Telvar Stones - How do they work, and why should you care?

Woodenplank

The basics (as if ZOS wrote the tutorial)

• Telvar stones are acquired through kills, loot, and quest rewards in the Imperial City zone (Sewers and upper city).
• Holding more Telvar stones makes you earn them faster.
• Killing (or dying to) another Player steals 50% of their currently held stones
• Telvar Stones can be used to purchase a variety of rewards such crafting gear, furnishings, motifs, and crafting materials.

But you probably already knew all that. Through some hard-fought "research" in the Imperial City, I've come to appreciate that things are not always as simple as they seem with Telvar stones, and I believe I have some fresh wisdom to share.

TL;DR version

• Telvar multipliers are probably better than you think.
• Fewer Players always earn better Telvar shares, but large groups aren't as bad as you think.
• The most expensive purchases, like Hakeijo, are not always the best investment.

• Participating in the kill of any PVE enemy within the Imperial City or sewers yields a number of Telvar stones. Tougher enemies drop more.
• The number of Telvar stones you hold increase the number you gain from additional kills
  
• The 'Patrolling Horror' Bosses in the upper city (one for each of the seven districts) are the largest source of the Telvar stones.
• The Patrolling Horrors respawn every 15 minutes (or every 7.5 minutes during Midyear Mayhem)
• Controlling a District flag increases Telvar gains by 33%.

Wierdly... the 3x and 4x multipliers aren't multiplication by 3 or 4... ?!
I was stumped at first, as I noted down the drops of Telvar from Boss kill after boss kill, comparing them with Telvar multipliers and number of Players participating. It didn't add up.

Until I realized the system... It's not a factor of multiplication, it's the number of doublings!

• 1x Multiplier: 2^0 = 1 times base value (as expected)
• 2x Multiplier: 2^1 = 2 times base value (as expected)
• 3x Multiplier: 2^2 = 4 times base value (not 3!!)
• 4x Multiplier: 2^3 = 8 times base value!

While holding onto 10k+ Telvar stones is incredibly risky, you are in fact rewarded with double, double, double the basic yield! A single Boss kill could yield over 9000 Telvar stones on its own!
Another tip is to always bring 100 Telvar stones when you venture into the city. Worst case scenario you lose 50 by getting killed, but starting off with a 2x multiplier will earn you back the 50 telvar pretty much immediately.

I mentioned Patrolling Horror bosses are the biggest source of Telvar. There are fluctuations that I can't quite explain, hidden modifiers and what not, but as far as I can tell;

• Bosses yield a base of 1200 Telvar stones.
• This is split between participating Players, but for larger groups there are hidden modifiers that increase the yield.
  I imagine ZOS did this so e.g. 12 man groups wouldn't be completely worthless. I haven't been able to figure them all out, but I can confirm that 3 people adds an extra 12.5% to the total Telvar pool.
• City Flags (mercifully) work as advertised; any monster kill in a controlled District yields 33% more Telvar than normal. (e.g. 1596 base Telvar for a Boss)

The Sewers are a slower farming process, albeit safer perhaps. The patrolling 'Elite Xivkyn' are easier to solo (I'd argue), but only yield 225 Telvar at base (I think?!), and there are no Flag control modifiers.

Computative formula for Boss drop:

boss = 1200 * power(2, multiplier-1) / number_of_players;
    if (flag_is_owned): boss*=1.33;
    if (number_of_players>2): boss*=1.125;

First off, the Imperial City holds a number of unique item sets that can only be acquired there. This includes both a collection of new monster sets (helmets drop from bosses, shoulders must be purchased for Telvar - much like Undaunted gear) and full 5-piece sets.
Notably the Powerful Assault - popular with tanks and support builds - is available from the City.


Another popular item is the Hakeijo essence rune, used to create Tri-Stat enchantments - it is available for 5000 Telvar stones from a city merchant.



Hakeijo and tri-stat enchants are a popular way to spend Telvar and make money - the going rate per Hakeijo is usually around 50k apiece.

However, I submit to you the humble "waxed apothecary satchel" which drops a random collection of alchemy reagents.
Alchemy prices fluctuate, and some reagents are worth more than others, but according to my collection of data, apothecary parcels will (on average!) outperform Hakeijo. Namely because they seem to favour the expensive Columbine plant.
Histogram from 92500 telvar worth of satchels

And, using price listings from Tamriel Trade Centre, we see that the herbs should win out over the more obvious choice of Hakeijo.
Granted, prices do fluctuate, and this is just a few sample days of market prices, but unless something topples you should win on average.


RAW DATA; if someone wants to play with them themselves

92500 Telvar stones worth of Waxed Apothecary Satchel
'Cornflower': 225,
'Columbine': 759,
'BeetleScuttle': 120,
'BlessedThistle': 231,
'BlueEntoloma': 501,
'Buglosss': 324,
'ButterflyWing': 267,
'Dragonthorn': 318,
'EmeticRussula': 108,
'FleshflyLarva': 366,
'ImpStool': 291,
'LadysSmock': 309,
'LuminousRussula': 84,
'Mountain Flower': 525,
'NamirasRot': 189,
'NirnRoot': 318,
'Nightshade': 327,
'ScribJelly': 192,
'SpiderEgg': 204,
'Stinkhorn': 150,
'VioletCoprinus': 183,
'WaterHycinth': 360,
'WhiteCap': 228,
'Wormwood': 264

As I said, Columbine seems favored. So does Blue Entoloma and Mountain Flower.
If you're not convinced by the histogram, I can tell you a multivariate test p-value, at α=0.01, is 2.5E-35.

In other words, the probability that satchels are actually UNIFORM for all plants, and I just happened to get lucky with this many columbine is like winning the US powerball lottery jackpot four times in a row.
So no. The satchels are not fair; and there's a definite bias towards e.g. Columbine.

Thanks for reading, and happy farming!

fedouva

I think people would go to pvp more often if there was some balance. Not everyone likes to be killed in 2 seconds by a nb near a shelter(((((