Can't acquire motifs

malistorr · October 2019

Hello all,

Sorry if this issue has been posted before. I admittedly don't have time to spend hours reading through past posts. I have a writ to make a robe in the Aldmeri Dominion style. I do not have said motif, or probably 90% of the others, even after playing this game for, I'm guessing, the last 18-months or so. Acquiring motifs in this game is way too difficult in my opinion and is a huge way that Zenimax/Bethesda try to get people to pay money, of course. I just looked at the store and see that 1 complete motif book costs about 5,000 crowns, or about $35+ real dollars! I can't believe the price is so high. I know the dev. is trying to force people to buy things in the store (big surprise there) by making things near impossible to acquire in game. But this is beyond rediculous. I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars to get some virtual motifs just so my character can look a certain way. And I hope you all will not pay that money either. Not allowing (without great cost of real money or huge time investment) people to have their character look the way they want, is ruining the game, and has for a long time. The dev. is way way too greedy IMO.

I spent darn near 2-hours last night going around to every guild store in the game to find 1 of these for sale, so I could complete the writ and move on to others. There was not a single 1 for purchase, and if there had been, it would have cost probably 15-200,000K gold. But of course you can get the motif book in the crown store for about $40. Are you freaking kidding me? That's more than the cost of a lot of games. For any of you paying this kind of money, I feel bad for you for being a sucker. I for one won't pay another penny into the store because the prices are at least 5-10X what something like that should cost.

Good for the dev. I guess for ripping so many suckers off. I should get into the business. But I can't complete my writ since I'm not a sucker and won't pay for these fake items. So I guess I'll just have to choose not to participate in crafting really, which could be a big and fun part of the game. Way to ruin your own game with your greed dev., Mission accomplished!

While I'm at it, you need to make a way to search for items and have it tell you where they can be purchased. (Which crown stores and what the cost is so people don't spend hours hunting around for things instead of actually playing and enjoying the game)

bmnoble · October 2019

Assuming your on PC(if you on console you will either have to search like a mad man or try spamming WTB messages in zone chat for the page your after)

Try searching for Crafting Motif 25: Aldmeri Dominion Chests in TTC only seeing one at the moment on PC/NA for 27500 and that was from 4hrs ago, you have to be patient motif pages only appear on the stores when players get them in game to list assuming they don't use them, check the site once a day and hope your the first one to that guild store when you find one for a good price.

https://us.tamrieltradecentre.com

As for the price you quoted, its an older motif most you will likely have to pay is around 10 - 50K if that assuming it is not a page with a low drop rate, then the price will be higher.

Only the newer motif pages go up to stupidly high gold prices, until everyone that wants it now has it and the pages stop selling at the high rates, which often puts off some of the richer players, that want the motif straight away who will pay gold for someone to gift the motif book at a lower total gold cost, than buying in guild stores.

Motifs are the end game crafting gold sink, don't expect to get them all quickly it takes months, your better off selling master writs you can't do yet than attempting to do them. If you do want to earn writ vouchers look for cheap Master writs in guild stores that you already have the motifs for.

Just be patient and buy the cheaper motifs first by the time your ready to buy the newer ones the prices will have dropped quite a bit. That said the newest motifs will still be quite expensive till something else gets released.

Best bit of advice I can give you is save up your gold for next years Jubilee event when motifs flood the market for the events duration you won't get them cheaper than during that event.

katanagirl1 · October 2019

You can find motifs in guild stores for gold for any style, it just may not be for sale at the particular time you look for it. Just keep checking back every few days. As long as you have not opened the master writ that needs the motif page, you can hold onto it indefinitely.

On PS4/NA that motif page would run 10-20k typically.

Alternatively, if you have an AD character you could roam the sewers of Imperial City and open chests in the hopes that you might find it, but that would be a long shot.

Ackwalan · October 2019

You can also just buy a single motif page in guild traders, which is cheaper and easier to find then a complete book. Buying them one page at a time is much more common then the entire book.

JKorr · October 2019

The faction styles, Aldmeri Dominion, Daggerfall Covenant, Ebonheart Pact, only come from chests in Cyrodiil and IC. You can only find the motif for the faction your character belongs to. To craft in AD style, you need the Eagle Feather style mat. You may be able to buy it from an npc vendor for AP, but I'm not totally sure about that.

While you can find it on guild traders, it only gets there when someone in the faction you want finds/buys the motif, and decides to sell it. Unless someone does a lot of farming in Cyrodiil/IC, there usually won't be dozens of motifs in the traders, and they won't be super cheap.

Jayne_Doe · October 2019

Anyone who buys the motifs in the CS are just paying for convenience, though I'm sure there are those who don't know they're also available in game. The newer motifs in the CS do indicate that they're also obtainable in game and where, but a lot of the older ones probably do not.

The CS price is also high enough to keep the primary means of obtaining them in game. And it is the primary means. If you don't run DLC dungeons, like me, then you can wait until the prices fall to a price you're willing to pay. And, someone already mentioned the Anniversary Jubilee event, which happens every year in April. Motifs rain from the sky then - all motifs, except Militant Ordinator, unless they finally add it to the loot tables. It's how I got the Welkynar motif - a trial motif with a real grind to obtaining the pages. It's how I'll get Honor Guard and the newest dungeon motifs, whenever they're added.

Also, during the Undaunted event, dungeon motifs drop, but you have to do the random daily for the boxes, iirc.

Bottom line - just be patient and keep searching for the motif. Even on XB NA, those pages aren't super expensive. Plus, you can farm them yourself in Cyrodiil, provided you've got an AD character. If you're not willing to do all content, like myself, then you will need to either do without them or buy them on the cheap during events or when you see one at a bargain price at guild traders.

NordSwordnBoard · October 2019

If they did MidYear mayhem, there would be more alliance motifs out in the market in general as that comes in the rewards.

Jayne_Doe · October 2019

NordSwordnBoard wrote: »

If they did MidYear mayhem, there would be more alliance motifs out in the market in general as that comes in the rewards.

Good point! That's a great time to acquire the alliance motifs. I think Akaviri drops as well?

redspecter23 · October 2019

If you get a writ that you don't have the knowledge to do, you can always sell it on a guild trader and put that money toward buying something you want like a motif page or another master writ that you can do.

Don't get a writ and then go scrambling for the page you need for it. Do it the other way around. Always be on the lookout for reasonably priced pages so when you do get master writs, you chances of being able to do it are increased and you don't have to run around on the spot to fulfill a writ that is likely not worth that amount of effort to begin with.

malistorr · October 2019

I found that website and add-on and was able to get the motif I needed for around 28K gold last night. It's just really stupid that a player has to run dungeons all night and save up a few hours of play worth of gold for one chapter. It would take years to get them all. When I first started looking there were none at all for the one I needed. It's just horrible that the dev didn't build in a tool to find these in the game. Talk about freaking lazy. Why do players have to rely on flaky, rarely updated add-ons for what should be base-game content!

malistorr · October 2019

Thanks for your constructive replies regardless of my disgust with the dev.

Alinhbo_Tyaka · October 2019

Midyear Mayhem is usually the time when the various faction motifs are readily available in the guild stores. While I don't PvP I go into the unranked extra instances that ZOS creates to run the PvE content which also give the motifs. I bank those writs that I don't have the motif for during the year. I only had a Daggerfall Covenant character for the past few events so worked on getting those motifs and would sell the extras. It was also during this time that I will buy the motifs for the other factions that I needed to complete the banked writs. So it can take some time to get the motifs but it has more to do with the event cycle for those of us that don't PvP.

Jayne_Doe · October 2019

malistorr wrote: »

Thanks for your constructive replies regardless of my disgust with the dev.

No worries! It's perfectly ok to get frustrated, and you were able to take some helpful advice here and find what you needed.

I do think it's probably more frustrating for newer players, which I'm guessing you are? If not, apologies for my presumption. But, for new players, there are a crapton of motifs to learn, and they keep adding to that list every update.

I'll re-emphasize a few points made be me and others:

1. Be on the lookout for cheap motif pages. I did this a lot in the beginning. I've been playing since launch, but I don't PvP and don't do dungeons, so that's a lot of motifs that I needed to buy. I set a price limit and bought pages I didn't know that fit in that price range.

2. Participate in the Anniversary Event. You'll get lots of pages from the Anniversary Boxes - as will everyone else. Which means you'll get a lot of pages for free and can buy quite a few on the cheap.

3. Participate in the Mid-Year Mayhem event. As someone else here, I went into the non-alliance locked extra campaigns and did the town dailies. The Mid-Year Boon Boxes have a chance to drop alliance motifs, as well as akaviri and xivkyn, I believe. These will also be cheaper at guild stores during the event.

4. Don't accept a master writ that you can't complete. Bank it or sell it to buy one you can complete or a motif page.

With some planning and patience, you can gradually increase your motif knowledge and be able to do more and more master writs. You'll then be able to focus on completing motifs you're close on and start buying pages for dungeon or other motifs that have come down in price. But, wait for these events to really boost your motif knowledge.

Haenk · October 2019

malistorr wrote: »

I do not have said motif, or probably 90% of the others, even after playing this game for, I'm guessing, the last 18-months or so.

Guess what.
I really do try to complete my collection of receipts and motifs - and I'm still lacking a lot of them.
Completing all of the motifs is impossible by random playing (or even farming), you have to purchase them. That's the only way. Unfortunately, even motifs alone will add up to millions (maybe 15 millions)?
So - that's the "end game" crafting part of ESO. "Master writ" carry the name "Master" with a reason...

katanagirl1 · October 2019

Haenk wrote: »

malistorr wrote: »

I do not have said motif, or probably 90% of the others, even after playing this game for, I'm guessing, the last 18-months or so.

Guess what.
I really do try to complete my collection of receipts and motifs - and I'm still lacking a lot of them.
Completing all of the motifs is impossible by random playing (or even farming), you have to purchase them. That's the only way. Unfortunately, even motifs alone will add up to millions (maybe 15 millions)?
So - that's the "end game" crafting part of ESO. "Master writ" carry the name "Master" with a reason...

What are you saying? You can farm all of the motif styles, you just might not get all of the pages you need. That is why you sell duplicates to buy the ones you are missing because of the luck of drops.

You will spend gold but if you do it consistently you will make much more gold in return. Trust me - you will get LOTS of duplicates.

FlopsyPrince · October 2019

katanagirl1 wrote: »

You will spend gold but if you do it consistently you will make much more gold in return. Trust me - you will get LOTS of duplicates.

I buy duplicates too many times. Often because I have to log out and back in to get what I bought in my mail (idiotic!). I balance remembering what I bought and the hassle of logging out and back in so I can get me stuff in the mail, learn it and continue on.

katanagirl1 · October 2019

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

You will spend gold but if you do it consistently you will make much more gold in return. Trust me - you will get LOTS of duplicates.

I buy duplicates too many times. Often because I have to log out and back in to get what I bought in my mail (idiotic!). I balance remembering what I bought and the hassle of logging out and back in so I can get me stuff in the mail, learn it and continue on.

No, if you farm you will get lots of duplicates

StarOfElyon · October 2019

malistorr wrote: »

Hello all,

Sorry if this issue has been posted before. I admittedly don't have time to spend hours reading through past posts. I have a writ to make a robe in the Aldmeri Dominion style. I do not have said motif, or probably 90% of the others, even after playing this game for, I'm guessing, the last 18-months or so. Acquiring motifs in this game is way too difficult in my opinion and is a huge way that Zenimax/Bethesda try to get people to pay money, of course. I just looked at the store and see that 1 complete motif book costs about 5,000 crowns, or about $35+ real dollars! I can't believe the price is so high. I know the dev. is trying to force people to buy things in the store (big surprise there) by making things near impossible to acquire in game. But this is beyond rediculous. I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars to get some virtual motifs just so my character can look a certain way. And I hope you all will not pay that money either. Not allowing (without great cost of real money or huge time investment) people to have their character look the way they want, is ruining the game, and has for a long time. The dev. is way way too greedy IMO.

I spent darn near 2-hours last night going around to every guild store in the game to find 1 of these for sale, so I could complete the writ and move on to others. There was not a single 1 for purchase, and if there had been, it would have cost probably 15-200,000K gold. But of course you can get the motif book in the crown store for about $40. Are you freaking kidding me? That's more than the cost of a lot of games. For any of you paying this kind of money, I feel bad for you for being a sucker. I for one won't pay another penny into the store because the prices are at least 5-10X what something like that should cost.

Good for the dev. I guess for ripping so many suckers off. I should get into the business. But I can't complete my writ since I'm not a sucker and won't pay for these fake items. So I guess I'll just have to choose not to participate in crafting really, which could be a big and fun part of the game. Way to ruin your own game with your greed dev., Mission accomplished!

While I'm at it, you need to make a way to search for items and have it tell you where they can be purchased. (Which crown stores and what the cost is so people don't spend hours hunting around for things instead of actually playing and enjoying the game)

I was coming to ask about the same motif. I've been grinding hard for Aldmeri Dominion and Psijic Order. Can't find crap. Sucks.

rnklippel · October 2019

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I buy duplicates too many times. Often because I have to log out and back in to get what I bought in my mail (idiotic!). I balance remembering what I bought and the hassle of logging out and back in so I can get me stuff in the mail, learn it and continue on.

You don't necessarily have to log out. You can just travel to another zone, to your house or enter an outlaw refuge and you'll get the mail.