Like Yami said: if you want to do vet, make sure to open up your group/party window and change the difficulty to vet BEFORE entering MA area. So don't port in to even the outside zone until you change the difficulty.

I recommend looking up each arena, too.
Ice arena can be really hard if you don't know that the platforms get destroyed at health percentages. So you can slow boss dps and focus adds and take your time.

The little red spiders won't hurt you if you're in the golden light that shifts around from those small stone pillars. Kill web spinners to keep them clear and either kill the hoarvers on top of webbed pillars or synergize their dead body and throw the stuff on a webbed stone to clear it.

RogueShark wrote: »

Like Yami said: if you want to do vet, make sure to open up your group/party window and change the difficulty to vet BEFORE entering MA area. So don't port in to even the outside zone until you change the difficulty.

I recommend looking up each arena, too.
Ice arena can be really hard if you don't know that the platforms get destroyed at health percentages. So you can slow boss dps and focus adds and take your time.

The little red spiders won't hurt you if you're in the golden light that shifts around from those small stone pillars. Kill web spinners to keep them clear and either kill the hoarvers on top of webbed pillars or synergize their dead body and throw the stuff on a webbed stone to clear it.

Agreed, best word of advice is to watch some videos on MA bc after the 3rd arena it's really all about mechanics and each arena is different on what you should do. If you prefer to read then watch you can also use alcast guide: https://alcasthq.com/eso-maelstrom-guide/

I recommend doing this and practicing on normal until you can complete it without dying bc vet is a whole different monster. Good luck and don't feel bad it took me 2 years until I finally completed vet (same as you going back and fourth trying it) and 3 years to do a perfect vet. Now I will never do it again lol.

I want that bow in a bad way!!!!

Bear in mind that the difference in difficulty between Normal and Veteran Maelstrom Arena is substantial.

Much pain lies ahead!


Persistence pays off in the end though.

I got through the ice stage and poison flowers in vMA with maybe 10 deaths each, and have spent probably 5+ hours on the stage 9 final boss alone

Still haven't finished it LUL

I am here to admit that I'm pathetic. I rage quit on arena 9 normal. The batteries kept falling out of my controller every time I got that boss down about halfway. I didn't know the back had broken. But it was such a bad experience that I haven't gone back. I've never rage quit anything in the game before and I nearly destroyed the controller slamming it onto the floor. So yeah, pathetic. Lol

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Bear in mind that the difference in difficulty between Normal and Veteran Maelstrom Arena is substantial.

Much pain lies ahead!


Persistence pays off in the end though.

Agree - pretty much all normal does is show you what vet will look like - the difficulty jump is still really high.

With the right build, guides and experience, vet is very doable tho.

Shantu wrote: »

It took me about 3 months to get thru the last boss of the last arena...including a few episodes of rage quitting for a week. I remember reading about how when others who had struggled finally beat it, they we're ecstatically elated. When I finally beat it, I just stared at the screen and said to myself "God that sucked."

Since then I've probably beat it 50-60 times, got all the gear (99% of which is utterly useless). About the only time I felt good about it was when I got the bows and fire staffs. Other then that, I don't think I've ever ran such a miserable piece of gaming content in my life.

PS: Wait until you get to experience the utter RGN bull crap of the poison flowers (Arena 7).

Is the fire staff the one that throws those giant people sized O's or is it some other thing that makes them do that?

And anyway, with the intense lag on EU server, what's the point of trying?

Honestly the gear you get from the effort isn't really worth it as it is bad design and add to the lag with rng it's just a bull crap
And on vMA improving you is just a delusion want to improve? go with pvp.

Veteran Maelstrom Arena is a beast to conquer - do not bash yourself too hard when you first realise the difficulty in there. I believe we all had a very hard time the first time.

The first pain point might be the 2nd arena because of the whirling blades. I suggest to try to learn how to dance around them before trying to deal with the adds. When you know how to dance, the arena becomes trivial.

The next pain point might be the rink of the frozen blood. If you do not know what to do and how the fight against Matriarch Runa goes, the fight can go south really fast. My advice: take it slow. There's no RNG in the fight, trolls spawns every 30 seconds IIRC and the add spawns and mechanics occurs on health % thresholds. Get her down to a certain threshold, kill the adds and then continue damaging her. Save some burst for the last ice platform.

Now, the next pain point is the vaults of umbrage (the argonian place). This arena is something I still hate and I still feel anxious about. On the boss fight, you need to know where the plants and the adds (menders) are. I personally switch every AoE skill to a single target skill to prevent me from accidentally killing the menders. For me, the highest priority is to kill the poison callers and I deal damage to the behemoth when menders are near the plants and when I sit in a bubble while the behemoth shouts.

The last arena (Theatre of despair) is also a pain point. The first time was definetely the hardest, because without knowing the choreography of the fight, it feels like you die without a clear cause. My fight pattern goes something like: lay AoEs before the boss spawns, burst him and block the first skull, dodge roll to him to interupt the flame wheel. Burst him to 70%. Dance with the adds and kill them. Teleport up and destroy 1 crystal and damage the second down to 50%,jump down and dance with the adds and kill them, teleport up and destroy the remaining crystals. Then grab the shield and weapon sigil and burst him down. (with shield sigil you do not interruot the flame wheel, because the shield sends the skulls back to him and damages him)

On the first run, just use the sigils as much as you like. There's no shame using them and you won't get a good score because you're learning. Use as much survival skills as you need, because survival is more important than having top DPS in vMA. I prefer having burst damage over sustainable damage in vMA because I feel like I cannot stand still and do a rotation in there.