What, specifically, impacts survey drop rate?

tauriel01 · February 2023

I've been able to find a lot of detailed info on what, specifically, impacts master writ drop rate, but I haven't been able to find similar info for survey drop rate. Is it only crafting level? Do any of the passives impact it? How about traits researched/plants ID'd/runes ID'd? I'm just trying to maximize my survey drop rate. thanks

tauriel01 · February 2023

Actually, now that I think of it, are there any factors that impact what a hireling brings you (other than the obvious 3 ranks in that passive).

Nestor · February 2023

Enchanting Hireling used to be influenced by the Aspect Passive as far as the chance to get a Kuta. Not sure if that is the case anymore.

The Material Level of the Alt determines the level of material you get.

Other than that the Tier of the Hireling is the most important factor.

Surveys? Pure RNG, at around 12% for gear mats, Enchanting is 30% and Alchemy is around 50%

@Benovolentbowd has a bunch of crafting stats on his website.

https://benevolentbowd.ca/games/esotu/eso-crafting-writ-statistics/

Nestor · February 2023

Actually that sends you back here to this thread by @tmbrinks

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/459690/tracking-daily-writ-reward-drop-rates-refining-rates

tauriel01 · February 2023

Nestor wrote: »

Enchanting Hireling used to be influenced by the Aspect Passive as far as the chance to get a Kuta. Not sure if that is the case anymore.

The Material Level of the Alt determines the level of material you get.

Other than that the Tier of the Hireling is the most important factor.

Surveys? Pure RNG, at around 12% for gear mats, Enchanting is 30% and Alchemy is around 50%

@Benovolentbowd has a bunch of crafting stats on his website.

https://benevolentbowd.ca/games/esotu/eso-crafting-writ-statistics/

Thanks for the info. It appears that info is pretty dated tho (not sure what he is talking about regarding the JC grain drop rate--you can get all 4 types of grain + platings.

I am sure there are more factors than raw RNG impacting the survey drop rate. I do all 7 daily writs on 7 toons, and 4 daily writs (consumables + JC) on 5 toons. Just looking at the 7 toons (all on one acct), I would get maybe a survey or two a day. That was very consistent since the beginning of time for these crafters. Then I trained them all in alchemy and enchanting. I immediately saw an increase in the number of surveys for those crafts. So I started training them all in traits, as well (previously, only 3 toons knew 8 traits, and only 1 all 9). Even tho research isn't completed, i get at least 3 surveys a day, often more like 5-6 (this never happened previously... never). And, also anecdotally, a friend who also does many daily writs claims the toons with more motifs known have a higher drop rate on master writs, so I wonder if that has any impact on the surveys.

Altho I haven't kept actual records, it definitely is not my imagination. I AM getting many more surveys. I will complete the research, for sure. I just would like to know if I should also put points into other passives (obviously the craft is maxed out).

kringled_1 · February 2023

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/626369/jewelry-survey-drop-rate
Here's a recent thread with a couple of people keeping large data sets. While it's probably not possible to exactly test your question with their data, given that they don't have their characters set up correctly and the data separated. However, the large sets suggest there's not a lot of room for your hypothesis to be true.

My own experience (also with no large data collection) is that crafting skill (in terms of the passive points invested) doesn't matter for survey drop rates. I get about as many alchemy surveys as I do enchanting, although only a small fraction of my characters are fully invested in enchanting, whereas all are fully leveled in alchemy. If what you meant by "training them" is actually leveling the craft skill line up to 50, then I can't really comment, because it's been a long time since all those characters fully leveled the skill line.

tauriel01 · February 2023

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like anyone anywhere is including data on how many points are put into each craft skill/passive or how well trained that craft is (traits researched, flowers, runes, etc). That is where my question lies.

As for what I mean by training, specifically with alchemy unlocking all the flowers/shrooms four properties. For enchanting, ID'ing all the potency and essence runes. For gear, learning all the traits. And like I mentioned, i would rarely get alchemy surveys prior to doing this training on the 6 toons that didn't already know it... since then, i get one almost every day, not uncommon to get multiples. Days like today, where i ONLY got 3 surveys all totaled (enchanting, JC, and clothing), is out of the ordinary now. Yesterday I had 5 (plus i think one enchanting?).

Even before I started working towards master crafter on all 7 toons, my one master crafter I had more often than not is the one that would get a survey. In the 3 mos or so since I started training traits/learning runes/flowers/ etc (currently the 4 toons are starting their 7th trait of training metal and cloth, almost done with wood, on 7th? i think for JC), the number of surveys daily has substantially and noticeably increased. I run my surveys every day (enchanting i just do all of them once a week), so any change in the average number obtained each day is VERY noticeable for me. I have absolutely, positively without a shadow of a doubt been getting more surveys.

Dunno what to tell people that point to a couple posters with aggregated data showing consistent 12% drop rate. Perhaps all of their toons are already master crafters or close to? I'm not arguing the 12% drop rate--I'm just asking what, other than just RNG--gets you to 12%.

kringled_1 · February 2023

I see close to the 12% rate on enchanting overall, and over two thirds of my characters are not fully invested in the aspect passive, and have not unlocked all aspect runes. Even fewer have unlocked all potency runes. (essence runes are fully translated on all of them though). Again, I get about as many enchanting surveys as I do alchemy, where all of my characters are fully invested. It's slightly more than I get surveys for clothing/jewelry/blacksmithing/wood because I do more of the former writs. Past that, I agree, no one is collecting data that allows for definitive testing of your hypothesis. I could try collecting on enchanting vs alchemy but it would probably take months to get enough data to be particularly useful.

tmbrinks · February 2023

All evidence points to survey drop rates being 1 in 8, regardless of level of writ, regardless of research. They are simply a 1 in 8 chance.

The earliest data in my per-patch data collection, the alt account had characters at all levels of crafting (some at max, some at level 1), and it was still getting an average of ~12.5% drop rate, whereas the main account, where all characters were at maximum were getting ~12.5% as well.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yQDUjYNQVsIFl0ktkbkSlfYPkzP6pgCOTMQ-qCuzfaI/edit#gid=1071793449

I have all the data on a per-patch basis (there were some issues at Elsweyr launch with survey drops being bugged for accounts, and loss of data in Wrathstone patch).

But in general, even through the leveling of the characters over time, the drop rates have all been statistically indistinguishable from 1 in 8 for all surveys.