Decided to try Maelstrom Arena again, results so far...

Kalgert · May 2019

Because I hate myself, I decided to go in to the Maelstrom Arena. Surprisingly I managed to beat the first arena (A first for me), and... Now I'm getting killed by the second arena.

At least I'm wrong on one thing: The first monsters don't obliterate me in two-three shots.

Will keep this thread posted if I discover anything else.

Kalgert · May 2019

Gave up on the Centurion Trio. Spinning Blades prove to be too much for me to keep attention to.

Maybe I'll try this again on a tanky character... Eh, can't be too terrible of an idea.

ErMurazor · May 2019

Good Luck, perseverance is the key to beat vma. We all died ALOT our first clear. Then the magic happens, your 2nd,3rd,4th clear gonna be soooo much smoother

Kalgert · May 2019

I wonder how true that actually is (I doubt it is), but if you say so.

That or I can just bin the concept of doing Veteran Maelstrom Arena and just do whatever I find more enjoyable to do. I'll probably die a lot happier then.

vesselwiththepestle · May 2019

Kalgert wrote: »

I wonder how true that actually is (I doubt it is), but if you say so.

It is. vMA is mostly learning to play the mechanics.

My first run was like 20 hours stretched over a week or two. Second run was less than 2 hours and it went on and on, getting faster and easier and pulling higher scores with every run.

Iskiab · May 2019

Second arena was one of the hardest I found. I was stuck there for a while.

Insco851 · May 2019

You might have better results with getting some help if you give some details on the build/class you are trying to complete the content with.

Insco851 · May 2019

vesselwiththepestle wrote: »

Kalgert wrote: »

I wonder how true that actually is (I doubt it is), but if you say so.

It is. vMA is mostly learning to play the mechanics.

My first run was like 20 hours stretched over a week or two. Second run was less than 2 hours and it went on and on, getting faster and easier and pulling higher scores with every run.

This^^^^

My first run took a week. Last boss was like 3 days of getting my teeth kicked in by the crematorium guard...

SirAndy · May 2019

vesselwiththepestle wrote: »

vMA is mostly learning to play the mechanics

nMA has the same mechanics so one can use that to learn without dying every 10 seconds ...

Kalgert · May 2019

Well it's... Nice that you two shared your stories about how you struggled for a week on your first run, and then miraculously began farting out the kind of damage and had the kind of survivability that allowed you to cut your second run down from a week down to a few hours.

Buuuut I already abandoned the quest, and I decided that I'm probably gonna be living a lot happier with not bothering with that. Alternatively I can try going there with a Templar or Sorcerer who're built to be tanky... But something tells me that it won't end that well for either of 'em.

SirAndy wrote: »

vesselwiththepestle wrote: »

vMA is mostly learning to play the mechanics

nMA has the same mechanics so one can use that to learn without dying every 10 seconds ...

Problem with that is... Outside of getting in grips with the tighter mechanics (Outside of "Get out of the fire" stuff), you won't be really getting that well gripped with certain things, because they... Well, they more or less scrape against you rather than deal any heavy damage... Except for the Argonians, they can actually deal a good amount of damage.

Insco851 · May 2019

Well it’s a build and or rotation issue. I can tell you that. Without getting that looked at- it won’t change.

A semi-decent build would at least be making it to the ice rink before huge troubles.

Not being mean, have you tested your dps on a dummy? What is it? What’s the build you’re running? What food? What’s your strategy? Did you attempt to look at videos on YouTube to get a better idea of what to do?

But hey. You don’t HAVE to beat Vma.

Kalgert · May 2019

Insco851 wrote: »

Well it’s a build and or rotation issue. I can tell you that. Without getting that looked at- it won’t change.

A semi-decent build would at least be making it to the ice rink before huge troubles.

Not being mean, have you tested your dps on a dummy? What is it? What’s the build you’re running? What food? What’s your strategy? Did you attempt to look at videos on YouTube to get a better idea of what to do?

But hey. You don’t HAVE to beat Vma.

Last time I checked, it was... 14-15k DPS, running with Spriggan and Hundings, with Selene's two-piece, golden daggers. A Dark Eld Stamina Dragon Knight, the food I use is... That brown fish with potato something (Not on the character that I tried with, so I can't say exactly), strategy is "Try not to die", which isn't working over too well, I'd rather try doing a "Run until you drop " run IRL than watch a video on Youtube.

I can try to make a quick recording me beating up a skeleton, if that helps.

Edit: I know I don't "HAVE" to beat it. This was just something made in the spur of the moment, after seeing some bloke brag about how he did it super duper fast, and felt the need to brag about it

Insco851 · May 2019

Kalgert wrote: »

Insco851 wrote: »

Well it’s a build and or rotation issue. I can tell you that. Without getting that looked at- it won’t change.

A semi-decent build would at least be making it to the ice rink before huge troubles.

Not being mean, have you tested your dps on a dummy? What is it? What’s the build you’re running? What food? What’s your strategy? Did you attempt to look at videos on YouTube to get a better idea of what to do?

But hey. You don’t HAVE to beat Vma.

Last time I checked, it was... 14-15k DPS, running with Spriggan and Hundings, with Selene's two-piece, golden daggers. A Dark Eld Stamina Dragon Knight, the food I use is... That brown fish with potato something (Not on the character that I tried with, so I can't say exactly), strategy is "Try not to die", which isn't working over too well, I'd rather try doing a "Run until you drop " run IRL than watch a video on Youtube.

I can try to make a quick recording me beating up a skeleton, if that helps.

Edit: I know I don't "HAVE" to beat it. This was just something made in the spur of the moment, after seeing some bloke brag about how he did it super duper fast, and felt the need to brag about it

Dw/Bow?

15k dps isn’t gonna cut it. You probably need to shoot for low to mid 20’s at least on a dummy before you go back into vma. Sprig/hundings is fine.

You need to be able to drop aoes on secondary targets while also dpsing something in front of you. The aoes needs to be doing good enough dmg to burn or at least almost burn secondary targets- (sometimes they will be priority targets but you are also having to evade and move) change moster set to storm fist to help with this. It’ll proc on your aoes behind you.

Secondly you need to build a bit more like a pvp toon. More regen than typical and you have to have self healing. Vigor gotta get on the bar unless you are able to burn the threat ASAP and 15k isn’t gonna do that.

Weapon power/crit pots are your friend. Or change the bar to run expert hunter. Crit is paramount.

Kalgert · May 2019

Huh, so I guess it is a good idea to just abandon the Veteran Maelstrom Arena Quest and just not bother with it.

Thanks for the confirmation

zvavi · May 2019

Insco851 wrote: »

.

Weapon power/crit pots are your friend.

There is little to no reason to use potions when you are not used to it yet, burning money is real. Also i heard VO makes it so much easier for stamina toon. Idk cause i didn't have it when i did it on my stam toons (sorc&nb)

vesselwiththepestle · May 2019

You need to get Vicious Ophidian as armor set, it makes everything a lot easier.

Practice your rotation more, I think I was at 30k when I did it the first time. It helps.

Watch or read guides to learn about the mechanics.

Make use of the sigils.

Make use of utility skills, like Blade Bloak. Use Igor before you get damage, it's a hot, don't overcast it.

But as you are calling players getting better by learning and training and just getting better a miracle, I think you should work on your idea of Jonathan's going to happen. It is not a miracle. It is insane hard whatever experienced players will tell you about how easy vma nowadays is. You have to overcome the constant humiliation by the vma. The vma is flooded by rivers made of the tears of the players who gave up. The vma doesn't only want to kill your character, but it wants to also break YOU. Don't give up. Stay on it. If you do, there won't be a miracle. What will happen is you getting good.

fred4 · May 2019

For the second round it helps to be a little tankier, for example by wearing Fortified Brass, and/or to have your healing over time well sorted, for example with Vigor + Troll King. These days you can get to a point where you can pretty much ignore the blades, if you just build tanky enough. All Protective jewelry is another good option, otherwise you must be adept at movement and using the switches.

If using dual-wield, I also recommend Bloodthirst, as it heals you while attacking. On magplar it becomes a question of getting to the targets quickly to spam Sweeps. Bloodthirst is similar. Blood Craze supplements it. Having said that, the skill I love the most, in vMA, is Shrouded Daggers. Steel Tornado is expensive, Bloodthirst only hits one target. Shrouded Daggers is perfect for the small groups of mobs in vMA, but also for the 3 bosses, should you not have enough DPS to keep two of them asleep.

For the ultimates, I prefer Dawnbreaker over Leap. It does more damage overall, it hits Daedra harder, and it doesn't spread enemies out. While Leap is cool, I find it unhelpful how it scatters enemies. My other ulti is Corrosive. Great to get you out of a jam. I suppose the Standard would also be a good one, but I like a cheap offensive ulti, combined with an expensive defensive one that you use when you have ulti saved and need more resources back.

As a PvPer I am used to making balanced builds and these also work well in vMA. I can never understand people running something like Spriggan + Hunding's + Selene. Even if you are an adept blade-dancer, where is your sustain? Furthermore, only the bosses have 18.2K resistances. Some of the mobs I am sure have zero resistances and, thus, Spriggan won't help you one bit against those.

It took me a long time to come to grips with doing good damage on DK. The key really is making the most of the DOTs. I currently run a medium armor dual-wield + bow setup, built around the Deadly Strike set and Troll King. I use various options for the third set, with Bone Pirate perhaps being the main choice. If you don't have that, I'd seriously consider Shacklebreaker. Having mag sustain to run wings is very helpful in the later levels of vMA. Battlefield Acrobat is another, underrated, set that would help with mag and stam sustain.

For what it's worth, my skill layout is something like:

Shrouded Daggers
Blood Craze
Venomous Claw
Noxious Breath
Wings (either morph)
Dawnbreaker of Smiting

Arrow Barrage
Shuffle
Resolving Vigor
Fragmented Shield
Spiked Armor (either morph)
Corrosive Armor

Morgul667 · May 2019

I wouldnt believe it myself before finishing vma but it does get much easier after your first run

Good luck

Joy division wrote a great guide about it

fred4 · May 2019

On a side note: I'm sure there are players running all offensive sets or offensive / sustain sets, but I bet they've also run vMA 100+ times and do 50K+ on a target dummy. In that case - I am guessing - you'd incorporate skills like Caltrops and Rearming Trap that you can lay down at spawn points while you already move on to other things. I've seen YouTube videos of people nuking the last boss, before he moves onto his lovely roiling cloud, bypassing a huge chunk of the mechanics. That's not you and that's not me. You can't take instruction from people like that, unless they are able to cast their mind back to when they started ESO.

fred4 · May 2019

Morgul667 wrote: »

I wouldnt believe it myself before finishing vma but it does get much easier after your first run

Good luck

Joy division wrote a great guide about it

While I agree and while guides help, the reason this happens is that, after the first complete run-through, you have worked out solutions to all the places you got stuck at. These tend to be specific to your build and playstyle. At the very least, the memory of the mechanics is something you have to build and can't just learn off the page.

fred4 · May 2019

I am using this thread as an excuse to run vMA with my current stam DK. Done the first 4 levels as I write this. It's a bit close for comfort. I would say a new player will need a tankier setup, but, oh the damage! This is with Deadly Strike, Bone Pirate, Troll King, Warrior Mundus, 1x Infused Cost reduction, 2x Robust Weapon damage and double DOT poisons. In case you are adopting a similar setup, I recommend you go with all Protective jewelry and Serpent mundus or 1x more Stam Recovery. I should also say I am a Nord. I think you may be better off with Fortified Brass on other races. This is all highly subjective, but just to give you an idea what feels comfortable to me. Some people may laugh - they're the ones who have memorised all the spawn points - but I would recommend some tankiness. I should also say I'm medium armor guy and that speed can help in vMA. Again, this is subjective, but I'd stick with medium for the higher sprint speed. The Steed mundus is also not a bad idea.

Jagdkommando · May 2019

Kalgert wrote: »

Huh, so I guess it is a good idea to just abandon the Veteran Maelstrom Arena Quest and just not bother with it.

Thanks for the confirmation

You will need that vMA weapons, they are hands down the strongest weapons in the game, especially the bow!

Kalgert · May 2019

Jagdkommando wrote: »

Kalgert wrote: »

Huh, so I guess it is a good idea to just abandon the Veteran Maelstrom Arena Quest and just not bother with it.

Thanks for the confirmation

You will need that vMA weapons, they are hands down the strongest weapons in the game, especially the bow!

*lets out a fart*

Oh, sorry... That's just how much I care about these "Strongest weapons in the game".

fred4 · May 2019

Kalgert wrote: »

Jagdkommando wrote: »

Kalgert wrote: »

Huh, so I guess it is a good idea to just abandon the Veteran Maelstrom Arena Quest and just not bother with it.

Thanks for the confirmation

You will need that vMA weapons, they are hands down the strongest weapons in the game, especially the bow!

*lets out a fart*

Oh, sorry... That's just how much I care about these "Strongest weapons in the game".

It's obviously a Catch-22, so Jagdcommando is just trying to be clever. The bow is good, but it only buffs one skill. I'm really impressed with Deadly Strike on DK and it's something you can buy. I'd actually go for Well-Fitted. Not expensive in that trait.

Kalgert · May 2019

fred4 wrote: »

Kalgert wrote: »

Jagdkommando wrote: »

Kalgert wrote: »

Huh, so I guess it is a good idea to just abandon the Veteran Maelstrom Arena Quest and just not bother with it.

Thanks for the confirmation

You will need that vMA weapons, they are hands down the strongest weapons in the game, especially the bow!

*lets out a fart*

Oh, sorry... That's just how much I care about these "Strongest weapons in the game".

It's obviously a Catch-22, so Jagdcommando is just trying to be clever. The bow is good, but it only buffs one skill. I'm really impressed with Deadly Strike on DK and it's something you can buy. I'd actually go for Well-Fitted. Not expensive in that trait.

I wasn't sure what he was going on about exactly, but my sentiment still stands. I just fart and burp whenever someone tries to bring up some kind of significance to these items/activities.

And if I will be honest. As much as it's nice that you're trying to be helpful with the talk about gear sets and such, but... I've given up on wanting to do Maelstrom Arena, or at least in wanting to do it seriously. The sentiment mostly comes from a realization that trying to be a DPS.... Is pretty stressful.

After all I am now switching to being a tank with most of my characters. At least then I can play and feel confident in knowing that my worst enemy are mechanics and other DPS who don't do tank-saving mechanics, rather than having to worry about how much DPS I am doing, and also worry about mechanics.

Jagdkommando · May 2019

Kalgert wrote: »

Jagdkommando wrote: »

Kalgert wrote: »

Huh, so I guess it is a good idea to just abandon the Veteran Maelstrom Arena Quest and just not bother with it.

Thanks for the confirmation

You will need that vMA weapons, they are hands down the strongest weapons in the game, especially the bow!

*lets out a fart*

Oh, sorry... That's just how much I care about these "Strongest weapons in the game".

Hmm so if you are farting and dont care, delete your topic and gtfo from here

Kalgert · May 2019

Jagdkommando wrote: »

delete your topic and gtfo from here

Eat me.

JadonSky · May 2019

So iv been playing the game for many years. My first time attempting vMA was a little over a year ago. I could make it it to stage 7 without issues (Vault of Umbrage) then kept dyeing over and over. I finally dropped it and about a month ago I felt like I could try it again bc I really understand builds, rotation, and mechanics a lot better then I did a year ago (last year about 20k dps this year hitting the 38-42k dps). I was able to complete it the first go in about 3.5 hours. I died the most on the final stage and wanted to punch my monitor across the room. But man when I finally finished it felt like a huge accomplishment. But I don't think I will do it again anytime soon lol

.

I think once you get a better build (bc it sounds like your dps is on the low side, and I recommend doing it on normal a few runs just to understand the mechanics) you too can beat the arena. Good luck!

PancakeHead · May 2019

I don't mean this to be rude but it sounds like you're just not that good and don't care enough to take advice people are giving. Normally you can blow through the stages until the ice round and then it gets really hard from that point on. If you can't even get there and are giving up, you probably should because the ice, poison, spider, and final round are what drive most people crazy.

For what it's worth, I had the most success as a magplar with iceheart and using puncturing strikes a lot for health regeneration. You may also want to try zooming out as far as you can so you can see more of what's coming.

I didn't used to believe it when people said it got easier after you beat it the first time but your brain adapts and it does. I think it took me eight tries to get the inferno staff and by then I was beating it in an hour or so whereas the first time took me an enormous amount of time.

There's also a lot of flawless runs on youtube for every type of character that might be helpful.

Shantu · May 2019

It's obvious the OP in not looking for help and is here just to spread salt. vMA is beatable, but you need a mindset that will allow you to adapt to the challenges and determination to continue. He has neither...which is perfectly fine. vMA is not for everyone.

Kalgert · May 2019

Shantu wrote: »

It's obvious the OP in not looking for help and is here just to spread salt. vMA is beatable, but you need a mindset that will allow you to adapt to the challenges and determination to continue. He has neither...which is perfectly fine. vMA is not for everyone.

You know nothing about me.