The Misery of Antiquities Leads

ErianaSagewing

My challenge over the last year has been to complete the Antiquities Codex. I started with >1,500 to find, I have 77 left to go and the majority of these I can't see I will achieve anytime in the near future, if ever.

With that in mind, here is my list of the worst of the bunch on XBox EU:

• Moon-Blessed Ceremonial Pool - I've lost count of the number of runs I've done in Moonlit Cove Southern Elsweyr but I do know I've opened in excess of 500 containers
• Death Dealer's Fete - Dragon Star Arena final reward, so many runs, so much time, so little fun and still no lead
• Chain of the Vampire - Harrowstorms, great when it's an event, absolutely useless when not
• Meteoric Beads - Mage's Guild lead, only available once per day per toon with an average of >70 to get the lead
• Rune-Scribed Bracers - Endboss of Shipwright's Regret, >25 runs no lead
• Twitching Eyeball - Gravelight Sentry Boss of Imperial City Prison, >45 runs no lead
• Dov-rha Sabaton Guard - Endboss of Lair of Maarselok, >25 runs no lead (and it's a loooong dungeon that barely anyone wants to run meaning it's really only possible once a month when it appears as the DLC undaunted pledge)
• Dagon's Scalding Gibbet - Wandering bosses in The Deadlands, 17 killed no lead
• 33 Treasure Maps in Blackwood, The Deadlands, High Isle, Galen and The Reach - >100 bought/found and not a single lead to be had (as mentioned by many, these are by far the worst leads given they are hidden behind multiple layers of RNG)

Firstly, I would like to say a massive thank you to ZOS for the improvements made to drop rates for some leads in Update 37. My list would have been quite a bit longer if not for those changes!

Secondly, ZOS is there any hope that any of the above might make it onto a similar list of improvements in the near future. I see there is nothing for Update 37 but I do keep hoping to see something come up later this year.

Lastly, I know there are people out there that have completed this challenge and I am sorely in need of a pep talk to keep going! How did you get through it? Did you experience similar problems with these leads? Have these leads dropped in the past 2 months for anyone or could they be bugged and I'm just wasting my time continuing to try?

Regards, Eriana

Pitterpatter69

Don't know if this will help but I didn't find the lead for the pool in Moonlit Cove. I found it looking through containers in the dock area in the big city (Senchel?)

NiteAdder

It took me over 50 kills for the Dragons scalding gibbet to drop.

jaws343

Having done all antiquities in game to this point, I think the best advice is not to get hung up on grinding for a particular one, or even trying to grind out all the remaining ones at the same time.

Pick like 3, and make an attempt or two at those 3 each day. Then, do other things.

Also, some advice for the maps. On average, it takes around 100 maps PER zone to get all of the pages. So, for the zones you have there, you are looking at 500 maps total to get every page. That grind has the benefit of getting a bit easy to do the further you get away from the chapter. Reach maps are under 10K gold each, blackwood under 20. High Isle under 40 now. When I did each of them, the maps were 50-100K each in traders.

For the maps though, buy as many as you can and leave them in your mail. Then just do one and run away, pull the map from your mail, repeat. With the right prep work of buying maps, you can find all of the leads in 30-40 minutes. Always did up leads, including duplicate ones, before doing the next map. At the end of the day, you might actually break even by selling all of the duplicate motifs you dig up. I think for High Isle I spent around 4M gold on maps and made 3M gold back just selling duplicate pages. It shakes out to a better return the cheaper the maps are.

RealLoveBVB

jaws343 wrote: »

Having done all antiquities in game to this point[...]

OP probably does have too, but the topic is more about finding all antiquities 3 times for the codex entries and there you can actually see, that for certain leads there are high differences between their chances to drop.

I am trying to finish the Codex too and I am a bit ahead of OP too and can tell, that High Isle leads have a horrible chance compared to other zones.

Worst are the ones that drops from certain bosses in dungeons, trials or arenas.

The Eye in ICP, Maarselok or Dragons in Sunspire are a big issue. Somehow they made the drop chance for the first lead very high. For example I got the sunspire lead right on the first dragon and now, even after a whole Elsweyr event and many sunspires later I still haven't seen a 2nd drop for this lead.

Motifs for Blackwood, Reach and High Isle shouldn't be a big problem. They have all zone events and if you open containers and they include treasure maps, then they are always maps of the event zone. You can pretty much grind enough maps during this 10 days to complete all 14 entries.

Deadlands tho is another topic, since there is or wasn't a event for this zone yet and its super hard to grind those maps for free. I made the biggest progress during Zenithars event, since you got spammed with treasure maps there. But checking the PTS, thus won't be possible anymore also.

El_Borracho

Still waiting for the Serpent Bog world boss to give me my steel fangs. I stopped counting months ago after hitting 50 runs.

nebula3832

Preserved Wraxu Feathers lead from remains silent going over 6 months now going there and no drop also a 20 hour cool down does not help

Peppo_Lives

i'd like to point out that lead drop rate for subsequent drop of the same one (for codex completion) is even reduced by a large amount dagon scalding gibbet: first kill, first drop - second drop after 120+ kill - third drop, well, i'm over 50 kill....and i'm over 20 run in DSR for the furnishing in there -.-' (for the first drop, - one of my guildies is over 100runs for the third drop)
imho zos should give a VERY good look at drop rates (and who knows if there's bugs around...)

method__01

i finally found my last lead from DSA after many tries and im done with grind-at least for mythic items-
stil have some pages to go
try not to have many gold leads open while you try for others,check and make sure before farming
cause game wont drop them if many active
good luck

joergino

I eventually completely gave up looking for any leads. There is no point in doing horrible stuff for hours for the slim chance of a lead dropping. I still dig up the leads I accidentally get, but that's just so that in a couple of decades all my characters can see the glowing chests.

Necrotech_Master

method__01 wrote: »

i finally found my last lead from DSA after many tries and im done with grind-at least for mythic items-
stil have some pages to go
try not to have many gold leads open while you try for others,check and make sure before farming
cause game wont drop them if many active
good luck

pretty sure this is isnt how it works, before they the antiquity leads from not expiring if you had previously dug it up, i used to have like 30 antiquity leads available to scry because they were already ones i had dug up and gotten all the codex entries from and it had no bearing on receiving new leads

personally ive never really had issues with most leads, generally ive gotten them within a few hours of farming, though there are many leads i never bothered to try to farm to complete the codex entries though (i really should try doing that with the furnishings at least)

Monte_Cristo

Pitterpatter69 wrote: »

Don't know if this will help but I didn't find the lead for the pool in Moonlit Cove. I found it looking through containers in the dock area in the big city (Senchel?)

It's official location is backpacks and urns in Southern Elsweyr, and any container inside Moonlit Cove. I found my only lead for it in a backpack somewhere overland.

TaSheen

Monte_Cristo wrote: »

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Pitterpatter69 wrote: »

Don't know if this will help but I didn't find the lead for the pool in Moonlit Cove. I found it looking through containers in the dock area in the big city (Senchel?)

It's official location is backpacks and urns in Southern Elsweyr, and any container inside Moonlit Cove. I found my only lead for it in a backpack somewhere overland.

I got my third lead for it (not on the same account - one each on 3 different PC accounts, 2 NA and 1 EU) from the same overland backpack: the one in a tent near the ballista tower eastish of Black Heights Wayshrine. Those were a while back now. And just a couple weeks ago I got a fourth one (on a second PC EU account) from an urn in Senchal Harbor.

Necrotech_Master

TaSheen wrote: »

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Monte_Cristo wrote: »

Pitterpatter69 wrote: »

Don't know if this will help but I didn't find the lead for the pool in Moonlit Cove. I found it looking through containers in the dock area in the big city (Senchel?)

It's official location is backpacks and urns in Southern Elsweyr, and any container inside Moonlit Cove. I found my only lead for it in a backpack somewhere overland.

I got my third lead for it (not on the same account - one each on 3 different PC accounts, 2 NA and 1 EU) from the same overland backpack: the one in a tent near the ballista tower eastish of Black Heights Wayshrine. Those were a while back now. And just a couple weeks ago I got a fourth one (on a second PC EU account) from an urn in Senchal Harbor.

i got all 3 of my leads for this from moonlit cove urns, i recently got another lead for it from the other delve in a container but theres far less containers to really farm (i was also aware it could come from the overland area as well, but again for me it was too few containers to really farm so i always used moonlit cove lol)

Carcamongus

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

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TaSheen wrote: »

Monte_Cristo wrote: »

Pitterpatter69 wrote: »

Don't know if this will help but I didn't find the lead for the pool in Moonlit Cove. I found it looking through containers in the dock area in the big city (Senchel?)

It's official location is backpacks and urns in Southern Elsweyr, and any container inside Moonlit Cove. I found my only lead for it in a backpack somewhere overland.

I got my third lead for it (not on the same account - one each on 3 different PC accounts, 2 NA and 1 EU) from the same overland backpack: the one in a tent near the ballista tower eastish of Black Heights Wayshrine. Those were a while back now. And just a couple weeks ago I got a fourth one (on a second PC EU account) from an urn in Senchal Harbor.

i got all 3 of my leads for this from moonlit cove urns, i recently got another lead for it from the other delve in a container but theres far less containers to really farm (i was also aware it could come from the overland area as well, but again for me it was too few containers to really farm so i always used moonlit cove lol)

I found a lead for the pool in that lone urn by Senchal's wayshrine. It's just that Moonlit Cove seems to have the highest concentration of containers in the zone, so it makes sense to search there.

NoxiousBlight

The Death Dealer's Fete lead is by far the worst. I still don't have this one at all because I can't take DSA anymore. It is the most boring content in the entire game. All they need to do is speed it up 25% and it would be fine, but I remember Rich saying a year ago they won't because "it already works" and isn't worth the dev time.

I'll try again a few times during the ZoZ event but i'm not hopeful. Maybe if leads were more interesting and not just "do this boring activity for 45 minutes and then hope for the 5% chance to get what you actually came for" then I would want to work on them.

CGPsaint

I'm currently missing codex entries for 3 of the Ancestral Daedric motif chapters, but after burning hundreds of maps I finally threw in the towel. At 40K+ per map for a minuscule chance at a lead, which may or may not be the correct lead, I just reached a breaking point. It shouldn't cost 10mil+ to complete 14 codex entries. This is just absolutely terrible lead implementation from ZOS, and don't even get me started on the DSA lead. Absolute rubbish. Clearly nobody on the dev team had to farm that lead, or else they might be more sympathetic to our plight, and might even perhaps consider freshening up DSA to be a more compelling experience, rather than a 40 minute mindless grind.

ErianaSagewing

UPDATE - Just completed my 70th run of Imperial City Prison and still no luck with the Twitching Eyeball lead

Carcamongus

ErianaSagewing wrote: »

UPDATE - Just completed my 70th run of Imperial City Prison and still no luck with the Twitching Eyeball lead

Good grief, you have my sympathies. I used to like that dungeon, but after having to run it countless times for that bloody lead, I can't stand it anymore. Even worse, the thing drops in the middle of the dungeon, so you have to spend half the run frustrated that you got nothing.

CGPsaint wrote: »

I'm currently missing codex entries for 3 of the Ancestral Daedric motif chapters, but after burning hundreds of maps I finally threw in the towel. At 40K+ per map for a minuscule chance at a lead, which may or may not be the correct lead, I just reached a breaking point. It shouldn't cost 10mil+ to complete 14 codex entries. This is just absolutely terrible lead implementation from ZOS, and don't even get me started on the DSA lead. Absolute rubbish. Clearly nobody on the dev team had to farm that lead, or else they might be more sympathetic to our plight, and might even perhaps consider freshening up DSA to be a more compelling experience, rather than a 40 minute mindless grind.

There are precedents of awful lead placement: the Murkmire oakensoul one and the wader's kilt from Shadowfen (at least the devs did something about these). Thankfully, it seems they're abandoning this ancestral madness, though they should still do something to alleviate the problem.

ForzaRammer

The whole antiquity sys is stupid.

1. It adds more gold into circulation which increases inflation
2. It significantly restricts certain motifs supply and they are not even in crown store or event box
3. unnecessary and painful grind for mythic items (the topic of these post)

Zos could’ve just added some achievements vendors instead this

CGPsaint

ErianaSagewing wrote: »

UPDATE - Just completed my 70th run of Imperial City Prison and still no luck with the Twitching Eyeball lead

I'm almost 100% certain that you can get the Twitching Eyeball lead from ANY Watcher, not just the ones in Imperial City Prison. I say this because I've gotten the lead from killing a Watcher in the Deadlands.

spartaxoxo

ForzaRammer wrote: »

The whole antiquity sys is stupid.

1. It adds more gold into circulation which increases inflation
2. It significantly restricts certain motifs supply and they are not even in crown store or event box
3. unnecessary and painful grind for mythic items (the topic of these post)

Zos could’ve just added some achievements vendors instead this

It is not increasing inflation to any significant degree or it would be felt on all platforms.

ETA
The biggest gold faucet on PC is the add-ons adjusted lazy writs. The amount of coin from antiquities is literally fine.

disintegr8

I made an effort to complete all of the Mythic items once so that I could then make them for any characters I wanted to use them on. The rest I haven't really 'farmed' for as I'm not into house decorating.

I've since chased down a lot of the easier to get leads so I can level other characters up in the skill like, only so I can unlock the skill to see treasure chests from a distance.

I'd agree with most of the list you've posted, especially the motif pages that drop from treasure maps. I refuse to buy overpriced maps, so have only got 2 or 3 motifs (at most) of any of these sets.

endgamesmug

I dont farm any leads these days since the horror of the deadlands portal lead drop, i farmed those 12 hours a day for a month and it only turned up when i was going there for other reasons one day 😆.Now because i dont really care i get leads all the time, (mostly ones ive already done tbh) kind of annoying 😆

Hapexamendios

CGPsaint wrote: »

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ErianaSagewing wrote: »

UPDATE - Just completed my 70th run of Imperial City Prison and still no luck with the Twitching Eyeball lead

I'm almost 100% certain that you can get the Twitching Eyeball lead from ANY Watcher, not just the ones in Imperial City Prison. I say this because I've gotten the lead from killing a Watcher in the Deadlands.

Twitching Eyeball is only from ICP. Bloodshot Oculus is from any watcher.

MikeSkyrim333

Lead of Gaze of Sithis that you can get from Dark Brotherhood quest causes me physical pain. It's even worse than a treasure map lead. Actually, almost all mythics are pay to win, because they give a great advantage, but in order to get them, you must have ESO PLUS or buy DLC. And a whole life to farm them all

jaws343

MikeSkyrim333 wrote: »

Lead of Gaze of Sithis that you can get from Dark Brotherhood quest causes me physical pain. It's even worse than a treasure map lead. Actually, almost all mythics are pay to win, because they give a great advantage, but in order to get them, you must have ESO PLUS or buy DLC. And a whole life to farm them all

Buying DLCs is not, has never been, and will never be pay to win. The idea is nonsense and would essentially relegate new content to being worthless gear wise in order to live up to the fantasy.

The minimum expectation of a video game, to experience all content, is to buy DLCs.

Pay to win is the direct purchase of advantageous gear for money. This game does not have that.

Shagreth

I honestly don't understand how this is an issue. If anything, I feel leads are too easy to obtain. This comes from someone that managed to get multiple rare ones, including every single mythic. Having to actually farm for stuff in an mmorpg is now a problem?

Necrotech_Master

jaws343 wrote: »

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MikeSkyrim333 wrote: »

Lead of Gaze of Sithis that you can get from Dark Brotherhood quest causes me physical pain. It's even worse than a treasure map lead. Actually, almost all mythics are pay to win, because they give a great advantage, but in order to get them, you must have ESO PLUS or buy DLC. And a whole life to farm them all

Buying DLCs is not, has never been, and will never be pay to win. The idea is nonsense and would essentially relegate new content to being worthless gear wise in order to live up to the fantasy.

The minimum expectation of a video game, to experience all content, is to buy DLCs.

Pay to win is the direct purchase of advantageous gear for money. This game does not have that.

the closest thing i would say is that level of pay 2 win is making a brand new toon, buying skyshards and skill lines, and then going into the under 50 pvp knowing you have more than enough skill pts and all the relevant skill lines

"light" pay to win is like jewelry crafting, you cannot craft your own jewelry without summerset (either through eso+ or buying it), obviously there are ways around this by paying a crafter to make gear for you, but you cannot even use the jewelry station to decon for mats without summerset either

jaws343

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

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jaws343 wrote: »

MikeSkyrim333 wrote: »

Lead of Gaze of Sithis that you can get from Dark Brotherhood quest causes me physical pain. It's even worse than a treasure map lead. Actually, almost all mythics are pay to win, because they give a great advantage, but in order to get them, you must have ESO PLUS or buy DLC. And a whole life to farm them all

Buying DLCs is not, has never been, and will never be pay to win. The idea is nonsense and would essentially relegate new content to being worthless gear wise in order to live up to the fantasy.

The minimum expectation of a video game, to experience all content, is to buy DLCs.

Pay to win is the direct purchase of advantageous gear for money. This game does not have that.

the closest thing i would say is that level of pay 2 win is making a brand new toon, buying skyshards and skill lines, and then going into the under 50 pvp knowing you have more than enough skill pts and all the relevant skill lines

"light" pay to win is like jewelry crafting, you cannot craft your own jewelry without summerset (either through eso+ or buying it), obviously there are ways around this by paying a crafter to make gear for you, but you cannot even use the jewelry station to decon for mats without summerset either

Even with that first example, players can do that manually, with some time and care. My first PVP sorc, back in the days when I ran under 50 pvp to learn, I had skill points and Meteor by level 20 to spec out a full build. Nothing as satisfying as dropping meteor in under 50 cyrodil back in the day. All the crown store does for these is speed up the process to get there. It's convenience more than anything.

Necrotech_Master

jaws343 wrote: »

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Necrotech_Master wrote: »

jaws343 wrote: »

MikeSkyrim333 wrote: »

Lead of Gaze of Sithis that you can get from Dark Brotherhood quest causes me physical pain. It's even worse than a treasure map lead. Actually, almost all mythics are pay to win, because they give a great advantage, but in order to get them, you must have ESO PLUS or buy DLC. And a whole life to farm them all

Buying DLCs is not, has never been, and will never be pay to win. The idea is nonsense and would essentially relegate new content to being worthless gear wise in order to live up to the fantasy.

The minimum expectation of a video game, to experience all content, is to buy DLCs.

Pay to win is the direct purchase of advantageous gear for money. This game does not have that.

the closest thing i would say is that level of pay 2 win is making a brand new toon, buying skyshards and skill lines, and then going into the under 50 pvp knowing you have more than enough skill pts and all the relevant skill lines

"light" pay to win is like jewelry crafting, you cannot craft your own jewelry without summerset (either through eso+ or buying it), obviously there are ways around this by paying a crafter to make gear for you, but you cannot even use the jewelry station to decon for mats without summerset either

Even with that first example, players can do that manually, with some time and care. My first PVP sorc, back in the days when I ran under 50 pvp to learn, I had skill points and Meteor by level 20 to spec out a full build. Nothing as satisfying as dropping meteor in under 50 cyrodil back in the day. All the crown store does for these is speed up the process to get there. It's convenience more than anything.

didnt say it was impossible since you have to get to at least lvl 10 to get into cyro to begin with, even the under 50 camp, so theres still plenty of time to prep

but theres a lot of people that dont want to put in the work and will pay their way past those, its not like an egregious pay 2 win, but for me personally i consider paying real money to unlock anything that is not "cosmetic" would be pay 2 win, even if it had a minor effect because your not actually playing the game for say your skill lines or skill points