Frayton wrote: »

U50 DPS meta is going to be the IA class sets, so I've been trying to farm them, but good grief it's so mind numbingly boring that I just logout of ESO after a few cycles and play a different game.

ZOS please improve this experience.

- The cycles are too spread apart. Having an option to lump several or all of them together, so that you can get through the monotonous slog faster would be nice.

- Why in Oblivion are all the gear pieces broken up into each individual weight? This game has so much bloat with sets. It would lessen the grind and bloat if each gear slot only required 1 drop. An example would be 1 head piece covers all head weights (heavy, medium, light). The same way motif style pages work.

- Let the class gear be tradable so I can give someone who enjoys that place some gold or other items in exchange for IA gear. If this is impossible, then let us buy the gear with gold or add IA sets to the Golden Vendor to purchase with gold or fortunes to lessen the horrible boring grind.

I enjoy the IA. It always helps to run it with friends. Its not particularly difficult until around Arc 4, and even without a specialized build, you can go decently far, earn fortunes, and buy currated or uncurrated boxes to help speed up the process.

I agree 100% that IA is unbearable grinding. I have Sorc, Arcanist, and Templar class sets so far. I’m still missing a few pieces for the Arcanist and Templar that I don’t actually need. Now I’m working on the Warden.
I usually don’t have much time—right now, only in the mornings. That’s why my friends and guildmates can’t help me.
The loot system in IA desperately needs to be overhauled. Surely ZOS wants us to be able to do other things in the game as well, right?
Of course, you’ll always see some stupid comments from players—like, “If you want sets in an mmo, you just have to do it,” etc. I’m sure those comments were around even back when there was no transmute system. These players have invested a lot of time and endured the terrible grinding, and they don’t want other players to have it easier. Luckily, not everyone has such a primitive view, otherwise we'd all still be working over 16 hours a day, with no paid vacation and no sick pay—and starting at age 6. Just a side note.

Also you can’t really compare this grinding to trials. To get the body pieces from a trial, a few runs are enough and there are always players offering parts to trade at the end. And if normal trial gear is fine for you you can also get it from chests. Only those who want the perfected weapons and jewelry have to do it more often.
Of course, it’s easier to grind IA with a partner. But finding a player who actually wants to trade items is likely to be difficult. Are items in IA even tradable? I’ve never traded anything because every partner I’ve had needed the items for themselves.
It's a really bad design. It's meant for players who want to push scores. That's fine. You know what to expect, and you're willing to put in a lot of time. But for grinding sets, it's brutal. For new or for returning players It's almost impossible to handle.

I'd like to reiterate what I already said in my last thread on this topic: Most players have a life outside of Tamriel. They have a family, a job, and plenty of other commitments.
We want to spend the limited time we have in this wonderful game doing things that are fun.

Gabriel_H wrote: »

Ardriel wrote: »

We want to spend the limited time we have in this wonderful game doing things that are fun.

Then go do something fun. You say IA is designed for score pushers. It's really not. It's primarily a source for other things that are a grind to get: Furnishing Plans, Monster Style Pages, Antiquity Leads, and Fragments.

The sets themselves are not all that special. Some are good for niche builds, but the majority of players won't get the benefit, as it requires someone who has put in a lot of time to get their skills up to a level that gets the most out of the set; the kind of person who scores high in IA btw.

And to cite wage slavery in relation to a mild MMO grind has to be the most over-dramatised nonsense I have ever read.

What I'm not seeing from these threads are many people (there will always be the exception) claiming repeating IA over and over is fun.

Because at some point it's not very fun, feedback to reduce the grind seems reasonable to me.

DenverRalphy wrote: »

AScarlato wrote: »

Gabriel_H wrote: »

Ardriel wrote: »

We want to spend the limited time we have in this wonderful game doing things that are fun.

Then go do something fun. You say IA is designed for score pushers. It's really not. It's primarily a source for other things that are a grind to get: Furnishing Plans, Monster Style Pages, Antiquity Leads, and Fragments.

The sets themselves are not all that special. Some are good for niche builds, but the majority of players won't get the benefit, as it requires someone who has put in a lot of time to get their skills up to a level that gets the most out of the set; the kind of person who scores high in IA btw.

And to cite wage slavery in relation to a mild MMO grind has to be the most over-dramatised nonsense I have ever read.

What I'm not seeing from these threads are many people (there will always be the exception) claiming repeating IA over and over is fun.

Because at some point it's not very fun, feedback to reduce the grind seems reasonable to me.

While it's not my go-to cup o tea, I do know a lot of players in game who eat, sleep, and breathe the Infinite Archive. I spent so much time in there I devevloped farming it into an artform filling out the stickerbook. I get bored quickly, so it's not often I get the urge to push past arc 3 or 4. But I know many who absolutely love it.

Well, I know only two people. A husband and wife who can run it together. No one else I know wants to do it, so I'm stuck with a companion since putting up party finder hasn't worked for me either. Bored to tears.

Curious to see the apparently mass enjoyment of this in other communities - honestly the first time I've heard anyone say they know so many people that love to do it - especially since it's no longer really new and novel content.

Gabriel_H wrote: »

AScarlato wrote: »

Gabriel_H wrote: »

Ardriel wrote: »

We want to spend the limited time we have in this wonderful game doing things that are fun.

Then go do something fun. You say IA is designed for score pushers. It's really not. It's primarily a source for other things that are a grind to get: Furnishing Plans, Monster Style Pages, Antiquity Leads, and Fragments.

The sets themselves are not all that special. Some are good for niche builds, but the majority of players won't get the benefit, as it requires someone who has put in a lot of time to get their skills up to a level that gets the most out of the set; the kind of person who scores high in IA btw.

And to cite wage slavery in relation to a mild MMO grind has to be the most over-dramatised nonsense I have ever read.

What I'm not seeing from these threads are many people (there will always be the exception) claiming repeating IA over and over is fun.

Because at some point it's not very fun, feedback to reduce the grind seems reasonable to me.

Maybe they are too busy having fun in IA to come to the forums?!

Forums are overwhelmingly negative places. It's rare people come here to say anything positive. It is a very poor barometer of player experience, mood, and enjoyment.

I am sure every piece of content has it's fans and it's detractors. I'd bet money that more people find it grindy than pleasurable though based not just on feedback here but reddit where people are more positive than these forums.

It's probably the worst gear sets to have to grind in the game right now as it takes longer to run than dungeons, and each class alone has more pieces to gather than any dungeon in the game - let alone wanting gear for multiple classes.

I got enough pieces for Templar to run the spear set. I'd have liked to get other sets but it's such a drain on my enthusiasm to play ESO I'm just going without. Even if these sets are themactic and would appeal to roleplay builds.

CatoUnchained wrote: »

Frayton wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

From what I see in this thread and the forums in general is, people want instant gratification for every last piece of content there is. This is an mmo, antithetical to the type of game you are playing.

I'm partially with you in this. There's a definite reluctance to earn by participating in the forum base (less so than I witness actually in game). But IA really does push the boundaries on this concept with an extremely large amount of unique items to stickerbook.

Agree. It's not that I want things instantly because that's just as boring as mindless grind. It's that IA is just on a whole different level of tedious grind and I'm just trying to make suggestions on how to lessen that.

Someone did a poll a few weeks back about whether or not IA should drop gear that isn't specific to IA and they got hammered for thinking that IA should drop more IA gear and not drop any overland sets. But they were right though, if IA just dropped IA sets in place of overland trash everyone already has it would go a long way to make IA bearable, at least to get the gear. It would still be horribly unfun and repetitive.

I still just can't get over how ZOS thought it was OK to call IA new content. It's not. Only the puzzle rooms are new content.

IA would be a much better experience if IA only dropped IA gear. Putting in all those overland set drops is just insulting and disrespectful of my time.

I still don't see why we can't save our progress. Solo only (unless they can figure out a way to save it for duos), no leaderboards, just like in the solo arenas.

Not having to start from Arc 1 every single time would make it feel a lot less grindy.

Twohothardware wrote: »

There's way too much gear in the game that isn't tradeable. Everything in IA should be sellable. It would probably drive more players to play it to sell the gear than who are playing it now.

I don't agree with that. It's perfectly fine that there are bound items in the game. These are just things that aren't so easy to get. In my opinion, it would be really bad for the game if these items could be bought in guild shops. Where would the challenge be then?
You have to put in a little effort; otherwise, the game would be completely uninteresting and boring.
As for IA, there could be plenty of ways to make the grinding a LITTLE easier but not too easy:

Maybe a random chance for a curated drop from the sub-bosses, or a little more AF reward, or even making the curated containers a bit cheaper.
Also, the system with armor in odd arcs and weapons/jewelry in even arcs is suboptimal.

In my opinion, nothing needs to be changed about the design of IA itself. It’s fine the way it is. It’s just a matter of making it a little faster to collect the class sets.
For players who’ve already collected everything, this might not seem necessary. But for players who don’t have all the sets yet—and especially for new or returning players—it’s a disproportionate time investment. You have to consider that new or returning players still have lots of other things to grind or level. Many of them quickly lose patience and motivation.


Of course there are people who spend an awful lot of time there. I actually know some, too.
But most of my friends and guildmates don’t spend more time there than necessary. That’s why so many of them now have to grind for the sets and are just as frustrated.

I've completed all the achievements except for the collection-based ones (mount, body marking, etc.) and hoped never have to come back..
I have completed all vMA and Vateshraan achievements on 4 accounts (2 PCEU, 2 PCNA) but Infinite Archive only on 1 account. Its just too time consuming for me.

Well, I have to admit, I could have started farming missing the sets much earlier. I knew what was coming from the PTS. But... I just couldn't bring myself to do it…

I really want to like IA. I do. It's honestly one of the most rewarding and well-integrated systems the game has.

But, I struggle with it. Here's why:

• Repetitive tilesets.
• IA specific sets only drop from Tho'at fights.
• Requires specific builds.
• Progress cannot be saved.

It just takes too long to get the gear from it. Like some others have said, the only sets that should be dropping in there are IA sets. I'd rather complete my stickerbook quicker and use the IA system for getting other rewards, than just grind it for some set.

Orbital78 wrote: »

I did notice my last meme run had a dragon boss that didn't telegraph it's wing slap. I hadn't done IA in like six months, but this seemed like a new bug.

Was this after Update 50 dropped? I've noticed even more bugs in IA since then.

Ardriel wrote: »

Maybe a random chance for a curated drop from the sub-bosses, or a little more AF reward, or even making the curated containers a bit cheaper.

Aren't bonus AF rewards a part of IA already? Ever since I found all the collectibles (all fragments and all style pages), I've been getting bonus AF from Tho'at Chests, Gw, Marauders, and side portal chests. I randomly get 2x or 3x the AF that normally drop. 200/400 bonus on Arc 1, 300/600 bonus on Arc 2, 400/800 bonus on Arc 3, etc.