Farming the Maelstrom Arena Stickerbook takes WAY too long

SerLoras

The way loot drops are set up in Maelstrom Arena makes it basically impossible to complete the Stickerbook without grinding for dozens and dozens of hours.

In addition to the very useful and popular Maelstrom Arena 2-piece weapon sets, Maelstrom Arena drops 6 other less useful full 5-piece sets (Elemental Succession, Glorious Defender, Hunt Leader, Para Bellum, Permafrost, and Winterborn). Each of these 5-piece sets includes 13 separate weapons and 2 jewelry items. These 15 items from each of these 6 sets ONLY drop on the final chest of the Maelstrom Arena after killing the last boss.

This means that in order to fully farm the stickerbook for Maelstrom Arena, even with curated items drops, you have to clear Maelstrom Arena 90 times!!

Even if you farm it on normal at world record speed, you will still be required to spend dozen of hours repeating the same content over and over again.

The gear in Maelstrom Arena is uniquely difficult to farm for 2 main reasons.

First, Maelstrom Arena is the only content in the game that has 6 separate 5-piece sets. Dungeons only have 3 sets, Overland zones have 3, and Trials have 4. Not even other Arenas have 6 sets. Vatashran Hollows only has 3 sets, and Dragonstar has 4. Blackrose does not have any 5-piece sets (it just drops Overland gear from Murkmire).

Second, Maelstrom Arena is a SOLO Arena. That means there is absolutely zero chance of making farming easier by trading gear with other players. It is impossible to get the gear except as a single drop, one at a time, clearing.

I think the easiest way to fix this massive unnecessary grind would be to increase the drops of the weapons and jewelry for the Maelstrom Arena 5-piece sets. Even if Vatashran Hollows had 6 separate sets like Maelstrom Arena, it would still be a much better experience to farm. Vatashran Hollows will drop 4 different 5-piece weapon/jewelry items on each run (1 drop at the end of each of the 3 wings, and 1 drop from the final boss), while Maelstrom Arena only ever drops 1 single 5-piece weapon/jewelry item.

Maelstrom Arena drops should be set up in the same way as the Vatashran Hollows drops. Maybe every other boss could drop 5-piece weapons/jewelry, or maybe only the last 4 bosses could drop weapons/jewelry so players have to get further into the arena to farm. Either way, making these weapons/jewelry easier to get would not impact game balance since these sets are not particularly powerful or sought after, and the vast majority of players running Maelstrom Arena are there for the 2-piece weapons anyway. Increasing the drop rate on these 5-piece weapons would just make the game less tedious for those who want to finish the stickerbook.

ZOS please go back and make Maelstrom Arena loot less hellish for stickerbook enthusiasts! Or at the very least bring back the Maelstrom double drop event.

Dr_Con

I would just suggest for them to drop a weapon after the giant matron/argonian level, or both.

If people refresh the instance after this stage, so what? that's enough time already invested to get a weapon and they don't want to get the final boss drop, but rather some mediocre weapons/jewelry.

lardvader

I agree, they should make the drops similar to vateshran. I have approx 120 of the items from MA and been waiting for an event with double drops.

Amottica

I recall players commenting they had cleared vMA a couple of hundred times without getting the weapon they desired. The sticker book and transmutation system make is easy compared to what they went through.

emilyhyoyeon

Amottica wrote: »

I recall players commenting they had cleared vMA a couple of hundred times without getting the weapon they desired. The sticker book and transmutation system make is easy compared to what they went through.

That doesn't mean the current situation with it is fine as is, which is what it sounds like you're trying to say with this

Stinkyremy

tbh I do not see why they didn't make the gear sets tradeable like the ones in dragonstar. Why in there 6bound solo sets in the only solo dungeon.
Before sticker book if you even wanted pieces of one of those sets you could have to potentially farm it indefinitely.
I am not even including the actual VMA weapons.

Now to add insult to injury, all my VMA weapons are now NMA trash weapons and I have to farm VMA again for stickerbook!

jaws343

Amottica wrote: »

I recall players commenting they had cleared vMA a couple of hundred times without getting the weapon they desired. The sticker book and transmutation system make is easy compared to what they went through.

But that was for the actual Maelstrom weapon, which this thread is not about at all. It is about the 6 other sets in the dungeon. Players farmed 100s of times for a specific maelstrom weapon, something that now takes only like 14 runs to do now. 14 runs to get the useful weapons, 90+ to just complete the stickerbook for the other 6 sets.

To put this into even more perspective compared to Vateshran, I completed the 3 Vateshran sets before I completed all of the Vateshran weapon drops.

Something does need to be done. It shouldn't take more runs than a 4 man dungeon or trial to complete the stickerbook for a solo arena.

CrashTest

emilyhyoyeon wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

I recall players commenting they had cleared vMA a couple of hundred times without getting the weapon they desired. The sticker book and transmutation system make is easy compared to what they went through.

That doesn't mean the current situation with it is fine as is, which is what it sounds like you're trying to say with this

Yep. I was one of those players who did that back in the day when vMA was actually hard, there was no normal Maelstrom Arena, no perfected version, no transmutes, no stickerbook.

The grind was horrible then, and still is now even with stickerbook especially if you were like me and suddenly all your vMA weapons became the normal MA non perfected version, so if you want vMA weapons again, you'll have to refarm them all over again. trollolol

I don't blame anyone for despising it.

SerLoras

Amottica wrote: »

I recall players commenting they had cleared vMA a couple of hundred times without getting the weapon they desired. The sticker book and transmutation system make is easy compared to what they went through.

Yes, obviously that way was a bad system and the devs recognized that. That is why they continue to add QOL updates designed to make gear farming less grindy. Currently stickerbook farming in Maelstrom Arena is one of the grindiest things still in the game, and it is grindy with no real reason or benefit. The devs should make this system less grindy just like they did with what you are discussing.

SerLoras

These drop rates are still a real struggle for me. I've completed close to 95% of the Stickerbook at this point, but these random Maelstrom sets are still a giant chunk that I'm missing. I've been putting off the grind in hopes that ZOS will finally decided to make it more reasonable.

Please @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin, can we at least get another Maelstrom Double Drop event? It's been ages since the last one.

disintegr8

I've never been a fan of Maelstrom Arena and have never actually completed it in Vet, probably never will.

I decided a couple of days ago to farm all of the Maelstrom weapons in normal and only have one more to get. As far as I'm concerned, the rest of the sets can stay in there and rot. Same will probably go for Vateshrun, when I get to it.

Braffin

Yeah, the weapons and jewelry of the 5pc sets should indeed drop from the chest at the end of every round. They've almost no use anyways.

Kite42

I totally agree.

Make the last three or four rounds drop fat loot. Then people will still have to run the thing properly, but get better reward

SerLoras

I'm really disappointed that there is still no change to the item drop reward structure for Maelstrom.

The PTS patch notes for 9.1.0 seems like a step in the right direction for adding some quality of life improvements for sticker book completion, but there's no sign of any tweaks to these Maelstrom set drops to make them less grindy.

It's a really big missed opportunity to leave Maelstrom untouched, when it would fit perfectly with this type of patch.

disintegr8

I got all of the weapon sets (normal) and don't care about the armour sets as I have no plans to use them.

I think that because it's a solo arena, the armour sets should not be dropping duplicates until you have collected everything (I know that's when people would stop running it, but whatever).

SerLoras

disintegr8 wrote: »

I got all of the weapon sets (normal) and don't care about the armour sets as I have no plans to use them.

I think that because it's a solo arena, the armour sets should not be dropping duplicates until you have collected everything (I know that's when people would stop running it, but whatever).

That's fine for you, but there's a lot of people that want to completely finish their Stickerbook collection, and it seems like ZOS wants that to be something that is viable for people to do. My main point is that Maelstrom is currently a really big outlier compared to basically every other part of the game for how much time it takes to actually finish the Stickerbook there.

The issue with the "armor sets" in Maelstrom is that those sets also have their own weapons that go with them, and those weapons only come from the last boss, so you will actually have to clear Maelstrom 90 times before you start getting duplicates of them.

In PTS patch 9.1.0, ZOS is currently doing a lot to make finishing the Stickerbook more streamlined in places like Hew's Bane and the Gold Coast. I just think they need to give Maelstrom the same treatment.

RodneyRegis

Wait for double drops?

Heartrage

90 runs is excessive, if we got double or triple weapons/jewelry loot, it would be much better. MA is fun and good content but it’s not fun 90 times.

Shepoffire

So are you complaining about the ability altering weapons or the maelstrom sets? Either way this is just entitlement. The maelstrom sets aren't even worth using anyways

SerLoras

Shepoffire wrote: »

So are you complaining about the ability altering weapons or the maelstrom sets? Either way this is just entitlement. The maelstrom sets aren't even worth using anyways

No, not the ability altering weapons, the 5-piece sets. Also the fact that the sets aren't worth using is why it makes no sense that they are the most time consuming sets in the game to farm.

Requesting QoL changes for poorly designed systems is not entitlement.

SerLoras

RodneyRegis wrote: »

Wait for double drops?

It definitely would be easier if there were double drops.

What's weird is that ZOS has had double drops in Maelstrom during events. In the last few years though, during the Orsinium Celebration or the Year One Celebration events, there haven't been double Maelstrom drops for some reason.

I really wish they would at least bring back more double Maelstrom drop events if they're not going to make the item drops there more reasonable.

Dr_Con

SerLoras wrote: »

RodneyRegis wrote: »

Wait for double drops?

It definitely would be easier if there were double drops.

What's weird is that ZOS has had double drops in Maelstrom during events. In the last few years though, during the Orsinium Celebration or the Year One Celebration events, there haven't been double Maelstrom drops for some reason.

I really wish they would at least bring back more double Maelstrom drop events if they're not going to make the item drops there more reasonable.

The system is flawed for Maelstrom Arena 5 pc set weapons, they need to just go in and improve the system (Especially since we're approaching the QOL quarter), not do an event.

disintegr8

SerLoras wrote: »

disintegr8 wrote: »

I got all of the weapon sets (normal) and don't care about the armour sets as I have no plans to use them.

I think that because it's a solo arena, the armour sets should not be dropping duplicates until you have collected everything (I know that's when people would stop running it, but whatever).

That's fine for you, but there's a lot of people that want to completely finish their Stickerbook collection, and it seems like ZOS wants that to be something that is viable for people to do. My main point is that Maelstrom is currently a really big outlier compared to basically every other part of the game for how much time it takes to actually finish the Stickerbook there.

The issue with the "armor sets" in Maelstrom is that those sets also have their own weapons that go with them, and those weapons only come from the last boss, so you will actually have to clear Maelstrom 90 times before you start getting duplicates of them.

In PTS patch 9.1.0, ZOS is currently doing a lot to make finishing the Stickerbook more streamlined in places like Hew's Bane and the Gold Coast. I just think they need to give Maelstrom the same treatment.

I understand your point but completing the sticker book is a personal choice, not a must do. I only farm specific set items to reduce transmute crystal cost of reconstructing pieces I want.

I agree that a single weapon drop in a multi arena fight is pretty lame but I'm thankful they're not 'must have sets'. Hopefully they'll make a change to have weapons drop from each arena chest soon.

Elvenheart

Agreed. I like the Winterborn set for my frost warden and I’ve been working on completing the stickerbook on and off for YEARS. The day I get the last 5 piece set weapon will be the day they do something to improve the drop rates 😂

PS - That’s how it happened for my Burning Spellweave inferno staff, so there IS a precedent 🧙‍♂️

SerLoras

Dr_Con wrote: »

The system is flawed for Maelstrom Arena 5 pc set weapons, they need to just go in and improve the system (Especially since we're approaching the QOL quarter), not do an event.

I definitely agree, but honestly they could do both. I just think it's really strange they suddenly stopped doing double drop events for Maelstrom when they did them fairly regularly in the past.

SimonThesis

90 is way better than 500, streamers used to run MA every morning. I love my curated drops. Do agree tho they could source some sets out of MA to other places.

Braffin

Elvenheart wrote: »

PS - That’s how it happened for my Burning Spellweave inferno staff, so there IS a precedent 🧙‍♂️

Oh my, this ridiculous grind back then. Over 300 runs and not a single BSW inferno in sharpened. Thankfully that's over nowadays.

danwtayl

+1 for making this work like Vatashran Hollows

SerLoras

SimonThesis wrote: »

90 is way better than 500, streamers used to run MA every morning. I love my curated drops. Do agree tho they could source some sets out of MA to other places.

For sure. It's definitely a lot better than it was, especially for the special weapons that everyone uses. My point is just that, with the Stickerbook and Curated Drops systems, Maelstrom is now unusually tedious to finish, and it's inconsistent compared to the quality of life in the rest of the game.

I've spent an embarrassing amount of time and gold getting my Stickerbook to like 95% completion, and even I have to draw the line at spending 20 hours running the same super old content like 50 more times just for some weapons I'll never ever use.

TybaltKaine

I agree.

Simplest solution is to make the sets, but not the weapons, tradeable. If you aren't going to increase the drop rate somehow, and you can't really spread them out like they did with the Craglorn trial sets, making them tradeable/saleable is the next best option.

This would be the Six 5 piece sets only.

I'm not asking for the weapon sets to be tradeable. Those should remain the draw for the content, and require at least 14 trips to get them all, making for plenty of repeated runs. That's not counting running for best trait and such either.

Cazador

It really does take forever. Last time I counted I needed to do maelstrom 40 more times to finish getting what I'm missing.