Need advice on how to survive in vet trials

tonyblack

I'm a bit new to trials in general, only done AA and Cloudrest on normal during Wicher's festival to get motifs. Recently I've reached cp cap, so I thought why not to try vet trials. Plus a friend of mine told me, that I shouldn't use Leviathan set on my stamblade, that it's a beginner set and switch it to Advancing Yokeda, which dropped in "easiest" vet trial. I read a few guides and watched a walkthrough and kinda thought I understand all mechanics here (probably a bit superficially though). Switch to my second character magsorc to play it safe (and I didn't have any survival problems with this character even in toughest vet dlc dungeons), quite quickly find a group in Craglorn and from the beginning all started a bit confusing. On a first boss I died 2 times, probably my fault, I didn't pay enough attention I guess. Then we split into two groups. Apparently, no one wanted to go up and I'm still not quite sure why. I mean we wipe twice (pretty bad wipes btw), and group leader told us to skip because this boss is "bugged". But leaderboards for this trial still exist and groups beat this boss somehow. I just completely don't get it what's go wrong here? The final boss is the real question though all was easy and smooth until we reach execute phase then he started to spam lightning attack and the first time was total wipe (tank went afk and we have to look for another), the second time we beat this boss, but definitely not in the way it suppose to happen: practically all group but tank, healers and 2 or 3 dd stay alive and the rest dead, then revive-lightning attack-dead and so on. I try to spam shields, block, surge, tri-stats but it didn't work at all. The only thing that maybe could work is to use reviving barrier, but it's a strange ultimate to slot for dd I guess. The healers weren't that bad btw and in videos, I've watched everyone survive this attack just fine. I still don't get how though especially how to do this trial on my main stamblade. And from the look of it, every vet trial have similar mechanics and I'm not sure how to deal with it.

AverageJo3Gam3r

Vet trials are all about mechanics with very little room for error. During starfall phase you want to ensure that no one overlaps their aoes with each other. Spread out a bit, then block cast your skills. I like having a spammable on my bar as you won’t be able to do a crushing weapon/heavy rotation during starfall. Stam should be using blade cloak and mag should be using harness magicka. In a pug group, I like to run a second source of healing, such as vigor for Stam or surge for a magsorc.

redspecter23

It should be noted that if your goal was to get advancing yokeda, it drops in Hel Ra Citadel, both veteran and non veteran, but actually drops more often on non vet. If you're farming that set specifically, stick to non vet HRC runs.

As far as general survival goes, some of that will be on inexperience which you can improve on over time. Some of it may be out of your control and due to group composition and their tactics for any given fight. You would have to discuss that with the raid lead. I can only recommend that you find a group that works well and try to stick with them, whether it's a guild or just certain people that seem to know what they're doing in pug runs of the content. Ask questions of the players you notice that aren't dying much and see what they have to say.

WuffyCerulei

There’s a way to skip the top boss, but you get no score for it. In order to get a score, you have to kill the top boss. Top boss is just hellish for newer players, and even vets. I wouldn’t stress out about score too much unless it’s the weekly trial.

If you do go up top, lower your vampire stage before, if you are one. Lotsa fire.

idk

Area awareness comes first. One must be able to see what is occurring to be able to avoid and mitigate damage.

An extension of that is knowing the fights so you know what will happen next and know what to do.

I cannot tell you how many times I hav seen players stand in red, seemingly oblivious to what is happening. This game requires much more active measures to stay alive than most MMORPGs since it goes beyond just moving out of red. Being able to dodge roll, block or shield/vigor when needed, and being able to determine what will be needed are very important.

HRC top boss is not so bad. Paying attention for when to block is what seems to get most. The interrupts become more frequent and start off immediately as the NPCs health gets lower. Following the mechanic of the fight is more important that how much DPS you do. Heck, DPS in that fight is bloated anyhow.

Dr3sden

What everyone else mentioned and basics 18k health, check cp Allocation

Delsanab14_ESO

Dr3sden wrote: »

What everyone else mentioned and basics 18k health, check cp Allocation

*Hides his 17.5k health*

Liofa

Know mechanics and play as a team. Know what strat your team will be following. Do your part and remember that someone else can be the reason of your death. When in doubt, blame healer.

aetherial_heavenn

idk wrote: »

Area awareness comes first. One must be able to see what is occurring to be able to avoid and mitigate damage.

An extension of that is knowing the fights so you know what will happen next and know what to do.

I cannot tell you how many times I hav seen players stand in red, seemingly oblivious to what is happening. This game requires much more active measures to stay alive than most MMORPGs since it goes beyond just moving out of red. Being able to dodge roll, block or shield/vigor when needed, and being able to determine what will be needed are very important.

HRC top boss is not so bad. Paying attention for when to block is what seems to get most. The interrupts become more frequent and start off immediately as the NPCs health gets lower. Following the mechanic of the fight is more important that how much DPS you do. Heck, DPS in that fight is bloated anyhow.

This is all accurate.

I would add having a raid leader who explains mechanics and can explain which skills will help on which class and role and why. It makes learning so much easier for some people hearing it 'in situ'. Some people find learning by watching other people difficult and learn best by trying themselves. Good groups understand this. A leader who is frank and relaxed about dying being part of learning is a (soul) gem.

A patient group who lets new players learn, creates many more vet trials players in the long term, than the opposite rush/burn/l2p approach of some craglorn pugs. vHRC is not easy for new ungeared players. The gulf between normal and vet is often forgotten by players who have run vHRC a dozen/100/w/e plus times in perfect gear. But most players who want to, can learn to farm it, get geared and move on to a whole new adventure, after a few runs with right groups.

This is the reason a good PvE guild is worth hunting for. I am blessed with being part of two wonderful pve guilds. The raid leaders in both are wonderful🌞.

Otherwise just fake it .... 😈

ATreeGnome

Without seeing you play in a raid and not knowing your setup it's hard to know what advice to give you, but there are a few things that are pretty universal.

1. Make sure that you are standing in a spot where the healers can hit you, the tank, and themselves with healing springs. Typically this means in front of the healers but behind the boss. This also means don't move around a bunch if you don't need to.
2. Have your red CP set up appropriately for whatever trial you are doing. So for vHRC invest more in resistance to physical damage. Most trial guides include a "typical" CP set up.
3. Learn the boss mechanics before you go in. There is a burden of knowledge in most vet trials.
Mainly, try to know what you can block, what you need to dodge, and where you need to stand. So for example the "Spam lightning attack" you described is known a Starfall. You'll want to block during this attack and your healers should keep you up with healing springs. However, you also need to be aware that if you overlap the AoE indicator around you with someone else's that you'll both get hit twice.
4. Make sure your health is high enough. Most stamina characters in full end game gear have 16.2k health without any outside buffs. While you are learning, 18-20k is probably appropriate.
5. Get the Raid Notifier addon and pay attention to it. It will alert you to most things you need to be aware of in a raid. Most raiding guilds require it.
6. Finally, be patient and don't get discouraged. You'll die a lot at first but it's worth it. Just try to understand why you died each time.

Vuron

You dont need to immediately go to Vet just because you've hit the CP cap. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing these trials on normal until you learn the layout, fights, mechanics, and positioning. Normal versions exist so that you can learn the trials before they add additional mechanics in the Vet versions.

Plus, as said above, you can farm the same equipment from both versions. If you're new to trials, than you're probably not going for leader board runs, so stick to normal.

The_Auror

Some good advice so far. I agree you should farm AY on normal HRC.
Just wanted to add that the top boss is bugged and has been for a few weeks now. The shades she splits into take reduced damage and the meteors go off at an increased rate. Decent guilds can still clear but I doubt many true zone pug groups could. Haven't heard a word about fixing it.
Second there are a couple of reasons everyone might have died during starfall on the Warrior. Either everyone was stacked on top of each other, the healers sucked, or a combination of the two.

SvariBK

Pug runs for trials in general have only one tank which makes it more difficult to kill the boss upstairs, coz the first tank has to be in the left group. If you wanna do more veteran trials try to get a guild that focuses on such. It's far better organized and depending on the guild more focused on learning the mechanics together. That's my thought on it. Pugging is usually never a "no death" run

Sparr0w

Delsanab14_ESO wrote: »

Dr3sden wrote: »

What everyone else mentioned and basics 18k health, check cp Allocation

*Hides his 17.5k health*

*Hides his 15.1k health*

lassitershawn

Sparr0w wrote: »

Delsanab14_ESO wrote: »

Dr3sden wrote: »

What everyone else mentioned and basics 18k health, check cp Allocation

*Hides his 17.5k health*

*Hides his 15.1k health*

Someone is using witchmothers instead of gold food xD

pshift

As others have said, join a trials guild if you want to run trials effectively.

Also I wouldn't stress your gear too much, unless you are wanting to focus on trials. ESO does a pretty good job of putting the right gear in the right places. What I mean by that is the type of gear that drops in PvP is usually optimized for PvP, the type of gear that drops in trials is usually optimized for trials. If you are mostly doing overland content, it's unlikely that trial gear will make much of a difference. Don't change your gear just because someone says it's not BiS; change it only if it's no longer effective for the type of content you wish to enjoy.

Kikke

Delsanab14_ESO wrote: »

Dr3sden wrote: »

What everyone else mentioned and basics 18k health, check cp Allocation

*Hides his 17.5k health*

Running 15k and never dies xD

El_Borracho

Sounds like you ran a bad PUG. Like others said, do normal for AY gear, with one exception: jewelry. Gold only drops on vet. And it seems daggers drop with more frequency on vet, and can be found in chests.

Almost all vHRC farming runs I've done go like this:

1. First boss: DDs and healers stand on rock near stairs while tank and off-tank handle boss and adds. Healers heal. Main tank moves boss close enough to rock for DDs to melee but boss can not touch them until the spinning stage. Tank moves boss back and forth then. Can be done by door, but again, almost everyone does the rock method.

2. Group splits. Higher DDs go below. KILL THE GARGOYLES. Otherwise, it will be super-buggy down below (i.e. boss will not spawn/respawn, boss will self-heal 100%, door will not open, etc.) Top group opens gates, kills adds, and wrecks catapults. Does not kill top boss as it is a farming run. Lower group kills lower boss. Some like to tank boss and welvas together, some like to pull welvas aside. Neither are right or wrong, but both depend on the burn

3. Not a boss, but the annoying add/gargoyle fight. Blow the horn only if you want everyone to hate you. Tank pulls gargoyles to the side. Let the melee begin.

4. Final boss. Main tank takes boss, off-tank takes adds. Usually pull adds to the boss, kill with AoEs. People have to pay attention to shield throw by boss and some have to help burn down adds not pulled, specifically the flame shapers and destroyers. Lightning phase, soft stack, do not overlap, block through it. Some will always die. DDs get rezzes. Do not get on platform in middle with tank or you will kill main tank. Burn burn burn.

Should be able to run through in 20 or so minutes with experienced group. Mechanics are not that hard and are mostly the same as on normal. Only difference is there are adds on the final boss on vet. Just keep at it. Plenty of good vHRC farm PUGs out there, daily. You just caught a bad one.

Delsanab14_ESO

lassitershawn wrote: »

Sparr0w wrote: »

Delsanab14_ESO wrote: »

Dr3sden wrote: »

What everyone else mentioned and basics 18k health, check cp Allocation

*Hides his 17.5k health*

*Hides his 15.1k health*

Someone is using witchmothers instead of gold food xD

@lassitershawn THat stuff is expensive. Never made any gold food for myself before. I think I have like 3 roe.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

lassitershawn wrote: »

Sparr0w wrote: »

Delsanab14_ESO wrote: »

Dr3sden wrote: »

What everyone else mentioned and basics 18k health, check cp Allocation

*Hides his 17.5k health*

*Hides his 15.1k health*

Someone is using witchmothers instead of gold food xD

Because 15.6k health is worth 10x the price.

Iskiab

Btw, a trick for the star fall phase that makes it really easy. Block cast absorb magicka during that phase.

The damage pulses and isn’t continuous, meaning you can hold block and hit absorb magicka between the damage hits (the mechanic makes a sound) and take zero damage. First time I completed vHRC I was a fresh CP160 dps and I still didn’t take any damage.

Doing it this way also allows you to stay alive and Rez others so you’re contributing at a low CP level. It’s not really a dps race unless you’re worried about the score.