Maelstrom Arena Question

dazee

If I'm one shotting things with light attacks and murdering my way through nMA at breakneck speed, am I ready to try vMA do you think?

Parrot1986

It’s a good sign - if you struggle in normal then vet is definitely out of reach.

Unfortunately normal mode doesn’t really prepare you for veteran apart from seeing certain mechanics. Mobs have more health and hit much harder and some mechanics are different/one shots.

Best thing you can do is just give it a go, pick up the quest and it saves your round progress too. If you find the first round in get a struggle then the rest is only going to get tougher. If you smash through that you’ve got a good chance. Good luck!

dazee

Parrot1986 wrote: »

It’s a good sign - if you struggle in normal then vet is definitely out of reach.

Unfortunately normal mode doesn’t really prepare you for veteran apart from seeing certain mechanics. Mobs have more health and hit much harder and some mechanics are different/one shots.

Best thing you can do is just give it a go, pick up the quest and it saves your round progress too. If you find the first round in get a struggle then the rest is only going to get tougher. If you smash through that you’ve got a good chance. Good luck!

Thanks, I'll probably watch a video before I attempt it to learn the mechanics better.

Parrot1986

That’ll help but the best experience is definitely failure and going again. Your playstyle, survivability and damage has a big impact on how each round can be played. If you watch someone who is getting flawless and 600k scores that’s not going to be a great preparation for a first clear.

You should check out @Joy_Division VMA guide and @Alcast guide on his in his site which is pretty detailed and useful from a mechanics and hints perspective.

dazee

Parrot1986 wrote: »

That’ll help but the best experience is definitely failure and going again. Your playstyle, survivability and damage has a big impact on how each round can be played. If you watch someone who is getting flawless and 600k scores that’s not going to be a great preparation for a first clear.

You should check out @Joy_Division VMA guide and @Alcast guide on his in his site which is pretty detailed and useful from a mechanics and hints perspective.

I was more thinking of a mechanics explaination video but if altcast has a written guide I'll take a look.

MaxJrFTW

Not at all, the difficulty goes up considerably. Takes most people 5-7hrs the 1st time they do it. If you watch a lot of videos and walk in there wearing the best possible gear for it, maybe you'll cut it down to 3-4 hours.

FrancisCrawford

Some of the most useful videos I've seen for vMA are ones showcasing gimmick builds, like a light-attack only clear or a one-skillbar sorcerer clear that only used a couple of skills. Those sometimes showcase the mechanics better than videos featuring more powerful builds do.

dazee

MaxJrFTW wrote: »

Not at all, the difficulty goes up considerably. Takes most people 5-7hrs the 1st time they do it. If you watch a lot of videos and walk in there wearing the best possible gear for it, maybe you'll cut it down to 3-4 hours.

I was asking if I was ready to try it, I wasn't assuming I'd beat it right away. I'm sure I'll be dying on it for a long time before I finally finish.

MaxJrFTW

dazee wrote: »

MaxJrFTW wrote: »

Not at all, the difficulty goes up considerably. Takes most people 5-7hrs the 1st time they do it. If you watch a lot of videos and walk in there wearing the best possible gear for it, maybe you'll cut it down to 3-4 hours.

I was asking if I was ready to try it, I wasn't assuming I'd beat it right away. I'm sure I'll be dying on it for a long time before I finally finish.

You're ready to try it the moment you hit cp 160.

My point is that nMA doesn't teach you anything, it doesn't prepare you in any way because you 1 shot everything. In vMA everything 1 shots you, or comes pretty close.

siddique

nMA is really very easy. The difference between the two is exponential. But nothing better than getting in the action yourself.

It frustrates you to the point you want to break stuff but I assume the first clear would feel equally rewarding as well.

vesselwiththepestle

dazee wrote: »

If I'm one shotting things with light attacks and murdering my way through nMA at breakneck speed, am I ready to try vMA do you think?

Go in and find out, how on earth should random forum users be able to answer such a personal question, especially if you can easily find the answer by checking the Veteran box in your group menu and porting into the vma ? Don't read up too much on guides. Failure is part of the vma learning process / experience. Have fun!

NocturnalSonata

Try it regardless, as the only way to know if you can handle it is to run it. However a good test is to go Solo a dungeon. I ran wayrest sewers 1 and cleared it easily and then hopped onto vMA. Sure i died a lot as the mechanics were unfamiliar. But actually found it quite easy once i had a strategy figured out. I did alter my build for the final boss, but im pretty confident that I can run vMA without too many expletives being launched at the monitor.

I think a lot of people expect it to be a dps race (i did) but in reality if you stack just enough dps with solid surviability the only time you will die is due to mechanics or just getting unlucky (Im looking at you stage 7). Just for reference i ran a glass cannon build right up to the final boss, for the final phase i switched out to a tankier build. I think my dps for the final phase was a poor 15-17k at best. I died copious amounts with he glass cannon on the final phase and only twice with he tankier build. So the take home story here, is it helps to have some build diversity. GL

MJallday

MaxJrFTW wrote: »

Not at all, the difficulty goes up considerably. Takes most people 5-7hrs the 1st time they do it. If you watch a lot of videos and walk in there wearing the best possible gear for it, maybe you'll cut it down to 3-4 hours.

5-7 hours for a first clear? Im
Not sure many people do it in that on a first clear. I’d say 20 hours+ is more usual

mine was probably closer to 50 tbh
(That said I was doing it not on my main) so I had to learn char as well as arena

My second clear was 5-7 hours
Now I’m batting it out in about 2 but that’s taken me about 10 clears to get to that stage.

To the OP, the difference between nMA and vMA is night and day. It looks about the same but that’s about it. Most things will 1 shot you so it becomes about killing things before they kill you AND in the right order - so learning the spawns. The actual killing isn’t that hard, you’ll be able to 2shot most stuff, it’s just about learning what to do and when.

The joy division and alcast guides are vet good tbh. But the best way is to play, try and adapt.

Lastly don’t base your performance on others or indeed those that can get 600k scores. Being good in vMA doesn’t necessarily mean your are good in vMOL or vHOF and indeed vice versa. Remember there’s are thousands of players that simply can’t do this place.

Just remember it is designed to frustrate you, annoy you and make you want to rage quit (a lot). It sounds cliche but You need to beat yourself as well as beat the game. Don’t beat yourself up!

As someone who has just been through this journey and is now just “getting comfy” - I wish you good luck - and if you need any tips DM me

Alcast

@dazee I did a full run on the one bar pet sorc setup and also explained everything on the way, you can find the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62GD5O1SJV8

And yes the full written guide can be found here: https://alcasthq.com/eso-maelstrom-guide/

StormChaser3000

I think the original video about that 1 bar build is here: https://youtu.be/TltS1PUapZM

I did try it during my first run and I had to switch back to julianos+necro+llambris in the end. You lose dps with that Plague Doctor and if you are new it is much easier to just burn through the arena. It might seem easy on the video, but it's not for the beginner. Those guys have run it 100 times and probably can do it even with a broom and a bucket...

The only exception are those stages that don't require crazy damage output, but have a heavy damage pressure on you (5th stage for example, or you'll have couple extra seconds to reach healing pool on stage 7 if you are poisoned).

dazee

Thanks altcast, do I really need 30k health for VMA or is 20k enough if I'm using 2 bars?

dazee

Thanks for the help, I started VMA today and so far I am on the Rink of Frozen Blood. decided to take a break at that point so I dont jump off a cliff while tearing my hear out screaming about cheese, but I will return to work on it later.

socivL

my first vMA run after flying through normal i got to the 4th boss (the islands and electricity boss ?)
and just got stuck there.

after that, i could never get past the first boss stage again when i went back.
idkwtf

moral of "story cool, bro" is i got a lot worse.

MilwaukeeScott

dazee wrote: »

If I'm one shotting things with light attacks and murdering my way through nMA at breakneck speed, am I ready to try vMA do you think?

Yes

firedrgn

dazee wrote: »

Thanks altcast, do I really need 30k health for VMA or is 20k enough if I'm using 2 bars?

Heres my two cents.. the one bar builds are for peeps like me that get my fingers in knots whenbthings get busy.

You have to learn the mechanics and develop a strategy that works regardless of the build u use.

I personally am stuck on lvl nine.

So once you learn how to stay out of red i would say you dont need 30k health and u will want more dps.

Its been invaluable to me to help learn mechanics.

I use mistress of apocrypha build and watch not just his video but alcast and a bunch more others videos.

I never would be able to make it thru with out their help.

But to answer your question..

Probably not. Nma was easyish. Vma not at all .

Colecovision

dazee wrote: »

Thanks altcast, do I really need 30k health for VMA or is 20k enough if I'm using 2 bars?

The whole point of the build is to get a huge shield. Since they scale off max health, yes it's completely necessary to have 30k health to achieve that goal of having a huge shield. To achieve the goal of clearing vMA, you absolutely do not need 30k health, but you'll likely need a different gameplan than spamming shields and pecking away at the enemies with a plague dr lightning staff.

dazee

Colecovision wrote: »

dazee wrote: »

Thanks altcast, do I really need 30k health for VMA or is 20k enough if I'm using 2 bars?

The whole point of the build is to get a huge shield. Since they scale off max health, yes it's completely necessary to have 30k health to achieve that goal of having a huge shield. To achieve the goal of clearing vMA, you absolutely do not need 30k health, but you'll likely need a different gameplan than spamming shields and pecking away at the enemies with a plague dr lightning staff.

Oh yeah my plan for VMA is to have enough damage that I don't need that much health, that way I will need to make minimal changes to my build for normal pve and VMA.

MJallday

dazee wrote: »

[

Oh yeah my plan for VMA is to have enough damage that I don't need that much health, that way I will need to make minimal changes to my build for normal pve and VMA.

Just worth noting That tactic only works if you know what to kill in the right order- otherwise you’ll spend all day getting 1 banged

VMA isn’t all about DPS. It’s about learning the fight. The dps helps though :-)

FrancisCrawford

socivL wrote: »

my first vMA run after flying through normal i got to the 4th boss (the islands and electricity boss ?)
and just got stuck there.

after that, i could never get past the first boss stage again when i went back.
idkwtf

moral of "story cool, bro" is i got a lot worse.

If you mean the one with the lamia, that's the third round. The fourth has the same art as the second (dwemer/clockwork city mechanical stuff, with an impassible center area); not coincidentally, both are named after Seht/Sotha Sil.

FrancisCrawford

socivL wrote: »

after that, i could never get past the first boss stage again when i went back.

I think the first round is harder than it used to be, because clannfears are better at cc than they used to be, and that adds to the boss cc that was always there. What's hard about that round is surviving the cc (what to do about this depends on your build and playstyle), figuring out targeting when the boss clones himself (either identify and target the clones, or pull them next to the boss and AoE), and generally doing enough damage in the final fight.

I think the fourth round is remarkably easy. After I beat it, I actually checked whether I was in normal mode by mistake. Then I never did beat the fifth round, but may try it again soon.