Welcome to our Maelstrom Arena Guide for Normal and Veteran mode.

Table of Contents

• One – Vale of the Surreal
• Two Seht’s Balcony
• Three Drome of Toxic Shock
• Four Seht’s Flywheel
• Five – Rink of Frozen Blood
• Six – Spiral Shadow
• Seven – Vault of Umbrage
• Eight
• Nine

Maelstrom Arena Basics

Why Play Maelstrom?

Maelstrom Arena is the solo version of DSA, the four player based arena combat. This will allow players to test their own skill to determine who is really the best player, or for players that love solo content and want to play with a challenge while having fun. Also there will be weekly rankings where players have chance of getting gold rewards if they are the top 100 score of their class. Yup, your class, so essentially 400 people will be receiving gold rewards. Sounds like a good reason to run The Maelstrom Arena.  Plus, the last stage is also the only way you can get Veteran Maelstrom Arena staffs.

Where to go?

The Maelstrom Arena is in the northeastern part of Wrothgar.

Basics

There are two modes to Maelstrom Arena, normal and veteran mode. Maelstrom Arena is located in the North-East corner of Wrothgar. Upon entering you will have a path leading to a house where you will need to talk to Fa-Nuit-Hen to start the quest for the Maelstrom Arena. Beside her is the merchant, Tutor Riparius, which will sell you various food, drinks and potions of standard rating. Just like DSA there are multiple rounds which will have waves of enemies in each round and at the end being the boss fight. After completing around a chest and the merchant will appear to give you your rewards and allow you to repair before the next round. Finally at the 9th round will be the final boss fight.

• Sigil of Haste
• Sigil of Power
• Sigil of Healing
• Sigil of Defense

General Change to Veteran Mode

Veteran Maelstrom Arena is extremely tough to complete, even the first few arenas. It will force players too alter champion points and abilities to adapt to each arena and sustain is very much needed. In general bosses and mobs hit much harder, it can be fairly easy to kill they player if not prepared. Bosses and mobs will also have more health. Furthermore when a round is completed a player’s stats will not be restored to full.

Tips

• The Maelstrom Arena is completely going to rely on a players ability to sustain their resources. Engine guardian is going to be a must have for every class because it is the best sustain set in the game. Magicka users should think about running a restoration staff to use its heavy attack to restore magicka and stamina classes should use possibly more sustain sets. Also if sustain is still a problem think about switching over to the thief or atronach mundus stone which gives stamina and magicka recovery which will be your friend in this. Don’t forget you only need to sustain for a round because after each round your stats will be restored to full.
• Unlike how players can attack enemies before they come out of their portals in Dragonstar Arena you can’t damage enemies in their portals in Maelstrom Prison. Although attacking the portal before they come out will allow the player to get damage on the enemy right when they come out.
• Don’t be afraid to use you an ultimate against mini-bosses and bosses. Your ultimate will regen fairly quickly if you are using abilities that procs ultimate or you are light attack weaving or just add a few light weaves into your rotation.

Classes

So far the best class for the Maelstrom Arena seems to be the magicka and stamina templar for a few reasons. Magicka templar has puncturing sweeps which will heal the player for an amount depending on the amount of mobs hit. And both classes have repentence, which will heal the player and will restore stamina depending on how many dead bodies are around, and then purifying ritual which will cleanse the player in The Vault of Umbrage. A close second for a class will have to be the stamina sorcerer because of crit surge and steel tornado. Steel tornado on stamina sorcerer is already powerful enough and crits often so the sorcerer will be seeing a ton of heals. Coming up next will be the magicka dragonknight because the sustain on it is crazy because of the battle roar passive and dragonknight has reflect which will reflect four ranged attacks for four seconds. Finally the stamina nightblade, the reason why the nightblade is last is because it is glass canon of eso, but if the player uses rally and vigor along with relentless focus which will give more stamina recovery.

Stages

Normal Maelstrom Arena Video

One – Vale of the Sureal

Map

Enemies

• Seducer Darkfire
• Seducer Knight
• Seducer Darkbow
• Clanfear
• Scamp
• Daedroth (Mini-Boss)
• Bone Colossus (Mini -Boss)
• Flesh Atronach (Mini – Boss)
• Maxus the Many (Boss)
  • This boss is extremely simple and fast to kill. There are two mechanics to this boss, she will do a single target attack that doesn’t that much damage and then she’ll teleport to a different spot in the room and will spawn two adds from her that you will have to kill. If you don’t kill the adds then the boss will heal up a certain percentage based on how many adds there are.

Mechanics

Round

• Round 1 – Simple mob spawns, about two at a time and at the end a Daedroth will spawn to finish the round.
• Round 2 – Exactly like the first round but the blue orb will spawn. At the end of the round a bone colossus will spawn, kill it to finish the round.
• Round 3 – Same as the second but at the end a flesh atronach will spawn.
• Boss Round – Just Maxus the Many will spawn, kill her to finish the arena.

Veteran Mode

The veteran mode changes to this arena just increase the health and damage of the boss and mobs. This arena goes from being quick to complete to a painfully hard fight. The blue orb that follows the player around will one shot the player if he/she is standing in it for two long.

Tips for Beating Veteran Mode

• Since this arena has a ton of magicka damage switch your champion points into the hardy passive, but leave some in elemental defender because some mobs will do fire damage.
• Healing Ward and Harness Magicka are you friend. Healing ward will give you the biggest shield and will also heal you if the shield isn’t destroyed before its timer is up. Harness magicka is perfect for magicka sustain and making sure the boss doesn’t kill you within a few shots. Harness Magicka would also be awesome for stamina classes.
• Finally having a sword and shield bar for magicka classes will help with reducing the amount of incoming magicka damage, although it is beatable with just Healing Ward and Harness Magicka.

Two – Seht’s Balcony

Map

Enemies

• Clockwork Sentry
• Dwarven Spider
• Dwarven Sphere
• Dwarven Centurion
• Centurion Champion x3 (Boss)
  • This boss fight as simple as the first fight but way more fun. During the boss round a single centurion champion will spawn to the north it will stay stationary and launch aoes that target your feet, the aoes don’t do that much damage then after it’s done with the attack the boss will tuck up and shield itself. Then in the east the second centurion champion will spawn and proceed to do the same action and then in the west a third centurion and will do the same exact thing. Now the rotation will come back to the first centurion in the north. Now this centurion will run to the player and cast a conal hot steam aoe, doesn’t not much damage so don’t really think about avoiding it but burning it down then the centurion champion will shield up. This mechanic will continue to the east and west centurion. Now back to the north the third rotation of mechanics will happen. The centurion will run to the player and do a low damage melee attack then shield where it is at. This will continue again in the cycle. The player should kill the centurion in about three cycles or before the fourth cycle mechanic happens.

Mechanics

This arena is probably one of the coolest looking arenas and has the most unique strategy. In the center of the arena there will be a hexagon shaped part of the floor with a dwarven pylon in the middle. That part of the floor will always be electrified. Standing in it doesn’t do a ton of instantaneous damage but will hurt after a little bit of time and if you stand in it for too long then the pylon will send out a electric wave that pushes the player away. Outside of the center platform are three hexagonal rings that will have spinning blades traveling around them. Standing in the blades aoes only really does significant damage if you let if move throw you or you move with it, so if it does stay on top of you for long, no worries you can easily heal through it. Finally there is a third mechanic to the arena is two levers to the east and west of the arena and they are your friend. What they do is stops the spinning blades from moving, but they still spin and turns of the electrified centerpiece and now it will heal you. After a certain amount of time the levers effect will be done and the arena will continue to do what it was doing. Note: The levers will glow green when they are ready to be used again.

Round

• Round 1 – Only dwarven spiders and clockwork sentries will spawn this round then at the end of the round a dwarven centurion will spawn, kill it and the remaining mobs to end the round.
• Round 2 – Exactly the same as the first round but dwarven spheres will spawn along with the others and the end of the round is the same.
• Round 3 – The third round is exactly the same as the second round.
• Boss Round – This round the three boss will spawn. First one to the north, second one to the east and the third one to the west.

Three – Drome of Toxic Shock

Map

Enemies

• Warrior Thrall
• Brute Thrall
• Summoner Thrall
• Lamia
• Lamia Curare
  • Summons a Spectral Battlecaller (dies when Lamia Curare is dead).
• Lamia Domina
• Strangler
  • Pulls the player to it. Depending on the player it might be a priority kill or not.
• Giant Snake
• Queen’s Pet (Mini-Boss)
  • This mini-boss works like your generic wamasu but it doesn’t have it’s directional charge.
• Queen’s Champion (Mini-Boss)
  • This mini-boss has an uppercut ability so make sure you block it if you don’t want to get lifted.
• Queen’s Adviser (Mini-Boss)
  • This mini-boss is the weakest of the bunch and only has a pull.
• Lamia Queen (Boss)
  • Again, this boss is really simple mechanics-wise. When she appears she will run to the player and always attack in melee range. She has a conal scream that will stun any player in it then she has a sorcerer overload type attack but it doesn’t deal nearly as much damage a real sorcerer would deal. During the fight queen will spawn various adds that aren’t a priority to kill so focus the queen down and when she dies all the adds will disappear.

Mechanics

Round

• Round 1 – During the first round a various set of mobs will spawn, too many to count. At the end of the round the Queen’s Pet will spawn, kill it and the remaining mobs to finish the round.
• Round 2 – Works exactly like the first round but at the end the Queen’s Champion will appear to challenge the player..
• Round 3 – Works exactly like the first two rounds but at the end the Queen’s Adviser will spawn.
• Boss Round – The boss will appear to the west by the door to her platform and various mobs will spawn throughout the fight.

Four – Seht’s Flywheel

Map

Enemies

• Scavenger Fire Ravager
• Scavenger Fire Mage
• Scavenger Healer
• Scavenger Overcharger
• Clockwork Sentry
  • The clockwork sentries work differently than they do in Seht’s Balcony. In this the clockwork sentries will go stationary and look like the they are charging themselves up in a box. When they are done they will be shielded and will start to attack the player. The shields are weak so once they are down they are practically one shot targets.
• Dwarven Spider
• Dwarven Sphere
  • The dwarven speheres act like the spheres in Seht’s Flywheel but the will shoot a ricochet wave of electricity. It deals moderate damage.
• Achelir (Mini-Boss)
  • Has a single target inferno staff attack and casts eruption on the player.
• Aihrima (Mini-Boss)
  • Has a single target lightning staff and casts liquid lightning on the player.
• Kothheid (Mini-Boss)
  • This mini boss has three different abilities, a chains that pulls the player to him, an uppercut and a fire aoe that stays at his feet.
• The Control Guardian (Boss)
  • This boss is almost exactly like the Engine Guardian in veteran Darkshade Caverns which makes this boss really fun. This boss will spawn to the north and will walk in a counterclockwise path around the arena. When the boss is moving it will shoot lightning bolts at the player that do decent damage and will also have a green poison at his feet. Obviously avoid the green circle and the lightning can be dps’d through if you have any sort of heals like a hot, healing ward or some types of damaging attacks. After a while the boss will stop and will start casting fire at its feet. Make sure you don’t stand in the fire and continue to do damage. This is also the optimal time to drop any sort of ultimate like meteor or a stationary ultimate on it as it will yield the most damage.

Mechanics

Round

• Round 1 – All basic mobs will spawn besides the dwarven sphere and at the end of the round Achelir will spawn, kill him to continue and the remaining mobs to move on.
• Round 2 – Exactly like the first round just add the dwarven spheres and have Aihrima as the mini-boss at the end.
• Round 3 – The same as round two but Kothheid is the mini-boss.
• Boss Round – The Control Guardian will spawn to the north and throughout the fight various dwarven constructs will spawn. Once the boss is dead the dwarven constructs will disappear.

Five – Rink of Frozen Blood

Map

Enemies

• Huntsman Frostbiter
• Huntsman Chillbane
• Huntsman Heartfinder
• Deathless Wolf
• Troll Breaker (100% Priority)
  • These trolls will break the ice platforms so it is imperative that they die first. You can either stun them with abilities or bash them to stop them from breaking the ice.
• Ogre
• Frost Atronach
• Leimenid
  • Special Leimenid Oracle
• Angirgoth (Mini-Boss)
  • This boss seems to use most abilities from the dual wield skill line but he doesn’t deal much damage.
• Ogre Elder (Mini -Boss)
• Vigi
• Aki
• Bur (Mini-Boss)
  • Nothing special besides the fact that he summons Auroral Guardians
• Matriarch Runa (Boss)
  • Matriarch Runa has a few attack will deal the most damage so far in the Maelstrom Arena. When she spawns she will fight the player in melee range. She has a fear type attack where she causes the player to run away from the boss, make sure you have the stamina to cc break this so you don’t get trapped in the water. She also has an aoe stomp that will lift the player, make sure you don’t eat this cause it does a fair amount of damage. Finally her last attack is she will go to the center of the ice platform you are on and smash it into oblivion, if the you are nearby or on the platform you will get knocked back and get hit for a good amount of damage so make sure you don’t eat it. Besides those mechanics the boss goes down fairly fast.

Mechanics

Round

Six – Spiral Shadows

Map

Enemies

• Spiderlings
  • Do not kill the spiderlings, no penalty but warded pillars will force them to dig away.
• Webspinner
  • Priority kill, puts webs on the pillars.
• Venomous Horvar
  • The horvars will not aggro to the player until attacked. Light attack the horvar and pull it to a pylon, kill it to remove them web.
• Spiderkith Beserker
• Spiderkith Enercater
• Spiderkith Weffi
• Dire Wasp
• Giant Scorpion
• Flesh Atronach
• Void Lurcher
• Xivilai Toxicoli (Mini-Boss)
• Spiderkith Captain (Mini-Boss)
• Champion of Atrocity (Boss)
  • This boss’s mechanics are simple. She has a directional lightning aoe like all spider daedra do. Then she has a lightning wave that will go out at some points. Both attacks do moderate damage. At random points of the fight the boss will become empowered and will do extra damage, not a lot more but it is noticeable. This boss is also the tankiest boss so far.

Mechanics

Round

Seven – Vault of Umbrage

Map

Enemies

• Feral Argonian
• Argonian Vemonshot
  • This mob works exactly like archers found in Craglorn. They have a conal attack like bombard and a charged up shot that will do massive damage if not interrupted.
• Argonian Beserker
• Argonian Venomcaller
  • Venomcallers only spawn in the NE, NW, SW, and SE corners of the map. When they spawn they are priority target.
• Argonian Minders
  • Have a channeled shield that if the boss is in will gain a shield.
• Swamp Troll (Mini-Boss)
  • The swamp troll is very much like other trolls found around Tamriel. They have a frontal cleave that does decent damage and an aoe smash that does a little less damage but stuns the player. The trolls will also
• Wamasu (Mini-Boss)
  • The wamasu will charge up a electricity wave that will shoot two aoes in six directions from the center and it will also charge up a channeled conal attack that does moderate damage.
• Argonian Behemoth (Boss)
  • This argonian has literally taken steroids his entire life waiting for this encounter with you. The fight against this boss has to also be one of the funniest and one of the most deadly. The boss will spawn in the NE corner of the map. The boss will always fight the player in melee range. The most used attack is a frontal cleave there the boss will stomp on the ground and will send out three ricochet waves that do decent damage and stun the player. The stun isn’t long so don’t worry about cc breaking it will just waste stamina. The boss will also have a single target attack that will stagger the player but not for long so again don’t waste the stamina cc breaking. Finally the boss will go all crazy, the boss turns red and starts bashing its chest. This attack doesn’t do damage but if it is channeled long enough then the boss will one shot the player. Ouch. This is why it is suggest that magicka classes conserve stamina because if you can’t bash, you are very much dead. As long as you conserve stamina this boss is a cake walk.

Mechanics

Round

Eight – Igneous Cistern

Map

Enemies

• Shalk
• Dremora Caitiff
  • Attacks the player with uppercut.
• Dremora Kyngald
  • Channels a fire attack against the player that deals progressively more damage. If you are a vampire, I would suggest killing them first.
• Dremora Gandrakyn
  • Heals other mobs for a decent amount.
• Infernal Destroyer (Mini-Boss)
  • When an infernal destroy spawns it will be warded by a pylon. To remove the ward destroy the pylon that is up and then the boss is able to be killed. The boss has a basic melee attack and a frontal aoe like ricochet wave but it is made of lava.
• Flameknight (Mini-Boss)
  • The flameknight is literally a want to be dragonknight. It will drop a dragonknight banner, chain the player to her and will try and uppercut the player.
• Valkyn Tephra (Boss)
  • Besides the first arena boss, this boss has to be the second easiest boss. When the boss spawns all three sets of rocks will construct a pylon, three in total. Destroy each pylon and then the boss will be stunned for a bit, this is burn time. Save an ultimate for this part of the fight because you can get the boss down fast. When she is done the pylons will reconstruct and continue to ward the boss. Destroy the pylons again to damage the boss and continue this process until she is dead. Now for attacks, before the first set of pylons are down the boss will cast a low damage fireball at the player. During the second set of pylons she will do the single target attack and then chains the player. During the third set of pylons she will do an attack like the ash titan where she sends out a fire wave that is easily avoided. It is easy to burn this boss within two sets of pylons.

Mechanics

Round

• Round 1 – This round will spawn all the types of dremora mobs and fire atronachs and will end with a infernal destroyer and a random pylon.
• Round 2 – This round will start with shalks and dremora and will end with another infernal destroyer and another random pylon.
• Round 3 – This round is exactly like the second round.
• Round 4 – This round is similar to the third round but ends with the flameknight and a random pylon.
• Boss Round – The boss will spawn in the center of the arena and will follow the player around when the player destroys the pylons. During this fight Dremora Kyngalds will spawn. They aren’t really a priority because they will disappear when the boss is dead.

Nine – Theater of Despair

Map

Enemies

• Dremora Kyngald
  • Basic dremora fire caster and really easy to kill.
• Dremora Beldakyn
  • Basic dremora sword and shield, doesn’t deal heavy damage thus it isn’t a priority.
• Dremora Gandrakyn
  • Basic dremora healer, doesn’t heal for a significant amount so not much of a priority.
• Dremora Kynlurker
  • Basic nightblade like dremora. It will ambush you and stun you if block isn’t up and also cast soul tether that will stun you.
• Dremora Narkynaz (Priority)
  • This mob will walk to the center of the map and try to summon a very hard to kill bone colossus so make sure the Dremora Narkynaz doesn’t finish the ritual.
• Xivilai Ravager
  • Just like the Xivilai Ravagers in City of Ash they will tuck their arms and head into their chest to cast a large aoe that knocks you back, make sure you dodge roll to get out of it.
• Crematorial Guard
  • The Crematorial Guards are tanky daedroth that fight like the Crematorial Guards in White Gold Tower. What will happen is they will cast a channeled fire cleave in front of them and can move while casting. The cleave does not do a significant amount of damage.
• Ogrim
  • These Ogrim fight very much like Ogrims around Tamriel and Oblivion, but before they do their chest pounding health regen they will actually stun you and knock you back, so cc break and interrupt.
• Ash Titan
  • This fight is exactly like the Ash Titan in City of Ash which provide a quick and easy put nostalgic fight. What will happen is boss will attack you from the center of the room and you will want to burn it down until it smashes the ground, if you are in melee range it will knock you back, then spew fire in a circle out from it will little gaps to avoid getting hit. After that continue to beat on the boss until it is dead.
• Voriak Solkyn (Boss)
  • This fight is very simple in normal mode. The boss will spawn during the fifth round in the center of the map. The boss only has a few attacks, a general single target attack, a large fire aoe that will spawn at his feet that should be avoided, then after a certain amount of time the boss will port to a different part of the room and then cast a channeled attack that works very much like Nerien’eth in Crypt of Hearts, the good thing is the boss is interruptable. The boss will also charge up an attack that will be casted at the player and will knock them back exactly like Nerien’eth, block it to avoid getting knock backed. About 50% the boss will stop attacking and spawn little teleports across the room and clanfear and then will ascend to the second level of the map. Kill the clanfear and get to the portals and port up to the second level, from there will be three crystals that must be destroyed, use gap closers or anything to destroy them as quick as possible because the boss will cast aoes at your feet and try to knock you off the platform down to the first level. If you get knocked off before the crystal are destroyed, you will have to kill another clanfear before being able to go back up. Once all the crystals are destroyed you will be knocked back down to the first level and will proceed with the same mechanics of the first part of the fight. Be careful because the boss will ascend up to the top yet again so make sure you nuke the boss down fast after he drops down the first time.

Mechanics

Round

• Round 1 – At the start of this round basic mobs will spawn until around the end of the round which a Crematorial Guard will spawn and after that and the remaining mobs are killed the round will move into round two.
• Round 2 – This round is very much like the first round but more Crematorial Guards will spawn, one about half way and one at the end.
• Round 3 – This round you’ll have a few new spawns, Ogrims, Dremora Narkynaz and a Xivilai Ravager. The Dremora Narkynaz will start spawning from the edges of the arena and will move to the center, make sure you kill them before they get to complete their summon. Use an ultimate  to help get the mobs down since you will have more tankier mobs.
• Round 4 – This round you’ll have the same summons minus the Xivilai Ravager. Again use an ultimate to help get the tankier mobs down and continue to kill the Dremora Narkynaz as soon as it spawns.
• Round 5 – This is a fun round because you will get to face the Ash Titan and a few other mobs that will spawn during this round. Clean up the Ash Titan and the Dremora Narkynaz first then the rest to finish up the round.
• Boss Round – During the boss round you will get all the spawns besides the Xivilai Ravager. It’s safe to ignore the mobs besides the Dremora Narkynaz and focus on the boss. Unless you have troubles with resources and keeping yourself healed then kill the rest of the mobs.