Taleof2Cities wrote: »

KMarble wrote: »

As far as the scrying mini-game goes, I'm not sure if you can play it again without acquiring the leads again - NOTE: the one I tried was one of the scryable ones atop the list. I suspect that if you do scry again (the mini-game) you might be given another area of the map to search.

The Augurist's Patience passive (fully unlocked) allows up to three (3) tries to scry the same lead, @KMarble.

The location of the artifact won't change ... but those failed tries will just result in additional area maps for as many uncovered focus points on the augur.

I haven't failed more than three times yet, but will see what happens tonite when I'm on PTS when I try to fail that many times.

Here's what a Legendary scry looks like. I had to do this for one of the pieces of the Dwarven Ebon Wolf mount.

Thank you!

I've only tried it once (I don't want to do content on PTS, I rather wait for when it goes live so I did as little as I could) on a copied char, so my skills were minimum.

The one antiquity I found was done with no leads (I chose one from the top of the list) and I had no problems with the scrying mini-game. Like I said, I failed at the dig, used the eye again (to summon the "comet") and found another mound to dig. The area remained blue through all of this, which leads me to believe that if you fail the dig the game generate other mounds in the same area.

Olauron wrote: »

That is some bug then and I don't know what caused it. I used the eye on both copied (with tutorial quest done) and template (without tutorial quest) and an arrow always appeared. Sometimes it was not clear enough what of the two ways should I choose but at least an arrow and excavation mound always existed.

I had to summon the "comet" a few times before I found the first mound to dig. At least one time no "comet" appeared, and when it did it was a blob at worse and an almond shape at best, which left me not knowing which way to go.

I gave up on trying to follow the comet and just moved around the blue area. No mound appeared, but since I was close to one of the elevators to Blackreach, I went down thinking it might be there. When I got to the bottom the area wasn't blue anymore, so I went back up and finally stumbled upon the mound in place that I'm almost positive I'd gone through before.

After failing the first dig, I summoned the "comet" again, and this time I was lucky with the direction I chose. This one "comet" had two tails that were basically the same size. I found the second mound fast.

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

Not sure if it was already asked about (didn't see it anywhere). How many skill points will be needed to level both skills?

14 for excavation, 16 for scrying.

Another observation after doing more excavations on different characters (copied with low skills and template with max skills). Seems like not only lead is account-wide. Scrying is account-wide too. It is possible to scry on one character and excavate on another.

Saucy_Jack wrote: »

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

Not sure if it was already asked about (didn't see it anywhere). How many skill points will be needed to level both skills?

14 for excavation, 16 for scrying.

Wow 30 skill points is a lot of points. Definitely only doing this on my main character for all excavation and scrying.

Saucy_Jack wrote: »

Olauron wrote: »

Another observation after doing more excavations on different characters (copied with low skills and template with max skills). Seems like not only lead is account-wide. Scrying is account-wide too. It is possible to scry on one character and excavate on another.

But are scrying/excavation skill line experience and levels account-wide too? Would seem weird to scry an advanced item just to have someone try to dig it up with a level 1 excavation toon.

No, skill line experience is separate. I have copied character with low experience in scrying and excavation (I have skill points and can't invest more into passives as they are locked) and a template character with full experience and all passives taken. I haven't tried excavating advanced excavation on a low-level character.
I scried on my copied character for a first green item in a zone, then began riding to the excavation site. Halfway I have found a psijic portal with a golden lead and logged off. On the template character I scried legendary item and then noticed that I have two blue zones on the map, for green item and for legendary item, with status 'In progress'. The difficulty for green is Master.

Theoretically it may be helpful for those without a lot of skill points.

P.S. Another observation. It is possible to find Dig Site without using an Eye at all. Go to the blue zone, ride around and if you are lucky or it is small enough, you will see the mound without using a tool.

Thank you very much for the guide! Very helpful!

why are some zone starting leads, like in auridon token of defiance, not available to scry? Working with SJ I have our answer: the lead is intermediate and I am only level 2

Thank you for this guide. I just got the chapter yesterday and have just started learning about the antiquities system.

Anyway, once I find the excavation site and I start using the Auger, there are large areas of the site outlined in white. What do these white lines signify?

A couple of things that I haven't seen here, along with trying to answer some questions.

1. When you go to use the eye but you don't see the little "comet" thing pointing toward the dig site, first check to verify in your quick slot that it actually went off. If it did, it will have a little line passing through the box to tell you you're in the cool down period. If there's no line, try to use it again.

2. If the quick slot shows that it did go off but you don't see it, check where you are standing. Are you in a crevice, next to a tree, or a big rock? My little comet is notorious for hiding inside any large objects I may be standing too close to. It will hide in the trunk of a tree or inside a hill/rock and you won't be able to see it. Try moving to an open area, wait for the cool down to end, and try again.

3. There are more than three "bonus" items available in every dig site. However, you are limited to being able to pick up only three while you excavate.

4. The reason I say there are more than three available is that I recently changed techniques. After digging up my item I was limiting myself to looking for bonus items in the squares immediately around the item I dug up. Sometimes I would find 3, more often not. I started setting off the fissures instead. Without a picture I'll try to explain. The fissures are the smoking squares in the dig site. If you level all the dirt between the fissures to the same level and then use the augur (shovel that you have to "charge" that can dig down a single square up to four levels) to blow up one fissure, it will explode all of the fissures down to the bottom with a line between them. You're digging up a lot of ground in one explosion. Once I swear I saw four bonus items while the dirt "line" was in the process of exploding, but I was only given three of those bonus items. (upper echelon mediocrity has a YouTube video that explains the fissures and how to set them all off at once on Xbox). I think there are bonus items scattered all over the dig site but the game will only give you the first 3 you dig up. If you happen to blow up more than 3, you still only get 3.

5. You can pick up more than one of each antiquity with a few exceptions. The exceptions are the purple "freebie" in each zone and the auri-el coin that you can sell to your merchant for 100k gold. That's because the game will only give you one lead for these items, period. For all other antiquities, you are only limited to how many leads you pick up for the item. You cannot have more than one lead at the same time for any one item. I have not tried to earn more than one of any of the multiple-piece mythics, but the fact that there is space in the codex for three of each mythic leads me to believe that you can get more than one. Also, I have gotten additional leads for pieces of mythic items that I already had. There's really no reason to try to get multiples of any mythic unless you want to fill the three codex entries. You can't wear more than one of the same apparel item, carry more than one of the same weapon, or have more than one version of any mount or pet in your collection.

6. All leads now have expiration dates! Ever since update 31, even the blue and purple leads that you pick up now expire in 30 days from the day you pick up the lead.

I hope this info helps.