Paws said:yet there exists a possibility that a good run in Maelstrom or other content would make me curious as to what numbers I'm pulling, and the desire to see those figures and tighten them up may evolve organically from that experience: There are a lot of really nice things rewarded to those who do that.
To be fair, vet Maelstrom Arena (which is far, far tougher than normal) is more about understanding the mechanics and having situational awareness, and less about DPS. I mean, you need DPS, but not elite-level DPS. There are some DPS checks in a few of the rounds but you are likely to get killed by something else. Round two (Seht's Flywheel) is about survivability and healing--not DPS. Round three (Drome of Toxic Shock) is about survivability and target prioritization--not DPS. In round five (Rink of Frozen Blood), you control the pace of the fight. If you burn the final boss too quickly, you will die...period. Anyway, I can go on and on.
If you are interested in vet trials, here's my opinion on the order of difficulty (easiest to hardest):
Aetherian Archive (some might argue with me on this)
Hel Ra Citadel
Sanctum Ophidia
Asylum Sanctorium
Maw of Lorkhaj
Halls of Fabrication
Hard mode clears are a different story and deserve their own separate rankings.
[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Paws]Paws[/url] said:[/b]
yet there exists a possibility that a good run in Maelstrom or other content would make me curious as to what numbers I'm pulling, and the desire to see those figures and tighten them up may evolve organically from that experience: There are a lot of really nice things rewarded to those who do that.
[/blockquote]
To be fair, vet Maelstrom Arena (which is far, far tougher than normal) is more about understanding the mechanics and having situational awareness, and less about DPS. I mean, you need DPS, but not elite-level DPS. There are some DPS checks in a few of the rounds but you are likely to get killed by something else. Round two (Seht's Flywheel) is about survivability and healing--not DPS. Round three (Drome of Toxic Shock) is about survivability and target prioritization--not DPS. In round five (Rink of Frozen Blood), you control the pace of the fight. If you burn the final boss too quickly, you will die...period. Anyway, I can go on and on.
If you are interested in vet trials, here's my opinion on the order of difficulty (easiest to hardest):
Aetherian Archive (some might argue with me on this)
Hel Ra Citadel
Sanctum Ophidia
Asylum Sanctorium
Maw of Lorkhaj
Halls of Fabrication
Hard mode clears are a different story and deserve their own separate rankings.
Non-meta, non-optimized builds can fare much better in normal trials than in veteran trials. For instance, I ran a Bosmer magicka nightblade in nSanctum Ophidia and Hel Ra Citadel once. I was trying to decide if I wanted to roll a magicka nightblade, so I respecced by stamina nightblade to magicka to test out the gameplay and skills. My sustain was horrible...really, really horrible, but my team was able to clear the normal trials without much difficulty. Then again, I had run those trials before and knew what to expect.
Non-meta, non-optimized builds can fare much better in normal trials than in veteran trials. For instance, I ran a Bosmer magicka nightblade in nSanctum Ophidia and Hel Ra Citadel once. I was trying to decide if I wanted to roll a magicka nightblade, so I respecced by stamina nightblade to magicka to test out the gameplay and skills. My sustain was horrible...really, really horrible, but my team was able to clear the normal trials without much difficulty. Then again, I had run those trials before and knew what to expect.
Oops, one more thing. Champion Points are very important in trials. In fact, I have a separate CP set-up for each trial. A non-optimized build could theoretically make up for some of its weaknesses through clever use of CPs.
Oops, one more thing. Champion Points are very important in trials. In fact, I have a separate CP set-up for each trial. A non-optimized build could theoretically make up for some of its weaknesses through clever use of CPs.