I completed the arena for the first time about 2 weeks ago, right before HotR dropped. The first few runs were brutal, I died a lot, but learned a lot in the process. I first tried on my stamina DK and reached the boss, but couldn't beat him because I simply lacked the DPS. Then I swapped to sorcerer and finally I was able to beat the boss after a few hours of trying non stop, failing every mechanic, being knocked down from the circle right into the daedroth etc. The runs have been getting much more smoother. The scores improved, and yesterday I was just a hair under 500K. Today I was close to Flawless but I failed in the execute phase at the boss, mistargetting my ultimate on one of the trash mobs close to him. And you know what? I'm actually happy I failed, because it would have ruined all fun way too early and made me self-complacent when there was still so much to learn. I know all the moves now and I can replicate my run with some degree of certainty, but frankly, running the same class over and over again just becomes boring. In the mean time I've already gotten more of a dozen weapons of almost all types in decent traits, and farming is no longer a priority so I've decided to retire the magicka sorcerer for now and move to a new class. So I brought my stamina NB, and got slaughtered, I couldn't beat the boss in the ice rink within an hour of starting the trial, so I've decided to call it a day and simply continue tomorrow. And in the process I didn't even feel any rage, I just failed and went on

But during my struggles I've learned a few important things, and I've done some changes to the way I play the game:

First, when I set foot there, I understood that learning well will take a lot of time, so I suspended all my other activities, except the essentials like doing the daily writs and feeding the horses. But I don't do trials, dungeons, I don't PvP and I don't do quests anymore, and that will last at least 2 months because changing role to DD and learning each class is more important than simply rerunning mostly the same content over and over - vHRC is not fun the 45th time. So the lesson I learned is that when you do something hard, it's better to just concentrate on that to make it happen and pretend that other things don't exist anymore, game-wise, especially if they have become boring.

Second, I had other sources of frustration in game, namely inventory management. One day, after a particularly bad run - was the 3rd in that day - I decided to simply close the game, I went on the web and got rid of that source of frustration by subbing for 6 months and being able to reorganize my inventory. I played for almost 2 years without subscription, but the game didn't get so tense before but never to the point I pondered quitting for good, multiple times per day. If I knew how much time and nerves it would spare me, I would have done it earlier, and also saved the pondering. So the 2nd lesson is actually to free yourself from tension, even if it costs IRL money.

Third, and most importantly, I cemented my determination of not quitting for good, but simply learning when to call it a day. I did that on multiple occasions, after I burned myself for 12-14h playing on end, then nagging my in game friends with questions about mechanics, or otherwise venting my anger in other ways. That's why if things don't turn out well, I simply close the game after 1-2 hours. After doing the same thing over and over again concentration does tend to fall off quite abruptly, and you won't really be able to bring any noticeable improvement. On the contrary, the attempts just get worse. I'll apply the same rule to any other end game content I'll progress from now on - I still have vMoL and vHoF to finish, as well as the 2 new dungeons I haven't been able to try, but I don't expect much of a challenge there as I've heard they are easier than the Hist ones.

Fourth - diversify. I would have struggled a lot more if I didn't already have another character trained and geared up to take over when I failed with my first. So if you fail at some content with a character, and you really can't find a way around it, simply switch to the next one and try again. Then switch to another when you feel confident about the mechanics and other stuff. This way you will get to experience the content from multiple points of view, don't get bored by it to the same degree and really get to enjoy the diversity this game has to offer. Not only that, but you will understand how other players play their characters, which is quite important both in group PvE and PvP.

So vMA did make me a better player, even in ways I didn't really expect.