[Subjective] This is the story about how Infinite Archive is not really fun

Necrotech_Master

to address some of your points:

companion tanks will hold marauder aggro, though some marauders are kind of buggy with melee companion taunts right now, you usually have to command the companion to target them and survive long enough for them to grab the aggro. the best option with this is to use azander as a tank companion if you have him available because he has a built in ranged taunt that doesnt matter what weapon hes using (though a 1h/shield makes him a lot tankier)

marauders are meant to be a challenge, and kind of like a "run ender" mechanic, or at least in this case just a thread killer


for aramril side portal, you have to kill the crystals, they will continue shooting you indefinitely until killed, with ramping dmg, but you also have to have a way to interrupt aramril for when she starts her channel thing too, stamina management is a key part of this fight because of all the CC from the mind terrors

i usually save my ulti for the crystals to burn them down as fast as possible, once the crystals are down ill just use ulti on cooldown


for me personally i definitely prefer running archive with another person, even if i just set up a group finder to get a random person

the 3rd arc is where the difficulty starts to increase, not having a self purge really makes it difficult on dps toons cause the dots can hit for like almost 3k per tick (arc 4 is considered to be "vet" difficulty since thats where you get the undaunted bust)

if your on PC i wouldnt mind helping with runs, i can do "short and fast" runs with my dps character or "guarantee arc 4 clears" with my tankier character (can PM me if you want to get a rough time to meet, if you play on PC of course lol)

if you can only do the first 2 arcs, then you can obtain all of the gear, as you get armor from arc 1 and weapons/jewelry from arc 2

Jaimeh

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Companions in there scales it like you're running with a friend. You're better off going without and using a tanker build.

The Infinite Archive does not offer scaling. So, you're better off running with a companion unless you're specifically aiming to get on the solo leaderboard.

The only thing different is that you get double the mechanics in some fights, so for eg., on Thoat, you will get double the tentacles from the Atronach when you are with a companion (and actually that fight is much easier solo, for that reason).

Back to the OP: I don't think you need more tankiness, it sounds like you need to find a sweet spot between sufficient damage output and mitigation. Also, you mention somewhere else in the thread that you weave reflective light with basic attacks--any reason you are not using a spammable, like sweeps? The healing from it will come in handy. You can use a combo of briarheart/deadly strikes on Aramril, you don't need much tankiness if you are quick to kill the crystal. Also, if you have the ring of the pale order, that can be very useful in IA (more than Oakensoul, imo).

Oceanchanter

Jaimeh wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Companions in there scales it like you're running with a friend. You're better off going without and using a tanker build.

The Infinite Archive does not offer scaling. So, you're better off running with a companion unless you're specifically aiming to get on the solo leaderboard.

The only thing different is that you get double the mechanics in some fights, so for eg., on Thoat, you will get double the tentacles from the Atronach when you are with a companion (and actually that fight is much easier solo, for that reason).

Back to the OP: I don't think you need more tankiness, it sounds like you need to find a sweet spot between sufficient damage output and mitigation. Also, you mention somewhere else in the thread that you weave reflective light with basic attacks--any reason you are not using a spammable, like sweeps? The healing from it will come in handy. You can use a combo of briarheart/deadly strikes on Aramril, you don't need much tankiness if you are quick to kill the crystal. Also, if you have the ring of the pale order, that can be very useful in IA (more than Oakensoul, imo).

I also mentioned I'm a healer-sub-dps and I use Elemental Explosion with Warmage's Defense because my build is focused on barriers.

Simply not my playstyle to use those jabs.
I keep my distance.

Necrotech_Master

Jaimeh wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Companions in there scales it like you're running with a friend. You're better off going without and using a tanker build.

The Infinite Archive does not offer scaling. So, you're better off running with a companion unless you're specifically aiming to get on the solo leaderboard.

The only thing different is that you get double the mechanics in some fights, so for eg., on Thoat, you will get double the tentacles from the Atronach when you are with a companion (and actually that fight is much easier solo, for that reason).

Back to the OP: I don't think you need more tankiness, it sounds like you need to find a sweet spot between sufficient damage output and mitigation. Also, you mention somewhere else in the thread that you weave reflective light with basic attacks--any reason you are not using a spammable, like sweeps? The healing from it will come in handy. You can use a combo of briarheart/deadly strikes on Aramril, you don't need much tankiness if you are quick to kill the crystal. Also, if you have the ring of the pale order, that can be very useful in IA (more than Oakensoul, imo).

tho'at is still immensely easier with a companion because the companions are nigh invulnerable to the tho'at ice patches and the eye beams, doesnt matter if theres extra eye beams because most of them stick to the companion and then tho'at becomes a parse dummy

Oceanchanter

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Companions in there scales it like you're running with a friend. You're better off going without and using a tanker build.

The Infinite Archive does not offer scaling. So, you're better off running with a companion unless you're specifically aiming to get on the solo leaderboard.

The only thing different is that you get double the mechanics in some fights, so for eg., on Thoat, you will get double the tentacles from the Atronach when you are with a companion (and actually that fight is much easier solo, for that reason).

Back to the OP: I don't think you need more tankiness, it sounds like you need to find a sweet spot between sufficient damage output and mitigation. Also, you mention somewhere else in the thread that you weave reflective light with basic attacks--any reason you are not using a spammable, like sweeps? The healing from it will come in handy. You can use a combo of briarheart/deadly strikes on Aramril, you don't need much tankiness if you are quick to kill the crystal. Also, if you have the ring of the pale order, that can be very useful in IA (more than Oakensoul, imo).

tho'at is still immensely easier with a companion because the companions are nigh invulnerable to the tho'at ice patches and the eye beams, doesnt matter if theres extra eye beams because most of them stick to the companion and then tho'at becomes a parse dummy

Yeah.
It is pretty ironic that the BBG of the game mode is not the hardest boss in the game mode.

I pretty much gave up on doing IA until forseeable future cause I had another instance of Marauder vanishing into thin air when I directed my Companion to taunt him.
That was pretty much the last nail in the coffin for me.

This is very subjective, but sets I've farmed ended up being dismantled due to not perfoming as well as I thought for signature sets.

Wrathsun definetly doesn't replace Tarnished Nightmare (the DPS half of my setup for Templar). I have more synergy having Tarnished Nightmare and Combat Physician.
Gardener of Seasons ended up annoying due to sound que Minor Heroism has. After doing a Trial with this set I thought I'll get crazy. Also, the glow from this set doesn't fit my Warden's aesthetics.
Aether Lancer for my close-combat-most-tanky-of-my-characters Templar became rather inconvinient to use.
I don't have DK, so I cant say anything about their sets.
I no longer have a Necro. Nobility in Decay doesn't sound alluring.
Soulcleaver drains ultimate, and I rely too much on ultimates on my NB.
Arcanist's support set looks alluring, but I think I'll just slap one of my tested and trusted ones for the time being.

The only set I ended up using is Monolith of Storms on my Shock damage Sorc, but it's for lack of better Shock-focused sets.
I will revisit IA should they add sets dedicated to missing skilllines; Templar's Healing Light, Sorcerer's Dark Magic, Warden's Winter's Embrace, and so on.
And definetly rethink whenever I want to go through that grind for those sets.

Necrotech_Master

Oceanchanter wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Companions in there scales it like you're running with a friend. You're better off going without and using a tanker build.

The Infinite Archive does not offer scaling. So, you're better off running with a companion unless you're specifically aiming to get on the solo leaderboard.

The only thing different is that you get double the mechanics in some fights, so for eg., on Thoat, you will get double the tentacles from the Atronach when you are with a companion (and actually that fight is much easier solo, for that reason).

Back to the OP: I don't think you need more tankiness, it sounds like you need to find a sweet spot between sufficient damage output and mitigation. Also, you mention somewhere else in the thread that you weave reflective light with basic attacks--any reason you are not using a spammable, like sweeps? The healing from it will come in handy. You can use a combo of briarheart/deadly strikes on Aramril, you don't need much tankiness if you are quick to kill the crystal. Also, if you have the ring of the pale order, that can be very useful in IA (more than Oakensoul, imo).

tho'at is still immensely easier with a companion because the companions are nigh invulnerable to the tho'at ice patches and the eye beams, doesnt matter if theres extra eye beams because most of them stick to the companion and then tho'at becomes a parse dummy

Yeah.
It is pretty ironic that the BBG of the game mode is not the hardest boss in the game mode.

I pretty much gave up on doing IA until forseeable future cause I had another instance of Marauder vanishing into thin air when I directed my Companion to taunt him.
That was pretty much the last nail in the coffin for me.

This is very subjective, but sets I've farmed ended up being dismantled due to not perfoming as well as I thought for signature sets.

Wrathsun definetly doesn't replace Tarnished Nightmare (the DPS half of my setup for Templar). I have more synergy having Tarnished Nightmare and Combat Physician.
Gardener of Seasons ended up annoying due to sound que Minor Heroism has. After doing a Trial with this set I thought I'll get crazy. Also, the glow from this set doesn't fit my Warden's aesthetics.
Aether Lancer for my close-combat-most-tanky-of-my-characters Templar became rather inconvinient to use.
I don't have DK, so I cant say anything about their sets.
I no longer have a Necro. Nobility in Decay doesn't sound alluring.
Soulcleaver drains ultimate, and I rely too much on ultimates on my NB.
Arcanist's support set looks alluring, but I think I'll just slap one of my tested and trusted ones for the time being.

The only set I ended up using is Monolith of Storms on my Shock damage Sorc, but it's for lack of better Shock-focused sets.
I will revisit IA should they add sets dedicated to missing skilllines; Templar's Healing Light, Sorcerer's Dark Magic, Warden's Winter's Embrace, and so on.
And definetly rethink whenever I want to go through that grind for those sets.

a lot of the "first gen" class sets are extremely niche or not very useful (monolith of storms for example requires using a somewhat underpowered skill line, itself is kind of underpowered and keeping up 3 monoliths is difficult, gardener of seasons is OK but is also kind of complicated with its trigger conditions, wrathsun is OK but very situational (it works better in pvp because more targets to hit with reflective light), and the DK set is OK because it actually enables a good DK healer setup)

some of the "2nd gen" class sets are much better: aerie for warden, pyre for DK, aetheric lancer for templar are all pretty decent and im currently using pyre and aetheric lancer as pretty decent dps sets

overall a lot of the sets in from here are still somewhat niche and do require kind of building around it a bit

Ursadoom

I personally don't wanna do IA, because I find Apocrypha to be just very depressing looking. If it had some other visual style I wouldn't mind the dungeon gimmick.

DenverRalphy

Oceanchanter wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Companions in there scales it like you're running with a friend. You're better off going without and using a tanker build.

The Infinite Archive does not offer scaling. So, you're better off running with a companion unless you're specifically aiming to get on the solo leaderboard.

The only thing different is that you get double the mechanics in some fights, so for eg., on Thoat, you will get double the tentacles from the Atronach when you are with a companion (and actually that fight is much easier solo, for that reason).

Back to the OP: I don't think you need more tankiness, it sounds like you need to find a sweet spot between sufficient damage output and mitigation. Also, you mention somewhere else in the thread that you weave reflective light with basic attacks--any reason you are not using a spammable, like sweeps? The healing from it will come in handy. You can use a combo of briarheart/deadly strikes on Aramril, you don't need much tankiness if you are quick to kill the crystal. Also, if you have the ring of the pale order, that can be very useful in IA (more than Oakensoul, imo).

tho'at is still immensely easier with a companion because the companions are nigh invulnerable to the tho'at ice patches and the eye beams, doesnt matter if theres extra eye beams because most of them stick to the companion and then tho'at becomes a parse dummy

<snip>
This is very subjective, but sets I've farmed ended up being dismantled due to not perfoming as well as I thought for signature sets.

Wrathsun definetly doesn't replace Tarnished Nightmare (the DPS half of my setup for Templar). I have more synergy having Tarnished Nightmare and Combat Physician.
Gardener of Seasons ended up annoying due to sound que Minor Heroism has. After doing a Trial with this set I thought I'll get crazy. Also, the glow from this set doesn't fit my Warden's aesthetics.
Aether Lancer for my close-combat-most-tanky-of-my-characters Templar became rather inconvinient to use.
I don't have DK, so I cant say anything about their sets.
I no longer have a Necro. Nobility in Decay doesn't sound alluring.
Soulcleaver drains ultimate, and I rely too much on ultimates on my NB.
Arcanist's support set looks alluring, but I think I'll just slap one of my tested and trusted ones for the time being.

The only set I ended up using is Monolith of Storms on my Shock damage Sorc, but it's for lack of better Shock-focused sets.
I will revisit IA should they add sets dedicated to missing skilllines; Templar's Healing Light, Sorcerer's Dark Magic, Warden's Winter's Embrace, and so on.
And definetly rethink whenever I want to go through that grind for those sets.

It's a bummer you don't have a Necro anymore. Corpseburster has proven to be a pretty decent set.

Ursadoom wrote: »

I personally don't wanna do IA, because I find Apocrypha to be just very depressing looking. If it had some other visual style I wouldn't mind the dungeon gimmick.

That's my biggest hangup with IA, moreso than the monotonous same-ole-grind. The moment I step into it, I get the feeling of "I need to get out of here" simply from the ambiance, which never seems to go away. If not for that, I'd probably find myself in there more often. As it is now, I'm only in there from time to time when I'm willing to tolerate it because something I'm after is gated behind it.

Kyip

My own experience in IA has been improved recently by reading how some other people are successful there. I appreciate the insights into systems, companions, etc, that people have shared here and in other recent IA threads. It still sucks and I'm not gonna get all the way to the end, but I can actually reliably make it past the first arc now.

Elvenheart

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I agree about the Amaril duel thing. She goes invulnerable for a few seconds, then the crystal starts pulsing, then you have to go and interrupt Amaril, then get back to the crystal that is way on the other side of the arena…yeah it’s not working at level 5 for me.

EDIT: typo

At the start of the fight, I run at her then veer off and go all the way to the right corner. She chases me, putting her very close to the first green crystal. I run back to her at that point. I always interrupt her when she starts her chain attack, and then when she activates the crystal, I give the crystal everything I have got, only stopping to interrupt her chain attack if I have to.

After taking down the crystal, I turn my attention back to her until she teleports to the other side of the room. At the same time, she summons a nightmare. I run to the left corner in the hopes that they will both come over to get them closer to the second crystal. At this point I concentrate on taking out the nightmare, only stopping to interrupt her chain attack if I have to. After destroying the nightmare, I attack her some more, which makes her activate the second crystal, and she summons another nightmare at the same time. This is the tricky part where shields come in really handy, because we have to concentrate on destroying the crystal, interrupting her chain attack, and staying alive from the nightmare all at the same time. As soon as the crystal is destroyed, I then throw everything at the nightmare, then go back to her. If I get past this second crystal and destroy the nightmare, usually the rest is pretty easy. There’s one more nightmare that comes along, but it is close to the end of the duel and can sometimes be ignored if you are damaging her fast enough.

Caligamy_ESO

spartaxoxo wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I agree about the Amaril duel thing. She goes invulnerable for a few seconds, then the crystal starts pulsing, then you have to go and interrupt Amaril, then get back to the crystal that is way on the other side of the arena…yeah it’s not working at level 5 for me.

Don't head to the crystal right away. Just toss your ult and any ranged skills/dots but stay on Amaril until the interrupt.

This ^ and you can also preemptively pull her to the area the crystal is sitting dormant in so its less of a hike back and forth while you're being channeled on.

Joy_Division

Oceanchanter wrote: »

I know that there have been topics and posts about Infinite Archive not being fun, but I wanna share my own opinion.
Perhaps some people here might give me tips, although not required.

It reached the point where I dread the moment ZOS adds class equipment for skill lines I actually use most of the time (like Sorc's Dark Magic).
The TL;DR is that IMO there's a need for slight adjustments, mostly in the Companion side of things, or rather monsters targetting companion in IA.

I run IA with Tank Companion, which is a blessing.
My most succesful character is barrier-focused Templar that is a sub-dps healer.
The same Templar I take for Trials, both veteran and normal.
He gets the job done keeping people alive and dishes out decent damage.

Because of that, he also is a victim of my experiments with builds.
I also have a tank Templar that is more of an eye candy, but I did try to run IA with him to no better results.

After running IA for hours everyday, farming for 4 sets, I realized it's not really neither of Templar's fault I can rarely get past second fight with Tho'at and die somewhere afterwards.
It's one thing to fail a run because you're dealt bad hand with Visions and Verses, or because you got sloppy and fell off the boss platform.
But another when the games tells you "you die, lol, there's little you can do about it".

Companions do not exist
Whenever monsters spawn, my Companion is ignored until they are taunted or damaged most of the time.
With Elemental Explosion + Warmage's Defense, and - funny enough - Prayer Shawl from basic dungeon I can keep up most of the time, at least in the first 2 Arcs.
But it is annoying to see that mobs/adds/whatever you wanna call them ignore a bulky Khajit of my Companion running through them, and just go straight for my throat.

I don't know why there's a point of having a Companion in IA, other than to tank bosses, if most of the time they are ignored.

Marauders
Building up from the previous pain in the behind I have.
Marauders just chase you relentlessly, ignoring everything else in their path, and isekai you into another MMO with 35-45k damage in one blow.
You could have a Companion + 4 Apocryphal wraiths or whatever their name is, and still they will chase after you.
And should your Companion not refresh their taunt on them (its a miracle in they taunted them in the first place), they are back to chasing you.

Being one shotted from a Marauder that spawns randomly is definetly demotivating.
It would be less if I just got sloppy and got in their lane of fire while they are busy with my Companion.

No save points
This really grinds my gears for two reasons.
Sometimes I just want to stretch or get my cup of coffee, but I do so running around all anxious because I don't want to be booted from the server for inactivity, losing progress.
I lost all my progress once when I needed to relog and check something on my other character, so it is a valid fear.

Another one is that there were cases of me going very far, getting visions that did make difference, but I really need a nap, it's so late I should go to sleep, or I see a Trial I want to do popping up and it's one of those Trials that aren't popular.

Aramril
I sinply cannot defeat her. I just skip her.
The crystal always targets me with the barrage, burns through my shields and heals.
Tried to do it with my tankier Templar. No budge. He survived for even shorter than my healer-sub-DPS one did despite doing well in other parts of AI content and tanking bosses himself.

And the biggest pain with this random event/wing is that Visions and Verses get disabled there

To build on the first topic of criticism, everything ignores my Companion.
The crystal, Aramril herself, everything that can target.

The unmentioned things are fine I guess.
Like Filer's Wing can be done and it's up to your strategy, or Echoing Lights where you just need to balance fast you go.

Frequently Heard Tips
"Run IA with a friend"
I don't have any friends, much less tank friends I could run IA for hours whenever I want.
That's why I have a tank Companion that works really well in everything but the things I mentioned.

"Git gud scrub"
My blood pressure can get only so high, please don't.

"Build a tank"
Already tried with my Tank Templar and Healer Companion i made specifically for him.
Results are similar, if not a little bit worse probably because being a tank is not my playstyle and he doesn't have the same damage output.

"Oakensoul ring?"
I don't have it. Maybe I'll get enough leads to scry it one day.
I do doubt having every possible buff in the game at the cost of your backbar will change something.
I have plenty of buffs on me on my Templar without it.

Your companion might be making things more difficult for you.

I don;t know about the trash mob stages, but on the Tho'at boss fight, you get a lot more of the floating blobs that hit you with 15K DPS a second hits in duo fights (that could be a companion or another actual player) than in a single setting.

I realized this once when I had a "friend" join me in the middle of a run and saw a noticeable spike in difficulty even though things should have been easier.

IA should have a save feature and because it doesn't, it really should be content to run if you are actually motivated to do so and enjoy it otherwise it's just going to be an exercise in frustration. For the class sets, all pretty much decon trash anyway, what I do is simply just do Arc 1 and maybe Arc 2, then leave, wait until the next day then repeat.

As far as Aramril goes, she's just optional content with no real reward, so I stopped doing these as soon as I got the achievements for them. If you still need the achievement for her, then it's actually going to take a build that can pass a DPS check while being survivable enough or a human duo to deal with the mechanics of interrupting her while DPS the totem. It is what it is. You seem to like Templars. The Charge skill is ideal for interrupting her. The Radiant Glory morph is far more useful than Radiant Destruction. DoTs (Ritual of Retribution, Wall of Elements, Reflective Light, Blazing Spear, etc.) are going to do the lions share of DPS on the totem while you are Johnny on the spot ready to interrupt Aramril.

People hate on the Marauders, but they do serve an important function of keeping players honest. If they did not exist, then experienced players would literally fall asleep until ARC 5 or what not, facing zero challenges that could possibly even threaten their health bars. IA would be utterly soporific without them, nothing to keep a player in suspense, nothing to motivate a player to have a good build and play well, no challenge.

That's kind of necessary when making content that appeals to a wide spectrum of the playerbase, from inexperienced/new players to hardcore vets: there needs to be content that appeals to both.

"Ahh, Joy, but the Marauder always instant kills me! It's not fair." The Murderer is meant to be a test, a benchmark, a goal for the player to aspire and eventually defeat. If they didn't present a lethal challenge, then it would be just another trash mob in an arena full of non threatening trash mobs that pose no threat to the actual player.

Assuming the worst, let's say, yes, our player can never defeat the Marauder. OK, that's just one thread lost per arc starting on ARC 2. The player in theory could still reach ARC 5! If the player is not reaching ARC 5, then stop blaming the Marauders because there are other things in IA that are killing them. Thus, the player probably needs a better build or to be more familiar with the mechanics.

The first time I went into IA and met the 4-armed dude, yep, he one-shot me. And the second time. And the third. The fourth time I got him down to like 50%. But this is how every CRPG has been designed since the 1980s: the player goes into a fight designed as one of the more difficult challenges in the game completely blind so of course it's going to seem really hard. But because these are CRPGs, they all have predictable mechanics and once the player learns them and which skills are generally most useful, they get to the point where they consistently beat them. Once the patterns are learned, the fights go from "unfair" to absolutely manageable.

The other thing about IA is that it designed quite differently than the rest of the game, such that doing the content is 100% dependent on the buffs you receive in the content. By Arc 3, it is pointless to bring in even the highest game based DPS build because the mobs have so much health that it will take forever to kill them. If you do not have focused efforts by the end of ARC 2, end the instance. 100% stop. Look at your combat metrics during an ARC 3 fight and you will see the top 5 or 6 damaging abilities all come from the visions and verses you acquire. You can;t build pure DPS anyway because of the Marauders. So we've all kind of figured out the ideal way to go deep into IA is to bring in a build capable of doing the mechanics Vs the marauders (tanky, high health, good resource management) and leaning into the visions and verses to do the damage (of which Focused Efforts is by far the best). So people typically do this:

Arc1: Pure DPS
Arc2: Still Pure DPS, though maybe a monster set or a specific tank set to deal with maurader.
Arc3: Your heavy armor 30+K health set-up, with one damage set centered around either generating DoTs or raising DoT damage to carry your DPS (Heartland Conqueror is the default). More energetic people will switch back to their pure DPS once killing the Marauder, but I think it's pointless because visions + verses are still doing basically 75% of all your damage.

This isn't for everyone and that's fine. The game has dozens of systems: dungeons, battlegrounds, overland, housing, cyrodiil, trials, guild trading, other arenas, etc.

Kelenan7368

Not all aspects of the game are fun for everyone. Personally I do like and enjoy Infinite Archive.
I do not like Tribute.
Just play the parts of the game you enjoy and screw the rest.
There is a wealth of content for you to choose from.

Necrotech_Master

Joy_Division wrote: »

Oceanchanter wrote: »

I know that there have been topics and posts about Infinite Archive not being fun, but I wanna share my own opinion.
Perhaps some people here might give me tips, although not required.

It reached the point where I dread the moment ZOS adds class equipment for skill lines I actually use most of the time (like Sorc's Dark Magic).
The TL;DR is that IMO there's a need for slight adjustments, mostly in the Companion side of things, or rather monsters targetting companion in IA.

I run IA with Tank Companion, which is a blessing.
My most succesful character is barrier-focused Templar that is a sub-dps healer.
The same Templar I take for Trials, both veteran and normal.
He gets the job done keeping people alive and dishes out decent damage.

Because of that, he also is a victim of my experiments with builds.
I also have a tank Templar that is more of an eye candy, but I did try to run IA with him to no better results.

After running IA for hours everyday, farming for 4 sets, I realized it's not really neither of Templar's fault I can rarely get past second fight with Tho'at and die somewhere afterwards.
It's one thing to fail a run because you're dealt bad hand with Visions and Verses, or because you got sloppy and fell off the boss platform.
But another when the games tells you "you die, lol, there's little you can do about it".

Companions do not exist
Whenever monsters spawn, my Companion is ignored until they are taunted or damaged most of the time.
With Elemental Explosion + Warmage's Defense, and - funny enough - Prayer Shawl from basic dungeon I can keep up most of the time, at least in the first 2 Arcs.
But it is annoying to see that mobs/adds/whatever you wanna call them ignore a bulky Khajit of my Companion running through them, and just go straight for my throat.

I don't know why there's a point of having a Companion in IA, other than to tank bosses, if most of the time they are ignored.

Marauders
Building up from the previous pain in the behind I have.
Marauders just chase you relentlessly, ignoring everything else in their path, and isekai you into another MMO with 35-45k damage in one blow.
You could have a Companion + 4 Apocryphal wraiths or whatever their name is, and still they will chase after you.
And should your Companion not refresh their taunt on them (its a miracle in they taunted them in the first place), they are back to chasing you.

Being one shotted from a Marauder that spawns randomly is definetly demotivating.
It would be less if I just got sloppy and got in their lane of fire while they are busy with my Companion.

No save points
This really grinds my gears for two reasons.
Sometimes I just want to stretch or get my cup of coffee, but I do so running around all anxious because I don't want to be booted from the server for inactivity, losing progress.
I lost all my progress once when I needed to relog and check something on my other character, so it is a valid fear.

Another one is that there were cases of me going very far, getting visions that did make difference, but I really need a nap, it's so late I should go to sleep, or I see a Trial I want to do popping up and it's one of those Trials that aren't popular.

Aramril
I sinply cannot defeat her. I just skip her.
The crystal always targets me with the barrage, burns through my shields and heals.
Tried to do it with my tankier Templar. No budge. He survived for even shorter than my healer-sub-DPS one did despite doing well in other parts of AI content and tanking bosses himself.

And the biggest pain with this random event/wing is that Visions and Verses get disabled there

To build on the first topic of criticism, everything ignores my Companion.
The crystal, Aramril herself, everything that can target.

The unmentioned things are fine I guess.
Like Filer's Wing can be done and it's up to your strategy, or Echoing Lights where you just need to balance fast you go.

Frequently Heard Tips
"Run IA with a friend"
I don't have any friends, much less tank friends I could run IA for hours whenever I want.
That's why I have a tank Companion that works really well in everything but the things I mentioned.

"Git gud scrub"
My blood pressure can get only so high, please don't.

"Build a tank"
Already tried with my Tank Templar and Healer Companion i made specifically for him.
Results are similar, if not a little bit worse probably because being a tank is not my playstyle and he doesn't have the same damage output.

"Oakensoul ring?"
I don't have it. Maybe I'll get enough leads to scry it one day.
I do doubt having every possible buff in the game at the cost of your backbar will change something.
I have plenty of buffs on me on my Templar without it.

Your companion might be making things more difficult for you.

I don;t know about the trash mob stages, but on the Tho'at boss fight, you get a lot more of the floating blobs that hit you with 15K DPS a second hits in duo fights (that could be a companion or another actual player) than in a single setting.

I realized this once when I had a "friend" join me in the middle of a run and saw a noticeable spike in difficulty even though things should have been easier.

IA should have a save feature and because it doesn't, it really should be content to run if you are actually motivated to do so and enjoy it otherwise it's just going to be an exercise in frustration. For the class sets, all pretty much decon trash anyway, what I do is simply just do Arc 1 and maybe Arc 2, then leave, wait until the next day then repeat.

As far as Aramril goes, she's just optional content with no real reward, so I stopped doing these as soon as I got the achievements for them. If you still need the achievement for her, then it's actually going to take a build that can pass a DPS check while being survivable enough or a human duo to deal with the mechanics of interrupting her while DPS the totem. It is what it is. You seem to like Templars. The Charge skill is ideal for interrupting her. The Radiant Glory morph is far more useful than Radiant Destruction. DoTs (Ritual of Retribution, Wall of Elements, Reflective Light, Blazing Spear, etc.) are going to do the lions share of DPS on the totem while you are Johnny on the spot ready to interrupt Aramril.

People hate on the Marauders, but they do serve an important function of keeping players honest. If they did not exist, then experienced players would literally fall asleep until ARC 5 or what not, facing zero challenges that could possibly even threaten their health bars. IA would be utterly soporific without them, nothing to keep a player in suspense, nothing to motivate a player to have a good build and play well, no challenge.

That's kind of necessary when making content that appeals to a wide spectrum of the playerbase, from inexperienced/new players to hardcore vets: there needs to be content that appeals to both.

"Ahh, Joy, but the Marauder always instant kills me! It's not fair." The Murderer is meant to be a test, a benchmark, a goal for the player to aspire and eventually defeat. If they didn't present a lethal challenge, then it would be just another trash mob in an arena full of non threatening trash mobs that pose no threat to the actual player.

Assuming the worst, let's say, yes, our player can never defeat the Marauder. OK, that's just one thread lost per arc starting on ARC 2. The player in theory could still reach ARC 5! If the player is not reaching ARC 5, then stop blaming the Marauders because there are other things in IA that are killing them. Thus, the player probably needs a better build or to be more familiar with the mechanics.

The first time I went into IA and met the 4-armed dude, yep, he one-shot me. And the second time. And the third. The fourth time I got him down to like 50%. But this is how every CRPG has been designed since the 1980s: the player goes into a fight designed as one of the more difficult challenges in the game completely blind so of course it's going to seem really hard. But because these are CRPGs, they all have predictable mechanics and once the player learns them and which skills are generally most useful, they get to the point where they consistently beat them. Once the patterns are learned, the fights go from "unfair" to absolutely manageable.

The other thing about IA is that it designed quite differently than the rest of the game, such that doing the content is 100% dependent on the buffs you receive in the content. By Arc 3, it is pointless to bring in even the highest game based DPS build because the mobs have so much health that it will take forever to kill them. If you do not have focused efforts by the end of ARC 2, end the instance. 100% stop. Look at your combat metrics during an ARC 3 fight and you will see the top 5 or 6 damaging abilities all come from the visions and verses you acquire. You can;t build pure DPS anyway because of the Marauders. So we've all kind of figured out the ideal way to go deep into IA is to bring in a build capable of doing the mechanics Vs the marauders (tanky, high health, good resource management) and leaning into the visions and verses to do the damage (of which Focused Efforts is by far the best). So people typically do this:

Arc1: Pure DPS
Arc2: Still Pure DPS, though maybe a monster set or a specific tank set to deal with maurader.
Arc3: Your heavy armor 30+K health set-up, with one damage set centered around either generating DoTs or raising DoT damage to carry your DPS (Heartland Conqueror is the default). More energetic people will switch back to their pure DPS once killing the Marauder, but I think it's pointless because visions + verses are still doing basically 75% of all your damage.

This isn't for everyone and that's fine. The game has dozens of systems: dungeons, battlegrounds, overland, housing, cyrodiil, trials, guild trading, other arenas, etc.

for the tho'at fight, it spawns blobs faster the longer your in the fight, they are generally pretty weak and die quickly and the only time they get dangerous is when they are channeling for too long

malkhest will usually keep at least 1 occupied and bash it, but dont expect him to kill it

usually the blobs most of the time end up melting to aoes (or at least a dot if you throw 1 or 2 at them), or you burn tho'at fast enough that they are irrelevant cause they dont spawn

the longer the fight, the more frequent the blob spawns are and it spawns more of them, when the fight starts there wont be any for at least a minute or so, then it will start spawning 1 at a time, then it will start spawning 2 at a time, and each tho'at "boss" has their own blob timer, which is why you generally want to kill each tho'at version one at a time

katanagirl1

Elvenheart wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I agree about the Amaril duel thing. She goes invulnerable for a few seconds, then the crystal starts pulsing, then you have to go and interrupt Amaril, then get back to the crystal that is way on the other side of the arena…yeah it’s not working at level 5 for me.

EDIT: typo

At the start of the fight, I run at her then veer off and go all the way to the right corner. She chases me, putting her very close to the first green crystal. I run back to her at that point. I always interrupt her when she starts her chain attack, and then when she activates the crystal, I give the crystal everything I have got, only stopping to interrupt her chain attack if I have to.

After taking down the crystal, I turn my attention back to her until she teleports to the other side of the room. At the same time, she summons a nightmare. I run to the left corner in the hopes that they will both come over to get them closer to the second crystal. At this point I concentrate on taking out the nightmare, only stopping to interrupt her chain attack if I have to. After destroying the nightmare, I attack her some more, which makes her activate the second crystal, and she summons another nightmare at the same time. This is the tricky part where shields come in really handy, because we have to concentrate on destroying the crystal, interrupting her chain attack, and staying alive from the nightmare all at the same time. As soon as the crystal is destroyed, I then throw everything at the nightmare, then go back to her. If I get past this second crystal and destroy the nightmare, usually the rest is pretty easy. There’s one more nightmare that comes along, but it is close to the end of the duel and can sometimes be ignored if you are damaging her fast enough.

Ah, I usually just go right for her, I didn’t realize she would chase you. That reminds me, I took a video the last time I was there, it looks like I get stunned before my health drops to zero, then I can’t use any skills and it ends the duel. I need to watch that and see what is going on.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will try that next time.

Necrotech_Master

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Elvenheart wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I agree about the Amaril duel thing. She goes invulnerable for a few seconds, then the crystal starts pulsing, then you have to go and interrupt Amaril, then get back to the crystal that is way on the other side of the arena…yeah it’s not working at level 5 for me.

EDIT: typo

At the start of the fight, I run at her then veer off and go all the way to the right corner. She chases me, putting her very close to the first green crystal. I run back to her at that point. I always interrupt her when she starts her chain attack, and then when she activates the crystal, I give the crystal everything I have got, only stopping to interrupt her chain attack if I have to.

After taking down the crystal, I turn my attention back to her until she teleports to the other side of the room. At the same time, she summons a nightmare. I run to the left corner in the hopes that they will both come over to get them closer to the second crystal. At this point I concentrate on taking out the nightmare, only stopping to interrupt her chain attack if I have to. After destroying the nightmare, I attack her some more, which makes her activate the second crystal, and she summons another nightmare at the same time. This is the tricky part where shields come in really handy, because we have to concentrate on destroying the crystal, interrupting her chain attack, and staying alive from the nightmare all at the same time. As soon as the crystal is destroyed, I then throw everything at the nightmare, then go back to her. If I get past this second crystal and destroy the nightmare, usually the rest is pretty easy. There’s one more nightmare that comes along, but it is close to the end of the duel and can sometimes be ignored if you are damaging her fast enough.

Ah, I usually just go right for her, I didn’t realize she would chase you. That reminds me, I took a video the last time I was there, it looks like I get stunned before my health drops to zero, then I can’t use any skills and it ends the duel. I need to watch that and see what is going on.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will try that next time.

yeah you can out range her and she will follow to help positioning

though have to be aware roughly every 20% hp she teleports to the opposite side of the stage from where your at and usually in most cases does a channel soon after teleporting

o_Primate_o

Wow. I never have probs with tank companion. Bastion slotted two taunts, two shields, one heal. HA only the boss or marauder (tells companion which enemy to taunt). He only dies in dragon AoEs. Keeps all marauders taunted