Can't tell how skilled I am anymore. (Maelstrom related)

Waffennacht · January 2017

VMA is mechanics based. You can go in with the BEST dps build and still fail horribly. You can know your build inside and out and still die.

So I haven't done it in... omg forever... so I picked it up again. Totally spaced the buffs and mechanics. Made it to the spider level. Got the boss down to 10%, hit streak and flopped over dead, death recap, "spit: 32k"

I haven't gone back. After about 30 min PvP starts calling me and I can't help it

brandonv516 · January 2017

Normal DSA can be soloed. Don't want to ever do it again though lol. Made it in like 7 rounds before first death. Died several more times the last few rounds, especially the last round until I found the right stategy.

The reward weapon was a Resto Staff of Destruction Mastery. Makes sense right? I so really want the Master's Sword but I think I'd need a good group.

ryanborror · January 2017

Ive done nma multiple times on sub-10 characters but I had a lot of cp. I've done it recently on my other account with no Cp at level 8 on a stam dk and it was kind of annoying.
As for normal dsa, it is really easy to solo. The only hard parts are the Nova/negate bosses and not falling into a hole on found 9 because it resets if solo. The last boss is tricky. If you have enough dps, you can straight burn him. If not you have to stop damaging hiath at 75 and 50 percent to avoid the other bosses spawning and then you just single target them to death one at a time. When the 25% bosses spawn just burn through and ignore

SublimeSparo · January 2017

derpmander wrote: »

No lie, the disparity between nMA and vMA is huge. You could literally heavy attack my way through everything in nMA and not even break a sweat but in vMA you're kept on your toes about everything because everything you don't see could be a death. The mobs have huge amounts of damage (especially the 2H and the ranged adds) and the bosses are also pretty strong. The environmental damage is also maybe quadrupled or so.

But you can heavy attack your way through vet too...

https://youtu.be/tWSX1cB1jCA

Enslaved · January 2017

nMA is pretty easy if you know mechanics no matter what lvl you are. It can be done with any gear and I usually do it as soon as I get to lvl 15 on any alt for skill point. On the other hand, I do have 500+ CP to invest, so that might be what makes a difference, even on new toons.

Ch4mpTW · January 2017

In my opinion, Maelstrom Arena on normal difficulty was never really a challenge. In fact, I used to use it for leveling up alts for a brief period. This is due to the ease at which mobs could be taken down, and the overall consistency of mob density. This making power-leveling in Maelstrom quite effective.

However, it was also a huge step away from what truly lied in waiting inside of the veteran difficulty version. There was no middle grounds, which was bad. All due to the fact that you'd melt things so fast within the normal version, that you couldn't really learn the mechanics at place. Nor the order of which targets needed to be eliminated first. Combine all that with the few mechanic shifts from normal to veteran, and Maelstrom Arena becomes something similar to day and night differences.

Asardes · January 2017

I have never tried either, since I've only gotten the time to play the DLCs until a few weeks ago. I was really caught in the loop of doing the daily vet pledges, leveling alts and doing the crafting writs, with 1-2 vet trials at the end of the week. I've decided to break that loop for a time and enjoy other content. It has been fun for the time being, running everything "casually". When I get bored of that, which is probably in a few weeks I will run VMA. From the comments and videos above it's clear that trying NMA first has little value and would be too easy to train for veteran.

I have 4 veteran characters to choose from, and the most likely candidate would be SDK since I know himbest. I have only crafted gear and agility jewelry ATM but I guess that's enough if you just want completion, not high scores or anything. The only dilemma I have about my build is the sustain, namely choosing between weaving HA (I have CP about equal split between mooncalf and tenacity but I might well go full tenacity), which works pretty well even with 700 stamina recovery, or investing more in recovery and lowering WD, but having a faster rotation with LA instead of HA weaving. I use the ingenous shield and resolving vigor + bloodthirst for self heals; I have also the rend morph which I can use instead of flawless dawnbreaker for even more healing, at the expense of lower weapon damage - I have 4.2K fully buffed, with 71% critical.

Dasovaruilos · January 2017

That is a problem with basically all content in the game now except some Version II dungeons and Mazzatun / Cradle.

Dragonstar Arena, all Trials, Maelstrom, 90% of the dungeons are just too easy on normal, to the point where some mechanics don't even exist there. They are not learning experiences anymore.

ZoS should definitely consider either buffing the normal mode of Trials (including both Arenas) or creating a third difficulty tier and rebalance them.

The gap between the normal and vet is just too big now.

Infinite12 · January 2017

I thought this was going to be about VMA. A flawless nMA run means nothing. It says nothing about your skill. I do get the feeling that these group dungeons you're soloing are on normal too though.

And "having a bad experience with nMA" does say a lot about your skill though. Sorry.

ArchMikem · January 2017

Infinite12 wrote: »

I thought this was going to be about VMA. A flawless nMA run means nothing. It says nothing about your skill. I do get the feeling that these group dungeons you're soloing are on normal too though.

And "having a bad experience with nMA" does say a lot about your skill though. Sorry.

That "bad experience" was a LONG time ago on a different character entirely that wasn't built for AoE. I've come a LONG way since then and even though you think a flawless normal run means nothing, going from a point of constant wipes to a flawless run definitely means something.

Don't know why you thought this was going to be about Veteran Maelstrom, especially since I didn't specify it as Vet in the title. Perhaps you should learn to read a bit better next time?

aLi3nZ · January 2017

Arena 7 one with spiders?

I can't pass vet because it bugs out on my pc. Abilities show no animation, lag etc. I can Can solo some vet dungeon bosses but can't beat Vma. Sux man