Joy's New and Improved Guide to Beating Maelstrom Arena

Merlin13KAGL

I've always intended to ask this, to see if there's a legit mechanic or if it's just perception on my end.

In Spiral Shadows last boss, sometimes it feels to me as if the boss's mitigation increases as its health goes lower?

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it related to webbed totems, spider side-kick, or does it just feel that way because there is more focus on survival and less concentrated DPS?

gnarlyvandal wrote: »

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.

@gnarlyvandal , are you talking about the skull throw, the channeled attack (Necrotic Swarm?), or the large point blank?

We'd be happy to have the link. It's always good to see other people's methods.

Also @Joy_Division , I don't recall if it's been mentioned yet, but the strike-three, you're-dead ring o' fire that the boss does in the next to last stage will actually have some gaps in between if you can manage to get far enough away from it.

Ideally it never gets to that point, but with Ults not firing, etc, just know that there is a small chance of recovery, even if you don't get her burnt in the normal timeframe. (The fire wave is on a timer after that, so expect it again while you're clearing totems.)

gnarlyvandal

Yeah talking about Necrotic Swarm (couldn’t remember the name of the move, although in hindsight could’ve googled it xD)

Merlin13KAGL

@gnarlyvandal Most definitely. Crushing Shock, Bash, or reflect if you can (he'll hit himself really hard.) Spam Harness until you can get into bash range if you must.

And good luck, btw!

gnarlyvandal

Been running crushing shock but haven’t actually used it on the boss! Just assumed the stun wouldn’t work :’) was simply trying to work out a method to delay grabbing the defensive sigil until after crystal phase, as I don’t want to run double shield (using ele drain instead of harness magicka) and cant stay alive with a single shield going, even if I don’t run out of magicka.
Knowing I can use crushing shock / bash just makes me feel like I can complete first try.. the reality will probs be a little different but I can hope at least ;P

Ty @Merlin13KAGL

gnarlyvandal

@Merlin13KAGL regarding the spider round, I didn’t notice any more mitigation but I wasn’t looking for it. I’ll check out my damage numbers, flat on-hit dmg rather than dps to check.
Not sure if vma is a Weekly lock or whether we can just replay it over and over, cause if I don’t get my lightning stave, I’ll rerun and check this

Joy_Division

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

I've always intended to ask this, to see if there's a legit mechanic or if it's just perception on my end.

In Spiral Shadows last boss, sometimes it feels to me as if the boss's mitigation increases as its health goes lower?

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it related to webbed totems, spider side-kick, or does it just feel that way because there is more focus on survival and less concentrated DPS?

gnarlyvandal wrote: »

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.

@gnarlyvandal , are you talking about the skull throw, the channeled attack (Necrotic Swarm?), or the large point blank?

We'd be happy to have the link. It's always good to see other people's methods.

Also @Joy_Division , I don't recall if it's been mentioned yet, but the strike-three, you're-dead ring o' fire that the boss does in the next to last stage will actually have some gaps in between if you can manage to get far enough away from it.

Ideally it never gets to that point, but with Ults not firing, etc, just know that there is a small chance of recovery, even if you don't get her burnt in the normal timeframe. (The fire wave is on a timer after that, so expect it again while you're clearing totems.)

There have been times I've come across the spider boss (Stage 6) and super damage mitigation. It may be intended she gets a little extra mit, but I know there hae been sometimes she hardly took any damage from executes. This is most certainly just a fluky bug of some sort as it is uncommon.

Yep, the ring of fire from the boss in Stage 8 can be avoided (if you aren't 90% snared). You're basically praying the the 8 divines if it gets to that point though.

Joy_Division

gnarlyvandal wrote: »

Been running crushing shock but haven’t actually used it on the boss! Just assumed the stun wouldn’t work :’) was simply trying to work out a method to delay grabbing the defensive sigil until after crystal phase, as I don’t want to run double shield (using ele drain instead of harness magicka) and cant stay alive with a single shield going, even if I don’t run out of magicka.
Knowing I can use crushing shock / bash just makes me feel like I can complete first try.. the reality will probs be a little different but I can hope at least ;P

Ty @Merlin13KAGL

Bosses can't be stunned, but anything in the game can be interrupted

Merlin13KAGL

Joy_Division wrote: »

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

I've always intended to ask this, to see if there's a legit mechanic or if it's just perception on my end.

In Spiral Shadows last boss, sometimes it feels to me as if the boss's mitigation increases as its health goes lower?

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it related to webbed totems, spider side-kick, or does it just feel that way because there is more focus on survival and less concentrated DPS?

gnarlyvandal wrote: »

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.

@gnarlyvandal , are you talking about the skull throw, the channeled attack (Necrotic Swarm?), or the large point blank?

We'd be happy to have the link. It's always good to see other people's methods.

Also @Joy_Division , I don't recall if it's been mentioned yet, but the strike-three, you're-dead ring o' fire that the boss does in the next to last stage will actually have some gaps in between if you can manage to get far enough away from it.

Ideally it never gets to that point, but with Ults not firing, etc, just know that there is a small chance of recovery, even if you don't get her burnt in the normal timeframe. (The fire wave is on a timer after that, so expect it again while you're clearing totems.)

There have been times I've come across the spider boss (Stage 6) and super damage mitigation. It may be intended she gets a little extra mit, but I know there hae been sometimes she hardly took any damage from executes. This is most certainly just a fluky bug of some sort as it is uncommon.

So I'm not crazy, just really lucky.

Awesome...

Thanks for the reply, and if I haven't mentioned already, awesome work with the guide and most everything I see you offer up!

gnarlyvandal

So, it took me a LOT longer than I thought it would to beat the boss first time. Spent a good couple hours before I got it.
I’ve done it another two time’s since ^^
lightning stave hasn’t dropped yet, but I’ve got infernal precise and ice charged so far.
Honestly found bashing the last boss easier than using crushing shock, but that interrupt is a huge help!
Managed to get my whole 3rd clear recorded, although I converted the video ‘optimise for web’ in XSplit and I’m not sure if it works anymore -_-
I’ll try and record another run

Joy_Division

gnarlyvandal wrote: »

So, it took me a LOT longer than I thought it would to beat the boss first time. Spent a good couple hours before I got it.
I’ve done it another two time’s since ^^
lightning stave hasn’t dropped yet, but I’ve got infernal precise and ice charged so far.
Honestly found bashing the last boss easier than using crushing shock, but that interrupt is a huge help!
Managed to get my whole 3rd clear recorded, although I converted the video ‘optimise for web’ in XSplit and I’m not sure if it works anymore -_-
I’ll try and record another run

Perfectly normal about the whole "LOT" longer.

Gets much easier once you've beat him. You'll get that Lightning staff soon enough (and now don;t have to farm the right trait).

gnarlyvandal

Joy_Division wrote: »

gnarlyvandal wrote: »

So, it took me a LOT longer than I thought it would to beat the boss first time. Spent a good couple hours before I got it.
I’ve done it another two time’s since ^^
lightning stave hasn’t dropped yet, but I’ve got infernal precise and ice charged so far.
Honestly found bashing the last boss easier than using crushing shock, but that interrupt is a huge help!
Managed to get my whole 3rd clear recorded, although I converted the video ‘optimise for web’ in XSplit and I’m not sure if it works anymore -_-
I’ll try and record another run

Perfectly normal about the whole "LOT" longer.

Gets much easier once you've beat him. You'll get that Lightning staff soon enough (and now don;t have to farm the right trait).

Got the lightning staff on my 11th run ^^
Just wanted to say, as my guild mates were surprised, the lightning staff dropped in nirnhoned.

Never uploaded a video because for some reason the upload keeps glitching out and freezing on YouTube... actually can’t figure out why.

Merlin13KAGL

Gratz and well done!

Nirn'd seems to drop quite often from there, it seems, compared to finding the resource in overland, anyway.

So which stages give you the most grief? It's usually Spiral Shadows for me, with Frozen coming in a close second.

Qbiken

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

Gratz and well done!

Nirn'd seems to drop quite often from there, it seems, compared to finding the resource in overland, anyway.

So which stages give you the most grief? It's usually Spiral Shadows for me, with Frozen coming in a close second.

Stage 8

* Flamecasters (those who do the spinning flame animation). A few things bothers me with these adds:
- There´s no real pattern on when they´ll start their "flamespin". This is especially painful on the last boss if you´re
unlucky to have one spawning on the opposite side of the island. In most cases they´ll run towards you and start
the animation so you´re within range of interrupting it (either by Crushing shock or run and bash them), but sometimes
they start their animation right away and then it´s RIP. Also, I never understood what triggers these to spawn on the
final boss on stage 8, sometimes I get one and sometimes I don´t. @Joy_Division Do you know anything about this?

- The balls of fire they throw out are not reflectable with Dragon Wings. I main magDK in vMA since it´s the class I
feel most comfortable playing with. Since I want more damage I use Force-pulse instead of crushing shock. That gives
me two options to deal with those fireballs: Harness Magicka and Dodgerolling (until I can interrupt or kill them. Would really like to see those flameballs being reflectable by DK-wings.
All other projectiles in vMA is refectable (even necrotic swarm from the final boss on[/center

* Flameknight (miniboss):
My main issues with this boss is that there´s no animation when she does her skill that snares you.

Merlin13KAGL

That can be rough, especially round 4, with four of them to start. For that one I've seen a couple different methods. If you start at the left side spawn (by the shalk), the three to the right will stack fairly neatly, making them a little easier to deal with.

If you can put enough damage on them to force them to require heals, it seems to delay the flamespin. Other than that, it's a race to drop one while keeping the rest interrupted. For this specific round, I generally move from one to another, to up my odds of being near the next one to spin.

As far as the end boss, I believe it's timed, rather than percentage based. I've had a couple instances where things weren't going down as fast as I'd hoped (due to skill misfires) and they still arrive (same with the atros). If I can't get them near the final warding stone, I usually go the route of dealing with them first, then focusing the boss. It's worth the slight delay on the boss to ensure you don't have to deal with a spinner 40m away at the worst possible time.

I do agree, yt's definitely a little backwards when the adds seem to hit harder than the boss does.

You might consider morphing back to Crushing for vMA. The damage difference is not significant and there usually are not enough adds up to take advantage of the 'splash' bonus that FP provides. The interrupt capability of Crushing can be worth its weight in gold. (Just refrain from use during Argonian boss round)

gnarlyvandal

I had a lot of problems with stage 8 and the flame casters, being a vamp and all!

Their spawn times are pretty predictable though once you learn the rhythm. With stage 4, I found the first two flame casters a huge pain. Trick is to stand right next to the one on the left and burst him. At the start of the fight position yourself on the slight left of him so you can see the other flame caster on the right, as well as the other adds that spawn on that side. If you do this, can guarantee you the flame caster farthest away from you will channel first, interrupt it, burst that one down, whilst keeping the first flame caster in view. Interrupt it when it starts channeling and then finish them off. If you get the hang of it, it’s easy to interrupt the healers early as well.

And yeah crushing shock is the way to go for simple stuns. Works on the stage 9’s summoners as well

Merlin13KAGL

gnarlyvandal wrote: »

I had a lot of problems with stage 8 and the flame casters, being a vamp and all!

Their spawn times are pretty predictable though once you learn the rhythm. With stage 4, I found the first two flame casters a huge pain. Trick is to stand right next to the one on the left and burst him. At the start of the fight position yourself on the slight left of him so you can see the other flame caster on the right, as well as the other adds that spawn on that side. If you do this, can guarantee you the flame caster farthest away from you will channel first, interrupt it, burst that one down, whilst keeping the first flame caster in view. Interrupt it when it starts channeling and then finish them off. If you get the hang of it, it’s easy to interrupt the healers early as well.

I used to use that method - my RNG is different, it seems. The one by the lava near the shield stone usually channels first for me. I'm not sure if the trigger is dynamic, based on a timer, distance, or some other hidden ZOS vodoo.

And yeah crushing shock is the way to go for simple stuns. Works on the stage 9’s summoners as well

You sure about that? In my experience, the only thing that disrupts the summoners once they've begun channeling is death.

Shadesofkin

Huh, the DK list is almost every skill I swore by from the day I started doing it til the day I stopped. But, it was cool to see an updated guide since I have to swap to console for a while and re-earn all of my CP's. le sigh.

gnarlyvandal

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

gnarlyvandal wrote: »

I had a lot of problems with stage 8 and the flame casters, being a vamp and all!

Their spawn times are pretty predictable though once you learn the rhythm. With stage 4, I found the first two flame casters a huge pain. Trick is to stand right next to the one on the left and burst him. At the start of the fight position yourself on the slight left of him so you can see the other flame caster on the right, as well as the other adds that spawn on that side. If you do this, can guarantee you the flame caster farthest away from you will channel first, interrupt it, burst that one down, whilst keeping the first flame caster in view. Interrupt it when it starts channeling and then finish them off. If you get the hang of it, it’s easy to interrupt the healers early as well.

I used to use that method - my RNG is different, it seems. The one by the lava near the shield stone usually channels first for me. I'm not sure if the trigger is dynamic, based on a timer, distance, or some other hidden ZOS vodoo.

And yeah crushing shock is the way to go for simple stuns. Works on the stage 9’s summoners as well

You sure about that? In my experience, the only thing that disrupts the summoners once they've begun channeling is death.

I always start fighting the flame caster on the left, usually if i do this the one on the right channels first *for some reason*. I've previously started attacking the one on the right and the one on the left channelled his flame attack and killed me.
So it doesn't always happen if I don't attack the left caster. So I just put it into my routine to attack left, with the intention of interrupting and bursting down the right first :') just a bit of a waiting game for the channel to start.

With the summoners on stage 9, I do tend to try and kill them before they start summoning (actively running to their spawn points at the beginning of each round), but yes, they can be stunned after the summon channel starts. Just watched one of my replays just to be sure and it did work using Crushing Shock

Lukums1

@Qbiken

The adds are timed on round 8 -BOSS ROUND.

If you kill the pilars in 15 seconds (or so) you don't get adds.

If you take longer they will spawn.

It's all time base for this boss round quicker you down the pillars you won't receive any adds ever.

bongtokin420insd16

Wow so much nice work here im going to try the arena thanks to this.

mursie

Looking for Advice:

2nd time in arena yesterday. made it to final boss. Spent well over six hours and could not beat. I routinely made it past crystals, would come down and grab sigil of defense... try to collect ghosts... but could never maintain enough resources on both stam and magicka to finish this boss. by the time i made it below i was so depleted that a mis-step or that 2nd daedra spawn would just finish me.

My issues are as follows: I'm a 412 CP pet sorc running 4pc moon / 5pc necro / 2pc ilambris. I don't have undaunted mettle so all points are in light armor. I do have two lightning staffs gold but one is infused with fiery enchant and the main bar (with liquid lightning and blockade) is unfortunately defending with spell dmg enchant atm. Hoping to make it nirnhone soon.

My health sits at 15,000 and if i use blue food it would get to 16,000. The problem is - for last boss few bosses I had to switch to witchmother's brew or red orzorga because I NEED recovery bad. my base mag recovery was 768 and this just isn't enough even with Heavy attacks to make it work. I feel i really need that 1100+ mag recovery and for last boss I really need that extra stam recovery (base is 500 but with pot like misrule it's 900) to be able to handle certain items.

I feel like i know what I need to do from videos, but in practice I just don't have the resources to make it happen. All armor is magicka enchants with jewels rocking spell dmg enchants. I sit at 2400 spell dmg when surge is up. backbar is ele drain / surge / daedric prey with two pets [matriach for heals and volative familiar]. front bar is blockade / liquid lightning / hardened ward / two pets.

My strat has been - save my atronach ultimate until i come down from crystals... grab defense sigil and pepper boss with dmg while collecting ghosts. I then want to stun room - grab power sigil - drop ulti and burn boss. I just havent been able to accomplish because something always goes bonkers... ie he ports across room and i eat to much channel dmg.... or i miss a ghost... or that daedra fire breath burns me down as I pop the room stun (this literally happened to me 5 times - I'd get the 3rd ghost... have everything ready.... pop the room stun.... die immediately to the fire breath dot). UGGGHHHHHH.

any tips would be appreciated.

LadyLethalla

@Joy_Division Wanted to say a HUGE thanks - got through VMA finally this morning!!!! Got a sharp Ice staff, perfect for my PVP character.

That ugly SOB Behemoth bust now takes pride of place in my house

Joy_Division

LadyLethalla wrote: »

@Joy_Division Wanted to say a HUGE thanks - got through VMA finally this morning!!!! Got a sharp Ice staff, perfect for my PVP character.

That ugly SOB Behemoth bust now takes pride of place in my house

Nice!

ReachHalo

@mursie you just described a week and a half of my life... major frustration on the last boss, always making one small error and always lacking resources after crystals...

That was until two nights ago when i finally watched that mofo go down and got my precise?? maul (lol) as reward.

So big thanks to you @Joy_Division for this amazingly deep and insightful guide. I bet only 1 in 100 people read this and comment. But from me it is very much appreciated...

...now, off to try and get this vMA lightning staff

MarleyRain

I just struggled through the frozen blood arena, made it to final round after roughly 40 minutes. I had to step away for a few minutes come back and I had logged out for inactivity, and low and behold I am back at round 1. I was like nooo I thought that was behind me. I thought you always started where you left off? Hopefully ill get my clear this week with the help of this guide. But I really wish I didn't have to re do all rounds.

Sparr0w

@Joy_Division Get an awesome! Very in depth guide & really helpful.

Managed to get to the ice stage no death on my first run & then died like 20 times in a row trying to just DPS the boss down, hence why I'm here Going to give it another go later but taking it slowly & holding out the ultimates until 30%(ish).

Joy_Division

Sparr0w wrote: »

@Joy_Division Get an awesome! Very in depth guide & really helpful.

Managed to get to the ice stage no death on my first run & then died like 20 times in a row trying to just DPS the boss down, hence why I'm here Going to give it another go later but taking it slowly & holding out the ultimates until 30%(ish).

Best way to kill the boss is to have the final stage of the fight on he "far" island (the one with the defense and power sigil). If you grab both of them, you can ignore the adds and just burn her down quickly

sudaki_eso

Nice thread, thumbs up

VirtualElizabeth

Great thread...I have yet to beat vMA but it's still on my to do list. Do you foresee any changes to your suggestions after the Summerset update? Thanks!

ArchMikem

When one thing needs a guide this large, you know something's wrong with it.