What exactly is 'Increase Exploration Experience'? What does it do?

MattyMatty · October 2015

As title states

PBpsy · October 2015

It gives more exp when you uncover a new zone on the map. It is by far the most useless trait in the game.

Epona222 · October 2015

I tend to use it on new characters when questing and exploring, since the quest content is so easy they don't need more useful combat traits until they hit vet rank. Extra little bit of xp for all those undiscovered places on the map doesn't hurt.

KerinKor · October 2015

PBpsy wrote: »

It gives more exp when you uncover a new zone on the map. It is by far the most useless trait in the game.

DIsagree.

When I start a new character, as soon as they get out of the initial instance I equip them with 7 pieces of gear with this trait and taken them off to get all the overworld skyshards in their 5 faction zones as well as a few in delves if I can. This trait adds a good chunk of initial XP meaning more levels and more skill points available when they start questing.

When I do this I also equip what will be their secondary weapon at level 15 traited with Weapon Skill increase trait.

So no, it's by no means the "most useless", situationally it's very useful IMO.

Epona222 · October 2015

KerinKor wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

It gives more exp when you uncover a new zone on the map. It is by far the most useless trait in the game.

DIsagree.

When I start a new character, as soon as they get out of the initial instance I equip them with 7 pieces of gear with this trait and taken them off to get all the overworld skyshards in their 5 faction zones as well as a few in delves if I can. This trait adds a good chunk of initial XP meaning more levels and more skill points available when they start questing.

When I do this I also equip what will be their secondary weapon at level 15 traited with Weapon Skill increase trait.

So no, it's by no means the "most useless", situationally it's very useful IMO.

Yep, exactly - I think the trait is generally hated by people who stick to 1 or maybe 2 characters, haven't played a new character for ages, or tend to go straight to PvP at level 10 - those of us who love alts and trying out new builds and questing/exploring with them tend to see more value in it!

EDIT: It is of course useless when you get a high level drop with that trait instead of something useful for combat performance, hence some of the antipathy towards it.

PBpsy · October 2015

Epona222 wrote: »

KerinKor wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

It gives more exp when you uncover a new zone on the map. It is by far the most useless trait in the game.

DIsagree.

When I start a new character, as soon as they get out of the initial instance I equip them with 7 pieces of gear with this trait and taken them off to get all the overworld skyshards in their 5 faction zones as well as a few in delves if I can. This trait adds a good chunk of initial XP meaning more levels and more skill points available when they start questing.

When I do this I also equip what will be their secondary weapon at level 15 traited with Weapon Skill increase trait.

So no, it's by no means the "most useless", situationally it's very useful IMO.

Yep, exactly - I think the trait is generally hated by people who stick to 1 or maybe 2 characters, haven't played a new character for ages, or tend to go straight to PvP at level 10 - those of us who love alts and trying out new builds and questing/exploring with them tend to see more value in it!

EDIT: It is of course useless when you get a high level drop with that trait instead of something useful for combat performance, hence some of the antipathy towards it.

Nope on both of you. I have 5 Vr characters 3 of them Vr14+.I like alts enough. The trait is absolutely terrible even for fast progression and its benefits are heavily surpassed by using training to get your armor skills up fast. The exp you get without exploration is already great enough to make you over leveled by the time you exit your faction start zone. Training your armor fast on the other hand provides a huge boost in power ,therefore clearing speed and can be replaced by more useful traits fast.

Exploration on the other hand will reduce you potential power and clearing speed. It will slow your armor skill leveling speed because you are not using training . It is the only trait that actually has a clear finite maximum benefit and does absolutely nothing most of the time. Training will work for you on every source of exp and even well fitted may be somewhat useful at the start. Exploration just makes you over leveled fast then does nothing 99% of the time.

Epona222 · October 2015

"Clearing Speed"

LMAO.

Some of us enjoy the game and don't particularly care about "clearing speed" whatever the heck that means.

*snorts with laughter*

EDIT: Also if you haven't managed to get your armor skills maxed by the time you hit vet rank without having to use training trait, then you are doing it wrong.

Marrtha · October 2015

Every time you discover a new zone, you get experience. Wearing an armor piece with that trait will increase that experience.

danno8 · October 2015

Epona222 wrote: »

"Clearing Speed"

LMAO.

Some of us enjoy the game and don't particularly care about "clearing speed" whatever the heck that means.

*snorts with laughter*

EDIT: Also if you haven't managed to get your armor skills maxed by the time you hit vet rank without having to use training trait, then you are doing it wrong.

He's absolutely right though. One assumes if you take Exploration you are doing it to get extra XP, which you do to level up and gain power quicker. It's just other traits will help you kill faster (more xp), or level equipment faster (gain power quicker through passives/skills etc.).

I also find it strange that you say "some of us enjoy the game and don't care about "clearing speed" and then continue on to make a statement about how people are "doing it wrong" if they haven't maxed out armour skills by Vet rank. Do you see the contradiction in philosophies there?

Exploration is just outclassed by other traits, that's all.

And if you truly did not care about levelling faster you wouldn't have bothered equipping exploration in the first place.

PBpsy · October 2015

Epona222 wrote: »

"Clearing Speed"

LMAO.

Some of us enjoy the game and don't particularly care about "clearing speed" whatever the heck that means.

*snorts with laughter*

EDIT: Also if you haven't managed to get your armor skills maxed by the time you hit vet rank without having to use training trait, then you are doing it wrong.

The discussion is about the effectiveness of a trait intended for improved progression speed compared to other options that you have for improving progression speeds. If one uses Exploration I assume they care about leveling up fast. There are however better options for that.

If you don't care about that I suggest doing the "fun" challenge and use only Ornate on all your gear or nothing. Exploration is actually very anti "fun" in the definition you are using since it makes you characters even more hopelessly overleveled.

On the matter of armor leveling my goal is to have my main armor at 50 by 35 ..

BuggeX · October 2015

danno8 wrote: »

Epona222 wrote: »

"Clearing Speed"

LMAO.

Some of us enjoy the game and don't particularly care about "clearing speed" whatever the heck that means.

*snorts with laughter*

EDIT: Also if you haven't managed to get your armor skills maxed by the time you hit vet rank without having to use training trait, then you are doing it wrong.

He's absolutely right though. One assumes if you take Exploration you are doing it to get extra XP, which you do to level up and gain power quicker. It's just other traits will help you kill faster (more xp), or level equipment faster (gain power quicker through passives/skills etc.).

I also find it strange that you say "some of us enjoy the game and don't care about "clearing speed" and then continue on to make a statement about how people are "doing it wrong" if they haven't maxed out armour skills by Vet rank. Do you see the contradiction in philosophies there?

Exploration is just outclassed by other traits, that's all.

And if you truly did not care about levelling faster you wouldn't have bothered equipping exploration in the first place.

There is somthing he doesnt think about.
While Training give you more exp for armor/Weaps

Exploration give you more exp from the source of Pois, which means Armor/Weaps and Skills are lvled faster

UrQuan · October 2015

PBpsy wrote: »

If you don't care about that I suggest doing the "fun" challenge and use only Ornate on all your gear or nothing. Exploration is actually very anti "fun" in the definition you are using since it makes you characters even more hopelessly overleveled.

If I could craft gear with the Ornate trait, I'd make myself an entire gear set that was ornate, and name myself Lord Fancypants.

MikeB · October 2015

At Legendary the exploration trait gives you +10% per piece of gear to exploration xp (xp gained when you discover a new area on the map). You can put exploration on up to 8 pieces of gear, which at max will provide you with a 80% bonus is xp gained when you discover a new area. I have a full set of level 1 legendary exploration gear ( 3 heavy, 2 medium, 2 light and a shield) and it proves a nice passive way to gain XP while out questing. Combine with with psijiic ambrosia and you get an additional 130% exploration XP, this amount alone will gain you 2+ levels per zone pre-vet.

PBpsy · October 2015

BuggeX wrote: »

danno8 wrote: »

Epona222 wrote: »

"Clearing Speed"

LMAO.

Some of us enjoy the game and don't particularly care about "clearing speed" whatever the heck that means.

*snorts with laughter*

EDIT: Also if you haven't managed to get your armor skills maxed by the time you hit vet rank without having to use training trait, then you are doing it wrong.

He's absolutely right though. One assumes if you take Exploration you are doing it to get extra XP, which you do to level up and gain power quicker. It's just other traits will help you kill faster (more xp), or level equipment faster (gain power quicker through passives/skills etc.).

I also find it strange that you say "some of us enjoy the game and don't care about "clearing speed" and then continue on to make a statement about how people are "doing it wrong" if they haven't maxed out armour skills by Vet rank. Do you see the contradiction in philosophies there?

Exploration is just outclassed by other traits, that's all.

And if you truly did not care about levelling faster you wouldn't have bothered equipping exploration in the first place.

There is somthing he doesnt think about.
While Training give you more exp for armor/Weaps

Exploration give you more exp from the source of Pois, which means Armor/Weaps and Skills are lvled faster

I haven't done the testing yet since it would be a pretty pointless exercise but I am pretty sure that in the end the bonus training exp will surpass even the maxed legendary gear Exploration bonus. Training will give you a bit of xp for every xp point you gain quests, mobs and even exploration. Exploration gives you more xp from uncovering a zone only and it is finite. The training XP on the other hand is also practically finite but you still get a bonus from any respawning mob you kill at proper level. In the end it remains useful for more time and it is never actually useless for long periods of time .

For maximum leveling efficiency one could argue to make an exploration set and just equip it when reaching a new area. That is hardly worth the effort in my opinion.

UrQuan · October 2015

MikeB wrote: »

At Legendary the exploration trait gives you +10% per piece of gear to exploration xp (xp gained when you discover a new area on the map). You can put exploration on up to 8 pieces of gear, which at max will provide you with a 80% bonus is xp gained when you discover a new area. I have a full set of level 1 legendary exploration gear ( 3 heavy, 2 medium, 2 light and a shield) and it proves a nice passive way to gain XP while out questing. Combine with with psijiic ambrosia and you get an additional 130% exploration XP, this amount alone will gain you 2+ levels per zone pre-vet.

Wait, what? You burned through 64 legendary upgrade mats for a set of level 1 gear? You might be even more of a madman than me!

danno8 · October 2015

BuggeX wrote: »

danno8 wrote: »

Epona222 wrote: »

"Clearing Speed"

LMAO.

Some of us enjoy the game and don't particularly care about "clearing speed" whatever the heck that means.

*snorts with laughter*

EDIT: Also if you haven't managed to get your armor skills maxed by the time you hit vet rank without having to use training trait, then you are doing it wrong.

He's absolutely right though. One assumes if you take Exploration you are doing it to get extra XP, which you do to level up and gain power quicker. It's just other traits will help you kill faster (more xp), or level equipment faster (gain power quicker through passives/skills etc.).

I also find it strange that you say "some of us enjoy the game and don't care about "clearing speed" and then continue on to make a statement about how people are "doing it wrong" if they haven't maxed out armour skills by Vet rank. Do you see the contradiction in philosophies there?

Exploration is just outclassed by other traits, that's all.

And if you truly did not care about levelling faster you wouldn't have bothered equipping exploration in the first place.

There is somthing he doesnt think about.
While Training give you more exp for armor/Weaps

Exploration give you more exp from the source of Pois, which means Armor/Weaps and Skills are lvled faster

That's true. But consider:

Most maps have around 50 "things" to discover. At VR ranks you get around 800 or so xp from discovering an area. With 7 legendary armour you would get a 70% bonus to this (I am assuming they are additive). So

50*800= 40,000 *1.7=68000.

So the difference would be 28000 XP at VR ranks AND with LEGENDARY quality armour. For a whole zone.

Now let's see for Training. We will use white level gear. You get exploration (42% more):
xp = 16800,

and mob bonus (let's say 400 mobs killed per zone):
400*400xp=160,000*1.42= 67,200,

and you get quest xp (let's say 40 quests per zone at 9k average xp):
40*9000=360,000*1.42=511,200 = 151,200 more XP

So you get 16,800 + 67,200 + 151,200 = 235,200 applied to your armour skill line. That's close to 10x as much as exploration over the course of a zone. AND that is comparing white to gold armour.

Like you say, that is only applied to armour and not to xp bar or skills, but even if you include those things as the bonus xp you are still comparing 28000*3 = 84,000 total bonus xp, compared to 235,200.

So with this info I would say Training is more valuable than Exploration. If they bumped up Exploraion to apply to ALL xp (and reduced the amount to 1%,1.5%, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0% (white-->gold quality) then you are talking over 100k bonus xp added to armour/skills/xp bar which is a very nice amount and would make one consider if they want to level everything up evenly or just level their armour line faster.

Wow that post got long fast.

Epona222 · October 2015

danno8 wrote: »

Epona222 wrote: »

"Clearing Speed"

LMAO.

Some of us enjoy the game and don't particularly care about "clearing speed" whatever the heck that means.

*snorts with laughter*

EDIT: Also if you haven't managed to get your armor skills maxed by the time you hit vet rank without having to use training trait, then you are doing it wrong.

He's absolutely right though. One assumes if you take Exploration you are doing it to get extra XP, which you do to level up and gain power quicker. It's just other traits will help you kill faster (more xp), or level equipment faster (gain power quicker through passives/skills etc.).

I also find it strange that you say "some of us enjoy the game and don't care about "clearing speed" and then continue on to make a statement about how people are "doing it wrong" if they haven't maxed out armour skills by Vet rank. Do you see the contradiction in philosophies there?

Exploration is just outclassed by other traits, that's all.

And if you truly did not care about levelling faster you wouldn't have bothered equipping exploration in the first place.

It's not about not leveling faster - it's that I like exploration and questing, and hate grinding.

Hence I want to maximise the XP I get for the activities I enjoy, especially since exploration XP is a one time only XP gain.

I am sorry that you cannot see that there are a myriad of ways to play the game. And that for some people, the thought of grinding mobs over and over for levels just makes us die a little bit inside. Exploration trait is useful for us. More quest content is welcomed by us.

danno8 · October 2015

UrQuan wrote: »

MikeB wrote: »

At Legendary the exploration trait gives you +10% per piece of gear to exploration xp (xp gained when you discover a new area on the map). You can put exploration on up to 8 pieces of gear, which at max will provide you with a 80% bonus is xp gained when you discover a new area. I have a full set of level 1 legendary exploration gear ( 3 heavy, 2 medium, 2 light and a shield) and it proves a nice passive way to gain XP while out questing. Combine with with psijiic ambrosia and you get an additional 130% exploration XP, this amount alone will gain you 2+ levels per zone pre-vet.

Wait, what? You burned through 64 legendary upgrade mats for a set of level 1 gear? You might be even more of a madman than me!

OMG. 64 gold mats on level 1 equipment for what amounts to only 28,000 bonus xp per VR zone fully explored (far less for pre-vet).

Rikal · October 2015

IMO the value of all traits is small when the content is so easy, use whatever suits your style. Training does however have big value as a catch-up mechanism if I change armor and/or weapon "midstream" so to speak. Oddly enough the most common trait for me (while leveling) these days is sturdy. Not so long ago I would have called it the least valuable trait.

rb2001 · October 2015

My take:

I have my group dungeon gear gear set, where I put on some actual armor, because I am a healer, and I take that seriously, keeping people alive and myself. It is good.

Around town, my main takes off her hood and makes a day of it, maybe puts on a normal shirt.

Cadwell Silver: You see, I find the questing and grinding on mobs to have overstayed its welcome. It's too easy. Wearing my full kit out there in Silver, while I am VR13 is hopelessly, painfully easy.

So, my solution? Uh, well, I made an Exploration set for over there. It consists of 4 minimal items, Jute and Hide, first tier stuff that looks good (Read as: It's like I'm wearing nothing at all! nothing at all!).

It is Exploration because the entire point of doing this was to wear nice-looking clothing while doing those zones (Nothing at all!), and because since I am giving up the combat edge (with the intent to make things actually interesting and challenging again to some degree), I put Exploration on them to get some actual use out of it as I find each new location (which I enjoy doing, and I have noticed that quite a bit of XP is rolling in from it).

So, the Exploration trait is not useless. I rather like the use I have found for it. It suits my needs.

Epona222 · October 2015

I did some grinding once, I wanted to gain a VR level while I was waiting for IC to be released, it nearly removed my will to live.

Thing is, I didn't want to damage my nice expensive upgraded gear, so I just took it all off. For normal on-level mobs, it made barely any difference whatsoever - I took a little bit more damage and did a little less damage (and got a few odd looks), but not enough difference to convince me that for questing or normal zone mobs *any* trait is necessary or more desirable than another.

Of course for trials, vet dungeons, PvP, it can give you the crucial edge in performance - but telling questers that exploration trait is useless is not necessarily the case. Would I wear exploration gear in cyro or in a vet dungeon or trial? Of course not. But given that essentially I can quest in my underwear and it is still easy, why not just take the extra xp if there are still places undiscovered on the map?

Sausage · October 2015

PBpsy wrote: »

It gives more exp when you uncover a new zone on the map. It is by far the most useless trait in the game.

I disagree, you get surprisingly much xp from exploration.

danno8 · October 2015

Epona222 wrote: »

It's not about not leveling faster - it's that I like exploration and questing, and hate grinding.

Hence I want to maximise the XP I get for the activities I enjoy, especially since exploration XP is a one time only XP gain.

I am sorry that you cannot see that there are a myriad of ways to play the game. And that for some people, the thought of grinding mobs over and over for levels just makes us die a little bit inside. Exploration trait is useful for us. More quest content is welcomed by us.

And I am not talking about grinding at all. I am talking about all activities that lead to xp gain. Questing, killing and exploration.

I agree with you 100% that if all you do is walk around and uncover new locations, while ignoring all quests and not killing a single thing, if that is your preferred playstyle, then go for Exploration trait. If you do anything else in addition to that, then you may want to consider a different trait.

And again, I will state that if you are not looking to level faster, then why use the Exploration trait at all? You keep contradicting yourself: "It's not about levelling faster", followed by "I want to maximize the XP I get".

Maximizing XP = leveling faster, no?

Nestor · October 2015

If Exploration works for you in the situation you are in, its a great trait.

I have a set of Blue L4 Exploration gear that I put on my new Alts when I go and hunt the safe skyshards. It gets me some nice levels during this process as I avoid combat and quests during this time, so the only thing I am getting experience from is discovering places.

Then once I am done with that, I am usually L10 and I run my Training Gear set when I start out to do quests and combat.I am chronically over leveled for the content, so this method works for me.

Epona222 · October 2015

danno8 wrote: »

Epona222 wrote: »

It's not about not leveling faster - it's that I like exploration and questing, and hate grinding.

Hence I want to maximise the XP I get for the activities I enjoy, especially since exploration XP is a one time only XP gain.

I am sorry that you cannot see that there are a myriad of ways to play the game. And that for some people, the thought of grinding mobs over and over for levels just makes us die a little bit inside. Exploration trait is useful for us. More quest content is welcomed by us.

And I am not talking about grinding at all. I am talking about all activities that lead to xp gain. Questing, killing and exploration.

I agree with you 100% that if all you do is walk around and uncover new locations, while ignoring all quests and not killing a single thing, if that is your preferred playstyle, then go for Exploration trait. If you do anything else in addition to that, then you may want to consider a different trait.

And again, I will state that if you are not looking to level faster, then why use the Exploration trait at all? You keep contradicting yourself: "It's not about levelling faster", followed by "I want to maximize the XP I get".

Maximizing XP = leveling faster, no?

Why? If you are questing and you need any trait on your armor, or even armor at all, then L2P

And as for maximizing XP - I NEVER said I wasn't interested in maximizing XP, just that I wasn't bothered about getting through a quest area 0.2 seconds slower than I may have done with a more combat oriented trait. You are putting words into my mouth at this point

UltimaJoe777 · October 2015

The Exploration Trait grants a small boost to gained experience every time you discover a new place on the map. This boost as I said is small but can stack if you apply it to multiple pieces of armor. At base quality it gives up to 42% bonus if I recall correctly...

Personally I think this is not the most useful trait out there but if boosted experience is what you're aiming for and you don't need the Training trait that badly because let's face it wearing 7 of the same armor type makes it grow pretty fast already then this isn't a bad trait to slap on. It does, however, become obsolete when A. You run out of places to discover and/or B. You hit max level at which time all it is really good for is CPs.

PhxOldGamer68 · March 2016

Exploration and Skill Line is very useful for the beginning of the 2nd, 3rd, etc characters. My 1st character is V16 with 250+ champion points. Since every new character also gets the same amount of champion points, the new alts will be very strong off the bat.

Creating new level 4 armor/weapons with Exploration and Skill Line helps level up tremendously. Since you start at level 3 by selecting to skip the first area with the next character, I can easily get to level 4 doing the first few quests with the Shriven armor and weapon. Once at level 4, I switch to the level 4 gear that I created. I'm usually able to get to level 10 with level 4 armor and weapons before having to create a new set.

After reaching level 10 and creating level 10 set with Exploration and Skill Line, I'll go to Cyrodiil and do the PVE quests in Bruma or Cheydinhall if you're EP. You can level up 4-6 times in an hour at this stage of the character. My 3rd character just leveled up from 30 to 33 after an hour. Just have to watch out for gangkers.