Okay, I admit I've been watching quite a bit of Asmongold of late. Granted it's due to the Great Bird Kamuy in me (not to be confused with the actual deal), but I have to warn impressionable tweens that Asmongold isn't the most sodium-lite dude if you get what I'm trying to say. If there is a reason why I can remain steadfast despite the American language used, it's not because of how morally good I am. Unlike how a fellow Singaporean defined mental resilience, the mental fortitude I have is further away from the Singaporean type and closer to that of a typical (?) Japanese dark fiction protagonist. Seriously, it's not a joke. Perhaps this is why I can connect with songs like White Silence and Licht und Schatten, both incidentally of the Tokyo Ghoul fame (i.e. If you feel pain, it means you're still alive). Of course, they're not the only ones. Tatar folk music can be very rhythmic while Ainu folk music can be surprisingly hypnotic despite and because of its monotony.
In other news, I guess I'll be doing much shorter posts for good. Granted I started blogging for the sake of people's attention. Thankfully, my church finally got its message firmly nailed into my heart and mind. In other words, why care about the numbers since they're as temporary as every person's bank account? And besides, I've already euthanised my social media bird. No Oda Nobunaga jokes, please.
Finally, I got the guts to do something
I'll be brutally honest here: I'm a coward. At CP 1000+, I had yet to even try normal Maelstrom Arena, let alone Vateshran Hollows. Because I got the wrong idea that Maelstrom Arena offered coffers, I decided to have a go at it due to the current Year One event featuring Orsinium, Craglorn, and an Imperial City getting firebombed like Tokyo 1945 while invaded by Lorkhan's fellow Daedra (yes, I bought Jim Henson's FudgeMuppet's theory although not entirely due to the awareness of morality in the mortal races of Nirn).
I wouldn't be surprised if I'm going to run Vateshran Hollows as well. For now, however, there remain plenty of distractions. And this is not to mention I'm toying with the idea of rolling a Breton DPS Warden once I finish doing the base story Alliance storyline for my two alts (more specifically trying to clear the Summerset zone map with my High Elf Magplar as well).
So how did my first Maelstrom Arena go? Actually, it's better than I expected. While I managed to clear it in one single day, the various bumps along the way made me believe it's challenging. However, cooling down after a couple of days made me change my mind. The reason why I felt it's reasonably hard was that it actually felt hard. But as renowned black intellectual Thomas Sowell once famously put it, Johnny confused thinking with feeling.
In short, it's quite easy. Any #respawnlol moment was due to not knowing what things can one-shot my character into Azura's Singaporean moon and star. The angry Argonian stage took me like 2-3 #respawnlol to get right. For the equally angry giant stage, just once. In fact, the guild leader in one of my guilds might have implied it's more about using the terrain than anything else. Of course, he never said that in case you still haven't got it.
Now if you really want to figure out utilising the arena terrain, my personal recommendation is not to use any of the sigils. In veteran mode, there's no chance in Mehrunes Dagon's own backyard would I suggest it. In normal, you can survive depending on whether you'd be able to notice anything funny along the arena's edge. In fact, there's a consistency in the mob portal spawn. Needless to say, that's how I did my first normal MA run. Clearly not a thing I can boast about because I'm clearly not the only human being who knows critical thinking is 10% classroom and 90% messing up things yourself.
If there's an important lesson I've learnt in the process, it's settling down on a specific rotation involving light attack spamming and stick with it. Light weaving can be terribly 50-50 for me due to the pace being faster than a Maserati made in Mexico. When I say rotation, I mean a two-attack sequence (or anything along that line since I played light spamming off Hardened Ward).
At the same time, running this with a full False God's Devotion or Vicious Serpent (i.e. the stamina FGD) helps a lot. Not only you can regain Magicka or Stamina like a crazy warlord on a land grab spree, Major Expedition actually speeds up your startup animation for any non-channel ability. Do Hardened Ward with and without Major Expedition. You'll know what I'm talking about because that's how I was able to open fire like a mad Bosmer. While I'm not sure whether a full Undaunted set is a better alternative to gearing a mythic item in veteran mode, Ring of the Wild Hunt has served me very well. It's not every day a Daedric Prince can pull off this manner of intervention. Even though the Harpooner's Wading Kilt is the current BiS mythic item, I believe I'm going to stick with Hircine's signet due to the mobility useful for both PvE and PvP. After all, I see mythic items as more about individual playing style than anything else.
Rolling a Breden (okay, that's either a TBA or TBC)
As stated above, rolling a Breden (i.e. Breton Warden) isn't a guarantee. It depends on whether I can progress fast enough on my alts and it depends on whether I actually... well, feel like it. While I'm more than capable of using logic to analyse stuff, I do have a more temperamental side where my horse is called Impetuous and my spear Recklessness. If it sounds worse than how Cú Chulain or Diarmuid Ua Duibhne died, you can be sure that's the case. Definitely not the kind of guy a girl could stand unless she got the moral fortitude of Oai.
Joking aside, I did spend a bit of time sitting down wondering how on Y'ffre's grass can I create such a build. Note that this is a rudimentary take since I did say I have a more temperamental side.
Gear: Mother's Sorrow x 5 (3 light and destro staff), Medusa x 5 (Cuirass+1 more heavy armour; ring and necklace), Valkyn Skoria x 1 (light), Ring of the Wild Hunt
Glyphs: Magicka x 7 (armour), Increase Magical Harm x 3 (jewellery), Frost (lightning staff on the front bar), Absorb Health (frost staff on the back bar)
Traits: Divines x 7, Arcane/Bloodthirsty x 3 (iirc my Slaughterstone count should be higher than Aurbic Amber but definitely lower than Cobalt), Nirnhoned (thank Stendarr and Julianos for the reworked critical DPS building)
Mundus: Apprentice (because Bretons are low on raw power and you now only need 6800+ penetration if you can't get it to 7000+ for critical DPS builds)
Build name-Icefury (group PvE)
Front bar: Winter's Revenge, Elemental Weapon, Blue Betty, Bird of Prey, Inner Light; Ice Comet (Ultimate)
Back bar: Ice Fortress, Blockade of Frost, Arctic Blast, Bird of Prey, Inner Light; Permafrost (Ultimate)
Build name-Wardruid (solo PvE)
Front bar: Winter's Revenge, Force Pulse, Ice Fortress, Bird of Prey, Inner Light; Eternal Guardian (Ultimate)
Back bar: Echoing Vigor, Blockade of Frost, Deep Fissure, Bird of Prey, Inner Light; Eternal Guardian (Ultimate)
Notes:
1. This is clearly theory-crafting waiting to be proven or disproven. If someone already pulled it off, please give credit to the person instead and ignore what I did.
2. Unlike a previous stunt involving a cat called Baanzai, this one is for real. Well, at least more real.
3. Because my playing style is more strategic and less technical, I tend to function better with minimal bar switching. As a result, my front bar playing style is a combination of single-target and AoE DPS. As for the back bar, it's more of a contingency in case survival or asap mob clear is needed.
4. If this goes ahead, I need to ask my guildies to help me craft a Nirnhoned lightning staff and a Nirnhoned frost staff. Unfortunately, my supply of potent Nirncrux is definitely lower than the global vaccine stockpile. This means I may choose to pay through Zenithar's non-Japanese Z'en (i.e. guild traders) for either or both.
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