preevious wrote: »

Ryath_Waylander wrote: »

kind_hero wrote: »

My problem with this system is finding the dig site. Yesterday I spent like 30 minutes trying to find it in Glenumbra, in the area with harpies and traps, which is almost a maze of rocks and ledges. I had a perk to see the dig sites from further away. The indicated area should be smaller. I am not asking for an arrow mark over it, but it could be smaller, so we don't spend so much time looking for it. The big issue is with the areas who have all sorts of rocky ledges, like Coldharbour, Grahtwood, Malabal Tor, etc, you need to go around a lot.

I am interested in the furnishings you can get from this, other than that the system is too grindy for my taste (and I play mmos for 15 years)

Do yourself a favour, while levelling, from 1 to 5 (up to purple items) use Gold coast. Smaller areas are easy to manage and you begin to remember the digsite locations.

Bal foyen, kenarthi's roost and stross m'kai are also nice choices.

Edit : also, the small nord isle, don't know it's english name.

If you mean the starter area, it's Bleakrock in English. (Both "bleak" and "rock" are English words.)

I'm at Level 8, hoping to grind to 10 today once my lectures are done for the day.

Generally very much enjoying it, with a few issues (anyone else had the very occasional spinning screen bug). Leads are a bit frustrating to find, although I haven't been diversifying much from treasure map hunts to get them which may be a huge thing. Loving the new furnishings, particularly the throne, and forgot how much I loved old zones.

Last year, as someone doing a lot of endgame raids, Necro was really welcome. Now, as someone playing much more casually, this is actually better than a new class for me. Just chilling, listening to podcasts and digging up some relics.

All that said, the tutorial is utterly woeful at explaining all the mechanics. Needs work there.

I like it so far, and it mostly seems to be working OK. But I found a blue lead on a pickpocketing target, confirmed it, but it never showed up on my list of scryable stuff. That only happened once so far though.

Isteris wrote: »

got to level 7 and have done a few gold leads, all in all it's fun but a bit of a grind. on that note does anyone know if you can farm gold leads with a char that does not have Scrying open and then do them with one that does? otherwise i've used the wrong char ie my famer/crafter and the grind to get more than one char maxed just ain't happening.

I think so, I got a gold lead from a lock box yesterday and I was somewhere around level 2 or 3.

kind_hero wrote: »

My problem with this system is finding the dig site. Yesterday I spent like 30 minutes trying to find it in Glenumbra, in the area with harpies and traps, which is almost a maze of rocks and ledges. I had a perk to see the dig sites from further away. The indicated area should be smaller. I am not asking for an arrow mark over it, but it could be smaller, so we don't spend so much time looking for it. The big issue is with the areas who have all sorts of rocky ledges, like Coldharbour, Grahtwood, Malabal Tor, etc, you need to go around a lot.

I am interested in the furnishings you can get from this, other than that the system is too grindy for my taste (and I play mmos for 15 years)

@kind_hero You probably know this, but just in case, and for everyone else in this thread too:
Using the Antiquarian's Eye in a digsite's area conjures a magic pointer that tells you where the dirt mound is.

You can quickslot it, and although it has a fairly long cooldown, the magic beam thing will point towards the excavation dirt mound within the digsite itself. So ideally, one only has to run in one direction and try to spot it, not all over the place. It's not much, but better than nothing.

3 Grumite Pearls = mid-numbing boredom in about 10 minutes. I think that's a personal speed record for reaching and crossing the threshold of boredom.

I'm close to level 7 and have discovered roughly half of the green/blue/purple leads around Tamriel. I'm starting to see the pattern with how the antiquities system was design and IMO it's a missed opportunity for something that could have been much better.

1. First, they should not have referenced this system to being like Indiana Jones. That was straight up Sean Murray.

2. Basically, every zone has repeatable treasure digs, but it's just junk you're meant to sell. There were many portraits I found that had interesting lore and I couldn't even hang them up to get a taste of some history. All I could do was sell it to some merchant for a bit of gold, which is just... no.

3. There's no adventuring to be had or progression to be made. Each of these digs are one-and-done tidbits of junk and lore before you move on to the next one. These excavations should be about uncovering something grand. Start small like finding a soldiers trinket that leads you to start the next process of uncovering an ancient battleground with a unique collectable associated with that at the end of the adventure. Or progress to learn about some ancient cult, or build-up to uncover more about the sixth house in Vvardenfell, etc. It really feels like an MVP here with no cohesion between leads.

4. When I think excavations, I think large dig sites. This would have been a cool opportunity for players to build camp sites in the open world and have other fellow archeologists help them build up the equipment and work together to uncover a lost mystery. Some guards could be posted to fight off waves of beatles or other borrowing creatures that pop up as the dig continues. Some to collect resources to build up the camp, others to scry and narrow down the dig site, others to carefully dig, and then either uncover a lost treasure chest or create an entrance to a procedural cave where players need to explore, fight, and uncover the mystery. IMO this is what mythic level excavations should have provided. A way to socialize with other players and engage in a fun activity together as this is a multiplayer game. Just feels so minimal.

Good overview, with one quibble: You didn't mean to say "skill" points.

quote="bluebird;c-6791138"]

agegarton wrote: »

Someone explain to me, what's the Artaeum grind ?

Grinding skill points for Scrying and Excavation by completing repeatable Treasure Antiquities.
Artaeum is one of the smallest zones (alongside Eyevea) so a popular ESO guide writer recommended that people grind those repeatable Antiquities there, to reduce travel time needed. Hence, the Artaeum grind.

KMarble wrote: »

If I'm not mistaken you can dig blue leads when you get to level 2, so alternate between green and blue leads once you get to level 2 (doesn't take much time). This way each of the green digs will give you one blue. I think that you get more xp by doing it this way and thus level the skill lines faster.

Scrying and Excavations are leveled based on the difficulty of the Antiquity. Greens give 1 skillup. Blues give 3. Purples 5, Golds 10 skillups. So the goal of the grind is to get as many gold and purple Antiquities as possible since it's more efficient that way.

So yes, you do get more xp that way. Ideally, people would want to do Green treasure (drops blue lead) --> Blue treasure (drops purple lead) --> Purple treasure. Since blue gives 3 times as many skillups as a green one, it's a waste to Scry and Excavate green treasures over and over. Sadly the purple treasures are non-repeatable, but there is one for every zone so doing the Green/Blue/Purple chain in every map will yield a ton of skill points!

I can't scry and dig golden items yet, but from what I saw in the PTS, you can dig the fragments and those won't expire (but I suspect they'll go into your inventory).

Both Leads and Antiquity fragments are stored in your Journal. Only completed items go in your bags.[/quote]

SidraWillowsky wrote: »

I'm so bad at it. Are the furnishing pieces bound? if they're not and can be sold, I'm considering just keeping on keeping on with the things I like to do to farm for gold and just buy them.

They are indeed bound. The worst thing about the system is that both Leads and Antiquities are bound.

Plenty of players without Greymoor will have tons of Leads from low-drop-chance sources like bosses, meanwhile people who are looking for a specific Antiquity are unable to get them because of the horrible RNG. Leads should have been either guaranteed drops, or tradeable. Or at least the Antiquities should have been tradeable.

The current system is the worst of both worlds, and locked behind hours or repetitive Lead grinding (since the basic treasures aren't enough to make you reach max level) to boot. And the Leads have a 30-day expiration timer too. So chop, chop, grind away.

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

Good overview, with one quibble: You didn't mean to say "skill" points.

Ah yeah, I actually referred to them as skillups several times but it seems a few 'skill points' slipped past me, lol. I blame the muscle memory of my typing fingers Thanks! (PS: your comment is missing a [ in front of my quote)

The last two leads I completed yielded no Scrying xp. Bar is did not move.

I really hope they fix the Gold and Mythic Dig sites. Currently the actual places you need to excavate do not line up with the item.

ZOS reps posted that they are looking into it, so maybe it will get fixed, then again....