Hardest round in VMA?

Zarrakon · April 2017

akl77 wrote: »

Yea I agree, the rng in this game and vma makes the game hard, not so much about skills.
I've beaten every dark souls game and latest Nioh and got platinum trophy for bloodborn, the chalice dungeon soloing is some real challenge, the boss fight took me for hours over 2 days. Souls series is know for its difficulties and discipline, ESO is nowhere called a difficult game, but the difficulties is at RNG!

Ignoring random disconnects/lag (which is not 'rng'), this is complete and utter ***. Maelstrom Arena on veteran is extremely hard, but (almost) none of it is due to random chance or bad luck. It is almost entirely practice (or 'skill' if you prefer). And yes, before you've beaten it for the first time, vMA is significantly harder than the Dark Souls series (which is really just learning enemy attack patterns).

I consistently get a 520k+ score now (by 'consistently' I mean it's been months since I've had a run below that), and this is without even thinking about touching a sigil (ever); sure I might die every now and then, but it's always because I didn't roll dodge at the right time, or I didn't keep my shield up when I should have.

The only time randomness can outright kill you (and where you can't save yourself with skill) is when a mushroom spawns right underneath the minder in round 7, after the shield has gone up. But this almost never happens (if you feel like this is happening to you a lot, I guarantee you that you're doing something else wrong).

KimberlyannKitsuragi · April 2017

For me just trying to survive nMA is really hard. I almost made it to stage 2 once. I've heard around the forums and in my guild, somehow progress in MA is saved. How does that work?

CelticStones · April 2017

Round 5, only because I cant beat it, stuck on it for a month. Gave up, almost quit the game and cant pluck up the courage to try again. In a way this thread gives me a little hope. I presumed every stage got gradually harder. My main enemy is a crap internet connection, my age, and my temper. My missus has suggested beta blockers and valium and go back to playing age of empires 2.

Ep1kMalware · April 2017

Round 5 – Rink of Frozen Blood

Didgerion wrote: »

The mechanic on level 7 is too RNG

sometimes the poison and the archers that charges at you stay in the same spot and as soon you want to interrupt the archer the poison pops.

Also the flowers sometimes pops in the shield when the boss screams.

Also sometimes you are disoriented/snared/stunned and the poison flower pops.

Sometimes you are outside AOE circle when the poison pops but you get poisoned anyway.

My last 2 runs were with 14/15 vitality bonus and both times I died on level 7.

Just too much bad rng on that level.

Also the round 5 is very difficult on stamina builds. The archers hit very hard and on some levels there are few of them that shoot at you at the same and your vigor ticks cannot keep you alive. You need to time your rolldodge properly and pop vigor often on that stage...also trying not to drain your stamina at the same time.

Disagree. You can control many of these factors by popping the plants. Thing happen, but not to the point it can be called an rng based fight.

Joy_Division · April 2017

Round 5 – Rink of Frozen Blood

7 isn't hard. In fact it's one of the easier ones in the arena. It's just the dumb poison plants that kills you.

5 and 9 have arguably the two hardest rounds (both 3rd). Giant Boss ins't isn't tough, but ranged adds are handful. Final Boss is a nightmare first time getting there, though once you get used to it, he's not too bad. Tough to call between these two.

LadyLavina · April 2017

Player v.s. RNG

UnversedNumber3 · April 2017

Round 9 – Theater of Despair

I have only completed vMA once and the hardest round for me was round 9. But I was just trying to complete it. I can see that if someone is going for flawless or at least a leader board score round 7 would suck.

Preyfar · April 2017

The hardest round in VMA is opening the final chest.

What, Charged again? Are you kidding me?

akl77 · April 2017

Still yet to complete VMA

Meri20098 wrote: »

For me just trying to survive nMA is really hard. I almost made it to stage 2 once. I've heard around the forums and in my guild, somehow progress in MA is saved. How does that work?

If you don't abandon the maelstrom arena quest then your progress will be saved, so if you finished stage 1 and in stage 2, then next time you come into the arena you can start from stage 2 instead of stage 1.

akl77 · April 2017

Still yet to complete VMA

CelticStones wrote: »

Round 5, only because I cant beat it, stuck on it for a month. Gave up, almost quit the game and cant pluck up the courage to try again. In a way this thread gives me a little hope. I presumed every stage got gradually harder. My main enemy is a crap internet connection, my age, and my temper. My missus has suggested beta blockers and valium and go back to playing age of empires 2.

Age of empires 2, that's a classic

Lord_Eomer · April 2017

Round 7 – Vault of Umbrage

I am not able to get flawless conquerer because of round 7 final boss,

This round is crazy, poison, adds can tele and stun, boss stempede, bleeding, roar...

In other words, what the hell!

Mauin · April 2017

Still yet to complete VMA

Round 5 is the one I'm stuck on, and will probably remain stuck on.

I've tried on a magblade and a magsorc and I just can't do it. The damage comes in so fast that I barely have time to react to it. I can't tell how much of it is because of me, or how much of it is because of my poor internet connection. Either way, I can't do it. I've tried and I've tried and I've tried some more. Each attempt just ends with me rage quitting and it totally kills any desire I had to keep playing.

I cannot speak for the other rounds, but the Rink of Frozen Blood is a nightmare. I can get through the first four with no deaths (assuming I don't lag), but everything just grinds to a halt there.

Vipstaakki · April 2017

Round 5 – Rink of Frozen Blood

How many countless times i have died on this stage...

Nolphi · April 2017

Round 9 – Theater of Despair

Round 9 Final Boss. My bane! I understand 'the dance' and know exactly what to do and when. The fight is just too long and too unforgiving. I cannot tango for 5 minutes without misstepping on a foot. By the time I reach stage 3 of that fight I am an emotional raging mess and the random excited key spamming begins. The dude also has a way of teleporting straight into the golden ghosts, evil! I am pretty new to VMA and cleared it four times now, half of my time has been spent on the last boss dancing the night away!

Brrrofski · April 2017

Round 7 – Vault of Umbrage

The first time you do it, round 9 is by far the hardest. Like it seems impossible at first. Once you do it, it's actually pretty easy to do again.

I knew ice and poison round would be the top two. On Stam that poison round is brutal. Mag it isn't as bad because you can spam harness if you get hit with volatile.

MakoFore · April 2017

Round 7 – Vault of Umbrage

I dont know how it is for others- but the round i die to the most is by far the argonian round 7, and each time- it dosent seem fair either, like when die in ice stage- its hard- but its usually because i didnt address the right target, i didnt buff up- or i didnt dps well enough to melt certain mobs, especially the archers- but if i do everything correctly then i should get thru it fine...

the argonian round? complete and utter ***. its not even fair to call it "hard" just ***. its that round alone that determines whether ill push for a flawless or not. I've only gotten thru it three times without a death- but i play mainly stamina so its a rough time.

Godeko · April 2017

Round 5 – Rink of Frozen Blood

Round 5 followed by round 8. Both have immense burst potential. Especially boss 4 of round 8 which is the real boss of this arena imo.

Lord_Eomer · April 2017

Round 7 – Vault of Umbrage

Brrrofski wrote: »

The first time you do it, round 9 is by far the hardest. Like it seems impossible at first. Once you do it, it's actually pretty easy to do again.

I knew ice and poison round would be the top two. On Stam that poison round is brutal. Mag it isn't as bad because you can spam harness if you get hit with volatile.

Even u can spam harness magicka but poison and final boss kills you in a second!

mtwiggz · April 2017

Round 5 – Rink of Frozen Blood

Rink of Frozen Blood is where I always die. Usually due to the insane FPS drops I get in that particular arena, occasionally to some of the one shots that I blatantly disregard.

JDC1985 · April 2017

None they are all super easy when I run a casual run and take 2 or 3 smoke breaks it still only takes 45 mins to complete and I can't tell you the last time I actually died in there

Turelus · April 2017

Round 5 – Rink of Frozen Blood

Rink for me.

I just seem to die here so damn much, it's normally just so many little hits coming in so fast and I haven't found a way to counter them.

Wrecking_Blow_Spam · April 2017

Round 5 – Rink of Frozen Blood

Not necessarily hard when used to it but very annoying if going for a speed run/flawless. Same with 7.

F7sus4 · April 2017

Round 7 – Vault of Umbrage

I wouldn't say any is deadly difficult now but if I have to choose one - then it's stage 7 due to RNG factor that might turn against you. It costed me Flawless run at least a few times.

Robisok74 · April 2017

Round 5 – Rink of Frozen Blood

The first time round i found the final round the hardest, with so many mechanics going on. Timing runs on the glyphs, interrupts on the boss, gold ghosts etc. I think lag has a lot to answer for in vma. I can do rounds no death sometimes and die 3 or 4 times on other attempts, fully knowing the mechanics. I think overall the ice round is the hardest with the poison round coming a close second. I have got the whole run down to about an hour and a half but know I'll never do it flawlessly or with any world breaking scores, but I don't care, I'm just after the weapons no matter how messy it is done..

psychotic13 · April 2017

Round 7 – Vault of Umbrage

Round 7 is aids

Olupajmibanan · April 2017

Round 7 – Vault of Umbrage

Hardest isn't the right word for stage 7. I would call it "test of faith". You can learn mechanics how much you want, it still won't beat the RNG of stage 7.

No.1 Poisonous plant spawning under blue protective bubble = harness spam (costing most of your resources and sometimes does not help at all) or death
No. 2 Poisonous plant spawning right under your feet or in your way when you are going to kill the venomcaller or the lightning caster.
No. 3 Boss enraging during an attack. Let's say boss fires the ground attack, you kill the caster before the ground attack reaches you and then you are instakilled by the ground attack. Same happens to the bite.

MCBIZZLE300 · April 2017

Round 7 – Vault of Umbrage

I used to think round 5 but now I find I can just melt everything in sight with the maelstrom lightning staff. Round 7 still gets me a lot, If a plant spawns under you when your under the shield its spam harness magika or game over.

Izaki · April 2017

Round 5 – Rink of Frozen Blood

The only one where I'm capable of dying. The mechanics are easy, but when you're doing the burn, the incoming damage is real, so one mistake and you're out.

The Vault isn't THAT bad. Once you know how to deal with the mushrooms and how place the minders correctly, its really easy. And no, its not as reliant on RNG as everyone thinks.

MCBIZZLE300 · April 2017

Round 7 – Vault of Umbrage

Mauin wrote: »

Round 5 is the one I'm stuck on, and will probably remain stuck on.

I've tried on a magblade and a magsorc and I just can't do it. The damage comes in so fast that I barely have time to react to it. I can't tell how much of it is because of me, or how much of it is because of my poor internet connection. Either way, I can't do it. I've tried and I've tried and I've tried some more. Each attempt just ends with me rage quitting and it totally kills any desire I had to keep playing.

I cannot speak for the other rounds, but the Rink of Frozen Blood is a nightmare. I can get through the first four with no deaths (assuming I don't lag), but everything just grinds to a halt there.

What class are you? I made a mag sorc just to farm VMA and it was so much easier.

Ch4mpTW · April 2017

Round 5 – Rink of Frozen Blood

Turelus wrote: »

Rink for me.

I just seem to die here so damn much, it's normally just so many little hits coming in so fast and I haven't found a way to counter them.

@Turelus Those little ice arrows and archer quick shots tend to add-up quickly, don't they? Lol. It also doesn't help that each individual projectile deals around 5k-6k damage per hit. I freaking hate that damn stage.