Zenithar Event daily writs reward boxes

Scaletho

Sorry, but I'm confused: this Event give us ONE REWARD BOX each time we do daily writs or ONE REWARD BOX FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL DAILY WRIT we do?

Because I'm getting only one box for all daily writs.

Aislinna

From: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/64449

Beilin_Balreis_Colcan

I'm half expecting them to replace the word "account" with "player" for the next Zenithar event.

Scaletho

As far as I remember the last Zenithar event we got a reward box for every daily writ we made. I guess ZOS minimal level of "generosity" is going even lower nowadays. Figures.

SeaGtGruff

Scaletho wrote: »

As far as I remember the last Zenithar event we got a reward box for every daily writ we made. I guess ZOS minimal level of "generosity" is going even lower nowadays. Figures.

Unfortunately, it was apparently because of all the extreme grinding for event coffers last time.

It doesn't affect me much, as I didn't grind coffers last time, and I'm not grinding them this time, either.

But the ironic thing is, it's apparently still possible to grind endless coffers by grouping with a guildie and grinding portals in Craglorn, so removing the ability to grind an outrageous number of coffers each day via crafting writs and master writs isn't preventing players from finding other ways to grind an outrageous number of coffers each day.

Scaletho

@SeaGtGruff Except many players that don't have a Guild or new players that don't know about those "tricks" yet.

All this situation, event, free ESO+, etc. show me more and more how badly they were implemented by ZOS. Oh well, let's move on.

Beilin_Balreis_Colcan

Yes, the reward boxes are definitely heavily biased towards group content. I got only my third reward box from a thieves trove today since the event started, and a fellow guild member told me they're easy to get when doing the group content.

TheImperfect

I have to be honest that I did grind a lot of them last time. I think a lot of people did. It was part of the fun I thought. I still like the event though.

Calastir

I don't get why 'hard toil' shouldn't be rewarded, especially in the light of this event.

Do the grind, get the find.

rpa

From my anecdotal experience I think there may be a cd involved with thieves troves. I have only looted very few (maybe 4-5) during event, one I farmed for endeavor and rest I just stopped to loot when passing by. And I got a parcel from about half of em (2-3 parcels).

SeaGtGruff

Thieving-- pickpocketing, looting strongboxes, and looting thieves troves-- definitely seems to be a poor way to grind for the purple coffers due to RNG. Grinding the portals in Craglorn while grouped with a guildie, and with several other players along so the enemies melt pretty quickly, definitely seems to be the way to go, since the coffers are guaranteed to drop that way.

I haven't tried that yet myself, but even with the minimal solo grinding that I've been doing-- one from a daily writ, one or more from any master writs I'm able to do, and any from thieving-- I've started to accumulate more coffers than my inventory can handle (less than a dozen, but I'm pretty low on free inventory space). Normally I'd just be opening all of them as soon as I get them, but I'm trying to stop as soon as I get a new style page so I can open the others on another day.

Zodiarkslayer

Yesterday, I pickpocketed 125 items for the weekly endeavor.
Guess how many Reward Boxes I got?

2 ...

2, that was all... out of a bloody 125 ... I got 2.

That drop chance is nasty! Or there are hidden cooldowns.

HedgeHugger

20 minute cooldowns, isn't it?
Similar cooldown when you have the area events, like when you get boxes from picking up nodes in VVardenfell, or Blackwood, for example.

Calastir

Do hard toil, get the spoil.

SeaGtGruff

HedgeHugger wrote: »

20 minute cooldowns, isn't it?
Similar cooldown when you have the area events, like when you get boxes from picking up nodes in VVardenfell, or Blackwood, for example.

I think harvesting nodes for coffers had more like a 15-minute cooldown, or maybe it was 5 minutes-- except, whatever the number is, it's actually a minimum cooldown, and after that regular RNG goes into effect, so sometimes you could get a coffer every 15 (or 5) minutes or so, but other times it would take much longer than that.

Beilin_Balreis_Colcan

It's a shame that none of these event-related cooldowns actually appear to be published anywhere. The players deserve to know about them.

Necrotech_Master

HedgeHugger wrote: »

20 minute cooldowns, isn't it?
Similar cooldown when you have the area events, like when you get boxes from picking up nodes in VVardenfell, or Blackwood, for example.

the boxes from killing WBs or doing world events definitely has a far lower cooldown than that, but it might be slightly longer than the normal boss loot cooldown

SeaGtGruff

vsrs_au wrote: »

It's a shame that none of these event-related cooldowns actually appear to be published anywhere. The players deserve to know about them.

Well, there might not be any official confirmation, but for the events where coffers had a chance to drop from resource nodes it was pretty easy to determine the cooldown period yourself. I remember that I posted my own results back when the Skyrim event was going on.

Okay, so I just searched through old posts and it seems that the cooldown is 5 minutes-- except, as I said, that's just the actual cooldown, and after that cooldown is over the game's regular RNG kicks in.

As far as what that means for getting event coffers during this event from pickpocketing, I'm going to guess that the actual chance of a drop depends on the activity involved and how much chance there is of getting any sort of "bonus" drop from that particular activity.

For instance, resource nodes have a pretty high chance of dropping "bonus" stuff such as furnishing mats, so that might be why players can grind event coffers pretty reliably by harvesting resource nodes during events.

I'm going to guess that pickpocketing has a lower chance of dropping "bonus" stuff such as crafting motif pages, hence that might translate into an even lower chance of getting an event coffer-- that is, first you must be lucky enough to get a "bonus" drop from any given pickpocketing attempt, and then you must be lucky enough to get an event coffer as the "bonus" drop.

But that's just a guess on my part.

Syldras

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

Yesterday, I pickpocketed 125 items for the weekly endeavor.
Guess how many Reward Boxes I got?
2 ...
2, that was all... out of a bloody 125 ... I got 2.
That drop chance is nasty! Or there are hidden cooldowns.

I'm at 52 now and got none so far.

And when it comes to style pages: One. In the first box I got during this event (day 1, completion of the event quest). Now the first full week is over, I think?

Túrin_Vidsmidr

You get 1 good thing / day. The rest is vendor trash.

karthrag_inak

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

But the ironic thing is, it's apparently still possible to grind endless coffers by grouping with a guildie and grinding portals in Craglorn, so removing the ability to grind an outrageous number of coffers each day via crafting writs and master writs isn't preventing players from finding other ways to grind an outrageous number of coffers each day.

Except, whereas the original method for "grinding endless coffers" was crafting-related and therefore in line with Zenithar, God of crafting, and expensive - doing thousands of sealed writs costs millions in golds worth of mats alone, let alone the required investment in motifs to be able to do many random sealed writs, the new way of doing it, by grinding portals in Craglorn, require none of these things.

Which is, of course, in line with Dev Expectations, as they have shown again and again.

An event with the possibility to reward elite crafters with a massive number of relatively mundane reward boxes (khajiit got well over 1k last year) just will not do, but if there's a mechanism that unfairly rewards combatants, well, hot dog, let's go!

ElderSmitter

vsrs_au wrote: »

Yes, the reward boxes are definitely heavily biased towards group content. I got only my third reward box from a thieves trove today since the event started, and a fellow guild member told me they're easy to get when doing the group content.

9-11 boxes a day is enough for me. I grind the Undaunted like crazy because i really enjoy it!. I do my 7 Crafting writs before i go to bed so when i get up in the am i can quickly turn them in for 7 boxes. I first go to Craglorn and do the daily quest for the Gold Box as i am enlightened so when i turn in the 7 Crafting writs with an exp potion i got massive exp. I then do my regular writs for another box giving me 9. I then hit up a run where i know 3-4 thieves' troves are for a chance at a box. If i get one cool if not i am done for the day.

Calastir

Do the work, get the perk.

tomofhyrule

Scaletho wrote: »

As far as I remember the last Zenithar event we got a reward box for every daily writ we made. I guess ZOS minimal level of "generosity" is going even lower nowadays. Figures.

Nope.

From last years' article:

During the event, each time you complete the daily quest, you’ll receive one of Zenithar’s Sublime Parcel boxes. In addition, you can net Zenithar’s Delightful Parcel boxes by participating in the following activities:

• Completing the introductory quest
• Completing any Master Writ
  
• First daily Crafting Writ, per account, completed each day
• Defeat a world boss while grouped with a player who is in at least one of your player guilds
• Complete a world event while grouped with a player who is in at least one of your player guilds
• Conquering each round of a group-based arena challenge while grouped with a player who is in at least one of your player guilds has the chance of dropping a box
  The final round's reward chest contains a guaranteed parcel

Alternatively, if you're not interested in hard work, Akatosh forbid, there’s a small chance to steal parcels from hard-working Tamrielic citizens through pickpocketing, strongboxes, or thieves' troves.

A lot of people are confusing ZoZ with the Anniversary event, which does give a box per daily writ.

The only thing that is not getting rewarded as much this year is the Master writs, as those are once per day per discipline per account instead of unlimited like last year. We still had the same grouping requirements for WBs and World Events last year as well. Otherwise nothing else changed.

spartaxoxo

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Scaletho wrote: »

As far as I remember the last Zenithar event we got a reward box for every daily writ we made. I guess ZOS minimal level of "generosity" is going even lower nowadays. Figures.

Nope.

From last years' article:

During the event, each time you complete the daily quest, you’ll receive one of Zenithar’s Sublime Parcel boxes. In addition, you can net Zenithar’s Delightful Parcel boxes by participating in the following activities:

• Completing the introductory quest
• Completing any Master Writ
  
• First daily Crafting Writ, per account, completed each day
• Defeat a world boss while grouped with a player who is in at least one of your player guilds
• Complete a world event while grouped with a player who is in at least one of your player guilds
• Conquering each round of a group-based arena challenge while grouped with a player who is in at least one of your player guilds has the chance of dropping a box
  The final round's reward chest contains a guaranteed parcel

Alternatively, if you're not interested in hard work, Akatosh forbid, there’s a small chance to steal parcels from hard-working Tamrielic citizens through pickpocketing, strongboxes, or thieves' troves.

A lot of people are confusing ZoZ with the Anniversary event, which does give a box per daily writ.

The only thing that is not getting rewarded as much this year is the Master writs, as those are once per day per discipline per account instead of unlimited like last year. We still had the same grouping requirements for WBs and World Events last year as well. Otherwise nothing else changed.

World events also got nerfed. They added a cool down on boxes for them. The world bosses don't have a timer.

SeaGtGruff

karthrag_inak wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

But the ironic thing is, it's apparently still possible to grind endless coffers by grouping with a guildie and grinding portals in Craglorn, so removing the ability to grind an outrageous number of coffers each day via crafting writs and master writs isn't preventing players from finding other ways to grind an outrageous number of coffers each day.

Except, whereas the original method for "grinding endless coffers" was crafting-related and therefore in line with Zenithar, God of crafting, and expensive - doing thousands of sealed writs costs millions in golds worth of mats alone, let alone the required investment in motifs to be able to do many random sealed writs, the new way of doing it, by grinding portals in Craglorn, require none of these things.

Which is, of course, in line with Dev Expectations, as they have shown again and again.

An event with the possibility to reward elite crafters with a massive number of relatively mundane reward boxes (khajiit got well over 1k last year) just will not do, but if there's a mechanism that unfairly rewards combatants, well, hot dog, let's go!

I'm not trying to argue that one way is better or worse than the other; I just find it ironic that despite seriously nerfing the daily number of coffers you can get from daily crafting writs and master writs under the guise of wanting to prevent the amount of coffer grinding that went on last year, they simultaneously added a different way to basically accomplish the same thing if not more so.

However, your comment about the cost involved in doing master writs actually suggests a different possible reasoning for the change-- namely, last year it would have been more difficult for players to rake in the coffers if they didn't have a ton of master writs saved up, and/or didn't know the specific crafting styles and/or traits on the requested types of items, and/or didn't have the necessary mats and/or temps and/or style mats and/or trait mats, and/or didn't have a large amount of gold with which to buy master writs and/or crafting motif pages and/or mats. So last year's way of doing it basically made it very difficult if not outright impossible for new players or poor players to rake in a lot of coffers.

In contrast, this year's approach allows brand-new players who have no gold, no mats, and no crafting skills to rake in a lot of coffers to the extent that only certain players were able to do last year.

Beilin_Balreis_Colcan

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

But the ironic thing is, it's apparently still possible to grind endless coffers by grouping with a guildie and grinding portals in Craglorn, so removing the ability to grind an outrageous number of coffers each day via crafting writs and master writs isn't preventing players from finding other ways to grind an outrageous number of coffers each day.

Except, whereas the original method for "grinding endless coffers" was crafting-related and therefore in line with Zenithar, God of crafting, and expensive - doing thousands of sealed writs costs millions in golds worth of mats alone, let alone the required investment in motifs to be able to do many random sealed writs, the new way of doing it, by grinding portals in Craglorn, require none of these things.

Which is, of course, in line with Dev Expectations, as they have shown again and again.

An event with the possibility to reward elite crafters with a massive number of relatively mundane reward boxes (khajiit got well over 1k last year) just will not do, but if there's a mechanism that unfairly rewards combatants, well, hot dog, let's go!

I'm not trying to argue that one way is better or worse than the other; I just find it ironic that despite seriously nerfing the daily number of coffers you can get from daily crafting writs and master writs under the guise of wanting to prevent the amount of coffer grinding that went on last year, they simultaneously added a different way to basically accomplish the same thing if not more so.

However, your comment about the cost involved in doing master writs actually suggests a different possible reasoning for the change-- namely, last year it would have been more difficult for players to rake in the coffers if they didn't have a ton of master writs saved up, and/or didn't know the specific crafting styles and/or traits on the requested types of items, and/or didn't have the necessary mats and/or temps and/or style mats and/or trait mats, and/or didn't have a large amount of gold with which to buy master writs and/or crafting motif pages and/or mats. So last year's way of doing it basically made it very difficult if not outright impossible for new players or poor players to rake in a lot of coffers.

In contrast, this year's approach allows brand-new players who have no gold, no mats, and no crafting skills to rake in a lot of coffers to the extent that only certain players were able to do last year.

I agree with all that, but it's a shame about the lore aspect. I've read up on Zenithar, and the group boss and thieving activities don't seem to fit the lore. They might as well call it the Dishonest Toil event, or something.

SeaGtGruff

vsrs_au wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

But the ironic thing is, it's apparently still possible to grind endless coffers by grouping with a guildie and grinding portals in Craglorn, so removing the ability to grind an outrageous number of coffers each day via crafting writs and master writs isn't preventing players from finding other ways to grind an outrageous number of coffers each day.

Except, whereas the original method for "grinding endless coffers" was crafting-related and therefore in line with Zenithar, God of crafting, and expensive - doing thousands of sealed writs costs millions in golds worth of mats alone, let alone the required investment in motifs to be able to do many random sealed writs, the new way of doing it, by grinding portals in Craglorn, require none of these things.

Which is, of course, in line with Dev Expectations, as they have shown again and again.

An event with the possibility to reward elite crafters with a massive number of relatively mundane reward boxes (khajiit got well over 1k last year) just will not do, but if there's a mechanism that unfairly rewards combatants, well, hot dog, let's go!

I'm not trying to argue that one way is better or worse than the other; I just find it ironic that despite seriously nerfing the daily number of coffers you can get from daily crafting writs and master writs under the guise of wanting to prevent the amount of coffer grinding that went on last year, they simultaneously added a different way to basically accomplish the same thing if not more so.

However, your comment about the cost involved in doing master writs actually suggests a different possible reasoning for the change-- namely, last year it would have been more difficult for players to rake in the coffers if they didn't have a ton of master writs saved up, and/or didn't know the specific crafting styles and/or traits on the requested types of items, and/or didn't have the necessary mats and/or temps and/or style mats and/or trait mats, and/or didn't have a large amount of gold with which to buy master writs and/or crafting motif pages and/or mats. So last year's way of doing it basically made it very difficult if not outright impossible for new players or poor players to rake in a lot of coffers.

In contrast, this year's approach allows brand-new players who have no gold, no mats, and no crafting skills to rake in a lot of coffers to the extent that only certain players were able to do last year.

I agree with all that, but it's a shame about the lore aspect. I've read up on Zenithar, and the group boss and thieving activities don't seem to fit the lore. They might as well call it the Dishonest Toil event, or something.

Well, if you've ever played Daggerfall, you know that the followers of Z'en (or Zenithar) could be a pretty questionable bunch, and were often getting Z'en angry with them by doing things they shouldn't have been doing, such as holding unauthorized *** or saying Z'en's name backwards. And the head of a local Temple of Z'en might ask you to kill a rival merchant even though the assassination wasn't sanctioned by the Dark Brotherhood. That doesn't mean that Zenithar looked favorably on any of that stuff, but it seemed that it was easy to get back into Z'en's good graces with an offering of something or other.

Edit: Apparently the word for the type of unauthorized activities isn't allowed in the forum, so I've starred it out myself rather than relying on the forum software to star it out automatically.

spartaxoxo

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

In contrast, this year's approach allows brand-new players who have no gold, no mats, and no crafting skills to rake in a lot of coffers to the extent that only certain players were able to do last year.

The ways those players are getting those coffers are the same as last year. In fact, it was easier last year because there was more groups because world events were such a good option. World events didn't have as much down time with spawns, require specific knowledge of where something spawns, and rewarded pretty much all who participated.

Trying to farm world bosses limits the amount of loot given out. They also respawn slower.

Trying to farm Craglorn requires knowing the best spawn points.

Farming a Harrowstorm, Dolmen, dragon, etc. just required showing up with a guild mate to the giant flashing symbol on the map and hitting something. As soon as ones goes down, another pops up within seconds and also flashes on the map.

SeaGtGruff

Well, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that ZOS didn't anticipate that Craglorn portal grinding was going to be a thing this year, that (as usual) it was the players who figured out the best way to reliably farm the most coffers in the least time.

As far as needing to be familiar enough with Craglorn to figure out the best routes to follow for the most portals in the least time, that's probably not terribly important inasmuch as players need to be grouped with a guildie, and it's likely that most of the guilds out there have at least a few well-established players who can help the newbies in that respect.

HedgeHugger

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

HedgeHugger wrote: »

20 minute cooldowns, isn't it?
Similar cooldown when you have the area events, like when you get boxes from picking up nodes in VVardenfell, or Blackwood, for example.

I think harvesting nodes for coffers had more like a 15-minute cooldown, or maybe it was 5 minutes-- except, whatever the number is, it's actually a minimum cooldown, and after that regular RNG goes into effect, so sometimes you could get a coffer every 15 (or 5) minutes or so, but other times it would take much longer than that.

One year we were counting, it was around 100 nodes between boxes, so around 20 minutes.
So if you counted your 100th and wanted to quit, we would go until the next box, because we knew one was due. A node every 12 seconds would be average I guess. So five a minute, x60 gives you 20 minutes.
Not a perfect science but enough for us to say every 20 minutes.
When I say WE, I meant my OH and myself.