Me Rambling about Vma.

Ch4mpTW · September 2016

Mashille wrote: »

@Ch4mpTW

Cheers man. Does your progress save permanently. So If I am on last stage now, if I go back next weekend will I still be on last stage? As I really don't have time during the week.

I'm definitely going to follow the advise of 'Take a breather' because dang, I feel like I've been chewed up in a grinder and spat out then locked in a tank full of boiling water then after I die been resurrected just to be thrown onto a pile of burning embers to die again.

It saves permanently. No worries.

I also know how you feel; trust me. Take it easy for a few, then try again. You'll feel much better.

Izaki · September 2016

I always have found vMA fun to do...

FearlessOne_2014 · September 2016

Vildebill wrote: »

Spell power potions? Why does people even complain about that? Just run entropy to get the same effect, even some classes have skills for to get major and minor. I never use potions in vMA just because it's too expensive.

Furthermore, vMA is just a overwhelming experience, if you don't like it don't play it. I've seen builds not using vMA weapons pulling 50k DPS, so no, it's not "needed" if you don't want to play it.

Lol are those players using cheat engine? Either that or your information is just false. Unless you are talking about AOE trash dps and not single target.

Joy_Division · September 2016

I'm going to venture that just about every single person who has ever completed vMA, even the elitists and experts who write the guides, has felt the same way. I've seen Sypher, Deltia, and those caliber of players curse, rage, and rant during their early DSA runs when they were looking to get a complete. We've all been there.

You are going to be PROFOUNDLY disappointed if the only reason you are doing this is to get those BiS weapons because you aren't going to get the sharpened whatever it is you want for a long long time. You are just setting yourself up for more misery, more frustration, and going to make the experience of the people who you live with or associate with unpleasant. If that's your motivation do yourself and those around you a favor and stop right now.

The reason why I say this is because you don't even want to do stage 9 again to get to the Boss. I am telling you right now that Boss fight is *A LOT* more challenging than those 5 rounds. He will kill you 100s of times. Yes, 100s. You weren't going to go into that final stage, wipe 10 times, figure it out, and then beat him. If you can't breeze through the preliminary rounds of stage 9 such that doing them is no big deal, then the final stage will make you want to throw your computer out the window.

Here's a piece of advice: Do *NOT* use spellpower pots. No wonder you are so mad, you are blowing through countless expensive resources when they are completely unnecessary. If a spellpower pot is the difference between you living and dying, you aren't beating the final boss. Period. Too many people are convinced a 100% min-maxed approach is necessary (i.e. I HAVE to have a Maelstrom Weapon). It's not. You must be familiar with the mechanics, and devise a strategy to defeat them. Since you are saying "random AOEs" are happening every round, then it is crystal clear to me you so not know the mechanics. They are not random and the difficulty does not wildly fluctuate as you claim. You need to learn the fights such that doing Stage 9 again is not a big deal and ensure your build is flexible as opposed to min-maxed. I have the wrong race, wrong skills, wrong gear according to the mix-maxers and I do not use anything but trash magicka blue potions (until last boss, there I recommend tri-pots once you die 100s of times and have a realistic shot of beating it such that they aren't being wasted), yet I have the Flawless Conqueror achievement.

You do *NOT* need vMA weapons to succeed at the highest levels of this game. I PvP every night and I do not use a single piece of gear from vMA. I have healed all the hard mode new trials ZoS has released and again have done so without a single piece of gear from vMA. There's not a thing that drops in vMA that is remotely useful for a tank. Yes, DPS will want a inferno staff or daggers/axes, but the difference is something that will only bruise your ego as opposed to not being able to do the content. Besides, when next patch drops and all these new sets come out, there will be options to match what these weapons can do.

Doing vMA is about challenging YOURSELF (not a group) and pushing yourself to get better. That was its function and that is why they haven't nerfed it despite the 100s of screams, yells, and rages ZoS has received from frustrated players. If this is not your idea of "fun," and clearly it's not, then don't do it. Just because it's not fun for you does not mean it's not fun for other people. It's supposed to be hard, nothing else in this game is except for 12 person trials.

Since you managed to get to the final boss on your 4th try, which isn't that bad at all, I would guess you can beat this. However, again I would say only try again if you are totally fine with dying 100s of times (because that will happen) and when you open that chest you get a powered ice staff (because that will also happen). If you are totally cool with both of these things because you enjoy the challenge of pushing yourself and the feeling of accomplishment (as opposed to a material reward to make your character better), then I would say give it another shot.

Mashille · September 2016

@Joy_Division

Oh it's definitely not about getting weapons anymore, it's just so I can finally tell myself I've beaten it.

Regarding the potions, they weren't something I was relying on to best things it's just the setup I was using didn't use a Major Sorcery skill so I used potions instead.

When I talk about random aoe's everywhere it's because I feel a lot of the rounds' difficulty is based on them. (I know they're not entirely random but when you don't know the Stages and one pops up out of nowhere and kills you it can cause frustration.

Also regarding my view on the difficulty variance then it's probably due to my playstyle as I found a couple easier to manage than others and beat a couple without dying which I quite happy with.

Thank you for the advice. I'm going to go back next weekend sit down for hours and see if I can beat the final boss which I'm hoping I'll slowly be able to learn, even if I do break many of my computer peripherals in the process.

Brrrofski · September 2016

I tried it a few times when it first came out. Failed miserably and gave up after a week not getting past round 3.

Went back to it 3 weeks ago. Smashed through to the last round in 2 hours. Spent four hours over a few days and couldn't do it.

Two weeks I left it, then went back to it yesterday. Killed him with three deaths. Got my last vo piece after it.

Went back today, 2.5 hours with like a 275k score. Went back two hours later, 1 hour 20 minutes, a score of 430k with two lives left.

Stick with it. When that finals boss clicks, it's easy. Did it today without dyeing twice (the 7th round screwed me on my first run... Try being colour-blind for that and round 3

)

I did it by ignoring the gold ghosts. Break the pillars, grab all sigil when you go down and just mow the boss down. Try to grab one gold ghost unless you have really high dps. Then ignore them. I tried that once and it was a million times easier. Everytime I went for them previous I'd hit the other ghosts or couldn't interrupt his atrack (also switched to Venom arrow for that, if magica, Crushing shock will do).

Stick with it. If you can get to the last boss, you can do it.

shezof · September 2016

I just love all the vmsa threads, they are fun to read.

Joy_Division · September 2016

Mashille wrote: »

@Joy_Division

Oh it's definitely not about getting weapons anymore, it's just so I can finally tell myself I've beaten it.

Regarding the potions, they weren't something I was relying on to best things it's just the setup I was using didn't use a Major Sorcery skill so I used potions instead.

When I talk about random aoe's everywhere it's because I feel a lot of the rounds' difficulty is based on them. (I know they're not entirely random but when you don't know the Stages and one pops up out of nowhere and kills you it can cause frustration.

Also regarding my view on the difficulty variance then it's probably due to my playstyle as I found a couple easier to manage than others and beat a couple without dying which I quite happy with.

Thank you for the advice. I'm going to go back next weekend sit down for hours and see if I can beat the final boss which I'm hoping I'll slowly be able to learn, even if I do break many of my computer peripherals in the process.

Fair enough. It is an achievement and one of the few that people should feel proud to put as their character's title (which is one reason I can't stand Zos's new UI, it looks like a mere footnote now). I'm just saying this because things will go wrong, bugs happen, you will die to RNG, and all of that really needs to be taken in stride, no big deal. Just hit "rez at wayshrine" and have at it again because you have the confidence that any round can be completed by sound tactics.

dsalter · September 2016

i share your fustration, i hate VMA with a passion, annoyingly i want 3 weapons from there and some winterborn jewels which i'm unlikely to ever see since i refuse to let the frustration get to me.

i'v done some difficult content in games in my time and believe me VMA is just cheap tricks and artificial difficulty highly dependant silly damage AoE and constant pressure play, and since i suffer from stuff that means i need to not stress, i dont do VMA for long before i feel my frustration getting to me and i leave.

i dont normally stress, i play dota competitively, i play RTS games, hell i even do heavy PvP sessions in Lagodiil Cyrodiil and it's nothing compared to the cheapness that is VMA, and since some of the best weapons are from it, i sometimes have to force myself to try get further which risks my health but it's the only way to get it so i have no choice.

code65536 · September 2016

Don't do it for the weapons. Do it for the challenge. And where would that challenge be if it weren't infuriatingly hard?

Also, if you port out, log off, or crash, you have FIVE minutes to get back in the instance before the instance is destroyed. Once destroyed, you will resume from a quest save which places you at the start of a stage and disqualifies you from a score. You can port out to craft and not lose the stage progress, but you must be quick. (All instances in this game--not just vMA--expire 5 minutes after the last player vacates it.)

clv · September 2016

l o l
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AgentofKhaoss · September 2016

Mashille wrote: »

(I'm not requesting anything here, or asking for anything to be changed with Vma in this post, I'm simply talking about my thoughts on it and why I dislike it being part of the game)

Ok, I've only ever attempted Vma a couple of times before and both times I left because they made me want to kill myself. Today, I decided to give it a shot for the 3rd time, I read some guides (Thanks Deltia) geared up and went in. I went through it ok and wasn't finding it too bad and after around 4 hours made it to the very final boss, which I was very surprised with as previously I had never gotten beyond stage 5.

After many attempts on the last boss I had run out of Spell Power potions so I left to craft some more. When I ported back I found out that it apparently resets the stage you are on if you leave.

Ok, first thing I said to this was simply '**** off'. Vma is already frustrating enough for players who have not run it many times so for one of them to work their way to the final boss then leave to make some potions, only to find out that it completely resets the stage is a complete Spirit Killer. I don't want to do the entire Final Stage again just to get to the point I was at last time. So I'm sitting here right now thinking '**** it' I'm not doing that again, because I don't want to be forced to completely redo 5 rounds that I know I already completed and am good enough to complete.

Now I'm going to talk a bit about the difficulty of VMA, and before all the people who think they're gods just because they've completed VMA, post 'L2P' in the comments I'm not asking for the difficulty to be toned down here, I just want to talk about my personal problems with it.

My Personal Gripes:

1: First up is the major lack of consistence, with some stages being relatively easy and some stages ramping up massively with no warning. I would prefer if the stages were of a more consistent difficulty throughout the Arena except just with different and varying mechanics rather than the difficulty just going up and down like a dang rollercoaster.

2: Secondly I want to talk about what the difficulty actually is. Here is the part where I have a huge problem with Vma and hate it with a Passion. No matter what Stage you are on, no matter what round, the 'difficulty' is just a bunch of aoe's all over the place. I think zos needs to know the difference between something being Difficult, and just throwing a million aoe's down on the ground every second. Almost non of the bosses have fun mechanics, or at least not ones you can focus on as you are too busy being bombarded with Red Circles. Not a Single Stage out of the 9 doesn't have something involving throwing aoe's on the floor all over the place.

3: Next up, fun. VMA is not fun, at all. It is boring and all it does is make me want to genuinely commit suicide. Which is made 100x worse by the fact it sets you back to the very beginning of a stage if you simply leave to craft some potions. ESO is a game, and in my mind and point of view, games should be fun. That's what they are for, they are made so people can enjoy playing them, VMA is not that. In a game if there is a Key Activity that you need complete in order to get the Top End of Gear then it should be made to be something that people enjoy, people should want to go home and play something that they enjoy in order to earn something they want, not dread the grind of completing VMA for a Weapon that might not even be remotely useful to them.

4: Another thing I want to mention is how it's single player. ESO is an MMO, the way to get the BiS gear in the game should not be from Solo Only content, if I wanted to play Solo, then I wouldn't play MMO,s I'd play other games that are Single Player that don't make me want to peel my skin off with a potato peeler and then use that skin to hang myself with.

5: Furthermore, I dislike how Vma is BiS for almost everything. MA daggers alone can boost DPS by 5k+ and this seems completely ridiculous. I can understand them being good, but the fact they are so good, nothing else compares to them seems wrong to me. People in PvP use the Weapons for the pure Passive Weapon Damage boost alone as it's that good and a single VAM 2H weapon provides more Weapon Dmg than any other non 5 piece Crafted or Dropped set

Just rambling:

I feel content in MMO's should be designed in order that players enjoy the content, otherwise, what's the point in playing games at all? If players are pushed into doing content that makes them want to smash their head into a wall just to keep up with others on the gear chase then personally I think something is wrong with your game. Yes, I am very angry right now that all my progress on Stage 9 got reverted and I don't want to even look at Vma ever again but the pure fact that it has made me want to punch my monitor and uninstall the game really says something.

I have sat at my desk with my head in my hands wanting to cry out in anger for the past half an hour now. I stated writing this post over an hour ago and am talking about writing it in real time but I keep just collapsing backwards or putting my head in my hands and feeling depressed.

Anyway, that was just some ramblings about Vma, I'm not going to ask for it to be nerfed or made easier as I know that it is complete-able and if I spent more time on it then I would slowly be able to beat the final boss and farm it just like everyone else. And no doubt there'll be a bunch of people who think I'm lazy for not wanting to finish it and farm it like everybody else. But the thing is I don't massively enjoy life at the moment, and that is why I love the whole concept of Video Games as you can leave your life to live in a completely different world where none of the problems or the depressions in real life get in the way, so why on earth, when I have more than enough problems in real life that make me want to die, would I want to get another one that causes so much frustration it makes me want to die from a game, and a game's whole point is to make players have fun?

Very well said and I agree with you.

Acharnor · September 2016

I feel you OP - this shite is bananas and I am no where near as progressed in VMA as you are (stalled in Stage 3), nice work by the way. You are actually close - I'm sure you can finish it. Would have preferred you not made the suicide comments as I find it trivializing of a very serious issue. But, I understand your pain. Onwards and upwards!

Artis · September 2016

What do you need the weapons for? THey are not needed to complete content. People who really think they need them are the ones competing for the highest scores in trial leaderboards. But those guys complete vMA in like 30-40 mins or something, definitely not in 4 hours. And have you see vMoL? You were complaining that vMA is hard because of the circles? Then you'll complain about mol even more because everything has lots of hp and fights are long and boring. If you don't like PvE like that, where you need to stay concentrated for extended amount of time then you don't need the weps anyway. Everything can be completed without them.

Oh and pvp? There are not the best option for pvp. Do people even use flurry and dots in pvp? Not really, you can just use 2 more slots for another set to get some nice unique utility effect and you can perform in pvp just as good.

Sallington · September 2016

The only thing wrong with vMA is the trash RNG you're at the mercy of when you open the chest and get your powered 1h sword.

Kirameku · September 2016

Artis wrote: »

And have you see vMoL? You were complaining that vMA is hard because of the circles? Then you'll complain about mol even more because everything has lots of hp and fights are long and boring.

As for me I find vMOL really fun.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · September 2016

Did I miss it somewhere in here; what class are you on? Everything @Joy_Division said is spot on. Be prepared to die a lot on the last boss. He is very beatable, but very unforgiving. I do think that while learning, you should limit yourself to 2 hour play sessions. The advice of figuring out a build that uses cheap pots is really a good idea, and port to the wayshrine when you die. Also, use sigils like they are going out of style until you can clear in less than an hour (you arent getting on the boards anyways).

More importantly, there is no shame in saying that the content isnt for you. I love to rage about VMA and the terrible loot system, but if it is really causing you that much grief, just stop. I promise it is not worth it. The weapons arent even necessarily best in slot unless you are talking Stam DPS in trials. The best magic parses I am seeing in VMOL arent using them, and I personally dont run them while doing VMA (except bow on back bar). Stuff dies too fast to benefit from the cruel flurry buff anyways.

Take a breath, ask specific questions if you are stuck, and take it nice and slow. If you are getting to the last boss on your third try, you are probably ahead of the curve.