World first Veteran Maelstrom Arena

Saturn · October 2015

Nice, though I will say it is very unsuprising that a sorcerer was the first to beat it.

FENGRUSH · October 2015

Saturn wrote: »

Nice, though I will say it is very unsuprising that a sorcerer was the first to beat it.

The mobs arent using shieldbreaker sets I dont think. And shields are still whack and never balanced properly so - there you have it.

Dymence · October 2015

leipatemeibbaa wrote: »

Dymence wrote: »

Ezareth wrote: »

Dymence wrote: »

Beltan3 wrote: »

How many sigils did you use and at what stages?

Don't quite remember for the first run, but for my second completion I used 2 sigils - both on stage 4. Next time I'll try to clear it without sigils entirely.

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

@Dymence Congratz! The polymorph also looks pretty sick.

Could you share your build/stats? Im curious how much regen/cost reduction sorcs will need to sustain in vet MSA.

And how would you rate the difficulty compared to vet WGT or vet ICP?

I used 2x nerieneth / 4x spell power cure / 3x willpower / 2x torugs - full magicka enchants on gear and full spell damage on jewelry. Same gear I'm using on live currently. Had no need for cost reduction, since I'm running with elemental drain.

Also managed the second clear without a healing staff on my second bar.

My bar setup right now is:

Bar 1 destruction staff: Force Pulse, Crystal Fragments, Elemental Drain, Bound Aegis, Inner Light, Shooting Star
Bar 2 dual wield: Power Surge, Liquid Lightning, Hardened Ward, Bound Aegis, Inner Light, Energy overload
Overload bar is a copy of the 2nd bar.

As for the difficulty right now I feel it's equal / slightly harder than vet WGT / vet ICP, though I feel that you can't really compare solo content to group content. If someone dies in vet WGT / vet ICP it's not a problem, it's even normal since the no death is kinda challenging. But if you die in solo content, it's like a full group wipe.

Do you feel Crushing shock will perform as well as Force pulse? From my experience the ranged interrupt of CS has been extremely useful and from what I recall the damage increase of FP over CS is only 3-4%.

Also, why Energy Overload over Power Overload? Power Overload does more DPS and by the time you're out of power overload mode you're full magicka regardless.

I don't know about crushing shock, I didn't use it last patch because the damage was really important with the mitigation bug, but I'm not sure now.

Also I'm using energy overload because power overload is bugged. Unmorphed & energy overload both deal more damage than power overload, power overload actually reduces your damage.

Or, that's how it is on live right now. I'm not sure if it's fixed but I can't be bothered testing it right now.

Also, on a side note I tried taking in a magicka DK template today. Got to stage 6 boss and then I gave up on it after a couple of tries.

My first impression of doing it with a magicka DK is that it's certainly harder than a magicka sorcerer, but I'm not sure if my impression is valid. Playing a magicka DK in arena compared to a magicka sorc is just... different. You need different tactics, and other than that, I'm not really used to playing a DK. The highest I've ever leveled a DK is level 34.

I am a DK and felt this arena is extremely hard for us. Now you understand what I say. I still stuck on Boss 4, I just can't go through it.

Well, I will give it another try with a magicka DK template tomorrow. I was an idiot. I noticed afterwards I played with unenchanted gear

Should be a bit easier with 5k more magicka.

Ezareth · October 2015

Dymence wrote: »

I don't know about crushing shock, I didn't use it last patch because the damage was really important with the mitigation bug, but I'm not sure now.

Also I'm using energy overload because power overload is bugged. Unmorphed & energy overload both deal more damage than power overload, power overload actually reduces your damage.

Or, that's how it is on live right now. I'm not sure if it's fixed but I can't be bothered testing it right now.

What?!?? The last time I tested it, power overload did more damage than energy overload (when they reduced the bonus from 15% to 3%). When the hell did they screw that up? I'll have to test this tonight. It seems the main reason I even install the PTS is to test and determine which ability they're breaking next. I swear to God every time they touch a flipping ability to "fix" something, they end up breaking it. Sigh....

silky_soft · October 2015

FENGRUSH wrote: »

Saturn wrote: »

Nice, though I will say it is very unsuprising that a sorcerer was the first to beat it.

The mobs arent using shieldbreaker sets I dont think. And shields are still whack and never balanced properly so - there you have it.

Yeop, they had a chance when testing IC to implement critable shields. But noope, still op as *** because of sorc qq.

Dymence · October 2015

silky_soft wrote: »

FENGRUSH wrote: »

Saturn wrote: »

Nice, though I will say it is very unsuprising that a sorcerer was the first to beat it.

The mobs arent using shieldbreaker sets I dont think. And shields are still whack and never balanced properly so - there you have it.

Yeop, they had a chance when testing IC to implement critable shields. But noope, still op as *** because of sorc qq.

Critable shields would bring nothing though, only in PVP, as mobs can't crit with only a few exceptions. And shield breaker mobs would just make shields completely useless.

Fecius · October 2015

Hi, I've spent not so much time on the arena. First time I had to finish my run at 2nd wave of 9th arena. Yesterday I tried it again. With my 1st experience it felt much easier and I managed to get to the last boss.

Here is a link for a video of my best try for this encounter. Maybe I just need some more practice because I tried it only about 108 times and changed a bunch of abilities on my bars but the boss fight feels a bit insane. I pretty much hate those daedroths and it's pretty hard to deal with them without buffs but I would say it's manageable on the edge (even without overload since I had 2-3 wipe tries for 1 overload try).

When I've seen that on the 3d stage you should be able to kill Daedroths and Heals plus killing those adds who perform a ritual ASAP (cause you would not love the Thing at the end of it) taking dmg from everything including boss I just pressed Alt+F4 after death. Partly it was late; partly it was a bit astonishing.

I'm interested in the way you was using Sigils (or maybe not using), maybe some tips and tricks or advises about fight.

Hope next time I will show a progress. I still feel the fight manageable and I feel lack of practice. Unfortunately, next time I will be able to dive in this Arena only after 10.4.2015 so it will be on Live already.

Here's a video of my best Overload try, by the way (link access):

https://youtu.be/4cvkmIELGOw

P.S.: Had a Restoration staff on my bar but really didn't use it's healing, I just had no time for this, but only a Hardened ward was not enogth for me. Maybe after next 100 tries

P.P.S: I guess, if I could pass the 1st phase without Overload and Sigils, then I'd be able to finish him right after the end of the 2nd phase to 0 HP with 1000 ultimate point Overload and all Sigils used.

Dymence · October 2015

Fecius wrote: »

Hi, I've spent not so much time on the arena. First time I had to finish my run at 2nd wave of 9th arena. Yesterday I tried it again. With my 1st experience it felt much easier and I managed to get to the last boss.

Here is a link for a video of my best try for this encounter. Maybe I just need some more practice because I tried it only about 108 times and changed a bunch of abilities on my bars but the boss fight feels a bit insane. I pretty much hate those daedroths and it's pretty hard to deal with them without buffs but I would say it's manageable on the edge (even without overload since I had 2-3 wipe tries for 1 overload try).

When I've seen that on the 3d stage you should be able to kill Daedroths and Heals plus killing those adds who perform a ritual ASAP (cause you would not love the Thing at the end of it) taking dmg from everything including boss I just pressed Alt+F4 after death. Partly it was late; partly it was a bit astonishing.

I'm interested in the way you was using Sigils (or maybe not using), maybe some tips and tricks or advises about fight.

Hope next time I will show a progress. I still feel the fight manageable and I feel lack of practice. Unfortunately, next time I will be able to dive in this Arena only after 10.4.2015 so it will be on Live already.

Here's a video of my best Overload try, by the way (link access):

https://youtu.be/4cvkmIELGOw

P.S.: Had a Restoration staff on my bar but really didn't use it's healing, I just had no time for this, but only a Hardened ward was not enogth for me. Maybe after next 100 tries
P.P.S: I guess, if I could pass the 1st phase without Overload and Sigils, then I'd be able to finish him right after the end of the 2nd phase to 0 HP with 1000 ultimate point Overload and all Sigils used.

It's a pretty straight forward fight, so I won't spend too much time writing out the details of each of my movements, but I save my overload for the daedroths and use it non stop after the crystal phase on the boss. On average, a daedroth eats 6 light attacks with overload and they're dead.

I have never used any sigils in this boss fight.

Later today I'm going to spend some time trying to figure out the scoring system of this arena. Yesterday I wanted to finish the arena without using any sigils at all, because I thought not using sigils gives a lot of points. I finished it without using any sigils and 11 deaths in total. Don't know how long it took exactly. I got 20k less points than I got the run before that, in which I used 2 sigils in total, had 8 deaths and the time was roughly the same, but I can't say it for sure here either (I really should stopwatch it).

Might be death and time are way more important than sigils, so that's what I'm going to test today. I'm going to use as much sigils as I need to finish it as fast as possible, and I'll try to speedrun it like this. I just want to finish it as fast and death-free as possible and see how much points that gives me, without any regard for sigils.

Fecius · October 2015

Dymence wrote: »

...

Ty, I got the idea and I will try it someday on live after my vacation trip.

What's for points. As I can remember, they said that you will get some for each unused Sigil and there is a big time reward if you are making this less than 1h 30m.

Ishammael · October 2015

Hardened Ward > PvE

leipatemeibbaa · October 2015

Dymence wrote: »

Fecius wrote: »

Hi, I've spent not so much time on the arena. First time I had to finish my run at 2nd wave of 9th arena. Yesterday I tried it again. With my 1st experience it felt much easier and I managed to get to the last boss.

Here is a link for a video of my best try for this encounter. Maybe I just need some more practice because I tried it only about 108 times and changed a bunch of abilities on my bars but the boss fight feels a bit insane. I pretty much hate those daedroths and it's pretty hard to deal with them without buffs but I would say it's manageable on the edge (even without overload since I had 2-3 wipe tries for 1 overload try).

When I've seen that on the 3d stage you should be able to kill Daedroths and Heals plus killing those adds who perform a ritual ASAP (cause you would not love the Thing at the end of it) taking dmg from everything including boss I just pressed Alt+F4 after death. Partly it was late; partly it was a bit astonishing.

I'm interested in the way you was using Sigils (or maybe not using), maybe some tips and tricks or advises about fight.

Hope next time I will show a progress. I still feel the fight manageable and I feel lack of practice. Unfortunately, next time I will be able to dive in this Arena only after 10.4.2015 so it will be on Live already.

Here's a video of my best Overload try, by the way (link access):

https://youtu.be/4cvkmIELGOw

P.S.: Had a Restoration staff on my bar but really didn't use it's healing, I just had no time for this, but only a Hardened ward was not enogth for me. Maybe after next 100 tries
P.P.S: I guess, if I could pass the 1st phase without Overload and Sigils, then I'd be able to finish him right after the end of the 2nd phase to 0 HP with 1000 ultimate point Overload and all Sigils used.

It's a pretty straight forward fight, so I won't spend too much time writing out the details of each of my movements, but I save my overload for the daedroths and use it non stop after the crystal phase on the boss. On average, a daedroth eats 6 light attacks with overload and they're dead.

I have never used any sigils in this boss fight.

Later today I'm going to spend some time trying to figure out the scoring system of this arena. Yesterday I wanted to finish the arena without using any sigils at all, because I thought not using sigils gives a lot of points. I finished it without using any sigils and 11 deaths in total. Don't know how long it took exactly. I got 20k less points than I got the run before that, in which I used 2 sigils in total, had 8 deaths and the time was roughly the same, but I can't say it for sure here either (I really should stopwatch it).

Might be death and time are way more important than sigils, so that's what I'm going to test today. I'm going to use as much sigils as I need to finish it as fast as possible, and I'll try to speedrun it like this. I just want to finish it as fast and death-free as possible and see how much points that gives me, without any regard for sigils.

@Dymence

What u find out from using mage DK, which stage you are at with DK?

Dymence · October 2015

I just did a fairly decent speedrun right now which took me 1 hour and 7 minutes to complete it with 3 deaths. Gave me roughly 50k more points, and I used 6 sigils in total. I'm not really sure if completing it in less than 1 and a half hour gives such a big boost. Maybe less than an hour? It seems deaths are important, though.

leipatemeibbaa wrote: »

Dymence wrote: »

Fecius wrote: »

Hi, I've spent not so much time on the arena. First time I had to finish my run at 2nd wave of 9th arena. Yesterday I tried it again. With my 1st experience it felt much easier and I managed to get to the last boss.

Here is a link for a video of my best try for this encounter. Maybe I just need some more practice because I tried it only about 108 times and changed a bunch of abilities on my bars but the boss fight feels a bit insane. I pretty much hate those daedroths and it's pretty hard to deal with them without buffs but I would say it's manageable on the edge (even without overload since I had 2-3 wipe tries for 1 overload try).

When I've seen that on the 3d stage you should be able to kill Daedroths and Heals plus killing those adds who perform a ritual ASAP (cause you would not love the Thing at the end of it) taking dmg from everything including boss I just pressed Alt+F4 after death. Partly it was late; partly it was a bit astonishing.

I'm interested in the way you was using Sigils (or maybe not using), maybe some tips and tricks or advises about fight.

Hope next time I will show a progress. I still feel the fight manageable and I feel lack of practice. Unfortunately, next time I will be able to dive in this Arena only after 10.4.2015 so it will be on Live already.

Here's a video of my best Overload try, by the way (link access):

https://youtu.be/4cvkmIELGOw

P.S.: Had a Restoration staff on my bar but really didn't use it's healing, I just had no time for this, but only a Hardened ward was not enogth for me. Maybe after next 100 tries
P.P.S: I guess, if I could pass the 1st phase without Overload and Sigils, then I'd be able to finish him right after the end of the 2nd phase to 0 HP with 1000 ultimate point Overload and all Sigils used.

It's a pretty straight forward fight, so I won't spend too much time writing out the details of each of my movements, but I save my overload for the daedroths and use it non stop after the crystal phase on the boss. On average, a daedroth eats 6 light attacks with overload and they're dead.

I have never used any sigils in this boss fight.

Later today I'm going to spend some time trying to figure out the scoring system of this arena. Yesterday I wanted to finish the arena without using any sigils at all, because I thought not using sigils gives a lot of points. I finished it without using any sigils and 11 deaths in total. Don't know how long it took exactly. I got 20k less points than I got the run before that, in which I used 2 sigils in total, had 8 deaths and the time was roughly the same, but I can't say it for sure here either (I really should stopwatch it).

Might be death and time are way more important than sigils, so that's what I'm going to test today. I'm going to use as much sigils as I need to finish it as fast as possible, and I'll try to speedrun it like this. I just want to finish it as fast and death-free as possible and see how much points that gives me, without any regard for sigils.

@Dymence

What u find out from using mage DK, which stage you are at with DK?

I've only tried once so far and that was when I last posted, I will try again later today. I got to stage 6 boss with gear that didn't have any enchants, so it should go better this time.

Fecius · October 2015

@Dymence

Hmmm, well I've heared this info on ESO Live I guess. Still there is no Formula or smth like this so I can't be sure how bit those boosts are.

Alcast · October 2015

Seeing that I really wonder HOW a stamina based build would be able to get through the arena.

I guess I need 5k Stam rec to still be able to roll like monkey.

Dymence · October 2015

Alcast wrote: »

Seeing that I really wonder HOW a stamina based build would be able to get through the arena.

I guess I need 5k Stam rec to still be able to roll like monkey.

Yeah I think every class can finish this no problem, with a magicka spec.

I honestly have no idea how I would picture a stamina class doing this either.

Perhaps you should try it out?

Ezareth · October 2015

Alcast wrote: »

Seeing that I really wonder HOW a stamina based build would be able to get through the arena.

I guess I need 5k Stam rec to still be able to roll like monkey.

Similar to soloing V16 dungeons on my NB on live.

Sword and Board 2 hander / dual weild depending on the stage/fight

Absorb Magick (Decent heal outside of cyrodiil and a ton of magickal ranged attacks to eat it on)

Rally with 2 hander otherwise piercing mark with dual wield/steel tornado

Vigor.

Deep Slash (aoe Maim and snare with decent damage)

PvE champion spec and gearing. (No impen/crit res).

Caltrops for for snare + damage.

V15 Blue Mag/Food drink

No Vamp

Triple Stam Regen enchants

If you're a NB you're going to need to use Mass Hysyerial to fear mobs attacking you that you're not focused on along with the healing from Absorb magick to handle the ranged attackers.

I'd be amazed if anyone ever gets through it without Max Cps on Stam though.

I wish I had more time with my actual character or wish they made the Template chars at the CP cap of 501 to test this.

Alcast · October 2015

Dymence wrote: »

Alcast wrote: »

Seeing that I really wonder HOW a stamina based build would be able to get through the arena.

I guess I need 5k Stam rec to still be able to roll like monkey.

Yeah I think every class can finish this no problem, with a magicka spec.

I honestly have no idea how I would picture a stamina class doing this either.

Perhaps you should try it out?

I am gonna soon give it a try..now that we have our chars on the PTS it might actually be fun lol.

yes @Ezareth I thought of almost the same, sword n board + bow or sword n board +2H.

Radixo · October 2015

@Fecius
I completed the last arena today with 302 cp, and looking at your video you must have 500 so should be easy enough for you. Regarding the phase after the crystals, if you collect all the yellow ghosts, you can stun the deadroths before they do anything.

I think the arena should not be made more difficult, most people still have no chance of completing it and if they make it harder it will just take longer to farm the weapons:).

Alcast · October 2015

Got to the 6th stage with Stamina Templar, was my first try in there, gave up due to *** 200 ping and my attacks did no damage to mobs sometimes lol, RIP.

Guess gonna wait till it hits Live, waste of time in there need to pvp lul

Oh and WTB Reflective Scales for Templars, Unstable core most USELESS skill in game.

ssewallb14_ESO · October 2015

Alcast wrote: »

Oh and WTB Reflective Scales for Templars, Unstable core most USELESS skill in game.

I had the same thought playing through this, it doesn't seem to work on anything you would actually want to reflect, unlike Scales.

Dymence · October 2015

The total run took me 2 hours and 57 minutes, with 46 deaths

However, please note the following points:

- I am a sorcerer only player
- I have never played a DK in endgame PVE before
- The highest level I've ever had a DK was level 34
- This was my second time in the veteran arena as a DK
- This was a template character

With this in mind, I'm confident in the fact that all you DKs out there should be able to complete this with relative ease too.

Yeah, it was harder with a DK than with a sorc because you don't have the burning power of overload, your shields suck and your healing sucks too, but please keep in mind that I'm a novice DK player.

Dymence · October 2015

double post

Senaxu · October 2015

congrats you animal

silky_soft · October 2015

@dymence didn't know mobs didn't crit. Guess the 14k damage on my 30k of armor is just pve life. Got a question, how are the drops in vet mode on the runs you have completed? Any different to running normal? Since they have made gear here bop to punish pvp players I have to run this to get one of the sets and the 2h.

Dymence · October 2015

silky_soft wrote: »

@dymence didn't know mobs didn't crit. Guess the 14k damage on my 30k of armor is just pve life. Got a question, how are the drops in vet mode on the runs you have completed? Any different to running normal? Since they have made gear here bop to punish pvp players I have to run this to get one of the sets and the 2h.

The difference between vet and normal is that normal drops blue vr15 gear and vet drops purple vr16 gear. And you can only get the maelstrom weapons from vet, from the end chest.

i3ig_Gun · October 2015

gratz @Dymence well done!

leipatemeibbaa · October 2015

Dymence wrote: »

The total run took me 2 hours and 57 minutes, with 46 deaths

However, please note the following points:

- I am a sorcerer only player
- I have never played a DK in endgame PVE before
- The highest level I've ever had a DK was level 34
- This was my second time in the veteran arena as a DK
- This was a template character

With this in mind, I'm confident in the fact that all you DKs out there should be able to complete this with relative ease too.

Yeah, it was harder with a DK than with a sorc because you don't have the burning power of overload, your shields suck and your healing sucks too, but please keep in mind that I'm a novice DK player.

Teach me

Qyrk · October 2015

Amazing Dymence! Looking forward to this challenge with my sorc.

Ezareth · October 2015

Great Job man!

Artemisshrikes · October 2015

Dymence wrote: »

Ta-da! It's finally done!

A few things to say about this Veteran Maelstrom Arena now that it's finally finished....

The difficulty was really hard pre the last patch. It was really hard but still doable if you played each arena perfectly. The only thing that was nearly undoable, and made me gave up in the end was the last boss. I'd tried it about 4 times on different occassions and it always stomped me into the ground.

Now with this new patch, the Veteran Maelstrom Arena is way too easy, in my opinion. With the fixes/changes to damage mitigation, everything became so much easier and on top of that I'm playing with my own character with EU character copies.

ZOS, if you wanted to keep the time to kill roughly the same you should've increased the HP of mobs far more than you have currently done. Most mobs have less than a 50% increase in hp, while we are now dealing double the damage at minimium. I was able to skip a lot of boss mechanics this time around simply because of the increase in damage with not enough of a health boost to compensate for this increase.

To illustrate my point, I was able to kill the boss of the 4th arena as he spawned his first adds. That was a 36 second fight...... a mere shadow from what it was before where you had to actually fight to win. Now you can just stomp everything into the ground and rush through it.

Still it was fun, and I guess it's better suited now for all players and not just the top 1%, but it would be nice if it could just be a little bit harder.

time to burst your bubble it doesn't really count if its on PTS