Some folks simply have trouble with Molag Bal

Greywolf46

I did a search on the Molag Bal fight on these forums and found 259 comments in various strings. I was looking for help, but after reading some of the flaming people give to those of us having trouble I decided not to complain but to ask ESO for help. Much of the disaster that fight is becomes mute if you allowed people to group for him.

In my opinion the issue is not so much the difficulty of the fight as it is the requirement to have excellent hand to eye coordination and low ping. I have good ping but for reasons that I do not wish to share poor hand to eye coordination. I managed to get my NB to VR1 but I am stopped dead in my tracks with Molag Bal.

I enjoy the game even with all its problems, trusting they will be fixed in time. But this fight and my inability to progress to the Veteran part of the game is a showstopper for me. I do not want to quit, but continuing to die repeatedly hoping for a different outcome is the definition of stupidity.

Winnower

All I did was block, do light attacks, and move in circles (counterclockwise 90% of the time) around him for 8-10 minutes. Really. I did throw in a couple of healing abilities from time to time and 3-4 potions but I hardly used my magicka or my stamina for the whole fight.

Oh and one has to run away when he jumps in the air, but since I'm already moving around him it's easy to just keep going straight instead of curving around and move outside the expanding red circle. If a person can make their toon go in circles around a mob, they're set.

The fights with harvesters on the way in were all each more difficult than the main fight, though they were quicker. Titans were more or less trivial with the block/reflect/die mechanic. If anyone can get to the actual last fight, they should be able to finish it by simply not being in a hurry.

I call it the "sword-singer" approach. Total basics, nothing fancy.

I've read all the "strategies" for the fight, and many of them seem to try to make the fight harder than it is.

I'm sorry to hear that (you, the OP) are having troubles with it for whatever specific reason due to hand-eye coordination. I had a fight like that once in another MMO - it involved jumping and leaping in a way that was confounding me - and my son came in and did it for me once I showed him how to work the controls - just for that one fight.

Bryong9ub17_ESO

Iit's a hard fight indeed. And I'm glad. It's a game and it should be challenging. People now a days just want things handed to them. It's sad. And thank the divine that you can not group for it. Can you image the bots that would make there way into the Veteran maps if you could.

hollowopinions

Try Strife. Heals you +700hp every 2 secs when using the Amulet of Kings.

Instead of making everything so super easy, an option should be introduced to select between easy and hard difficulty and there could be easier and harder version of each phase.

Ysne58

These forced solo fights should be groupable in at the very least a group of two, instead of nerfing them. I have eye hand coordination issues too, arthritis and fibromyalgia. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I had to outlevel the level 20 world quest by 5 levels before I was able to survive it and even then the game glitches caused me to die several times. Each of these forced solo quests would be doable by me at somewhere close to level if I could do them with a partner.

I believe that further nerfing, unless it's to correct a genuine issue is a horrible idea, it would take away the enjoyment that the players who have no problems with this have.

MKLS

Personally I would urge Zos to keep the fight as it is - there is no need to make it easier in my opinion as that would just make it a face roll for other players.

To put my opinion in perspective however is to say that I have been stuck on that fight for the last 3 days and I doubt I'll be able to do in in the next couple - but that is OK.

I have high ping, slow internet and frankly I am not the most coordinated of players anyway - add that lot up and even though I know exactly what I should be doing - its not that easy for me to not find myself in the red circles.

However I would urge anyone in a similar position to not give up on the game and certainly not ask for the fight to be dumbed down when many players already find it easy.

Research the fight, as the adds should be no problem when you know the tactics, change your skill bar and if necessary learn different skills to let you adapt - and really feel the accomplishment when the ***** mob goes down.

I know I will get it down - and I'd like others to look at it as a challenge rather than simply expecting it to go down the first day they try as not all players will be able to do that due to one reason or another.

Edit: Finally got him down today

wrlifeboil

Greywolf46 wrote: »

I did a search on the Molag Bal fight on these forums and found 259 comments in various strings. I was looking for help, but after reading some of the flaming people give to those of us having trouble I decided not to complain but to ask ESO for help. Much of the disaster that fight is becomes mute if you allowed people to group for him.

In my opinion the issue is not so much the difficulty of the fight as it is the requirement to have excellent hand to eye coordination and low ping. I have good ping but for reasons that I do not wish to share poor hand to eye coordination. I managed to get my NB to VR1 but I am stopped dead in my tracks with Molag Bal.

I enjoy the game even with all its problems, trusting they will be fixed in time. But this fight and my inability to progress to the Veteran part of the game is a showstopper for me. I do not want to quit, but continuing to die repeatedly hoping for a different outcome is the definition of stupidity.

Use a bow, kite backpedalling, avoid the obvious attacks, arrow spray the adds. Having a bunch of level 50 health potions helped because the fights (it bugged on my first kill) went over 5 minutes and I used 3-4 of the potions.

Censorious

It's difficult - but in fact he's not hard to take down when you realise a couple of things.
1/ The adds die easily to a block, which reflects their own killing shot right back at them. Not obvious but it's a piece of cake.
2/ Molag himself has crappy targeting. If you keep moving he won't hit you. What CC he has is easily thrown off by a dodge.
For me, that involved simply running round the outside of the arena and dodge rolling while my health came back up.
3/ Molag doesn't self-heal so you can take your time over killing him. I just waited until I had enough health (80%+) then turned and gave him a heavy blast from a resto staff (note the passive self-heal on heavy attack).

That one blast did some damage to him and even if he managed to hit me I still had the option to keep running and slowly healing up. He didn't.
Basically, time is on your side so take your time and wear him down slowly.

</smug>

Reenlister

Even understanding you say you have a bit of hand eye problem, just do like they say above, keep moving, hit the adds as hard as you can, they go down easy, and just take your time with Molag, he wears down slow, but steady...

Tavore1138

I empathise with this as I did find it tough & my wife is struggling right now... but given all the bots keeping this fight solo does reduce the chances of them invading the later stages of the game.

Hard to advise but as a NB who refuses to use a stick I found all the move move move did not work for me due to lack of range... so I loaded up Leeching Strikes & Swallow Soul from Siphon plus Blood Craze from Dual as my main stuff... Spent the first part of the fight doing small hits plus swallow soul while rolling out from his hard attacks... Titans went down to the light hits and leeching and then I actually went face to face rotating the main 3 for the endgame which seemed to stop him firing his ranged as I was too close... Even had to follow him a couple of times when he tried to move away.

Painful but it worked.

Mykal

On my NB I had got hidden blade from duel wielding and just ran in and out of his attacks using close range attacks and my hidden blade. Easy to avoid his attacks and hidden blade hits really hard so killed him easy and fast. Have a harder time with a trash pulls then him really.

Lilth

@Greywolf46‌

I struggled with this fight too. I am a templar that uses a healing staff and destruction staff, I wear light armor, and a vampire. I went in at stage 1 vamp and died so many times I was stuck in there at stage 4 with serious armor decay.
Don't give up though. You will get past him just keep trying different tactics.

What I ended up doing, the titans were kicking my butt, is I started the fight closest to the stairs so when the titans spawned I had time to position myself as to not get surrounded by them and if your really lucky you might only get two of them that attack you. All I did was block and sidestep the direct attacks and the titans died really fast.
When it's just you and molag bal just kite him around and do all you can to avoid his big attack that can one shot you. Watch his pattern of attacks and when he does certain abilities because once you get that down he is a lot easier. It took me about 10 minutes or so to finally kill him.

Do you have a ranged weapon? If not maybe get one and level it a little bit because ranged on certain parts of this fight is really nice. It's easier to avoid his big attacks and you can damage him from far away.

Good luck You will get it

MKLS

Quick update as I finally got him down today

What worked for me:

Resto Staff - Just using this for DPS whenever I got a line of sight and wasn't running from red circles

Skill bar was basically just Buffs and Heals from the Fighters/Resto Line and a pet in the second half which may or may not have done any good.

Adds - Just stood in one place blocking till they all died

Boss - as others have said - I just ran round like an idiot shooting off hits with my resto staff (as I use my mouse for movement I found it much easier to put usual attack and blocks onto key binds - but that is a play style thing for comfort (iffy wrists ))

When he's about to enrage - block and move to the side at the same time to avoid the cone he's about to do

Rinse and repeat as the fight took me quite a long time and I had to keep reminding myself not to rush - just wear him down and stay alive

Good luck everyone still working on this

khele23eb17_ESO

Bow+strife+silver shards... basically all you need. Just keep moving.

Syntse

MKLS wrote: »

To put my opinion in perspective however is to say that I have been stuck on that fight for the last 3 days and I doubt I'll be able to do in in the next couple - but that is OK.

That is admirable. Not many would continue to get their ass handed to them for 3 days and pay subscription for it.

starlizard70ub17_ESO

I basicly ran around shooting him with bow and healed, then mostly blocked and sword attacked his minions in the second phase. When Molag Bal came back, I went back to bow attacks with healing until the very end when I ran in with melee to take him down. The key is always keep moving, and heal regularly. The Lyris doppelganger fight was alot harder than this one.

michaelpatrickjonesnub18_ESO

Greywolf46 wrote: »

It is the requirement to have excellent hand to eye coordination

Yes, true.

Despite whatever personal issues you have, the only suggestion I have is to find a random enemy and practice running tight circles at his feet. Over and over again.

Until you get good at endlessly circling an enemy while swinging your weapon, it will be tough to beat him. Because it's the only thing Bal doesn't like in the latter half of the fight.

Daendur

as NB:
strife on him (siphoning)
block on drakes.
gg

nalimoleb14_ESO

Circled him with 2h sword, striking and blocking, Standard of Might ultimate, and stamina pots.

Don_X

Hard mode on NB , Easy mode on Sorc

Greywolf46

Well I killed his little scaly behind last night. An interesting fight. Started with my bow, but switched to my dual-wield daggers and using Entropy and Siphon with Teleport strike I killed him. And as many here suggested I never stopped running around him. The augmented block was a boon that helped me live through the fight. Once I really understood the fight it went well. But I would have more than welcomed helpers for that fight. I solo but enjoy immensely the accompaniment of fellow gamers.

Thanks all for the good and honest advice.

Zershar_Vemod

Ran it naked on my NB with heavy siphoning focus - in general just block and range attack, and run in circles and he'll go down in a few minutes.

Jaxom

Syntse wrote: »

MKLS wrote: »

To put my opinion in perspective however is to say that I have been stuck on that fight for the last 3 days and I doubt I'll be able to do in in the next couple - but that is OK.

That is admirable. Not many would continue to get their ass handed to them for 3 days and pay subscription for it.

You mean Cyrodiil??

sorry...had to.......

Rhoric

Fight is not easy so stop saying it is. Game is pretty much dead for me as I can't defeat him (haven't played in a week cause of it). I have tried all advice, I am a sorc. Nothing I do works. I am not some noob either. I have been playing MMOs for 14 years so I know how to play.

Koensol

Rhoric wrote: »

Fight is not easy so stop saying it is. Game is pretty much dead for me as I can't defeat him (haven't played in a week cause of it). I have tried all advice, I am a sorc. Nothing I do works. I am not some noob either. I have been playing MMOs for 14 years so I know how to play.

Really dude. Pick up a ranged weapon, use auto attacks or w/e instant attack and then run away from him and do short bursts of damage in the time he is at range. Over and over. Or just kite him in circles. Staying melee is hard dur to AoE, but if you keep moving and attacking from range it IS easy.

Rhoric

Did you not read. I am a sorc, I am ranged. Nothing I do works. I barely do any damage to him. I don't even get him down to when the titans come out. I have died 2 dozen times. I have read everything I can posted here on the forums, have watched videos. This is the toughest fight I have encountered besides the mannimarco fight in all of my 14 years gaming

Koensol

Rhoric wrote: »

Did you not read. I am a sorc, I am ranged. Nothing I do works. I barely do any damage to him. I don't even get him down to when the titans come out. I have died 2 dozen times. I have read everything I can posted here on the forums, have watched videos. This is the toughest fight I have encountered besides the mannimarco fight in all of my 14 years gaming

There are loads of way more difficult fights in VR and also the last fighters guild mission with the harvester boss and the add is way more difficult. It doesn't really matter that you don't do as much damage to molag ball, as long as you evade getting hit.
Practice your kiting and dodging and you will be fine. Sorry to burst your bubble, but it's you in this case, not the game. It took me about 5 min to kill him, but I did it on the first go. In the 1st minute he removed 85% of my health so I realized I had to be patient. THAT is the key.

Rhoric

No it isn't me. As I have said I am a veteran of MMO gaming. I have never had this much trouble with two fights in my whole time gaming. I know how to kite. I know how to dodge. I have played every main stream MMO out there all the way back to UO.

Koensol

Rhoric wrote: »

No it isn't me. As I have said I am a veteran of MMO gaming. I have never had this much trouble with two fights in my whole time gaming. I know how to kite. I know how to dodge. I have played every main stream MMO out there all the way back to UO.

Sure, sure. But still YOU fail.

Inupis

Rhoric wrote: »

No it isn't me. As I have said I am a veteran of MMO gaming. I have never had this much trouble with two fights in my whole time gaming. I know how to kite. I know how to dodge. I have played every main stream MMO out there all the way back to UO.

Got to say it might be you. Resto staff DK killed him easy as can be on the first try. Something in your setup or your tactics needs to be changed.

reggielee

people are missing the point by giving their strategies, which are awesome and helpful but if people are having a problem for WHATEVER reason, there should be a grouping option (one person add) if only to allow the customer to progress in game.

it does not affect others at all to allow this option for those that desire it. the instance will remain difficult for those that want to conquer it and it will prevent other players from quitting the game in frustration when they cant