Going forward, "Ancestral" Motifs should be similar to the Dwarven Scarab, not exclusive to Maps

B0SSzombie

It was fine when Ancestral Motifs were introduced, since the Ancestral Altmer, Nord, and Orc motifs used Treasure Maps from the base game, which have been stocked up and in abundance during the entirety of this game's lifespan (Creeping up on 7 years!). There were plenty of the things, and they drop frequently enough.

But the Ancestral Reach Motif proved that that system doesn't work with new zones. It's one thing for a drop to have a low drop rate, but a guaranteed way to farm it. It's another to rely exclusively on luck in a general loot table. It makes it nearly impossible to grind for, having to rely on dumb luck, or having an exorbitant amount of gold to buy a CHANCE to find the motif.

And now, there's at least 3 more Ancestral Motifs in the game's data: Breton, Imperial, and Akaviri. No doubt, these are coming to the game starting with the next Chapter. But if they require Maps for/related to the new Zone? It will be a complete nightmare to farm them. It'll make Buoyant Armiger look like a walk in the park.

Ancestral Motif leads should be similar to the Dwarven Scarab leads, with a slight alteration. For those that don't know, the Dwarven Scarab Part leads drop exclusively in the Bthar-Zel dungeon in Markarth, but most enemies have a general chance to drop them.

If the parts for the new Ancestral Motif leads could drop from specific Delves/Dungeons/Explorable areas in a new Zone, it would be such a vast improvement and an actually interesting grind. Leads could even drop from stuff like Trials or Arenas. Just anything with a guaranteed way to farm them!

Please!

Starlock

. . .

No, not like the scarab. I will never get that either. That is a terrible, terrible collectible method. At least I can actually buy treasure maps if I want to without sandpapering my face off like the scarab leads.

colossalvoids

It's probably even worse one. Every spot will be filled with people grinding non stop which is already frustrating.

Luke_Flamesword

Just give some very rare chance to drop from any mob in zone - both for maps and scarab (in this case any dwarven mob in any Markarth DLC location)

Czeri

I've actually just got a scarab drop in the Arkthzand library, so they seem to drop from the factotum-like enemies rather than a specific location.

Having said that, I agree that the Ancestral Reach motif if a total pain. I can't even buy chapters like I would any other motif I struggle with, because I want to fill the Antiquities journal for the Reach...

Minyassa

Gods. I was thinking that the scarab drops were the worst in the game, I'm not at all encouraged hearing about something even potentially worse. I've killed 200 damn Architons and not seen a single part yet.

virtus753

If they would actually fix the Ancestral Reach motif leads to drop as advertised (i.e. intended), then they wouldn’t be such a pain in the first place.

tim99

virtus753 wrote: »

If they would actually fix the Ancestral Reach motif leads to drop as advertised (i.e. intended), then they wouldn’t be such a pain in the first place.

oh, what was the original way to drop them? seems i misses that part...

spartaxoxo

I think instead dlc treasure maps should have a much higher chance to drop from their respective zones than base game treasure maps. And their respective zones should be both the story and chapter dlc since these are generally interconnected.

So go farm dragons or treasure chests in North or South Elysweyr if you want Elysweyr maps. You may not get one from every treasure map drop but you'll get them from most.

virtus753

tim99 wrote: »

virtus753 wrote: »

If they would actually fix the Ancestral Reach motif leads to drop as advertised (i.e. intended), then they wouldn’t be such a pain in the first place.

oh, what was the original way to drop them? seems i misses that part...

They are meant to drop as bonus loot from excavations in the Reach.

Meanwhile, I still get kicked from excavations there saying I’ve found all the loot when I only have two bonus items showing and awarded.

My money’s on the motifs being in the loot pool and being counted towards the three bonus drops but being bugged so they never get added to inventory in the end.

Czeri

tim99 wrote: »

virtus753 wrote: »

If they would actually fix the Ancestral Reach motif leads to drop as advertised (i.e. intended), then they wouldn’t be such a pain in the first place.

oh, what was the original way to drop them? seems i misses that part...

The tooltip implied they'd drop while digging out other antiquities in the zone.

Destai

There should just be a bloody motif merchant where people can earn styles, or god forbid tie it to some achievement or something. It's a shame that all the hard work that goes into these motifs is nearly thrown away because ZOS can't come up with a better delivery method.

tomofhyrule

The Ancestral Reach motif leads are total BS.

I've dug out so many of the maps, and I only ever once got a lead, and that was right around when they released. I get it, low RNG and all, but seriously what even is the drop rate? I've heard people saying something around 10%. That means there's over a 95% chance that I'd have gotten at least one in 30 maps, and I haven't managed to get a second.

And yeah, the problem is that I'd like to get the codex entries as well.

The other problem is that there's no guarantee that you'll get one you're missing. Imagine someone lucky enough to get 13/14 motifs - what are the odds that the lead that finally drops for them is the one piece they're missing?

The tooltip for Ancestral Reach is still worded slightly differently than the other Ancestral motifs, and they did imply that the Ancestral Reach lead dropped as bonus loot. I wonder if it's because the leads are only half-counted as items in the first place - I know that then thieving in Vvardenfell, if you hit a container or something that has a lead, the 'Take All' button doesn't work; you have to take each thing individually.

I've still got my Cyrodiil treasure maps stockpiled because I bet that Ancestral Imperial's gonna turn up there, so I'm not running those yet.

They really should add those leads to any chests. If they want to simulate the "oh, it's buried so I had to dig it up," add it to nodes or give it a chance of dropping after a successful antiquity excavation.

remosito

no lead should ever be put into such a low drop chance place as scarab.

6 hours and have 1 piece. *** that.

prefer buyable leads like ancestral motifs by at least a factor of ten to the power of 574 gazillion.

tim99

remosito wrote: »

no lead should ever be put into such a low drop chance place as scarab.

6 hours and have 1 piece. *** that.

prefer buyable leads like ancestral motifs by at least a factor of ten to the power of 574 gazillion.

i still bet the drop rate is bugged

jaws343

tomofhyrule wrote: »

The Ancestral Reach motif leads are total BS.

I've dug out so many of the maps, and I only ever once got a lead, and that was right around when they released. I get it, low RNG and all, but seriously what even is the drop rate? I've heard people saying something around 10%. That means there's over a 95% chance that I'd have gotten at least one in 30 maps, and I haven't managed to get a second.

And yeah, the problem is that I'd like to get the codex entries as well.

The other problem is that there's no guarantee that you'll get one you're missing. Imagine someone lucky enough to get 13/14 motifs - what are the odds that the lead that finally drops for them is the one piece they're missing?

The tooltip for Ancestral Reach is still worded slightly differently than the other Ancestral motifs, and they did imply that the Ancestral Reach lead dropped as bonus loot. I wonder if it's because the leads are only half-counted as items in the first place - I know that then thieving in Vvardenfell, if you hit a container or something that has a lead, the 'Take All' button doesn't work; you have to take each thing individually.

I've still got my Cyrodiil treasure maps stockpiled because I bet that Ancestral Imperial's gonna turn up there, so I'm not running those yet.

They really should add those leads to any chests. If they want to simulate the "oh, it's buried so I had to dig it up," add it to nodes or give it a chance of dropping after a successful antiquity excavation.

I've dug up at least 6 or 7 so far. But mostly from the Western Skyrim and Blackreach maps. I always search those in my guild traders every day to see if anyone lists one for under 5K and then buy it. Usually happens once a week.