My first Veteran Maelstrom Arena completion (final boss video)

paulsgruff · December 2016

Oh, it's messy! It's hard to watch! It's all wrong!

Two days ago I finally finished Veteran Maelstrom Arena for the first time, after what seemed like an eternity of thinking I'd never be able to do it. I thought it might be interesting to share a 'first completion' video for people who are struggling with this, to show what a none-perfect finishing run with none-optimal gear on the final boss would look like (with mistakes included, to show that there is some room for error here if you can correct it quickly enough!). Gear + my method in spoilers below if anybody is interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM-9XeiqoII

I'm a stamina sorcerer with probably a fairly standard skill setup. My gear is all purple (unless stated below) and isn't optimal by any means, as I have a couple of wasted slots due to not having all the pieces of armor I really needed.

Head: Molag Kena - Light - Infused (GOLD)
Shoulders: Vicious Serpent - Medium - Divines
Chest: Night Mother's Gaze - Heavy - Infused
Gloves: Vicious Serpent - Medium - Reinforced
Belt: Night Mother's Gaze - Medium - Divines (GOLD)
Legs: Vicious Serpent - Medium - Infused
Boots: Vicious Serpent - Medium - Divines (GOLD)

Necklace: Agility - Robust
Ring 1: Agility - Robust
Ring 2: Vicious Serpent - Robust

1H Sword: Agility - Precise
1H Dagger: Agility - Precise
Bow: Agility - Precise

For me, the crucial thing in completing the run was to make sure that I have the boss down to 70% health BEFORE he can teleport for a second time. I found it was extremely difficult to manage resources if I couldn't burn him to 70% before his second teleport, even with the Vicious Ophidian set on helping me out. I also found it best to not use any of the sigils at all until the 3rd phase of the fight, once the crystals are dealt with.

Once at the top, focus on one crystal at a time (regaining resources with heavy attacks if you have an DoT on them also) until they're gone and don't be afraid to drop down into the centre if the shielding wall becomes hard to stay behind. Getting knocked down here from trying to stay up there too long with a below average damage output was the main reason I was dying in this phase. If you do drop down, you will get an extra Crematorial Guard spawn in, but these shouldn't really be a problem after you've learned how to deal with them early in the round.

Once the boss is down, if you're struggling with dps, try to immobilize the first summoner (I used beast trap on it) then focus solely on the boss while taking as many power ups as you need. I took them all as I realised I had enough resources to have a a good chance to complete it and wanted to play it safe. Try to ignore the Crematorial Guard completely unless it is in it's fire breathing phase and just hit the boss with everything.

In the end I got a Maelstrom Bow, with Defending trait. I'm happy with it, it improves my build and I don't mind playing with none best in slot traits. The arena is a really fun challenge and really tests your rotation and concentration, although completely infuriating at times . I had the boss below 15% health over 10 times before I finally completed it. It's just repetition and learning patterns, what you can ignore and when to take risks. Familiarity is everything. Hopefully this is some help to anybody that hasn't managed to finish it yet.

Jbugz97 · December 2016

great congrats
i just completed my first time this weekend too,
very difficult last boss took me 3 times as long as actually getting through the entire VMA,
your first completion was very different from mines, nice to see a video this way,
the videos on youtube are basically this supper fast run that for beginners is really not much help

azoriangaming · December 2016

congrats paul keep up the good work

Hamiltonmath · December 2016

You have a lot of work to go, but you beat it! Good work. Liquid Lightning? What?

Hamiltonmath · December 2016

Holy crap, reading the gear that you used, you did very well. Ideally you want 5 vo and 5 something else. Agility is not good.

PC0523 · December 2016

Congrats man! I was stuck on the final boss for about 3 months before I finally learned the mechanics well enough to beat him.

My first VMA clear was a very memorable and rewarding experience. But then came the grind for the perfect weapon with perfect trait. :-)

Glaiceana · December 2016

I was watching over his shoulder as he completed this, was pretty damn exciting! He was close so many times on the last boss, Valkyn Skoria 2 as I call him lol

There was just so much that had to go right in each round, and if you lose concentration for a moment, or get an unlucky spawn of a ghost, its done for. Its very unlikely that I'll ever get to this part, but at least I have seen the mechanics and know them well by now!

Soleya · December 2016

Congrats on beating it and also congrats on not getting a charged 1H Sword.

ArchMikem · December 2016

Wait wait wait...this is Vet and the final boss doesn't even have 1 million health?

caperon · December 2016

Congratulations on your first completion. Now will be a lot easier from now on.

I really recomend you some skill changes that will improve your dmg and survavility in vma:

- Drop liquid lighting. That skills does low damage on stamina caracters.
- Drop dawnbraker on the backbar and slot overload. You can put utility there like caltrops,vigor, dark deal...
- Drop caltrops from the frontbar, its only worth casting it inbetween round and you can use your overlad bar for that.
- Slot bound armaments on all 3 bars. Extra stamina = more damage, extra dmg from heavy atacks (you should charge your heavies while runing to the next mob) and the minor resistances buff.
- Move vigor to the overload bar, you dont really need it with crit surge and boodthirst. This opens a slot for you to use. Use steel tornado or evil hunter (if you want to save pots). With time you learn to avoid dmg, but if you don't feel confortable keep using vigor

I like Rend as ultimate in the front bar, but its a matter of opinion. It helps in some places like stage 8 with the nasty dk (round 4) and in general when you are gonna recieve lot of damage, the heal is huge.

About gear, my best resuts (582k) is with 5 viper, 5 vo, 2 kragh (or velidreth, but i dont have medium shoulder).

Hope is helpful.

paulsgruff · December 2016

@Jbugz97 Yeah, I wanted my first run of it to be mostly blind. I only searched a couple of things in it (last boss stage 7 and one of the super annoying pre-boss rounds in stage 8) and asked a couple of in game friends for advice where I was stuck on crystals on final boss. Most videos around do show perfect runs that are extremely hard to emulate if you've not done it yourself before, even if you know whats coming or what to expect.

@azoriangaming Thanks!

@Hamiltonmath Liquid Lightning was on there as I was having trouble doing enough dps to the boss in the first phase to get him below 70% quickly. It was a silly choice that I barely used, I wasn't expecting to finish it on this run, hence why it was still on there. I wanted 5 pieces of VO but due to not having many of them (I've only done 10 or so trials) I was limited to which slots they could go in and had to mix and match the rest of my gear.

@PC0523 Yeah. I thought to myself 'I can't wait to finish this, then I never have to do it again' but I already want to try a second run to see if I've improved. I'm not overly bothered about what trait I get on weapons, if the weapon is something one of my characters can use I'm happy, even if it's not best in slot

@Glaiceana Haha, thanks for putting up with my mini rages during this

@Slayer9292_ESO Thanks! Yeah I'm pretty happy with my bow to be honest!

@ArchMikem Is that not usual? No matter what it's health is, it was beating the you know what out of me constantly up to this run!

@caperon Thank you for the advice, it is very helpful. I made a promise to myself that my first time through VMA I wouldn't use any sigils (I hadn't until the final boss fight, he was just destroying me too quickly and too often to stick to it). I also don't usually use proc sets in the game (other than occasionally 2 monster pieces). I often go with 5TBS, 5VO or 5Toothrow (as I'm not getting major savagery from anywhere else other than if I make potions especially for it). I could have farmed some more useful sets for this but I guess I just wanted to feel like I'd found a way to do it with the gear I already had lying around in my bank. I ran most of it with 5 VO and 5 Toothrow, but it just wasn't working for me and ended up swapping to this load out to this and finished it in my first 5 tries. I do plan on getting the optimal VO pieces eventually, I have the monster pieces already in perfect traits and most of Viper. I will definitely try it with your suggestions when I attempt it next and see how I get on

Lukums1 · December 2016

In my signature is all you'll ever need.

It's helped many people and going on Dungeon Section on forums is a VMA Last Boss Thread which is very, very valuable to you.

It's 100% worth the read.

Well done on the completion though.

Luke

EDIT:

From watching the video I now REALLY strongly urge you to read the above mentioned thread.

If you get the defensive sigil after the first teleport you don't interrupt boss you endless hail and poison inject the boss while the boss attacks get reflected you kill mage (easily) and prepare for cg with caltrops and your buffs it's A MILLION times easier then what you're currently doing.

Trust me

paulsgruff · December 2016

@Lukums1 Thank you. I will read through your guide before I attempt it again and watch a couple of your videos. I suppose the reason my run looks so bad to experienced players is because it was my first time through and I wanted to do most of it blind and figure out a lot of the mechanics myself. I just felt I'd be better off for it as I tend to memorise things better than when I'm being shown something, although I admit that it can introduce bad habits and awkward ways to do simple things. I only really got stuck on the last boss of stage 7, 1 round of stage 8 and then the final boss took a lot of figuring out (I asked an in game friend for tips on this, as I was struggling burning the boss down in the final phase after destroying the crystals). I will definitely look at ways to improve and speed up my runs now I've finished it and appreciate your offer of help, I'll definitely check it out

Lukums1 · December 2016

paulsgruff wrote: »

@Lukums1 Thank you. I will read through your guide before I attempt it again and watch a couple of your videos. I suppose the reason my run looks so bad to experienced players is because it was my first time through and I wanted to do most of it blind and figure out a lot of the mechanics myself. I just felt I'd be better off for it as I tend to memorise things better than when I'm being shown something, although I admit that it can introduce bad habits and awkward ways to do simple things. I only really got stuck on the last boss of stage 7, 1 round of stage 8 and then the final boss took a lot of figuring out (I asked an in game friend for tips on this, as I was struggling burning the boss down in the final phase after destroying the crystals). I will definitely look at ways to improve and speed up my runs now I've finished it and appreciate your offer of help, I'll definitely check it out

Hey mate, that's 100% fine.

And I do applaud yourself for doing it with no sigils being used.

However in my opinion: 20-50 runs should be done using sigils and then slowly decreasing the amount of sigils you use at certain points to begin focusing on score runs. But that's each to their own of course!

There are MANY tricks outlined in my general walkthrough which I'm sure will be of value to yourself especially in that VMA Boss thread for the last boss particularly.

Depending on DPS, the 7th Round Boss is now a joke after a few findings I've recently made, that you can ignore the 2nd summoner of spores if you drop in and out of the clense pool allowing you to just burn boss.
For people with non high DPS you can get the power sigil to ensure you burn him before the next set of adds it's very very simple.

Non the less, please feel free to send me messages on forums on my wall I normally answer questions daily for many people.

Good luck bud!

Luke

paulsgruff · December 2016

@Lukums1 I wasn't really doing the lack of sigils for practise at score runs later on, I just wanted to play through it thinking that my gear and setup was what got me through, not some well timed sigil use where I would have failed otherwise, for my first run anyway.

I have since tried it again and finished it twice in the last 24 hours, one score even got me on the PC EU weekly leaderboard (381k) and took me 1 hour 38 minutes to complete with only 14 deaths. I was placed 87 I think, but now down to 92. this is without changing any of my gear and only swapping in Steel Tornado for Liquid Lightning. I honestly can't believe how much easier it seems after the first completion.

Stage 7 last boss is giving me the most grief at the moment, usually due to flowers spawning underneath the shielding enemy while I'm in there. I'm definitely going to start looking out for little tricks and clever ways to do things. Having low stamina at the start of rounds is sometimes an issue for me also, but I'm getting used to what I can kill with just heavy attacks now and using skills far less often where they're not really needed.

I've got the bug a little now and want to improve the speed of the runs and see how close I can get to flawless, I'm pretty happy to be down to just 14 deaths on my 3rd attempt though, especially as I haven't had time yet to change my build and setup, that I've been told by many is very sub-par. I'll definitely start swapping a few things around and check out your guides for the next few goes when I have some extra time to spend on it over the weekend

MrBrandon · December 2016

paulsgruff wrote: »

Oh, it's messy! It's hard to watch! It's all wrong!

Two days ago I finally finished Veteran Maelstrom Arena for the first time, after what seemed like an eternity of thinking I'd never be able to do it. I thought it might be interesting to share a 'first completion' video for people who are struggling with this, to show what a none-perfect finishing run with none-optimal gear on the final boss would look like (with mistakes included, to show that there is some room for error here if you can correct it quickly enough!). Gear + my method in spoilers below if anybody is interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM-9XeiqoII

I'm a stamina sorcerer with probably a fairly standard skill setup. My gear is all purple (unless stated below) and isn't optimal by any means, as I have a couple of wasted slots due to not having all the pieces of armor I really needed.

Head: Molag Kena - Light - Infused (GOLD)
Shoulders: Vicious Serpent - Medium - Divines
Chest: Night Mother's Gaze - Heavy - Infused
Gloves: Vicious Serpent - Medium - Reinforced
Belt: Night Mother's Gaze - Medium - Divines (GOLD)
Legs: Vicious Serpent - Medium - Infused
Boots: Vicious Serpent - Medium - Divines (GOLD)

Necklace: Agility - Robust
Ring 1: Agility - Robust
Ring 2: Vicious Serpent - Robust

1H Sword: Agility - Precise
1H Dagger: Agility - Precise
Bow: Agility - Precise

For me, the crucial thing in completing the run was to make sure that I have the boss down to 70% health BEFORE he can teleport for a second time. I found it was extremely difficult to manage resources if I couldn't burn him to 70% before his second teleport, even with the Vicious Ophidian set on helping me out. I also found it best to not use any of the sigils at all until the 3rd phase of the fight, once the crystals are dealt with.

Once at the top, focus on one crystal at a time (regaining resources with heavy attacks if you have an DoT on them also) until they're gone and don't be afraid to drop down into the centre if the shielding wall becomes hard to stay behind. Getting knocked down here from trying to stay up there too long with a below average damage output was the main reason I was dying in this phase. If you do drop down, you will get an extra Crematorial Guard spawn in, but these shouldn't really be a problem after you've learned how to deal with them early in the round.

Once the boss is down, if you're struggling with dps, try to immobilize the first summoner (I used beast trap on it) then focus solely on the boss while taking as many power ups as you need. I took them all as I realised I had enough resources to have a a good chance to complete it and wanted to play it safe. Try to ignore the Crematorial Guard completely unless it is in it's fire breathing phase and just hit the boss with everything.

In the end I got a Maelstrom Bow, with Defending trait. I'm happy with it, it improves my build and I don't mind playing with none best in slot traits. The arena is a really fun challenge and really tests your rotation and concentration, although completely infuriating at times . I had the boss below 15% health over 10 times before I finally completed it. It's just repetition and learning patterns, what you can ignore and when to take risks. Familiarity is everything. Hopefully this is some help to anybody that hasn't managed to finish it yet.

Congrats, but A lot of room for improvement man.