Anyone else feel like 'master' level chests are EASIER to unlock....?

NeeScrolls

Maybe it's me, but for some reason whenever i get a master level chest i seem to unlock it 1-2-3-4-5 picks bing-bang-boom EASY in like 2 seconds. But whenever i get the supposedly "easier" low level (simple/intermediate) chests, it not only takes me way longer to open but i end up breaking lockpicks galore lol /shrug ... Anyone else feel this way?

phaneub17_ESO

Advanced jiggles the most which can be annoying, master chest are supposed to have the least amount of jiggle which is actually what gives away the sweet spot thus making it easier. The difference here is master chests increase the chance of the pick breaking with reduced timer so that break is what can make it hard. If you play on Stadia over WiFi then advanced and master chests can be near impossible because of the input delay and reaction.

DreamyLu

Other! Sorry but no options match my thinking.

I don't think it's a matter of easier or harder. I rather believe that opening a lock is a matter of "rhythm" and that one speed of the pistons suits us better than the others. For example, I feel better at advanced ones, because the speed of the pistons is more comfortable to me. The simple and intermediate ones are too slow and I have difficulty to adjust a rhythm on them. Master goes too fast.

LannStone

There's a lot of variance in master chests. If you have to push all the pins almost all the way to the bottom before they click in, that takes twice as long than if they're set to stop near the top. So some master chests are much easier than others. But if you get a hard setting and fail, you may get an easy setting on your next try. I guess the point is I don't think you can compare master chests with other levels, because master chests themselves vary so much in difficulty, depending on the pin settings.

SeaGtGruff

I used to find Master chests to be the easiest ones to unlock, because the tumblers move so quickly and easily that you can usually set them without breaking your pick. In contrast, the tumblers of Simple chests seem to cause more broken picks due to how slowly the tumblers move, which can make it harder for me to tell if I'm pressing down loo long on a tumbler.

But even if you break several picks while trying to open a Simple chest, the timer runs down so slowly that you can usually still get the chest unlocked. In contrast, the timer on a Master chest runs down so quickly that breaking a few picks can cause you to run out of time, especially if you start to panic and get sloppy.

For me, the most difficult part of picking a lock seems to be getting my pick positioned over any given tumbler, because there are times when it seems like it's almost impossible to move my mouse just the right amount left or right, so I sometimes end up losing too much time on simply trying to successfully position my mouse. On a Simple chest this isn't such a big deal, but on a Master chest it can be the difference between success and failure.

mocap

cuz players prepare themselves to unlock them real hard. And if they see medium lock, they like "meh..." and fail to open.

w002exp

I ended up maxing the force lock skill and I won't ever go back. Never realized how much I needed in my life but it's so gratifying just going up to a chest, pressing one button, and voila!

I do agree with the perception that the RNG probabilities with force lock are not accurate. But the thing is, as long as the chest opens on my second attempt, it still opens faster than if I tried to pick it.

Herminia

The fact that master chests require quicker reaction generally works in my favor, because I tend to be impatient I find myself having most trouble with intermediate chests.

Kiralyn2000

I'm not sure I'd say "easier", but rather "less tedious". Because the things go faster, you can get it done quicker. (Simple are the most annoying, they Just. So. Slow. )


(don't really break picks all that often, so that's not a good gauge of difficulty. /shrug)

Tandor

I don't find the difficulty ratings make any difference to the actual difficulty, just to the amount of time I have. From past discussions here I think the problems some have with unlocking chests often relate to them not understanding the limited number of fixed positions the lock has and/or the effect of lag if they suffer from it.

Sylvermynx

Tandor wrote: »

I don't find the difficulty ratings make any difference to the actual difficulty, just to the amount of time I have. From past discussions here I think the problems some have with unlocking chests often relate to them not understanding the limited number of fixed positions the lock has and/or the effect of lag if they suffer from it.

Yeah, lag's a killer with chest opening no matter the level.

Danikat

I don't think the difficulty of the chest makes a difference, for me it's more about the position of the tumblers - I find ones in the middle easier because if they start wobbling close to the top it catches me by surprise and if I have to go all the way down I worry I've somehow missed it. So locks where most tumblers are somewhere in the middle are the easiest for me.

As far as I can tell that can happen at any difficulty level because it only seems to affect the time you have, not the positions.

SilverBride

I don't find them easier or harder, but you do have less time to get them opened, so you have to be careful to not fumble a lot.

SeaGtGruff

When I started playing ESO and first encountered lockpicking, I found it very difficult until I read somewhere (perhaps on UESP) that there are only three possible correct positions for each tumbler.

However, the lock is depicted at a slight angle, so the tumblers on the left appear slightly longer (because they're a bit closer to our eyes) than the tumblers on the right, so we have to keep in mind that the lines for the three possible levels should not be imagined as three perfectly horizontal parallel lines. That can make it a little trickier to judge when to stop pressing down on a tumbler when one or more of the other tumblers are already successfully set.

katanagirl1

Each level the chest increases the less time you have to set all pins.

GrahamJoyce

I've noticed this particularly with the "Force lock" option. I like to open chests as quickly as possible and since I have passives that increase force lock chance and tons of lockpicks I usually use the "Force lock" option.
For me, around 75% of master level chests open on the first attempt.
Compared to only (for me) around a 25% chance to force locks on simple chests on the first attempt.
It seems backwards...

DinoZavr

You would laugh, but the "easiest" locks really depend on your PC capacities and connection latency.
I use a good PC and sometimes (when i use PC for work and too lazy to close dozens of applications) my old laptop, which is pretty close to the minimal ESO hardware requirements. Also, when my wired ISP fails (like once in two months) theirs downtime is normally 6 - 10 hours, so i have to use 4G modem (which is fast enough, but latency just skyrockets.

With high latency the difficulty of locks really increase from simple up to master, as game reacts too slow to your actions.
Same applies if your PC has too little CPU: chests placed under waterfall become comatose. On my laptop activating the Excavation passive "Keen Eye: Treasure Chests" makes chests impossible to lockpick, as the cyan glow effect consumes too much of weak computer resources making the game barely unresponsive.

With a capable PC and good connection Master chests, are, indeed, easier than advanced, because of smooth motion with little jitter. Still my point is: with different PC capabilities and different connection latency - the answers do vary.

freespirit

Other...... I gave up picking locks years ago, now I just force them!

Although in Trials I often see the lock picker moaning that simple chests are the hardest!!

Paulytnz

I always use Auto unlock unless I am on a char who has not maxed the line out yet. And YES even doing auto unlock I find Master chests work far more often than even SIMPLE chests, The RNG in game is so random at times.

Master chests are what 70-75% for auto unlock? For me it's 9/10

Simple locks are about 85% I think, yet I can fail up to 3 times in a row sometimes and it can be often lol...

AcadianPaladin

Not sure on easier or harder. It took me a long time not to get distracted by the Psijic 'see chests easier' glow. What I do find is what seems to be chests that sometimes emit random lock noise and chests that don't. Those which don't emit the random noise are much easier on me even though I try to focus purely on the visual and looking for the lower end of the pick to wiggle some.

NeeScrolls

Just wanted to pop-in real quick and say THANKS to all the replies from everyone so far. I've def. enjoyed reading them (as well as learning a couple details too) .

p.s. For those who voted for #3: i'll do my best to make my next Poll have a bit more sophisticated purpose

gamma71

It's mental you get more focused on master because you gotta do it perfectly.

bmnoble

Haven't really noticed much difference between any chests, this is after playing on alts that don't have the force lock skill, so I have actually been bothering to open them properly again.

Then again I was fairly use to this lock picking system thanks to when I played Mafia 2 long before I played ESO, since that used the same kinda lock picking system to unlock cars/doors etc

FeedbackOnly

Practice makes perfect, but still harder then others for me

Blinx

I force them open only, and get a master in 2 lockpicks tops, but them supposedly easy ones, sonetimes I go thru half a dozen or more, which leaves me scratching ny head in confusion.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

I don't know if they are harder or not as I always force the lock.

Kessra

The only thing that's bugging me is that for the most parts I need 2-3 lockpicks to break up the easiest chests with all the passives enabled while master chests usually are sucessfully opened with the first one or the second one already. Not sure if this is really bad luck or if there is something other going on.

Vevvev

I always manually pick them due to the low chance of forcing the lock. I find all locks in this game equally easy with the only differences between them being sensitivity of the lock and time available.

katanagirl1

GrahamJoyce wrote: »

I've noticed this particularly with the "Force lock" option. I like to open chests as quickly as possible and since I have passives that increase force lock chance and tons of lockpicks I usually use the "Force lock" option.
For me, around 75% of master level chests open on the first attempt.
Compared to only (for me) around a 25% chance to force locks on simple chests on the first attempt.
It seems backwards...

Oh sorry, I always pick the lock manually, I didn’t specify.

I don’t want to put skillpoints into my main for that and not have it on my alts and have to adapt each time.

Integral1900

The difficulty scaling has always been inverted, I just thought it was funny. I’m not really fussed if they fix it or not. The bug has been in the game for so long I’ve just gotten used to it. Maybe the character gets more enthusiastic if there is a bigger prize inside 😆

Olen_Mikko

Don't know, i force them all