Master writs after a week

VerboseQuips

Well, after a week, I got 28 vouchers. Today, I recieved no sealed writ at all.

My main character, who is my crafter too, knows every trait. Every motif except the new ones. Every recipe except the two aetherial abrosiae, and two other purple ones that I have failed to find in any guild store so far. He accomplished all the crafting achievements, except the very new ones. Getting there took me hours upon hours of effort, and hundreds of thousands of golds. Actually, I'd already have one of the largest homes now if I hadn't invested everything on crafting to complete my knowledge of motifs and recipes before Homestead arrived. Because we were told

Yet the RNG is so absurdly predominent on the rate of voucher acquisition that there is no noticeable advantage for being an actual master crafter. Anyone can "get lucky" and get instantly 10 times more. At this point, I am not even sure ZOS did implement any positive bias for master crafters. Thus rendering all my efforts, and those of other master crafters, effectively nullified.

Maybe they'll correct that in some patch, but by the time they do it, the lucky early birds will have taken a significant advantage based on luck only, and the prices will have dropped already. Meaning that anyways, master crafters will not recover the advantage they worked hard to obtain. Either that or the prices won't drop and crafter will still have to pay so much for the sealed writs that they won't be able to buy the houses they're supposed to decorate with the voucher stuff.

I have a growing feeling since the update that all my effort didn't matter at all and that in the end, only luck does. A game that gives me the feeling that effort does not bring any reward, and that I just have to be lucky has a double effect. First, it doesn't make me want to produce more effort. Why would I since it does not matter anyways? Second, it deprives the actual reward, when it eventually comes, of any worth. Why would I feel proud of having been plain lucky? An achievement that follows from luck and not effort is empty of meaning.

My words seem to be bitter. It is because I have loved the game so far, and I love the Elder Scrolls universe. But since Homestead, my enjoyment of the game is plumetting dramatically. I fear I am nearing game burn-out. Master writs aren't the only factor in this. But their daily disappointment surely does contribute to my growing feeling of disgust.

Flaminir

VerboseQuips wrote: »

I have a growing feeling since the update that all my effort didn't matter at all and that in the end, only luck does.

^^^ THIS!

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_RichLambert

A constructive comment would be that we all were lead to believe that the master writ system was a way to stimulate the economy and reward crafters for putting the effort, time and gold in. So far it feels like the opposite to this, which I'm sure was not what was intended.

Would it be possible to review the contributing factors to the master writ drop system? Perhaps change the bias towards not just the drop chance of the master writs, but also the drop chance of the higher tier of writs and how those are awarded?

Anything to make it more likely to be rewarded when doing them on a proper 'MASTER Crafter'.

If players can see there is a real benefit to being a master crafter it will stimulate players to persue and play that part of the game... at the moment the master writ system does not feel that way for many that I have spoken to.

MasterSpatula

I've had 4 drop so far. None have dropped on my characters with lots of motifs learned. My characters with all reagents still haven't seen Alchemy Master Writs. My characters with all Runestones still have seen Enchanting Master Writs. Only Equipment writs and only on characters with minimal motifs learned.

A little early to call it a trend, but still, it hints at a trend.

TequilaFire

I hope all master crafters get their drops improved, on the other side of the coin I would also hope that the items they craft will be more reasonably priced as people can't afford these silly million gold prices I am starting to see.
Disclaimer: I do have a master crafter so I know the effort it took to get there.

Esha76

I would like to throw my voice in this thread as well as another who is disappointed with the master writ system. I have a similar situation to others on this thread. I have put a lot of time and effort into crafting on my main, and a couple of other characters, and in the whole week of doing writs everyday I have only had one MW drop for 6 vouchers.

This RNG needs to be adjusted (as least reviewed) so that people who have master crafters truly have increase chances at MW drops. It does not appear that they do at this time.

ZOS also needs to change this character-bound voucher concept. Why on Earth did you ever think that was a good idea and fair to the players?

Like I said in another thread about this, I'm not looking to acquire my Ebony motif tomorrow, but some progress toward rewards for my efforts in crafting the past few years would be appreciated.

JinMori

I will never understand what's so appealing about buying a house in an online game, exspecially if it costs more then a million, i would instead spend that money on gear, and crafting mats.

Inklings

JinMori wrote: »

I will never understand what's so appealing about buying a house in an online game, exspecially if it costs more then a million, i would instead spend that money on gear, and crafting mats.

A million gold is not that much to those of us who play the economy. Some of us enjoy that side of the game more then collecting gear as you say. To each his own, honestly. I pull in about two million gold a week and I'm finally glad to have something to spend it on.

Nolphi

I can do 36 max level writs per day and have averaged 2 to 4 master writs per day. All low values ranging from 2 to 8 vouchers. It does not seem to matter how many motifs or traits you know. In fact my 'luckiest' char is a brand new crafter I created in preparation of Homestead. They need to review this and I agree that the diffference should be much, much larger. I am glad I didnt spend a ton of money on learning new motifs and only bought the ones that were selling < 1000 gold per chapter. I also think that enchanting, alchemy and provisioning have a much lower chance of producing a master writ, probably because its easier to get the achievements and to create any master writ..

Nolphi

Inklings wrote: »

JinMori wrote: »

I will never understand what's so appealing about buying a house in an online game, exspecially if it costs more then a million, i would instead spend that money on gear, and crafting mats.

A million gold is not that much to those of us who play the economy. Some of us enjoy that side of the game more then collecting gear as you say. To each his own, honestly. I pull in about two million gold a week and I'm finally glad to have something to spend it on.

Hi Inklings, I watched your stream a few days back. You must be swimming in master writs by now?

SydneyGrey

I've never gotten a single master writ. I'm only maxed in the clothing skill line, though, so that's probably why. (And I only maxed THAT a few days ago.) I'm currently working toward maxing all of my skills.

Zoner

I get on average 3 to 4 every day. I do writs on 8 characters, all with minimum 4 traits, craft skill levelled to 50 and all basic motifs. My main is a 9 trait crafter with all pre-housing motifs.

SanTii.92

KaiVox22 wrote: »

My wife did 5 writs and got a 86 voucher master writ which we sold for 700k so she had enough to buy another house for us... after I blew 11.4mil on all the manors

RNG goes both ways I guess

Edit: Also she's at like 4 traits and only has the basic motifs known as far as I know

sold 86 vouchers at 700k? was that day one, hour one of the patch?!

Cpt_Teemo

6 writs on my master crafter, 0 master writs again for 3 days.

I have basically all the motifs learned besides the 4 new ones + full Akaviri.
Also nearly all traits about 12 left I believe (in total)

Isn't this supposed to work towards more benefit to those that invested more time / money into this? Doesn't seem like its working at all

Baconfat79

I have one character with all traits, all motifs, all passives, and all the crafting achievements. I've done all 6 writs on this character every day, and I've only seen 4 master writs so far. Bad luck with RNG is what it is, but I'm more than a little unhappy with the drop rates. Oh well...keep grinding it out, I guess.

Faulgor

I think I did about 12 writs per day (2x smithing, 2x clothing, 3x woodworking, 2x enchanting, 3x alchemy), all in all I got 3 Alchemy, 2 Enchanting, 1 Smithing and 1 Woodworking MW, worth 39 vouchers. My master clothier didn't get anything yet although he knows the most. At this rate, I might be able to get 2 ebony motif pages by the end of next week, which is not too bad.

I don't like the RNG, but I have to say that I do feel rewarded for having invested into crafting. My woodworking MW asked for a Draugr staff which I was able to craft, and my smithing MW asked for a 9 trait pauldron, which I'm not able to make yet. So there's definitely a sense of accomplishment when you are able to complete the MW.
It's just the RNGing to actually get your hands on a MW, even more so one that yields any meaningful number of vouchers, is an absolute pain. Frankly I would have even preferred something like a guaranteed weekly quest to this lottery.

Runs

I am kind of disappointed in master writs. They are supposed to be for crafters with a dedication to the craft. I have been able and willing to complete any and all master writs, yet the ones I get are just epic that have next to no real voucher pay out. Meanwhile there are tons of people who are getting the legendary writs, who are showing a lack of dedication by selling them.


I have to wonder how many of mine would have been legendary had whiners not cried about them being a waste of expensive mats when they were first announced. I wonder how many of them actually are doing any of them...

Rev Rielle

I've gotten four thus far. They've roughly rewarded 6 vouchers each. So I'm sitting on 25 writ vouchers at the moment. At this rate it will take me just over three months to get the Ebony Motif Book that I'm aiming for.

And I honestly think that is perfectly fine.

sirinsidiator

I'm also quite frustrated with how these master writs work. I have maxed all crafting skills, researched all traits, collected all (provisioning) recipes, learned all motifs and all I got is 5 writs with an average value of 3 and 1 writ which was worth 20 vouchers and broke when I tried to sell it in the store. Meanwhile some halfbaked crafter who just finished leveling and learned a few blue motifs got 2 writs with an overall value of 200+ vouchers in the same time.
I really hope they change this to actually be rewarding to dedicated crafters.

RaddlemanNumber7

7 days so far, doing 30 max level writs per day on 5 characters.

I’ve been getting between 2 and 4 master writs per day, all small.

So far I’ve amassed 74 vouchers in total. I transferred all the master writs to my lead crafter to complete.

3 equipment writs so far, all for 6 vouchers each.

The highest paying master writ I’ve had is the one for 8 psijic ambrosia (ouch).

I had to buy an Akaviri motif page for one of the equipment writs (also ouch).

The chance of getting a master writ for equipment is so small that trait and motif knowledge has had no noticeable effect so far. I’ve had one equipment master writ off my 9 trait/most motifs crafter, one off a middling crafter, and one off a character with few crafting achievements, no trait knowledge and very few motifs.

Overall, I’d say I’m OK with this. I’m saving up vouchers to buy a set of work stations, and if it takes 4 weeks or 14 it doesn’t really matter. It is something that I am only going to do once in the entire lifetime of the game.

Plus, taking my squishy, scrubby, lead crafter out to far-distant crafting stations has been an adventure in itself. Can’t wait for him to get a master writ for one of the IC sets.

Sallington

If ESO didn't need something, it was another RNG grind.

Random master writs are fine, but give us a way to trade mats (or something) directly for writ voucers. 100 mats per voucher, I don't care, just give us some definitive way to progress without relying on RNG.

dvstansb14_ESO

So, from the responses of everyone, I think there is a general consensus that:

1. the master writ drop rate seems low (only ZOS can see what's actually happening)
2. there is no perceivable increase in master writ drop chance based on crafter experience or achievements (i.e. number of traits, motifs/recipes, etc).
3. Related to above, the voucher rewards don't appear to be proportional to crafter investment (i.e. 1 or 2 vouchers)

Here's some suggestions for ZOS:

1. Please verify the algorithm for MW drop probability and rewards
2. Maybe bracket the drop chance/writ reward based on crafter skill - meaning guarantee drop rate/reward over a range of possibilities. This would ensure that veteran crafters get better rewards than some new crafter who just get incredibly lucky.

The bottom line here is that it's very very frustrating to see no measurable results from the huge investment that goes into master crafting. I will continue to try for maybe another week before I give up on this activity.

Inklings

Nolphi wrote: »

Inklings wrote: »

JinMori wrote: »

I will never understand what's so appealing about buying a house in an online game, exspecially if it costs more then a million, i would instead spend that money on gear, and crafting mats.

A million gold is not that much to those of us who play the economy. Some of us enjoy that side of the game more then collecting gear as you say. To each his own, honestly. I pull in about two million gold a week and I'm finally glad to have something to spend it on.

Hi Inklings, I watched your stream a few days back. You must be swimming in master writs by now?

Just got done with my first 7 days of writs. With my 20 characters doing a total of 840 writs a week i got 71 Master Writs for 730 vouchers. If anyone cares to see, i kept track by category all week long.

https://twitter.com/Inklings_ESO/status/830812927871578115

dvstansb14_ESO

Inklings wrote: »

Nolphi wrote: »

Inklings wrote: »

JinMori wrote: »

I will never understand what's so appealing about buying a house in an online game, exspecially if it costs more then a million, i would instead spend that money on gear, and crafting mats.

A million gold is not that much to those of us who play the economy. Some of us enjoy that side of the game more then collecting gear as you say. To each his own, honestly. I pull in about two million gold a week and I'm finally glad to have something to spend it on.

Hi Inklings, I watched your stream a few days back. You must be swimming in master writs by now?

Just got done with my first 7 days of writs. With my 20 characters doing a total of 840 writs a week i got 71 Master Writs for 730 vouchers. If anyone cares to see, i kept track by category all week long.

https://twitter.com/Inklings_ESO/status/830812927871578115

That's... wow. A huge effort and thanks for sharing! I would say that based on the number of samples you've provided that this is a valid statistical representation of the MW system. One question though: are all of your characters equal in terms of craft skill/achievements? I hope not as two of your characters have much higher yield than the others. If the average is indeed 0.87 vouchers per crafting writ, then I will probably stop trying since it would take me almost a year of daily grinding to buy the items I'm interested in.

Auricle

@Inklings - It's really nice to see some data instead of anecdotal evidence. Thanks for taking the time to write that up. Glad to see you're using your powers of OCD for good rather than evil.

Universe

Today I received a master Blacksmithing writ of 88 vouchers.
It dropped to one of my mule characters, almost 0 learned traits and crafting styles

I have completed writs on all my main characters(almost all styles learned and all traits discovered) but I only received a few master writs of 2-7 vouchers each.
I don't know how the RNG works but the bonus chance for learned traits and styles is almost non existent.

Inklings

dvstansb14_ESO wrote: »

Inklings wrote: »

Nolphi wrote: »

Inklings wrote: »

JinMori wrote: »

I will never understand what's so appealing about buying a house in an online game, exspecially if it costs more then a million, i would instead spend that money on gear, and crafting mats.

A million gold is not that much to those of us who play the economy. Some of us enjoy that side of the game more then collecting gear as you say. To each his own, honestly. I pull in about two million gold a week and I'm finally glad to have something to spend it on.

Hi Inklings, I watched your stream a few days back. You must be swimming in master writs by now?

Just got done with my first 7 days of writs. With my 20 characters doing a total of 840 writs a week i got 71 Master Writs for 730 vouchers. If anyone cares to see, i kept track by category all week long.

https://twitter.com/Inklings_ESO/status/830812927871578115

That's... wow. A huge effort and thanks for sharing! I would say that based on the number of samples you've provided that this is a valid statistical representation of the MW system. One question though: are all of your characters equal in terms of craft skill/achievements? I hope not as two of your characters have much higher yield than the others. If the average is indeed 0.87 vouchers per crafting writ, then I will probably stop trying since it would take me almost a year of daily grinding to buy the items I'm interested in.

enchanting, alchemy and provisioning are equal on all 20 characters. black smithing, wood working and clothing are equal on 16.

Its apparent by drop rates that they dont want players getting everything in the first week or even month of the release of housing. Everything about homestead seems to be based around a major grind. IMO youre better off farming gold and buying master writs from people if you want these items asap. That being said, you should still be doing your writs everyday. Even with out master writs they were worth doing. They yield some of the best profit in game for time spent. If youre on PC it only takes 3 mins per character to do your daily writs and on average you make about 100k in gold and items per week for each character you do them on.

Lord_Draevan

Do you have to know all 9 traits in Blacksmithing, Clothier, and Woodsworking, all armour and weapons, to get those Master Writs? Cause I have done the Writ quests every day since Homestead launched, but haven't gotten a single Master Writ yet.
And do you need to know all the styles (9 base races+Imperial, Barbaric, Daedric, etc)?

Oreyn_Bearclaw

I am in the 600-800 range, dont exactly know because I bought a few along the way to sell, but I do them on 9 toons. Most of which have all reagents, and enchants learned, half are 6 trait and above and two are 9 trait.

I sold about 415 before the deadly strike bug screwed me on friday, I still have 343 in deadly strike (awesome), listed about 300 more on Monday when they fixed it. I would guess that I purchased about 350 worth from other players.

the_Beard

I've done them every day on my master crafter (all research done, most of the motifs learned). That's a total of 54 writs, 6 per day.

I've only received 1 enchanting master writ worth 2 vouchers.

I know I can do them on a bunch of my alts, but I was under the impression that research traits and motifs learned had an impact on master writ drop chance. Though I'm hearing from people that they are getting master writs on alt toons with no motifs / traits researched, and just simply blacksmith/woodworking/clothing etc leveled.

This kind of abysmal drop rate some players are experiencing really can't be intended, can it?

NeKryXe

i just spent 2 hours to complete 86 writs with 7 veteran crafters to get one master enchanter writ with 2 vouchers. it's better to play the game, forget this thing, and pay 8k to someone for the sealed writ

*updating*

out of curiosity i just did another round of 86 writs with my 7 characters. this time i got 3 master writs with a total of 10 vouchers. now i know that in 172 writs i'm able to get 12 vouchers, which means that i need to do 516 writ quests to get a craft station this is insane

the funny thing is that i noticed that the characters with none or less craft experience are the ones getting the master writs :')