Molag Bal is Hard and without guidance.

Thechemicals

I killed Molag Bal first try with my Templar. I thought he was a moderately difficult fight, but challenging midway to the end as he seemed to have gone rage-crazy on me.

However, my wife died repeatedly. She doesnt have the hand-speed and hand coordination-skill needed to beat him and became frustrated and i had to end up doing it for her, which upset her even more because she believed this game is not for her if she cant even come close to defeating him. I considered how many average and casual players had the same problem and came to the conclusion that the Molag Bal fight doesnt guide or hint what is needed.

First off, the fight can end very quickly before you learn what is needed to defeat him. Molag has 4 stages

1. Club you and land on you
2. Club you and land on you and cone attack that hurts pretty bad, sometimes one shots
3. All of the above plus brings adds
4. All of the above minus adds, plus bomb strikes

*The first part is easy

*The second requires some hand eye coordination and reflex otherwise you wont get passed this part. Most people run, using sprint and drinking pots while casting spells.

* The 3rd part must be learned fast, block to reflect the projectiles that will kill the demons, or you will die and not realize that they die in this manner.

* The 4rth part requires a change of plan, unless you have been running the whole fight. I was able to tank him for stage 1 and 2 but had to run when he started dropping bomb strikes. This change of tactics requires some ingame I.Q. , or ability to think under pressure.

I hope this offers guidance to the players that need it for this Battle. Thanks.

jmossb14_ESO

Good post. Agree with all stated above. Mannimarco was alot tougher then Mr. Bal. Also note that blocking is very essential for his mace attacks and Lighting Ball attacks. I'm a High Elf sorcerer w/ alot of AE and AOE spells and i stayed face to face w/ him doing multiple attacks and alot of blocking.

Vuron

I'm not sure what class your wife is, but this fight is a complete joke and letdown as a Nightblade. The Amulet of Kings completely breaks the fight and many people consider the Titans to be the hardest part.

Here's how to beat it as a NB.

1) Get a ranged weapon. It doesn't really matter if you haven't leveled 1 because it can be level 1.

2) Stay at max range and cast your healing siphon. Re-cast whenever it ends. This is what breaks the fight. The heal is a % of the damage done and because the amulet increases your damage exponentially, you will be fully healed every 2 seconds. If he can't kill you in a 2 second span, then he can't kill you.

3) Spam basic attacks from your ranged weapon. You can use other higher damage ranged skills if you have them, but they are not needed.

4) Whenever you see him about to launch into the air, turn and run directly away to get out of range. Start attacking again as soon as he lands.

Rinse and repeat. It's possible to not even take damage during the fight. You are far enough away that you should just be able to walk around his ground attack.

For the titans... The fighters guild skills work wonders. AoE works wonders. Because of the amulet, they should all die in 2 hits. Silver bolts just mows these down.

Thechemicals

The adds can be one shotted by blocking, it reflects the projectiles back onto them. You dont need to attack them.

Kayira

Even if I wouldn't have blocked the adds nothing did any damage to me in god mode. I took molag bal down without ever being under 70% health during the entire fight. The only thing that killed me this entire quest were the 4 skeletons torturing Mannimarco.

Weberda

Agree on the four skeletons. They were tougher than Molag.

Thechemicals

Yes he is an easy fight if you are running away.

Rhoric

It is not an easy fight and wish people would stop saying that. I can not beat him. I have tried over and over. I beat mannimarco after 63 deaths. You say this fight is easier than mannimarco, if so then i should have already beat molag bal. But that isn't the case.

WhitePawPrints

I admit I did have a tough time with Molag Bal but I managed to kill him in the first try. When the Titans arrived, that nearly killed me quite a bit until I managed to pick them all off.

I am a Bow/Templar so I was able to keep my range and dodge most of the attacks but each blow took a significant portion of my life. I guess it depends on game style. I avoided most of the damaged and just dealt it. Others have to go up close and personal.

My Khajiit is married to another Khajiit who had always had trouble with bosses because he wields a two-handed sword. He continued to have trouble until he got one of the DK abilities that increase your health regeneration or something. (Gives you a big heart, literally.) Ever since then he managed to do just fine against bosses and Harvesters. Fared a lot better against Molag Bal than I did, which I found odd because I would always do better against the other bosses before.

If Molag Bal was easier, then he would have been too easy for my Khajiit's spouse, and wouldn't have been as challenging, or fun, for me.

Melian

I didn't know about the trick with blocking the titans and did fine - you can kill them pretty fast even without it.

Kayira

I think the people that are having problem with Mannimarco and Molag Bal are players without self heal. I am playing a sorcerer using crystal blast, endless fury, Rapid regeneration, combat prayer and boundless storm in boss fights and I have never had any problem. Of course the fight can take a bit longer but I usually don't get below 40% in boss fights.

Gaudrath

Huh, I didn't know that your block can reflect projectiles either. I just killed them all the old fashioned way, you do hit like a two ton hammer in that fight. Blocking Molag Bal's fireballs is a must though.

DogeRobert

Or simply avoiding them.. My bowplar more or less stayed at max range for the entire fight.. His fireball pattern is ridiculously predictable after the first few and I ended up pretty much just running from one side to the other and simply backing away whenever he started his jump... (That said I had the fighter's guild reward as a bow, which meant that even my light attacks took him down pretty hard.)

Gaudrath

I meant those guided fireballs, not the explosive ones he throws in trios at you. I also stayed at max range and pelted him with my staff and an occasional spell.

What I would like to know... is this how it feels to be an emperor in PvP?

jamesgiordaneb17_ESO

Thank you, this thread really helped in understanding the blocking and running away... so much easier once you understand the tricks... I'd left this last quest along for weeks because I felt I needed a good 2 hours if not more to work it out, but reading the above comments got me through 1st time I tried after reading them

Zershar_Vemod

Kayira wrote: »

Even if I wouldn't have blocked the adds nothing did any damage to me in god mode. I took molag bal down without ever being under 70% health during the entire fight. The only thing that killed me this entire quest were the 4 skeletons torturing Mannimarco.

Yup this here, those darn skeletons.

I really hope this doesn't get nerfed again..

ThornJagger

Vuron, your advice on the NB was invaluable to me! Thanks for shareing!

Sylinias

Vuron wrote: »

Here's how to beat it as a NB.

[/snip]
2) Stay at max range and cast your healing siphon. Re-cast whenever it ends. This is what breaks the fight. The heal is a % of the damage done and because the amulet increases your damage exponentially, you will be fully healed every 2 seconds. If he can't kill you in a 2 second span, then he can't kill you.
[/snip]

This assumes you have siphon - as a 'classic' NB (DW/Bow), I have found that Molag Bal is impossible.

redcoathighlanderb16_ESO

I sort of found these tactics to work. I could get him down 70% quite easily by running and using my bow abilites. But often when I reached the end of the arena, he managed to land a hit on me, which resulted in me losing 10% of my health. By the time I reached the stage where the titans spawn I was on 60% health, usually. Blocking the titans works brilliantly. But (I do not know whether this was a glitch or was as intended), Molag Bal did not disappear for the bit when the titans appeared. He often blocked my shots that were intended for the titans. Trying to deal with the titans as Molag bal continues to hit you is near impossible - rarely I managed to progress onto the next stage, and when I did, I was on very low health.

Laura

I suspect that you may be speaking for yourself and using your "wife" as an aunt sally.


However, I can't imagine hand eye coordination being the issue. I'm in my 50s and almost legally blind. It took me a few tries but I killed it.

Did yo... she die a few times and give up? Or did she try to change up her strategy as she went along?

I died a few times but i mean... you are fighting A DAEDRIC PRINCE IN HIS OWN REALM. I think I would have been incredibly upset if I just face rolled it.

Is Molag Bal really going to be like, "hey guys so I'm going to do this thing here you need to block then ima try to bonk you on the head and thats going to hurt so you need to move out of the way.. mmmkay here we go"

kwisatz

Playing a NB, I was prepared to need multiple tries... but surprisely I defeated the big villain at my first one.
It's almost a pity; sure I lost some details I'd like to see ;D

GreySix

Thechemicals wrote: »

However, my wife died repeatedly. She doesnt have the hand-speed and hand coordination-skill needed to beat him and became frustrated and i had to end up doing it for her, which upset her even more because she believed this game is not for her if she cant even come close to defeating him.

Neither my wife nor I have made it that far yet, but I've already had to play her character through other forced-solo instances, after her character died repeatedly. She simply doesn't have the keyboard and mouse warrior "twitch" skills that so many possess - and appears to be a requirement in ESO. But she does like the story, setting and graphics, as do I.

And she's quickly losing her like for the game as a result. In fact, when its time for us to play cooperatively, she's been defaulting to SWTOR, where nobody is forced to play solo.

A very easy fix would be to allow cooperative play in those instances. Solo players could then continue to solo them, cooperative players could co-op them, and the cries to nerf the content for everybody would diminish considerably.

PaulD

You might add that an absolutely PERFECT internet connection is needed for a number of these fights. I'm using the best you can get where I play (MidEast, sigh, expat) and I'll flatly guarantee adding a few hundred ms of latency makes it harder. Or near impossible, would be another way to put it.

PaulD

Ok, for those who have my latency problems, here's what finally worked. Given you can't dodge worth a crap, since the time required to actually DO IT is longer than the time MB's attacks take, just run. Count three, hit sprint for a count of one, repeat. When your health is near 100%, run around the big rock, double back and hit him until you are drained, then run again. Block on the titans, they just kill themselves hitting on a divine shield. Everything else is just run in circles until you have health and fighting power near max. Use ultimates or not, doesn't matter. It's a very SLOW fight like this, but you will drag him down after 30 minutes or so. Lag sucks!

PaulD

Finally, I think that would work for anyone. However, a couple of other points, don't bother reskilling, you don't need it. DO, however, arrange armor, jewelry, etc to max out recovery, in particular health recovery. MB can hit for 1100 at a pop, you never want health to be below that mark, ever. So run, sprint, run, sprint, health is at 100% then spend some it it hitting on him, he throws you back and stuns you for a second, then run some more. Just be patient and you'll get him. If I can whack that big ugly bugger, anyone can.

spinedoc

Just did this today for the first time, it was quite anti climactic. I didn't block the titans at all, I just ran straight into them and AOE'd them, they died quickly. MB did not hurt me much, I made sure to block him when he telegraphed and stay out of the red cone/circles, pretty much the same stuff we learned from 1-50. From reading the forums I was dreading him, but killing him on the first try with a moderate amount of effort, certainly no more effort than some of the quest bosses, was a bit disappointing.

GreySix

spinedoc wrote: »

Just did this today for the first time, it was quite anti climactic. I didn't block the titans at all, I just ran straight into them and AOE'd them, they died quickly. MB did not hurt me much, I made sure to block him when he telegraphed and stay out of the red cone/circles, pretty much the same stuff we learned from 1-50. From reading the forums I was dreading him, but killing him on the first try with a moderate amount of effort, certainly no more effort than some of the quest bosses, was a bit disappointing.

Out of curiosity, which class did you play?

kijima

Constant movement and hitting him (and his cronies) with ranged is the best way to down bal.

Treat it as an Endurance fight though, don't expect to kill him one or two or three rotations like you might be able to a dungeon boss. Expect the fight to last a while and keep moving out of the red markers and use a ranged weapon/spell.

Pyr0xyrecuprotite

As a vamp templar with Destruction staff, I died a lot (several failed attempts) until finally successful using these ideas:

1. make sure to get to Vamp level 1 before you go into the Harborage. You should be able to finish before you get to Vamp level 3 - every bit of health regen helps.
2. Respec and/or enchant your armor and/or use food to get some decent health buffs, to avoid being one-shotted by MB's frontal cone attack. You need a lot of Health.
3. Get a good set of armor in your current level, with best set options and enchant levels you can afford - every bit helps.
4. Use Immovable (Heavy Armor) to avoid being pinned by MB's smash.
5. Use Heals to get back to full health anytime you get damaged. (Templar instant heal was nice, Restoration staff also works, and/or potions)
6. Use at least one DoT or Siphon-type skill on MB, e.g. the Mage Guild Degenerate ability.
7. Kite using any sort of ranged attack available, mainly (instant cast) magic or weapon light attacks (to avoid draining your stamina).
8. Avoid the big frontal cone and his jump in the air attack (red areas). His other attacks are fairly weak. I tended to run FORWARD out of his circle when he was trying to jump on me, as it's easier to see where I was going, and avoid getting trapped.
9. Block when the Titans attack. I was only able to kill one - then the other three just stood there and did nothing further - possible bug?
10. Keep moving. Keep your PoV scrolled well out so that you have GOOD visibility of the arena and obstacles nearby.

Note: you have to get MB down to about 3% of his health before the fight ends (used to be 30%?), and then suddenly your attacks stop working, and he crouches down in front of you; there is then an execution scene of sorts.