ZOS Lifted The Craglorn Portal Farm Nerf!?! :O

rhythmsuji · June 30

Turns out, like many things that ZOS is listening to this year. They took all the backlash and negative feedback of the 5 minute loot box boss drop cool down, and removed it. So even though some kind of nerf made sense for economy balance or having people feel less compelled to farm day and night on bosses alone. This is what we have, so we might as well farm it up like the old days LOL.

Also, there is no level requirement. I regularly would previously, and still will be bringing new players along to farm if they like. The obvious only struggles are move speed, and if there are more than 12 people and they cant hit top 12 DPS to get loot. Get your newbie buddy some move speed gear, the Assault passive, Steed blessing, or use a dual ride mount to carry them portal to portal.

https://youtu.be/rsU30piv_DQ?si=9ZtgwLabssEuyMP3

A map I made before the nerf in 2024:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13BgklS19DSgrkhI4JVDFXb2wurAJ_1Cr/view?usp=sharing

For anyone reading:

No Cooldowns: You can now earn a parcel box from every single boss kill with no time restriction. The only limiting factor is the respawn timer of the bosses.

Grouping Requirement: Unlike other events, you must be in a group with at least one member from one of your five guilds. You do not need to be in a party with ALL the specific people farming, as long as you are partied with a Guildmate.

The Location: Head to Craglorn. It is currently the most competitive and efficient zone for this farm.

Which Mobs: Specifically the bosses which spawn from the anomaly portals in Craglorn are the best source for parcels due to their spawn rate and speed to kill.

Group Strategy & Looting

Group Size: A group of 10-12 players is ideal for clearing rotation paths efficiently especially if you run the larger path to the west.

Loot Cap: Be aware that if more than 12 players are participating in a boss kill, the 13th+ person (specifically the one with the lowest DPS) will not receive loot. Avoid bringing groups larger than 12 to ensure everyone gets rewards.

Efficiency Tip: If your group is clearing faster than the bosses can respawn, incorporate additional nearby non portal bosses into your rotation. If you find yourself waiting 30-40 seconds for respawns.

Farming Tips

Competition: Craglorn will be highly competitive. If other players are "stealing" your portals, try to farm during off peak hours 1:00 AM – 5:00 AM server time (for your region) to have the zone to yourself for uninterrupted, consistent farming. This is not realistic for everyone, so you will just have to compete and farm as possible.

This method remains the absolute best way to accumulate massive quantities of parcel boxes if you are willing to put in the time.

Additional Zenithar Info: Don't forget that gold-tier items are currently available at a 10% discount from vendors during this event, so prioritize picking those up before the event is over. Stock up on furniture, buy houses, runes, trait stones, mounts, Tel'var rewards, Alliance point rewards... Anything you usually buy in game with any currency, NOW is the time to spend those currencies the most efficiently!

Hope this helped some of you, especially with how many new players we have in game these days. Get yourself some parcel loot!!

Aylish · June 30

Seems like they other incursions still have a cooldown. I did Harrowstorms with a guild mate yesterday to also farm a few missing Vampire plans. We played it on higher difficulty for the mob killing achievements and got only one parcel for two Harrowstorms. So it seems like there still is a cooldown on some incursions…

Trier_Sero · June 30

They didn't have it last year either.

aLi3nZ · June 30

My question is - is it even worth it. I mean I checked contents of parcel. The archive fortunes. Yes that is really nice, not easy. But telvar just 200-600. Thst is nothing for me. As for other stuff, didn’t see much of interest.

Are these parcels worth farming really?

LootAllTheStuff · June 30

I ran that loop while grouped with guildmates Sunday and did not get a single box. Not one. I think it was a case of bosses being melted too fast and not getting a single hit in. So from my perspective, not really worth it.

Haenk · June 30

Ran earlier with a large group - no problem getting loot every single kill. Just tried again with another group - not one single loot drop; others noting the same.
So something is fishy, or bugged. Or got hotfixed.

duagloth · June 30

Another issue is a carry over from night market, make sure your in the same instance as your grouped guildmate.

Orbital78 · June 30

You have to get some fairly decent DPS in when there are multiple groups farming the same route. If the boss is kited too much I'd miss one here or there but preloaded crux usually got loot.

I wish all incursions had no cooldown.

DarkDajin · June 30

Same zone/ instance as grouped Guild member and requiring damage for any drops (not just boxes) and it being unlimited for Zeal of Zenithar is the same as last year.

Other events that gave boxes for incursions were/ are on cooldown.

JustLovely · June 30

aLi3nZ wrote: »

My question is - is it even worth it. I mean I checked contents of parcel. The archive fortunes. Yes that is really nice, not easy. But telvar just 200-600. Thst is nothing for me. As for other stuff, didn’t see much of interest.

Are these parcels worth farming really?

This was my thought as well. Once I get the last style page I'm not even going to bother getting any more event crates. I'm not sure a hardcore farm of these event crates is worth the time. It's always good to know these kinds of tips anyway, just in case we decide it's something we want to do.

DoofusMax · June 30

aLi3nZ wrote: »

My question is - is it even worth it. I mean I checked contents of parcel. The archive fortunes. Yes that is really nice, not easy. But telvar just 200-600. Thst is nothing for me. As for other stuff, didn’t see much of interest.

Are these parcels worth farming really?

I'll have to go with "meh" on the purple parcels. Yeah, some of the crafting mats are nice, but I don't recall getting anything stupendous like Roe, gold mats, or whatnot. The Zenithar's Bounty bags aren't super-common, so I've mostly just been filling in recipe holes on alts and collecting that 1500 Tome Points that I don't need, but it's there on the challenge list, and it will nag at me until it's completed. Lots of grind for 15K gold on the 8th, though.

BardokRedSnow · June 30

DoofusMax wrote: »

aLi3nZ wrote: »

My question is - is it even worth it. I mean I checked contents of parcel. The archive fortunes. Yes that is really nice, not easy. But telvar just 200-600. Thst is nothing for me. As for other stuff, didn’t see much of interest.

Are these parcels worth farming really?

I'll have to go with "meh" on the purple parcels. Yeah, some of the crafting mats are nice, but I don't recall getting anything stupendous like Roe, gold mats, or whatnot. The Zenithar's Bounty bags aren't super-common, so I've mostly just been filling in recipe holes on alts and collecting that 1500 Tome Points that I don't need, but it's there on the challenge list, and it will nag at me until it's completed. Lots of grind for 15K gold on the 8th, though.

Was wondering this myself, the only benefit I see rn is that I can get dragon rheum and blood much faster than usual, but beyond that all I got that was worth it was a breton vase purple recipe worth over 500k, which is great! But, that was it, and I dont know if it was from the gold zenithar parcel, the purple, the dragon itself or associated daily quests.

Cant tell if farming this event is actually worth it without the dragons or nah.

rhythmsuji · June 30

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

I ran that loop while grouped with guildmates Sunday and did not get a single box. Not one. I think it was a case of bosses being melted too fast and not getting a single hit in. So from my perspective, not really worth it.

This is 100% what happened, as stated you should not run with more than 12 people. Because lets say there are 16, then 4 people are missing loot every time. And its likely to be the same people with the lower DPS every time, which really sucks.

Limit the farming group sizes, and you might have to account for another group also running them.

rhythmsuji · June 30

Aylish wrote: »

Seems like they other incursions still have a cooldown. I did Harrowstorms with a guild mate yesterday to also farm a few missing Vampire plans. We played it on higher difficulty for the mob killing achievements and got only one parcel for two Harrowstorms. So it seems like there still is a cooldown on some incursions…

Seems like it's primarily the craglorn farm for some reason, instead of everything. It has always been the best when there is no nerf, BUT now it does make it far more competitive and crowded.

rhythmsuji · July 1

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

DoofusMax wrote: »

aLi3nZ wrote: »

My question is - is it even worth it. I mean I checked contents of parcel. The archive fortunes. Yes that is really nice, not easy. But telvar just 200-600. Thst is nothing for me. As for other stuff, didn’t see much of interest.

Are these parcels worth farming really?

I'll have to go with "meh" on the purple parcels. Yeah, some of the crafting mats are nice, but I don't recall getting anything stupendous like Roe, gold mats, or whatnot. The Zenithar's Bounty bags aren't super-common, so I've mostly just been filling in recipe holes on alts and collecting that 1500 Tome Points that I don't need, but it's there on the challenge list, and it will nag at me until it's completed. Lots of grind for 15K gold on the 8th, though.

Was wondering this myself, the only benefit I see rn is that I can get dragon rheum and blood much faster than usual, but beyond that all I got that was worth it was a breton vase purple recipe worth over 500k, which is great! But, that was it, and I dont know if it was from the gold zenithar parcel, the purple, the dragon itself or associated daily quests.

Cant tell if farming this event is actually worth it without the dragons or nah.

Okay! I ran some tests and it seems on average without great luck, 1 hour runs of the portals on average will net someone 400-500k gold value in items.

If lucky, that can easily go to 800k-1.5mil or more depending on how lucky.
I will share some of the average hour run screen shots below. 1 parcel a minute give or take, 60 parcel cycles.

rhythmsuji · July 1

JustLovely wrote: »

aLi3nZ wrote: »

My question is - is it even worth it. I mean I checked contents of parcel. The archive fortunes. Yes that is really nice, not easy. But telvar just 200-600. Thst is nothing for me. As for other stuff, didn’t see much of interest.

Are these parcels worth farming really?

This was my thought as well. Once I get the last style page I'm not even going to bother getting any more event crates. I'm not sure a hardcore farm of these event crates is worth the time. It's always good to know these kinds of tips anyway, just in case we decide it's something we want to do.

These runs didn't have any insane drops worth hundreds of thousands or millions in it, which can and does happen. It also does not count the loot from the 1 hour of farming in the total, because the armor and weapons which drop are NOT accurate cost models so I don't include them. But they tend to average around 30k-60k an hour additional if you want to know. The first picture of each set, is what the loot without opening the parcels look like. Then I reset, and show you the parcel box totals ONLY in the second image. Hope this helps some folks!!

This images also do not include the currencies which come out of the bounty satchels. With gold, AI tokens or Tel'var in them. So those would be a bonus on top of these item gold value breakdowns.

Average 1 hour farm run #1

Average 1 hour farm run #2

Haenk · July 1

I do find the loot pretty OK. Your stats are - unfortunately - off. All receipts etc. have dropped in value, to a degree I already started to dump them.

raystormusa · July 1

Thanks for the post. I enjoy seeing how others do their farm routes and adding to my knowledge base.

The map route you shared was interesting. For reference, this is your shared map & route:

For comparison, this is what I drew (over UESP’s map), in 2023:

The East / Right route on both maps is similar, whereas yours semi-combined the rest into a larger loop.

The map I made was based on loops I saw most often on PS-NA. I cannot speak for how XBOX or PC players run it. For PS-NA: 3 loops, West-Middle-East / Left-Center-Right. Each forming 5 Celestial Rifts, with the respawn timer at 5 mins, and per-Rift fight-n-run at 1 min, this gives sufficient time for continuous loops (or a start-end-start-end path) to run without pause.

There is no correct or incorrect way to run the routes. Run it whatever way suits you and your groups best. However, there will come a time where the groups doing a large route may cross into the tighter 5-Rift loop and face a longer wait for the respawn, or cause a sequence break due to one group killing the Rift before the other arrives. It happens.

I re-iterate this- there is no correct or incorrect way. And no group can (or should) claim monopoly over a farming method. All that can be done is awareness, adjustment and moving on to the next. That’s what I advise my group when we encounter hiccups.

rhythmsuji · July 1

raystormusa wrote: »

Thanks for the post. I enjoy seeing how others do their farm routes and adding to my knowledge base.

The map route you shared was interesting. For reference, this is your shared map & route:

For comparison, this is what I drew (over UESP’s map), in 2023:

The East / Right route on both maps is similar, whereas yours semi-combined the rest into a larger loop.

The map I made was based on loops I saw most often on PS-NA. I cannot speak for how XBOX or PC players run it. For PS-NA: 3 loops, West-Middle-East / Left-Center-Right. Each forming 5 Celestial Rifts, with the respawn timer at 5 mins, and per-Rift fight-n-run at 1 min, this gives sufficient time for continuous loops (or a start-end-start-end path) to run without pause.

There is no correct or incorrect way to run the routes. Run it whatever way suits you and your groups best. However, there will come a time where the groups doing a large route may cross into the tighter 5-Rift loop and face a longer wait for the respawn, or cause a sequence break due to one group killing the Rift before the other arrives. It happens.

I re-iterate this- there is no correct or incorrect way. And no group can (or should) claim monopoly over a farming method. All that can be done is awareness, adjustment and moving on to the next. That’s what I advise my group when we encounter hiccups.

Fantastic add! And very very true. I do the same with my groups when running the large route.

If we circle back and the portal is missing, then someone else definitely re-cleared it so we just carry on to the next. Keep it pushin! haha

But yeah overlap is bound to happen with multiple groups running, especially at peak hours and depending on the preferred route methods of the server or groups. The good thing, is the smaller simpler route seems to be the same across all servers due to how clean it is and secluded from the other portals. Very tried and true.

rhythmsuji · July 1

Haenk wrote: »

I do find the loot pretty OK. Your stats are - unfortunately - off. All receipts etc. have dropped in value, to a degree I already started to dump them.

The values will indeed drop for most items as the event runs, especially the learnable items.
But part of why I am displaying it in full form with all the loot drops is to show that some of the highest values are not of those variety, but instead materials and companion gear. And those have a much better staying power in the economy.

Also, I did not add in any material farming in order to not skew the pure numbers of the route. BUT when I am actually running this to farm, I will toss in a cheeky material every chance I get. Between bosses, as one gets started etc. Ads to the value of the time especially in craglorn with potential Nirncrux's.

Other side option, depending on the player and how much space they have. A lot of items I end to various storage options I have, and they increase in value over the year. At which point I sell them then, and the value they were obtained at was actually a low point of its end value. Alt mule characters, alt mule accounts when they go on sale for $5, personally owned guild banks, house storage etc.

^.^

Xenagreen53 · July 3

I have been having a blast this event! thank you for helping me I missed this farm a lot last year!!!

rhythmsuji · July 3

Xenagreen53 wrote: »

I have been having a blast this event! thank you for helping me I missed this farm a lot last year!!!

No problem & I know, so many in the guild have been getting their farm on daily lol.

Eldovar · July 3

I don't think the rewards are worth it

The only time farming an event that gave me nice loot, fun, smiles and joy must have been the anniversary event of 2024. It is still for many players the golden reference of a good and fun event everyone remembers.

But the rich elitists also ruined that because god forbid newer players might get some cool stuff. And they will keep reminding you, even two years after the fact, that they know what is best for you and the game.

The past year I just run my golden box and sometimes I have some purple ones because I randomly did some side stuff. But I don't actively grind those scraps of rewards. It used to be good and it was also those events I bought ESO+ during those events. If ZOS would make events better again, they might sell a lot more ESO+ subs because of it.

rhythmsuji · July 3

Eldovar wrote: »

I don't think the rewards are worth it

The only time farming an event that gave me nice loot, fun, smiles and joy must have been the anniversary event of 2024. It is still for many players the golden reference of a good and fun event everyone remembers.

But the rich elitists also ruined that because god forbid newer players might get some cool stuff. And they will keep reminding you, even two years after the fact, that they know what is best for you and the game.

The past year I just run my golden box and sometimes I have some purple ones because I randomly did some side stuff. But I don't actively grind those scraps of rewards. It used to be good and it was also those events I bought ESO+ during those events. If ZOS would make events better again, they might sell a lot more ESO+ subs because of it.

For the lack of investment entry, like anyone can do it. It's still very profitable.

Fun though? No not really, it's definitely just a cyclical task you can do endlessly. So I totally get people not wanting to do it.
And yeah the market will never be the same after 2024. And as a decently rich player, I actually lost around 700 million from that crash. So it definitely was not a good thing for me lol. But its all good, that's how things go sometimes and we just gotta adjust and work within the new structure aye?

Eldovar · July 3

rhythmsuji wrote: »

Eldovar wrote: »

I don't think the rewards are worth it

The only time farming an event that gave me nice loot, fun, smiles and joy must have been the anniversary event of 2024. It is still for many players the golden reference of a good and fun event everyone remembers.

But the rich elitists also ruined that because god forbid newer players might get some cool stuff. And they will keep reminding you, even two years after the fact, that they know what is best for you and the game.

The past year I just run my golden box and sometimes I have some purple ones because I randomly did some side stuff. But I don't actively grind those scraps of rewards. It used to be good and it was also those events I bought ESO+ during those events. If ZOS would make events better again, they might sell a lot more ESO+ subs because of it.

For the lack of investment entry, like anyone can do it. It's still very profitable.

Fun though? No not really, it's definitely just a cyclical task you can do endlessly. So I totally get people not wanting to do it.
And yeah the market will never be the same after 2024. And as a decently rich player, I actually lost around 700 million from that crash. So it definitely was not a good thing for me lol. But its all good, that's how things go sometimes and we just gotta adjust and work within the new structure aye?

I was fairly new back then. I started with Blackwood and did mostly ‘Skyrim stuff’ before I interacted with the MMO aspect of the game.

This 2024 anniversary event was my third event I participated it and it really jumpstarted me as a newish player, opened up the game and is the reason I am still playing today. So all in all lower market prices is a good thing for the health of the game and newer players to get invested.

rhythmsuji · July 4

Eldovar wrote: »

rhythmsuji wrote: »

Eldovar wrote: »

I don't think the rewards are worth it

The only time farming an event that gave me nice loot, fun, smiles and joy must have been the anniversary event of 2024. It is still for many players the golden reference of a good and fun event everyone remembers.

But the rich elitists also ruined that because god forbid newer players might get some cool stuff. And they will keep reminding you, even two years after the fact, that they know what is best for you and the game.

The past year I just run my golden box and sometimes I have some purple ones because I randomly did some side stuff. But I don't actively grind those scraps of rewards. It used to be good and it was also those events I bought ESO+ during those events. If ZOS would make events better again, they might sell a lot more ESO+ subs because of it.

For the lack of investment entry, like anyone can do it. It's still very profitable.

Fun though? No not really, it's definitely just a cyclical task you can do endlessly. So I totally get people not wanting to do it.
And yeah the market will never be the same after 2024. And as a decently rich player, I actually lost around 700 million from that crash. So it definitely was not a good thing for me lol. But its all good, that's how things go sometimes and we just gotta adjust and work within the new structure aye?

I was fairly new back then. I started with Blackwood and did mostly ‘Skyrim stuff’ before I interacted with the MMO aspect of the game.

This 2024 anniversary event was my third event I participated it and it really jumpstarted me as a newish player, opened up the game and is the reason I am still playing today. So all in all lower market prices is a good thing for the health of the game and newer players to get invested.

I always had a much easier time getting new players wealthy in years prior. Low market prices actually makes the base game gold costs far worse for new players, and this is a common misunderstanding.

For example, ZOS releases something new to buy in game. Let's say furniture for 100,000g like they do, or 200,000g for each gold tier gear, or a house for 1.5 million etc. You get the point

Well, someone like me has no problem immediately buying them all. BUT the newer players I constantly help, have a far harder time affording things in the game now, than 2023 and before. Because their time spent farming, means way less when they sell items. I used to have paths for any level of player to make 1mil to 1.5mil an hour. And now that's impossible for new players.

Essentially, items on the trade post were more expensive sure. BUT their ability to make gold to afford those items, and especially the base game costs was way more accessible before than now.
Costs did not only drop, so did sales equally ofc. So mathematically, it just lowered the bar of earning and even more items are out of reach than in the past.