Devs Confirm: Luminous Ink drops from Surveys?

MoonPile · June 14

Search is failing me right now. Lots of posts that nobody has gotten any from surveys, but no(?) actual Dev confirmation of whether they're meant to.

@ZOS_Kevin please?

MoonPile · June 15

Anyone?

*People keep asking in game chat and I thought I saw official confirmation somewhere that it doesn't, but I still can't find it.

MoonPile · June 20

Nobody knows?

I'm going to guess it's a No. I just don't understand why there's no official confirmation.

People saying they got one during surveys are so rare that I'd guess it might be a mix-up with a nearby non-survey node.

Necrotech_Master · June 20

from what ive heard, they do not

but its kind of hard to tell with the ink drop rate as low as it is, on monday i harvested 100 non survey nodes without a single ink drop

ApoAlaia · June 20

Between all my accounts I harvest on average 30 surveys a day.

I have not had a single ink drop so either the drop rate (from surveys) is akin to that of aetherial dust or it just doesn't drop.

EDIT: master of the obvious moment: I am not a dev; only posted my experience so far because OP followed up with 'anyone?'

freespirit · June 20

Did around 200 surveys, on one character, on one account, in the same play session, they were a mix of everything, I got no ink but I did get inks from normal nodes whilst reseting the surveys.

So as said above either the drop rate is beyond rare or it doesn't drop from them.

Lykeion · June 20

I haven't found the dev's review for this at the moment. I dealt with hundreds of my surveys during the ESO+ trial, and none of them dropped any ink

Elvenheart · June 20

I’m 99% sure I read that they do not drop from surveys, but unfortunately, I cannot find where I read that now.

MoonPile · June 20

ApoAlaia wrote: »

Between all my accounts I harvest on average 30 surveys a day.

I have not had a single ink drop so either the drop rate (from surveys) is akin to that of aetherial dust or it just doesn't drop.

EDIT: master of the obvious moment: I am not a dev; only posted my experience so far because OP followed up with 'anyone?'

Thanks, everyone! Yeah it seems like this is a secret for some reason, so we only have one another's reports on it.

Shara_Wynn · June 20

Given that you don't get bast, heartwood, nirncrux etc from surveys, I am taking it as a given that you also won't get luminous ink.

Jaraal · June 20

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Given that you don't get bast, heartwood, nirncrux etc from surveys, I am taking it as a given that you also won't get luminous ink.

I get nirncrux from surveys.

Shara_Wynn · June 20

Jaraal wrote: »

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Given that you don't get bast, heartwood, nirncrux etc from surveys, I am taking it as a given that you also won't get luminous ink.

I get nirncrux from surveys.

Oh ok, I have never gotten nirncrux from any survey. As I have no reason to doubt you, I stand corrected. I do hundreds of surveys every month, have yet to get anything other than aetherial dust (from alchemy surveys).

Onomog · June 20

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Given that you don't get bast, heartwood, nirncrux etc from surveys, I am taking it as a given that you also won't get luminous ink.

In addition to the nirncrux mentioned, you also get bait (worms & crawlers) from surveys

TaSheen · June 20

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Given that you don't get bast, heartwood, nirncrux etc from surveys, I am taking it as a given that you also won't get luminous ink.

I get nirncrux from surveys.

Oh ok, I have never gotten nirncrux from any survey. As I have no reason to doubt you, I stand corrected. I do hundreds of surveys every month, have yet to get anything other than aetherial dust (from alchemy surveys).

I have got nirncurx (fortified mostly, a couple of potent over the years) from surveys in Crag. Aetherial Dust has never dropped for me from surveys, only the Jubilee boxes. Infinite variability, anyone?

virtus753 · June 21

Onomog wrote: »

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Given that you don't get bast, heartwood, nirncrux etc from surveys, I am taking it as a given that you also won't get luminous ink.

In addition to the nirncrux mentioned, you also get bait (worms & crawlers) from surveys

Yep! Worms and Crawlers from alchemy and cloth plant survey nodes, plus Guts from furrier's traps.

Jewelry survey nodes also drop Pulverized Titanium.

Surveys can drop all the zone-specific mats: Aetherial Dust, Nirn, Rogue's Soot, Grains of Pearl Sand, Cassiterite Sand, Viridian Dust. Most of these (though not Dust) are limited to the same types of nodes as non-survey sources: blacksmithing, clothing, jewelrycrafting, and woodworking.

Ink is not zone specific, though. And while we did ask for surveys to drop Ink, we got no response.

Amottica · June 21

I am not suggesting @Alcast is all-knowing (maybe he is, idk), but he tends to have good guides for new systems like this, and I do not see any mention of Surveys on his page for how to farm the ink. Below is a link to his page for farming in case it helps.

https://alcasthq.com/eso-farm-luminous-ink-guide/

Jacozilla · June 21

Even without dev comment it’s easily confirmed survey = no chance at ink drop.

We know as positive fact that materials classified as X = possible to drop with surveys (fortified and potent nirn, fish bait, etc).

Materials classified as Y = no chance (furniture mats, etc). This is established game mechanic for many years.

So all we need to infer is whether ink = X or Y classification from reasonable observational evidence, not wonder if inks are somehow different or require dev input to make logical conclusion.

Aside from the many testimonials of players doing far more than just handful surveys, I’ve also done 120 surveys saved just for Gold Road launch day few weeks ago. So on day 1, unlocked all wings, did 120 surveys + 60 regular nodes along way.

Got 0 inks from 120 surveys (720 nodes), but 2 inks from 60 regular nodes (was one hit, x2 CP triggered to give double inks). Not firm conclusion, but even on day1 I assumed it was inks = Y class.

From day2 to now, haven’t missed single day and craft x 20 chars, so on avg ~15-20 surveys per day x 16 days = ~280-300 more surveys (1680-1800 nodes). Still 0 inks from all these surveys (as expected).

Meanwhile, I’ve noted down total regular nodes harvested. Obviously not exact because sometimes forget to mark it down, but on rough ballpark avg, gotten an ink hit approx every 60-120 nodes. Meaning, the minimum duration between regular node harvest for ink for me has been 60. Longest streak with nothing = 120.

The sole good news is while x2 CP is supposed to be max 50% chance at double harvest, I have gotten extremely lucky and every single harvest strike for imo has been x2 and gotten (2) inks each time. However, at moment all I have is 74 inks (with 36 of those from wing quest drops via 3 chars doing entire line).

TLDR - my personal experience is identical to every single player reporting zero inks from surveys. Regular nodes harvest = ~60 to 120 range between ink drop.

I’ve gotten barely handful, say 4-5 from mob kills, so I consider that source basically dead unless zos changes those rates. Could be my luck, but after 17 days since chapter launch, inks from kills are imo worthless waste of time, and far better spent per hour return on investment to just speed run harvest nodes.

Amottica · June 21

Jacozilla wrote: »

Even without dev comment it’s easily confirmed survey = no chance at ink drop.

We know as positive fact that materials classified as X = possible to drop with surveys (fortified and potent nirn, fish bait, etc).

Materials classified as Y = no chance (furniture mats, etc). This is established game mechanic for many years.

So all we need to infer is whether ink = X or Y classification from reasonable observational evidence, not wonder if inks are somehow different or require dev input to make logical conclusion.

Aside from the many testimonials of players doing far more than just handful surveys, I’ve also done 120 surveys saved just for Gold Road launch day few weeks ago. So on day 1, unlocked all wings, did 120 surveys + 60 regular nodes along way.

Got 0 inks from 120 surveys (720 nodes), but 2 inks from 60 regular nodes (was one hit, x2 CP triggered to give double inks). Not firm conclusion, but even on day1 I assumed it was inks = Y class.

From day2 to now, haven’t missed single day and craft x 20 chars, so on avg ~15-20 surveys per day x 16 days = ~280-300 more surveys (1680-1800 nodes). Still 0 inks from all these surveys (as expected).

Meanwhile, I’ve noted down total regular nodes harvested. Obviously not exact because sometimes forget to mark it down, but on rough ballpark avg, gotten an ink hit approx every 60-120 nodes. Meaning, the minimum duration between regular node harvest for ink for me has been 60. Longest streak with nothing = 120.

The sole good news is while x2 CP is supposed to be max 50% chance at double harvest, I have gotten extremely lucky and every single harvest strike for imo has been x2 and gotten (2) inks each time. However, at moment all I have is 74 inks (with 36 of those from wing quest drops via 3 chars doing entire line).

TLDR - my personal experience is identical to every single player reporting zero inks from surveys. Regular nodes harvest = ~60 to 120 range between ink drop.

I’ve gotten barely handful, say 4-5 from mob kills, so I consider that source basically dead unless zos changes those rates. Could be my luck, but after 17 days since chapter launch, inks from kills are imo worthless waste of time, and far better spent per hour return on investment to just speed run harvest nodes.

And it is unlikely the devs would respond to such a question since the player base already has access to that information, as you noted, and I pointed out a link to ink sources.

Necrotech_Master · June 21

Amottica wrote: »

I am not suggesting @Alcast is all-knowing (maybe he is, idk), but he tends to have good guides for new systems like this, and I do not see any mention of Surveys on his page for how to farm the ink. Below is a link to his page for farming in case it helps.

https://alcasthq.com/eso-farm-luminous-ink-guide/

looking through that, it doesnt really give any information, it just suggests a few zones that one can go to for harvesting mats, or telling extremely "common sense" stuff like farming enemies that tend to cluster and avoid high pop areas like alikr dolmens

doesnt really help farming at all because of the absolutely horrendous drop rate of ink

ive tested multiple locations over the past week, mostly bleakrock and craglorn, just this week ive probably harvested close to 200-300 nodes in bleakrock and ive maybe gotten 1 ink out of that

ive actually gotten more ink from craglorn than bleakrock at this point, and ive done less farming in craglorn

drops from enemies are also ridiculously rare, ive spent a few hours this week doing a combination of public dungeon farming, arenas, and trials, also gotten only a small handful of ink

in the past almost 3 weeks since the release, ive gotten less than 30 units of ink, and 12 of which came from the questline, i think im at 15 units of ink from drops in almost 3 weeks (avg of 0.8 inks per day from any source, 15 ink drops in 18 days)

sarahthes · June 21

Amottica wrote: »

I am not suggesting @Alcast is all-knowing (maybe he is, idk), but he tends to have good guides for new systems like this, and I do not see any mention of Surveys on his page for how to farm the ink. Below is a link to his page for farming in case it helps.

https://alcasthq.com/eso-farm-luminous-ink-guide/

Alcast hasn't played ESO in 4 years...

Onomog · June 21

Not surprised. From what I can tell, there are a number of "content creators" out there who are probably quite similar to Alcast in that regard.

Amottica · June 22

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

I am not suggesting @Alcast is all-knowing (maybe he is, idk), but he tends to have good guides for new systems like this, and I do not see any mention of Surveys on his page for how to farm the ink. Below is a link to his page for farming in case it helps.

https://alcasthq.com/eso-farm-luminous-ink-guide/

looking through that, it doesnt really give any information, it just suggests a few zones that one can go to for harvesting mats, or telling extremely "common sense" stuff like farming enemies that tend to cluster and avoid high pop areas like alikr dolmens

doesnt really help farming at all because of the absolutely horrendous drop rate of ink

ive tested multiple locations over the past week, mostly bleakrock and craglorn, just this week ive probably harvested close to 200-300 nodes in bleakrock and ive maybe gotten 1 ink out of that

ive actually gotten more ink from craglorn than bleakrock at this point, and ive done less farming in craglorn

drops from enemies are also ridiculously rare, ive spent a few hours this week doing a combination of public dungeon farming, arenas, and trials, also gotten only a small handful of ink

in the past almost 3 weeks since the release, ive gotten less than 30 units of ink, and 12 of which came from the questline, i think im at 15 units of ink from drops in almost 3 weeks (avg of 0.8 inks per day from any source, 15 ink drops in 18 days)

OP is not asking what the drop rate is from surveys but if they drop from there. That is why I provided the relevant information on sources that do drop ink.

I stuck to providing relevant information. Thank you.