First time I was in vMA:
I managed to beat the first arena with no deaths and got my hopes up. I tought this was going to be easy, but the very next arena with the whirling blades caught me by surprise. I just couldn't figure out how can I dance with the blades and survive. After multiple deaths, I quitted shamefully and forgot the arena.

Fast forwarding a year or so, I was able to beat it. When I finally decided I will beat the Maelstrom Arena on veteran, I devised a plan: I do it in 5 days by doing 2 arenas a day leaving the 9th one as only one on the last day.

The first day of the succesful run: I managed to beat the first arena with no deaths, just like on my first try and then was the time to finally master the dancing around the blades. I did die multiple times and took some breaks to avoid tilting. If I recall correctly, it was after my seventh death I managed to get some coreography to survive and after that, I was able to beat the arena.

The second day I continues my try. First arena on the second day was the third one, the swamp with the lamia boss. There didn't seem to be anything too difficult there. The next arena was also quite easy, however I did once die to the dwemer spheres while fighting against Engine Guardian-like boss. Because the arenas were so smooth, I decided to do the fifth arena also. I did die a couple of times, because I didn't understand which mobs to prioritise. I knew the trolls were a must kill and because I was a stam sorc, I needed to run across the icy lake to get to those trolls. On the final boss of the fifth arena I did die several times. The very first time I was doing too much DPS as in I was stacking too many mechanics and adds. I popped up a guide and realised where I was wrong and how the fight really goes. Next try I still didn't understood completely how to prioritise the adds, but after that, I was finally understanding the fight and it became one of my favorite bosses.

The third day: the sixth arena was breeze for me. Popping hoarvors and nuking boss without sweating. And then was time for the arena that still gives me headaches and anxiety: the vale of surreal. Lots of deaths: flowers, poison callers (?), taking aim... I must say, I kinda understand why the AD was eating all those argonian eggs in Shadowfen. When I finally best the arena, I was soo happy and excited.

The fourth day: I started with one of the easiest arenas: 8th one. No deaths and no anxiety. However, I did struggle with the last arena. Because of all the deaths, I can somehow remember where everything spawns and one thing that made the arena easier was learning how to dance with crematorial guards. The final boss was an hour of learning when to dodge, when to interrupt, when to jump down from the crystals - after I managed to destroy all crystals, I just grabbed every sigil and nuked the boss and then yelled out loud from happiness.

geonsocal wrote: »

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

First ever attempt I got to that stage with the spinning things everywhere, couldn't figure out how to tank them, got frustrated and swore it all off.

At one point I looked up youtube guides and saw how you have to be mobile and memorize spawns and all sorts of other nonsense to complete it. I have no time for that. I'm lucky if I can finish my daily crafting writs lately.

I stumbled across Maelstrom Arena while exploring Wrothgar. I was still very new and unfamiliar with the entire game- green as green can be (delves were my challenge and farming mats my pastime). I think I had gear I found on my Orc DK that could maybe push 5k dps (though I had no idea what dps was back then ~ circa 2015). I know it was only normal (I was nowhere near level 50 back then), but I had a tough time of it! lol! I don't think I finished it, because I remember saying to myself, "Man! Does this thing ever end?!?!"

I had attempted VMA twice before this current event. In the past I'd get to the frozen rink and hit a brick wall and quit attempting for a year. I'm on my 3rd day here, made it to the frozen rink on the first day, made the next 2 stages yesterday and now I'm on the final stage and boss and here letting my blood pressure return to normal levels. I'm not one of those people that are good with fast mechanics, I've had some really good luck along the way, dying just as a couple of final bosses died but hey, a win is a win, right? In fact, a couple of wins have caused my hands to be shaky for a good 10 minutes after, funny now that I can laugh at myself. I am determined to not quit this time around!

Uh, that's easy...Dead....dead....dead....exit VMA. LOL.

Seriously though, I have no problem making it to the Ice islands stage (whatever it's called). I can't seem to move quick enough on the final round.

My very first experience was taking my stamblade in to vMA on release day. After completing stage 1 within the first few tries I felt pretty optimistic. Stage 2 removed all of the optimism I had.

A couple months later I leveled a magblade just for the purpose of taking it in to vMA and spent weeks struggling to just get to get a little further than my previous attempt. Eventually I found myself at the last boss of the last stage and played in to the wee hours of the morning only to give up. I tried again the next day and finally (barely) cleared it early the following morning.

It was both one of the most frustrating and most fun experiences of my gaming life. I really want a new, harder solo arena now.

I wanted to chllange myself and beat it without any sigils on my first try,and so i DID ! but ofc i died shittons of times and it took me like 6-8 hours to complete it lmao. Oh and also i've got all the weapons (almost? i think) except the inferno staff.... even with double rewards i can't get it... it's exhusting and ZOS need to do something with it.

I tryed it for the first time yesterday I was killed by the first mob I had some frame drop due to some opened windows on the browser I quited just outside I got frame drop again and was killed by a spider so I thought I will give it another shoot with just few windows on the browser and buf food that I thought I will not need in the first arena because normal MA was very easy the first arena at least.

I did nMA on the Orsinium PTS and thought it was easy enough so then gave I vet a go on my mDK lol.

It seemed like mayhem and just a bunch of "make dead" mechanics.

My build was a joke - no resto - just green dragon blood for a heal - and I was trying to do it without using sigils thinking that would help me learn it ah ha ha.

I managed to beat the first boss on PTS - who was already being mocked for being too easy.

I'm basically a PvP player so i really didn't need anything from vMA. I did run vet trials but there a plenty of alternatives for vMA staves - plus I suck at video games so I always assumed there would be a level I just couldn't clear - most likely the final boss.

That doesn't help your motivation to do hard content much - so I left it for a long while.

Went back because it's there.

I managed to get to level 5 - this was after saved progress became a thing. Then I gave in on the no sigils, read some guides, made a lot of build changes and started to clear the later rounds.

Much to my surprise, I did manage to beat the final boss - but after more than a few attempts lol. I've since run vMA many times on my mDK and finally got my fire staff plus several spares.

I even manged to get my first main - a stamplar crafter through - just because he was there in the beginning.

Nowadays, vMA is my favourite PvE content - whenever I'd like a legit fight, it's there waiting. It's nothing like the mayhem that it was, but I still find it fun.

I got worked hard until I learned and then I got worked hard a bit more until i learned a bit more. Then I got the inferno first clear and sorta didn't go back. I sorta still don't want to. Last time was super laggy. I couldn't switch bars like ever

Easy at first... then got harder.... and harder.... then I hit the Rink of frozen blood. One month later I beat the Rink of Frozen Blood and then got stuck on Spiders for another month, but after that everything went rather well until the last stage.

Last stage took me 3 months to complete, tons of set grinding, and in the end what I just needed to do was flap my Dragonknight's wings. Final boss killed himself on his own fireballs. R.I.P.

Been back to the game little less than a 9 months now, and I still haven't gone in there. I'm not sure how I'll fear..but something tells me I better have a few keyboards on order.