The two worst are the two that you didn't include: Vvardenfell and Northern Elsweyr

I never had issues with surveys, since I have all maps fully explored, but some of them have a very long and inconvenient reset trip. You have to literally ride for one minute at full speed in any given direction to respawn them. A few that come to mind:
Northern Elsweyr - Blacksmith: it's more convenient to enter the nearby delve than ride half a kilometer away to reset it, it's slow nevertheless
Shadowfen - Clothier: same problem very long ride to reset it, the rest are OK.
Eastmarch - Enchanter: same as the above
Wrothgar - Jerwelry 3: you need to drop down on that ledge and ride around the cliff to reset it
Wrothgar - Alchemy 3: you need to be careful when hopping with the horse on the cliffs to reach it.

Contrary to what's said above I've had no problems picking up surveys in Malabal Tor. Once you reach them, the reset is pretty fast and reliable. For example for the blacksmith one you just ride back to about the cave entrance where you have the quest, and for alchemy, to where the shrine of the Green Ladies is. Craglorn ones are also pretty convenient. The one on the cliff is actually very easy to reach from the entrance to Skyreach Catacombs just hopping on the rocks. It has a short reset too. For me killing mobs has never been an issue since all characters are fully trained crafters, and can do enough damage to kill mobs in a few seconds to clear the survey area and the reset path. Some even drop some extra leather scraps so it doesn't bother me at all. I also do whatever chests I can find in the area near the surveys.

Another thing I noticed picking up surveys last week-end is that Northern Elsweyr ones have dropped much more than others since the chapter launched. My schedule is to pick every zone every 6 months, pretty much alphabetically, with 4-5 zones cleared in the Sunday closest to the 1st day of the month. For example last Sunday, the 29th September, I picked up: Greenshade, Malalal Tor, North Elsweyr, Reaper's March, Rivenspire. For the other 4 zones I had 10-14 surveys that had piled up over 6 months, for Elsweyr it was 20-30 in just 4 months - I've had no less than 34 clothier ones but thankfully a very short and convenient reset. It is definitely not a fluke since the sample is quite large - 18 characters during all writs every day.

I think we're finding two different camps of people here.

The first camp are those who collect their surveys semi-regularly, and are talking about the time it takes to get to the survey (i.e. the ones that are furthest away from the wayshrine, like Malabal Tor)

The second camp are those that wait until they have multiple copies of the survey before they collect and are talking about how long they have to run on their horse to reset the node to collect it again.

Wrothgar, I enjoy because of the scenery. Craglorn, I enjoy for the potential nirncrux. Shadowfen, I don't get many from there honestly. Malabal Tor and Grahtwood are my biggest pains.

Rick_S1 wrote: »

Craiglorn! There are two sites where I circle and circle around, not finding where the actual site is. The one above the waterfall, I've searched around and around, up and down. The one to the very south, seems to be inside of a tall mass of boulders that can't be climbed.

You can get to them. I just forget between times going there and it is quite a pain for find it again.

To all the players you are struggling with finding the survey's locations: you can google and watch some vids on youtube, there's at least one vid per survey location.

Just google like this: "ESO *zone* survey"

@ErinM31 Which Elsweyr's survey are you struggling with? I can help you finding it. Atm I know all the locations easily, I have memorized almost every one. (PS4 here, no addons just a good memory lol)

ErinM31 wrote: »

redlink1979 wrote: »

To all the players you are struggling with finding the survey's locations: you can google and watch some vids on youtube, there's at least one vid per survey location.

Just google like this: "ESO *zone* survey"

@ErinM31 Which Elsweyr's survey are you struggling with? I can help you finding it. Atm I know all the locations easily, I have memorized almost every one. (PS4 here, no addons just a good memory lol)

Thank you so much! I will check this evening which it is. Right now I only recall that it looked like it wouldn’t be far from Moonsugar Meadow, at the southern / south-eastern edge of the map.

Sounds like the woodworking one, it’s on a hill down the road west from Tenmar Temple wayshrine. There are a couple of Haj-Mota there, and a treasure map location is nearby too.

dagrdagaz_5912 wrote: »

Although my most hated survey is that alchemy one in north Malabal Tor.
For an entire zone, i just hate Craglorn the most for surveys.

But only Craglorn gives the chance of a Nirncrux with the haul. It's allowed a bit of slack for that.

dagrdagaz_5912 wrote: »

Although my most hated survey is that alchemy one in north Malabal Tor.
For an entire zone, i just hate Craglorn the most for surveys.

Really? I love those. There's always a remote chance to get fortified or potent nirncrux.

Any that are far, far away from wayshrines.

Load screen aggro - I like that term

I definitely have that

deviousthevile wrote: »

Easy way to do multiple copy surveys is to simply relog, that way you don't have to run far enough away and back. Of course if you suffer from Load Screen aggro, this isn't a viable option, but it has cut down my traverse time immensely when collecting my backed up surveys. I think my last run was like 400 and took me 3 days of broken play to get them. Meaning I did surveys for 2 hours, went to PvP, did surveys for an hour, did a trial, that sort of thing.

Relog is slower than mounting, hitting rapids, going 100 m away and coming back. Also if you forgot to pick a node that's gonna be lost if you relog or go out of the zone. If you just move away the worst that can happen is that the survey won't respawn. There used to be a bugged survey a few years ago, Glenumbra - Enchanter, where one of the protean runes was inside a rock and couldn't be picked, so you actually had to do exactly that to reset the survey.