Solo Infinite Archive, Still Not Worth It

El_Borracho · November 5

Haven't been in IA since it opened as its an unrewarding and monotonous slog (credit to @StarOfElyon). But jumped back in as I wanted to farm Pyrebrand for a DK build. Its still a monotonous slog. Here are the top issues with IA, not involving a save point, as I see them. All of these are presuming a solo IA run where someone can at least get to the 3rd Arc:

The amount of Archival Fortunes you get is a joke.
On average, I was getting about 8K by getting up to the 3rd Arc, which took about 40 minutes with an Arcanist. Felt like I was melting things and it was still going slow. As I was there to farm fortunes to buy Pyrebrand gear, 8K equated to 4 pieces of gear. Not great, considering there are heavy, medium, and light versions of all pieces, plus weapons, plus jewelry. And they are random. Oh, but you can get curated pieces they say. Yeah. For 10K per box. So that's going to need a second run or getting through to Arc 4, which I will get to in a minute.

The amount of class gear drops you get is a bigger joke
One piece per Tho'at Replicanum. Woo hoo. Oh, and you can get one from a Marauder. If it shows up. And you beat it. So 3 weapons maximum for 40-ish minutes of work.

The side quests are dumb
The goat is just stupid. Funny, but stupid. The lights are okay, but you can't run, and you are on a time limit. Fun. The tome hunter is annoying, long, and comes with wonky controls. The fight against the woman is okay, but after beating her, the difficulty ramps up to the degree of not worth the effort for the reward. The page hunter is the easiest and really the only one worth the reward, which is insubstantial for all of them. At least they are all optional.

The RNG. Oh... the RNG
Basically, you want harder bosses early. But after several runs, it feels like you will not get the harder bosses early on a regular basis. I've done about 20 runs in the last week. Got Shadowrend every single time as the first boss on the first stage of Arc 1. Hmm. Got Dranos Velador or Vila Theran as the first boss on the first stage of Arc 2 every time. Hmmmmmmm. Other than that, it was a grab bag of bosses, sometimes good, sometimes really, really, bad. As in Rakkhat appearing as the first boss on the first stage of Arc 4. Nope. Or get your run derailed by Lady Belin in Arc 2. Yay.

I can live with the RNG of the bosses. Makes it one of the few interesting things in IA. Doesn't make up for Lightbringers showing up in trash fights, but I digress. But the RNG on the uncurated gear boxes you can buy is the real joke. Now, for context, I started with no Pyrebrand gear. In the first 20 boxes I got, 5 of them had a Resto staff. But that isn't the best part. I bought 4 boxes every time and opened them immediately. Every single time, 5 times in a row, one box had a resto staff. Come on. There are 36 total pieces. This isn't random. As for the other 3 boxes each time, those felt totally random and unpredictable.

Either way, spending 8K and playing the "wheel of gear" was better than 10K for one guaranteed piece. Got about 2/3 of the set for 160K in fortunes, so more than I would have got with curated boxes. Even though I continued to get Resto staves like they were going out of style.

Blocking? Bashing? LOL
Either the block bug is back as a whole, or there is a block bug in IA. Sometimes I watched as block dropped. Other times, I watched my Khajiit bash a target like it was a pinata, only to have no effect on the interrupt. Good times.

Up the amount of Archival Fortunes you get. Drop more class gear. There is no other point to do IA for those who aren't score-chasing.

RomanRex · November 5

Increase the XP would also be a good start. Too much time for so little XP in higher Arcs.

Hapexamendios · November 5

I don't mind going solo, but it's definitely more fun with a partner.

Necrotech_Master · November 5

going further generally does give you more fortunes

a run through arc 4 is usually about 15,000 fortunes, this amount varies a little as it mostly depends on if you kill all the marauders that show up, do all the bonus portals, and kill scamps (the latter 2 are random when they show up so can have more or less each run)

running further the fortunes go up significantly, a run through like arc 7 i can make like 60k fortunes for the run

i personally prefer running with a partner, as you have someone to chat with while running it, if i do run solo i make sure i have a tank companion with me to hold marauder aggro

i usually like to make a game out of how far i can get within a certain time period, i think one of my fastest runs was hitting middle of arc 10 in a 2 person run in ~4 hours

most of my other runs typically stop around arc 4-6 within 2-2.5 hours

its enjoyable enough for me that i farmed out all of the (new) gear in approx 2 weeks lol, still enjoy doing runs too and i usually give gear to people i run with

i completely get that type of content isnt for everyone, and it is a bit more boring to play solo (i include a companion as being solo because they are basically a glorified combat pet, not another person)

Jaimeh · November 6

El_Borracho wrote: »

As I was there to farm fortunes to buy Pyrebrand gear, 8K equated to 4 pieces of gear. Not great, considering there are heavy, medium, and light versions of all pieces, plus weapons, plus jewelry. And they are random. Oh, but you can get curated pieces they say. Yeah. For 10K per box. So that's going to need a second run or getting through to Arc 4, which I will get to in a minute.

Go in with a DK to farm Pyrebrand faster, you will get the pieces as drops and can use your seals for extras.

I think up to arc 5 is reasonable time-wise, and you get >15k seals plus all the drops and pages, RNG willing. The problem is the repetitiveness, at least when you are in a group you can chat and make it a bit less boring.

IncultaWolf · November 6

I love Infinite Archive solo, I'm in there a lot having fun personally. I usually stop after arc 5 though as it becomes too slow for me at that point. I also think the side minigames are the best parts of IA.

Djennku · November 6

Tip: there are 2 side portals that pop up every arc. One between X-1-1 and X-3-3, and from X-4-1 and X-5-3. You are guaranteed 2 an arc, as well as one maurauder after 2-1-1. Loot Goblins are random, but can spawn on any boss fight starting at 1-1-3. Every Maurauder and Tho'at starting from Arc 5 onwards drops double loot.

SaffronCitrusflower · November 6

Playing in IA just reminds me of how many things in ESO are just recycled now days. The only thing new in IA are some of the puzzles and a few of the main bosses. Everything else already exists in the game in one form or another. It's pretty disappointing really, especially given ZOS advertised IA as a great new feature even though basically nothing is new about it.

MidniteOwl1913 · November 6

It is so very boring I don't have the patience for more than one arc. I do the daily. Three waves of trash is too much, 2 would be better. The trash mobs only purpose seems to be to make the whole thing take longer. A complete waste of time.

And yes the rewards a joke.

fizzylu · November 6

This was never a feature that appealed to me to begin with, but yeah.... IA is extremely boring and a waste of time more times than not. It can be a little entertaining with a friend, but not enough that I'd even want to continue for as long as possible (I get burnt-out by the third arc, especially since the Tho'at Replicanum fight becomes such a drag). Honestly, I don't even know what they could do to it to make it more appealing/worthwhile to do because it's just such a meh feature to me.

Capsaica · November 6

I don't know, I really enjoy IA solo. One tip, don't do it with a companion if you're trying to do a solo run (it's technically a duo at that point). You seem to get more adds in a duo run which just makes it a bit more tedious to slog through. If you happened to start with a duo, you can always bring the companion in to help you continue your run.

If you want specific gear, do your run on that class. DKs are great in IA. You'll be surprised how quickly the gear adds up just from drops. For me, farming only Arc 1 or 2 and resetting is tremendously boring. Props to those who can do that, I'd rather be challenged by the content and have fun with a less efficient farm.

If you haven't bought all of the collectible power ups, do so. Those make the content waaaay better.

And finally, for Arc 1 just bring your typical high dps relatively squishy gear. Burn through everything. Swap to your tankier IA build until you get your Marauder in Arc 2, then swap back and burn through the rest of Arc 2 except maybe Tho'at. I find I'm a bit too squishy for Tho'at in Arc 2 in "traditional" dps gear. After that, I usually have enough Visions boosting my damage to make up for my lower dps in my higher health tanky gear.

You will go farther, get more currency, more gear and hopefully have more fun. Also important, walk away every once in a while and stretch your legs. It's nice that it isn't a time-gated event and you don't have to stress about every second for that score. Better scores = leaderboard rewards at the end of the week as well which = free gold gear piece.

pklemming · November 6

I normally solo up to arc 7 and leave. It is an arbitrary number. Basically, when I am too tired to continue. Fortunes are not too bad, once you get used to doing the higher arcs. I also never go to arc 3 unless I have 2 FE. I will start over. I I have not got this on the 3rd attempt, I will do it another day.

Having a couple of focused efforts makes farming coins easier. You can get further, before weariness sets in. OFC, if we had a GD save.....

Be strict. Don't think, well maybe I will get one on the next boss. 2 FE by arc 3, or stop. It is just a massive slog later on otherwise.

The leaderboard stuff does not seem curated. It is nice getting gold gear and transmutes, but I am weirdly still missing some pieces from other classes, as well as a couple of style pages.

Ilumia · November 6

I started out only playing IA solo, or with a companion, but that's basically solo too, and wasn't overly keen on it either. I recently made a new build (a very boring one bar mag sorc, as I have one playable char who is a sorc, and the one bar builds seem quite superior), the extra power made it more fun. But I also recently started playing with others, mostly randoms, and that's made it a lot faster in general. So now the rewards match better for the time spent. I'm not bad solo, but being two usually makes it faster by a decent amount, and also makes it nicer to go further since I'm not too many hours deep by the time I hit arc 5. Still wish saving was an option, it would improve IA so much. My husband calls IA my headache generator, because it calls for prolonged concentration with too little room for a break for too many hours.

I enjoy the random portals, and I think it's great they've added another daily, because it means another 500 fortunes from a 2-arc run. I also think the combat filer pet is a great addition, please add more of collectible power ups, it's so much more fun with those. Especially if they added extra choice between an extra vision and verse so we'd get a 4th choice. This is becoming important since they added new visions and verses.

El_Borracho · November 6

Jaimeh wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

As I was there to farm fortunes to buy Pyrebrand gear, 8K equated to 4 pieces of gear. Not great, considering there are heavy, medium, and light versions of all pieces, plus weapons, plus jewelry. And they are random. Oh, but you can get curated pieces they say. Yeah. For 10K per box. So that's going to need a second run or getting through to Arc 4, which I will get to in a minute.

Go in with a DK to farm Pyrebrand faster, you will get the pieces as drops and can use your seals for extras.

I think up to arc 5 is reasonable time-wise, and you get >15k seals plus all the drops and pages, RNG willing. The problem is the repetitiveness, at least when you are in a group you can chat and make it a bit less boring.

I thought this too, but that's the thing, its not faster. You can get Pyrebrand or Basalt. And I found the Arcanist went through faster than the DK when running solo IA. Of course I would jump in with my DK if I went with a partner.

Necrotech_Master · November 6

El_Borracho wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

As I was there to farm fortunes to buy Pyrebrand gear, 8K equated to 4 pieces of gear. Not great, considering there are heavy, medium, and light versions of all pieces, plus weapons, plus jewelry. And they are random. Oh, but you can get curated pieces they say. Yeah. For 10K per box. So that's going to need a second run or getting through to Arc 4, which I will get to in a minute.

Go in with a DK to farm Pyrebrand faster, you will get the pieces as drops and can use your seals for extras.

I think up to arc 5 is reasonable time-wise, and you get >15k seals plus all the drops and pages, RNG willing. The problem is the repetitiveness, at least when you are in a group you can chat and make it a bit less boring.

I thought this too, but that's the thing, its not faster. You can get Pyrebrand or Basalt. And I found the Arcanist went through faster than the DK when running solo IA. Of course I would jump in with my DK if I went with a partner.

yeah if you havent finished the old sets your drops can come from both

i was finished with the old sets months ago so only had the new sets to farm when they released, but i notice when i am running now (with all of the gear complete) the random options it gives me include both old and new sets so its not always helpful to give gear to a friend im running with when its mostly old sets lol

DenverRalphy · November 6

fizzylu wrote: »

This was never a feature that appealed to me to begin with, but yeah.... IA is extremely boring and a waste of time more times than not. It can be a little entertaining with a friend, but not enough that I'd even want to continue for as long as possible (I get burnt-out by the third arc, especially since the Tho'at Replicanum fight becomes such a drag). Honestly, I don't even know what they could do to it to make it more appealing/worthwhile to do because it's just such a meh feature to me.

I liken IA to a Cross Country Road-Trip where you and a buddy head out all stoked and excited. Then run out of things to talk about before you even hit the State Line, and you've still got more than a thousand miles to go.

El_Borracho · November 6

DenverRalphy wrote: »

fizzylu wrote: »

This was never a feature that appealed to me to begin with, but yeah.... IA is extremely boring and a waste of time more times than not. It can be a little entertaining with a friend, but not enough that I'd even want to continue for as long as possible (I get burnt-out by the third arc, especially since the Tho'at Replicanum fight becomes such a drag). Honestly, I don't even know what they could do to it to make it more appealing/worthwhile to do because it's just such a meh feature to me.

I liken IA to a Cross Country Road-Trip where you and a buddy head out all stoked and excited. Then run out of things to talk about before you even hit the State Line, and you've still got more than a thousand miles to go.

At least on most road trips, the scenery can change after an hour or two. Well, unless you are going through the midwest. "Infinite Archive, the Midwest of Tamriel." Even then, you get rewarded by reaching your destination. IA, not so much.