Official Feedback Thread for Maelstrom Arena

ZOS_GinaBruno · October 2015

This is the official feedback thread for Maelstrom Arena. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes:

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
What was your favorite reward?

Teiji · October 2015

Traits on weapons should get the Imperial City trait treatment.

Please, please very polite and sincere please! Sharpened, Weighted, Defending [for one hand sword] and so on.

By and so on I mean traits should make sense. Magicka weapons should have traits which greatly benefit them, Stamina weapons the same.

They are Master's weapons after all. If you can't do this because we all must be punished for some reason, then that's understandable as we are all at your mercy.

SleepyTroll · October 2015

Please no vet16 training please for the love all that is RNG.

Personofsecrets · October 2015

@ZOS_GinaBruno

Trait changes

I will pay $50.00 for trait changes.

Antirob · October 2015

The destro staffs should proc a seperate elemental dot (like the sheer venom 5 piece bonus) or increase the damage wall of elements does over time.

The sword should give back stam when you use low slash.

Teiji · October 2015

Can we please work together to get a consensus going visibly for the ZoS team so it's harder for them to justify not making a change for the long term health of the game?

For example; The Masters Sword is used for 1h & shield users, this is usually for durable characters, traits could be the following; Sharpened, Weighted, Defending and Precise. [Community please add suggestions too.]

Destruction staff? Weighted, Sharpened, Infused and Precise. [Community please add suggestions too.]

Resto staff? Weighted, Sharpened, Infused and Precise. [Community please add suggestions too.]

Dagger and 2h? Weighted, Sharpened, Infused and Precise. [Community please add suggestions too.]

Bow? Weighted, Sharpened, Infused and Precise. [Community please add suggestions too.]

Personally I'd prefer to not have Infused on the pool but this post isn't about what I want it's about what we all believe to be factually and most mathematically efficient with the thought of positive long term health of the game in-mind.

Enodoc · October 2015

Looking forward to trying this out. Unfortunately it'll take 12 hours for my PTS to update...

Phingers · October 2015

I played a Magicka NB build with Proxy Det, Sap ess, Merc Ressolve and funnel health mostly.
I played the normal and on a easy scale I rate it a 7/10, decently easy. Which honestly I think is fine for the average player.
I didnt finish it due to one level hitting me for constant 15ks. In terms of loot I got a few pieces of different item sets in my first run, it tended to be alot of gloves though. Love the design of the arenas very creative combat. If I could change one thing it would probably be to have alittle less commentation by that woman thats watching, reminds me too much of mum.

Glory · October 2015

Died first boss because I had to walk away from my comp. Wayshrined, reentered the arena and the boss didn't spawn.

Stuck in the arena, even if I drop the quest, and the mist follows me so I can't even get out of combat...

nordickittyhawk · October 2015

I finshed normal arena i honestly thought round 1 to 3 could use a buff zos they are really really really weak; thou the closer i got to the end it got really really fun

. Thou i would love some battle music ZOS like there is just calm not very exciting (epic) music to keep me pumped.

Another thing is the announcer is that he he is not even close to hiath the battle master i wish u could get dev team bring back that voice acter and make him say more taunts or funny lines like hiath so i feel like im being pushed than just hearing over n over n over again "ooo that must of hurt" or "lets see if your surivie this round".

The loot is eh... i guess ok i dont know will have to see got like 4 out of the ten rounds set peice which is fine to be honest.

Normal needs a buff like i said so i give it a 3/10 for how hard it is (thou it was my first time so i see it becoming a cake wall)

Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?:

The spider one... because spiders zos!!!! SPIDERS!!!. im joking worst was the dwemer round 2nd one it was pretty pathetic boss wise and mechanic wise i didnt feel need to learn mechanics and boss was just eh...
2)
Which Arena gave you the most trouble?

The argonian one that boss! OMG... I love it but i had most trouble due to rescources but i loved it ^-^ i did find it buggy when it came to the "safe area" from venom mage thing... it would dissappear.

3)Which Arena was your favorite, and why?:

The litch one OMG i bloody love it zos! the ghost buff was so fun and the boss was really fun thou my caltrops and camo hunter kinda...l ruined all rounds as everything died pretty quick (DONT U DARE NERF... your fault zos that happened not the skill)

Alendrin · October 2015

Played normal until Spiral Shadows (Area 6)

VR15 templar, puncturing sweeps build, pretty good gear (spell power 2200 unbuffed), ~300 CP

First three areas were quite easy; fourth and fifth were a little harder

I had to give up during the sixth area - the red spiders would all swarm me and bite for 4k each and I would keep getting killed by them. I gave up after about 10 tries (and was in the final round) as it is late. I suspect I can figure out a way to mitigate the damage, but I'm done for the night.

The 50% damage reduction issue across all content (Wrothgar and all current live content) impacted my build quite a bit and I had constant mana issues, mitigated by channeled focus, resto staff heavies,and potions.

Rewards seemed fine, I got a couple of blue set pieces.

Favorite so far was the fourth zone
Least favorite was obviously the sixth and I would remove the part where I get swarmed by spiders, obviously

Overall it was really fun though.

NovaShadow · October 2015

I've reached Champion of Atrocity on normal mode (vr16 stam nb) and I'm stuck. She keeps 1 shotting me with 2 16k spits and I cannot escape. Perhaps there is a way to avoid them or get a heal off in the split second between spits but after 15 goes I gave up.

The nurf to dmg needs to be addressed because its hard to test this arena when I'm hitting for half what I do on live.

Other than that its super fun, I love not relying on other people and having to deal with everything myself. Makes me concentrate so much harder when I know everything's coming for me.

code65536 · October 2015

Magicka nightblade, built like most magblades, relying heavily on Funnel Health and Sap Essence, CP in the 190's, VR16
Normal mode, but I limited myself to never using any sigils
6-7; the early rounds were insanely easy, but some of the later rounds were very frustrating, so it averages out to 6-7, I guess
Favorite? Hard to say... I guess the one with the warding stones that I had to destroy; it's an interesting mechanic
Least favorite? Probably the ice arena or the poison arena. At least when the trolls break the ice, you can see it coming and do something about it. But when the boss does? It happens out of the blue, and AFAICT, there's nothing that I can do about it, except to kill the boss before that happens.
Most trouble was probably the poison arena. The poison AoEs spawn too fast--there's no way I can move out of their spawn locations when I see them, and then I get hit by the poison effect. I did use the green pools to dispel the poison, but the frequency and sheer density of the AoEs meant that I was very soon hit by poison again, and the pool had not respawned. I ended up having to slot Purge so that I can dispel the poison without running all over the place and hoping that the pool has respawned. The spider round is a very close second (I debated which one was worse) because there is just so much going on--preventing the webspinner from disabling the obelisks (at least, that's what I think was happening), running to the safe ones, and taking down the enemies all the while.
I received set items in about half the chests. None of the sets seemed that interesting, though. Did not get a Maelstrom weapon in the final chest.

Other thoughts...

I completed it, but it took me over 2 hours. I think I'll do much better in the future, now that I know (most) of the mechanics. Didn't use any sigils.
The final boss was easier than most of the other bosses. And didn't feel that final. I didn't even realize I was on the final boss until I killed him and got a skill point. A bit of banter like Hiath's would've made it clearer.
Some of the mechanics were not that obvious. On the final boss, I committed suicide on my first run because the boss was gone and I thought it was a glitch of some sort. Didn't realize until the second attempt that there were these portal plates that I had to use.

Fat_Cat45 · October 2015

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
-Magicka Sorcerer with pets, v16
-5 piece Necropotence v12, 2x Master Inferno, 2x Maw of the Infernal, 3x arcane WIllpower jewelry
-410 CP
-Bar 1: Matriarch, Crystal Frags, Daedric Prey, Force Pulse, Bound Aegis, Meteor
-Bar 2: Matriarch, Purge or Harness Magicka, Liquid Lightning, Hardened Ward, Bound Aegis, Storm Atronach

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
-Veteran

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
-9. Veteran. The final boss to round 8 wasn't able to be completed in over 50 attempts.

Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
-Arena 2. Unlike some other arenas, the environmental factor is able to be learned and doesn't depend upon random interactions (like lightning bolts from the sky, or the spawn locations of poison plants on Arena 7)

Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
-Arena 8, specifically for the final boss. The vulnerability after breaking all 3 binding stones is way too short. At most you could do 12% of her life in that time, but usually 8% on average. The adds spawn too fast to keep up with destroying the binding stones and damaging the boss in the short period of time. Eventually you get overwhelmed, and the duration of the fight lasted 15 minutes when I dropped her to the lowest HP at 40% because of the invulnerability.

EDIT: If the bug where we do half of the intended damage because of too high phsyical/spell resist on enemies, then disregard the above.

Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
-Arena 8 final boss, same reason as above. The vulnerability after destroying all 3 stones is too short, adds spawn too fast, and the overall length of the fight may be longer than 20 minutes because of the combination of those two.

EDIT: If the bug where we do half of the intended damage because of too high phsyical/spell resist on enemies, then disregard the above.

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
-Arena 1 is good how it is.

-Arena 2 is good how it is.

-Arena 3 is good how it is, although those Stranglers mess with the placement of your character. If they grab you for the farthest distance away you break the threshold for acceleration and get teleported backwards.

-Arena 4 is good how it is.

-Arena 5 is extremely unfavorable to melee players. Some of those enemies sit far back in the ice waters, basically forcing a ranged playstyle. Maybe expand each ice platform size a bit, or have them spawn closer to the glaciers.

-Arena 6 has a difficult boss just because of how chaotic it becomes. Webspinners, Hoarvers running around like headless chickens, spider hordes, and spider daedra adds. It if were easier to focus targets through the mobs that's what I would change. I died countless times there because those tiny spiders have big enough hit boxes to block my attacks on a hoarver or webspinner.

-Arena 7 was entertaining, but the random spawns on those plants got annoying. Just when you think things are going your way, one spawns just outside your vision and you walk into it.

-Arena 8 final boss stays vulnerable for at least 4 more seconds and adds spawn slightly slower.

How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
-Set item about 40% of the time. All armor pieces, so I don't know if jewelry drops from there

What was your favorite reward?
-Wingergrasp (I think) seems like an interesting set to promote Ice destruction staves

Here's a Twitch replay of me spending way too long going from arenas 2 through 8 twitch.tv/fat_cat45/v/19418204

McCracken79 · October 2015

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
VR16 Sorcerer, 215CP
5 Piece Kagrenacs, 3 willpower, 2 Torugs, 1 Kena
Destro/Resto

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
Both. Completed normal version, Could not get passed the 1st boss on Vet.

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
I give normal version a 7 and Vet a 10.

Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
The spider level. It took me a good 45 minutes to figure out I have to toss the bug grenades at the webbed obelisks. I was ready to take the bridge.

Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
The 1st level. On normal it was too easy however on vet it’s just ridiculously difficult, which is good.

Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
Spider level until I figured out the mechanics.

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
I noticed that towards the mid-levels it got more difficult and then the last three levels were really easy, at least for me. I’d like to see a progression here with the later levels being more difficult than the previous ones.

How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
RNGesus has never been kind to me, at all. I got nothing in the normal version of MSA. With that said I have never received a helm from any of the vet dungeons either and I have been playing and doing pledges since the beginning. Unlucky I guess.

What was your favorite reward?
See above answer.

Other than the horrible lag today on the PTS doing MSA I only noticed one bug if it's not intended. At first I was not running any addons. I was noticing it was taking me a very long time to kill things with low health. I mean my base spell damage is 3000 and when it’s buffed it’s over 3500. I do hella damage in vet dungeons but I felt like a level 40 in here, especially on vet.

So I turned on FTC to take a look at the damage output and noticed all damage was cut in half, at least. My overload attacks do anywhere from 17 to 19k and when they crit they are around 25k. I was only hitting thigs for 8k. Same with crushing shock, Crystal frags, and so on. Is this intended and has anyone else noticed this?

lathbury · October 2015

I had a bit of time yesterday after my guild pvp night so jumped on the PTS here is my review of what I saw and of the PTS in general.
Before I begin I would like to offer my appreciation to the team who have obviously worked very hard to get this out on schedule with plenty of time to test it. I could get used to these large content updates regularly and on time.
First off V14 templates seriously? I appreciate the content scales here but come on this is meant to be a test environment and with these templates testing build for the veteran mode maelstrom will be frustrating. Linked with this are the gear choices in the gear bags while I appreciate that not every specific build can be catered for with the templates I feel the gear offered does not cut the mustard for eg martial knowledge and turogs gear fine but with out turogs pact swords or great sword it limits you to running a dual staff build if your a caster also why none of the new jewlery or moster sets upgrade the templates to v16 and add these in please. Finally on the template structure Vampire and I'm assuming WW skills are unleveled and un morphed unlike all other skills in the templates please fix.

Right enough on the templates to the actual zone I didn't do any of the story as I don't want to spoil it for my self but I bought the new mount and pet and took them for a wander. It looks and feels fantastic new mobs to fight as well it just feels epic.
What I did do however was have a crack at normal difficulty maelstrom arena and this will be mainly what I talk about here.
The Story here is great I need to speak to my more lore inclined friends to find out about some of the characters. It looks feels and sounds fantastic it makes VDSA look very bland.

Also while mentioning VDSA it was so refreshing to have something other than humanoid bosses and some if not all of these were suitably epic.

The mechanics for a lot of the fights are very interesting and well done to the team responsible for designing these encounters clearly a lot of thought went into them. However here is one point I'd like to make the hints that popped up ruin the enjoyment of players like myself who like the feeling we get when we solve the problem presented by these challenges. I appreciate others don't like to wipe all night on a mechanic they are struggling with. so my suggestion would be to move these hints to the death recaps and remove the terrible have you tried using a potion recap hints these should only appear for low level charcters not in this kind of content the other hints would be a better fit and of more use. In short dont spoil the fun by giving us the answer to some of these well crafted problem it makes some feel patronised and is a massive spoiler.

The difficulty in my mind there are 2 answers to this one is done well the other not so much. The part that is done well is the learning curve they gradually introduce more mechanics throughout the arena sarting simple and moving to more tricky this is brilliant. my second thought though is that the overall difficulty for this content even on normal is set to low. Even with my previously mentioned crappy template build I was able to clear this content with out using any sigils with only a couple of deaths on my first time setting foot in there. I am not an uber elite player and I expected more than a couple deaths while learning mechanics. Even some of these deaths were me testing mechanics ie intentionally getting a poison dot and testing if you can heal through

while you can heal the dot it eventually explodes causing massive damage

. So I feel maybe crank it up slightly even on normal as I feel the jump to veteran will seem less jarring as I am seeing threads appear already about the vast difference. I will update this when the EU server gets character transfer with my experience in veteran with comparisons.

Loot OMG this is what I hate about the content I am running on live at the moment trying to complete sets from VWGT and VICP is terrible and you have Clearly listened as the drop rates seemed very resonable with me getting 4 or 5 set items in 1 with them becoming more frequent toward the end. The loot that did drop was interesting. a couple of pieces that caught my eye of were the Hunt leader set and the winterborn set. It seems again you have been listening to the community as an active member of the forums I have seen many posts from stamina sorcs saying the feel lack lustre and also I myself have commented that only pyromancer builds exist in the live meta with no cyromancers to be seen. These sets seem purpose built to adress that

All in all I think maelstrom arena and this DLC as a whole is very well done and demonstrates that ZOS are listening to the community and trying to provide something for all playstyles. I myself will definitely purchase this (subbed but even if I weren't) as when I cant get a healer or tank I'll just pop in to the Maelstrom.
so other than the points I raised very well done ZOS and its out on time. I like the direction your taking with the game with capped cp's and interesting new content.

Padhraigh · October 2015

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?

* Dark Elf Nightblade

All attribute points in magicka.

Health Enchants on Chest and Legs, rest Magicka.

34k Magicka, 22k Health with food buff, 1362 spell damage - very low - unbuffed.

I was built to survive while doing a fair bit of DPS, so it may have taken more time than needed, but definitely helped keeping me alive. Activating the power buff in each stage helped quite a bit for the time it was active.

* Bar 1 (1hand/shield, skills kept hroughout arena)
- Siphoning Attacks
- Funnel Health
- Refreshing Path
- Sap Essence
- Proximity Detonation

* Bar 2 (Restoration Staff, skills kept throughout arena)
- Mutagen
- Anti-Cavalry Caltrops
- Dark Shades
- Reapers Mark
- Mirage

Only used template gear as provided.

Armor

Head - Engine Guardian (light)
Shoulders - Engine Guardian (light)
Chest - Whitestrakes
Hands - Whitestrakes
Waist - Whitestrakes
Legs - Whitestrakes
Feet - Whitestrakes

Neck - Adroitness
Ring - Cyrodiils Light
Ring - Cyrodiils Light

Bar 1 Weapons
- Hammer of Resilient Yokeda
- Shield of Resilient Yokeda

Bar 2 Weapon

- Restoration Staff of Torugs Pact

*Champion Points

*Blue
- 30 points in Elfborn, Apprentice
- 70 points in Thaumaturge, Ritual

*Red
- 20 points in Block Expertise, Steed
- 21 points in Hardy, Lady
- 21 points in Elemental Defender, Lady
- 20 points in Thick Skinned, Lady
- 18 points in Heavy Armor Focus, Lord.

*Green
- 45 points in magician, Tower
- 45 points in arcanist, Lover
- 10 points in mooncalf, Lover

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
* Normal

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.

*Normal, 4.

Which Arena was your favorite, and why?

7, Argonian Behemoth. Interesting fight with several strategies available.

Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?

9, Voriak Solkyn. Too easy for endboss fight, mechanics were very simple to figure out and didn't die once.

Which Arena gave you the most trouble?

7/8, Argonian Behemoth/Valkyn Tephra. Both because of the constant movement needed, Behemoth for the mechanics and situational awareness needed to avoid death, Tephra for the mechanics and short downtime where boss is DPS'able.

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?

More steady difficulty increase with each stage. First stages felt very easy, up until stage 5, Matriarch Runa. I feel this is appropriate, since most mechancis are recognisable from other dungeons in game (both normal and vet). This is why I will not comment on them., difficuly increase felt appropriate.

From Stage 5-8
Stage 5 has recognisable mechanics (City of Ash veteran) and if not, they are shown to you from start with the trolls spawning. I suspect the DPS check on boss here can turn into a brick wall of sorts, because of the diversity required in your build - or skill, if lacking diversity.

Stage 6 has interesting mechanics that are displayed in an appropriate way. There is a lot to keep track of, and the occasional spawning of spiders causes problems when "aiming" for Hoarvors and Spinners to keep the pillar thingie majingies clear. The hints provided are very helpful and once figured out, mechanics are easy enough to keep track of, and hard enough not to faceroll.

Stage 7 was a blast. Lots of watching ones feet and mechanics that were fairly easy to figure out, but hard to take advantage of. Loved the option on the boss of either keeping an NPC alive to shield yourself from boss rage mode, or simply bashing to interrupt. Options in these fights are a great thing and i love it - moar please!

Stage 8 really felt more time consuming than anything else. Fast respawns of mobs, damaging pillars to remove boss invulnerability, getting knocked around when kiting boss, et.c. Still a good fight but requiring more of patience than anything else. Similar to stage 6 in mechanics. All in all, a good fight with appropriate difficulty. Again, I had low dps but fairly high survivability.

Stage 9 felt a bit too easy, with warnings of the summoning rituals so not really needing to keep track of NPC's, apart from the golden ghosts. I liked the idea of having to travel "upstairs" and didn't really know what to do until I dodge rolled over a portal and saw the interaction prompt. Also, great thing to be able to be knocked down from the upper area.

Stage 9 was fun, but not really too demanding. I enjoyed the mechanics, but fight was over way too quickly, considering the difficulty in the previous 3 stages.

All in all, I felt stage 1-8 was difficuly/easy enough, with a pretty sharp decline in stage 9. I'd love to see difficulty here be ramped up a little bit, maybe remove hints when summoning rituals are beginning, and possibly dying when being knocked down from upper level into lava.

How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?

Got 6 item set pieces.
- Gloves of succesion, Reinforced trait
- Gloves of succesion, Well-fitted trait
- Epaulets of succession, Reinforced trait
- Para Bellum guards, Infused trait
- Ring of Glory, Healthy trait
- Winterborn shoes, Infused trait.

+
Satisfied with the drop rates. Unclear description of Succession 5-pc bonus. Interesting gear to increase diversity among elemental damage types.
-
Wortless traits. Please treat these drops the same way as vault drops in IC (i.e. remove useless traits, such as training, sturdy, et.c. from loot tables.)

Para Bellum Set seems redundant, but looks "fun". Those that may have use of it's 2-3-4 and 5-pc bonus (tanks) - which requires not taking damage - are built around taking damage.

What was your favorite reward?

Winterborn. Makes me want to try out a ice staff. That, and a title. Because... titles.

tangy.citrus · October 2015

Antirob wrote: »

The destro staffs should proc a seperate elemental dot (like the sheer venom 5 piece bonus) or increase the damage wall of elements does over time.

The sword should give back stam when you use low slash.

Then you'd be using stam to regen stam xD
It would become a meta to stack reduce cost glyphs on jewelry and then use low slash a lot. You can bet on that.
Its honestly difficult to top their previous master enchantment. Im still using it today and blowing through vicp and vwgt as a tank.

Aside from the trait, the master weapon should increase your ultimate regen by 50-100% for 5-10 seconds after hitting a target. This isnt op, because the only one who will be using this is the tank (unless the dps is a scrub). And since it increases regen, you still have to survive and then use low slash again 5-10 seconds later to keep the regen up.

My idea introduces a new element to the tanking weave, and helps out tanks in a different way a great deal. The heavy attack restoring more stamina is really good, but Im not really interested in using 1800 stamina to get back 4000~. I'd still be gaining the same amount otherwise, and it also forces you to put more cp into the heavy attack restoration star-thing.

More ultimate, which builds on heroic slash, is the way to go in my opinion. I got really excited about it actually.

Arunei · October 2015

@ZOS_GinaBruno I haven't really had a chance to truly test MA yet, but a Guildie I was running with discovered that the Undeath Passive (Vampire line) prevented him from dying in the Arena. He would drop to 30% HP and then take no more damage.

He could still die outside the Arena though (we were both one-shot by one of the World Bosses lol).

Alphashado · October 2015

Playing a V16 Templar wearing full cloth Kragnerac's Hope & Archmage set.
Resto staff
Puncturing sweeps
Vampire's bane
Breath of Life
Jesus Beam
5th slot situational and I changed it with almost every arena
Ult- Nova/Dawnbreaker

270 CP

Vet Mode - Died several times attempting the first boss and gave up. I wasn't even coming close to beating him. His bolts were hitting me for 9k each at such a pace that I simply could not stay healed and still burn down the adds. This likely has something to do with the known mob mitigation bug.
Difficulty- 10+

Normal Mode - I made it through the first 7 rounds then stopped for the night.
Difficulty - 6 or 7 (perfect) I died more than a few times, but in each case I was able to learn the fight and succeed while still feeling challenged and having fun. The current challenge level will be slightly easy for skilled players and slightly/very challenging for casual players. That is the idea for normal mode, so I like it right where it's at.

Least favorite - Champion of Atrocity. Only because this is a DPS check boss with an enrage timer and I think this is a terrible idea that will punish people with dedicated tank or healing builds. DPS checks should only exist in group content where pure DPS is expected/required.

rokrdt05 · October 2015

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for Maelstrom Arena. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes:
What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?

Templar, V16, Max CP (Fully specced into Thaumaturge, Points into Blessed, Points into Elfborn, Points into Spell Erosion. Green tree, maxxed magicka cost reduction, rest into regen. Red tree changes depending on arena type I might spec fully into magicka dmg reduc, or fully into ele dmg reduc depending on arena and dmg types... I do have points into quick recovery.) Bar set up included, Puncturing Sweeps, Toppling Charge, Radiant Destruction, Structured Entropy, Inner Light, Ice Comet, Bar 2. Extended Ritual, Rune Focus, Harness Magicka, Breath of Life, Inner Light, Solar Prison

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?

Both

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.

Normal - 1
Veteran - 10+ (This might mainly be due to the monster mitigation referring to this post: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/222571/i-wasnt-aware-that-damage-is-hitting-for-half-the-damage-on-pts-almost-on-every-class/p3 )

Which Arena was your favorite, and why?

I liked the 4th Arena, reminded me a lot of Darkshade vet mode... was very interesting to see some of the mechanics placed in solo content.

Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?

2nd Arena, the blades seem a bit much and stopping them allows the Centurion boss to fully heal. So I have to fight through that or fight through the blades. This fight is waaaay to chaotic.

Which Arena gave you the most trouble?

#5... again, refer to the damage mit bug which may be contributing to a lot of the difficulty players are experiencing.

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?

Not sure yet... will have to see when damage bug fixed.

How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?

Hmmm I would say I was getting an item every 3 rounds or so... rng is on par with everything else... satisfied? Hmmm... not so much.

What was your favorite reward?

Haven't had a favorite yet.

Edit Note: I have the max CP for this DLC, BiS gear full Legendary, min/maxxed character (my own not template).

Redfer · October 2015

My favourite level was easily the argonian swamp stage with the behmoth boss, it never felt unfair as long as i did the mechanics, but still provided some challenge.

My least favourite is the volcano-esq stage. The respawn rate on mobs and the amount of time spent damaging the boss requires either insanely high dps, or sitting there for half an hour on this fight. The pillars were also difficult to target with abilities for some reason. This round seems impassable for most healers or tanks who are geared to do their jobs, and not dps.

The drop rates of the items i found a good balance, I finished rounds 1-7 last night and got 3 set items from 2 sets, while im assuming the new master weapons drop from the last one only, which seems fair.

Benawaw89 · October 2015

Alphashado wrote: »

Playing a V16 Templar wearing full cloth Kragnerac's Hope & Archmage set.
Resto staff
Puncturing sweeps
Vampire's bane
Breath of Life
Jesus Beam
5th slot situational and I changed it with almost every arena
Ult- Nova/Dawnbreaker

270 CP

Vet Mode - Died several times attempting the first boss and gave up. I wasn't even coming close to beating him. His bolts were hitting me for 9k each at such a pace that I simply could not stay healed and still burn down the adds. This likely has something to do with the known mob mitigation bug.
Difficulty- 10+ 10+ 10+ (too hard)

Normal Mode - I made it through the first 7 rounds then stopped for the night.
Difficulty - 6 or 7 (perfect) I died more than a few times, but in each case I was able to learn the fight and succeed while still feeling challenged and having fun. The current challenge level will be slightly easy for skilled players and slightly/very challenging for casual players. That is the idea for normal mode, so I like it right where it's at.

Least favorite - Champion of Atrocity. Only because this is a DPS check boss with an enrage timer and I think this is a terrible idea that will punish people with dedicated tank or healing builds. DPS checks should only exist in group content where pure DPS is expected/required.

this is the reason later arena gonna get nerfed ^^ i even completed stage 1vet with template char , template ger v14 , dk , even with so *** build not even trying , ahhaha

Benawaw89 · October 2015

edit : false post , accidently posted

Alphashado · October 2015

Benawaw89 wrote: »

Alphashado wrote: »

Playing a V16 Templar wearing full cloth Kragnerac's Hope & Archmage set.
Resto staff
Puncturing sweeps
Vampire's bane
Breath of Life
Jesus Beam
5th slot situational and I changed it with almost every arena
Ult- Nova/Dawnbreaker

270 CP

Vet Mode - Died several times attempting the first boss and gave up. I wasn't even coming close to beating him. His bolts were hitting me for 9k each at such a pace that I simply could not stay healed and still burn down the adds. This likely has something to do with the known mob mitigation bug.
Difficulty- 10+ 10+ 10+ (too hard)

Normal Mode - I made it through the first 7 rounds then stopped for the night.
Difficulty - 6 or 7 (perfect) I died more than a few times, but in each case I was able to learn the fight and succeed while still feeling challenged and having fun. The current challenge level will be slightly easy for skilled players and slightly/very challenging for casual players. That is the idea for normal mode, so I like it right where it's at.

Least favorite - Champion of Atrocity. Only because this is a DPS check boss with an enrage timer and I think this is a terrible idea that will punish people with dedicated tank or healing builds. DPS checks should only exist in group content where pure DPS is expected/required.

this is the reason later arena gonna get nerfed ^^ i even completed stage 1vet with template char , template ger v14 , dk , even with so *** build not even trying , ahhaha

Basically telling someone "you suck I beat it easy" doesn't help anyone. If you found Vet Mode so easy, please feel free to add at least SOME of the information ZOS is asking for. Build? Gear? CP? Skills used? Etc.

I am an above average player. I've never pretended to be the best, but I've been doing this for a long time and I'm fairly good at it. I found stage one in Vet Mode to be borderline impossible. So I am keenly interested in the details of how you found it soo easy that you feel compelled to laugh at people.

Coming to this thread and simply saying you are great while other people suck doesn't help. Also consider that there is a known issue with Mob mitigation that may not be effecting everyone right now.

Cously · October 2015

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?

Breton DK Magicka DPS Werewolf The Lord Mundus (Roleplay Reasons). V16. 300+ CP.

20k Health | 40k Magicka | 10k Stamina - 1k Magicka Regen | 2,8k Spell Power (Buffed)

BAR 1 Dual Swords: Engulfing Flames | Burning Embers | Flame Lash | Structured Entrophy | Inner Light | Shooting Star
BAR 2 Inferno Staff (Nirn) : Crushing Shock | Elemental Ring | Coagulating Blood | Dampen Magicka | Inner Light | Magma Armor

Gear: (V14 Gold Light) 2x Valkyn Skoria ; 4x Martial Knowledge ; 2x Cyrodiil Light; 2x Healer's Habit; 2x Torug's Pact

Champion Points: 100 Elemental Expert; 50 Elemental Defender; 50 Hardy; 100 Magician.

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?

Round 6 of Normal. Round 1 of Veteran.

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.

Normal up to Round 6, 5/10. Veteran up to Round 1, 10/10.

Which Arena was your favorite, and why?

None, they feel so small. So used with DSA and the space. I hate closed spaces.

Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?

The poison one. The strangler mechanic feels bugged. They will pull you and you kind of teleport here and there and rubber band back to the original position. Very disoriented and unrealistic. Something is odd with the strangler pull animation, that can also be observed in DSA. In an arena where position is key, you can't afford to have that kind of bug affect the performance. I get a strangler pull me, fair game. But the animation must be smooth and straight. Strangler pulled me from B to A, I should appear at A and stay at A.

Which Arena gave you the most trouble?

The Ice one was a challenge. Thank Hircine for Crushing Shock, control those trolls was insane.

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?

I'd have it larger. Have the stranglers fixed.

How often did you receive a reward?

Pretty often, out of 5 chests I got 4 set pieces V15.

Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?

I liked one set, the Permafrost I think, since I plan to be an hybrid tank once I collect all the gear/glyphs. I can see the other sets can have nice uses depending on builds, I think I saw one for sorc, the Hunt something, affected pets. Unless you guys planning to introduce battle pets for us non-sorcs? PLEASE?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What was your favorite reward?

The one set I plan to use on my tank. Certainly the V16 Master Weapon at the end.

Now, I beg you to at least read these:

I like the concept of the Arena. I think is the definate test for builds. For instance, we will have a definate answer if someone is being carried by a group or if they can pull their weights. It's a self test and I see many people working for it, to test their limits. I believe that is very healthy if the points below are met:

* Seriously, you have amazing content in the game. Trials for 12 people, DSA for 4 people, this Arena for 1 person. Why in Oblivion are you not scaling all of them and their drop and leaderboard rewards to V16? We are not stupid, we can see what you are doing here. You are making content obsolete to force people to play the new one. I can tell you, we can see through that. Will it really take 5+ years to scale simple trials loot? You can have a great player base if you scale all. People who want to join guilds to do trials, people who want to work with their favourite friends in order to beat DSA and people who want to test themselves. Stop holding back! Why is Worm Cult V14 in a V16 dungeon?? Level all game content to V16 and I guarantee you, people will play more.

* Which brings me to the next point. I stopped on round 6 because I was sleepy...had a long wait for the PTS download. How much I miss my friends. I don't see my character grinding Maelstrom. I'll do it for the titles and achievements I crave, but to be my end game? No. If I want to play solo I got The Elder Scrolls Anthology. It's a great challenge, really fun on the first time but...unacceptable to have a solo dungeon being the end game in a massive multiplayer online. Your player base is not dumb, you can see it in its decline. Don't treat us like stupid children, the Elder Scrolls player base is not your common kid seduced by the shinniest mount. We have brains. Most of us. We are adults who have the money to throw at you but...don't insult our intelligence, please. Scale it all and breath life in your end game. Trials are great fun and they are in the trashbin right now, you spitting on your own beautiful creation.

* Love the Champion Points cap. Skill is a much more decisive factor. I'm not sure if is just for the PVE playerbase who grinded all those points but it is for the PVP one. However, in the long run, we will still have the same problem. If new players meet a glass ceiling, they won't even try it. Old players will quit, die, have families or just stop doing what they used to do in game. You need fresh stock just like the welfare state needs young people to suckle on in order to survive.

Finally, the Arena is absolute fun, but you will need trials and DSA in order to keep the end game alive. I believe some players will pick one or another but I believe even more that most players will do all. We love your game, you don't have to cripple bits of it so we can enjoy the others, let us enjoy all. Please, scale all content/gear.

Sillouete · October 2015

1. V16 Magicka Templar, 395 CP
Gear: 4 Martial Knowledge Pieces, 2 Engine's Guardian, 2-3 Torug's Pact (DW and staff), Cyrodill's Light rings
*Jewelry was regular PTS Jewelry with Magicka Regen enchantments

2. Veteran Version up to Stage 5

3. Difficulty: 8, I believe it's fine as it is, up to stage 5 and it's what should be in a solo Veteran Arena.

4. My favorite Arena so far is 4, and also the most difficult for me due to the 2h sorcerers one shotting me with Wrecking Blow (45 k Wrecking Blow not cool). That was chaotic but it was fun to finally beat.

5.My least favorite was 2, simply because the animation for the Centurion Champion Hammer ability sometimes wouldn't do or complete the animation, and it would just kill me without me even noticing or having a chance to dodge roll. Also because It's so annoying to have to constantly heal your self while everything hits you and you have 3 bosses that almost kill you with their fists. It's just frustrating but keep it as it is!

6. Stage 1 - Immunity bug sometimes happen where you simply can't die.
Stage 2 - The Hammer ability from the Centurion Champions, sometimes it won't go off or I will be dead before they do it.
Stage 3 - When the Straglers (sorry if that's not the name) pull you, sometimes after the action ends, you will end up back at
initial posiiton instead of where they pull you to.
Stage 4 - 2h Sorcs Wrecking Blow ability hit me for 22 - 45 k most of the time. Not sure if its intended or not, otherwise it's
fine.
Stage 5 - As a melee magicka DPS, it's doable. Fine as it is.

Note* I am just pointing out possible bugs. As far as difficulty go, they are fine.

7. I got rewards about 60% of the time, BUT, out of maybe 5-6 set pieces, all of them were belts, except 1. Not sure what's going on there. That's from about 3 attempts at the arena from full start.

8. Gold!

Nifty2g · October 2015

Personally I think @ZOS_GinaBruno you should make the Destruction and Restoration Master Weapons something people want to use, they should buff skills like Crushing Shock, Elemental Ring, Combat Prayer and Healing Springs. Either one of those skills.
It's a shame both times the Stamina Weapons get a pretty great buff, the Masters Bow was probably the strongest thing, Daggers used to be alright when their meta was around.

Johngo0036 · October 2015

What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level? VR14 Stamina Sorc & Vr14 Magicka DK, Sorc - mostly boundless storm, steel tornado, Crit surge, wrecking blow, executioner....
DK - Flame lash, Sea of Flames, Eruption, Choking Talons, GDB, Pulsar, Crushing shock, Hardened Armour, Sea of flames

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both? Normal
On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran. 7 - its not that difficult but you have to manage resources
Which Arena was your favorite, and why? Only got to Arena 3, Loved the 2nd..
Which Arena was your least favorite, and why? none
Which Arena gave you the most trouble? None yet.. with sorc the first, i managed resources very badly
If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be? Change key used from X to E for the Shield, health, regen shrines,
How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received? I like that you get a reward with completion of each arena, DON"T change it to give more rewards, Please..
What was your favorite reward? I haven't really recieved much yet.. let me complete arena first

I do LOVE the idea of a solo arena as i could never complete the Dragon Star Arena.. Now at least i stand a chance of getting similar loot...

Kayrne · October 2015

Hi Everyone,

i did the Arena twice on normal. I used the templates and tried to creat my stamblade and my magblade. perhaps it would be nice for the templates to have all wayshrines for getting a mundus and better equip choices ... really outdated the ravaging set ...
First of all there a huge gap between these two builds for nightblades. This should obvious because you have so much selfheal with a magicka NB.

So here is my report for the stamina nightblade:
What was your class, build (active skills, Champion Point distribution) and level?
Class: Nightblade (Khajiit)
Build: Stamina, suprise attack pretty normal i think.
Skills: Killers Blade, Flying Blade, Steel Tornado, Suprise Attack, Reapers Mark, Flawless Dawnbreaker
Relentless Focus, Resolving Vigor, Siphoning Attacks, Quick Cloak or Poison Injection (dw or bow for this skillbar

), Evil Hunter, Meteor
The skill set isn't the best for dps but i have to reorder my normal build to survive

But i wanted to test it as a "glass canon".
CPs: Blue: 98 Mighty, 1 Precise Strikes, 1 Piercing
green, 80 Warlord, 10 Stumble, 10 Mooncalf
red: 10 Quick Recovery, 15 Elemental Defender, 15 harden, 15 thick skinned, 25 Block expertise, 20 Spell resistance.

Which version of Maelstrom Arena did you play: Normal, Veteran or both?
Normal

On a scale from 1 (very easy) – 10 (very hard) how difficult did you find Maelstrom Arena? Please indicate whether you were playing Normal or Veteran.
i would say with this class ressource setting it was a 8-9. Because the templates sucks ... 5k less stam and 600 less weap dmg ...

Which Arena was your favorite, and why?
With daedric spider, because it was a funny mechanic with these relic (?) stones to activate and you have to look where the harvoror is and then pull it to the stones and so on

Which Arena was your least favorite, and why?
The one with the immunity stones. Why? Because there is a wave with 4 casters, with 2 healers, as a stamblade not so great to deal with. i think i needed at leat 10 tries before i get them down. AND then the stones seems to be sometimes not hit by skills and this was very frustrating...

Which Arena gave you the most trouble?
The one with the immunity stones.

If you could change one thing in any of the Arenas, what would it be?
Some bosses are really bad to do if you are playing melee, exspecially if you are a stam melee i never had so much stam management problems i the game until now. perhaps it is the template, but if the skills do about half the damage (intended?) it is really hard to burst enemies...

How often did you receive a reward? Were you satisfied overall with the rewards you received?
nearly every chest gave me a set piece. I was really dissapointed that there was no set for a stamina user ... the sets are interesting but as I said nothing stam user ... really sad

What was your favorite reward?
nothing.

Then i thought, maybe the Magicke NB would be better. and it was hilarious HOW easy it was. Sure you deal less damage (about 10% or so) but you are nearly unkillable. So i think for the nightblade Leaderboard there will be only Magblades

For me as a mostly stamblade player, really really really dissapointing. I tried to not use sigils with the stamblade but in some arenas i have to use the heal to survive. Magblade: what are sigils?

greetings
Kayrne

andreasv · October 2015

Judging on the responses so far and the builds, is it safe to say that damage is the key to each type of arena? I tried the normal one with my usual tank build and can't kill the final boss. Until this point it's an easy sometimes challenging and fun journey. Spending 40 minutes on the final boss with minor impact almost made me ragequit ALT+F4.