Craglorn Anomaly Chests Nerfed Hard

LonePirate

From the 1.1.4 Patch Notes:

Exploration & Itemization
General

• Fixed an issue where Veteran Rank treasure chests were not dropping Veteran Rank enchantment glyphs.
• Reduced the debuff to armor and spell resist for the Wise Mage Item Set Bonus.
• We have slightly reduced the rate at which you can get items from chests for completing Magical Anomalies in Craglorn.

I can confirm that the appropriate level glyphs are now dropping in Craglorn chests everywhere.

However, the "slightly reduced" rate of loot in Anomaly chests is anything but slight. It has been nerfed hard. I have opened about a dozen chests after clearing anomalies today. Three of the chests contained only gold - 67 to be precise. Blue items dropped in four of them. Soul gems only appeared in two of them. Only one contained a glyph. None of them contained a purple item.

I would love to know how ZOS considers this to be a slight reduction when (except for the gold) everything is appearing anywhere from 50-75% less frequently than it did before today's patch. I previously was receiving purple items every third or fourth chest. Blue items and soul gems were present in almost three quarters of them. Glyphs were present at least one third of the time.

This is either bugged or ZOS and I have completely different definitions of what constitutes a slight reduction. Anywhere from 5-10% is a slight reduction, maybe even 20%. What I am seeing today is anything but slight.

Moiskormoimi

These guys can never do anything subtle. It's either go balls out or throw caution to the wind with them, and yet, you're still surprised?

Evandus

The majority of players in that zone were Farming one boss until no xp. Now they are farming Anamolies. Tomorrow it will be something else. This will continue until there isn't anything left for fast xp/fast loot. Because the players make it so...

Seems to me that anything that catalyzes the available playerbase to do one thing excepting all others is definitely up for a change. And man, were they slow with that change.

There is a serious lack of metagame content in VR levels. This too needs to be addressed. However the behavior of players makes leaving a boon available durning that time to be mission impossible.

Sadly, this is their surgery via chainsaw method of stopping the bleeding. If we as players stop giving them reasons to do it - it will stop. But how likely is this?

WebBull

4 blues in 12 chests is unreasonable? Also, give it a bit more of a go around. 12 chests is about 20 mins of running Anoms and not a very large sample.

Neutronium_Dragon

One thing I've learned from playing MMOs (and working on one for a while too) is that "slightly" does not mean the same thing in developer-speak as it does in English.

"Slightly reduced" something undesirable means that no one will ever notice the difference.

"Slightly reduced" something desirable means that no one will ever see it again.

< / satire >

Noswell

Neutronium_Dragon wrote: »

"Slightly reduced" something undesirable means that no one will ever notice the difference.

"Slightly reduced" something desirable means that no one will ever see it again.

I can confirm this also applies to waistlines and shrinkage.

psychoman88ub17_ESO

Doesnt it mean, like a cooldown after you loot?

andreas.rudroffb16_ESO

SinisterJoint

The problem with ESO right now (and honestly most mmo's period) is that there is no content. What I mean by content is, well... content. I'm not sure where this quest to level came to be (actually I do know.. WoW) but the crap is dull and boring. What happened to grind groups? Camps? Named mobs dropping items that will have a use for a long time? What happened to named mob spawns? What happened to QUALITY gaming?

Somewhere between WoW and now we as a genre of players have let something like quality, slip right through our hands. Nobody gives a *** anymore about a REAL gaming experience. It seems the latest generation (and I know its not ALL of the latest generation) is only in it for the quick fulfillment. Quite frankly, It SUCKS!

Call me nostalgic, call me whatever you want. The fact is, MMO's are dying. That my friends, is the cold hard truth. It's pathetic....had so much hope for this game and all there is, is a bunch of damn quests and some crap dungeons that suck to repeat.

Maverick827

I've slightly reduced the amount of money I'm paying them from $15 to $0 a month.

wrlifeboil

Anomaly runs were giving too many soul gems. I think I have more than 300 now. The soul gems were dropping that I discarded them out if I needed room for a piece of looted gear. The empty ones.

The impact of the purple drop nerf if any should show up in purple mat prices. During the weekend before the nert, a few people were selling the mats in bulk amounts at much lower prices than on the third party web sites that list wtb/wts.

BrassRazoo

Is the XP still the same?
I am almost VR11 and plan to do some of this to get to VR12 and was very concerned that the XP has been nerfed as well.

wrlifeboil

SinisterJoint wrote: »

The problem with ESO right now (and honestly most mmo's period) is that there is no content. What I mean by content is, well... content. I'm not sure where this quest to level came to be (actually I do know.. WoW) but the crap is dull and boring. What happened to grind groups? Camps? Named mobs dropping items that will have a use for a long time? What happened to named mob spawns? What happened to QUALITY gaming?

Somewhere between WoW and now we as a genre of players have let something like quality, slip right through our hands. Nobody gives a *** anymore about a REAL gaming experience. It seems the latest generation (and I know its not ALL of the latest generation) is only in it for the quick fulfillment. Quite frankly, It SUCKS!

Call me nostalgic, call me whatever you want. The fact is, MMO's are dying. That my friends, is the cold hard truth. It's pathetic....had so much hope for this game and all there is, is a bunch of damn quests and some crap dungeons that suck to repeat.

Are mmos growing as fast as fps or mobas? No. But some gamers must be still playing mmos since mmos are profitable for many companies around the world. And their employees get paid in real money, not game gold. That doesn't sound too bad for something that is supposed to be dying.

LonePirate

SinisterJoint wrote: »

The problem with ESO right now (and honestly most mmo's period) is that there is no content. What I mean by content is, well... content. I'm not sure where this quest to level came to be (actually I do know.. WoW) but the crap is dull and boring. What happened to grind groups? Camps? Named mobs dropping items that will have a use for a long time? What happened to named mob spawns? What happened to QUALITY gaming?

Somewhere between WoW and now we as a genre of players have let something like quality, slip right through our hands. Nobody gives a *** anymore about a REAL gaming experience. It seems the latest generation (and I know its not ALL of the latest generation) is only in it for the quick fulfillment. Quite frankly, It SUCKS!

Call me nostalgic, call me whatever you want. The fact is, MMO's are dying. That my friends, is the cold hard truth. It's pathetic....had so much hope for this game and all there is, is a bunch of damn quests and some crap dungeons that suck to repeat.

The one thing I don't understand about this loot change and the removal of VP from the crystal is why would ZOS alter something in the game which the vast majority of players actually enjoyed. Anomalies were crowded and people liked farming them for VP and loot. The one I usually camp has been almost deserted with spawn times that are significantly slower than before this patch. The zone chat has slowed down as well with a much reduced number of players post Anomaly LFG messages.

I tried a couple of Burial sites and those seem to be fine as far as loot drops; but I could not form a definitive opinion on two chests. Unlike the Anomalies, the Burial site I visited was overflowing with players. All of this is anecdotal so please form your own opinions.

andreas.rudroffb16_ESO

Maverick827 wrote: »

I've slightly reduced the amount of money I'm paying them from $15 to $0 a month.

BEST POST EVER

MasterSpatula

SinisterJoint wrote: »

The problem with ESO right now (and honestly most mmo's period) is that there is no content. What I mean by content is, well... content. I'm not sure where this quest to level came to be (actually I do know.. WoW) but the crap is dull and boring. What happened to grind groups? Camps? Named mobs dropping items that will have a use for a long time? What happened to named mob spawns? What happened to QUALITY gaming?

Somewhere between WoW and now we as a genre of players have let something like quality, slip right through our hands. Nobody gives a *** anymore about a REAL gaming experience. It seems the latest generation (and I know its not ALL of the latest generation) is only in it for the quick fulfillment. Quite frankly, It SUCKS!

Call me nostalgic, call me whatever you want. The fact is, MMO's are dying. That my friends, is the cold hard truth. It's pathetic....had so much hope for this game and all there is, is a bunch of damn quests and some crap dungeons that suck to repeat.

Wait, grinding is "content" and quests are "dull and boring?"

Oooooooooookay.

DeLindsay

The only people crying about this are the ones who were abusing the system to begin with.

LonePirate

MasterSpatula wrote: »

Wait, grinding is "content" and quests are "dull and boring?"

Oooooooooookay.

Grinding anomalies in Craglorn offers a much higher player benefit than questing in the VR zones, especially on a risk vs. reward basis. I think that matters more to (many) players than what is or is not content and what is or is not boring.

wrlifeboil

LonePirate wrote: »

SinisterJoint wrote: »

The problem with ESO right now (and honestly most mmo's period) is that there is no content. What I mean by content is, well... content. I'm not sure where this quest to level came to be (actually I do know.. WoW) but the crap is dull and boring. What happened to grind groups? Camps? Named mobs dropping items that will have a use for a long time? What happened to named mob spawns? What happened to QUALITY gaming?

Somewhere between WoW and now we as a genre of players have let something like quality, slip right through our hands. Nobody gives a *** anymore about a REAL gaming experience. It seems the latest generation (and I know its not ALL of the latest generation) is only in it for the quick fulfillment. Quite frankly, It SUCKS!

Call me nostalgic, call me whatever you want. The fact is, MMO's are dying. That my friends, is the cold hard truth. It's pathetic....had so much hope for this game and all there is, is a bunch of damn quests and some crap dungeons that suck to repeat.

The one thing I don't understand about this loot change and the removal of VP from the crystal is why would ZOS alter something in the game which the vast majority of players actually enjoyed. Anomalies were crowded and people liked farming them for VP and loot. The one I usually camp has been almost deserted with spawn times that are significantly slower than before this patch. The zone chat has slowed down as well with a much reduced number of players post Anomaly LFG messages.

I tried a couple of Burial sites and those seem to be fine as far as loot drops; but I could not form a definitive opinion on two chests. Unlike the Anomalies, the Burial site I visited was overflowing with players. All of this is anecdotal so please form your own opinions.

Some players might be burnt out for a while. I saw several regulars farming the anomalies seemingly non-stop after the news of the impending nerf was released. I'd log in the morning, do a few runs, they would be there farming xp. I'd log in the evening, they would be there farming xp.

Also, if they reached VR12, there is no reason for them to be farming anomalies now anyway.

SFBryan18

And the neckbeards who play nonstop force them to fix another way to exploit, so that by the time us casual players get there, there won't be anything for us to find. Thus creating an even larger wealth gap between exploiter and regular player.

LonePirate

wrlifeboil wrote: »

Also, if they reached VR12, there is no reason for them to be farming anomalies now anyway.

I'm VR12 and I have been farming anomalies for the loot. The previous drop rates of purple gear, some set pieces, soul gems and treasure maps made them a profitable use of my time.

Arsenic_Touch

MasterSpatula wrote: »

Wait, grinding is "content" and quests are "dull and boring?"

Oooooooooookay.

Had the same thought, kind of amusing that mindless grinding is content in his eyes while quests in the vr zone are not. Good thing the majority feel otherwise, as does zenimax.

wrlifeboil

LonePirate wrote: »

wrlifeboil wrote: »

Also, if they reached VR12, there is no reason for them to be farming anomalies now anyway.

I'm VR12 and I have been farming anomalies for the loot. The previous drop rates of purple gear, some set pieces, soul gems and treasure maps made them a profitable use of my time.

Before the nerf that made sense. @LonePirate was talking about zone chat being quiet and Craglorn seemingly being deserted now, post-patch. With the reduced purple drop rate, it doesn't make sense now. The maps still drop though The only sets I saw at VR11 were martial, air, and fire. What other VR11 sets dropped from anomalies?

Natjur

Maybe people will do dungeon group runs now for exp and loot or even the daily quests in craglorn.....

Two hrs later....nope, all the people who farmed from V1 to V12 are now back in the old vet zones doing the quests they bypassed

Erock25

LonePirate wrote: »

From the 1.1.4 Patch Notes:

Exploration & Itemization
General

• Fixed an issue where Veteran Rank treasure chests were not dropping Veteran Rank enchantment glyphs.
• Reduced the debuff to armor and spell resist for the Wise Mage Item Set Bonus.
• We have slightly reduced the rate at which you can get items from chests for completing Magical Anomalies in Craglorn.

I can confirm that the appropriate level glyphs are now dropping in Craglorn chests everywhere.

However, the "slightly reduced" rate of loot in Anomaly chests is anything but slight. It has been nerfed hard. I have opened about a dozen chests after clearing anomalies today. Three of the chests contained only gold - 67 to be precise. Blue items dropped in four of them. Soul gems only appeared in two of them. Only one contained a glyph. None of them contained a purple item.

I would love to know how ZOS considers this to be a slight reduction when (except for the gold) everything is appearing anywhere from 50-75% less frequently than it did before today's patch. I previously was receiving purple items every third or fourth chest. Blue items and soul gems were present in almost three quarters of them. Glyphs were present at least one third of the time.

This is either bugged or ZOS and I have completely different definitions of what constitutes a slight reduction. Anywhere from 5-10% is a slight reduction, maybe even 20%. What I am seeing today is anything but slight.

Not worth reading another whine thread but you opened 12 whole chests?!? WHOA THAT IS A PROPER SAMPLE SIZE FOR SURE.

joshisanonymous

It takes maybe 30 seconds to down a single anomaly and maybe another minute to get to the next. If you think it was okay to be getting anywhere near one purple item every 5 minutes or so, you're crazy. I don't really care if they accurately described the change in the rate of drops, it sounds much more reasonable now. You might have also just been unlucky.

LonePirate wrote: »

The one thing I don't understand about this loot change and the removal of VP from the crystal is why would ZOS alter something in the game which the vast majority of players actually enjoyed. Anomalies were crowded and people liked farming them for VP and loot.

I'm not so sure people "enjoyed" anomalies, I think they just ran them non-stop because it was the path of least resistance. What they enjoyed was getting to VR12 in a day or two while earning enough loot that they were basically rich by the end of it, with the result that all other content in the game was being completely ignored. I'm not sure why anyone would consider that a good thing, unless they think the game itself is terrible. If that's their opinion, then they probably wouldn't stick around anyone once they were done maxing out whatever they were trying to max out.

Also, having people farm this content had the same effect as bots camped in front of dungeon bosses for players who actually want to do the content for the sake of doing it: it wasn't possible. I only ran through anomalies once with my guild and the fights were pretty annoying because we'd wait for the mob to spawn and out of nowhere would come 12-16 players who'd obliterate it before any of us could get a couple shots in. What people "enjoyed" about anomalies literally ruined the experience for those who wanted to play the game as intended.

wrlifeboil

Natjur wrote: »

Maybe people will do dungeon group runs now for exp and loot or even the daily quests in craglorn.....

Two hrs later....nope, all the people who farmed from V1 to V12 are now back in the old vet zones doing the quests they bypassed

Sounds like what I intend to do too. I also picked lots of herbs between anomaly runs so I can finally level up my alchemy skill. Maybe do some Cyrodiil, maybe not. Sounds so carebear and casual. Getting older I guess.

Enkil

But once you have done the quests once.... They are indeed quite dull and boring to do again.. Especially a third or fourth time...

You're running errands and playing fetch for NPCs... Clicking through dialog you've already heard... Is that not mindless as well?

Ser Lobo

SinisterJoint wrote: »

The problem with ESO right now (and honestly most mmo's period) is that there is no content. What I mean by content is, well... content. I'm not sure where this quest to level came to be (actually I do know.. WoW) but the crap is dull and boring. What happened to grind groups? Camps? Named mobs dropping items that will have a use for a long time? What happened to named mob spawns? What happened to QUALITY gaming?

Somewhere between WoW and now we as a genre of players have let something like quality, slip right through our hands. Nobody gives a *** anymore about a REAL gaming experience. It seems the latest generation (and I know its not ALL of the latest generation) is only in it for the quick fulfillment. Quite frankly, It SUCKS!

Call me nostalgic, call me whatever you want. The fact is, MMO's are dying. That my friends, is the cold hard truth. It's pathetic....had so much hope for this game and all there is, is a bunch of damn quests and some crap dungeons that suck to repeat.

Honestly, as I watched this change, it was mostly player requested.

Old-school, Golden Era MMO's had many mechanics that were essentially abused (or opportunistically appreciated, your pick) by a vast margin of players which generally rendered all the hardworking content the developers made useless.

Spam through quests till you get to a good grind zone. Grind mobs till you peak on gain. Spam through quests till next zone. Complain because game is repetitious and boring and needs more to do.

The irony of this is so thick I'm choking on it. Asian MMO's took that and focused on it. Grinding mechanics and 'fetch' missions became the norm. Storyline, lore, and immersion completely put on the wayside for holiday events (focused on grinding) and minute percentage loot in dungeons and raids (to focus on grinding).



Games are now going the other way, due to player feedback. ESO takes this further than most, completely taking away from the common grind tactic more than any game I've seen before. They go WAY further than UO or EQ or AC did. They've almost removed grinding entirely.

And of course, this is backlashing on them. Because for some reason, there is a huge portion of the MMO playerbase (some would even say a majority) who prefer micro-managing stats, creating macro's, and maximizing output efficiency through repetitive tasks better handled by the M1 button on our Logitech keyboards.

I don't disagree with ESO, and love what they've done. But even I recognize that it's a losing battle. Far more will say 'you suck cause you force me to GRIND quests' than those that will say 'thank you for finally focusing on storyline and immersion'.

BrassRazoo

SFBryan18 wrote: »

And the neckbeards who play nonstop force them to fix another way to exploit, so that by the time us casual players get there, there won't be anything for us to find. Thus creating an even larger wealth gap between exploiter and regular player.

Exactly.
The next content that comes out I'm heading right there, reading forums and joining guilds and groups and finding all the exploits and getting stuck in.
I am sick of things being "tweaked" before I get to the content.
I don't care about the loot, but I do care about timers and XP.
The gap just continues to widen and the community is all the poorer for it.
ZoS needs to test stuff more before releasing so this doesn't happen, but it I guess that's just wishful thinking.

Soliduparrow

"Play my way, ***"

-Matt Firor ESO director