The forums are loaded with Maelstrom Stuff. Everyone has a guide. I have a guide. Things have changed. NightMothersGaze has been mostly ruined. Replace with Hundings Rage.

You can’t use Maelstrom weapons in your guide for a first Maelstrom clear. The nerve of some guides. SMH.

It’s not easy, regardless what some people say. You can make things easier on yourself though.

Go with one Trials or drop set and one crafted set. Build in as much recovery, Damage and Defense as possible. Learn. Before asking a million questions, get in there and learn. That means dying at least 25 times on a level or round of a level. Seriously.

It may take awhile before you realize you got RNG screwed, Lag screw, or you actually messed up something. How did you mess it up. What can you do differently. Can you grab a sigil to change the outcome? Is there enough time to go get it? Should you position yourself to get it as soon as the level starts? And then another sigil for another part.

Basically just learn the arena round by round. Next time you know what to do. You start to know where the priority mobs are gonna spawn. Or when to be looking for one.

Every single STAM build ever wil require VIGOR and CALTROPS . No getting around it. They also do considerably well with Vicious Ophidian as one of their sets.

New jewelry traits can add execute damage. This is a major difference when your so close to finishing off a boss and die at the last second. At least for me. So I got 2 bloodthirsty maybe 3.

Another thing often overlooked. Sharpened. It really helped me out on the bow bar. The math behind it takes a full blown wizard to explain, but trust me it’s better than Nirnhoned on the bow at least. Also, I dropped the double damage poison and put a crusher enchant on bow. Not sure what is best, but it felt pretty good to me.

I just learned another new trick as well. DW bars are quite good with Nirnhoned front with damage shield enchant (Kuta, deteri, Repora) , Infused off hand, with weapon damage enchant. All guides ever show poison enchant front. A good friend of mine showed me this one and it is exquisite, highly recommend.

There was a suggestion to try Iceheart for the damage shield. I haven’t gotten around to trying that one out yet though. I have used BloodSpawn, one of each piece Lord Warden, Mighty Chudan or Pirate Skeleton. Helps to not be insta nuked by Crematorial Guards and take less soul churn Damage and throughout other various rounds of the arena.

For a first time clear, you need your character to be well rounded. Glass cannon can work, but you have to be very very good at things. I’ve no idea why they recommend these things for beginners. You’re never going to get good if you’re dead all the time.

So anyways, this is me over here on PS4 console. I’ve no app telling me when to block, roll, potion, heavy attack, ulti dump or any of this other cheesy PC stuff. Combat text is interesting, but not the least helpful.

Another pro tip I picked up was to make the enemy AOE stuff yellow. Many like red or pink, but the yellow stands out to me better.

Hope this helps you on your Stormproof ventures....or even Flawless ahem.

Til next time

Hit me up on PS4 if you need a consultation. PSN Kylewwefan