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PSA regarding Atronachs at Spellscar

SeaGtGruff
SeaGtGruff
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Often you will see one or two Air Atronachs and some Spellfiends at the places where there can be Frost, Flame, or Storm Atronachs, but there isn't a Frost, Flame, or Storm Atronach there, just a spot where there's mist, lightning, etc., coming from the ground.

A lot of players will run up to the group of mobs and immediately start burning them down, in which case the Frost, Flame, or Storm Atronach will not spawn in.

But if you just run up to the group and stand there for a second without attacking, the Frost, Flame, or Storm Atronach will appear, at which point you can begin fighting them.

This is another example of when running around and mindlessly burning down everything as fast as you can will actually make it take longer to earn an endeavor, while being a little more slow and thoughtful will help you destroy the required number of Atronachs more quickly.

Speed and power do not always equal efficiency.
I've fought mudcrabs more fearsome than me!
  • YandereGirlfriend
    YandereGirlfriend
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    Indeed.

    The wild anarchy of players attempting to grind in that zone always impresses - in a bad way.

    If you're grinding you do the clockwise loop and kill everything at each location. You do that and the mobs will be in a state of constant spawn refreshing. You mess it up with thoughtless pulls and zooming, however, and you bork the whole zone for everyone.

    The tragedy of the commons at work.
  • SeaGtGruff
    SeaGtGruff
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    Indeed.

    The wild anarchy of players attempting to grind in that zone always impresses - in a bad way.

    If you're grinding you do the clockwise loop and kill everything at each location. You do that and the mobs will be in a state of constant spawn refreshing. You mess it up with thoughtless pulls and zooming, however, and you bork the whole zone for everyone.

    The tragedy of the commons at work.

    This is another example of conflicting goals and priorities.

    I like to go to Spellscar to do these types of endeavors, because the specified type of Atronach is usually so numerous that-- in an ideal situation-- it's possible to complete the endeavor very quickly. And if there are a lot of players there who are just grinding for XP-- as is nearly always the case-- then I can harvest the resource nodes that spawn in that area while I'm waiting for a particular group of mobs to respawn.

    But what inevitably happens when several players are grinding XP there is that I'll go up to the group of mobs and stand there to wait for the Atronach to appear, but one of more grinders will instantly zoom over and melt the mobs before the Atronach even has a chance to appear. Not only do they mess up my chance to get an Atronach, but they mess up their own chance to get the XP from the Atronach-- and I would assume that the Atronachs give better XP than the rest of the mobs.

    I'm patient enough to go harvest a few resource nodes while waiting for the mob to respawn so I can try again, but if it keeps happening over and over and over then I start to wonder about the other players.

    Is it the case that they've always burned down every group of mobs in sight so quickly that they've never even noticed how the Frost/Flame/Storm Atronachs appear if you will only just wait a second?

    Or is it the case that they do in fact know about that, but they just don't care because they think it's better to melt through all of the mobs as quickly as possible, Atronach or no Atronach?

    I'm not sure which possibility I think is worse.

    And then there's a possible third set of players at Spellscar-- anyone who's there to do the daily quest. They're usually more interested in killing the Spellfiends who are standing around the shards, since that's how they progress the quest to where they can enter the ginormous central shard and put an end to the threat, hence they aren't adversely affected by the players who are only there to kill Frost/Flame/Storm Atronachs for the endeavor. But the XP grinders are constantly melting through the groups of Spellfiends at the shards while they're running around the area gathering up multiple groups of Spellfiends and Atronachs so they can melt them down en masse, which makes it more difficult for any questers to progress the quest along.
    I've fought mudcrabs more fearsome than me!
  • whitecrow
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    Thanks. I did not know that atronachs also spawned later. I always see air and sometimes frost ones just standing around, so I thought that was it. It's been a long time since I did that quest, but I don't remember seeing flames or storms there. I certainly haven't seen any in a long time.
  • BretonMage
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    I think the main problem is when there are a number of players focusing these groups down and melting them before the frost atronachs can spawn. If you're alone or only light attacking, they will spawn. You don't need to wait, but you do need to slow down.
  • SeaGtGruff
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    whitecrow wrote: »
    Thanks. I did not know that atronachs also spawned later. I always see air and sometimes frost ones just standing around, so I thought that was it. It's been a long time since I did that quest, but I don't remember seeing flames or storms there. I certainly haven't seen any in a long time.

    Spellscar is divided into 3 large pie slices around the central shard, and each third has a specific type of Atronach-- Frost in the third that's closest to the wayshrine, Flame in the third that's (IIRC) counterclockwise from or to the right of that section, and Storm in the other third.

    So for today's Storm Atronach endeavor you'll need to go (IIRC) clockwise over the ridge from the Frost Atronach's section to get to the third where the Storm Atronachs are found.

    When doing the Spellscar daily, you need to go to each third to collect all 3 types of magical energy needed to gain access to the central shard.
    I've fought mudcrabs more fearsome than me!
  • whitecrow
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    SeaGtGruff wrote: »
    whitecrow wrote: »
    Thanks. I did not know that atronachs also spawned later. I always see air and sometimes frost ones just standing around, so I thought that was it. It's been a long time since I did that quest, but I don't remember seeing flames or storms there. I certainly haven't seen any in a long time.

    Spellscar is divided into 3 large pie slices around the central shard, and each third has a specific type of Atronach-- Frost in the third that's closest to the wayshrine, Flame in the third that's (IIRC) counterclockwise from or to the right of that section, and Storm in the other third.

    So for today's Storm Atronach endeavor you'll need to go (IIRC) clockwise over the ridge from the Frost Atronach's section to get to the third where the Storm Atronachs are found.

    When doing the Spellscar daily, you need to go to each third to collect all 3 types of magical energy needed to gain access to the central shard.

    Another thing I didn't realise / forgot. Thanks again.
  • The_Boggart
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    Useful information
    However yesterday's frost were not appearing and today there seems to be a dearth of stormies and the frostiest are as abundant as a bowl of kellogs
  • Necrotech_Master
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    i dont usually use the spellscar for the endeavors because theres too many people and things die too fast (unless i want to be lazy and just hit the mobs with caltrops or some other aoe purely to get credit)

    even the other spot in reapers march sometimes has too many people at it (willows grove i think)
    plays PC/NA
    handle @Necrotech_Master
    active player since april 2014

    i have my main house (grand topal hideaway) listed in the housing tours, it has multiple target dummies, scribing altar, and grandmaster stations (in progress being filled out), as well as almost every antiquity furnishing on display to preview them

    feel free to stop by and use the facilities
  • sleepy_worm
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    I never have a problem attaining my goals in Spellscar. I wonder what I'm doing right.
  • Djennku
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    I tend to run around in Willowshire (southern reaper's march) where they have plenty of all three base atros spawning when I do these endeavors.
    @Djennku, PCNA.

    Grand Master crafter, all styles and all furnishing plans known pre U41.
    Vamp and WW bites available for players.
    Shoot me an in-game mail if you need anything, happy to help!
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