Vet Maelstrom Arena tips

Swomp23 · November 2016

So. Next week is the Orsinium event with 2x MSA weapon drops in vMSA.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/301438/official-discussion-thread-for-celebrate-orsinium-s-one-year-anniversary/p1

As I'm only around CP210 , I wanted to wait until at least CP300 for vMSA. I also wanted to farm 5 pces VO for the stam sustain. But with the 2x drops starting next monday, I would be crazy to not even try it.
So I'll post my build. Tell me what you guys think and give me some advices if you can.

Khajit StamSorc
2x Velidreth
5x Hunding's
5x Red Mountain
All purple CP160 gear (I might have enough gold to gold out one dagger, but not 2)

First bar DW
1- Bloodthirst
2- Rending slashes
3- Steel Tornado
4- Hurricane
5- Bound Armament (mostly for the stam regen from the passive)
6- Rend

Second bar Bow
1- Poison injection
2- Endless Hail
3- Crit Surge
4- Dark Deal (I didn't farm Vigor on the toon yet, but I thought Dark Deal would be better for the stam regen)
5- Bound Armament
6- Flawless Dawnbreaker (Mostly for the extra weapon dmg. I don't think I will use it, I will always use Rend)

Red CP:
35 Ele Def
30 Hardy
5 Thick Skinned
(Should I put some points in quick recovery?)

Green CP
60 Warlord
7 Mooncalf
3 Tenacity

Blue CP
55 Mighty
5 Thaumaturge
5 Precise
5 Piercing

So, being a stam sorc with crit surge, I'm not too concerned about health sustain. My biggest concern is about stam sustain. Right now, I'm geared for PVE DPS, with all my jewelry enchant giving weapon dmg. Should I change some enchants to give me stam regen or reduced stam cost, or is more dmg more important in vMSA?

What do you guys think? Am I crazy to attemps this at such a low CP rank? Is there something very important I should definitely farm before I attempt this?

Thanks,

Qbiken · November 2016

Let go of red mountain and go Vicious Ophidian instead

Swomp23 · November 2016

Yeah I thought so but I didnt have the chance to farm trials yet. Do you think I can get 5 VO pieces with good traits in 1 weekend? Cant play 24/7 either

kadar · November 2016

Swomp23 wrote: »

Yeah I thought so but I didnt have the chance to farm trials yet. Do you think I can get 5 VO pieces with good traits in 1 weekend? Cant play 24/7 either

@Swomp23
Best easy changes I'm seeing you could make with a limited amount of time/resources:
1) Buff your crit chance. If you're not using the Thief mundus, I'd swap to it. You're going to want your crit has high as you can reasonably get it. If you're crit is ~70% without Thief only then would I use Shadow.
2) Slot Trap Beast (Rearming) from Fighters guild. This will serve multiple purposes. Minor Force will make your crits hit like trucks, it's a fairly strong DoT, you'll get 2% wpn dmg for slotting it, AND you can combine it with Endless Hail to "prep" each portal before mobs/bosses spawn. Trap will actually activate before the mob even loads completely.
3) Start practicing now (unless you're gonna try to farm out that gear). Watch videos that explain boss mechanics and kill orders.
4) Go in expecting to get wrecked. This will increase your chances of staying sane.

Strider_Roshin · November 2016

With dark deal on your bar you should have zero issues with sustain. Use the serpent stone as your mundus, and you should be good to go. PvE is stupid easy as a stam sorc, you should be fine.

ZOS_PeterT · November 2016

We have moved this thread to: Dungeons, Trials & Arenas

Swomp23 · November 2016

The_Outsider wrote: »

Swomp23 wrote: »

Yeah I thought so but I didnt have the chance to farm trials yet. Do you think I can get 5 VO pieces with good traits in 1 weekend? Cant play 24/7 either

@Swomp23
Best easy changes I'm seeing you could make with a limited amount of time/resources:
1) Buff your crit chance. If you're not using the Thief mundus, I'd swap to it. You're going to want your crit has high as you can reasonably get it. If you're crit is ~70% without Thief only then would I use Shadow.
2) Slot Trap Beast (Rearming) from Fighters guild. This will serve multiple purposes. Minor Force will make your crits hit like trucks, it's a fairly strong DoT, you'll get 2% wpn dmg for slotting it, AND you can combine it with Endless Hail to "prep" each portal before mobs/bosses spawn. Trap will actually activate before the mob even loads completely.
3) Start practicing now (unless you're gonna try to farm out that gear). Watch videos that explain boss mechanics and kill orders.
4) Go in expecting to get wrecked. This will increase your chances of staying sane.

Hi there,
Yeah, I thought about rearming trap, but can't find a spot on my bar for it. Right now, in group PVE, I have it on my back bar instead of dark deal. But I thought dark deal would be more useful in MSA than rearming trap... I also thought about dropping Steel Tornado for it, but then again, there is so many ads in there, I thought I was better with steel tornado than trap. What skill would you take off to put in rearming trap?

PS : I already have Thief mundus and I sit at around 70% crit with it. Also, good advise to start practicing now. I guess I will swear a lot this weekend

Swomp23 · November 2016

ZOS_PeterT wrote: »

We have moved this thread to: Dungeons, Trials & Arenas

Really? I was asking tips about my BUILD to help me complete vMSA. Normaly those discussions are in Combat & Mechanics, no?

Come on...

kadar · November 2016

Swomp23 wrote: »

The_Outsider wrote: »

Swomp23 wrote: »

Yeah I thought so but I didnt have the chance to farm trials yet. Do you think I can get 5 VO pieces with good traits in 1 weekend? Cant play 24/7 either

@Swomp23
Best easy changes I'm seeing you could make with a limited amount of time/resources:
1) Buff your crit chance. If you're not using the Thief mundus, I'd swap to it. You're going to want your crit has high as you can reasonably get it. If you're crit is ~70% without Thief only then would I use Shadow.
2) Slot Trap Beast (Rearming) from Fighters guild. This will serve multiple purposes. Minor Force will make your crits hit like trucks, it's a fairly strong DoT, you'll get 2% wpn dmg for slotting it, AND you can combine it with Endless Hail to "prep" each portal before mobs/bosses spawn. Trap will actually activate before the mob even loads completely.
3) Start practicing now (unless you're gonna try to farm out that gear). Watch videos that explain boss mechanics and kill orders.
4) Go in expecting to get wrecked. This will increase your chances of staying sane.

Hi there,
Yeah, I thought about rearming trap, but can't find a spot on my bar for it. Right now, in group PVE, I have it on my back bar instead of dark deal. But I thought dark deal would be more useful in MSA than rearming trap... I also thought about dropping Steel Tornado for it, but then again, there is so many ads in there, I thought I was better with steel tornado than trap. What skill would you take off to put in rearming trap?

Hmmm. I suppose it would have to be bound armor. You're right, that passive is sweet, but I don't think it's worth 2 ability slots. I would take Trap and Vigor/Caltrops (maybe Quick/Deadly Cloak untill you get one of those) over Bound Armor x2. You're focusing cost reduction over regen anyway, so 10% of not-much regen isn't...much. Know what I mean?

vMA is an absolute knightmare without enough damage. And because of it's nature, the faster you kill things the more resources you have. So in an indirect way, more damage = more sustain.

Swomp23 · November 2016

Yeah, that's a good idea, thanks! I will definitely try it.

About that dmg comment, you advise me to keep my weap enchants on my jewelry instead of reduce stam costs?

Erock25 · November 2016

I'd drop rending or steel tornado (depending on the stage) for rearming trap. I'd also start practicing asap because knowing the stages and how they spawn are just as or even more important than skill.

UrbanMonk · November 2016

5VO+5NMG+2Veli is the wtg BRUH...

My 0.2$...

JakobESO · November 2016

ToxicPAWS wrote: »

5VO+5NMG+2Veli is the wtg BRUH...

My 0.2$...

You don't need this *** to do vMA. For some reason, everyone thinks BiS gear is the only way to do vMA. You can do it with all purple gear, around 300 cps, and gold weapons. I know, because that's when I first cleared it.

Your first run of the arena with <300 cps will be painful. PAINFUL. You will die, a lot. Did I mention you will die? A lot? Don't get discouraged and just keep trying. I would start practicing now. Every night try a new level. Then, when you beat the level, take a break! Come back the next day and try the next level. Don't try to tackle the whole thing in one setting. . . you'll go crazy.

If you're like me, you will die 100+ times to the final boss before you are finally successful. No one can tell you what gear to use, what strategy to use, or what cps to use. You'll just need to pick what's best for YOU. I'm a StamBlade and I run with Infernal Guardian monster set and I've never once seen anyone recommend that or seen a video with a stam build even using it. But it works well for me, really well in fact.

Practice, practice, practice. That is the best advice anyone will give you. Good luck!

f047ys3v3n · November 2016

So my chances of a good drop in vMA are 1/50+ instead of 1/100+. Still the D but only half the D.

Lukums1 · November 2016

Ok. You really need to ignore half of this "babel"

You're main issue low CP no vigor no VO.

Now let me tell you I cleared it on 230 CP, hell some people cleared it on 160 with sub par gear.

Your issue is going to be no vigor at this level cp you NEED IT. Not maybe, not I'll use tri-pots.

You need to smash out vigor NOW!

Hundings, agility, khrags monster/val skoria/viladreth/sellistrix. - Any weapons YOULL BE FINE sharpen please though.

Now heres my biggest tip for new players wanting to clear this THE KEY "Sellistrix"

This set is A MONSTER, 3 second aoe wide knock down 5k damage aoe and occurs every 4 seconds.
For people attempting maelstrom for there first clears I WISH on my hands and knees that I had this set.

Your CP allocation is fine, going to be tricky but you already know that.

irst bar DW
1- Bloodthirst
2- Rending slashes
3- evil hunter
4- Hurricane
5- Bound Armament (mostly for the stam regen from the passive)
6- Rend

Second bar Bow
1- Poison injection
2- Endless Hail
3- Crit Surge
4- Dark Deal $%@$@ this off - you have an issue with sustain 5000 health 487 recover - you DONT and SHOULDN'T try max/max food for your first clear ignore the morons who say otherwise. equip rearming trap here.
5- Bound Armament
6- Flawless Dawnbreaker (Mostly for the extra weapon dmg. I don't think I will use it, I will always use Rend)
- Good to have this slotted but use rend, the heal is your only savior without vigor. (again go get this)

On another note, if you need help pm me on forums I'll be streaming maelstrom without maelstrom weapons to get everyone clued up for next week as a helping hand!

Swomp23 · November 2016

Hi everyone! Thx for the awesome tips!
So, yesterday night, I headed to vMSA to practie a little. I unslotted Bound Armament, and slotted Deadly Cloak and Rearming Trap, as @The_Outsider advised and jumped in. Completed first stage with 1 death. I thought to myself ''Hmm, that's not that bad!''. Hell I can be stupid sometimes.
I then entered stage 2. I think the 1st mob didn't even pop out, I was dead already. Those damn spinning blades are hitting a lot harder on vet than on normal.... I also realized that crit surge wasn't healing a lot if there wasn't enemies to kill around... So I developped a strategy to run around clockwise and roll dodge backwards when the blades catched me up, and I finally made it to boss round with around 10 deaths. Then I got wrecked. I was always dying when running from one boss to the other. Until I realized I can take more than one sigil at a time. This made a big change. So, with a few more deaths, I finally beat round 2.
I was pretty happy with myself, wanted to call it a night and go do my pledges (and repair my armor!!!), but I jumped in stage 3 anyway, just to look. Surprisingly, I beat round 1 on first try (with very few hp left), just to die 2 secs after from electrified water. Oh well. I ported out to Orsinium, repaired my armor and went to do my pledges.
I'm not sure, but I think I'll have to redo round 1 from stage 3 since I ported out right? What's the best time to port out to repair armor? After opening the chest from a stage? I was afraid of a bug that would make me redo the whole stage if I did this....

In summary, this was a lot more fun than what I expected. I always loved TES games, but always thought the cmbat system was boring as hell. Now, it's the first time I feel that I have to actively participate in combat to save my behind (along with dungeons, to a lesser extent). It's a nice change in pace. Maybe I'll change my mind wen I get stuck on a stage for a few days, but for now I like it.

@Lukums1 I'm afraid you're right, mate. I won't have a choice but to grind this Vigor. My experience on stage 2 made me realize this. When I'm not Bloodthirsting in the face of a mob, I don't heal and I die fast. Guess I'll go to Cyrodiil thies weekend... On your bar loadout, however, you forgot to slot it... I guess I'll put it n bar one instead of evil hunter... And I will also try this max hp stam regen food, didn't thought about it.

Edited cause I'm spelling like a ***...

Juhasow · November 2016

@Swomp23 You can easily besat vMA with 200-300 cp I've finished my 1st with 163 cp in 2h 12 minutes and when i was at 200 cp my time was around 1h 10m.

UrbanMonk · November 2016

JakobESO wrote: »

ToxicPAWS wrote: »

5VO+5NMG+2Veli is the wtg BRUH...

My 0.2$...

You don't need this *** to do vMA. For some reason, everyone thinks BiS gear is the only way to do vMA. You can do it with all purple gear, around 300 cps, and gold weapons. I know, because that's when I first cleared it.

Your first run of the arena with <300 cps will be painful. PAINFUL. You will die, a lot. Did I mention you will die? A lot? Don't get discouraged and just keep trying. I would start practicing now. Every night try a new level. Then, when you beat the level, take a break! Come back the next day and try the next level. Don't try to tackle the whole thing in one setting. . . you'll go crazy.

If you're like me, you will die 100+ times to the final boss before you are finally successful. No one can tell you what gear to use, what strategy to use, or what cps to use. You'll just need to pick what's best for YOU. I'm a StamBlade and I run with Infernal Guardian monster set and I've never once seen anyone recommend that or seen a video with a stam build even using it. But it works well for me, really well in fact.

Practice, practice, practice. That is the best advice anyone will give you. Good luck!

@JakobESO - No one is saying that you can't beat vMSA with low CP or subpar gear. it's possible and it's been done. I've seen people clearing till stage 4- NUDE. But that's not the point. if OP can have access to the BiS gear and proper CP setup, then what's the harm in it. if it makes his life easier ot clear the vMSA, what wrong in that. Why shouldn't he use them jsut because u did not or some others did not. Doesn't make sense. So stop advising people to do it with low CP or with subpar gear and making their life miserable and calling vMSA a quit because they find it Hard, and they do find it hard because you on the 1st place told them to just Rambo in with no Blazing guns but just a knife. Ofc I agree that it does take a lot of practice even with BiS, but having optimum gear helps and when you are there on your own, every bit counts.

@Swomp23 - grtz on making progress till stage 3, and i'm sure you'll get further. Having no vigor is definitely a setback. And now i'm sure some people will come and tell you that you don't need vigor to clear vMSA. for some it's true, but say BULLSHITE. Given you are new there and you'll need vigor many a times to save yourself, just go into cyro for 3-4 hrs everyday and and 2-3 days of following a zerg should net you enough AP to make it to vigor. Apart from that watch the link i post here. You'll able to catch up a lot of mechanics here and how to make a vMSA more easy exp.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmDbdA-aGwDNCSfshvEU-2w

Swomp23 · November 2016

@Juhasow Well, you must be a way better player than I am, then.

I guess I don't have those kind of reflexes and speedy fingers.

Izaki · November 2016

Qbiken wrote: »

Let go of red mountain and go Vicious Ophidian instead

I'd rather say let go of Hundings and equip VO instead. Proc sets are very good in vMA. The quicker you can kill something the less chance it has to kill you. The extra weapon damage can be good, but its not nearly as significant as the proc from Red Mountain. I for example can't be asked to grind for Red Mountain weapons so I run vMA on my stam sorc with VO on jewelry and head + shoulders, Red Mountain on body and vMA weapons (all sharpened cause I'm lucky like that).

Swomp23 · November 2016

@ToxicPAWS
Hi there, mate. Yeah, I already grind Vigor on my stam DK 1-2 months ago, so I know pretty much what I'll need to do. I only created my stamsorc last friday (pwrlvled him in IC sewers whole weekend with witches and scrolls), that's why I don't have Vigor on him yet. Guess I'll have to.

The reason I rolled a stamsorc, is that I had a lot of problems healing as a stamDK, even with Vigor. Plus, the extra speed from sorc seemed appealing. So far, I'm not regreting it at all!

I already watched Deltia's guides for each stage, plus his run on the stamsorc, but I'll have an eye on this Andy S, can't do much harm.

JakobESO · November 2016

ToxicPAWS wrote: »

@JakobESO - No one is saying that you can't beat vMSA with low CP or subpar gear. it's possible and it's been done. I've seen people clearing till stage 4- NUDE. But that's not the point. if OP can have access to the BiS gear and proper CP setup, then what's the harm in it. if it makes his life easier ot clear the vMSA, what wrong in that. Why shouldn't he use them jsut because u did not or some others did not. Doesn't make sense. So stop advising people to do it with low CP or with subpar gear and making their life miserable and calling vMSA a quit because they find it Hard, and they do find it hard because you on the 1st place told them to just Rambo in with no Blazing guns but just a knife. Ofc I agree that it does take a lot of practice even with BiS, but having optimum gear helps and when you are there on your own, every bit counts.

Calm down, cowboy. You're overreacting just a tad. Your first post was just a simple one line with BiS gear as a recommendation. The OP is just at 200 CP and wants to try the arena so he can finish it during the event which is in three days. You're one line recommendation was for him to go out and farm TRIAL gear, as well as monster gear setup, before running the arena, in THREE days. . . . Somehow you think it's reasonable to recommend that he have "proper cp setup" at 200 cp and also have trial/veli gear farmed in three days?? Give me a break. Next time, read the OP.

My point was simple: you don't need to farm that *** to do vMA and it can be done at 200 cp. My $.02.

kadar · November 2016

Swomp23 wrote: »

Hi everyone! Thx for the awesome tips!
So, yesterday night, I headed to vMSA to practie a little. I unslotted Bound Armament, and slotted Deadly Cloak and Rearming Trap, as @The_Outsider advised and jumped in. Completed first stage with 1 death. I thought to myself ''Hmm, that's not that bad!''. Hell I can be stupid sometimes.
I then entered stage 2. I think the 1st mob didn't even pop out, I was dead already. Those damn spinning blades are hitting a lot harder on vet than on normal.... I also realized that crit surge wasn't healing a lot if there wasn't enemies to kill around... So I developped a strategy to run around clockwise and roll dodge backwards when the blades catched me up, and I finally made it to boss round with around 10 deaths. Then I got wrecked. I was always dying when running from one boss to the other. Until I realized I can take more than one sigil at a time. This made a big change. So, with a few more deaths, I finally beat round 2.
I was pretty happy with myself, wanted to call it a night and go do my pledges (and repair my armor!!!), but I jumped in stage 3 anyway, just to look. Surprisingly, I beat round 1 on first try (with very few hp left), just to die 2 secs after from electrified water. Oh well. I ported out to Orsinium, repaired my armor and went to do my pledges.
I'm not sure, but I think I'll have to redo round 1 from stage 3 since I ported out right? What's the best time to port out to repair armor? After opening the chest from a stage? I was afraid of a bug that would make me redo the whole stage if I did this....

In summary, this was a lot more fun than what I expected. I always loved TES games, but always thought the cmbat system was boring as hell. Now, it's the first time I feel that I have to actively participate in combat to save my behind (along with dungeons, to a lesser extent). It's a nice change in pace. Maybe I'll change my mind wen I get stuck on a stage for a few days, but for now I like it.

@Lukums1 I'm afraid you're right, mate. I won't have a choice but to grind this Vigor. My experience on stage 2 made me realize this. When I'm not Bloodthirsting in the face of a mob, I don't heal and I die fast. Guess I'll go to Cyrodiil thies weekend... On your bar loadout, however, you forgot to slot it... I guess I'll put it n bar one instead of evil hunter... And I will also try this max hp stam regen food, didn't thought about it.

Edited cause I'm spelling like a ***...

You can repair from the "Tudor" NPC that spawns when you clear an arena, so you don't actually have to port out. And if you killed the boss, it should start you at the beginning of the next area, as long as you don't abandon the quest.

That's great you enjoyed it! There's tons of pessimistic ppl here on the forums who get all pissed off that vMA even exists. I for one, actually enjoy the challenge. My first clear took me 4 hours, so I feel your pain. Now I've got it down to ~50 minutes, and still enjoy it. Let your guard down or screw up once and you're dead. Can't rely on your group to carry you. It's niche combat, but imo it's great fun.

Swomp23 · November 2016

Oh yeah! Completly forgot about that guy. Thx!

Lukums1 · November 2016

Food for thought my first clear was 15 hours. Yes 15 hours. Not kidding when there was no save... 500+ deaths easily.

Down to 6
Down to 3
Down to 2
Down to 1
Down to 50minutes * it's the best I can do *

What I'm getting at is, practise practise practise nothing comes easy and vMA is elusive for it.

Vigor is 100% required you can't escape it farm it up mate you'll be fine smashing out round 2 afterwards as you mentioned the blades are still getting the better of you.

For CP I strongly thing a GOOD player on a magicka sorc can do it 250-300CP it's hard but achievable.

I cleared it last night full prosperous gear (blue quality) pretty funny, but that I mean is you don't need VO.
Just get hundings,agility,nightmothers you'd be amazed how high the dps is.