do you enjoy the veteran arenas?

Varana · March 2020

Robo_Hobo wrote: »

Never went into nBRP yet let alone vBRP, figure I should finish vDSA first before trying that, since I hear it's a lot more difficult.

You should be able to go into normal BRP. Like most content, esp. newer one, the jump between normal and veteran is insane, and normal BRP is quite a bit easier than vDSA.

Klad · March 2020

The arena's are the best PVP in ESO, and should have been the core PVP play, that is more true to the TES philosophy, than a idiotic war on a home brewed engine that will never be able to handle mass PVP.

Minyassa · March 2020

Not really. They are a carpal tunnel nightmare, just repetitive action after repetitive action until the wrists give out, rest, rinse and repeat. And since the best gear comes from them, they are a necessity rather than something fun to try as a change of pace, which means failure is frustrating and disheartening and adds to the pain. So they are entirely a negative experience that does not spark joy.

krachall · March 2020

Love vMA and vDSA. I haven't tried a vBRP yet but running it fast on normal was fine.

But like was mentioned above, I wouldn't even try vMA without studying the player-written guides out there. Some of the mechanics are so obscure and so choreographed and so convoluted that I'd never have figured them out myself.

Mechanics that kinda make sense are fine: You must kill these two trash mobs because they shield the boss and you can't damage the boss until they die. Got it. And yeah, I'd figure it out.

But "Kill all mobs that are wearing green shirts because that will activate the portal you can jump in and pull all the levers that are glowing the same color as the one trash mob you left alive. The lever will teleport you to Elam Drals in the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary where you can buy a candle. Activate any synergy simultaneously with a heavy attack and you'll drop through a hole above the boss. DPS the boss to 52% health...but no less than 51% health...and the cycle will repeat. But this time, a wall of ghosts will circle the boss and you must kill every third ghost before the circle collapses..."

Yeah. No.

MattT1988 · March 2020

Love the vet arenas. Hanging out for more.

worrallj · March 2020

I've only done vdsa and vma.

I really liked the vdsa experience tbh. Only done it once, and it was right in the sweet spot for me between too hard and not hard enough to where I had fun. Died a few times but not so many that I started checking the clock or my soul gems.

I'm a little less interested in solo arenas at this point- I like the group play.

For vma... I liked it ok - it was a thrill/ego boost the first time but also a slog. I died a LOT. Your right I only did it to get a weapon and I don't have big plans to do it again. But also I like having a very tough solo achievement under my belt.

Khumbu · March 2020

No. I go in, get what I need, and get out (thank the Eight the Master’s Resto Staff dropped early!)

They aren’t awful, they just aren’t the kind of content I’d love to do over and over again for fun or for the pure challenge of it. Vet trials are much more satisfying in that department.

Artim_X · March 2020

Although rng mechanics can be annoying. I still feel that clearing vMA makes people better players. I would love to see more solo arenas added into the game or perhaps an arena that adjusts to the number of peeps in an arena (1-4). *crosses fingers for some Battlespire action*

DorianDragonRaze · March 2020

Wow, I did not know the veteran arenas are supposed to be enjoying.

krachall · March 2020

Artim_X wrote: »

Although rng mechanics can be annoying. I still feel that clearing vMA makes people better players. I would love to see more solo arenas added into the game or perhaps an arena that adjusts to the number of peeps in an arena (1-4). *crosses fingers for some Battlespire action*

Absolutely. I played on and off for 5 years before clearing VMA the first time a few weeks ago. I was fairly stubborn and insisted on clearing on one of the harder builds, stamblade, because that's literally all I play, instead of making a more vma friendly build. But since clearing it and figuring out things to make my runs faster and more efficient, my play outside of vma has gotten FAR better -- both in soloing group content and playing harder content with groups.

The two most important things vMA has helped me improve are:

1. Pressing DPS with your head on a swivel instead of staring at the boss. This technique is critical in so many stages -- Ice (watching for archers and the troll), Stage 6 (watching for hoarver and the webspinner), and 9 of course (archers, summoners, gold ghosts).
2. Pressing melee DPS while avoiding boss damage. I'm playing with around 15k hp and can be one-shotted by just about every boss. Learning to orbit the boss while staying in melee range and still keeping up my rotation has been critical. Also, recognizing when I'm falling behind and need to roll-dodge through the boss to start the orbit with a bit more lead is important.

Seminolegirl1992 · March 2020

vDSA is not enjoyable. It's too long and tedious. vMA is sorta fun. But still grindy. The most fun is definitely vBRP.

codierussell · March 2020

I think all are somewhat enjoyable depending what you are going for.

VDSA is the least fun for me since it has been around for a long time and it takes forever to clear. In the groups I do it with we go pretty fast as we are always around the 40k score mark, but it feels like most of it is listening to dialog and not actually playing.

VMA is still one of the best additions I think they have added to the game. Although it has been around for years people still run it to push scores and get gear. The only thing I don't like is that the content is rather easy compared to when it released, it could do with some much needed upgrades to make it more difficult or change it permanently to what the event was dropping to make it more interesting and worth it to do.

VBRP is by far my favourite for two reasons. First, it is difficult regardless of how many times you run it, and second, there are still achievements I need from it (The Unchained). It is a little buggy I must say but other that not being able to grab a sigil it is not different than the other two. The only reason why I think people hate on vbrp is because most people cannot complete it.

thadjarvis · March 2020

MA:

Not perfect but great way to "learn to play" on own time without the stress of wiping group
Weapon rewards are nice even if you already have all of them for alts and enchant options
Great way to test out my ability with an alt before taking into vDLC content (I parse too but prefer vMA as it's more fun)
It's not too long and can be sped up which is nice for solo content. 35-60min for most once cleared several times.
Great continued practice on not dying driving defensive needs down over time in other content

DSA:

A lot of wasted time. I feel as though you sit around waiting for stage, round, and spawns to start for far too long. And if your group can clear it, the adds rounds are a complete formality.
The runs often take an hour with about 10minutes of content.
The difficulty gap (DPS/tactics) between the final boss and the rest is pretty massive (the other arena's not at all).
Can't be soloed as far as I know, which limits it.
Will say that the voice acting and some of the boss mechanics are good after all the fluff.

I only really enter this if someone wants an item, and maybe to get a score on the board for weekly and when the general leadboard resets.

BRP:
Maybe round 1 you can a bit, but the rest you can't really slack around. You have to pay attention. I can see that many would not like that, but for a small group of (in-game) friends that enjoy progressing together it is the ideal type of content. Group comp, builds, tactics tailored to group, etc. all come into play or at least there is value to incorporate thought. Eg I've seen very high score runs of standard 1 healer/2DD or 3 DPS as well as unique playstyles of 2 healers(+tank+dd) and 2 tanks+2dds!

It is not perfect at all, but I think BRP is one of the best playgrounds for build and team. I run it regardless of rewards.

I have regularly put up for DSA/BRP runs in discord and get bites everytime. BRP is best for groups that are capable to progress vDLC/hms. DSA has much lower capability requirements, but due to the common final boss strat (the only I know), you need a certain level of group DPS.

Ozby · March 2020

Can't stand them tbh

Cage_Lizardman · March 2020

I like pugging vDLC's, but never cared much for the arenas. And not just because you can't use the dungeon finder for them.

vMA I never liked probably because it was such a massive pain to get through the first time.

vDSA I've done many times, with varying groups but mostly for the gear, or to show newbies how to do it. It's too damn long, and if you have a group that can get past the sacrifice stage, everything before it is just trivial and time-consuming.

vBRP is just... really hard, completely unpuggable and almost demands specific setups. I've tried to dd it a few times and failed, and tanked it once thanks to the rest of the group being experienced. I imagine it might be fun to work on though.

rumple9 · March 2020

Worst part of the game

Demalb16_ESO · March 2020

I recently cleared vMA a couple of time and I have to say that I think that vMA is ridiculous for a couple of motifs:
1) you can do an arena with mechanics and such for people who enjoy clear them but you cannot put a needed item as reward for compleating it moreover if you put them only at the end of the last stage. You can put a Title as a reward such as "master of the X arena ecc" or you can give a costume. givingi item is equal to forcing people do it and not a couple times dozens of times to drop the right set..... this is not playing this is torture!
2) I saw that a lot of people do make the distintion between veteran player and novice player. I cleared tha arena two times wasting a lot of hours , if being a veteran player means that I have to do the vMA so many times that I colud do it with my eyes closed than I'm happy be a "novice".
3) The vMA should be a challange and as a challeng it should be difficult, but a player should not be forced to do it or he should not fell as if he was forced to do it to get items that they need .