TL;DR: Guys, if you want to attempt to beat vMA, make sure you took the quest in the present patch. If you have "old version" - abandon it! Otherwise, arena might reset when you quit the game and all your progress will be lost!

So. I complained a lot about how unfun the vMA is and how I just can't find the motivation to complete it. Turns out there was a motivation - absolute total boredom It was Saturday evening, I had absolutely nothing to do and I decided - the heck, time to s**t up the trolls, finally prove primary to myself that I can indeed do it and close this book

At first... It honestly was suprisingly easy. I mean, oh, I can see how it can be hard when someone runs for the score or Flawless Conquerer, but if one just wants to casually complete it? Defence sigil, DoTs, Lightning Staff HAs, perma-shield all the way - and you honestly can just don't give a s**t

It was a breeze, and I started to think "Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy...". That's where the 1st sign of danger showed up.

My quest, which I had hanging even before Morrowind, wasn't updating. I passed 2 first arenas without death, struggled a bit on 3rd, but managed, 4th was EZ, 5th - struggled, but okay... But all the while the quest told me to "Enter Vail of Surreal".

I thought that this was just visual bug and disregarded it. Ohohoho.

So. It was easy. But then I got to last boss.

This... this spawn of Satan and Molag Bal ripped my uranus wide open. I'm not above admitting it It took me just 3 hours to get to him. On him I spent 4 hours. To no avail.

I understood what I should do. I managed to learn to destroy crystals and get him down plus-minus consistently. But then? Then sustain issues shined in their full glory - I had no magicka after crystal phase and oh boy, how rekt I was. Over and over and over again.

After 4 hours I realized that I needed to chill. Or I'll break something

So I quitted the game. Drank a tea, danced a bit, cleared my head... And then it hit me. Having sustain issues with a dude who throws mag-attacks at you? Just change perma-Hardened-Ward to perma-Harness-Magicka, that should work, right? In retrospective - I should have realized it during that hellish 4 hours, but I just... I suppose I got stubbornly stuck in all ways possible Wasn't thinking clearly.

Anyway, I entered the game again, ported to vMA, entered it... And found myself in the 1st arena. Freaking Vail of Surreal.

I did not abandon the quest. Only, as I said, it wasn't updating. And this was the result of it.

At first I felt a tingle of mindless rage, but then... As I said, I honestly didn't struggle with anything but final boss. So I quickly calmed down and started anew.

I made it to 7th arena and realized I was getting sleepy. Oh well. Wasn't going to even try put the spawn of Satan and Molag Bal down while tired, so I quitted the game and went to bad.

Sunday morning I logged in and... Yes. FREAKING VAIL OF SURREAL.

I tried abandoning the quest. But the Prince talked to me as if I took it, though I did not have it in my journal, I abandoned it! And couldn't take it again, because Prince thought I was already in progress.

I tried changing difficulty to normal and back. Nope. Didn't work.

Well. I had only one option, didn't? To make it in one go. And I did



Oh boy, how I hope that now this s**t will finally work properly. I haven't checked it yet.

The only reason for this I can think of is that I used the quest which I took long time ago. So yeah, guys. Don't repeat my mistake

Also, personal advice to those who still struggle with vMA. As I found out, the best setup for vMA is the setup you're comfortable with.

I tried many things, guys. Tried using Clanfear. Tried Crushing Shock. All advices people give to make things easier. But in truth they only made things harder.

This time around I decided "screw it" and went in my full glass-canon "17k HP" vTrials petless setup without changing anything (only added Surge). I thought, "hey. If I can interrupt by bashing mages in Hel-Ra and White Twin and his adds - sure I can bash s**t in vMA". Turns out - I was right. And it was much easier - to simply do the same things I was going for months.

Don't use what other people are comfortable with. Use what you are comfortable with. And vMA honestly turns from "Rrrrrrrrrrr!" into "Wait? That's it?"

And, of course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJscrxxl_Bg

Best of luck to you