What is the percentage of active players completing vMA?

LiquidPony

SirAndy wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

Xbox says I am one of 0.33% of players that earned Maelstrom Arena Conqueror.

That probably sounds about right for all platforms. < 1% would be my guess ...

That's like 0.33% of *all players who ever started the game* though.

I wager if you narrow that down to say, what percentage of players who have reached CP160 have completed vMA, it's much, much higher.

worrallj wrote: »

It's the hardest thing in the game, so it's supposed to be pretty miserable if you aren't on lockdown. No idea the percent who beat it, but I don't think it's that high. Pretty sure it notifies you in chat when a friend or guild mate beats it (or is it only if they do it without dying?), and I don't get notified that often. Of course it could just be everyone already have the weapons they need.

It was the hardest content in the game years ago. It's certainly not anymore. People easily clear it with meme builds, werewolves, 1-bar builds, Plague Doctor sorcs, etc. Stuff that will never get you through the more recent DLC Trials or even BRP.

Ragnaroek93

It's really not that hard. I got flawless on my magicka Necro in the first run without minmaxed gear and without all passives unlocked yet (tho I remember that I got really tilted when doing it for the first time on my 300 CP Nb 4 years ago).

It's most of the time a mechanic issue (like bashing the Behemoth instead of staying in the bubble or not circling the Deadroths in the last stage if I remember correctly) instead of a skill issue. My tip would be to get a bit more health and sustain as usual, learn the mechanics instead of trying to damage race the boss, keep your hots/shields up and use the sigils to get around difficult situations. Watch/read a guide on how to do vMA mechanics in each stage instead of waisting time doing it on normal mode, you won't learn anything there since normal mode is a walk in the park.

I'm kinda surprised about how many people apparantly struggle with vMA since I consider it as far more accessable for casual players than the usual vet DLC dungeons and vet trials. I kinda hope that the next trial will be similar to vMA (either for solo or duo players instead of requiring 4-12 people). I wonder why 2/4 DLC's are catered to endgame PvE people when <1% people have finished vMA lol.

Taloros

Ragnaroek93 wrote: »

I got flawless on my magicka Necro in the first run without minmaxed gear and without all passives unlocked yet

*blinking in astonishment*

Uhm, what? Which extraordinary circumstances led to this highly unusual result?

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO

vma right now its a joke...on top of the bugs the sheer amount of nerfs or buffs makes it look like a public dungeon...I literally finished it yesterday with just spamming carve with master 2 hander and 1 shotting everything 2 shot at best.... everyone should easily get flawless right now

Nefas

It gets astronomically easier after the first clear.

worrallj

Ragnaroek93 wrote: »

It's really not that hard. I got flawless on my magicka Necro in the first run without minmaxed gear and without all passives unlocked yet (tho I remember that I got really tilted when doing it for the first time on my 300 CP Nb 4 years ago).

It's most of the time a mechanic issue (like bashing the Behemoth instead of staying in the bubble or not circling the Deadroths in the last stage if I remember correctly) instead of a skill issue. My tip would be to get a bit more health and sustain as usual, learn the mechanics instead of trying to damage race the boss, keep your hots/shields up and use the sigils to get around difficult situations. Watch/read a guide on how to do vMA mechanics in each stage instead of waisting time doing it on normal mode, you won't learn anything there since normal mode is a walk in the park.

I'm kinda surprised about how many people apparantly struggle with vMA since I consider it as far more accessable for casual players than the usual vet DLC dungeons and vet trials. I kinda hope that the next trial will be similar to vMA (either for solo or duo players instead of requiring 4-12 people). I wonder why 2/4 DLC's are catered to endgame PvE people when <1% people have finished vMA lol.

I'd say it's more accessible build wise- doesn't require super crazy gear and yeah you've got builds like pet sorc that are really tuned for it. Vet dlc dungeons can require super high DPS and so on, which is not required for vma. But the mechanics are hard to get down (not saying vet dlc mechanics are easy). I'm sure once you have the mechanics on lockdown it's easy, but until then I find it really rough and it feels like your constantly dodge rolling all over the place desperately trying to not get one shotted by 3 mechanics at once.

Case in point I'm currently working on the poison stage with the exploding flowers. You've got two or three venom shot archers that each can snipe you for like 25k. At the same time you've got the poison summoners & flowers that explode and can easily make short work of you if your not next to a cleansing pool. Then a wamasu shows up with a tail whip that can kill you too, all at pretty much the same time. All these damage sources are avoidable, but as a solo player it's hard to juggle all that stuff at once until you really have the rythem of it down. For me anyway. On the other hand most dlc vet content I've done has mechanics but is more about having the gear and rotation down to put up the high numbers.

Priyasekarssk

Bloodraven187 wrote: »

with how difficult this content is I am curious how many people (pn na) have actually done this to completion, even just to have their polymorph. Even in vet trial capable setup and skill I can't get past the argonian behemoth in stage 7. And considering it really doesn't help you be better in anything else outside of this arena there is no legitimate reason to make this content to the point where what feels like 95% or more of the playerbase is incapable of doing it. It is the single most frustrating and unfun part of this game , to most of us from what I can tell (fishing and watching the damn hammer in Cyro go to the highest pop faction and see them destroy everything from the other 2 with 0 skill required being high up there too). So I am curious how many people are actually doing it. And how many give up or just never bother trying to get past nMA.

Only way to clear is to have insane dps build even if glass cannon. Just make sure you can roll dodge or block.Thank me later. You cannot survive without killing no matter how much you heal or tank.

Grandma

according to my friend and guild list, like 70%, but realistically it's probably a minority - maybe 20% of active players.

cmvet

Agree with many others. My tip would be 2 dps sets and one tanky set. Think of vma as a dps race. You need to kill things quickly to minimize the RNG deaths you will incur. If you are doing vma for the first time during the event then I feel for you. It is beyond laggy and glitchy at the moment, nearly unplayable.

My tip for the 7th stage is to clear out any of the spores that spawn in the middle of the arena and drop the archers quickly.

p_tsakirisb16_ESO

@Bloodraven187
I refused to do it all those years, because "Arenas" are a pile of crap. And many others also agree on this.

Dark_Lord_Kuro

Bloodraven187 wrote: »

with how difficult this content is I am curious how many people (pn na) have actually done this to completion, even just to have their polymorph. Even in vet trial capable setup and skill I can't get past the argonian behemoth in stage 7. And considering it really doesn't help you be better in anything else outside of this arena there is no legitimate reason to make this content to the point where what feels like 95% or more of the playerbase is incapable of doing it. It is the single most frustrating and unfun part of this game , to most of us from what I can tell (fishing and watching the damn hammer in Cyro go to the highest pop faction and see them destroy everything from the other 2 with 0 skill required being high up there too). So I am curious how many people are actually doing it. And how many give up or just never bother trying to get past nMA.

The psn trophy for it is about 8%completion rate of anybody who loged in at least once on ps4

I never did it because i dislike arena type content its just borring no story just kill mob...

Mettaricana

On ps4 stuck on final boss doing double the damage with his necro skull and yellow ghosts either not spawning or passing right through me....

SidraWillowsky

Bloodraven187 wrote: »

with how difficult this content is I am curious how many people (pn na) have actually done this to completion, even just to have their polymorph. Even in vet trial capable setup and skill I can't get past the argonian behemoth in stage 7. And considering it really doesn't help you be better in anything else outside of this arena there is no legitimate reason to make this content to the point where what feels like 95% or more of the playerbase is incapable of doing it. It is the single most frustrating and unfun part of this game , to most of us from what I can tell (fishing and watching the damn hammer in Cyro go to the highest pop faction and see them destroy everything from the other 2 with 0 skill required being high up there too). So I am curious how many people are actually doing it. And how many give up or just never bother trying to get past nMA.

I'd say that 95% of the player base would be able to beat it with the time and effort necessary to learn the mechanics and generally build a decent setup and rotation.

I don't know your build and what vet trial setup you've got going on, but unless you're wearing Vicious Ophidian, Twice Fanged Serpent, or False God's Devotion, take it off. Relequen, Siroria, Lokkestiiz, War Machine, Master Architect, Zaan, Spell Strategist... Shelve that for vMA, especially your first run. You want to maximize AoE damage, so pare down your single target skills on your bar- force pulse vs elemental weapon, etc. Use the Iceheart monster set, even if you're a stam char.

You'll be running around too much and have too many enemies coming at you to optimize any set that's meant for single target damage or focus too much on single target abilities. You often need to get multiple enemies down at once.

I'd recommend Iceheart + Vicious Ophidian/False God's Devotion + Necropotence/Crafty Alfiq/Bone Pirate/Draugr Hulk to get you the minor slayer and reduced cost bonus and extra stats, plus the insane Iceheart damage shield.

But yeah, it's extraordinarily difficult and frustrating, but that doesn't mean almost any player who wants to try to beat it cannot.

SidraWillowsky

Priyasekarssk wrote: »

Only way to clear is to have insane dps build even if glass cannon. Just make sure you can roll dodge or block.Thank me later. You cannot survive without killing no matter how much you heal or tank.

No way... Unless I'm fighting a single target boss, my DPS in vMA rarely goes above 20k. Most of the time it's at 15k. Nothing in vMA has so much health that people need to consider it a DPS race. If you're smart about knowing which enemies to prioritize, you'll never have an issue. I feel like posts like these scare people off.

Sure, stuff dies more slowly for me, but I've still been finishing with only a handful of deaths bc I'm dumb (nothing related to DPS) in about 70 minutes.

nTranced

I'm on Xbox and the vMA achievement has only been unlocked by 0.33% of players, as of August 10, 2019!

Priyasekarssk

SidraWillowsky wrote: »

Priyasekarssk wrote: »

Only way to clear is to have insane dps build even if glass cannon. Just make sure you can roll dodge or block.Thank me later. You cannot survive without killing no matter how much you heal or tank.

No way... Unless I'm fighting a single target boss, my DPS in vMA rarely goes above 20k. Most of the time it's at 15k. Nothing in vMA has so much health that people need to consider it a DPS race. If you're smart about knowing which enemies to prioritize, you'll never have an issue. I feel like posts like these scare people off.

Sure, stuff dies more slowly for me, but I've still been finishing with only a handful of deaths bc I'm dumb (nothing related to DPS) in about 70 minutes.

Good luck. Everyone knows the mechanics and prioritization and buffs inside VMA. Just post a video with VMA clear with a tank build. Only posts like these scare off the people.

MLGProPlayer

Taloros wrote: »

Ragnaroek93 wrote: »

I got flawless on my magicka Necro in the first run without minmaxed gear and without all passives unlocked yet

*blinking in astonishment*

Uhm, what? Which extraordinary circumstances led to this highly unusual result?

You can get flawless with any build of you know the mechanics. That wasn't OP's first run of vMA, just first with Necro.

StormChaser3000

Nefas wrote: »

It gets astronomically easier after the first clear.

I didn't believe that it gets so much easier until I had my 2nd and 3rd runs during this event. I remember that my very first run took a couple days. But today my second run was 2 hours long, and my third took about 1-1.5 hours while my first death happened only at stage 7.

Adernath

nTranced wrote: »

I'm on Xbox and the vMA achievement has only been unlocked by 0.33% of players, as of August 10, 2019!

Based on my experience this seems to be very realistic.

Vapirko

Austinseph1 wrote: »

It’s 99% mechanics and practice. It isn’t the hardest solo content in the game for nothing. Obviously the broken desync issue doesn’t help in the least, but change your build for more survivability. A glass cannon doesn’t cut it for anybody but those that have cleared it many times. If you understand everything that is going it becomes much more simple. Consider it is much easier now than when it released.

It’s really the only distinguished solo content in the game. I’d love another vMA type solo arena although I’d also go for a similar duo arena. That might be the one thing that’d get me to resub again, well that or Cyrodiil magically starts working again.

Darkheart

I'm in big favor of a Duo arena

ThePedge

It's literally a L2P issue.

First run I died ~120 times
Second ~40
Third ~15
Fourth <10

Think I was 400 something CP.

ThePedge

worrallj wrote: »

It's the hardest thing in the game, so it's supposed to be pretty miserable if you aren't on lockdown. No idea the percent who beat it, but I don't think it's that high. Pretty sure it notifies you in chat when a friend or guild mate beats it (or is it only if they do it without dying?), and I don't get notified that often. Of course it could just be everyone already have the weapons they need.

Notifies you of someone gets their best score. If you get the same or less, no notification.

WuffyCerulei

Don’t worry about getting stuck. It took me 6 months to finish it, cuz I kept getting stuck at various bosses. Once you clear it, it’ll become a lot easier for you. But in the meantime, keep trying!

AndyMac

ArcaneBlue wrote: »

stage7 is only frustrating because of mushroom RNG (and lag, for many of us ANZ players) otherwise not that bad. oh hey one mage died so let's go to the other one... POP grows a new mushroom, think you dodges the poison aoe? nuuuuu not if your ping is 400+!

Bloodraven187 wrote: »

with how difficult this content is I am curious how many people (pn na) have actually done this to completion, even just to have their polymorph. Even in vet trial capable setup and skill I can't get past the argonian behemoth in stage 7.

Level 7 seems bugged as hell this event - some real weirdness going on that is making a RNG round quite a bit harder. Both the boss and the summoner are acting weirdly. My ping is at 350+ and, in five runs for style pages, I have died several times standing on the cleanse pool lol.

I'm a player that can safely say that if I can clear vMA, then ANYONE can. The keys for me were watching the mechanic guides, learning to kill the right mob on spawn (this really opens a fight up) and reading up on builds others were using for mDK to get skill ideas.

Eventually I had a build and enough knowledge and practice to be able to farm for my inferno.

Runefang

I recently got a perfected Asylum inferno and I'm surprised just how big a difference it makes. Everything dies so fast.

Having that plus perfected False God's is huge, vMA is dead easy now.

carlos424

Mettaricana wrote: »

On ps4 stuck on final boss doing double the damage with his necro skull and yellow ghosts either not spawning or passing right through me....

Grab the shield sigil to reflect skulls or bash him.

blnchk

StormChaser3000 wrote: »

Nefas wrote: »

It gets astronomically easier after the first clear.

I didn't believe that it gets so much easier until I had my 2nd and 3rd runs during this event. I remember that my very first run took a couple days. But today my second run was 2 hours long, and my third took about 1-1.5 hours while my first death happened only at stage 7.

It absolutely does get easier. I remember having the jitters during that first run; by now I mostly just enjoy the content, and do a little bit better each time I run it.

worrallj

SidraWillowsky wrote: »

Bloodraven187 wrote: »

with how difficult this content is I am curious how many people (pn na) have actually done this to completion, even just to have their polymorph. Even in vet trial capable setup and skill I can't get past the argonian behemoth in stage 7. And considering it really doesn't help you be better in anything else outside of this arena there is no legitimate reason to make this content to the point where what feels like 95% or more of the playerbase is incapable of doing it. It is the single most frustrating and unfun part of this game , to most of us from what I can tell (fishing and watching the damn hammer in Cyro go to the highest pop faction and see them destroy everything from the other 2 with 0 skill required being high up there too). So I am curious how many people are actually doing it. And how many give up or just never bother trying to get past nMA.

I'd say that 95% of the player base would be able to beat it with the time and effort necessary to learn the mechanics and generally build a decent setup and rotation.

I don't know your build and what vet trial setup you've got going on, but unless you're wearing Vicious Ophidian, Twice Fanged Serpent, or False God's Devotion, take it off. Relequen, Siroria, Lokkestiiz, War Machine, Master Architect, Zaan, Spell Strategist... Shelve that for vMA, especially your first run. You want to maximize AoE damage, so pare down your single target skills on your bar- force pulse vs elemental weapon, etc. Use the Iceheart monster set, even if you're a stam char.

You'll be running around too much and have too many enemies coming at you to optimize any set that's meant for single target damage or focus too much on single target abilities. You often need to get multiple enemies down at once.

I'd recommend Iceheart + Vicious Ophidian/False God's Devotion + Necropotence/Crafty Alfiq/Bone Pirate/Draugr Hulk to get you the minor slayer and reduced cost bonus and extra stats, plus the insane Iceheart damage shield.

But yeah, it's extraordinarily difficult and frustrating, but that doesn't mean almost any player who wants to try to beat it cannot.

I've been running grothdar all this time. Iceheart makes way more sense. Thank you.

vgabor

if you magicka: False God + Mothers Sorrow + Iceheart. (not having FG a simple Jullianos will do, but you need more sustain then) Use Steed mundus, it's very underrated but in vMA the added moving speed will make it a lot more easier than you imagine. Push up your health to ~20k.