DSA and vDSA

NinthPrince64 · May 2017

For whatever reason I have never tried Dragonstsr Arena, neither on normal or vet. I am interested in giving it a try, however.

What I would like to know is how hard is this content? Is it VMA hard? (I have plenty of VMA clears at this point, but it took me months to get my first clear)? Does the group nature make it harder or easier than VMA?

I just want to make sure I have the correct expectations before trying to pit together a group to do this content.

Thanks.

Asardes · May 2017

nDSA is easy, per par with a normal dungeon. It's soloable for a good DD. vDSA is comparable to a vet DLC dungeon, albeit it's roughly twice as long. It takes 1h-1h10m. Mechanics are not overly complicated and there are plenty of strategy guides around.

Magdalina · May 2017

I'd say the group nature makes it easier. It's a bit similar in nature to MA though in the sense that you have 10 arenas, each with their own mechanics, 5 rounds for each arena, 5th one has boss. Non boss round kinda teach you the mechanics of the boss one. The mechanics aren't really overwhelming, imo DSA is underscaled as it is now and needs to be harder but maybe it's just me

You'll probably want someone in your group who's done it before so they can outline the mechanics to you. The only actually tricky part is last boss. It's only one boss for 10th arena, no waves, but that's usually where people wipe the most. It's a very mechanics heavy fight, however most of them are pretty easy to bypass if you have high dps(also solid tank and healer who can off tank). If you do not have high enough dps you'll actually have to follow the mechanics and it might become overwhelming/tricky.

Teamwork is very important for the last boss, it's vital that everyone is on the same page about how exactly they're tackling this, where they stand, what they do etc(especially important for tank and healer). It's a very fun fight though imo.

Everything I've said pretty much only applies to vet, normal is like whatever.

Forsakiin · May 2017

vDSA is the group equivalent of vMA in terms of difficulty. You'll probably get destroyed for a bit when first doing it, but once you have the mechanics down it really becomes quite easy. In my experience, the worst part about vDSA is that no one actually wants to do it, most likely because the only worthwhile loot inside it is the master's resto staff. Honestly, sometimes I forget it even exists.

BNOC · May 2017

NinthPrince64 wrote: »

What I would like to know is how hard is this content? Is it VMA hard? (I have plenty of VMA clears at this point, but it took me months to get my first clear)?

It's kinda the same as VMA, once you know mechanics it's not hard, especially because you're in a 4 man but it probably will be your first few runs. (1h-1h10m as someone suggested is a slow run, but you won't even do that first time (think 2h) so don't be misled by that and feel disheartened if it takes you 2+) The bosses are scaled up to reflect that (but not hard) and the adds have about 150k health each (I think) so, vet dungeon adds.

NinthPrince64 wrote: »

Does the group nature make it harder or easier than VMA?

More forgiving on mistakes.

Asardes · May 2017

I've ran it 3 times in the last couple of weeks and find it quite enjoyable. Unfortunately it's pretty hard to find people willing to run it on EU-PC, and before the recent runs I hadn't run it in almost a year due to lack of interest. Probably because the weapons are only useful for PvP (bow, destruction staff) and healers (restoration staff) and the armor sets are not that useful. I had a powered restoration staff drop yesterday evening, probably one of the best traits. But I will not stop running it.

NinthPrince64 · May 2017

Asardes wrote: »

I've ran it 3 times in the last couple of weeks and find it quite enjoyable. Unfortunately it's pretty hard to find people willing to run it on EU-PC, and before the recent runs I hadn't run it in almost a year due to lack of interest. Probably because the weapons are only useful for PvP (bow, destruction staff) and healers (restoration staff) and the armor sets are not that useful. I had a powered restoration staff drop yesterday evening, probably one of the best traits. But I will not stop running it.

For me the draw is mostly just content that I haven't tried. I have a healer that could use the resto staff, but that's really not the draw. TBH, I just don't think I have the mental energy to do the content if it was going to be another VMA experience. That took me months to learn. This looks like it may be a bit more reasonable, and I am pretty sure I can round up some others to take a shot at it. Been watching @Gilliamtherogue videos in preparation.

inked1 · May 2017

Normal DSA is the same as normal MA. There is no comparing vDSA to the normal DSA, just like MA. You can solo normal but vet is going to kick yours and 3 of your friends butt the first few times.

The problem with vDSA is there is NO reason to run it unless you want the resto staff. Zos really needs to look into making it worth while. I enjoy the arena and wish there was a reason to run it, but finding others who want to run it for crappy weapons you aren't going to use, ever, is hard to do.

DRXHarbinger · May 2017

inked1 wrote: »

Normal DSA is the same as normal MA. There is no comparing vDSA to the normal DSA, just like MA. You can solo normal but vet is going to kick yours and 3 of your friends butt the first few times.

The problem with vDSA is there is NO reason to run it unless you want the resto staff. Zos really needs to look into making it worth while. I enjoy the arena and wish there was a reason to run it, but finding others who want to run it for crappy weapons you aren't going to use, ever, is hard to do.

Master bow is one of the most powerful pvp weapons in game. My op Stam sorc loves it. Much better than a vMA bow against fast moving targets. What zos really needed to do with these master weapons is buff the enchants (20 odd% would do it) and buff 10 fold how long the enchant lasts for.