What's the easiest way to clear the Cyrodiil dolmen, now that they changed the spawn mechanics?

HumbleThaumaturge

In the past, I would always take new characters into the under-level-50 Cyrodiil campaign to run: (1) skyshards; (2) delves; (3) dolmen (dark anchors); and (4) town quests for the 5 towns. Running the 10 Cyrodiil dolmen used to be easy. I've done it for many, many, many characters. In the past, you just arrived at the dolmen, and it activated. Simple. But when I took a new character into Cyrodiil this week, I discovered that the dolmen-spawning mechanics had been changed. Now, only one dolmen can be active in Cyrodiil at a time. Crickey! So you get to a dolmen, and it generally won't activate. You can see which dolmen is active from either of the two wayshrines back in the main camp areas. However, the active dolmen does not appear on your map (by pressing M key) or at a Transit Shrine.

So, any ideas on how I should go about running the 10 Cyrodiil dolmen? If I can see which one is active only at the wayshrines, it's pretty much impossible to get to the dolmen in time, unless your alliance holds all the keeps and outposts. Why, oh why, did ZOS make this change??? This is not fun. This is a pain. Hmmm. With shared Achievements after the next Update, will it even matter? If you complete the Imperial Anchor Shatterer achievement on one character, I suppose all new characters will already have it? So no need to worry?

Updates:
- As someone said in a comment, dolmen can be displayed on Map and/or Transit Shrine by going to Filters and selecting Objectives. The one active dolmen can then be identified. You must have "discovered" (ride/walk by) the dolmen before it shows up on the Map. So, it is best to "discover" all 10 Cyrodiil dolmen, and then make a run of all 10 of the dolmen from beginning to end.
- The active dolmen will stay active until it is completed, no matter how long that takes. In other words, if you need a different dolmen to activate, you'll need to complete the currently active dolmen(s) first.
- Run all 10 in the same session. If you run 5 today and plan to run 5 tomorrow, well, good luck: there's no telling at what point the dolmen rotation will be when you return.
- Dolmen activation is mostly, but not entirely, in order as the dolmen appear in the "Imperial Anchor Shatterer" achievement (for me, 7 were in order while 3 were not)
- After Update 33, any new characters will immediately have the "Imperial Anchor Shatterer" achievement (if you did it on any character), so won't be much point in running the Cyrodiil dolmen on a new character
- Since the new (improved?) dolmen-spawning mechanic is such a pain, with dolmen spawning one at a time across the map, I'd suggest you wait to do this achievement (if you've never done it before on any character) until you have mount speed/stamina at 60/60, with the major gallop buff.

AlnilamE

If you have discovered them, you should be able to see which one is active from your map. Do you have objectives enabled in your map filters?

Also, I wonder if this is an API hook that one could make an addon for (where you type in /activedolmen and it shows you which dolmen is active?

belial5221_ESO

I jsut ported to each one.Noone really does em,so not too hard especially on weekdays to clear most in a day.they also spawn in order of the achievement,so quicker to know where it'll be next.you can see em using normal map if at a transition shrine,bases act like some cities with dolmens,gotta be in the outside to see active ones.Sometimes far travel is nessesary,but on dead days no issue to get to

everseeing_njpreub18_ESO

I did them a little at a time but found that if i go there on the day an event begins, a ton less people are in there PVP'ing as they are all doing event stuff... unless its the PVP event, then don't go there.

HumbleThaumaturge

AlnilamE wrote: »

If you have discovered them, you should be able to see which one is active from your map. Do you have objectives enabled in your map filters??

Thanks for the reminder about going to Filters and selecting "Objectives" on. I forgot all about this feature, since I always run with Objectives "off." If you select "Objectives" to display on Map (M-key) and Transit Shrines, you can then see the dolmen (dark anchors) and see which one is active. Good tip!

HumbleThaumaturge

belial5221_ESO wrote: »

they also spawn in order of the achievement

Thanks for the suggestion. As you say, the 10 Cyrodiil dolmen (dark anchors) are listed in certain order under the "Imperial Anchor Shatterer" achievement. I had 4 dolmen spawn in the order they appear under the achievement, but 2 others did not. So I don't know what the spawning mechanic is.

TequilaFire

One dolmen active at a time marked active on the map.
Well at least gankers know where to go.

HumbleThaumaturge

Well, after following suggestions here, I ran six Cirodiil dolmen (dark anchors). Selecting "Objectives" to display on Map and on Transit Shrines helps.

I am now even more irate that ZOS made this change.

When a dolmen's "turn" comes, that dolmen seems to be locked-in as the next active dolmen no matter what, until someone completes it. Of course, it would be best to go back to the old spawning mechanic, and have the dolmen activate when you arrive. But even with this new system, the currently active dolmen should have a timer: after (say) 10 minutes, if the dolmen is not completed, a different dolmen then becomes the active one. I left an active dolmen alone for over an hour, and it never stopped indicating active status. I checked back periodically during the day . . . and it was still the active dolmen 8 hours later. That means, if you stop at a dolmen you want, it won't ever activate, until it's turn arrives.

Lastly, if you are at a dolmen and it is not active, then that dolmen should become the next active dolmen (it should jump the queue). This new system is quite mad-making. I can't think of any legitimate reason for this change.

kringled_1

TequilaFire wrote: »

One dolmen active at a time marked active on the map.
Well at least gankers know where to go.

Most of the time it's going to be a very long wait for a ganker at a Cyrodiil dolmen.

AlnilamE

HumbleThaumaturge wrote: »

Well, after following suggestions here, I ran six Cirodiil dolmen (dark anchors). Selecting "Objectives" to display on Map and on Transit Shrines helps. I am now even more irate that ZOS made this change.

When a dolmen's "turn" comes, that dolmen seems to be locked-in as the next active dolmen no matter what, until someone completes it. Of course, it would be best to go back to the old spawning mechanic, and have the dolmen activate when you arrive. But even with this new system, the currently active dolmen should have a timer: after (say) 10 minutes, if the dolmen is not completed, a different dolmen then becomes the active one. I left an active dolmen alone for over an hour, and it never stopped indicating active status. That means, if you stop at a dolmen you want, it won't ever activate, until it's turn arrives.

Lastly, if you are at a dolmen and it is not active, then that dolmen should become the next active dolmen (it should jump the queue). This new system is quite mad-making. I can't think of any legitimate reason for this change.

I hear you! Particularly in Cyrodiil.

geonsocal

this must be some low key cyrodiil performance improvement effort...first the deer, now the dolmens...

I'd be okay with doing away with weather effects in cyrodiil too...

buzzsaw67

I ran into this little nugget today. I have a character who previously got to 8/10 of the dolmens. Then I got distracted or one of those PvP events came up and I didn't finish. Since I usually don't do PvP and Cyrodill seemed just about empty I figured I would do the last 2. Nope. Waited by the 1st one for about 30 minutes, then went to the other which did become active and I cleared it. Back and forth to the other for over an hour but no joy. (I looked for and saw no active dolmen indicator.)
So does this mean I'll have to give up getting my last dolmen or spend uncountable hours hanging around and hoping my last one goes active? I guess the active dolmen rotation is relatively quick when there are lots of people doing dolmens. But there's nothing more annoying that just about clearing a dolmen and then getting jumped by opposing PvPers who then claim the dolmen and get credit for killing me. Why do this ESO? Seems no point to it.

Blinx

As long as you can tell which one is active on the map, you can do it, also enter a different campaign if the one you want isn't popin for a while, I kept going back and forth between ravenwatch, and blackreach, was annoying, but got it done.

HumbleThaumaturge

buzzsaw67 wrote: »

I ran into this little nugget today. I have a character who previously got to 8/10 of the dolmens. Then I got distracted or one of those PvP events came up and I didn't finish. Since I usually don't do PvP and Cyrodill seemed just about empty I figured I would do the last 2. Nope. Waited by the 1st one for about 30 minutes, then went to the other which did become active and I cleared it. Back and forth to the other for over an hour but no joy. (I looked for and saw no active dolmen indicator.)

So does this mean I'll have to give up getting my last dolmen or spend uncountable hours hanging around and hoping my last one goes active? I guess the active dolmen rotation is relatively quick when there are lots of people doing dolmens. But there's nothing more annoying that just about clearing a dolmen and then getting jumped by opposing PvPers who then claim the dolmen and get credit for killing me. Why do this ESO? Seems no point to it.

As stated above: Dolmen can be displayed on Map and/or Transit Shrine by going to Filters and selecting "Objectives." The one active dolmen can then be identified (flashing).

I have noticed that sometimes (in any Zone, not just Cyrodiil) the active dolmen will NOT indicate. Very frustrating. I find that if I leave the Zone and return, the active dolmen may start indicating properly (sometimes). I suppose a log-off/log-on might also work. I would suggest that you also ask in Cyrodiil Zone Chat if anyone sees the active dolmen on their Map or a Transit Shrine. Hopefully, someone's map will be indicating properly.

I hate this change to dolmen spawning in Cyrodiil. But after I learned how it worked, it took me maybe 90 minutes (or so) to run the Cyrodiil dolmen. Fortunately, my horse had 60/60 on speed/stamina. Also, each active dolmen was indicating correctly on my map.