I've never done a trial. I want to, but I don't think I ever will.

KefkaGestahl

I look at my map on ESO and I see white icons everywhere. I've done everything. I'm the hero of Tamriel, having done every quest. I'm the savior of Nirn, having stopped every dolmen. Every world boss has fallen before me. I've cleared every dungeon on normal and many on veteran. I've collected every skyshard. Yet a few black icons forever haunt me - trials.

I'm dumb. Let's get that out of the way first. I don't want to read a massive article just to learn the mechanics especially when I'm just going to forget everything I tried to read. Dungeons don't have that problem. "You do this yet?" "No." "When the boss summons ice giants, kill them quickly and get by the shield she throws down." That right there is enough to more-or-less get you through Scalecaller Peak's final boss. Is it a bit more complicated than that? Sure. But on normal it's all you have to worry about. Trials, though? I tried exactly one trial - Cloudrest - and the professor spoke for 15 minutes trying to make sure we all knew the mechanics and somebody ended up pulling a Leeroy Jenkins. We wiped and the group fell apart. Great first impression for the trial experience. And I can barely remember anything he said.

There's an irony with trials. Despite having more people, there's less room for mistakes. There are so many moving parts, and players need to be organized into teams. If somebody underperforms, everybody can wipe due to core mechanics requiring specific things be done, where as I've had plenty of dungeons where people mess up on the mechanics and it's easy to rez them and just keep the train chugging along.

I even joined a trial training guild. But every time they form a group, I think back to my Cloudrest debacle and I just don't want to deal with it. You'd think, CP 810 with golden gear, normal mode trials would at least be within the realm of possibility for me. But it's not. It's not a fun experience at all. And I hate that it's not. Maybe if I were a DPS, I could just be a terrible cog in the machine and be carried, but my main is a tank and I feel like there's added pressure for a first-time tank in a trial because it's an extremely important job.

Has anybody else been in this same boat? What can I do to overcome this? "Just do it" isn't the best advice because I tried and it was an awful experience that I don't want to witness again.

Minyassa

You are traumatized and I can't blame you, nasty experiences can turn you off of something that's supposed to be fun when they are the opposite. I would not go with a trial training guild, I would find a good social guild that does trials as part of their activity roster and is not hardcore about it. Social guilds are about making friends first and foremost and once you are with people that you can relax and trust in the game, it will feel a lot more hopeful going into a new trial.

bongtokin420insd16

Roll a DPS. Make it BIS(IE follow a gear rotation trend) , and you will hit the normal trial threshold. Then just run and watch. I main a dps but i have hit those trials so much that my shiny new tank will have alot less issues because i have lived the experience.

Same with IC. Everyone is afraid to go down there, but once you do it a few times, you grow accustomed.

WrathOfInnos

Don't start with Cloudrest, it has the most mechanics. Do some of the Craglorn trials, they are easy to learn.

bongtokin420insd16

lol i started with clourest during the witches event with no issue. Again though, dps not tank. Dps can die and suck and be ok at first lol,.

Streega

Was it normal Cloudrest, or vet? All bosses at once, or not? Because that makes huge difference. If you want to do Cloudrest, start with nCR with each boss separately, to learn the mechanics (yeah, Captain Obvious here) - it's really easy that way.
However, I would recommend starting with Craglorn trials first, and not with "progressive" guild, but with more casual one, where nobody cares about "no death", "speedrun" and such stuff. Normal Aetherian Archive is laughably easy and very good for a beginner trial tank.

DaveMoeDee

bongtokin420insd16 wrote: »

lol i started with clourest during the witches event with no issue. Again though, dps not tank. Dps can die and suck and be ok at first lol,.

I only started doing trials during that event. That is when I finally learned that nHRC was absurdly easy to tank.

But I also off-tanked nCR. The main tank had to leave during the first boss fight so I ended up the only tank on a group of 11. We easily cleared.

nCR is super easy to tank. It is pretty mindless to tank. You don't really need to know anything except some weapon swapping. If you wipe, it is dps not doing stuff fast enough and everyone dies. If as a tank your first instinct is to taunt and turn bosses away from group, you can tank nCR.

KefkaGestahl

Streega wrote: »

Was it normal Cloudrest, or vet? All bosses at once, or not? Because that makes huge difference.

I guess they tried to do every boss at once. I remember them saying something like it was +3, but I don't know why they would have tried doing it that way when it was a pub group with first timers. As I said, I don't know anything about trials so I was doing what the guy said. But it didn't work out, clearly.

Mudcrabber

My first and last trial experience was spending 3+ hours in nAA a couple years ago.

It was a guild-organized training run (all levels welcome). I was probably 350-ish CP. Everyone was on voice. We were told the mechanics. Nobody quit prematurely. We wiped on the Mage probably twenty times before the guild leader and everyone else agreed that it wasn't going to happen and it was getting late.

TheDarkShadow

There is a reason there are "progression groups" for trial. You shouldn't expect to clear a trial with an inexperienced group first try, specially vet trial. It might take months of progression for a group to clear a new trial. The reason is there are people out there can play 3-4 hours/day 3-5 days a week. Without these kinds of "long run" content, they will run out of things to do, bored, quit the game and put their money elsewhere, which is bad for the game and ZOS. So if you want to do trial, then join a guild, join a progression group, be patient. If you think you can't bare wiping for hours, then just playing casual, but leave the trials alone for those who enjoy them.

Royaji

Start with Craglorns, Cloudrest is not a good introduction to trials. You can also consider a quick respec to DD (you don't need 50k DPS for a normal trial) for your first couple of runs.

Raammzzaa

If you want to start doing trials, I would suggest that you start by joking a couple of the pug groups being formed in Craglorn. Some will invariably fall apart, but you’ll get some decent ones too. There are always people looking for people to help them farm nAA or nHRC. Just join one of those groups and try it out.

profundidob16_ESO

join the normal pug trial group runs in Craglorn and try to survive. After you do a particular one -regardless whether it completed or fell apart- have a look at a video that explains or read a guide. Then the things you read will start making sense and you won't forget them so easy because you can picture everything in your mind.

danielclarkb16_ESO

I'm in the same boat, and I only have one thing to say to you. If it's making you feel like that do you really think your missing out on anything? If you don't want to do certain content, then don't. Nobody would think any less of you. This is supposed to be a game, a game that you play for fun. And if there's something you found that wasn't fun - then don't play it anymore.

driosketch

I feel ya. I've left multiplayer games behind because of toxic experiences. But you also need to realize you're letting a bad first experience hold you back. I've had trial runs that failed, and people came back to try again because it wasn't a negative experience. It was a learning experience, and people were more comfortable with mechanics on the second try because they now had a feel for them.

I definitely agree, a social guild that runs trials is the best way. If you are on PC NA, send @Drio a mail. I will hook you up. I will lead a trial for you if I need to. I've been told I'm a pretty good leader. And if you're not on PC NA, but still want to tank, you can pug the Craglorn ones pretty well and learn.

HRC
First Boss: pull him from minions to the side, time blocks for big hits and watch out for spin attack at 33% health.
Second Boss (Left Path): pull the welwa adds and keep them away from group.
Final Boss: positioning, anchor boss just outside the blue circle. Don't chase, let your taunt bring him back to you.

AA
First Boss: turn him around.
Second and Third Boss: face tank them.
Final Boss: you are holding the axes off to side. Manage your stamina.

SO
First Boss: turn him away, time blocks
Second Boss: turn when you can, more or less a face tank though.
Third Boss: turn her around for stack and burn. Watch out for knockback, call out if you are pinned, "tank pinned".
Final Boss: Turn around and hold right in center of platform.

El_Borracho

Don't feel bad about not doing them. The point of the game is to have fun. If its not fun, don't do it.

I'm the opposite, I LOVE trials. Done hundreds of them on all levels. What you described sounds like a clownshow PUG in Cloudrest. Please don't let that be representative of the trials experience as a whole. The inherent risk in trials is that you are adding 11 personalities of varying experience and, how shall we say, social ability. Odds are that every now and then, you will run into an elitist tool. Or a horrendous player who fancies himself as God's gift. Brush it off, run a different one.

Again, have fun.

eliisra

You're making it unnecessary hard by not being flexible and insisting on only playing a certain role. It's not only heavier in terms of responsibly and less room for mistakes as tank, but also much much harder to get a spot.

Only 1-2 spot for a tank in a trial and most guilds already have a few main tanks they trust. But loads of spots for dps. It's the complete oppose of the dungeons queue, where tanks are rare and treated like kings lol.

If you really wanna do trials than go dps just to complete and learn all the mechanics and tactics. Pay attention and learn some tank strategies at the same time. Once you know it fairly well you can insist that you wanna start tanking it. I know it's not the funniest solution, but it's the smoothest.

I had to do a trials as dps a lot just to get a spot and learn, even though I normally play tank or healer.

BuddyAces

If you're on pc na feel free to hit me up. We have Tuesday night normal trial for folks who aren't into end game but want a clear or gear or whatever. Wednesday night is open vet trial for any cp 160 that wants to go. We usually have enough big number guys to carry the rest. You can literally show up to these and play how ya want. We go over mechanics for new folks. Absolutely zero pressure on these runs cuz you're the type of guy that we want to go to them. You may not want to jump right into tanking vet ones though..

p00tx

It's all about your mindset. With a dungeon, it's a one-and-done type of event, and you can learn the mechanics pretty quickly (as you've said yourself). The fact that you're able to pick up on dungeon mechanics that quickly tells me you're not as dumb as you're letting on, so I think you're perfectly capable of learning trial mechanics. It's a process though, and requires multiple runs before you're going to be proficient. All of us had to go through it, and with enough practice, you can do this stuff in your sleep. I remember being completely overwhelmed by normal AA at one point, and now after many many runs, I can run nCR+3 without breaking a sweat.

Keep at it, and don't be disappointed in yourself for not getting it the first time. You're perfectly normal.

FierceSam

Dude, when I did my first trial I was the Idiot. Dodge roll off the platforms at the end of normal AA falling to my death? Been there, done that. More than once.

Yesterday I did AA twice, super speed no death runs. Admittedly on normal, but fast, no death. Just gung ***, enjoyable guild farming runs with a bunch of friends.

You do learn, and you improve.

Certainly having a cool guild where you feel you’re among friends helps. My guildies didn’t give up on me and you shouldn’t give up on yourself.

Whatever you do have fun.

Isteris

As others have said pug the crag trials on normal as a dd, no one will even notice what you are doing let alone care if you die, dd's die all the time. your problem is tanks and healers are both very visable roles and *** goes sideways fast if they cant do or dont know thier jobs. there will be those who say a poor dd should not be in a trail but in the main an 810 dd on normal is going do enough damage to go largly un noticed.

El_Borracho

FierceSam wrote: »

Dude, when I did my first trial I was the Idiot. Dodge roll off the platforms at the end of normal AA falling to my death? Been there, done that. More than once.

The visual of that made me laugh. Thank you.

Jeremy

KefkaGestahl wrote: »

I look at my map on ESO and I see white icons everywhere. I've done everything. I'm the hero of Tamriel, having done every quest. I'm the savior of Nirn, having stopped every dolmen. Every world boss has fallen before me. I've cleared every dungeon on normal and many on veteran. I've collected every skyshard. Yet a few black icons forever haunt me - trials.

I'm dumb. Let's get that out of the way first. I don't want to read a massive article just to learn the mechanics especially when I'm just going to forget everything I tried to read. Dungeons don't have that problem. "You do this yet?" "No." "When the boss summons ice giants, kill them quickly and get by the shield she throws down." That right there is enough to more-or-less get you through Scalecaller Peak's final boss. Is it a bit more complicated than that? Sure. But on normal it's all you have to worry about. Trials, though? I tried exactly one trial - Cloudrest - and the professor spoke for 15 minutes trying to make sure we all knew the mechanics and somebody ended up pulling a Leeroy Jenkins. We wiped and the group fell apart. Great first impression for the trial experience. And I can barely remember anything he said.

There's an irony with trials. Despite having more people, there's less room for mistakes. There are so many moving parts, and players need to be organized into teams. If somebody underperforms, everybody can wipe due to core mechanics requiring specific things be done, where as I've had plenty of dungeons where people mess up on the mechanics and it's easy to rez them and just keep the train chugging along.

I even joined a trial training guild. But every time they form a group, I think back to my Cloudrest debacle and I just don't want to deal with it. You'd think, CP 810 with golden gear, normal mode trials would at least be within the realm of possibility for me. But it's not. It's not a fun experience at all. And I hate that it's not. Maybe if I were a DPS, I could just be a terrible cog in the machine and be carried, but my main is a tank and I feel like there's added pressure for a first-time tank in a trial because it's an extremely important job.

Has anybody else been in this same boat? What can I do to overcome this? "Just do it" isn't the best advice because I tried and it was an awful experience that I don't want to witness again.

They should really add them to the group finder so more players could do them. I don't know why they haven't. I've done a few of them and they weren't that difficult. Pugs could get them done.

thorwyn

This is a funny thing...
I started playing Eso in August 2018 and joined a guild a couple of months later. My main character by the time was a nightblade and he was level 45ish or something. So I joined the guild, said hi in guild chat and those friendly people asked me if I would like to join them for one of those trial thingies named Cloudrest. We met in Team Speak and formed a group, some guy explained the mechanics of the first boss, I listened carefully. Now, ESO is not my first MMO, I've played all kinds of different MMO's since 2002 and I was familiar with group mechanics and how to work in a team. So I was pretty confident, drew my mighty level 30 precise daggers and hit the "F" for ready key. The fight started and all of a sudden, I felt like I woke up in Dante's Inferno. Everything was flashing, splashing, sparkling, beaming, I desperately tried some button mashing but I couldn't even tell where the mob was let alone play the mechanics. That's what Syd Barret must have felt when he took one of his LSD trips. It was so overwhelming. What was even more disturbing was the fact that some guy in TS seemed to not only have a good overview of the fight, he was also able to tell who was doing what! He would say things like "Jimmy, you need to rezz Barry to your right there". What the heck?! How was this even possible, what sorcery or what genius is this? How can someone make sense of all the mess on the screen? We did not finish the trial because we wiped at the third mini boss, people left and we called it a night. But I was still so flashed by what had happened that I wrote a long story about this esoteric experience on my facebook page.
Since then, I have played a lot of trials, normal ones, veteran ones, CR+3 whatever. I have learned to apply a filter for the events on the screen, I see what other people are doing and I can even tell Jimmi from Barry during a fight. Running trials has become a normal thing for me. But I will never forget this magical first trip to Cloudrest.
Sorry if that's not exactly on topic. My point, I guess, is: have fun and don't let bad experiences or epic fails drive you away from doing that kind of content. It's incredibly satisfying and fun.

Odovacar

Finding a good group of people to learn mechanics together is tough these days. Trials can be fun or terrible depending on the people you play with. I would suggest if you want to give it another go is to recruit friends you know and all learn together. It might be a little rough in the beginning but worth it to get some gear and trail experience without any toxicity. GL, OP!

blairian27

Just use local chat and let people know you are a noob tank. Oh and be a lizard tank... easy rider mode there!

If you are dps just do the normal version. I am wanting to run vCR but the thought hurts my head... that and 2 kids under 2 make it near impossible. Need a late night raid group and that is not really doable for vet content. I have done all the craglorn trails and they are fun and supper easy. Anyone can tank it. If you can tank vet dungeons then normal trails are no problem. More mechanics but easy after the 1st run. Just be honest about skill at start. Local groups desperate for a tank won’t care. Dps can get carried.

bongtokin420insd16

@blairian27

I have had that issue too for raid guilds. I find AZ guilds on US servers tend to fit just right. (Time wise) Food for thought.