Ink Drops?

Romilly · June 26

Hi,

I've had scribing for a few weeks now, and have yet to see a single ink drop off a mob or a node? Any ideas what the drop rate is supposed to be?

Thanks,
Rom

Dagoth_Rac · June 26

Have you completed the Indrik and Netch wing quests? There will be special Sigils under the Collections/Upgrades section once you do. Indrik sigil makes ink drop from mobs very, very rarely. I think I have seen 1 ink drop from a mob and I have killed thousands and thousands just as a normal part of gameplay. Netch sigil will make ink drop from resource nodes and urns. This seems to be about 1-in-200. Although Plentiful Harvester CP star will double 50% of the time so it adds up to being about 1 ink per 133 urns/nodes harvested.

Coerfroid · June 26

Wait, urns too? Return to Necrom underways...
So far, I hadn't been deliberately farming ressources, but made a point in grabbing each one in my way. Strangely, I din#t have a single drop in West Weald, despite heavy questing there. I did find soem in Craglorn and on a starter Island I even got two within a few minutes. Did anyone get a drop from surveys yet?
Still, drop rate is too low to make sense.

Orbital78 · June 26

Harvest nodes are the best bet because of the chance to get two, which is fairly often for me. Up to 250 now. If you harvest a little on the ways to daily activities you should end up with more than you'll have much use for eventually.

XSTRONG · June 26

I get almost all my Ink from farming nodes, only got 2 or 3 from mobs while doing daily quests, havent tried farming mobs for Ink tho.

Orbital78 · June 26

XSTRONG wrote: »

I get almost all my Ink from farming nodes, only got 2 or 3 from mobs while doing daily quests, havent tried farming mobs for Ink tho.

I've tried aoe farming but I think that will lead to frustration. All the inks I have found from kills were just random mobs cleared doing quests. Unless you have an addon to announce ink drops or a tracker, you probably won't even notice them until later.

ZOS_Bill · June 26

@Romilly

Please check our FAQ below regarding scribing and ensure you've met all the requirements.

What is Scribing?

RexyCat · June 26

Orbital78 wrote: »

XSTRONG wrote: »

I get almost all my Ink from farming nodes, only got 2 or 3 from mobs while doing daily quests, havent tried farming mobs for Ink tho.

I've tried aoe farming but I think that will lead to frustration. All the inks I have found from kills were just random mobs cleared doing quests. Unless you have an addon to announce ink drops or a tracker, you probably won't even notice them until later.

Probably the easiest way to check how many Ink you have is to have CraftBag (ESO+) and use the filter for to right (forgot what it is called), then you will see how may Ink you have in your bag.

As far as I know there isn't a dedicated tracker yet on ESOUI for add on that can track Ink. There is an add on that make it possible to use the same UI without being at Scribing altar (where you can see amount of Ink).

Sync01 · June 26

I'm not sure I've gotten any ink from mobs. It's possible that I did and just didn't notice but if so it's def not much.

I have just over 50+ ink right now and most of it is from harvesting nodes, although I can't say for certain anything about the drop-rate. Once I got 3 ink within 2 minutes and then didn't get any for 30 min.

Orbital78 · June 26

RexyCat wrote: »

As far as I know there isn't a dedicated tracker yet on ESOUI for add on that can track Ink. There is an add on that make it possible to use the same UI without being at Scribing altar (where you can see amount of Ink).

Script Tracker addon has an option for announcement on screen when you find one. Bar Steward (amazing addon) has the option in the widgets to track items like ink, potent nirn, perfect roe, etc. via item id, ink is 204881.

Necrotech_Master · June 26

Orbital78 wrote: »

Harvest nodes are the best bet because of the chance to get two, which is fairly often for me. Up to 250 now. If you harvest a little on the ways to daily activities you should end up with more than you'll have much use for eventually.

i wish it worked like that

ive been doing that for over 3 weeks now, with some actual "do nothing but harvest nodes" time and i just gained my 30th unit of ink 2 days ago (12 units were from the original quest run), along with killing enemies doing other content

so ive managed to get 18 units of ink in 21 days which is about 0.8 inks per day avg

ive barely had enough to scribe all of the skills at least once on my main character, let alone trying to scribe anything on alts, or re-scribe any skills (as that costs ink too)

RexyCat · June 27

Orbital78 wrote: »

RexyCat wrote: »

As far as I know there isn't a dedicated tracker yet on ESOUI for add on that can track Ink. There is an add on that make it possible to use the same UI without being at Scribing altar (where you can see amount of Ink).

Script Tracker addon has an option for announcement on screen when you find one. Bar Steward (amazing addon) has the option in the widgets to track items like ink, potent nirn, perfect roe, etc. via item id, ink is 204881.

Thanks for that suggestion with Bar Steward. I did see it when I looked for something to show amount of Ink, but didn't know that you could add item with itemID.

That add on also make it possible to pick houses and teleport directly and keep track of stolen item, fencing and bounty.

I haven't tried yet how Script tracker work, but it seem at least with Bar Steward one can at least see when on increase in Ink without the need to open Inventory and go to CraftBag. It does also display info about Endeavor, so it might replace another add on I use to see what to do for daily and weekly Endeavors.

Sync01 · June 27

Loot log also shows the ink if that's what you're looking for.

XSTRONG · June 27

When I farm on Ps5 I just turn off auto add to craftbag on my farm char to see everything I harvested when im done.

Romilly · July 1

Yes, as I said, I have max'd out scribing, and have all the achievements apart from the one that needs like 30 ink to get (you need to make 1 of each kind of spell).

1 in 200 nodes sounds horrific... makes it as rare as potent nirncrux, but you need three of them. I've had a couple drop off Public Dungeon bosses, but none off the 1000s of mobs I've killed in between those bosses.

MidniteOwl1913 · July 1

I haven't gotten a single one from mobs, backpacks, chests, or containers not one. I have been spending a couple of hours a day farming ink most days I'm lucky if I get 2 and that's with a full farming build all from resource nodes.

Honestly at this point I've really had it with the ink chase. I really wanted to try a bunch of things to see how they would work for me, but with very little ink it's just not going to happen.

Necrotech_Master · July 1

MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »

I haven't gotten a single one from mobs, backpacks, chests, or containers not one. I have been spending a couple of hours a day farming ink most days I'm lucky if I get 2 and that's with a full farming build all from resource nodes.

Honestly at this point I've really had it with the ink chase. I really wanted to try a bunch of things to see how they would work for me, but with very little ink it's just not going to happen.

that is pretty much where im at, im still maybe getting 1 drop a day total

im on PC too, ive had access to gold road and scribing for 1 month and im up to a grand total of 33 ink earned (12 of which were from the initial quest run), which is 21 inks in 28 days

ive gotten a mix of drops between harvesting and mob kills, though i would say about 70% were from harvesting, but it does not drop in any useable quantity

im basically just gonna keep working my toons to learn scripts as i get them, but without ink the system is basically nonfunctional for me

Coerfroid · July 2

To all that successfully farmed ink from harvesting nodes: What regions?
While questing, I made a point to grab all the nodes in my way, but to no avail. I did not make a systematic farming sweep of the region because I already have a fulltime job.
All the ink I found in harvesting nodes, I got from base game zones. In some occasions more than one per day, even more than one per node. I got very few ink drops from mobs, but can not recall where.
My sample size (25 ink total) is too small to be of statistical significance, but has anyone else made the obeservation that drop chance may be higher in base game zones?

Sync01 · July 2

I've had the most luck in Craglorn and Betnikh, but that's also because those are the zones I have a harvesting route for so it makes sense. I have picked up ink in dlc zones though.