Do mobs use their 160 champion points? Thoughts about the new vMSA

ReaX · June 2016

Today it took me 3 hours and 41 minutes to beat vMSA instead of usual 2 hours something. Not only I run out of mana and stamina faster and have lower dps vs daedra, but mobs appear to hit harder. Level 5 was full of oneshots by groups of ranged guys, level 8 firemages' channeling attacks have damage comparable to level 9 final boss channeling spell etc etc. I'm not very good at vMSA so before the DB patch my 15th death was usually at level 8, today it was on round 3 or 4 of level 5.
The thought of mobs using their champion points is ofc a joke, but something has definitely changed. I compared death recap screenshots before and after the patch and noticed that lvl 9 last boss's necrotic blasts has indeed higher damage. Sometimes its only 5230 vs 5290 but other times it is as high as 7k+ vs fully repaired armor.
Try it for yourself and say if you have noticed these differences.

P.S. in my today's vICP run a random harvester killed our entire group, which has never happened before. Though the dungeon is much much easier as a whole, it seems that some of the mobs there have increased damage too.

mtwiggz · June 2016

Haven't ran vMA since the DLC but I did notice that players and guards in PvP seem a whole lot more squishy.

Not sure what this is related to, whether it's some kind of code bug or a nerf/buff. Will play vMA tonight to see if I notice any changes there.

Dexter411 · June 2016

Don't know about vMA but 6 mobs(Orsinium) aggro on me and almost killed me on my stam NB with vr9 gear(90 CP) and I have something around 400 CP.
I will not enter Maelstrom Arena on vet mode until the damn lag is fixed. Yesterday I tried few new things in normal mode and I got hit by a dead dwarven sphere with it projectile(on vet mode it could cost me death). I proced my Merciless Rsolve on it while it had ~4000HP(my MS deals around 10k non crit) and 4 seconds later I am getting hit by a ? something.

ReaX · June 2016

So, my another run took 4 hours 44 minutes. I wonder what other vMSA players think about it, did it really get twice harder?

NewBlacksmurf · June 2016

Great question....something is going on but we have no details

I asked this question as well as how scaling worked....

response was.....nothing on PTS
then asked again cause this relates - https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/265112/official-discussion-thread-for-what-veteran-rank-removal-means-for-your-character#latest

drumbendrum_ESO · June 2016

Yes I have noticed some increase in the difficulty as well. Not sure what is going on!

NewBlacksmurf · June 2016

Funny cause the nerf's were buffed for NPCs'
no info on either side

Joy_Division · June 2016

I don't think the changes are significant as far as the enemies go. Resource costs on your part, yes, that is something we will have to get accustomed to.

I kept a lot of data comparing the TG and PTS and this was my experience in DB. If anyting, I felt my DPS was higher even though I am using the same build.

Khaos_Bane · June 2016

Have you allocated all of the CP you had after the CP reset ?

NewBlacksmurf · June 2016

Joy_Division wrote: »

I don't think the changes are significant as far as the enemies go. Resource costs on your part, yes, that is something we will have to get accustomed to.

I kept a lot of data comparing the TG and PTS and this was my experience in DB. If anyting, I felt my DPS was higher even though I am using the same build.

@Joy_Division

Thanks but PTS was missing important parts that live contain.
Specifically speaking, the missing stat and skill points on the players and one would assume that does nothing but help.
But knowing that vMSA is harder but it wasn't changed per the patch notes but certain dungeons and silver and gold were changed (thats where my concerns lie)

I'd like ZOS to respond with detail on the OPs question.
Your data is helpful once we have the response.

ReaX · June 2016

Khaos_Bane wrote: »

Have you allocated all of the CP you had after the CP reset ?

Yes, I allocated 501 CP exactly the same way as before the patch and I still struggle with the arena. Lamia queen hits so hard that I have to swap to resto staff after every 2 her attacks, level 5 round 4 boss shatter attack is a oneshot, level 7 wamasu lightning circle is a oneshot even when blocking and so on. You can argue that these attacks are avoidable and I should learn to play. To that I definitely agree, I really have a long way to go to become a good player, but what I want to say is that before the patch I didn't have problems with these bosses. I almost don't have any data (i.e. death recap screenshots) to support my claim about higher damage, so I want to hear from other players what they think about it.

Ch4mpTW · June 2016

The mobs in VMSA definitely got tweaked. I don't know what ZOS did, but Stage 7's Wamasu and the Crematorial Guards on Stage 9 are playing no games. And I mean no games. To put it lightly, things start getting real on Stage 3 now, and by Stage 9 you're on full alert. Paranoid of just about every enemy now. Lol.

blacksanctuary · June 2016

Anyone has video of full vMA run after the patch? Would like to see how different it is. How about the PC leaderboard scores, are they lower than pre DB patch? I play on console so we don't have the patch yet.

laksikus · June 2016

I noticed something similar.
For me it felt like Mobs died faster but Hit harder too.
And thats with my nerfed nirn staff...

On ice boss it felt like mobs spawn later, second wave after boss killed 2nd Plattform...
Spider staage the Agony spam from mobs was annoying, much more than before.
And on poison stage the poison guys seemed to spawn alot faster, like one every 45s

Troneon · June 2016

Don't forget if you were using nirnhoned (the old version) on weapons they no longer provide a nice boost to spell resistances, I lost alot of spell resistance because now nirnhoned weapons are all about damage....as a light armor wearer I used nirnhoned weapons on my offensive bar to off set the lack of survivability when im going full attack mode....with champion points to negate damage as well it worked really well.....

Now with nirnhoned weapons being more damage which I did not ask for or need anymore damage, already have more than enough, I am for sure more squishy until I change to something else....

So if you used nirnhoned weapons expect quite a chunk of spell resistance to be missing.

Molag_Crow · June 2016

Oh no... I have to be honest, as somebody who has cleared vMSA around 15 times already, I'm not looking forward to Dark Brotherhood's patch on console now. My runs are never perfect, I still make a lot of mistakes and switch my skills around a lot, and on rounds where I'd usually breeze through, I'll sometimes lose focus and play sloppy, then accumulate quite a lot of deaths, despite clearing it in one go previously -- so with the changes to resource management, weapon traits, losing spell resist etc, it'll be a bumpy ride.

I'm already on edge as a Mag Templar in there, so this will be interesting (and painful....) to run again, after DB comes out.

HuawaSepp · June 2016

I have done my first vMSA try on thursday cause i reached 501 cp.
Completet it on my magblade.
Resto staff was completely useless, AOE was like LA=>AOE=>LA=>Shield.
On most final bosses that spawn adds only the dmg buff=>meteor max burst was the way to survive.
Gear was tuned to max dmg nothing in reg etc with nerieneth.

ReaX · June 2016

blacksanctuary wrote: »

Anyone has video of full vMA run after the patch? Would like to see how different it is. How about the PC leaderboard scores, are they lower than pre DB patch? I play on console so we don't have the patch yet.

Last week before the patch the 100-th score for NB NA was 400k something, maybe more. Yesterday when I checked leaderboards were 60/100 full, today I'm on 70+ place with 80k score. But maybe ppl are doing the DB questline, huh?

Troneon wrote: »

Don't forget if you were using nirnhoned (the old version) on weapons they no longer provide a nice boost to spell resistances, I lost alot of spell resistance because now nirnhoned weapons are all about damage....as a light armor wearer I used nirnhoned weapons on my offensive bar to off set the lack of survivability when im going full attack mode....with champion points to negate damage as well it worked really well.....

Now with nirnhoned weapons being more damage which I did not ask for or need anymore damage, already have more than enough, I am for sure more squishy until I change to something else....

So if you used nirnhoned weapons expect quite a chunk of spell resistance to be missing.

I use sharpened and precise, my stats are the same as before the patch.