Perspective on VMA

Lukums1 · November 2016

Rockndude wrote: »

@Lukums1
I appreciate the clarification. The whole reason I wanted to start this thread was to have thought out discussion that allowed for brainstorming solutions instead of the usual constant complaints that I have seen. I appreciate your input and I must have misunderstood your first post.

No that's ok.

I come across very rude most posts and perhaps a bit overzealous.

I'm all for coming up with reasonable plausible solutions to VMA this doesn't include me I wouldn't know where to begin as I've never given it some serious thought.

A Token system is by far the best solution as suggested...

Most are right: You don't "Earn" the right to get what you want. It boils to RNG and with crappy traits it makes little sense to run. I myself run it for the LOLS and being bored whatever I get I get which most of the time I don't even look in the chest.

None the less, at least 1 token for completing and perhaps a VENDOR within maelstrom arena allowing you to "Sell" the item you collected from that run also equals 1 token.

Have any weapon with any trait you desire as 100 tokens (picked 100 out of my ass) at least and I'm sure everyone can agree that they would be happy to see "an end in sight".

This is coming from someone who has everything.

You have to keep in mind, you never get answers from ZOS, you don't get responses, you don't see podcasts explaining the deep concerns within the community and thoughts on what to improve next.

No one is listening, hence no one cares. With the release date on crown crates here tomorrow all I foresee them doing is making new shiny elusive motifs/costumes/mounts to further their financial gain.

I've raised massive issues with Maelstrom and my general outbursts are all about stupid environmental platform isuses on round 5 and crap like that.

I gave up a long time ago mate, and sure enough everyone else will soon.

Luke

Rockndude · November 2016

@Lukums1
I run it because I definitely want the weapons and I have had decent luck so far with weapons and traits. I also enjoy the challenge that it provides. I treat it as a dps training ground because it teaches you to run a solid skill rotation, be able to sustain your resources alone, and have better situational awareness to avoid damage while healing yourself the entire time. This is especially true on the poison round and final round where the random mechanics force you to adapt quickly to unexpected situations. Learning to beat VMA has allowed me to grow and become a better dps. This is one of the biggest positives I can take away from it.

This is what keeps me coming back along with the small chance of a decent weapon drop. If I was only running it for the weapons I would give up to make my stamplar my main since they don't use Maelstrom weapons because biting jabs takes the place of flurry as the main dps ability.

I enjoy video games for the same reason as playing sports. There is always something to work on and get better at. Maelstrom aids in this progression until people run it enough times that it becomes easy for them. At this point they are stuck in a loop trying to get sharpened weapons and remain stagnant, unable to move on to other content because they are unsatisfied until they get what they are looking for. Or they don't get the weapon and say forget this game, unable move forward due to poor RNG. It is just sad that we are losing skilled members of the community because of this.

Masel · December 2016

Rockndude wrote: »

Masel92 wrote: »

I thorough agree from my side over here. Add token system: I suppose 15 runs per random weapon box(inferno staff box, dagger box etc.) and 60 runs for a specific one would do the job.
Either that or balance the damn traits already! Make nirn and precise on par with sharpened while keeping the advantages of each one.

Precise 10% crit and 5% crit damage modifier. Nirn buffed to 33% and go. Charged increases the strength and duration of effects, not only the proc chance, and maybe the damage of light and heavy attacks. Powered can stay like it is. Infused and defending can stay as well. Decisive needs a buff to increase ulti gen more and maybe to give you ulti on kill or something.

It's pure crap as it is, everyone but a small fraction of dd players/builds use anything but sharpened weapons...

I only agree with tokens if they are awarded upon completion. Otherwise a person could farm round 1 through 8 bosses for them while never completing the content. But holy crap dude! Do you realize that we are not all Andy S. and are not all able to complete it in under 40 minutes?! If it took 60 runs to pick your trait, that is equivalent to 60+ hours!!! Thats far too much just for a single weapon in a single trait and not doing players any favors. It seems like a much worse situation than we are currently in and I would rather put my trust in RNG over this suggestion.

Honestly I like the idea of evenly weighted RNG with weapons that have only traits that are worthwhile.

The suggestion of @Lukums1 of handing in the weapon for another token in combination with my suggestion would do the deal. That would make it around 30 runs to get what you want, which I think is a fair amount of time to invest in a BiS item, adding the chance of getting the weapon in the runs themselves. You can beat the arena very fast by now, I pretty much heavy attack my way through in 45 minutes without needing a rotation. I think they should remove the cooldown though.

Problem is, if the Devs were in any way intending to change the loot system or traits, they would've said so in the past, but all they said in the announcement of homestead was that they wanted to do some class and skill balancing, so I'm very sceptical. I really hate the pigeonholed trait system more than the RNG of drops. If the difference between traits were in the dimension of 1-2%, we wouldn't have this issue as nirnhoned and precise were very strong as well. But with the current system, sharpened is just too powerful to not use it. They can keep the advantages of each trait, but the difference is just too large.

I'm on the way to my CPA and I don't see why they won't listen to their customers, as we are basically where their money and salaries come from. It is just simple economies, keep your customers satisfied, otherwise you will see a sure decline in revenue. It's just sad that they don't release any financial data to determine the shape of the company, that could explain a lot of things.