My Kingdom for a faster way to level Antiquities!

SilverBride

My Kingdom currently consists of 25 Houses (all but one fully decorated) and a lot of gold. I would gladly relinquish it (well some of it) for a faster way to level Antiquities. This grind makes the Psijiic skill line look like a walk in the park by comparison.

Please make this level faster for subsequent characters, rather than slower as it is now.

TaSheen

I guess I'm an outlier - I don't want it faster/easier. I love it the way it is. I run my newbies through the acquisition quest line at level 4, and then take them out to scry/dig antiquities for reasons:

They get wayshrines and skyshards while discovering the world zones; and they get gold for riding training. Win win for me. I actually spend a fair amount of time leveling every character I have to Antiquities level 10. I don't find it boring or grindy personally.

SilverBride

I level all my characters to 10 also so I don't have to change characters to dig up leads I find. But I do not enjoy one bit of it. I find it excruciatingly tedious and boring.

disintegr8

Level 10 is not a necessity on all characters. Level 7 for easier to see chests is good, level 9 for the extra visibility range is nicer, but as long as at least 1 character is level 10, you're good. Out of 18 characters, I have 1 at 7, 6 at 9 and 2 at 10 - all of which are my most used characters.

Leads don't have to be scried or dug up straight away, so changing characters mid-session just to dig them up is just wasting time. Wait until you have a few leads collected and simply assign a session to doing them.

Kallykat

I have to say that, while I really enjoy this system, leveling up alts is painful since all the zones' purple treasures are a one-time thing.

LannStone

SilverBride wrote: »

My Kingdom currently consists of 25 Houses (all but one fully decorated) and a lot of gold. I would gladly relinquish it (well some of it) for a faster way to level Antiquities. This grind makes the Psijiic skill line look like a walk in the park by comparison.

Please make this level faster for subsequent characters, rather than slower as it is now.

I agree
I'm thinking they didn't allow the purple leads on subsequent characters to do away with easy gold making.
If so, I'd favor giving the purple leads for XP and just removing any gold value on subsequent characters
If the first character can get purple leads for XP, I don't see why the others shouldn't be able to as well.

SilverBride

disintegr8 wrote: »

...as long as at least 1 character is level 10, you're good.

But I'm not. I hate having to switch characters to dig up leads I find and it's been happening frequently with my new character in the new zones.

M0ntie

This is another tedious grind that I’d be happy to buy the skill like after doing it once. And I’m only doing it once. My new baby toon gets her gold leads dug up by my one level everything character.

Amottica

M0ntie wrote: »

This is another tedious grind that I’d be happy to buy the skill like after doing it once. And I’m only doing it once. My new baby toon gets her gold leads dug up by my one level everything character.

I am surprised Zenimax has not added the skill line to the crown store already.

To the OP, Zenimax will likely make it easier to get antiquties leveled up on new characters but it will cost crowns. We know this is the only way it will happen as it is what they have done with other skill lines.

Snamyap

M0ntie wrote: »

This is another tedious grind that I’d be happy to buy the skill like after doing it once. And I’m only doing it once. My new baby toon gets her gold leads dug up by my one level everything character.

It would be the one skill line that I'd actually would be willing to pay for.

LalMirchi

I spent about 6 hours in Artaeum yesterday and got the skill line to 5 for a level 15 Arcanist. Watched a series on the other monitor. Not an ideal gamestyle but it got the job done

Snamyap

LalMirchi wrote: »

I spent about 6 hours in Artaeum yesterday and got the skill line to 5 for a level 15 Arcanist. Watched a series on the other monitor. Not an ideal gamestyle but it got the job done

Whole new expansion released, with a ton of new content and you're recommending people to spend six hours in Artaeum?

LalMirchi

Snamyap wrote: »

LalMirchi wrote: »

I spent about 6 hours in Artaeum yesterday and got the skill line to 5 for a level 15 Arcanist. Watched a series on the other monitor. Not an ideal gamestyle but it got the job done

Whole new expansion released, with a ton of new content and you're recommending people to spend six hours in Artaeum?

There is a master plan I want my new character up and running with all important skills ready so I multitask.

On my Arcanist I want to RP Lawful Good so the only skill I've bought from the CS is Legerdemain for forcing locks. The other skills will come naturally from gameplay. Doing the main quest up to Coldharbour got me a lot of skill-points quickly.

I got my writ certifications as soon as possible and now I settle into a daily routine as only grinding Alik'r Desert dolmens is rather boring. I ran to Deepscorn Hollow and got Bastian as he has a very simple quest and can tank for my newbie.

• Horse training every day. However I prefer to run about than ride for fighting and collecting materials so I use white crafted Adept Rider & Orders Wrath training gear before CP160 gets me my beloved Ring of the Wild Hunt.
• Daily writ crafting as all characters have to contribute to the clans economy.
• Constant research and levelling up of crafting skills.
• Daily Undaunted, Fighters and Mages guild which involves enough combat to level skills relatively quickly.
• Antiquity was an unfortunate grind to level 5 but now it's done so I can work my way through the backlog of leads.
• Today I will level the Psijic Order to Level 1 for the "See the Unseen" passive for more good loot. This involves combat at the Summerset geysers which will also level my skills.

I will eventually do the new zone with my main after the dust settles but my new Arcanist is priority one right now.

Kallykat

LannStone wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

My Kingdom currently consists of 25 Houses (all but one fully decorated) and a lot of gold. I would gladly relinquish it (well some of it) for a faster way to level Antiquities. This grind makes the Psijiic skill line look like a walk in the park by comparison.

Please make this level faster for subsequent characters, rather than slower as it is now.

I agree
I'm thinking they didn't allow the purple leads on subsequent characters to do away with easy gold making.
If so, I'd favor giving the purple leads for XP and just removing any gold value on subsequent characters
If the first character can get purple leads for XP, I don't see why the others shouldn't be able to as well.

Not that I'd mind just getting the XP, but I don't really think that would be necessary even if they did make purple leads farmable on each character. It still requires time and effort put in to scry and dig all those leads, just as it does to make gold other ways. Also, from what I understand, most people would probably still earn gold more quickly by doing their writs and normal activities. (This is based on what I've read as I'm broke in game and have no experience actually earning quick gold.)

Kiralyn2000

Losing out on the Achievement skill-line XP (when they switched to AwA) certainly made it even worse of a grind on alts than it was before.

TaSheen

I guess that's true, but it's not affecting me. I just take my lowerbies out to run some intiquities for gold for the riding they have to level for so long.

Truthfully, I never noticed the skill line xp. Oblivious to the end I guess.

disintegr8

SilverBride wrote: »

disintegr8 wrote: »

...as long as at least 1 character is level 10, you're good.

But I'm not. I hate having to switch characters to dig up leads I find and it's been happening frequently with my new character in the new zones.

But you don't have to do it straight away - leads last for 30 days. If you insist on digging them up straight away, that is by choice.

Besides, level 10 is only needed for top level (ultimate) leads, you can dig master leads up at level 7 if you have put skill points into the skill lines. I can't recall the last time I had a lead requiring level 10.

Sarannah

Even though I do not hate leveling these skilllines, I do think ZOS needs to add a new item to level excavation somewhat faster.

Idea: The first time in a zone we can get one purple item which sells for 5k, after we have dug this up replace this item with a purple excavator's coin. Which grants the same exca/scry exp as the 5k item, but is repeatable and only sells for 500-750g. This item only re-appears after digging up a blue item. (Note: These coins were placed at excavation sites by the antiquarian circle, so newcomers can gain quicker experience with digging things up)

TaSheen

Sarannah wrote: »

Even though I do not hate leveling these skilllines, I do think ZOS needs to add a new item to level excavation somewhat faster.

Idea: The first time in a zone we can get one purple item which sells for 5k, after we have dug this up replace this item with a purple excavator's coin. Which grants the same exca/scry exp as the 5k item, but is repeatable and only sells for 500-750g. This item only re-appears after digging up a blue item. (Note: These coins were placed at excavation sites by the antiquarian circle, so newcomers can gain quicker experience with digging things up)

I like that idea.

SilverBride

disintegr8 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

disintegr8 wrote: »

...as long as at least 1 character is level 10, you're good.

But I'm not. I hate having to switch characters to dig up leads I find and it's been happening frequently with my new character in the new zones.

But you don't have to do it straight away - leads last for 30 days. If you insist on digging them up straight away, that is by choice.

Besides, level 10 is only needed for top level (ultimate) leads, you can dig master leads up at level 7 if you have put skill points into the skill lines. I can't recall the last time I had a lead requiring level 10.

But I do want to do them right away for a couple of reasons. First is because that is just how I play. I don't let things like surveys or maps pile up. I do them as I get them, and that is what I choose to do with antiquities also. Second is because I'm afraid I'll forget about them and they will expire if I don't do them soon.

But why I choose to play this way is irrelevant to the fact that leveling antiquities is a huge tedious grind and there is no reason why it should be more difficult for subsequent characters than it was for the first... but it is.

I believe that once an account has maxed the antiquity skills on one character they should earn a buff that gives double the points for future characters leveling the skill line. They made the leads account bound so any of our characters can dig them up, so why not?

MrGarlic

I watched 2 classic movies while levelling Antiquities to Lvl 5 on an alt yesterday.

Seriously, how 'non-engaging' is game content grinding, that I have to find some other way to be entertained while playing the game.

Dark Brotherhood, Thieves guild, Undaunted and to some degree Psijic Order are at least 'playing the game' while levelling.

Antiquities are basically just a grind for the sake of a grind.

It's a step backwards from Zos.

jle30303

I scry antiquities on the character with higher level Scrying skill, then dig them on characters with lower level skill.

Green *and* blue antiquities can mostly be dug up, right off the bat, by a character with no skills. Of course the blue ones have to be actually scryed by a character with 3 or higher, but that doesn't have to be the character who digs them.

Purple antiquities can be dug from Excavation level 2, with Trowel. Again, scry them on a character with level 5+ Scrying.

Gold antiquities can be dug up from Excavation level 4, once you have Trowel *and* Heavy Shovel. Again, scry them on another character who has 7 in the antiquity skills, and dig them on the character who has 4.

Both the progress in Scrying AND Excavation goes to the character who dug it up, not the character who scryed it - this levels antiquities (both Scrying and Excavation) up to 7 surprisingly quickly: at which point the character can (with the assistance of 2 points in Coalescence) usually scry for gold Master-level antiquities themselves, as well as digging them.

Elvenheart

I’m with the OP on this - we shouldn’t have to jump through hoops and find workarounds to level antiquities on alts once we have leveled it all the way up on one character. To take one of Silver’s ideas further AND not change anything for those who like it the way it is, what about after leveling antiquities on one character we get a memento that we can click on, similar to Breda’s mug for example, that doubles the points we get for scrying and excavating for one hour? That way nothing would change for people who do not want to level it any faster, but for people that do we have that option.

Nestor

Losing the Purple Lead in each zone really hurts progression. We have it on the first character. Farming purple leads just adds to the time.

If they want to Nerf the gold rewards on Alts, fine, but give us back the Purple Rotation.

TaSheen

Really, I haven't noticed a problem with getting alts to 10. Sure the purple 1-time lead was nice gold, but I'm not really missing it (I have so much gold.... and nothing much to spend it on....)

I level lowbies through antiquities. It's fun, and easy. I realize I'm probably singular in feeling that way (not unusual - I seem to be a minority of one on a lot of things) but it works for me.

disintegr8

SilverBride wrote: »

disintegr8 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

disintegr8 wrote: »

...as long as at least 1 character is level 10, you're good.

But I'm not. I hate having to switch characters to dig up leads I find and it's been happening frequently with my new character in the new zones.

But you don't have to do it straight away - leads last for 30 days. If you insist on digging them up straight away, that is by choice.

Besides, level 10 is only needed for top level (ultimate) leads, you can dig master leads up at level 7 if you have put skill points into the skill lines. I can't recall the last time I had a lead requiring level 10.

.....
I believe that once an account has maxed the antiquity skills on one character they should earn a buff that gives double the points for future characters leveling the skill line. They made the leads account bound so any of our characters can dig them up, so why not?

Why not make all of the skill lines like that then?

Grind out one character and you can have all other characters maxed out in everything in no time. Sure, the game will die because there's nothing else to do and people will stop playing, but that'll be fine, you got what you wanted.

I know I'm old fashioned and that means we accept things the way they are, but grind in games is there to keep you playing.

I maxed out horse training on 18 characters, one day at a time, have 18 characters at level 50 on all craft lines with all traits learned (except nirnhoned) on everything, including Jewelry. I've been playing since the old Vet Rank days and completed Cadwell's Silver and Gold long before One Tamriel was a thing.

Like you, I did these things because I wanted to, not because I needed to. If I had to choose anything I would have liked to have had a boost on, antiquities would be low on the list.

SilverBride

disintegr8 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I believe that once an account has maxed the antiquity skills on one character they should earn a buff that gives double the points for future characters leveling the skill line. They made the leads account bound so any of our characters can dig them up, so why not?

Why not make all of the skill lines like that then?

Because not all skill lines have account bound features like antiquities does. In fact, I believe this is the only one that does.

No matter which character finds a lead, any character on the account can scry and excavate it. No matter which character scrys the lead, any character on the account can excavate it. If all this is possible then why does it have to be a longer and more tedious grind for every character after the first to complete it? It doesn't and this should be fixed.

Brrrofski

Just move the keen eye for chests.

I don't personally see any other reason for leveling it up again, but it's long to just get that passive.

AnduinTryggva

I think it is not that bad. It is quite quick to level it to a stage to do gold leads and for master leads I use my one toon that is at level 10 as leads are available for all toons. Golden leads are done by the toon I am leveling up to 10. Now already at level 9 and halfway thru to 10.

Vrienda

It's really annoying getting leads on my alt accounts and knowing it'd take me several hours of grinding to even be able to -try- digging it up.

Also Tales of Tribute is account wide, this should be too.

SaffronCitrusflower

No reason to level antiquities on more than one toon.