Scribing and Armory? (sorry for the double thread)

Liukke · July 12

Hi everybody, apologies for the double thread...I posted this question in the Game System subforum but nobody gave me a single reply.

The question is simple, why can't we change scribed skills with the armory? Especially now that scribing has become a base game feature.

It is just a hindrance, I like having various builds, I have a solo build, tank and trial dps. They all require differently scribed skills and I'm at a loss...I bought the armory assistant and 2 armory slots basically for 60% of the value, since I can't switch "on the fly" without going to a scribing altar as well

It's just a big pity and I don't see any reason why it shouldn't do it...I've seen posts from years ago and the issue has persisted, it's an ignored issue which affects me (and other pepople) quite deeply. I was ready to buy more armory slots and try different builds but now I feel robbed

I just can't, unless I ignore the scribing altogether.

Heren · July 12

I don't think anyone can answer the 'Why', outside of ZOS - and I don't remember they say anything about that. Well, nothing that really struck me, but don't trust my memory too much ( I don't ).

I guess it kinda boil down to having a kind of currency, Luminous Ink, being needed and consumed each time you change a scribed ability ( which is, from the beginning, a bit of a weird and not really great idea in my opinion, but anyway ). Saving scribed abilities in the armory could be a way to bypass the necessity to pay Luminous Inks.

And their could be more problems about saving scribed abilities in the armory, I don't know, but obviously ZOS is still struggling with technical efficiency - it's not an attack against ZOS or a wild guess, it is something they themselve recognize, hence the recent Vengeance test - and maybe implementing a way to save scribed abilities with the armory is difficult, or can lead to difficulties.

Anyway, it's a shame that we can't, especialy when scribing came at a time when ZOS were boasting about QOL changes. It is sadly telling.

virtus753 · July 12

Heren wrote: »

I don't think anyone can answer the 'Why', outside of ZOS - and I don't remember they say anything about that. Well, nothing that really struck me, but don't trust my memory too much ( I don't ).

I guess it kinda boil down to having a kind of currency, Luminous Ink, being needed and consumed each time you change a scribed ability ( which is, from the beginning, a bit of a weird and not really great idea in my opinion, but anyway ). Saving scribed abilities in the armory could be a way to bypass the necessity to pay Luminous Inks.

And their could be more problems about saving scribed abilities in the armory, I don't know, but obviously ZOS is still struggling with technical efficiency - it's not an attack against ZOS or a wild guess, it is something they themselve recognize, hence the recent Vengeance test - and maybe implementing a way to save scribed abilities with the armory is difficult, or can lead to difficulties.

Anyway, it's a shame that we can't, especialy when scribing came at a time when ZOS were boasting about QOL changes. It is sadly telling.

We save gold by using the armory to respec skills. Sometimes a lot of gold (50g per skill point invested, and I often have over 400 skill points invested on my main = 20k+ per respec). The gold cost in Ink saved with the Armory would be a fraction of that by comparison, since Ink is so cheap now.

There is a big technical difference in the way that Scribed skills are stored compared to non-Scribed ones. Scribed skills seem to use skillIDs, but there’s also a lot more going on in terms of how they store their information, so it isn’t as simple as the 1:1 relationship between skillID and non-Scribed skill. ZOS would have to do more work, as I believe they’ve acknowledged, to get Scribing to work with the Armory. It isn’t like it’s already in place but they’re holding back to prevent us from saving on Ink.

Liukke · July 12

To be honest I wouldn't care paying inks for every armory switch I do, I have more than 200 over a few months and I'm no farmer. The prices have also tanked brutally since the first year of scribing so yeah, take my money!

I really hope it works...by now scribing has become essential in every serious build. I don't play for the meta but I'd feel dumb to give up obvious benefits because the armory can't keep up with it

it's like having a nice sweetroll, just there, but your arm is ever so slightly shorter than needed to reach it.

I can see it, it's there, let me have the sweetroll!

Heren · July 12

virtus753 wrote: »

We save gold by using the armory to respec skills. Sometimes a lot of gold (50g per skill point invested, and I often have over 400 skill points invested on my main = 20k+ per respec). The gold cost in Ink saved with the Armory would be a fraction of that by comparison, since Ink is so cheap now.

There is a big technical difference in the way that Scribed skills are stored compared to non-Scribed ones. Scribed skills seem to use skillIDs, but there’s also a lot more going on in terms of how they store their information, so it isn’t as simple as the 1:1 relationship between skillID and non-Scribed skill. ZOS would have to do more work, as I believe they’ve acknowledged, to get Scribing to work with the Armory. It isn’t like it’s already in place but they’re holding back to prevent us from saving on Ink.

For a ( kinda short ) time, ink was quite rare and pricey, before heavy farming and some improvement of its availability were made, so that's why I was thinking that in the first place they view ink as a relatively ressource. But indeed their must be some technical difficulties that explain better the problem with armory.