Antiquities shouldn't require more than a few runs to get leads for, tops.

PizzaCat82

I get that you want people to do older content but running dungeons, delves, 30+ times doesn't make me want to do them at all.

I'd love to do them once. I'd even be willing to do them 2 or 3 times. But spending hours grinding the same content for leads makes people less excited about doing them, not more.

Something can be rare and be fun to aquire. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

BigBragg

My RNG has been bad with these leads too. Sadly it is also skewing random dungeon finder to the same runs, over and over. It can be mind numbing.

Playboy_Shrek

I get like 10 gold leads a week because I never do antiquities. I noticed that their "Rng" system isn't really rng for a lot of things.

phwaap

Agree. I just got the DC1 lead today even though I've done it on 12 characters many times since these dropped. Not going to grind the others.

But I get it. These things are only for the end game folks that "gotta have it". So, don't expect any change.

Scaletho

I'm still trying to get ONE lead for Auri-el Font. Just after the Antiquities was launched I spent almost two weeks trying every day to find the Font of Auri-el lead and nothing!!!! Farmed for hours, killed vamp bears, gloombears, vampiric sabrecats, vamp knigths and deathhounds.
I don't understand why some leads are impossible just for specific people and not for others.
I'm level 10 in all Antiquity skill lines... This is quite frustrating...

Lord-Otto

Scaletho wrote: »

I'm still trying to get ONE lead for Auri-el Font. Just after the Antiquities was launched I spent almost two weeks trying every day to find the Font of Auri-el lead and nothing!!!! Farmed for hours, killed vamp bears, gloombears, vampiric sabrecats, vamp knigths and deathhounds.
I don't understand why some leads are impossible just for specific people and not for others.
I'm level 10 in all Antiquity skill lines... This is quite frustrating...

Blood Knights. At the entrance of Greymoor Keep. Two are in the courtyard, one outside the front gate. Farm those, your best bet. That said, drop rate is low.

SidraWillowsky

Scaletho wrote: »

I'm still trying to get ONE lead for Auri-el Font. Just after the Antiquities was launched I spent almost two weeks trying every day to find the Font of Auri-el lead and nothing!!!! Farmed for hours, killed vamp bears, gloombears, vampiric sabrecats, vamp knigths and deathhounds.
I don't understand why some leads are impossible just for specific people and not for others.
I'm level 10 in all Antiquity skill lines... This is quite frustrating...

I'm having this issue with the Prismatic Sunbird Feather in Summerset. I've killed hundreds of gryphons at this point... nothing.

Even more infuriating is the fact that a solid 1/3 of them drop NOTHING.

volkeswagon

30 times is a lot. I would say 10 at the very most would be ideal. For leads that are in trials only I would say 2-3 times max. I have been farming the Gryphons feather lead with no luck but have gotten over 10 of those leather gold leads which I already know

Ragged_Claw

I was soloing DSC2 for the mount part and a friend said they'd hop in to help me do it quicker. They got the lead first time I went on to do it six more times and that dungeon takes forever on your own. Had the same with Volenfell, my daughter joined got her lead straight off, and she doesn't even have Skyrim ffs. So I was left to solo that another 10 times. Having said all that, I got pretty lucky by the sounds of it, some ppl are saying they've run those dungeons dozens of times but not had the leads. I'm not even going to talk about fishing in Artaeum for the Stranglers part, because I'd get banned.

Guyle

Unfortunately, ZOS is too drunk on confirmation bias. The more time you waste farming for things is the more time they see ppl participating in certain activities, and thinks ppl must love this, and awkwardly high five each other. What they dont get to see is the grudging hatred for this content that is building up in a lot of players.

volkeswagon

i kinda agree that some antiquities are meant to be rare

Iluvrien

They could have made leads deep and interesting.

They could have tied to researching ruins or archaeology on site, or talking to specific npcs, or reading texts and piecing together the information there... in short.. they could have made getting leads actually interesting.

What do we get instead? RNG. Again.

The current system for getting leads could have been so much more than the obvious RNG based time-waster that we received.

It is a shame, because the items themselves (and especially the antiquarian insight on them) has some really nice moments.

I can only hope that ZOS take another look at this at some point. Sooner rather than later would be good!

Elsonso

Yes. I have soured a bit on Antiquities due to leads locked behind punitive RNG.

Linaleah

there needs to be a system implemented that improves your chances every time you do the content and do not get the drop. instead of current "same exact chance percentage every run" it gradually increases until the drop is guaranteed. IMO.

myskyrim26

I don't grind, but every couple of days I go Darkshade Caverns for a lead. I go once a day. No lead... It will take forever, I guess

AlnilamE

Iluvrien wrote: »

They could have made leads deep and interesting.

They could have tied to researching ruins or archaeology on site, or talking to specific npcs, or reading texts and piecing together the information there... in short.. they could have made getting leads actually interesting.

What do we get instead? RNG. Again.

The current system for getting leads could have been so much more than the obvious RNG based time-waster that we received.

It is a shame, because the items themselves (and especially the antiquarian insight on them) has some really nice moments.

I can only hope that ZOS take another look at this at some point. Sooner rather than later would be good!

Not all leads are RNG. But those that aren't are things that you can only get once.

How would you handle your suggestion in regards to repeatable leads? Would be just go talk to the NPC each time we wanted a new chandelier?

I'm not too concerned about farming for leads. I mean, I do it sometimes, but I'm also working towards other things at the same time. After the initial rush, you'll just get leads as you go about the game.

Katahdin

Ive gotten all the wolf parts except for the 3 in the dungeons.

Ive run Darkshade 1 5 times so far and nada, which I know is nothing when it comes to farming things.

I am not looking forward to, no Im actually dreading running them 20+, 30+ ???+ times to get those.

I killed 50+ gryphons on one character and nothing.
Switched characters to one that had completed Summerset content (dont know if this matters or not) but got the lead on the 5th or 6th gryphon.

HappyTheCamper

Still looking for:

Font of Auri el
Painted glass from Elsweyr
Blessed moonpool
Moth Priest Bowl
Heartland painting
Statue from Thieves guild dailies
Boethra statue

Iluvrien

AlnilamE wrote: »

Iluvrien wrote: »

They could have made leads deep and interesting.

They could have tied to researching ruins or archaeology on site, or talking to specific npcs, or reading texts and piecing together the information there... in short.. they could have made getting leads actually interesting.

What do we get instead? RNG. Again.

The current system for getting leads could have been so much more than the obvious RNG based time-waster that we received.

It is a shame, because the items themselves (and especially the antiquarian insight on them) has some really nice moments.

I can only hope that ZOS take another look at this at some point. Sooner rather than later would be good!

Not all leads are RNG. But those that aren't are things that you can only get once.

How would you handle your suggestion in regards to repeatable leads? Would be just go talk to the NPC each time we wanted a new chandelier?

I'm not too concerned about farming for leads. I mean, I do it sometimes, but I'm also working towards other things at the same time. After the initial rush, you'll just get leads as you go about the game.

It's a good question @AlnilamE , and one I have been mulling over.

Personally I think a combination of the One True Vestige effect and tying to sites, not points, would cover it. By this I mean two things:

1) Even though we are technically aware of many other characters in the game, ours is supposed to be the Vestige and so we can take a similar approach to antiquities. As there is no flood of these goods into the market we can say that while there may be other antiquarians in the world they are not digging up relics at the speed that our own character is doing so.

2) A ruin may have several chandeliers in many rooms, a burial good may come from a burial complex rather than a single grave, and so on. These could be the basis to allow for copies. Allow an explorer to research rooms within the complex of ruins over time and so find the items associated with each room (and so something about that room's purpose).

To be clear: I think leads should be actively researched through interactions with the world (exploration, interrogation/conversation, investigation) and should be tied to the site not the item. A lead should give you the location of a lost ruin. Once at the ruin your character has the ability to further explore and excavate different sections of it. These excavations would uncover the relics associated wit that site up to a finite (but reasonably high) limit. All the while new items and lore would be being uncovered.

Anything else, that is one-shot loot, could remain outside the site excavation system as it isn't required.

Tigerseye

I totally agree.

Getting the first ones of most of them (apart from a tapestry) hasn't really been an issue, for me.

However, getting a second one (so, I can have a pair of whale, or snake, statuettes) has proven to be impossible, so far.

Meanwhile, I have multiples of things I don't really want and wasn't going for...

Tigerseye

Guyle wrote: »

Unfortunately, ZOS is too drunk on confirmation bias. The more time you waste farming for things is the more time they see ppl participating in certain activities, and thinks ppl must love this, and awkwardly high five each other. What they dont get to see is the grudging hatred for this content that is building up in a lot of players.

Think they're probably awkwardly elbow-bumping, now, but yeah.

Katahdin

Also, what is up with the motifs?

I keep getting the same ones over and over and over and cant get the ones I need.

Are they tied to specific treasure maps and some of them are super rare?

What gives?

AlnilamE

Katahdin wrote: »

Also, what is up with the motifs?

I keep getting the same ones over and over and over and cant get the ones I need.

Are they tied to specific treasure maps and some of them are super rare?

What gives?

The motifs drop from treasure maps in specific zones. Each of the zones that has a motif will have 2 leads for pages and they are always the same.

And my experience is that the leads always drop together.

Ravensilver

I am with the OP here.

When Antiquities came out, I was really excited. I immediately did the starter quest, did the lvl grind so that I was max in both skills and went out into the world to find all the lovely things that had been implemented.

It is true, the first leads usually drop fairly quickly (unless you're terribly unlucky like one guy in my guild that farmed all chests in Auridon for *three weeks* and didn't find the first lead for the painting).

But if you want a second, or *horrors* a third of something... forget it!

Have you tried getting the lead for the Stained Glass from the Northern Elsweyr dragons? Good luck to you! Starting with the fact that there's almost no one doing the dragons anymore - you're lucky if you find more than three people willing to kill one, and then only if it's the one in Prowl's Edge, because it's closest to the wayshrine. How are you supposed to get a second lead, if you can only kill one or two dragons per evening? I stopped. Occasionally, I'll wander by and see whether anyone is doing the dragon at PE. If not, I wander off again.

Same thing with the gryphons. I killed gryphons and gryphons and gryphons - for hours and hours. I've stopped. I only kill one if I happen to see one while harvesting my way through Summerset, but I've stopped grinding the lead.

Basically, I'm seeing a certain frustration and fatigue here. In the beginning, there were *scores* of players all over the place, doing antiquities. Now? I'm surprised if I see one or two.

The idea behind the content is great! I really love it.

But the miserable rng and droprate of (especially) the gold leads has taken all the joy and fun out of it for me. So now it's 'meh', another green/blue lead for motifs... >.> Nevermind. I'll just let them lapse.

This means I'm not doing the content that ZOS wants me to do. I'm not participating in the current content. I have given up.

And that really isn't something you want to hear your customers say...

Ravensilver

What I wanted to add... I feel like I'm being punished for wanting more than one piece of furniture from the antiquities list. Like having one Stained Glass is fine, but the Gods help you if you even *dare* to think of owning a second!

redlink1979

Regarding the leads for the mount: I finally got the lead from Darkshade Carverns I two days ago after more than 20 runs.
I still need the lead from Darkshade Caverns II, I've done more than 10 runs so far, besides that I still need the lead from Mtharnaz - which boss I've killed more than 15 times on an attempt to get the lead...

Ratio drop for some stuff in this game is just... frustrating, at the very least.

MasterSpatula

AlnilamE wrote: »

Katahdin wrote: »

Also, what is up with the motifs?

I keep getting the same ones over and over and over and cant get the ones I need.

Are they tied to specific treasure maps and some of them are super rare?

What gives?

The motifs drop from treasure maps in specific zones. Each of the zones that has a motif will have 2 leads for pages and they are always the same.

And my experience is that the leads always drop together.

This is planned to change with the Stonethorn update. So if you think the drop rate is too low now, it's basically going to halve at the next major update.

This is why I went on a buying spree for treasure maps. I had to buy all 6 twice for a couple of zones to get the leads, but I eventually got them all.

redlink1979

phwaap wrote: »

Not going to grind the others.

Agree. Atm I just run the dungeon once per day, or not... Depending on my mood.

Ravensilver

Well... I used the Summerset event to kill every gryphon that I happen to fall across - no lead for the feather.

I'm starting to hate Antiquities... >.<

Everest_Lionheart

For what it’s worth I seem to get leads on the regular on my toons that don’t have the antiquity lines unlocked. Find them everywhere. Thankfully my main has the lines unlocked and I usually spend 1 day per week collecting all the things while also clearing my maps. It seems the be the best way to stay on top of things without also getting flooded with maps/antiquities. Think of it as basically free money.

Ravensilver

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

For what it’s worth I seem to get leads on the regular on my toons that don’t have the antiquity lines unlocked. Find them everywhere. Thankfully my main has the lines unlocked and I usually spend 1 day per week collecting all the things while also clearing my maps. It seems the be the best way to stay on top of things without also getting flooded with maps/antiquities. Think of it as basically free money.

So if it drops on your toon, you can scry it with your main?