Lead Drop Rates

kojou

I don't usually post these kinds of posts (complaining about drops rates), but something feels bugged with my account.

I have been farming the "Malacaths Brutal Ritual Oil" found in Bonesnap Ruins for days now. I have the boss kill achievements on almost all of my 18 characters (I got bored of farming with the same character), but still have not had the lead drop. I even had other players in my guild join me and they get the lead within the first couple bosses and leave, while I run through the dungeon killing everything in sight 3-4 more times in a night. I have even gone after other leads due to being tired of farming this one, and nothing drops for those either.

This had lead me to one of 2 conclusions:

1. Either I am very unlucky
-or-
2. My account is bugged in some way and I am no longer able to obtain leads

I do have some of the mythic items and some of the leads for Malacath's band, but it seemed like one day leads just stopped dropping.

Has anyone else experienced this? I put in a bug report and in game feedback, but I was curious if I was alone or if others were having the same issue.

ImmortalCX

kojou wrote: »

I don't usually post these kinds of posts (complaining about drops rates), but something feels bugged with my account.

I have been farming the "Malacaths Brutal Ritual Oil" found in Bonesnap Ruins for days now. I have the boss kill achievements on almost all of my 18 characters (I got bored of farming with the same character), but still have not had the lead drop. I even had other players in my guild join me and they get the lead within the first couple bosses and leave, while I run through the dungeon killing everything in sight 3-4 more times in a night. I have even gone after other leads due to being tired of farming this one, and nothing drops for those either.

This had lead me to one of 2 conclusions:

1. Either I am very unlucky
-or-
2. My account is bugged in some way and I am no longer able to obtain leads

I do have some of the mythic items and some of the leads for Malacath's band, but it seemed like one day leads just stopped dropping.

Has anyone else experienced this? I put in a bug report and in game feedback, but I was curious if I was alone or if others were having the same issue.

I thought something like this. I was grinding for a piece in Direfrost, and I just didn't get it. Until I did. It took over 25 runs. Probabably about a 10-15 hour investment in time.

OTH, other pieces have been very easy. The artaeum fishing one I got in about 30 minutes.

I suspect there are other factors behind the RNG.

For instance, I used to spend alot of time fishing when I started playing a few years ago. Maybe have at least 100 hours. Does this mean the fishing RNG is better for me?

Regarding Direfrost Keep, I ocassionally bumped into that when doing random dailies, but I probably had run it < 5 times prior. Is that why it took me so long? I haven't been running dungeons because I have all the gear I already need. Maybe people who are constantly running dailies have a better chance?

Another person told me a WB drops the piece on the fourth time fighting it. Sure enough, when I had fought it four times, I got my drop. There appears to be a counter built in.

And regarding safeboxes, I suspect certain times of day (either in our world or game world) may have much higher chance.

I was farming safeboxes in Sentinel for a couple hours. Maybe 50+ boxes. I came back an hour later, and the first two boxes I opened, BOTH gave gold leads. Maybe it was server time, or maybe I had built up my chances by opening many previously.

I dont think your account is broken. I also dont think its strict RNG; there appear to be other factors involved.

AzureButterfly

I'm almost certain that there's some sort of cooldown timer on the gold leads. I know for a fact that there's one on furniture recipes (you can only get a single purple crafting recipe every hour or so) and I've found that searching for a particular lead right when I log on seems to give me better luck than trying to uncover multiple ones in a single play session.

Casandra

I agree, i gave up on Bonesnap and I have been trying Orsinium.... I have been farming the whole dungeon on single toons and on differeent toons 6 times..... (eso can check my account for activity) and for hours with no drop, I have been farming for 2 - 3 hours each time. if others join me or ask me to jone, others get lead drop but not me.

I am so sick and tired of this it's absolutely ridiculous.

Dear ESO what am i suppossed to do???????

Fur_like_snow

My luck seems to be geared towards the beginning of play session and falls off by the end. I got 3 gold leads with a few hours of each other but had no luck the last several hours farming the same spot. My recommendation is to try again tomorrow for a different lead if it hits than log back into bonesnap and try again. I agree with the poster above about the timer I don’t think I’ve ever hit more than one lead an hour. Good luck.

VDoom1

I agree that there does seem to be some cooldown, or the drop rate just goes to zero when you try to get a gold lead for a second time.

I have had gold leads drop without even trying to get them, just like a nice surprise. "Oh a gold lead, ah neat. Wasn't looking for it but k txs." But if one tries to go for a gold lead twice, nope not gonna happen. Or it's very low drop rate.

So yeah if you already have several mythic items maybe ESO is like "nope, enough for you for now."

Djennku

Drops can happen at any time, and I've been getting leads within the first kill, and if not, then within the next three. Adds it's been taking longer. My luck with monster trophies on the other hand, I need to kill at least 500 before it drops when I've been actively hunting them. Still haven't found the cipher either. XD

Evilspock

I'm also stuck on a lead, elden hollow boss. I've gotten the ring 3 times so I'm wondering if there is a limit or bug. My experience with boss leads is the drop rate is very high, something like 1/5.

Fur_like_snow

A per day limit is an interesting theory. It would make sense why I didn’t see drops later into my play session. 🤔

Evilspock

Evilspock wrote: »

I'm also stuck on a lead, elden hollow boss. I've gotten the ring 3 times so I'm wondering if there is a limit or bug. My experience with boss leads is the drop rate is very high, something like 1/5.

ok never mind I finally got it after over 30 runs...

Jaraal

AzureButterfly wrote: »

I'm almost certain that there's some sort of cooldown timer on the gold leads.

This is simply not true. I have gotten the gold lead in Coldharbour within seconds of finishing digging it up. But what I really want is the purple pillar lead. Something is obviously bugged with the drop rates:

preevious

You have seen nothing yet. NooOooOoothing yeeet !
Thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves

THIIIIIIIeeeEEeeEEves tro-ve !
*snaps*

EDIT : Thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves

Jaraal

preevious wrote: »

You have seen nothing yet. NooOooOoothing yeeet !
Thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves

THIIIIIIIeeeEEeeEEves tro-ve !
*snaps*

EDIT : Thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves thieves troves

I got the gold lead for the music box within 10 safeboxes, but I'm over 150 thieves troves with no luck on the purple lead.


Once again, something is bugged with the drop rates as it relates to lead quality.

Hotdog_23

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Arictheana

Evilspock wrote: »

Evilspock wrote: »

I'm also stuck on a lead, elden hollow boss. I've gotten the ring 3 times so I'm wondering if there is a limit or bug. My experience with boss leads is the drop rate is very high, something like 1/5.

ok never mind I finally got it after over 30 runs...

I just got done with run 42

Edit: Now on run 54

Mayrael

There is always that 1 item that doesn't want to drop. I remember when I wanted to drop Auroran set... After like... 60 runs I haven't dropped even one destruction staff not to mention some specific.

Edit:
Sorry, it was 78 runs. I have even made a spreadsheet showing the statistics. And the statistics wasn't made from the very beginning. So in general after around 100 runs I haven't found even ONE destruction stuff of that set

NupidStoob

AzureButterfly wrote: »

I'm almost certain that there's some sort of cooldown timer on the gold leads. I know for a fact that there's one on furniture recipes (you can only get a single purple crafting recipe every hour or so) and I've found that searching for a particular lead right when I log on seems to give me better luck than trying to uncover multiple ones in a single play session.

There is none for leads. I've found far too many within short periods of time that this could be true. I even found the 2 ultimate ones from southern elsweyr within 15 minutes of each other. I've also been in a situation where I had to kill a delve boss 20+ times for it to finally drop their lead (a blue one at that for the wolf).

As much as we love to add rules to everything this seems to be purely random.

Arictheana

Well I gave up on run 62. I'm tired of wasting my time farming for something that's not going to drop because ZOS can't fix their BS RNG.

raistin87

I took me about 3 hours to get all the drops for the ring.

I estimated that the drop rate from bosses is about was about 20%.

Arictheana

raistin87 wrote: »

I took me about 3 hours to get all the drops for the ring.

I estimated that the drop rate from bosses is about was about 20%.

Good for you.

Go run a dungeon 60 times without getting a lead and see how that supposed '20%' works.

Luvtrain

I was lucky enough to get a psijic portal drop one of the leads for thrassian stranglers and then about after 20 minutes of fishing in Artaeum, I got the lead drop. I've had my least amount of luck with Stros M'Kai getting that lead to drop but I've only been fishing there for an hour and its that last lead I need for stranglers. I still believe it is all just rng when it comes down to it.

phileunderx2

For me it was the gold mythic lead on Betnik island. Took me 6 or7 hours of farming to get it.

LadySinflower

You guys are scaring me! I have exceptionally bad luck trying to farm specific things. For example, I've run that public dungeon in Deshaan where the mothers sorrow inferno staff is supposed to drop, hundreds of times. Never once has the inferno staff dropped for me. I was in the dungeon with some friends one night and one of them got a staff. He gave it to me because he already had a pair. Then the other day my BF was about to give some staff he picked up to a friend. I wanted to see which staff - mothers sorrow inferno staff! I made him give it to me. He has been in that dungeon Maybe twice. His character is newly leveled and he has only (within the past week) started to venture in to public dungeons. But after hundreds of runs, I've never had that staff drop. I bet it will be the same with leads.

Kosef

I've ran Eden Hollow at least 25 times (normal/vet/dungeon que) and no drops. I've invited others who got the drop with, but I still haven't gotten this drop. It's quite literally frustrating. I'm tired of running this POS dungeon.

MashmalloMan

Arictheana wrote: »

raistin87 wrote: »

I took me about 3 hours to get all the drops for the ring.

I estimated that the drop rate from bosses is about was about 20%.

Good for you.

Go run a dungeon 60 times without getting a lead and see how that supposed '20%' works.

It's just RNG or... quite honestly, broken (I'll explain why below), I highly doubt there is a cooldown or previous experience dictating what your drop rate is, ZOS would not go through all that trouble.

From my expierence and many people I've talked to, World Bosses and Dungeon Bosses seem to drop a lead on average of 4-5 kills. I've gotten a lead in 2, 1, 6, 4, 3, 7 times, but on average it feels like 4-5 which means a drop rate of possibly around 20-30%.

Here would be the math of losing 60+ times if it was 20%:
0.8^60 = 0.00000153249

This is like saying your probabilty of losing is 1 out of 652,000. You my friend, have won the lottery if this is true. I'd say it may be broken at that point...

For fishing and regular mob kills, I have no idea.

Arictheana

Got it on run 76 =D

Raudgrani

Drop rates from bosses should be significantly increased, or be 100% guaranteed. I don't mind "grinding" for leads in fishing, farming nodes, looting lockboxes etc. - but for the love of the gods, I don't want to kill the same worldboss X0 times, over and over again, just for a lead.
Dungeons are even worse. I was running Blackheart haven like 20 times, no lead. I can't take it anymore, so I quit it for now. It's just not fun. What makes it even worse, is that you can't solo that one either (as I did with Darkshade II and Crypt of Hearts I), because of the mechanics when he turns you into a skeleton (and before some "elite" player says otherwise, yes it might very well be possible in some way, but really?).

Worldbosses are extremely frustrating too. It takes like 10 minutes for them to respawn. What are you supposed to do during that wait? I get it that ZOS maybe meant for you to go try kill them once a day for that lead, but they should know that this isn't how people play the game. Delve bosses are probably an even bigger problem, like in this Stonefalls delve, the Armature something; it's almost impossible to even get a hit in on that dwemer piece of junk. So every 3'rd time or so he spawns, you won't even get a chance for a lead - because he's dead before you even get a chance to hit him, because people spam AOE's on is spawn point continously, and sometimes yours won't hit before he dies.

This part is not well thought through. It just is not.

AlnilamE

Raudgrani wrote: »

Drop rates from bosses should be significantly increased, or be 100% guaranteed. I don't mind "grinding" for leads in fishing, farming nodes, looting lockboxes etc. - but for the love of the gods, I don't want to kill the same worldboss X0 times, over and over again, just for a lead.
Dungeons are even worse. I was running Blackheart haven like 20 times, no lead. I can't take it anymore, so I quit it for now. It's just not fun. What makes it even worse, is that you can't solo that one either (as I did with Darkshade II and Crypt of Hearts I), because of the mechanics when he turns you into a skeleton (and before some "elite" player says otherwise, yes it might very well be possible in some way, but really?).

Worldbosses are extremely frustrating too. It takes like 10 minutes for them to respawn. What are you supposed to do during that wait? I get it that ZOS maybe meant for you to go try kill them once a day for that lead, but they should know that this isn't how people play the game. Delve bosses are probably an even bigger problem, like in this Stonefalls delve, the Armature something; it's almost impossible to even get a hit in on that dwemer piece of junk. So every 3'rd time or so he spawns, you won't even get a chance for a lead - because he's dead before you even get a chance to hit him, because people spam AOE's on is spawn point continously, and sometimes yours won't hit before he dies.

This part is not well thought through. It just is not.

If you group up with people, you get loot even if you didn't get a hit in.

As for world bosses, the leads drop from multiple bosses, so hop between them if you don't want to gather while you wait?

Raudgrani

AlnilamE wrote: »

Raudgrani wrote: »

Drop rates from bosses should be significantly increased, or be 100% guaranteed. I don't mind "grinding" for leads in fishing, farming nodes, looting lockboxes etc. - but for the love of the gods, I don't want to kill the same worldboss X0 times, over and over again, just for a lead.
Dungeons are even worse. I was running Blackheart haven like 20 times, no lead. I can't take it anymore, so I quit it for now. It's just not fun. What makes it even worse, is that you can't solo that one either (as I did with Darkshade II and Crypt of Hearts I), because of the mechanics when he turns you into a skeleton (and before some "elite" player says otherwise, yes it might very well be possible in some way, but really?).

Worldbosses are extremely frustrating too. It takes like 10 minutes for them to respawn. What are you supposed to do during that wait? I get it that ZOS maybe meant for you to go try kill them once a day for that lead, but they should know that this isn't how people play the game. Delve bosses are probably an even bigger problem, like in this Stonefalls delve, the Armature something; it's almost impossible to even get a hit in on that dwemer piece of junk. So every 3'rd time or so he spawns, you won't even get a chance for a lead - because he's dead before you even get a chance to hit him, because people spam AOE's on is spawn point continously, and sometimes yours won't hit before he dies.

This part is not well thought through. It just is not.

If you group up with people, you get loot even if you didn't get a hit in.

As for world bosses, the leads drop from multiple bosses, so hop between them if you don't want to gather while you wait?

I haven't been grouped with anyone doing that, but you might very well be right. But that's not the point. What IS the actual point of having to kill the same "since the start of the game" bosses dozens of times? I get the grind thing with other leads, like Psijic Portals and such. But this boss grinding? So tremendously boring it's unbelievable. I know a guy who spent the better part of a day killing bosses for a lead in A'likr desert, I think he nearly went crazy. I didn't even wanna talk to him, because he was so p****d off.

For me, fishing in Artaeum - got lead on FIRST fish, which also gave me a Perfect Roe. Nice. Then the other fishing endeavor in Stros M'Kai, yeah - I pulled over 200 fishes before I got that lead. But, I don't mind that. It's a different thing. Doing nothing for 10 minutes, then killing a boss in 40 seconds, then wait another 10 minutes. It's not even fun, and it's probably not good for your mental health either to be honest. Feels like spending a day in a waiting room at a hospital, getting all excited when a nurse comes in, until she calls someone else's name.

Lord_Draevan

I'm wondering if lead drop rate are bugged. I was averaging 5-6 a day since Greymoor launched on PC, but for the past 5 days I haven't gotten a single one.

Elsonso

Interestingly, the OP, @kojou, never came back to update.

Evilspock wrote: »

I'm also stuck on a lead, elden hollow boss. I've gotten the ring 3 times so I'm wondering if there is a limit or bug. My experience with boss leads is the drop rate is very high, something like 1/5.

RNG is RNG... but ESO RNG is a curious thing. I have passively noticed that the drop rates seem higher in the first few days after a release, then seem to dry up. As a matter of fact, I now make it a point to do as much content in the first week as possible, as I always seem to get good drops when I do that. If I wait, the drops always seem harder to come by. It is a curious thing. I would love to know the details behind how ZOS does RNG.