammed Surge, Ward and heavy attacks (basically, along with my other abilities, but since i saw Alcast saying in one of his videos that it is possible to get through vMA with just spamming shields and heavy attacking i kind of wanted to try that. and yes, it does work). anyways, i am in the dreaded spider boss stage again. this time i know what i need to do (de-web all the pillars and stun her to prevent her from being enraged, kill her), but with all that's happening around i have a wee bit of trouble with those bloody hoarvors. now here come my questions (to anyone that has ever cleared the vMA, really) -

1) is it possible to somehow shield through her "spit" (enrage) mechanic (by stacking Hardened Ward, Harness Magicka, Bound Aegis and such)?

2) would it be possible to reflect the "spit" (enrage) mechanic? with the shield/reflect sigil or DK's Reflective Scale (and morphs) skill? i have both Mag and Stam DKs, will try to clear the vMA with the Stam one too. one day..

3) i have heard it from several different sources that throwing the hoarvor grenade on the boss will (should?) prevent her from being enraged. is it true?

4) do those hoarvors spawn in the same place/at the same time or is it just random? and if i miss one will there be enough hoarvors to de-web all the obelisks before the boss enrages and ultimately kills me (again...)?

...or is it just "you die if you don't..." mechanic? thanks a lot for your answers, folks, any and all advice will be much appreciated..

Joy_Division

mzprx wrote: »

howdy mate,

first of all thanks for your guide. thanks to it and my guild mate (howdy Gus) i have been able to get to the last boss of vMA with my StamSorc. it was a looong and perilous journey and i haven't been able to finish it (yet), but one day, man, one day...

anyways, i started the journey again, this time with my MagSorc. sets that i use - 1x Illambris, 5x Necropotence and 5x Withered Hand. sustain/health issues? never heard of them. anyways, this is where i need your (and/or anyone's) advice..

Not many things die on this round, so this set might not be the best for it. Something to keep in mind because the very last stage also doesn't have a lot of things that die. Wear this for every other round, but I'd probably consider changing for those two rounds.

1) is it possible to somehow shield through her "spit" (enrage) mechanic (by stacking Hardened Ward, Harness Magicka, Bound Aegis and such)?

It is, but it's going to be expensive.

2) would it be possible to reflect the "spit" (enrage) mechanic? with the shield/reflect sigil or DK's Reflective Scale (and morphs) skill? i have both Mag and Stam DKs, will try to clear the vMA with the Stam one too. one day..

Yep, reflect works.

3) i have heard it from several different sources that throwing the hoarvor grenade on the boss will (should?) prevent her from being enraged. is it true?

I have heard that too. Cannot confrim.

4) do those hoarvors spawn in the same place/at the same time or is it just random? and if i miss one will there be enough hoarvors to de-web all the obelisks before the boss enrages and ultimately kills me (again...)?

Spot is random, the time is not. You can miss one horvor/webspinner for sure. Two is right at the rage mechanic. Three you're dead.

I felt this fight was the hardest one except for the final boss when first trying it. You just have to mitigate the incoming damage (expensive) and keep an eye on horvors/webspinners. When the tree spawns, that is the time I'd go for the defensive sigil. If you can stun boss, that's the time for power sigill. Get sped sigil whenever you are getting low on resources.

thedude33

Well, you have me sold .... to put these encounters on the back burner and move on. Was reading your comments on encounter #7. I saw a lot of 'easy' and "easy peasy' comments. Since I am having a very difficult time with that encounter, it tells me I don't stand a chance for the harder ones.

BuddyAces

thedude33 wrote: »

Well, you have me sold .... to put these encounters on the back burner and move on. Was reading your comments on encounter #7. I saw a lot of 'easy' and "easy peasy' comments. Since I am having a very difficult time with that encounter, it tells me I don't stand a chance for the harder ones.

Round 8 is a joke (don't be vamp stage 4 here though). On my first trip in there I think I only died once to the boss and that was because I didn't know what to do haha...yeah I derp from time to time and not afraid to admit it!

Round 9 is just like the rest of the place, memorizing what spawns where and when so you know what to expect so you can plan ahead. Should happen after many wipes =D If you can pull even good dps in a sustained manner then the last boss is easy once you knock him down from up top.

The round that you're speaking of (#7) is a most evil round. Don't let it discourage you.

Joy_Division

thedude33 wrote: »

Well, you have me sold .... to put these encounters on the back burner and move on. Was reading your comments on encounter #7. I saw a lot of 'easy' and "easy peasy' comments. Since I am having a very difficult time with that encounter, it tells me I don't stand a chance for the harder ones.

Encounter #7? Do you mean stage #7 with the Argonians?

If you got that far, the arena is absolutely beatable. Just have to be like a hawk for poison plants and the summoner. Use the defensive sigil if you have trouble with archers.

The Wamasu boss is a pain though. Use the speed sigil so it can't 90% snare you.

Locriana

I have a question about your advice on the Spider Daedra phase. You recommend putting down dots on the boss while you kill the webspinners and coax the hoarvors over to the webbed pillars. Problem is the hoarvors have such low health, I think my blockade of storms must be killing them, because I never see enough hoarvors. Even a light attack to coax them takes a dangerous amount of health to bring them over. Often by the time I see them, they are dyin, or I just find the poison sacs they leave behind. Aiming those things is very hard with everything else going on.

I have a pet build. Yes, pet might be killing them too, but heavy attack on boss can correct that.

Any idea here how to keep the dots from killing the hoarvors or damaging them too much to light attack them?
Lack of hoarvors has been my biggest obstacle to clearing this phase. I'm stuck there!

Thanks for this guide, it's really helpful!

Joy_Division

Locriana wrote: »

I have a question about your advice on the Spider Daedra phase. You recommend putting down dots on the boss while you kill the webspinners and coax the hoarvors over to the webbed pillars. Problem is the hoarvors have such low health, I think my blockade of storms must be killing them, because I never see enough hoarvors. Even a light attack to coax them takes a dangerous amount of health to bring them over. Often by the time I see them, they are dyin, or I just find the poison sacs they leave behind. Aiming those things is very hard with everything else going on.

I have a pet build. Yes, pet might be killing them too, but heavy attack on boss can correct that.

Any idea here how to keep the dots from killing the hoarvors or damaging them too much to light attack them?
Lack of hoarvors has been my biggest obstacle to clearing this phase. I'm stuck there!

Thanks for this guide, it's really helpful!

In an ideal situation of course. The reality is, as you point out, sometimes the horvors will walk by the boss or get caught in the crossfire. You've got to grab the grenade sack and throw it at a webbed totem. You have no choice. Just take precautions because the process takes some time and you can't defend yourself while doing it.

Ley

You've inspired me to continue working at vMA. I think the key takeaway for me is to change up my build for more DOTs and more sustain. I've been trying to just DPS my way through all the mechanics.

Locriana

Joy_Division wrote: »

In an ideal situation of course. The reality is, as you point out, sometimes the horvors will walk by the boss or get caught in the crossfire. You've got to grab the grenade sack and throw it at a webbed totem. You have no choice. Just take precautions because the process takes some time and you can't defend yourself while doing it.

Does the sac go where the cursor is, or does it have its own trajectory somehow...I've only been able to aim it properly by accident.... ;-/

Locriana

Something is happening in stage 5 boss that doesn't track with what anyone has said, and it happened also the last time I tried to do Maelstrom, though eventually I got through this stage, and I don't really know how...which isn't helpful, I'd rather know so that I could learn and it would be repeatable.

It is said that the boss turns red and breaks the island at 70%, the second island at 30%. You keep from dpsing her down too far and kill the adds, dps to 70 % when ready. Well that's not what happens in my game, ever. She breaks that island at around 83%, the next one at about 60%, which makes it nearly impossible to kill her on the last island before she breaks it. Like I said, I did once, but I really have no idea how. I understand the mechanics, it's just that they don't go that way, at those percentages whenever I try it.

Could it be that she breaks the island as soon as you've taken care of the adds? That seems to be more like what happens, so if I kill them while she is at 83%, then she breaks it, etc. or is my game hopelessly glitched?. That seems unlikely because it works about that way every time. I've never seen her get to that last island at Below 60%. Which sucks, because everyone is saying is goes differently than what I'm seeing. So I kill trolls, archers, etc, still she breaks the damn islands too fast. So I cannot pace this myself, as you indicate, it's a nearly impossible dps race at the end. If I get there, because I try to go by the percentages and get caught in the smash often too.

What could be happening here? Am I missing something?

Locriana

Locriana wrote: »

Something is happening in stage 5 boss that doesn't track with what anyone has said, and it happened also the last time I tried to do Maelstrom, though eventually I got through this stage, and I don't really know how...which isn't helpful, I'd rather know so that I could learn and it would be repeatable.

It is said that the boss turns red and breaks the island at 70%, the second island at 30%. You keep from dpsing her down too far and kill the adds, dps to 70 % when ready. Well that's not what happens in my game, ever. She breaks that island at around 83%, the next one at about 60%, which makes it nearly impossible to kill her on the last island before she breaks it. Like I said, I did once, but I really have no idea how. I understand the mechanics, it's just that they don't go that way, at those percentages whenever I try it.

Could it be that she breaks the island as soon as you've taken care of the adds? That seems to be more like what happens, so if I kill them while she is at 83%, then she breaks it, etc. or is my game hopelessly glitched?. That seems unlikely because it works about that way every time. I've never seen her get to that last island at Below 60%. Which sucks, because everyone is saying is goes differently than what I'm seeing. So I kill trolls, archers, etc, still she breaks the damn islands too fast. So I cannot pace this myself, as you indicate, it's a nearly impossible dps race at the end. If I get there, because I try to go by the percentages and get caught in the smash often too.

What could be happening here? Am I missing something?

Seems this was a very glitched instance. Boss broke the last island the second she got there. Traveling out, Logging out, hard shut down, then restart, made stage 5 boss work as advertised. Of course I had to start the whole stage over again.

But, word to the wise, if what you see is not working correctly, you may need to do this. Messed up, I know.

gnarlyvandal

For the guy that was stuck on stage 3 - just run under the boss dps-ing as much as possible until fire phase, where you run and shield whole time, then back under the boss. Easiest round once you know it can’t hurt you whilst under.

Also for anyone stuck on vMA Stage 9.. I only realised last night after searching endless forums that the boss’ ridicu-spell that he casts twice, once before crystals and once after, can be interrupted... found this out after 3 hours of attempts, getting to the final phase, and then shutting my comp down.
Reckon I can complete it tonight with relative ease thanks to this info and I’m planning on recording it if anyone would like the link.

Only reason I mention the interrupt (as I know it is in threads) is because when I’ve searched ‘within last year’ on google all of the threads that mention it disappear lol.

Stage 8.... as a vampire lvl 4 was pretty much impossible for me, good strategy is to leave vma and feed twice to lvl 2 vamp.

I’m a mag sorc, running double Destro Lightning for first clear

I do recommend upgrading your weapons to gold if you haven’t already, costs roughy 20-30k on EUW per weapon if you just straight buy the materials from a trader. I noticed a big jump in my dps when I did that.

I’m not a great player by any means, started vMA 2 weeks ago and after my initial rush to try and finish for the staff, I realised that wasn’t going to work. Been taking my time to get used to the rounds and learn the spawns and mechanics.

Hoping my second run through after tonight will be much quicker! :’)

gnarlyvandal

Also Joy, thanks very much for the guide! Has been a big help progressing through the stages, I’ve got the whole guide screenshot on my phone!