So I finished Veteran Maelstorm Arena for the first time :)

MaLiBaRu

Hi guys! As I said I finished it and I wanted share my thoughts on it for other players...

Since there was a double drop week because of orsinium anniversary, I tried to take on VMA. I had finished normal and played 1 or 2 stages on veteran but it was destined to this week for me to finish it from the beginning. Of course, I had a lot of complains about maelstorm arena about being hard, annoying, *beeeeeep* etc... so I expected dying a lot. I mean A LOT

Also I am a mag dragonknight and I was using Alteration + seducer + 1 monster mask, jewelry on full spell power since I had nice regen + reduced cost. Well, it didnt work for VMA as you could guess... Since I was a dk I also knew I'll have a really hard time in VMA until I learn to play. From all the videos I watched, I always found sorcerer to be more easier to play for VMA but that became a little bit subjective now for me.

I started to play and except for 1st stage, I started to suffer a lot of deaths and thus, rages! %50 of them was because of Lag, I stay in a hotel and I use its Wifi. It is good but you know, few seconds of lag freeze is unforgiving in VMA. It was very, very demoralizing

After some point I ( in the end ) accepted I need more power so I changed to Julianos + willpower + Skoria sets. I didnt have any other Master staff or such so I used Julianos staff as default. It really turned table to me and I went on till last stage and I managed to finish it. So things I'd like to say to those who wants to take VMA.

- I died 220+ times. I may have broken a record of dying (???) It may sound like I am joking but be patient. ( Yes, I 'emotionally' memorialized Zos team members that participated in VMA designing, not denying.)
- I watched every stage on Youtube carefully, though it seems I didnt learn anything
- Fetch a good enough set you can use in VMA, my normal fantasy build obviously didnt work.
- If you are gonna finish it for the first time, IT WİLL BE the hardest, admit it and play to learn its mechanics
- I was as stubborn as a goat for not using power ups... I started using on last stages but why... I dont know Because sometimes you need to be fast, powerfull or stronger to finish the bosses.
- Of course, there was also my mistakes which I didnt realize and change immidiately.
- VMA is like a scripted program, one way or another you have to act accordingly its way. Learn which mobs to be killed first and fast, tanked or disoriented. Especially archers when you are a mag build.
- Practice makes perfect. You'll see you'll perform way better when you play VMA for 2nd time.

So btw what did I get when I finished? 1 mael sword, 1 mael axe and most important Nirnhorned Lightning Staff. Suppose I deserved it ? I guess I got 3 mael weapons for finishing first time ?

Also I can say that there are some wierd mechanics and such that didnt work for me:
- Even if I rolldodged out of aeo perfectly, I died a lot of times. Pİng? I dont think it is always the reason.
- I find its difficulty too much unforgiving, 1 secs of freeze kills you.
- Yeah, it is a solo dungeon for rewarding good players but what about other players? For this perspective at least, NMA is very useless, not rewarding.

Lastly, I started VMA again today and reached that frozen stage and died only 5 times. All those were lag spikes which makes me very happy. as I said practice.
I know I may have written a bit long but I wanted to encourage other players ( After they see 220+ death, hell yeah ) and wanted to share my story

Good hunting!

pod88kk

TL;DR But well done

SpiderKnight

Congrats! I'll still never do it...for a while anyway. I tried normal a long time ago with my main magdk (when I was still very nooby) up to frozen and my anger actually created a heat wave up here in the nort. I'll just have to spend the time watching more vids first if I ever truly care to do it again.

Meld777

Gratz!

MaLiBaRu wrote: »

I died 220+ times. I may have broken a record of dying (???)

Back when vMA just came out, there was no vitality bonus system. All trials (HR, AA, SO) had a soul reservoir of 36 lives, i.e. there could be a maximum number of 36 deaths in one trial run. Once this number was reached, the trial was over and everyone was ported out.

Guess how big the soul reservoir of vMA was! 500 souls! You could die 500 times And those 500 were really needed, considering you couldn't save stages with a quest (you port out/take a break - trial over - restart at stage 1). Also, it was much, much, MUCH harder than it is now. So trust me, with 220 deaths you're far from the record

Rainraven

Congratulations!

I have nice ping, main a magsorc... and I still died a LOT. That's just the deal, that and memorization of choreography. I'd love a new solo arena, or one configurable for different group sizes, but I hope they change up that aspect.

Grats on the nirn staff too.

Beardimus

Congrats!!

Flawless next!

Smasherx74

Now you just have to do it another thousand times.

Ertthewolf

Great job!

Make2k15

It's a bit tedious one man trial as it is that's for sure. What I remember from my first runs that "Yes, looks like the challenger will try again" phrase got like really annoying after a while.

After months of break from Maelstrom I made one run today cus of this double reward event and it paid of got Maelstrom nirnhoned lightning staff I have to admit I had some fun as well when I noticed that my st dps had improved to the point that I could just burn down the bosses e.g.: Stage 8 Burned down Valkyn Tephra to the third destroyed pillar stone without single add spawning and Stage 9: Valkyn Skoria to the spawning spot so that no attros spawned at all.

My biggest complain about this trial is that it should be shorter 4-7 stages instead of 9 stages. The length and the need to be focused all times combined is really what makes this content so tedious to run for most players I'd think.

MaLiBaRu wrote: »

- Yeah, it is a solo dungeon for rewarding good players but what about other players? For this perspective at least, NMA is very useless, not rewarding.

True, maybe they could add normal and perfected versions of reward weapons for the next solo "Maelstrom arena" trial like they did in Asylum Sanctorium. And BTW. hope they have next Maelstrom arena with end game zone or something like that coming out soonish cus IMO this game at this point would really need some serious end game content influx.