IA is the worst grind in ESO, and one of the worst in any game I've played. I tried farming it, but it was so bad that I logged off ESO and played a different game.

If IA dropped only IA gear that would help a lot in reducing its disgusting long drawn out grind.

This would be a great idea! Last year, they were implementing more random "weekend events" like double mat drops, but it has all stopped. Probably because people complained that they missed the event. Well, you can't please everyone. I say please bring back the random events, and make a double drop in IA priority on that list of events.

The rest of us had to farm it the hard way. Why should this be changed for anyone else. This was addressed in update 32 I believe. That was perhaps 5 years ago now. Its better now than it's ever been.

CatalinaWineMixer2 wrote: »

The rest of us had to farm it the hard way. Why should this be changed for anyone else. This was addressed in update 32 I believe. That was perhaps 5 years ago now. Its better now than it's ever been.

I've never agreed with this mindset. Just because we had to do things "the hard way" does not mean things should never change and become easier. It just feels like a "we had to suffer so you do too" kind of mentality.

I remember grinding the Soul-Shriven Skin "the hard way". And I remember when it was added to the Impressario's rotation all those years ago. I remember people being mad that others could get it "with less work". I also remember not minding, because I don't think people should have to go through excessive grinds to get something they might like just because I had to do it.

As for the thread topic, I don't see why not. We get Events to celebrate other DLCs and activities and stuff. Or at least we used to...anyway, I've been working on getting Monolith of Storms and I've actually been pretty lucky, but I also kind of cheated and bought a number of the uncurated Blue Boxes until I got my first reapeated item. Still, I've only been in IA maybe 6 or so times on my Sorc and I've gotten at least half the Set across varying Weights so far.

But I also will need to work on Spattering if a build I wanna test in a few weeks on the PTS works well, so...idk we'll see how my luck holds out lol. Regardless it is a hell of a grind for people who NEED specific Weights or Gear pieces, or for people who need/want to get the Sets for numerous Classes.

I think that on top of an Event for double drops, they could also stand to tweak the prices for the curated Boxes. 10k each is...expensive, considering how few Fortunes you get per Arc. Like I get they want engagement, but there comes a point where the reward is no longer worth the effort. Making things take too much of a grind to get will usually see people engaging less with the content rather than more.

CatalinaWineMixer2 wrote: »

The rest of us had to farm it the hard way. Why should this be changed for anyone else. This was addressed in update 32 I believe. That was perhaps 5 years ago now. Its better now than it's ever been.

If everyone shared this opinion, there wouldn’t be any quality-of-life improvements in ESO at all—such as the Transmute System, the Stickerbook, and many others.
This attitude—“We had to work hard, so others shouldn’t have it any easier”—is very selfish. It’s just envy and resentment toward players who have it easier.
I completely understand that it would be very frustrating for players who’ve spent a lot of time farming all the sets to see other players no longer having to do that.
However, we can be glad that ZOS doesn’t support this attitude. Otherwise, as I said, there wouldn’t be any improvements in this regard, and there never would be.
Grinding in the game needs to be reduced even further.
There may be players who don’t have real-life obligations (work, family)… But most don’t have that much free time and would rather spend it on things in the game that are fun. Grinding should be reduced to a tolerable minimum.
There are double loot events for everything else—why not for the Archive?
ZOS would do well to keep this in mind, given the current problems.

Rkindaleft wrote: »

CatalinaWineMixer2 wrote: »

The rest of us had to farm it the hard way. Why should this be changed for anyone else. This was addressed in update 32 I believe. That was perhaps 5 years ago now. Its better now than it's ever been.

Not to nitpick but IA came out in like October 2023 which means it's not even 3 years old. Also many of the "usable" class sets only came out/were buffed recently. Basically nobody was "grinding" Aetheric Lancer or Aerie's Cry or Spattering Disjunction a year ago for actual use.

IA sets are also way more annoying to grind than other sets, even worse than grinding for Mythic leads. Doing Arc 1 and a Marauder in Arc 2 for "convenient" farming can still take 45+ minutes to solo for 2 class set pieces that might not even be for the set you want or the weight you want.

That's too long for the first two arcs, even going solo. Go farming with a glasscannon build with either a pull armor set and/or pull skills or directly an arcanist with pragmatic and you blast in 20 minutes max through arc one and two plus (hopefully) one marauder.

If you start collecting a class set you can buy non-curated coffers, later buy curated coffers.

Also don't forget, after you collected all the IA stuff like maligraphic ichor, you also get a set drop from the IA daily thoat hunt.

IA is only a grind if you don't know how to kill enemies fast. Learn to kill faster, and it's a breeze.

GeneralGrundmann wrote: »

Rkindaleft wrote: »

CatalinaWineMixer2 wrote: »

The rest of us had to farm it the hard way. Why should this be changed for anyone else. This was addressed in update 32 I believe. That was perhaps 5 years ago now. Its better now than it's ever been.

Not to nitpick but IA came out in like October 2023 which means it's not even 3 years old. Also many of the "usable" class sets only came out/were buffed recently. Basically nobody was "grinding" Aetheric Lancer or Aerie's Cry or Spattering Disjunction a year ago for actual use.

IA sets are also way more annoying to grind than other sets, even worse than grinding for Mythic leads. Doing Arc 1 and a Marauder in Arc 2 for "convenient" farming can still take 45+ minutes to solo for 2 class set pieces that might not even be for the set you want or the weight you want.

That's too long for the first two arcs, even going solo. Go farming with a glasscannon build with either a pull armor set and/or pull skills or directly an arcanist with pragmatic and you blast in 20 minutes max through arc one and two plus (hopefully) one marauder.

If you start collecting a class set you can buy non-curated coffers, later buy curated coffers.

Also don't forget, after you collected all the IA stuff like maligraphic ichor, you also get a set drop from the IA daily thoat hunt.

IA is only a grind if you don't know how to kill enemies fast. Learn to kill faster, and it's a breeze.

Its still a long grind. Feels like more then 20 minutes for me to get through the first boss lol and my dps is pretty respectable.

Your advice for buying non-curated coffees then curated ones later on is exactly what I was doing. Thing is without including the dailies it takes 2-3 runs (depending in if you are just going for body or both body and weapons) to even get 2000 fortunes to open one.

Also didnt know you get curated gear after getting the 50 maligraphic ichor. Thing is you only get one a day and I feel like us who grind would rather grind multiple hours a few days then one run a day for 50+ days, so this doesn’t help the majority of us out when collecting these sets. Still good to know though since I want the mount

I remember when I got the final piece to complete my 14th and final class set. I'm surprised I didn't Ugly Cry,

Now I look back at it as a feat of accomplishement. And while I won't begrudge anyone championing the cause to tone the grind down a bit.. I will still lord that accomplishement over their heads. LOL!