Does questing or grinding give you the most bang for your buck with Psijic Ambrosia?
Ever since ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS) introduced Psijic Ambrosia back in June, it’s been my goal to gather all seven recipe fragments to craft my very own Experience booster. It’s taken a few months, but through the completion of daily Provisioner writs and a few shrewd trades, I can finally make this most elusive of drinks.
Naturally, as soon as I learned the new recipe I wanted to test out my new creation. Unlike other drinks in The Elder Scrolls Online however, Psijic Ambrosia is very expensive to make. The three necessary ingredients (Frost Mirriam, Bervez Juice, and Perfect Roe) don’t come cheap. Even with my Brewer passive maxed, it costs roughly 3,250 gold to craft a single dose of Psijic Ambrosia — not much cheaper than the average Guild Store price of 3,700 gold.
Because of the high cost, I really felt I should get the most bang for my buck with Psijic Ambrosia. The drink gives a 50% Experience Point bonus from all sources for 30 minutes, but what XP sources are best?
Getting Started
To find the answer, I did a little field testing this weekend, and compared the Psijic Ambrosia Experience Points gained from questing and grinding. Before I took my first swig however, I made certain my Provisioner Connoisseur passive was maxed out. This passive jacked the Psijic Ambrosia limit from 30 minutes to 50 minutes, extending the amount of time to gain an Experience boost.
Maxing out the Connoisseur passive ability will add 20 minutes to consumed drinks.
Questing
All set, I swallowed my first dose of Psijic Ambrosia and got to work questing. In 50 minutes I completed 4 quests — a record for me. When playing The Elder Scrolls Online, I find questing a very relaxing experience. I’ve always schlepped along, taking my time and enjoying the story.
Not so with Psijic Ambrosia.
By The Nine! I was on the clock and needed to complete quests ASAP to get my money’s worth out of the drink. Feeling like a contestant on The Amazing Race, I rushed from quest to quest, speed reading NPC dialog and sprinting in a dead panic.
Somewhere between finding Harpy eggs and tracking down a lost kid, my wife casually asked if I wanted to walk the dogs, and I yelled out: “Not now, I’m QUESTING!” She wasn’t too happy (to say nothing of the dogs), but by the time the Psijic Ambrosia worked its way out of my system, I racked up approximately 120,000 XP and gained a Champion Point. Not too shabby.
In 50 minutes, Questing netted me approximately 120,000 XP and 1 Champion point.
Grinding
For my next field test, I did 50 minutes worth of grinding. To make the most of grinding in The Elder Scrolls Online, you really need a partner. A partner helps you take down mobs faster than you can on your own, which results in more XP in a set amount of time.
For those unfamiliar with grinding in ESO, it basically goes like this:
Get a partner.
Find a good grinding spot (personally, I like grinding Zombies — they’re slow, don’t have ranged attacks, and respawn quickly).
Herd as many mobs together as you can (run like a crazy person from group to group, getting the mobs attention with fireballs, arrows, etc. and having the bad guys chase you).
Once surrounded, use Area of Effect abilities (AoE) to take down the mobs as fast as possible.
Rinse and repeat.
Grinding isn’t for everyone. I usually find the process repetitive and boring, and I honestly don’t do it that often. That said, I preferred grinding over power-questing, and by the time the Psijic Ambrosia wore off, I netted close to 370,000 XP and gained 3 Champion Points. Wow!
I gained close to 370,000 XP and 3 Champion Points grinding with Psijic Ambrosia.
Final Thoughts
In the end, grinding trumped questing when it came to gaining the most Experience Points with Psijic Ambrosia. As tedious as grinding is, I also found the process much less stressful and enjoyable than rushing through quests.
My Psijic Ambrosia field tests are by no means scientific, and you may find you achieve different results via your character and playstyle. Based on my testing however, grinding is a better choice than questing if you truly want to make the most out of your Psijic Ambrosia Experience booster.
But what say you? What XP sources have you found the best when using Psijic Ambrosia? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.
Now where did my wife put those dog leashes…
UPDATE: One of our readers, Max, explained a much better method of Psijic Ambrosia questing than the method I tried above (Max’s advice can be read in the Comments section below). Max reminded me that questing XP is granted as soon as the quests are turned in. Instead of starting quests from scratch (like I did), simply do this:
Stockpile a bunch of near-completed quests beforehand at your own relaxed pace.
Drink the Psijic Ambrosia.
Spend your XP booster time limit rushing from point to point turning in your quests.
Max’s method will result in more questing XP gained than the method I described, but will it net more Experience than grinding? It’s a very real possibility. I suppose it depends on how many quests can be turned in during the time limit. I plan on testing this week and will update this post with my results. Stay tuned, and keep the great ideas coming!
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Shane Scarbrough
Shane Scarbrough is the founder of the Skyrim Fansite. He's a business owner, video game journalist, and role playing game aficionado. When he's not working he enjoys reading, writing, and playing video games. He's currently on his third playthrough of Skyrim, and is playing as a Templar in The Elder Scrolls Online. You can find Shane on Google+ and FaceBook.
When you quest, you get a big amount when you hand in a quest.
Did you try doing a bunch of quests at a relxed pace, but rather than clicking completed, click goodbye.
Then when you have a bunch of quests ready to hand in, which you did at a relaxed speed, take the potion, and run like a mad man from hand in point to hand in point, handing them all in during you xp bonus time?
Thanks for your comment Max. I started all the quests from scratch, so most of the time was burned completing the actual quests (only 4 turned in within the 50 minute time limit).
I must say, your questing game plan is brilliant: stockpile the completed quests BEFORE drinking the Psijic Ambrosia, and then spend the 50 minutes simply turning them in for XP. Very nice 🙂
Not only will this result in more Experience Points gained than the method I used, it will allow for the relaxed pace of actual questing that I for one enjoy. It’s like having your Sweet Roll and eating it too. Well played, sir!
Davey
9 years ago
I tested the psijic ambrosia quest turn in method. The strategy is pretty much as described – clear your quest journal as much as possible, enter a new area, complete as many hard quests to the turn-in conversation. (If it’s a multi-step quest, I played to the final turn in. This has the biggest XP reward.)
I was able to hold 17 quests, 6 were also area clears. Being ps4, I don’t have any way to measure actual XP numbers other than using the online charts and guesstimating. At vet levels, I estimated my average turn in was worth 11,250 XP, and area clears added 7,500 extra. By that math, the original XP would have been 236,250. The psijic bonus therefore was 118,125, or 1/7th a vet level.
I spent $3500 for the potion (yeah…prices are waaaaaay down on those). I’m pretty confident I could steal $3500 back in under an hour, where earning 120k XP seems like a lot longer. I think it’s a good strategy.
Weird side note – I am an impatient khajiit who dreams of the open plains and chasing down prey, lol, so I use retreating maneuver to get my butt in gear. However, I swear that speeding up via retreating maneuver speeds up the psijic clock. But is need to test that further.
Excellent information, Davey. Really appreciate the time and effort you put into this. This is going to help a lot of players looking to level their characters quickly.
When you quest, you get a big amount when you hand in a quest.
Did you try doing a bunch of quests at a relxed pace, but rather than clicking completed, click goodbye.
Then when you have a bunch of quests ready to hand in, which you did at a relaxed speed, take the potion, and run like a mad man from hand in point to hand in point, handing them all in during you xp bonus time?
Thanks for your comment Max. I started all the quests from scratch, so most of the time was burned completing the actual quests (only 4 turned in within the 50 minute time limit).
I must say, your questing game plan is brilliant: stockpile the completed quests BEFORE drinking the Psijic Ambrosia, and then spend the 50 minutes simply turning them in for XP. Very nice 🙂
Not only will this result in more Experience Points gained than the method I used, it will allow for the relaxed pace of actual questing that I for one enjoy. It’s like having your Sweet Roll and eating it too. Well played, sir!
I tested the psijic ambrosia quest turn in method. The strategy is pretty much as described – clear your quest journal as much as possible, enter a new area, complete as many hard quests to the turn-in conversation. (If it’s a multi-step quest, I played to the final turn in. This has the biggest XP reward.)
I was able to hold 17 quests, 6 were also area clears. Being ps4, I don’t have any way to measure actual XP numbers other than using the online charts and guesstimating. At vet levels, I estimated my average turn in was worth 11,250 XP, and area clears added 7,500 extra. By that math, the original XP would have been 236,250. The psijic bonus therefore was 118,125, or 1/7th a vet level.
I spent $3500 for the potion (yeah…prices are waaaaaay down on those). I’m pretty confident I could steal $3500 back in under an hour, where earning 120k XP seems like a lot longer. I think it’s a good strategy.
Weird side note – I am an impatient khajiit who dreams of the open plains and chasing down prey, lol, so I use retreating maneuver to get my butt in gear. However, I swear that speeding up via retreating maneuver speeds up the psijic clock. But is need to test that further.
Excellent information, Davey. Really appreciate the time and effort you put into this. This is going to help a lot of players looking to level their characters quickly.