Yep, pretty much. Thumbnail version of the whole quest line is closing tears, retrieving an artifact piece, closing more tears, etc. There's a decently told story that goes along with it and you get a cosmetic, a collectible furnishing, and one of the two guaranteed Protective drops in the game at the end (no skill point, though). The Augur is good comic relief, though. I use it as an excuse for characters to get out and explore base-game zones (you closed all the tears in Summerset in the first mission), but it's definitely a back-burner quest line unless you really don't want to have to ask someone to make you a piece of Protective jewelry to research (or to buy one from a guild trader).

There are different quests scattered in there but it is mostly closing rifts, yeah. Skill line’s useful for tanks and solo players (when soloing dungeons) but if it’s not worth it for you, don’t suffer.

Whenever I am just chilling, no purpose in game, I have been levelling up different skill lines. Downtime activities. When the double xp to weapon lines mini-event came with the both bars gaining xp update, I levelled up last of my weapons skill lines for all 20 characters.

I had done Psijic only on one character, but when there was a "dry season", as in, no events, raid team was on short hiatus, no regular dungeon group, had no projects going, I levelled up the rest 19 characters. I used this opportunity to also level up Mages Guild skill line and gather skill points.

Here's how I did it.

Prerequisites:
Snacks
Beer
2nd monitor
Favourite videos/music/podcast on 2nd monitor
Also UESP or other website with the Psijic maps open on the 2nd monitor so it's easy to see where you need to be going.
Patience

Port to Alinor (if you don't have wayshrines open) and do the Jewelry intro quest if you're still missing it.
Travel to Shimmerene and start the main quest.
Speedrun the main quest until you get to Artaeum. Return the quest but no need to pick up the next quest. It is important to play until this point, because the NPC who gives the Psijic skill line quest is not there if you haven't done this quest.
Talk to that Celarus dude and pick up the quest. The rest of the Psijic skill line levelling is just follow the markers, return the quest and pick up the next.
Collect all blue books that are nearby to level up Mages Guild. Will be at 10 when your Psijic is around 7, if you started at Mages Guild 1.
Collect all skyshards that you come across with. You'll get a ton of skill points.
If it's not much of a detour, also discover any landmark for extra xp.
When you are not riding, pick up also all the mats you see near you.
Every time you get a new Psijic or Mages skill open, slot it to gain XP until you can morph it.

First couple ones will be slower but once you figure out the approximate routes, you'll speedrun the Psijic skill lines pretty fast. You will figure out routes and where to turn and so on. So the rest of your toons will be on autopilot and you can just concentrate on the videos/music/podcasts on your 2nd monitor.

Leveling was meh; but I think the portals are very much worth it.

I level psijic when I first start a character now. As I run around closing tears, I get a ton of skyshards, wayshrines, and mage's books. However, it is much more of a pain on existing characters.

But psijic portals are the primary way to get Aurbic Amber, used for infused jewelry, and very expensive. Good motifs and Psijic Ambrosia (the actual drink, not the recipe) can drop from portals as well.
I have it on all my toons, but I'm insane about completion things like that.

Once you've done it once or twice, it's easy to do it while watching TV or something.

Glorious_Platypus wrote: »

Wait a sec. I don't know what this ambrosia stuff is but it sounds cool and I need to get some lol.

50% XP gain. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Psijic_Ambrosia - note that there are also versions that give 100% and 150% XP gain. Special ingredients required (of course) but not too bad if you're heavily into crafting.

Do the first part for the portals and leave the rest, unless you want the skill tree.

You are doomed give up and do it... on multiple characters too. Have fun

ApoAlaia wrote: »

I can't remember when I used skills from the Psijic skill line last - fine by me, never enjoyed the 'imbue weapon meta' - probably the last time I was soloing something that required the Precognition ultimate.

Precog - great for soloing. Can be used for example at vSCP end boss
Temporal Guard - great front bar ulti for tanks in difficult content. Synergises well with Concentrated Barrier passive.
Imbue Weapon - can be used in PVP very effectively
Accelerate - useful in many, many situations. From solo to PVP, to scorepushing where speed is key.
Meditate - in some PVP builds pretty ok for sustain. Synergises well with Deliberation passive.

ApoAlaia wrote: »

However when I create a new character I still complete this quest at the same time as the 'zone clears' (pick up skyshards/PD skill point/MG books etc).

Yeah, that's how you should do it. Collect skyshards, PD skill points, discover places for small xp, open wayshrines, and find blue books while you're at it. Multiple birds with one stone.

Get an add on like map pins, it marks the portals, makes the tear in reality closing less of a chore.

But beyond that for me its more about getting the portal nodes unlocked the skill line just has very little that appeals to me, its one of the bigger drawbacks of the limited skill slots in ESO you get access to a lot of fluff skills that are situational, that you don't have the bar space to actually include in your build without sacrificing something that would be better in almost every situation for one of those fluff skills at most they often work in role play builds or very niche solo builds.