Maelstrom arena - New "medium" difficulty?

DanielWinterborn

I for one was never able to finish vMA even thought my gear and play level should allow me to do it. (Also magicka warden is not ideal for PvE as we all know...) The problem that I'm having is that the "normal" instance is too easy, it's more like "very easy" mode. I come out of it thinking "I should take vet on no problem!" but in reality things are so much more difficult. Another issue that I have with vma is that you are required to use a certain approach to complete it, you can't just muscle through it even if you have the power to do it. Without the Aoe everyone else uses it's almost impossible to complete it. The enemies hit way to hard and the mechanics are way to complex to actually have fun while doing it, it's more like a job that you HAVE to do if you want the item but it sucks all the fun out of it. There's no "personal touch" to it, you have to do it like this or you don't do it at all. And for a game that brags "be all do all" it's just mindless repeat of the same things in the same order all the time for hours.

I'm not saying it should be nerfed or anything but I do believe there should be another difficulty level, something like normal-medium-hard to use as a learning curve. The normal instance is too easy to really show the need to learn the mechanics and the veteran mode is too hard to keep grinding at it until you get it right, and what for? At the end of 6 hours you get something that you might never use, if you could chose your reward then maybe you would be more motivated to fight through it, you do it once for this build and again in two months for another build, it's not nice but you might do it knowing you get exactly the weapon you need...

Bottom line is, do you think there should there be a medium difficulty level added?

AlienatedGoat

It works fine as it is

Would be too awkward. Everything else only has 2 difficulties, normal and veteran. Works fine for me.

lardvader

Medium difficulty should be added

Yes there should be something in between. Same for the dungeons but most of them would need a harder alternative than the current HM. Maybe HM the entire dungeon.

AbysmalGhul

Other (What?)

I say the equipment should be removed and relocated to the crown store and be packaged as "Meta Warrior Crates" with an extra RNG frustration. I think the challenge of veteran mode should be for "self satisfaction" purposes only. Completing Veteran mode should give out titles like " Satisfied" and Flawless Conquer should be changed to " Did it!"

While medium does sound appealing, I think earning the title of "I'm mediocre" is off putting.

Cinder82

It works fine as it is

im all fine with it.. as long as the mealstrom weapons stay in the hardest difficulty!

DanielWinterborn

Medium difficulty should be added

Cinder82 wrote: »

im all fine with it.. as long as the mealstrom weapons stay in the hardest difficulty!

Everything would stay the same, except maybe medium would have slightly better item drops in chests.

DanielWinterborn

Medium difficulty should be added

AbysmalGhul wrote: »

I say the equipment should be removed and relocated to the crown store and be packaged as "Meta Warrior Crates" with an extra RNG frustration. I think the challenge of veteran mode should be for "self satisfaction" purposes only. Completing Veteran mode should give out titles like " Satisfied" and Flawless Conquer should be changed to " Did it!"

While medium does sound appealing, I think earning the title of "I'm mediocre" is off putting.

Medium would be used only as a learning curve, once you could master medium you would at least be able to finish vet.

Didgerion

Other (What?)

Best way to do it is to make the sigils respawnable - but greatly reduce your score if used and not to be considered flawless.

That would be an easy and quick implementation for medium difficulty.

WillhelmBlack

AbysmalGhul wrote: »

I say the equipment should be removed and relocated to the crown store and be packaged as "Meta Warrior Crates" with an extra RNG frustration. I think the challenge of veteran mode should be for "self satisfaction" purposes only. Completing Veteran mode should give out titles like " Satisfied" and Flawless Conquer should be changed to " Did it!"

While medium does sound appealing, I think earning the title of "I'm mediocre" is off putting.

Haha!

kylewwefan

I’m not sure what to make of this one. But you know what makes Maelstrom easier? Maelstrom weapons. I probably couldn’t beat it without the bow. It makes that much difference.

Not sure about magic toons. I’m not very good with them. But practically every build I see recommend Maelstrom lightning staff. I’d be all for weapons on normal if that’s what you’re really after.

Morvane

It works fine as it is

AbysmalGhul

Other (What?)

Medium isn't going to change the learning curve of veteran maelstrom. It's just going to change how fast you burn through enemies. Just like most content in ESO (trials, dungeons, and VDSA) mechanics and kill order are the keys to success for VMA. You don't learn those through normal, nor would you learn them through medium.

MattT1988

Other (What?)

I’d rather see normal mode be given a bit of a buff instead. Not a monster buff, but make it challenging enough that the majority of the playerbase can still complete it but at the same time, actually help prepare them for vet mode. Normal level should always be a launch pad to learn vet level, but I don’t think it is in this case.

DanielWinterborn

Medium difficulty should be added

AbysmalGhul wrote: »

Medium isn't going to change the learning curve of veteran maelstrom. It's just going to change how fast you burn through enemies. Just like most content in ESO (trials, dungeons, and VDSA) mechanics and kill order are the keys to success for VMA. You don't learn those through normal, nor would you learn them through medium.

Kind of hard to learn anything when you can pretty much one shot the creeps, except for the bosses. If I want to pick something up from normal I have to dumb down my equipment and go at it without the buffs.

Cinder82

It works fine as it is

normal shld be buffed! this wld fix everything, and i wld love to see a hard-mode.. because for most of us vMA is alrdy getting to ez. and let hard mode drop perfected gold M.weapons. now that wld make me excited!

Meld777

It works fine as it is

If anything, there should be a harder difficulty. With the (now frontloaded!) 690 CP and the ridiculous power creep since it came out, vMA is a joke.

Mechanics are too complex? Really? Well, tell me, what mechanics are there on Arena 8 boss? Because people probably haven't encountered them since like 2 years. They just kill the stones and burst boss. Even mediocre DPS is enough to do that. Back when it came out, 20k was the absolute maximum DPS you could have with perfect rotation and maxed FotM gear. Now add survivability to it and you have people with 10 - 12k DPS still doing flawless. Oh yeah, and weapon ultimates (like destro ulti) didn't exist ofc.

There is absolutely nothing hard about vMA nowadays. It's almost the same as Vet Spindle II. Any naked pug does the hard mode automatically by light attacking through it. People don't even know what the "hard mode" is anymore due to power creep. If you can't complete vMA with random gear, you probably don't know your class and need to L2P hard. You would probably not finish any DLC vet either or get carried without knowing it (install Combat Metrics to see how much % of group DPS you actually do).

Lord_Eomer

Other (What?)

VMA not worth efforts anymore.

Weapons (except destro/inferno/lightning and bow) are currently in poor state and seems like ZOS will ignore them forever!

leetacakesb16_ESO

Medium difficulty should be added

I've Completed it twice and will probably never set foot in it again. I was a sorcerer and ended up getting stamina weapons both times that I don't use. This was a little frustrating.
I also don't often play on the character that I used to complete it either because it's not my main character. My main is a templar healer and even though I was able to go through most of the stages fairly quickly with my templar, Voriak in the end was constantly pwning me.
Personally, I would of preferred of them to do an arena that had a section for dps, healer, or tank instead of forcing me to change my healer to dps. But I suppose having a medium difficultly wouldn't be bad either.

DanielWinterborn

Medium difficulty should be added

Meld777 wrote: »

If anything, there should be a harder difficulty. With the (now frontloaded!) 690 CP and the ridiculous power creep since it came out, vMA is a joke.

Mechanics are too complex? Really? Well, tell me, what mechanics are there on Arena 8 boss? Because people probably haven't encountered them since like 2 years. They just kill the stones and burst boss. Even mediocre DPS is enough to do that. Back when it came out, 20k was the absolute maximum DPS you could have with perfect rotation and maxed FotM gear. Now add survivability to it and you have people with 10 - 12k DPS still doing flawless. Oh yeah, and weapon ultimates (like destro ulti) didn't exist ofc.

There is absolutely nothing hard about vMA nowadays. It's almost the same as Vet Spindle II. Any naked pug does the hard mode automatically by light attacking through it. People don't even know what the "hard mode" is anymore due to power creep. If you can't complete vMA with random gear, you probably don't know your class and need to L2P hard. You would probably not finish any DLC vet either or get carried without knowing it (install Combat Metrics to see how much % of group DPS you actually do).

You know some people have a life, a job. Not everyone has 200 days played and honestly we, the working adults rake in the cash for Zos. So great for you for being the god of all when it comes to ESO but let's see now, you complete it the same way as everyone else does with the lightning staff, you probably use maelstrom weapons in the process since you already have them and finished it countless times. So yeah, you have the time/items to go at it forever until you do it and then perfect it.
These L2p comments are noob comments, if you want to seem all high and mighty maybe you can drop off some tips and not blow your own horn on how easy this and that is.

xSkullfox

It works fine as it is

greylox

Medium difficulty should be added

This always attracts L2P morons.

Might as well add one, normal is a joke and for a lot of people vet is too much. I have washed my hands of the place, it isn't fun, I'd rather solo fish for master angler than try that place again.

Prof_Bawbag

Meld777 wrote: »

If anything, there should be a harder difficulty. With the (now frontloaded!) 690 CP and the ridiculous power creep since it came out, vMA is a joke.

Mechanics are too complex? Really? Well, tell me, what mechanics are there on Arena 8 boss? Because people probably haven't encountered them since like 2 years. They just kill the stones and burst boss. Even mediocre DPS is enough to do that. Back when it came out, 20k was the absolute maximum DPS you could have with perfect rotation and maxed FotM gear. Now add survivability to it and you have people with 10 - 12k DPS still doing flawless. Oh yeah, and weapon ultimates (like destro ulti) didn't exist ofc.

There is absolutely nothing hard about vMA nowadays. It's almost the same as Vet Spindle II. Any naked pug does the hard mode automatically by light attacking through it. People don't even know what the "hard mode" is anymore due to power creep. If you can't complete vMA with random gear, you probably don't know your class and need to L2P hard. You would probably not finish any DLC vet either or get carried without knowing it (install Combat Metrics to see how much % of group DPS you actually do).

Reel that neck in. We get that all newcomers and 1st attempters are all beneath you, but I don't think we needed 3 paragraphs of your tripe to tell us that. Add to that, not everyone's circumstances match that of your own. Good for you, you're one of those gamers who adapt quite easily to certain things within games, again, not everyone shares your God given talents.

MCBIZZLE300

It works fine as it is

It's supposed to be hard. it drops some of the best weapons in the game. I like that there is no preparation for its difficulty, people keep trying to stamp out every aspect of grind to this game but its essential for an mmo.

disintegr8

Other (What?)

Apart from getting the weapons, the only other reason to complete vMA is ego. Having a 'medium' difficulty level MA would only be a compromise for people who want to complete vMA but can't.

I play a video game to have fun, not torture myself. I have only ever entered normal MA on two characters and completed it both times. I have not even thought about taking any of my other 11 characters there, nor have I considered entering vMA on any character.

Seperatist

It works fine as it is

Meld777 wrote: »

If anything, there should be a harder difficulty. With the (now frontloaded!) 690 CP and the ridiculous power creep since it came out, vMA is a joke.

Mechanics are too complex? Really? Well, tell me, what mechanics are there on Arena 8 boss? Because people probably haven't encountered them since like 2 years. They just kill the stones and burst boss. Even mediocre DPS is enough to do that. Back when it came out, 20k was the absolute maximum DPS you could have with perfect rotation and maxed FotM gear. Now add survivability to it and you have people with 10 - 12k DPS still doing flawless. Oh yeah, and weapon ultimates (like destro ulti) didn't exist ofc.

There is absolutely nothing hard about vMA nowadays. It's almost the same as Vet Spindle II. Any naked pug does the hard mode automatically by light attacking through it. People don't even know what the "hard mode" is anymore due to power creep. If you can't complete vMA with random gear, you probably don't know your class and need to L2P hard. You would probably not finish any DLC vet either or get carried without knowing it (install Combat Metrics to see how much % of group DPS you actually do).

Absolutely agree, and that Vet Spindle II pugs light attack hilarious.

Prof_Bawbag

mcb123 wrote: »

It's supposed to be hard. it drops some of the best weapons in the game. I like that there is no preparation for its difficulty, people keep trying to stamp out every aspect of grind to this game but its essential for an mmo.

I think you actually touch upon a valid point. Maybe if some of the other inane grinds were lessened, people wouldn't actually mind heightened grinds that exist in other parts of the game. Seems almost everything is hidden behind a god awful grind as to facilitate the notion the CS is a time saving alternative, not a must. Some single items are hidden behind 3 walls of grinding and RNG (master writs for one). Hell, even to make a piece of furniture requires a few lvls of grinding and RNG to find the plan and to find the mats to make it. More so if that plan requires gold mats. There's grinding, then there's GRINDING the ESO way.

Yakidafi

It works fine as it is

Only reason I see to complete vMA now is for the title, so might just as well be somewhat hard to complete so you feel good after doing it once. It is good for learning the game :P

Seperatist

It works fine as it is

greylox wrote: »

This always attracts L2P morons.

Might as well add one, normal is a joke and for a lot of people vet is too much. I have washed my hands of the place, it isn't fun, I'd rather solo fish for master angler than try that place again.

Meh not really, i even made changes with my main tank into stamina and did it in like 3 next days, with like 20k dps and didn't even knew what rotation is...

Milvan

It works fine as it is

Maelstrom arena is actually very easy.

The problem is that overland content and normal dungeons are braindead easy, so when people enter maelstrom and they realize that they actually need to burst and avoid mechanics they freak out.

TheDarkShadow

vMA is already in the "medium" difficulty now after they allow you to come back right at the wave you died, so you can remember the spawn spot and what made you die easier. Back then you have to do the whole stage again and probably would forgot when it came to "that" wave and die to the same mistake again.

Juhasow

Other (What?)

As magicka warden You should be able to complete vMA easily. Problem isnt warden or vet difficulty problem is Your lack of experience on both.