Best trial for a first trial

Mercanis

Sorry if this isn't the place to ask, but all my builds call for trial sets and, much as I like running dungeons solo, for gear I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet eventually! I'm a stamina warden with bow/bow usually but DW/bow in group content so people don't hate me, and will likely need at least Vicious Serpent. I'm not a great player, but I'm improving, and I figured I'd ask here, get a moderate consensus, and then go and watch videos of runs over and over again until I vaguely know what to expect. I'm currently in Night Mother's Gaze and Hundings, and going to try to get some monster sets this week. I currently have just 250CP, so don't plan on running one until I'm at least 300, but as this game has sucked me in so well, I'm hoping to get to that in the next few days

siddique

My first trial in four years was normal Cloudrest. With pugs. Got it done in the first try. It's easy.

I hear craglorn trials are easy too.

KhajiitFelix

vHoF or vAS+2

Red_Feather

The first trials I did was normal asylum sanctorium as it's short and straightforward

AlienSlof

I would say Aetherian Archive is the easiest on normal mode for sure. It has one of the hardest hard modes, but for a first normal trial, it's a breeze.

phermitgb

honestly, it depends a lot on who you run with. I run with guildies, a great group of relatively laid back folks, and passing normal trials does NOT require an enormous amount of research, a huge # of cp's, or a razor-sharp rotation or anything like that. Normal trials, at least Aetherian Archive and Hel-Ra Citadel, and *most* of Sanctum Ophidia, are pretty laid back.

Yes, they're larger and longer (insert laugh here) than most vanilla dungeons, and they do require *more* work, but any decent guild leader will give you a decent intro to every boss mechanic, and most casual guilds will be made up of people far more hardcore than you so that there's plenty of room to make mistakes and still muddle on through.

if you're at least cp160 (cuz running a trial for gear when you're not at least the max gear level would be kind of a waste), have at least a set or two of even crafted gear, and can follow basic instructions and learn reasonably quickly, then you can run a normal trial. Also, make sure you've got some food so your health is at least around 16/17k, although again, a decent laid back guild will probably have someone willing to spot you food.

Pound for pound, basic trials aren't super hard, and you needn't get yourself worked up about starting out on them. Yes, they do require *more* effort than dungeons, but not nearly to the degree that some raiders might have you believe. If you're willing to put in just a modest amount of effort, and can find a group of people with the same mindset, you'll probably be fine.

That's a big IF, however. Hardcore raiding guilds are preparing you for a career in raiding, which isn't necessary at all just for grinding out some gear. But pugging a trial - well, I've never had to do it, but I imagine that could be a special kind of hell. I strongly suggest, spend some of that effort that you've committed to for gearing up and training, and instead spend it on finding a reasonably supportive, reasonably laid-back guild. They'll probably improve your search-for-gear quest far better in the long run, and may even afford you a supportive almost-family that will improve your game experience for years to come.

Mercanis

Thank you! I'm in a guild that runs trial trials weekly, so I think I'm in the right place, just got myself a bit terrified of them! Thank you all very very much

Asardes

Go for the Craglorn ones, they're the easiest since they don't have complicated mechanics and you can burn trough them. They should be easy on normal and even doable on veteran w/o HM for players at ~300 CP that are decently geared and have basic knowledge of their rotation. If you play Bow/Bow you should also look at vDSA for Master Bow and vMA for Maelstrom one.

Greystag

Definitely Aetherial Archive. nCloudrest is pretty easy too. HRC afterwards.

Protoavis73

Still a newbie myself but done a few trials now and found Aetherial Archive, Sanctum Ophidia and Hel Ra Citadel (Craglorn) the easiest (on normal, with vHRC the first boss with the spinning blades can be pita).

mairwen85

AA

Mercanis

Lots of votes for Aetherial Archive, thank you! I'm sure once I've done one I'll be a bit more confident

Protossyder

In order to get ready for more challenging content I would suggest to run normal Cloudrest first. That's where you will get Relequen, an essential set for stamina DDs.

Next you should do normal Hel Ra Citadel to farm the Berserking Warrior set. This can take a while since you need at least two daggers for your front bar, but you can also wear Briarheart in the meantime.

For the backbar it's recommended to have a Maelstrom Bow slotted, so you might want to take a look into the Maelstrom Arena.

For more information regarding the current meta just use google.

HappyLittleTree

My first vet trial was vetSO hm. made it till 15% got wiped a few times

bharathitman

Protossyder wrote: »

In order to get ready for more challenging content I would suggest to run normal Cloudrest first. That's where you will get Relequen, an essential set for stamina DDs.

Next you should do normal Hel Ra Citadel to farm the Berserking Warrior set. This can take a while since you need at least two daggers for your front bar, but you can also wear Briarheart in the meantime.

For the backbar it's recommended to have a Maelstrom Bow slotted, so you might want to take a look into the Maelstrom Arena.

For more information regarding the current meta just use google.

So many stam DD's farm and run Relequen without even understanding the set properly. The only info they have is that it is BiS, normal cloudrest is easy which makes farming this set very easy. Relequen is useless in trash fights, useless in 4 man content where most bosses are dead before you could get full stacks, useless if there are heavy mechanics in boss fights, useless if you are constantly switching targets. Relequen is only useful in few end game trial boss fights and only the most experienced players can make full use it.

I have seem so many stam players using the set where it doesn't even make sense to do say, you are much better off with sets like hundings in most of the scenarios

Bigevilpeter

normal atherian archive, easiest trial by far, even veteran is pretty easy

richo262

For first timers, avoid anything vet. From the normal trials, avoid nMOL and nHOF.

nAS (CWC) and nCR (Summerset) are mini trials, pretty easy, just follow the group.
nAA, nSO, nHRC are full trials in Craglorn. All are pretty straight forward and easy, nHRC has a mechanic that requires the group to split, follow instructions and don't run ahead, read chat on where you should go. nAA also has group split but it is less bug prone and pretty simple.

General rule for anybody that may not understand the mechanics, don't agro anything, don't run ahead of group, always stack on the group for heals (doesn't matter if you are ranged or not), and keep an eye on chat in case there is a mechanic that you need to participate in or be aware of.

HappyLittleTree

bharathitman wrote: »

Protossyder wrote: »

In order to get ready for more challenging content I would suggest to run normal Cloudrest first. That's where you will get Relequen, an essential set for stamina DDs.

Next you should do normal Hel Ra Citadel to farm the Berserking Warrior set. This can take a while since you need at least two daggers for your front bar, but you can also wear Briarheart in the meantime.

For the backbar it's recommended to have a Maelstrom Bow slotted, so you might want to take a look into the Maelstrom Arena.

For more information regarding the current meta just use google.

So many stam DD's farm and run Relequen without even understanding the set properly. The only info they have is that it is BiS, normal cloudrest is easy which makes farming this set very easy. Relequen is useless in trash fights, useless in 4 man content where most bosses are dead before you could get full stacks, useless if there are heavy mechanics in boss fights, useless if you are constantly switching targets. Relequen is only useful in few end game trial boss fights and only the most experienced players can make full use it.

I have seem so many stam players using the set where it doesn't even make sense to do say, you are much better off with sets like hundings in most of the scenarios

True that's why i run War maschine most of the time on my stam^^

Protossyder

bharathitman wrote: »

Protossyder wrote: »

In order to get ready for more challenging content I would suggest to run normal Cloudrest first. That's where you will get Relequen, an essential set for stamina DDs.

Next you should do normal Hel Ra Citadel to farm the Berserking Warrior set. This can take a while since you need at least two daggers for your front bar, but you can also wear Briarheart in the meantime.

For the backbar it's recommended to have a Maelstrom Bow slotted, so you might want to take a look into the Maelstrom Arena.

For more information regarding the current meta just use google.

So many stam DD's farm and run Relequen without even understanding the set properly. The only info they have is that it is BiS, normal cloudrest is easy which makes farming this set very easy. Relequen is useless in trash fights, useless in 4 man content where most bosses are dead before you could get full stacks, useless if there are heavy mechanics in boss fights, useless if you are constantly switching targets. Relequen is only useful in few end game trial boss fights and only the most experienced players can make full use it.

I have seem so many stam players using the set where it doesn't even make sense to do say, you are much better off with sets like hundings in most of the scenarios

Well, OP stated that he wants to run trials, so Relequen is the first choice. Also, what's there more to say about something being BiS? Isn't it obvious that it is a pure single target set which develops its full power over a longer fight (= boss fights) by successful light attack weaving? If you put the add groups between the boss fights aside for a moment...
Other than that I fully agree with you, different scenarios require different sets.

Tatanko

Aetherian Archive on normal is going to be the most gentle introduction to Trials. Others here have suggested Cloudrest and Asylum Sanctorium, but I dissent for one particular reason: those two are really mini-Trials. I recommend an old school full-length trial like the three from Craglorn, Maw of Lorkhaj, or Halls of Fabrication in order to get the "true" experience on your first outing. The newer mini-Trials are still fun, but they're rather two-dimensional in my opinion because of their format.