Why do some players grind for hundreds of hours for a specific item ?

Chazaquiel · February 2017

I'm still new to the game, and levelling my first character.
Reading through the forums, I read about people grinding for over a hundred hours in order to obtain a specific item (such as a sharpened spriggan whatsit thingy). I would like information from those players as to why another item with similar characteristics won't do the job just as well, what is so special about that specific item that some players put so much effort into obtaining ?

Thanks for any answers and insights.

Kagetenchu · February 2017

Mostly it's Best in Slot (BiS) gear Thierry looking for i.e. a bsw chest in divines or the bsw inferno staff either sharpened or piercing depending on play style.

Nestor · February 2017

They are blinded by the Divine Light.

Don't get me wrong, Divines is a good trait to have. But, when you really look at what it does, for one item it is like 90 more magic, or .9% more Critical Strike Chance if you have Divines on an item, and, you improve it to Gold. So, at purple or blue, it's even less.

IronCrystal · February 2017

Well, armor is less effective to have best in slot traits, but weapons are a whole nother story.

The difference between sharpened and precise in non-perfect raid setups is absurd.

MLGProPlayer · February 2017

Some people compete for leader board scores. You need the absolute best gear for that.

If you're a competitive person by nature you'll want the best stats in any game you play. I min-max in single player games.

zaria · February 2017

Because is the best, you have gear sets with bonuses you have probably seen them 2 items give more stamian 3 give more stamina regeneration 4 give weapon damage, 5 might cause you to do double damage every 5 seconds. some can be crafted other can be found and traded, the best is just found in specific dungeons.
Now all gear also have traits like boost enchantments or give more xp, latest is lame if you are at max level

Again you want the best, not sure how much it matter.

Morrowind will probably give more and better sets.
You might get one of them

Anyway an game is supposed to be fun Not an grind
The expansion after Morrowind probably give even better gear anyway.

Tyrobag · February 2017

Sharpened is so much better than anything else, its ridiculous. No other traits stand up to it for dps(with the exclusion of precise under VERY specific circumstances). Tbh, Zenni really needs to bring the other traits up to par, at least nirnhoned (rarest trait in the game, and useless. Who's idea was that?).

Nestor · February 2017

Sharpened just illustrates the work they need to complete on Traits.

SaRuZ · February 2017

At this point I play to grind. It's like watching paint dry.

Oompuh · February 2017

If its not Sharpened, it's ****. - Weapons in ESO

mtwiggz · February 2017

One would think in this so called "balance" patch that weapon and gear traits would have been looked at.

Then again, they really didn't balance anything at all either way.

Nerouyn · February 2017

I generally don't buy into this kind of grind. Especially not for some minuscule statistical advantage.

If the item is a unique cosmetic and really good for my character's look then I might consider it, if the grind isn't too onerous.

Soella · February 2017

If you want to be very competitive in PvP or do the most challenging PvE content, you need BIS(Best in Slot) gear, and most important - weapon. Depending on build/raid setup/so on difference can be 5-10% with suboptimal traits.

Some people want BIS just because it is their goal in the game - it's kinda same as master Angler achievement for them.

For everyone else ... well, they have their own master Angler:) Like 300 million gold or all collectors achievements:)

Oreyn_Bearclaw · February 2017

First, you need to understand that Sharpened is hands down the most OP thing in the game. Every other weapon trait is laughable in comparison from a damage standpoint. A sharp staff that is not part of any set is better than a precise or nirnhoned that is.

Next realize that the weapon loot table is ENORMOUS. Getting the right weapon you want still means you have like a 1/7-1/9 chance to get it in the right trait (not all weapons drop all traits).

Lastly you need to realize that some people will do anything it takes to min/max, and there is really no shortcut to any of the weapon grinds in this game.

My VMA inferno took me a year to get. I still dont have my lightning Moondancer and have been clearing VMOL for months.

Now if you are asking if there are viable alternatives, well of course there are. But all things considered, they will do less damage.

wiz12268b14_ESO · February 2017

Tears are going to be awesome when they raise levels for Morrowind

zaria · February 2017

mtwiggz wrote: »

One would think in this so called "balance" patch that weapon and gear traits would have been looked at.

Then again, they really didn't balance anything at all either way.

For some reasons

Balance patch scares us dinosaurs.

ZiRM · February 2017

200CP.. the grind will start all over.

dday3six · February 2017

iirc Sharpened adds in the neighborhood of 10% damage output, which is massive. Then Divines is favored on Dps gear because it increases crit focused Mundus (Thief and/or Shadow) and crit sees the largest gains next to arpen, even over the coefficient for max stat pool and weapon/spell damage.

zaria · February 2017

ZiRM wrote: »

200CP.. the grind will start all over.

WOW has an more predictable model, at start of new expansion the green quest reward gear is better than your old dungeon gear, 5 levels later its better than raiding gear.
Start over

NewBlacksmurf · February 2017

Min/maxer or they need more stuff to progress through content or to join a group who has higher standards

It's interesting that ppl will only use X and not figure out how to get less than the best cause while there are always the ideal traits and such.....I can't agree that it's the only viable trait for example divines on armor or sharpened on a certain weapon

AlMcFly · February 2017

...because they...want the item?

I wouldn't grind for hundreds of hours for some piece of gear. I care very little about "Best in Slot". If you make some cool piece of furniture or motif a rare drop, and I like their appearance, i would most definitely grind a long time to get them.

nimander99 · February 2017

I'm going to go out on a limb here but.... I think its because they want it.

deepseamk20b14_ESO · February 2017

It's a fine balance that doesn't always work. Things should not be easy to get. But at the same time the drop rate on specific items are ridiculous in this game. Took me over two months, darn near three to get what I wanted.

The positive of this is the elation of getting the item after so much time and effort. The HUGE negative is that even though I finally got what I needed that was almost THREE months of not enjoying the game how I wanted to enjoy it. I can't say it's three months down the hole because I got what I wanted and subsequently made some gold along the way but man, the boring grind made me lose sight of why I was even playing the game.

There should be a potion that can be crafted. The potion would be pretty hard to craft and probably be expensive, though not so expensive to where it would be cheaper just to buy the item you want off the broker. However, the each potion has a specific trait attached to it and when activated you get like a 20% increased chance to get that particular trait, and 20% less chance for other traits you don't want to drop. Not sure how the RNG works, but let's say everything has a 50% chance to drop (obviously I'm making up number for the example) I use a sharpened trait potion. Now sharpened item have a 70% chance to drop and all other traits now have a 30% chance to drop. Maybe it has a short time limit. Use it on boss burns, IDK. Maybe one that has a decreased chance but lasts longer when farming public dungeons or something.

I'm sure that would never come to be, but it would be nice. Just silly thinking I guess.

Browiseth · February 2017

they farm for it because they want it

i dunno what else there is to understand about it to be honest

Prof_Bawbag · February 2017

It's something i've never understood why some people on here do or more to the point, the ones who don't pvp. What I mean by that is, they complain about pugs and scrubs holding them up in their dungeon runs, dungeon runs they want over asap because they just need the gear. What do they need the gear for? From what I can gather, so they can do those dungeon runs that they dislike quicker.

I'd like to know what fun things those people use that gear for? They've obviously completed all the normal content such as side quests, main quests, dlc etc, so aye, why do some of you put yourselves through that? Like i said, I can fully understand why pvp players just want all those vet pledges and trials done and dusted so they can get on with the stuff they enjoy.

mb10 · February 2017

Think people are underestimating precise here but thats maybe because theyre all referring to PVP

but in PVE critical hits are very important to DPS.

I just wish a gold precise weapon gave like 10% instead of 7% bonus to crit.

OR sharpened was just nerfed which is probably easier

KochDerDamonen · February 2017

Stats, basically. Looking to squeeze out that additional 10%, 5%, 1%, .0001% effectiveness in damage dealing, ultimate generating, defense shredding, health... healing, or what-have-you. To plenty of people it doesn't really matter.

I whole-heartedly recognize that many sets with flashy effects aren't going to be the best, I love it when a gear set puts some little particle or somesuch on your character for being active. Happily, Briarheart does that and is actually quite good for my stamina sorcerer!

FriedEggSandwich · February 2017

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

First, you need to understand that Sharpened is hands down the most OP thing in the game. Every other weapon trait is laughable in comparison from a damage standpoint. A sharp staff that is not part of any set is better than a precise or nirnhoned that is.

Next realize that the weapon loot table is ENORMOUS. Getting the right weapon you want still means you have like a 1/7-1/9 chance to get it in the right trait (not all weapons drop all traits).

Lastly you need to realize that some people will do anything it takes to min/max, and there is really no shortcut to any of the weapon grinds in this game.

My VMA inferno took me a year to get. I still dont have my lightning Moondancer and have been clearing VMOL for months.

Now if you are asking if there are viable alternatives, well of course there are. But all things considered, they will do less damage.

Sharpened isn't op in itself. Penetration levels are the same as they've always been, in fact it's actually harder to stack pen (takes more investment) now than it used to. The aprentice mundus used to grand penetration but now it grants spell damage, nirnhoned used to buff it by 18%. I've always had an addon to show my spell pen and it's only 1k more now than it used to be, and I wear 5x spinners, a sharpened staff plus more than 50cp in spell erosion. I used to just take the aprentice mundus and use a nirnhoned staff to hit 16k spell pen. If shapened were to be nerfed in any way it would be a direct buff to heavy armour.

I don't deny that sharpened is too attractive as a trait, but I don't believe nerfing it will help anything. The other traits need to be buffed to be on par.

dbgager · February 2017

Well if one trait is so overpowering and the only trait anybody wants seems like it needs to be nerfed.. That seems unbalanced to me.

FriedEggSandwich · February 2017

dbgager wrote: »

Well if one trait is so overpowering and the only trait anybody wants seems like it needs to be nerfed.. That seems unbalanced to me.

Are you a heavy armour pvper? If not then you have nothing to gain by wanting sharpened nerfed. The other traits should be buffed or potential penetration levels will be the lowest they've ever been in the game. Like I just said in my last comment; I agree that sharpened is too attractive, but it can't be nerfed without penetration being given to something else. We lost the potential penetration from the apprentice mundus already, and penetration from cp is super expensive.

raj72616a · February 2017

physical resistance and spell resistance reduce incoming damage by a percentage.
at max (33,000 resistance) it reduces damage by 50%

mobs in dungeons generally have 18500 resistance (~28% damage reduction)
without any debuff, without sharpened, they take 72% of the damage that you deal

if you use a sharpened weapon (improved to gold-color legendary quality), it reduces enemy resistance by 5160, so mob will have 13340 (~20% damage reduction) left. your damage to them will increase from 72% of your unreduced damage to 80% of your unreduced damage. and that's an 11% improvement. that's why many players insisted on using sharpened weapons. and others have explained above that armor traits are not as significant. they hunt for divine trait because it gives a minor boost to damage.

if you're in a group and your tank is doing his job, dungeon boss will have major fracture/breach on him (-5280 resistance). if you have a templar in your group, you can have minor fracture/breach too (-1320 resistance). if someone in the group is using alkosh set, they can put a further -3010 resistance debuff on boss. that would put the boss at 8890 resistance (~13.5% damage reduction). using sharpened weapon on top of that, will improve your damage from 86.5% to 94.5%, which is a 9.2% improvement. still very significant.