Vet Dungeon Anxiety

Greetings family!  Just wanted to go over something I myself experienced and recently got over.  Maybe some of you are experiencing this as well. 

VET DUNGEONS ARE SCARY!!!!

Ok, now that we are over that we can move on.  This is how I felt recently. First though, a quick background.  Admittedly I was like many, if not most, ESO players out there.  I strolled through the leveling experience alone and enjoyed the ride.  The largest draw for me in this game was the AvA.  I still like it alot, but I am just sick of some of the insane overpowered classes out there.  You know, the one guy that kills 5 of your group before maybe the other 8 of you kill him.  Or the guy that stands still blocking and CANNOT die even with 10+ people smacking on him!  Yeah, little frustrating.  The silver-lining in this is the Undaunted pledges and dungeons.  Every game I played for an extended period of time, the PvE side was just a means to the end, PvP/RvR/WvWvW (or whatever else it is called).  Heck, in GW2 I just bought the materials and crafted everything I needed.  Even crafted most my characters to max level.  But I digress.  I am here to encourage people to try out the dungeon experience.  

VET DUNGEONS ARE FUN!!!

Well, the normal ones are fun too.  But the Vet dungeons have much better rewards, namely the shot at a piece of the new cool set pieces.  So whats the difference between Vet and non-vet dungeons you ask.  Do vet dungeons have fire breathing daedra that trap you and insta kill you and you can't do anything about it unless you are a super leet player?  NO!!!  Really, from my viewpoint, the only difference are these.

1. Higher health pools for the monsters

2. Higher damage from the monsters

3. A bit more complex tactics/special moves.

And that's it!  So I will address each of these in turn.

1.  More health just means the fights are a bit longer.  True, to take on vet dungeons you should have some decent gear, but I tank it in mostly player crafter blue set pieces.  If you need help gearing up, ask the guild!  Tons of us are experienced and more than willing to help.  The most important part is being comfortable playing your class.  Know what skills to use when, and how to best use them.  Single huge boss fight?  Don't spam an AoE attack!  Simple stuff like this will help loads.  Don't be afraid to change skills between "trash" fights and "boss" fights.

2. More damage sure does sound scary.  What it means though, is that EVERYONE needs to be a bit more on their toes.  ESO is different in that often the tank can't sit there and spam some huge AoE taunt and get everyone to attack him while the rest of the group carefree kills them.  You will get hit, you will take damage.  The tanks job is to get hold of the biggest and scariest guys in the fight. As part of that, and a nice segue into section 3, be mindful of the AoE.  Don't stand in a red circle and just hope your healer will take care of you!  Most of this comes down to knowing the tactics of each fight.

3. More complex tactics are what make the vet dungeons fun!  Spider daedra trap players in cocoons and must be freed, bosses leach health, rain of fire AoE!  There are tons of tactics.  Oh, and healers for the baddies as well.  Practice will get you through this.  The only way to get better at these dungeons is to actual do them!  Lots of the tactics are similar to the Non-vet versions, there just might be more in one single fight is all.  My best advice is to just get out there and do them, and read up about them prior to your adventure.  I recommend Vet Dungeon Guide for all your needs.  He does a great write up on each fight and will really help you prepare.

Above all else, just take it slow in there.  Until you are comfortable with the dungeon, go at a pace that is comfortable for you.  Maybe you don't finish it.  Maybe you die 50 times.  Who knows what will happen.  One guarantee is that you will learn from it and get better!  Oh, and another is that it will be fun.

So, my big point is this.  Don't be scared to try out those vet dungeons.  They scale down to the group leaders level now, so make your group leader the lowest you have. Hope to see you all in a dungeon with me soon!  Oh, and sorry if this post is random and disjointed and has horrible grammar, I am an engineer not an English teacher.

See you in game! (oh and ask me for help if you need it)

Drinks-With-Two-Fists VR5 Templar tank

Kitturn Darkheart VR5 Sorc DPS

@tnliverpool

Just read this and thanks for the advice.  My fear was always letting the side down, but thanks too you i see that the way forward is having friends that have the patience to stick with you as you learn, so big thanks an i look forward to trying a vet dungeon with you soon tnliverpool.

I will try not too die too much LOL

My current plan; get my lvl 47 NB to VR1, use him to set Vet dungeons to VR1, Swap to VR14 toon and run 'em all, farm for "headpieces", complete all Undaunted Quests to 'gold' key level.  The VR 14 is a Sorc with good DPS and decent heals, need some like minded folks, any role, to come up with a set time for weekday/weekend runs.

verve, I would be happy to run them in the evenings.  I have a V14 Templar that can heal and V14 DK & V12 NB that can do damage.  I can spec the DK into a tank but I have never played that role before so if anyone wants to teach me that I would be more than willing to learn.

7:30 8:00 eastern would give me enough time to spend on a full attempt at a vet dungeon. Currently have a vet 2 dps/tank. That is really the only consistent time block I have. I would really love to work on vet dungeons as I am solely PvE and don't have much else to do and get bored of questing easily. Plus its fun!

I could do runs consistently evenings and weekends, Verve.  Days would be too iffy because technically I am supposed to be working, LOL.

Good post tnliverpool! I was pretty discouraged by Vet dungeons right after the scaling came out. I signed up for the very first vet pledge all excited and my group proceed to fall flat on its face. We weren't a PUG, but we still couldn't even get close to defeating the Hive Lord in Darkshade. I remember thinking, "man I thought this was supposed to get easier in 1.5!". I tried another with similar results and then kinda gave up on vet pledges for a while. I was burning resources like crazy and just getting frustrated.

Since then, though, my desire for the undaunted passives and those cool armor sets has been eating at me! I recently started trying them again, this time with better expectations and preparedness, and it has really changed my outlook on them. They can be sooo rewarding! Not just for the loot, but for the teamwork and learning experience as well. I feel my characters grow stronger from every vet dungeon run; not through more points for this stat or that, but through the experience of playing my character builds in high-pressure scenarios. *flexes wisdom*

They can also be terribly frustrating and ruin your game time if you don't approach them with respect. These dungeons deserve our respect in the same way our fiercest opponents do; they should not be underestimated. Now that doesn't mean they can't also be tons of fun! When you go in well prepared they are an amazing experience.

When it comes to preparing for a vet dungeon there are three things I consider most important after the basics (buff up, repair armor, and have plenty of gems on hand):

Know Your Role

First and foremost, you need to know your role and how to play it well in a group context. In order for a group to succeed all roles need to be fulfilling their duties properly. (Tank without a taunt? Healer without a resto staff? Try again!)

If you are not comfortable in the role you want to play I suggest practicing during normal pledge runs. Much less stress and easier place to get a feel for your skills and how they help you fulfill your role best. There are several of us that do them daily so just keep an eye out or ask in guild chat if want to run it ;)

Know the Mechanics

The biggest difference in vet dungeons will be the boss mechanics. Knowledge of certain mechanics and how to counter them is the first place groups will start to struggle.

Personally I prefer to try things out without looking them up first because I find it more rewarding. However, don't let this be your downfall! There are plenty of great dungeon guides out there and I would recommend Deltias as well (linked above). Keep them handy during your run.

Know Your Team

This point is all about the scaling. The Vet difficulty is very hard, and you'll almost always want to scale it down below your group's average rank. What your group scales the dungeon to should be a concision decision that is made as a group. Knowing your group and what they are capable of make this decisions easier, and sometimes you might determine that the group's current composition simply won't work (example: I would not recommend three v1s and v3 for any vet dungeon).

After failing to understand mechanics the second most common point of failure in Vet dungeons (from my experience) are DPS races and trash mobs during boss fights. At the lower VR ranks the most practical way around this challenge is to scale it down to where the group can manage.

Some may be asking, "why don't we just always scale it to v1 then?". A lot of the time this will be the most desirable approach; especially for groups/people new to the vet dungeons.  However, it is important to consider how loot and XP is rewarded; especially if your goal is to acquire a monster helm piece because they only drop from the bosses. 

Undaunted Monster shoulders only drop from gold chests so you can acquire the proper level from any gold key pledge run, however the the helm pieces only drop from the boss mob of the respective dungeon. (Note that you can farm helms outside of the daily pledges, but not shoulders.)

Two important excerpts from the 1.5 patch notes:

Dungeon Scaling

• Item drops will also scale up either to the level of the monster or the receiving player character, whichever is lower.
  • For example, a level 28 monster is defeated, dropping an item for a level 26 player character and a level 30 player character. The item levels will be 26 and 28, respectively.

Combat & Gameplay
General

• When grouped, players with a Veteran Rank more than five ranks lower than other group members must now contribute sufficient damage to enemies to receive XP or loot from them.
  • This requirement was already in place for groups from levels 1-49.

 

So ya! Moar vet dungeons!

After getting my first few gold keys on my v12 tank and v3 healer I'm feeling much more confident about how to approach these challenging PvE encounters, and I'd love to start doing them more often. The next two weeks are a bit hectic for me (as I'm sure for most of you as well!), but I think I might start a recurring event for vet pledges at an East-Coast-friendly time. Maybe twice a week at 4-5PM PST or something. 

BTW I know at least one of those gold keys was earned with you my by side tnliverpool, so cheers!