Tried it, got to arena 3, quit because it was stupid. Tried again, realized arena 3 was easy, got to arena 6, and quit. Tried it again, realized arena 6 wasn't that bad (but it's still bad), and beat it.

Meant to hit 11-15 hours. Tried the day it released for like 9-10 hours on my main (magsorc) and got final boss to 2% twice. Came back a week later and cleared in 2 1/2 hours. Probably did it about 30ish more times between November 2015 and April 2016 when I got my flawless and inferno staff at same time. Did it once more on a V1 mag DK just for fun and haven't been back since (did take a year break though, the game is MUCH better now). Probably go back soon to get some duplicate staves cause I've got more toons now and I want Flawless on NB and maybe DK if I want to suffer that much.

Best advice for new people is just to keep trying it. Luckily you can save now and pretty sure you don't restart at the start of each round when you die so you can break it up into chunks.

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Never cleared it, but I only tried 2-3 times, almost finished the first round, then left. This type of content doesn't appeal to me.

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I only started vMA relatively late in the game, after almost 2 years of playing, since I played mainly tank so I didn't really need the weapons. I made my 1st attempt on a Stamina DK in PvP DD gear and reached the last boss after about 6 hours, but couldn't finish since I was very tired and couldn't concentrate anymore, but I had already learned all the mechanics along the way. I was very tired at that point so I abandoned the quest and started again on my Magicka Sorcerer non-pet the next day. I cleared it in about 2 hours, with about half of that spent getting the crystals right at the last boss for a ~360K score.

I had about 15-20 clears over the next week or so for farming the weapons on the same char, until I was able to finish one of the runs with 13/15 vitality, then I switched back to the DK and cleared it in about 1.5h for ~400K score; subsequent runs were much better, up to 480K score. The setup was similar, 2H/Bow, albeit with different sets. In the initial attempt I had used 5 Hunding's Rage 5 Bone Pirate 1 Kena, in the latter one 5 Hunding's Rage 5 Vicious Serpent 1 Velidreth. Brawler, Corrosive Armor and Reverse Slice allow me to clear even the harder rounds with little trouble.

Next I attempted on Magicka Templar and it was very hard, I died a lot and it took me about 3h with a dismall score of ~160K to get that first clear, and surprisingly, things didn't really improve after 10+ clears. I said surprisingly, since I had heard that Templar was an easy class to run vMA on, but for some reason it had turned out to be the opposite - most bothering was the fact I couldn't sustain a Puncturing Sweep rotation even with 1.5K+ recovery and staying melee also meant much more damage taken. I had to radically change my build, going fully ranged and dropping that skill and others from rotation to make it smoother and get 450K+ scores, since the new setup allowed much better DPS and I didn't need to stack recovery past the base one. The final setup was 5 Julianos 5 Infallible Mage 1 Iceheart, almost identical to what I had been using on my Sorcerer all along, with plenty of heavy attacks, but no sweeps, crushing shock or BoL.

The class I've played next was Stamina NB, with only 4-5 clears, and pretty bad scores due to lots of deaths; I couldn't even pass some rounds until I switched to Weapon Power potions - as a general rule I only run dropped potions in vMA since I don't consider it important enough to spoil crafted ones. That first clear was the hardest by any measure, and it took me over 4h, at which point I finished with a score that was next to nothing. One of the next runs was about ~430K though, within striking striking distance of the leaderboards so I could do much better if I practiced longer on the class. The setup was 5 Briarheart 5 Vicious Serpent 2 Kra'gh.

By that time I had about 80 clears on 4 classes and about 100 drops in total and had gotten every weapon in almost every useful trait so I completely stopped running it for the next 3 months or so. My vMA experienced spanned roughly between HotR and CWC patches. I only did a single run after that, a couple of weeks ago on my Stamina Warden and cleared it in about 1.5h for a 420K score with 5 Hunding's Rage 5 Vicious Serpent 2 Selene

Overall I don't consider myself a specialist, and I haven't persisted enough on one class to do flawless, but I can easily clear on any of my main characters with a guaranteed leaderboard position on 3/5. If I practiced more I would eventually get flawless and put all on the leaderboard, but I'd rather put my effort into progressing newer trials and dungeons and getting better at PvP, rather than grinding the same solo content for weapons which I already have, and some of which have lost their relevance due to various changes that have been made to their bonuses and other aspects of the game.

DoctorESO wrote: »

greylox wrote: »

Got to round 6 without dying, died, then after realising I'd have to do all the rounds of round 6 again, I left because I don't think I've had so little fun in something I've had to willingly spend that much time on before. One day I might put some serious effort into it but not at the moment.

As it is right now, if you die, you only have to redo the round in which you died. If you leave the instance, then you have to restart from the first round of the stage.

Ah, ok, might try again soon then.

DoctorESO wrote: »

greylox wrote: »

DoctorESO wrote: »

greylox wrote: »

Got to round 6 without dying, died, then after realising I'd have to do all the rounds of round 6 again, I left because I don't think I've had so little fun in something I've had to willingly spend that much time on before. One day I might put some serious effort into it but not at the moment.

As it is right now, if you die, you only have to redo the round in which you died. If you leave the instance, then you have to restart from the first round of the stage.

Ah, ok, might try again soon then.

Well, it's actually like a record to get to the final round of stage 6 without dying.

Can't be lol it was on pet sorc tho so easy mode.

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I have lost all track of time in there, switched characters, changed gear, CP set up etc. Am finally making progress. Working on the Vault of Umbrage right now. Damn Argonian minders get me with their lightning after the shield goes down. Frankly I am terrified of the last Stage.

It took me months to get my first clear. I couldn't get the kill on the final boss and thought it would be easier on a different class. Started again with another toon, couldn't get the final boss down. Tried another class, same again. Eventually I had 6 toons stuck on the final boss.

When I finally killed the SOB on one toon I was able to kill him on all of the others without much difficulty. Now its routine to clear it at least once a week, but it took alot of deaths and swearing to get to that stage.

A few thing on going in there for the first time. 200 soulgems is not enough. A Xanax perscription may help, my hands would be shaking and my heart rate elevated on the final boss on those early clears, making the execution a bit harder. Alcohol also helps.