Scribing: Was it worth the effort?

BlueRaven

No

DreamyLu wrote: »

I don't understand the question of the poll: what effort? The - supposed - "grinding" many complained about? For me, there was no grinding and zero effort.
I have completed the quest releasing the drops from gathering resources (wings) and since then, just playing same than usual, I have by now around 120. I find the drop rate more than fair for a rare item, even better than nirncrux for example.

I don't understand why players have so much different experiences with the drop rate of those inks.
I can imagine that following factors play a role:
- CPs dispatched on categories linked to resources.
- Both quests done (wings and dragons) thus drops from both gathering and killing.

But I don't believe that it's enough to explain that some get only 2 inks over days, whereas I get up to 5 in just one 20 minutes round of gathering resources...

What other factors could influence this apparently very "capricious" drop rate?

Remember back during the anniversary event, when there was all of these “rare” drops? And there was thread upon thread upon how some people weren’t getting the drops even after several weeks?

Remember when we had all these posts about the inn is where to farm for the colovian furniture plans, and then other people came on and said they never drop there?

And now we have the “have/have not” controversy about the inks…

See a pattern?

I have been doing the gold road daily quest trifecta every day, and that involves killing mobs, that includes light harvesting as I pass nodes. And no inks in about 2 weeks now. None.

Rng is broken.

Jaimeh

Yes

I haven't scribed anything yet, I have very few ink and don't want to waste them, so I'm waiting till I get more. However, the quest was really enjoyable and not too long either, so for me it's definitely worth it to have completed it. The scripts are also relatively easy to gather, before the chapter I thought it would take ages but I already have them collected on one character and I'm well on the way on other alts. I know scribing is a new gaming system that's here to stay, so of course we shouldn't get everything unlocked asap, but I wish ink was just a tad more ubiquitous. Hopefully the extra sources next patch will make things better.

Orbital78

Yes

Has anyone found inks from the stage bosses every three rounds in the Archive? I was happy to see at least Tho'at drops ink from their chest now. I haven't done enough IA runs to tell if it drops from the other smaller bosses.

SkaiFaith

Yes

I find It really cool and I can't wait to see if they'll add skills to classes skill lines!

I like that it opens to a lot of possibilities: you don't need to be a sorcerer anymore to play the "Lazy Oaken Sorc" build, since the new Soul skill can achieve almost same results of Hardened Ward with any class - how cool is that!?!

But to me the problem is not even the ink... It's the fact when I tried to create a build using exclusively Scribing skills I found out that by doing so you lose all bonuses you usually get from passive skills... That's a big downside.

I've decided to use scribing on Roleplay builds since the new skills are cool looking, but I'm not sure I'll use them in optimized builds... We'll see.

All in all it was a good addition in my opinion.

kaushad

The story is interesting, when one has the patience to get through the quest padding. I wouldn't want to play more than one a day.

The ink only sells at 1 gold each to NPCs, so I'll probably just hoard it. That is unless the seals of endeavor system pushes it hard enough. From what players are saying about the drop rate, I daresay that I won't need more than one bank space for it between ESO+ trials.

Fata1moose

Currently no as the skills are quite weak. It was either going to be overpowered or weak though so it’s not all surprising. Hopefully they can dial it into something worthwhile beyond niche uses.

TaSheen

No

Anyone who was expecting "spell crafting" (as found in Oblivion) should have known going in that "scribing is NOT spellcrafting" - therefore would be gimped.

Necrotech_Master

BlueRaven wrote: »

DreamyLu wrote: »

I don't understand the question of the poll: what effort? The - supposed - "grinding" many complained about? For me, there was no grinding and zero effort.
I have completed the quest releasing the drops from gathering resources (wings) and since then, just playing same than usual, I have by now around 120. I find the drop rate more than fair for a rare item, even better than nirncrux for example.

I don't understand why players have so much different experiences with the drop rate of those inks.
I can imagine that following factors play a role:
- CPs dispatched on categories linked to resources.
- Both quests done (wings and dragons) thus drops from both gathering and killing.

But I don't believe that it's enough to explain that some get only 2 inks over days, whereas I get up to 5 in just one 20 minutes round of gathering resources...

What other factors could influence this apparently very "capricious" drop rate?

Remember back during the anniversary event, when there was all of these “rare” drops? And there was thread upon thread upon how some people weren’t getting the drops even after several weeks?

Remember when we had all these posts about the inn is where to farm for the colovian furniture plans, and then other people came on and said they never drop there?

And now we have the “have/have not” controversy about the inks…

See a pattern?

I have been doing the gold road daily quest trifecta every day, and that involves killing mobs, that includes light harvesting as I pass nodes. And no inks in about 2 weeks now. None.

Rng is broken.

yeah, i was fairly lucky with the anniversary drops, i had all of them in about 4 days, but this update ive had 2 things which are still eluding me

ink (in the past 2 weeks ive gotten 3 ink drops), and the final lead for the new music box from west weald dailies (theres another thread on that as well, im currently up to about 50x of each daily and no lead yet but some people almost have 3x copies of it done)

Eliahnus

Kappachi wrote: »

you have to not be hunting it... i can often find like 40 in a day just playing regularly. when you do dungeons/trials slay all the mobs, don't skip mobs... means doing optional bosses in things like fungal grotto too. I have so much ink that I profit massively every single day since launch of expac. I check every container, harvest every node and kill every mob I come across.

Even if you would play 24 hours a day, you would not find 40 ink.
Exaggerating does not help the discussion.

alpha_synuclein

No

So far - meh.

Overall skills feel underwhelming, I can't make the combination that I wanted, rng based script farming without proper curation is cluttering my inventory and I only got 3 inks since the chapter release.

But I'm waiting for that major heroism

Orbital78

Yes

alpha_synuclein wrote: »

But I'm waiting for that major heroism

More major heroism and protection sources will be nice, IMO it does fill in some useful buffs that supports usually give for solo gameplay. I will have to see what the end U43 balance results are. I really had hoped for a better aoe pull to help tanks in dungeons better but pbaoe pull is better than nothin.

Elsonso

No

BlueRaven wrote: »

And now we have the “have/have not” controversy about the inks…

See a pattern?

Rng is broken.

Personally, I consider RNG rare drops to be poor game design when used for in-demand items. If the intent is to make a grind to improve engagement with the game, then I guess it works, but game designers should be building a game, not a grind. Anyone can tie a carrot to the end of a stick. If the grind is critical to the game design, then I suggest the game design is flawed at a basic level.

This system has a long and annoying quest line that is built on reusing Daily Endeavors, rather than coming up with something interesting and engaging. Once that is completed, what it opens up is a low-probability RNG grind for Ink. In my opinion, this is a FAIL.

TheDarkRuler

Yes

Tanks and Support-DDs got a really good alternative here.
Healers too but on the meta-healers (Arcanist/Necromancer/Warden) those dont really matter.
But on templars or dk-heals its still great.

ellmarie

Yes and No? I have only scribed a couple so far, but it's going to take me quite awhile to get for the class scripts so there's that neg for me. Most of my builds really aren't benefitting yet. And the one templar I have scribed a wield soul for, I don't really like it, so I have to probably wait until I can unlock class scripts and before I waste any more ink.

Sarannah

Yes

Sarannah wrote: »

Depends on what you mean specifically. Questline: yes! Scribing unlocking: No, due to scripts not being accountwide! Scribing itself: Wouldn't know as I can't use it without having every script unlocked on all 20 of my characters.

PS: Have plenty of ink!

Wanted to expand on this, as I have now been using scribing itself for a little bit. And I have actually been using some scribed skills already, due to them being a better/good replacement for what I was already using.

So yes, scribing itself is worth it!

PS: Still feel scripts should be accountwide. Or at the very least detach script drops from dailies, as doing dailies is one of things in ESO I dislike most! If you are not going to make scripts accountwide, atleast let them drop the same way ink drops and from the same sources(curated). So scripts can be gained through regular gameplay.

GuuMoonRyoung

Yes

I don't have it, but have seen people using scribing abilities in WB and they are bonkers. This is most definitely worth it, for now at least. I am sure they will nerf the abilities once the honeymoon period of the preorder crowd is over.

TheNuminous1

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

I'm focused on heavy attack builds these days. While scribing could be great for those, in fact ZoS decided not to make the Off-Balance option available to any skill a HA build would use.

So I haven't even bought the chapter.

Not buying a whole chapter cause of one script they don't have is willlllddddddd. What about idk every single thing else. The new. Idk EVERYTHING. Outfit styles mounts antiquities lore quests skills points new furniture new recipes dawnwood the new wood elf stuff.


Man man man what in the world is this response I'm like upside down and backwards confused

You didn't buy the whole chapter.

Cause it didn't give you something for your heavy attack build in the scribing system.......

That's the reason.

Thats..
Thats..


Something all right 😭

Melivar

Yes

While I don't currently find many of the skills useful outside of my tank characters, I know many people who have enjoyed testing all the new skills and finding fun ways to use some of them.

It's a new system with tons of room for growth and the questline was just awesome in my opinion so i look forward to what's added in the future as well.

Only downside currently would be the ink grind if I wanted to use more of the skills. But as I don't I have the time to wait and gradually finish the achievements.

wolfie1.0.

Honestly, script farming for more than one character is worse than the ink grind.

I can at least BUY the ink from other players.

Either commit to 100% bind on pickup or remove the mechanic entirely.

FriedEggSandwich

Yes

Not really sure yet. Just finishhed the crow quest, and quite enjoyed it, great voice acting and an interesting story. I haven't hit any grind yet, mainly because I don't know what spells to make. I finished the quest with 12 ink, and I found one on a mob yesterday. Isn't it 3 ink per craft? So I have enough for 4 spells. Right now I feel like I have more ink than I need. But if I wanted to try everything to theory craft, or craft multiple spells for all my toons, I imagine I would be annoyed with the ink grind.

I do writs on 7 chars per day, so end up with a lot of surveys. I let them build up to 60 in a large chest, then spend an hour or so doing them. It will be interesting to see how much ink I get next time I do that. Not looking forward to collecting scripts on all toons though. Maybe that's the grind.

TaSheen

No

Surveys don't drop ink.... You'll only get ink from normal nodes or mobs (and apparently mobs don't drop much or often).

FriedEggSandwich

Yes

TaSheen wrote: »

Surveys don't drop ink.... You'll only get ink from normal nodes or mobs (and apparently mobs don't drop much or often).

Serious? That sucks. Maybe zos went super-stinge mode for release, but will tweak things later. They will have the data on it, and they generally cave to complaints eventually. They made transmute crystals easier to get I think.

Necrotech_Master

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

Surveys don't drop ink.... You'll only get ink from normal nodes or mobs (and apparently mobs don't drop much or often).

Serious? That sucks. Maybe zos went super-stinge mode for release, but will tweak things later. They will have the data on it, and they generally cave to complaints eventually. They made transmute crystals easier to get I think.

the ink seems to be all over, some players seem to be able to get 10 inks per hour average farming (saw at least 1 poster mention they did about 50 hours of farming for 500 inks)

for others such as myself, if i go super hard on node farming i might be able to get 1 or 2 drops of ink in an hour, if that as sometimes even that doesnt happen

in the past 2 weeks ive gotten 3 ink drops from enemies, and have only gotten a total of about 24 ink drops since gold road released on PC

they are adding inks to heavy sacks and treasure chests next update, but based on the drop rate for current sources im not expecting the drop rate to be good at all from them

Kendric5

No

They have put a lot of the stuff behind play walls. I don't do most of the things that I would need to in order to get a lot of the drops I would like. I don't do group things or PVP so no group dungeons and I don't do the infinite archive.

They keep trying to force me to play the way they want and I will not!!!

The skills a not that great for a soloer like me.

I have a lot of alts and it's drudger to have to unlock that stuff on all of those characters.

I also have three accounts to that makes it extra painful.

TaSheen

No

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

Surveys don't drop ink.... You'll only get ink from normal nodes or mobs (and apparently mobs don't drop much or often).

Serious? That sucks. Maybe zos went super-stinge mode for release, but will tweak things later. They will have the data on it, and they generally cave to complaints eventually. They made transmute crystals easier to get I think.

the ink seems to be all over, some players seem to be able to get 10 inks per hour average farming (saw at least 1 poster mention they did about 50 hours of farming for 500 inks)

for others such as myself, if i go super hard on node farming i might be able to get 1 or 2 drops of ink in an hour, if that as sometimes even that doesnt happen

in the past 2 weeks ive gotten 3 ink drops from enemies, and have only gotten a total of about 24 ink drops since gold road released on PC

they are adding inks to heavy sacks and treasure chests next update, but based on the drop rate for current sources im not expecting the drop rate to be good at all from them

Actually, they do seem to have added a chance for drop from surveys lately.

the1andonlyskwex

No

I've struggled to find bar space for scribed abilities. Most of them just aren't as good as alternatives from other skill lines.

One good thing though is that it's helping to clarify for me some of the major gaps certain classes have. If I can find bar space for a scribed ability, it's generally indicative of a significant weakness in my class skill options.

WitchyKiki

No

Nope, its such a bother. That one skill just isn't worth it.

Dax_Draconis

No

I've been using Venomous Knife, but I can live without it. It's all pretty underwhelming.

SilverBride

No

I learned all the scripts on all of my characters but have still not scribed a single thing. I am just not interested.

AvalonRanger

No

I think scribing skill combat power is too much average.
That's real problem.

It cant work as game changer at all. Basically, it should work as balance
key parts between class gap, but actually not so different from slottable
class ability. And, there're no reason to lose class ability passive just only for
scribing skill.

I expected scribing skill give my tank reliable counter missile to make up
for low damage. But it's not so powerful actually.