Scribing is a Major Let-Down

ESO_player123 · June 25

I also loved the Scholarium questline (minus the dispelling the wards part). To me its storyline is one of the best from what they produced in a long time.

Besides, you do not need to repeat it on alts to unlock scribing.

moo_2021 · June 25

I don't mind the quests since it's only required once and rewards 12 inks for 6 skills.

Not having account wide unlocks is really annoying. I spent several hours today to visit the 9 mage guilds for my 7 characters = 63 runs. It's not too long but what's the point?? It's just as silly as repeating main quest.

lostineternity · June 25

ESO_player123 wrote: »

I also loved the Scholarium questline (minus the dispelling the wards part). To me its storyline is one of the best from what they produced in a long time.

Besides, you do not need to repeat it on alts to unlock scribing.

But dispelling the wars is a problem because it's like 80% of the whole questline. They could make it shorter and more interesting by removing or significantly reducing this part or making it different for each wing.
For now, I see it only as time-consuming for the sake of time-consuming.

KaosWarMonk · June 25

Well I don't mind it and think for implementation and a first round of skills + options it's absolutely fine. The team did a good job of getting another system that gives you combat options without being OP and something else to run around and collect into the game.

ESO_player123 · June 25

lostineternity wrote: »

ESO_player123 wrote: »

I also loved the Scholarium questline (minus the dispelling the wards part). To me its storyline is one of the best from what they produced in a long time.

Besides, you do not need to repeat it on alts to unlock scribing.

But dispelling the wars is a problem because it's like 80% of the whole questline. They could make it shorter and more interesting by removing or significantly reducing this part or making it different for each wing.
For now, I see it only as time-consuming for the sake of time-consuming.

They could have, but with what? Another fetch some of this or that? Unfortunately, ESO is not know for great puzzles in quests. Do not get me wrong, I like ESO quests for the stories and because they are, well, in ES universe. But I wish they would add a puzzle that makes you think (and not of a sort like a treasure map - recognize this squiggle somewhere on the continent).

Metafae · June 26

I only learned this yesterday when my bank space ran out.

The Scripts DO NOT stack.

I was thinking I would just chuck them all in the bank and much later when I can be bothered, jump on an alt and eat them all and be done with it, but I have to regularly consume them on my alts now as they fill the bank quickly each taking up one whole slot.

Also, I have no confirmation, but once I've learned every script on every alt, will they stop dropping for me because it's going to be painful having to delete them all the time if they keep dropping from daily rewards. Please no.

Vonnegut2506 · June 26

Metafae wrote: »

I only learned this yesterday when my bank space ran out.

The Scripts DO NOT stack.

I was thinking I would just chuck them all in the bank and much later when I can be bothered, jump on an alt and eat them all and be done with it, but I have to regularly consume them on my alts now as they fill the bank quickly each taking up one whole slot.

Also, I have no confirmation, but once I've learned every script on every alt, will they stop dropping for me because it's going to be painful having to delete them all the time if they keep dropping from daily rewards. Please no.

They do vendor, so you don't have to destroy them.

moo_2021 · June 26

I'd add that scribing feels most useful for one bar, to merge buffs and debuffs within limited skill space, though we could use more skills instead of those from soul magic line because they don't get any passives.

ApoAlaia · June 26

moo_2021 wrote: »

I don't mind the quests since it's only required once and rewards 12 inks for 6 skills.

Not having account wide unlocks is really annoying. I spent several hours today to visit the 9 mage guilds for my 7 characters = 63 runs. It's not too long but what's the point?? It's just as silly as repeating main quest.

Not sure if they will alter the behaviour in the future however currently you can pick up the scroll, put it in your bank (if you have a banker that is) and it will immediately respawn.

I only did one round per account.

Said that having to do the 'pick up > deposit' thing over and over again is not what I'd call 'riveting' but is still more time efficient than doing the rounds with each individual character.

Firstmep · June 26

lostineternity wrote: »

Dragonnord wrote: »

Opposite to you, I'm enjoying it a lot.

I'm genuinely curious what did you like about this questline?
Doing 20 times "Press E button 7 times"? Is it so exciting? They didn't even change the color of the ward.
I'm sorry but scribing quest line isn't 20 quests. It's 20 times exactly the same quest.

I'm so disappointed because TES games have always been famous for interesting quest design and ESO used to be one of the best among mmos.

p.s. I almost closed the game in frustration when a character (so-called riddler) in an attempt to estimate the power of your mind asked you to kill 15 dogs. What a riddle. Only the smartest heroes of Nirn could ever solve it. I don't believe that ZOS even tried to put any effort into this quest line.

The lore behind the Scholarium is interesting, and at least the questline pushes people out into the world.
Granted some more puzzles or riddles may have been cool.

Ofc if you ignore all that and just focus on one aspect it feels bad.

Shara_Wynn · June 26

I didn't mind doing the quest line the first time around. I really liked the Indrik and the Dragon and it tied in nicely with the Mages guild quest line and Shalidor.

For me the issue is the un-availability of the luminous ink. As such I've ended up doing the quest line (the Indrik wing at least), multiple times across different characters just to obtain some. It soon got tedious.

And I have yet to scribe anything because I don't want to waste the precious little ink that I have.

As for trying to unlock all the scripts across multiple characters, that has just led to a whole other level of fatigue in the game.

The Elder Scrolls Online has become The Elder Chores Online.

Anumaril · June 26

I agree on some points but disagree on others. The crafting system itself seems rather straightforward once you play around with it a bit. What becomes frustrating is how limited everything feels, as everything depends on the Grimoires. I hope ZOS releases new ones soon. The unlock quests are certainly grindy (they could've made different wings at least a bit unique), but it's nowhere near the banality of the Psijic quests.

I fully agree about the ink though. It seems to me that making spells is something that we use our inner magicka to do, so it shouldn't be costing some random outside resource like ink just for the sake of costing a resource.

Veinblood1965 · June 26

I disagree also. I enjoyed the questline. It was better than the normal run to this point, run to that point and talk to this NPC. The architecture of some of the mini zones was detailed also. As for the grinding, that is the case with anything new. Antiquities are far more mind numbing to level up that scribing imo. At least with Scribing I can gather this or that script just by doing normal daily stuff in just about any point in the game, they even included PVP!

reiverx · June 26

I quite enjoyed the scribing questline. There is a rush for completion that makes it seem like an obstacle.

The grind for ink really stymies the whole system though. At the end of the day this is just crafting. And crafting is an integral part of the game. I remember the horror that was jewelry crafting in the early days.

Necrotech_Master · June 26

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

I didn't mind doing the quest line the first time around. I really liked the Indrik and the Dragon and it tied in nicely with the Mages guild quest line and Shalidor.

For me the issue is the un-availability of the luminous ink. As such I've ended up doing the quest line (the Indrik wing at least), multiple times across different characters just to obtain some. It soon got tedious.

And I have yet to scribe anything because I don't want to waste the precious little ink that I have.

As for trying to unlock all the scripts across multiple characters, that has just led to a whole other level of fatigue in the game.

The Elder Scrolls Online has become The Elder Chores Online.

i only really endeavored to learn them on my main, my alts have been just getting trickle from my main (since you can still get scripts as drops from dailies on characters that have it maxed out), i just store them in my bank and when i log in another character check if i need to learn any

i would agree with the ink, i managed to get just enough to scribe each skill once for the achievement and thats about all im doing with it right now

JinKC98 · July 1

I won't say it's a "major" letdown. I have scribed a few useful skills that I now actively use in most of my builds, e.g. Fiery Torch, Healing Burst, Pestilent Trample just to name a few. Luminous Ink is a pain to acquire, but you only feel it if you desperately need to scribe something like right now, otherwise I just kinda get them as I play the game (from boss drop, container, nodes). Plus the price for the ink is consistently dropping as sellers continue to undercut the pricing.

It's definitely not a major letdown, in fact I can see them adding the rest of skill line (Support, Vampire, Werewolf, etc.) into the mix in later updates.

MidniteOwl1913 · July 1

Well without enough ink to experiment with it's hard to say. So far I'm having a hard time finding something that better than skills that already exist. And I can't really afford to just make a bunch and try them because I don't have enough ink for that.

I found the quest line to unlock scribes unbelievably tedious. I'd rather leave my soul in cold harbor forever rather than run through it more than once even for the added ink.

Chasing the scripts is also boring and having to do it for every alt is beyond boring. I am just so sick and tired of the grind to get to grind just to have to grind some more.

Really I wish I'd never bought Gold Road. It's been nothing but frustrating.

SeaGtGruff · July 1

I enjoyed the questline okay; it wasn't too long or difficult, and the various luminaries were interesting to get to know.

I've scribed only a few skills so far, but they seem useful, and the system as a whole seems very promising and flexible.

But I do have two comments:

(1) The two skills I've scribed are in the Two-Handed weapons skill line, and are Stamina-based skills. However, if a Negate Magic bubble is cast over me, I'm unable to use the scribed skill, even though it's a Stamina-based skill. I'm not sure if that's a bug, or if it's working as intended.

(2) Any normal active ability will go through four levels of "improvement" as it's used-- for instance, Uppercut I, Uppercut II, Uppercut III, and Uppercut IV. It might be nice if scribed skills went through the same type of "improvement," even if we can't morph it once it's been fully improved.

Mathius_Mordred · July 1

Every grimoire I've tried is mediocre at best and the best ones have a long cast time making their overall DPS poor. Better to start this way than OP and future nerfed maybe?

Sarannah · July 1

To me scribing isn't usable unless scripts are accountwide. As I keep switching characters often, I want to be able to know I can make scribed skills on them whenever I feel like it. This week I have been playing with the idea of making the character I am going to play for now, totally have five scribed skills. Fun idea but the problem is: I can't! Because I will have to farm for over a week first to get all the scripts on that character. And I am not going to do that, as doing those daily quest chores is crap and not why I play this game! (Note: The way scribing is set up also does not allow me to check if this idea is even possible for a certain character. Meaning I could farm all the scripts for that character only to find out I should have farmed them on another character to make the idea of using five scribed skills work.)

Also, the daily/weekly endeavours to kill monsters with scribed skills is way over the top. Atleast make this system usable before adding those types of endeavours!

And I have plenty of ink, it is the scribing system itself that is not well thought out! As someone stated above me: Scribing is now only frustrating me.

Edit: And there needs to be a grimoire for every attack type, for every skillline that has a grimoire. Close weapon damage attack, close magic damage attack, ranged weapon damage attack, ranged magic damage attack, and single target + aoe versions for all of those. The current grimoires are too restricting.

ApoAlaia · July 1

I've tried a few combinations but anything I come up with has a built-in caveat that makes it less desirable than existing options.

Either it doesn't proc passives, or it has an inordinately long channel time, or simply there is just an existing skill that is more convenient to use so the very situational and minor benefit is hardly worth it.

Maybe I am just not the target audience and scribing is meant for support roles or for highly organised groups that are no strangers to having a specific 'loadout' of optimised gear and skills for each and every trash/boss encounter in a trial based on their elaborate group composition.

Also I've heard that is becoming popular with PvP players?

MidniteOwl1913 · July 1

The cast are off-putting, in particular 2 seconds for the staff line is disappointing. I'm not sure what exactly the Mage line means when it says it procs with any skill that cost but any thing you put on it has a cost...

I find the idea of an area wide interrupt interesting but I'm no sure how that would work.

The idea of the heals however with heals you or an ally seems unusable to me. If I need a heal *I* need a heal. Maybe good for group content, but if I'm solo but other people are around can they get my heal?

If I had more ink I'd just scribe them and give it a try.

Aleris · July 1

a major problem is also that i can't save skills on armory slots. it's a big problem for me where i have several armory builds on each of my characters

gamergirldk · July 1

I like it , they still have some way to go, so far ismore for pvp, support and solo play.
The good old problem is back, buff and the skills will utterly destroy ppl in pvp.

olsborg · July 1

Well the quest wasnt anything I enjoyed, but I generally dont enjoy that many quests. The scribing itself is fun and rewarding, but many of the skills and scripts are underwhelming and weak, and some are very, very strong.
An example is Traveling Knife, its got lower range, basicly a melee skill. It only deals decent amount of dmg compared to other spammabled if you scribe it in a way that its also much, much more expencive then other spammables.
Contingency, it has high dmg for how much it costs, it has also very useful buffs tied to it and it isnt expencive to cast at all, the downside, but also sometimes the upside is the way it triggers.
Wield Soul, very strong as a spammable(or heal), reasonably high dmg compared to other spammables, but can be scribed in a way to gives tons of resources back to you and you can have major defile or vitality or major breach on it, wich is a huge plus.

EF321 · July 1

MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »

The cast are off-putting, in particular 2 seconds for the staff line is disappointing. I'm not sure what exactly the Mage line means when it says it procs with any skill that cost but any thing you put on it has a cost...

I find the idea of an area wide interrupt interesting but I'm no sure how that would work.

The idea of the heals however with heals you or an ally seems unusable to me. If I need a heal *I* need a heal. Maybe good for group content, but if I'm solo but other people are around can they get my heal?

If I had more ink I'd just scribe them and give it a try.

Area interrupt is something DKs already have on Deep Breath.

For contingency, it does nothing when you cast it, but procs when you cast next ability that has cost (including recast itself). It can be proced with dodge roll too, which isn't obvious.

Wield soul heal is most horrible option for self heal there is, but good for support. It goes to anyone low on health around you, not just in front/cone like many class burst heals, but more like sorc bird. It went to guard behind me, fighting daedra in Bruma, instead of me...

Jimbru · July 1

The whole Gold Road "expansion" feels like a DLC tacked onto the end of Necrom. The only thing "expansion" about it is the full sized map. Otherwise it feels rushed and half complete--especially the furnishing style--so no surprise that Scribing is a disappointment. The first time you do the Scribing quest line, it takes longer than some of the episode stories. Then you have to repeat the intro AND the gathering of scripts on all your alts because nothing carries over between characters. The drop rates on both Luminous Ink and the new furnishing plans are much too low. Is anyone even really using Scribed skills in builds as a "must have" over the base skills? I have seen only a few mentioned as options on build sites. Again, this wasn't a real expansion; it was a DLC tacked on to close the story started in Necrom, and loaded with time gates and grind just to keep people busy. Bah.

deltauren · July 1

I didn't really have a problem with grinding out the Scribing system and collecting all the scripts on my first character. Spare scripts are now flowing to my alts and I'm patient enough with those toons that I don't feel the need to go out of my way to get the system complete.

The issue for me with scribed skills is that there's very little spare slots for supports already and while some of the scribed skills are fun and offer some nice customisation, I rarely find I have a spare skill slot to use one. Also the healing beam from the restoration staff is a pain to target and often gets unintentionally attached to flappies and bears...

James-Wayne · July 1

I agree you about the ink drops.

Releasing a brand-new combat system to help classes that have had no love in balancing/upgrades the last 5+ years only to provide no way to actually use the system outside the first 3 skill setups via completing the quests for 12 ink.

It blows my mind the system is so amazing, yet they completely gutted it after only just getting started with it. It's like buying a new shiny car and not having the fuel to actually drive it.

I suspect the reason to the drop rate is that next patch or the patch after will introduce a new system to grind for them which is why they are silent on the situation which is another reason why I want to do away with the quarterly updates and just provide us a yearly update that includes everything at launch.

This piece meal content no longer works with the way the systems are designed.

Treeshka · July 1

I think it is a good system that can easily be expanded in the future with more scripts and skills. Adds lots of varieties, and when you run out of skills to put on your bars you can get a Scribing skill there. There are some that does not require any weapon to be used anyway.

Some people complain about the grind but there is no excessive grind other than ink grinding. Finding scripts are just side product from doing dailies. There are two merchant selling scripts that changes every week anyway. It allows you to just buy them weekly for your least played chars and in a few months they will be finished in terms of script grinding. Without doing any actual grind.

If you do not like grinding for ink you can do something else and farm gold to buy ink. Ink prices are going down everyday and it will continue to go down, as many and many people will no longer require to use ink once they have established their scribing skills.