Do you think vMA is worth it?

Azyle1

Just curious. (I also know this has likely been asked before)

vMA was something I always thought would be the pinnacle of difficulty. Now, I assume this is true, but was surprised I beat it with as little practice as I did.

I did it with my only character(Xbox if that matters) a Stamblade. I also finally got the bow and will likely never go back in.

So do you think vMa is worth doing? Some people appreciate a challenge, and while I was relieved when I did it, I don't feel it's always a fair challenge. RNG, lag, weird animations (Sometimes enemies do not do their animations for certain attacks, despite.. you know, them actually doing the attack apparently).

In addition, the weapons. The bow seems to be one of the most sought after weapons. I am CP 578 and was doing ~37 - 38K DPS before. With the bow and a change from infused to Nirnhoned, I hit a MAXIMUM of 40.5K. Big increase? Not really. Also, if I would of had to spend 50+ tries, I'm sure I feel more "meh" about it.

So in my opinion, I think vMA is a neat concept that gets blown out of proportion as far as how hard it is and the rewards aren't up to snuff with the frustration put into it. Especially if you are unlucky. I got EXTREMELY lucky and got the bow on my 4th attempt.

Just want to know other people's thoughts. Do you think the rewards are worth it? The difficulty fair? Thoughts?

DeadlyRecluse

Learning it for your first complete is, imo, super fun and rewarding.

Farming it is an exercise in frustration.

Taleof2Cities

In my opinion the rewards take a back seat to learning to play your class better.

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO

no...it was fun in the beginning but after years of endless farming and grind for the right trait and then weapons no longer useful cuz changes and made them garbage made it worse. that place should be removed.

Sigtric

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

In my opinion the rewards take a back seat to learning to play your class better.

It's pretty much this for me.

When it's not buggy AF I actually enjoy the content in it, and I use it to learn my characters better.

magictucktuck

i like it just because i can flaunt my flawless achievement. but it used to be hell when you couldnt save and random traits and not always getting weapon. I ran it HUNDREDS of time on xbox and never once got a inferno staff, before the changes. and now im on pc, my first run i got precise bow witha sharp bow leader board reward. my second run i got a precice inferno staff with a sharp ice staff leader board reward 3rd run was sharp axe and mace DW, with another gold precise bow leader board reward, and i already got my flawless in those few runs.

yeah its not hard anymore, and with changing traits you only need to run it a couple times so its not the HELL you see on the internet anymore. but it used to need hundreds of run to never get what you need.

now these are good changes! its still vMA but you can get rewards you want after at most like 10 runs

Plus you said its easy then rewards aren't good enough for how hard it is?

inked1

My last 5 runs through vMA
1 sword and board
1 two handed maul
3 two handed swords

I have all Magicka characters. This is why I don’t put up with the frustration of that place. There is no point in me going through the stress and time to get *** I don’t want or need.

Kuramas9tails

Took me 2 months before I completed my first run and it was totally worth it. Now, it's boring farming for weapons. ZOS should introduce a new solo trial.

Aisle9

Azyle1 wrote: »

Just curious. (I also know this has likely been asked before)

vMA was something I always thought would be the pinnacle of difficulty. Now, I assume this is true, but was surprised I beat it with as little practice as I did.

I did it with my only character(Xbox if that matters) a Stamblade. I also finally got the bow and will likely never go back in.

So do you think vMa is worth doing? Some people appreciate a challenge, and while I was relieved when I did it, I don't feel it's always a fair challenge. RNG, lag, weird animations (Sometimes enemies do not do their animations for certain attacks, despite.. you know, them actually doing the attack apparently).

In addition, the weapons. The bow seems to be one of the most sought after weapons. I am CP 578 and was doing ~37 - 38K DPS before. With the bow and a change from infused to Nirnhoned, I hit a MAXIMUM of 40.5K. Big increase? Not really. Also, if I would of had to spend 50+ tries, I'm sure I feel more "meh" about it.

So in my opinion, I think vMA is a neat concept that gets blown out of proportion as far as how hard it is and the rewards aren't up to snuff with the frustration put into it. Especially if you are unlucky. I got EXTREMELY lucky and got the bow on my 4th attempt.

Just want to know other people's thoughts. Do you think the rewards are worth it? The difficulty fair? Thoughts?

If you can keep volley up consistently, the bow alone should give you a solid 5k dps increase which is nothing to scoff at.
I use a Nirnhoned bow with a disease enchant on it.

As for vMA being fun, I have some conflicted thoughts about it.

While it was fun to go through, some of the mechanics are way too punishing for the performance dip you get there.

Let me put it this way, if I lived in Germany, and played the game on a proper gaming rig (on a budget of 900 - 1100$) I would find vMA kind of enjoyable, once in a while.

I play it on a high-end laptop (mid-tier gaming rigs are always better than most laptops), in Italy, and I had some runs that were straight up miserable.

For reference, search on youtube "ESO VMA WTF".

Basically, if the content was fair, I would enjoy it, but it's too punishing for how broken it is.

Also, I hate farming. I left the place when I got my first lightning staff (had time to get bows and 2H for all my stam toons), but I'll need to farm more soon.

*edit*
No, seriously, do it, "ESO VMA WTF", I'm laughing so hard people came to see if I was alright...

Gothren

i only do vma for the loot. i don't need the aggravation of dieing just to get a better score.

Asardes

It took me about 2 days to get my 1st completion: I got to the end boss in the first try on my Stamina DK in PvP gear but didn't grasp the mechanics well enough and I had to give up since I was tired after 8-9 hours. Went in the next day on my Magicka sorcerer and finished in about 2 hours. Next runs were better and better on Sorcerer so I went in with the DK again and finished in one go. Next were magicka Templar which was surprisingly difficult until I changed my build quite radically and finally the stamina NB on which I only ran it about 4 times since I had gotten bored of it, I had gotten most weapons in ideal traits and I had other priorities, namely leveling other characters. I had slightly more than 80 runs for about 100 drops (the extra ones were from leaderboard) between August-November last year. I did run the Normal again quite a few times between November-December leveling 6 characters to 50 so at the moment I'm literally bored stiff of the arena. I will certainly run it on the Stamina warden once she completes AvA and Undaunted training and probably on my other characters in about 2-3 months. My take on it is that's very good content, just that you can't run it for long periods.

SASQUATCH0

For me it was worth grinding for the weapons and the titles. But now that I have everything I’ll ever need from that place it’s more of a “been there, done that” kind of thing. Still fun to do on new characters every now and then.

Buffler

With the power creep its not difficult anymore. It used to be the pinnacle of achievements but hasnt been for quite some time.

redspecter23

These days you can do it a few times for weapons. Perhaps a few more than a few if you're unlucky. Then you just trait change to get what you want. Much better than farming hundreds of times prior to trait change. Really, once you have a bow for your stam toons and a lightning staff for your magicka toons, you're fine and you can stop any time before that if you choose as the weapons are nice, but not nearly as powerful as they have been in the past.

WrathOfInnos

Yes it is worth it. What other item increases DPS by 10%, just vMA bow and staff (maybe perfect asylum staff too). It's also the only content that you can't get carried through (except account sharing, which is not permitted), so the stormproof and flawless titles actually mean something about player skill. It's a solo test that requires a player to actually learn their character and be aware of surroundings, and passing this test gives great rewards.

I just wish they would do something about vMA dual wield, it is completely useless in its current form. At a minimum it needs:
- Poison injection bug fixed, so every rock does not consume the buff
- Rearming trap fixed, so the buff applies to both traps, and is not consumed during the rearming process
- Axe bleed changed to not consume buff
Basically we need to be able to control what is empowered. Sustaining a flurry rotation will be hard enough without having to deal with RNG and timing issues.

Beardimus

100% yes, it's the beat solo challenge.

Normal to learn, and get XP in an instanced area
VMA to learn your Build, movement, damage, survival, resources management. It even helps PvP
Work on your clear
Work on flawless
Work on score.

Weapons are a side bonus.

TheKrokvo

Yes, Yes and BIG F***ING YES, do it again and again, go without sigils try best score as there can be. You wont be rewarded by items(although some of them are nice indeed) but your main reward will be knowledge how to Survive while Moving around and at the same time doing DPS, a lot of end-game raiders are missing this particular skillset which is fairly easy noticeable in vHof and now in vAS.
Bugs are and always be there(?)
And Rng isnt playing a big role so if you die there 90% (or even maybe more) will be on you, then again by those countless deaths and failures you will lear how to play this game without any group, you can always go there and leave it without anyone be raging why you left, not like in raid.
Also I noticed that players and friends which are doing vMA after 3 years got better dps and better surviveability than those plebs without Flawless Conqueror or even Stormproof

Didgerion

Azyle1 wrote: »

Just curious. (I also know this has likely been asked before)

vMA was something I always thought would be the pinnacle of difficulty. Now, I assume this is true, but was surprised I beat it with as little practice as I did.

I did it with my only character(Xbox if that matters) a Stamblade. I also finally got the bow and will likely never go back in.

So do you think vMa is worth doing? Some people appreciate a challenge, and while I was relieved when I did it, I don't feel it's always a fair challenge. RNG, lag, weird animations (Sometimes enemies do not do their animations for certain attacks, despite.. you know, them actually doing the attack apparently).

In addition, the weapons. The bow seems to be one of the most sought after weapons. I am CP 578 and was doing ~37 - 38K DPS before. With the bow and a change from infused to Nirnhoned, I hit a MAXIMUM of 40.5K. Big increase? Not really. Also, if I would of had to spend 50+ tries, I'm sure I feel more "meh" about it.

So in my opinion, I think vMA is a neat concept that gets blown out of proportion as far as how hard it is and the rewards aren't up to snuff with the frustration put into it. Especially if you are unlucky. I got EXTREMELY lucky and got the bow on my 4th attempt.

Just want to know other people's thoughts. Do you think the rewards are worth it? The difficulty fair? Thoughts?

From PVP perspective - VMA weapons are not OP anymore - and is not worth the grind pain.
From PVE perspective - bow and destro are still good - it is worth the grind pain.

And it is definitely worth it to challenge yourself regardless of perspectives.

kylewwefan

If you have a stam toon, you need that bow for PvE. I’ve done without one til very recently, but it’s a game changer. For reals.

Same thing with the lightning staff. Forget about the skeleton test. It’s not the best representation of how you’re gonna be in a dungeon or Trials. That bow and staff doubles the damage of your biggest AOE dot. It only looks like 3k extra DPS but allows you to fry trash mobs and focus on bigger things.

Is it worth it you ask? You bet your a$$ it is. You know how much easier/ funnier it is to run Maelstrom with Maelstrom weapons. I got on leaderboards last week. And I’m terrible. It felt good. I got rewards for doing something.

I spent a long time in there learning that place. It still sucks, but I need more gear for all my characters so they don’t have to bank share.

GrigorijMalahevich

It was fun when it just came out and we had to do it with no guides or anything. Now with transmute it is definitely more player friendly than it used to be...

Some people had to do it 100-500 times before they got their sharp vma inferno staff and then meta changed and we needed sharp lightning staff and then meta changed and you could run infused on back bar and now meta changed, but as long as you have any staff - you don’t really care...

The grind was real first time was fun, first time flawless was fun, first time flawless on a new character is also quite fun. After I got flawless on my magsorc, magplar, stamsorc I never bothered with them in vMA, if I feel like clearing vMA after new patch - I just take my magDK and heavy attack everything

Oreyn_Bearclaw

VMA was the most challenging piece of content in ESO when it launched over 2 years ago, but it is nothing compared to how it used to be. While not much has changed inside the arena (few things here and there), our characters have changed immensely. CP was in its infancy when VMA launched more than two years ago. I had about 200 CP the first time I went through there. VO didnt exist for stamina (which played very different at the time) and Shields didnt exist for any magic class other than sorc.

Is it worth it? It's a bit of a loaded question, but my answer is yes. It is still a very good learning experience, but I would not expect a new player to have the same struggles as we did in Nov 2015. The first thing I do on any new character upon reaching level 50 is jump into VMA. You will figure your class out in a hurry.

As to the gear grind, trait change pretty much made that a joke at this point. I know people that run hundreds of runs for their first weapon, which is pretty unlikely at this point. VMA, both from a grind and a difficulty standpoint, is a shell of it's formal self. That said, the Bow and Lighting staff are meta for damage dealers. I dont think any item in the game (other than maybe a perfect Asylum staff) can boost your damage as much as a VMA bow.

If all you plan to do is play stamblade and you dont care about score, then you dont ever need to step foot in there again.

OrphanHelgen

When Maelstrom got released, the CP cap was 500 and everything was fresh. No one knew the perfect tactics etc.
Now cp cap is 720 and its a million videos out there how to do it.
The sets that drop from arena is not that great, but the weapons are.
You get guarantee wpn drop and they have trait change as well, which both are pretty new to the game compared to before.
When that is said, some weapons are still best in slot, and others might get a buff in the future.

Long story short, Maelstrom Arena is worth doing for sure, but don't rush it. If you play for fun until you are cp capped, you shouldnt be struggling at all and it's nothing to worry about.

Mister_DMC

WTB new Solo VMA type arena

Saint_Bud

If you want the weapons you must do it.

NewBlacksmurf

Worth it....
No

Should you try it...
Yes

Reality...
ZOS DeVs change the game every 90 days so unless you enjoy this type of risk/reward/grind ...No as they themselves have said over and over that it was designed for the elite player (not players but ideally a small select few)

The rewards for whatever reason seem to draw people in.....and then they complain about the random loot. Shrug ....it was never speaking to me as I’ve done over half but soon realized as a casual player the game changes to classes and skills were too intentional md often for this to be meaningful gameplay.

It’s for the elite min/max player only

Adambaker25

Unlucky and got what you was after on your 4th attempt... Ive ran it 10 times and i still do not have the VMA Lightning staff lol.. I get what your saying with the lag ect but the fun is in the grind

Morvane

Beardimus wrote: »

1
Work on your clear
Work on flawless
Work on score.

Weapons are a side bonus.

Gargath

I play this game for over 2 years and never wanted to do vMA, just did it once on normal for the title. No plans to do vet. More interesting is to harvest nodes and do things with friends. Time consuming solo dungeon is rather weird activity for an mmo.

Defilted

Great content. Loved it. Spent a lot of time on it to get my first clear. Died so many times I lost count. Was great fun and sometimes frustrating but once I completed it the first time it was all worth it. The weapons are great as well.

Contraptions

IMO no.

I don't care about the challenge or the score. Once I got the weapons I needed vMA was dead to me.

Morgul667

Too much lag and time consuming

I dont go in there more than I have to