Crafted sets worth the effort ? ( opinion )

Snycka

Like many of you, I have devoted countless hours of farming mats, motifs, research time, ect... with the end state goal of being able to craft the best gear available for my t00ns. Currently my crafting skills are all capped at 50 ( with the exception of the slow moving Enchanting at 42 ).

My concern is that crafted set gear is sub par in comparison to set gear easily attainable via random drop or pvp.

From what I can tell, the set gear that is most in demand end game include Warlock ( drop ) , Magicka Furnace ( drop ), Worm ( drop ), Dragonguard ( drop ), Potentates ( PvP ), and Wrath of the Imperium ( PvP ).

Standard crafted sets I see are Willow's Path & Night Mother's Gaze.

Yes.... I know we have the ability to "improve" gear...but realistically, when you are at VR12 ( soon to be VR14 ), your soft caps should be close to ( if not already capped ) maxed out via passive skills and such.

I mean no disrespect to the developers, nor to my fellow crafters, but really? Does the time devoted / reward ratio = or surpass that of the folks who grab better gear sets via drop?

Feel free to flame / troll if you like, Guess I'm just getting a bit frustrated as I had higher hopes for crafting.

Thanks

Semper Fi
Snycka

Soloeus

PVP gear is actually the best and I like that its so expensive. I will not spend alliance points again whatsoever until I can get a full top level set. I won't make a purchase until I am top level and knowing VR will cap at no shorter than 20, I have plenty of time to earn my points.

Crafted Gear is equal with Dropped Gear of the same standing, only perhaps a little easier to get a hold of because you can control it. You can make it. Dropped gear you might not ever find. Bad luck. You might find a piece in a guild store that is 20 levels below you.

To be honest I only like 5 crafted sets and I only like 3 dropped sets. It feels like what it should be.

Soriana

Actually, most of your passives seem to be maxed out much earlier than V12. I have found the crafted sets to be a huge help in our guild, especially to our lower level players. The higher level players have the luxury of mixing and matching to find what boosts help them the most and which ones are just fun to play with.

Vuron

Snycka wrote: »

I mean no disrespect to the developers, nor to my fellow crafters, but really? Does the time devoted / reward ratio = or surpass that of the folks who grab better gear sets via drop?

I've never agreed that crafters should be able to create the absolute best armor or weapons in the game. I do agree that time devoted should equal the reward but feel that adventuring takes more time than crafting. Most of the dropped sets that you mentioned are not easy to obtain and take many, many runs to get the pieces (if you ever get them).

Seriously, leveling crafting other than enchanting can be done as an afterthought. The "skill" to crafting involves standing in front of a crafting station and hitting "R" a couple hundred times. The time it takes to research traits involves nothing more than waiting for one to finish before starting another. You get free mats simply by putting a few points in a hireling.

If you look at it from a risk/reward standpoint or even the amount of effort involved, than crafting should never match dropped sets.

Having said that, most people are running with crafted sets. Even the people that manage to get the rare 5 piece dropped sets still craft 3 piece sets.

Enjinir

I think that there is definitely still some balancing to do, as I'm more naturally drawn to the dropped sets, but it is nice being able to min-max and really customize what set combos you want to utilize, like being able to do three separate three-set bonus combos. (four, if you add a dropped set jewelry three-set bonus)

pilotfish

I don't feel like there has been much effort required to max several crafts. Simply existing in the game and routing resources in the appropriate direction has yielded multiple crafts at 50. You don't even need to invest skill points to hit 50 in a craft. Deconstruct everything and it will come. Research? Hit one button and wait. Reward vs effort feels fine to me.

shadowz081

Most crafted set are quite useless or very situational...The trait 8 sets are just plain bad for the amount of time you have to put in to get it, honestly, I would get a seducer set which is 3 traits than most of the 8 trait sets.

poodlemasterb16_ESO

Vampires most definitely benefit from the Song of Lamae and Vampires Kiss combo. I run it on both my Vampires.

As for crafting it is not especially complicated but does take a lot of time to get and keep everything running, the last traits take forever. The sheer amount of stuff you have to go through to get it all, especially the last couple of traits, is impressive.

I make no judgement about what's the better way to acquire sets but with 4 fighters and 3 crafters I can say both take time and effort.

HeroOfEvbof

My thing is that the dropped sets that interest me the most often do not have hand, waist, foot components. Furthermore the best dropped sets all have head and shoulder components resulting in conflict.
Another thing that I look at is that there are seven armor slots and three jewelry. I'm the kinda person that wants my weapon and shield to play into my sets.
The result of this is I have a couple crafted sets. My shield right now is teamed up with both finger slots as a dropped set, while neck/head/shoulder are a dropped set.
Chest, leg and weapon are a crafted set while hand/waist/foot are as well.
I actually have two different hand/waist/foot configurations. One is all light and helps spell crit, the other is all heavy and helps healing received.

There are some dropped sets that get their game modifying factor from 3-piece bonus. Warlock for example. Sticking with these types of sets lets me tailor make my stats through the supplemental use of crafted sets

indigoblades

No and Yes...

For me Yes, but i like making stuff so spend Way to much time crafting. i do Arm, Clothing, Woodwork and Ench. Alts are learning Alch. and Prov. (at least i send em mats to level someday.) . ....

For the average person id minimize crafting especially at lower levels, the stuff decays so fast just use pickups 1-50 .... At VR i recommend minimally crafting if u dont enjoy it ... buy enchants, and only learn 1 or 2 Arm/cloth/Woodwork to mininum level. Me i am a fan of crafting in skyrim. Its the one major reason i was attracted to ESO, was hoping match sets would be somewhat OP & look nice.

Now i am all most VR3 and all most 8 trait sets researched for one set, with 2 eight traits sets a month later, I am disappointed with gold enchants, gold equipment and 8 traits sets it doesn't look that much more powerful if any than stuff in the game. Thats weak to me ....but i keep crafting & it keeps me playing when this that or the other pisses me off.

My advice is if u love grinding and making gold don't craft. If u enjoy creating stuff, then craft by all means. At least we are not highly penalized for crafting, but when i consider i play all daily often many hours, i am less far along in level and money than others. Another words, the time i spend: making gold for bank upgrades, researching, farming mats and juggling inventory in alts could be spent grinding & questing id be way farther ahead .... Probably 10 levels with a LOT more money.

Again do what u like best. Id probably be much happier if matched 6 & 8 traits sets more buffed & in general the armors looked better.

indytims_ESO

I thought Zeni stated that they were going to re-examing set-bonuses sometime in the future. Maybe I misread.

I sure hope they do, because most of the set bonuses are just not that enticing.

Theoretically crafting should provide gear at least equal to the best available in the game, but as the OP demonstrated, that doesn't seem to be the case.

indigoblades

shadowz081 wrote: »

Most crafted set are quite useless or very situational...The trait 8 sets are just plain bad for the amount of time you have to put in to get it, honestly, I would get a seducer set which is 3 traits than most of the 8 trait sets.

i agree 100%, torqs pact is good too for 3 traits... u can research 3 levels in a day.... Also 3 or 4 traits are common at low prices in guild stores ... researching above that takes lots of skill points and time and planning the the rewards are marginally greater.

Enchanting takes FOREVER and not worth it just to get ahead .... u can buy white glyphs with 10% less damage. i buy white any way and deconstruct everything i make to level enchanting. If u want/need higher glyphs use the money u make playing to buy them ... my 2 cents only craft, if u like crafting but its definitely not worth putting major time in it.

Prov looks easy but i have got by on pick ups or low price stuff i see .. same with alch but i am gonna try to learn to get adv potions like inv or spell crit. Again its what u enjoy.

Fleymark

My main is a stamina archer build so there really aren't a lot of options. Last couple of teirs I've gone 5 pieces of hundings and 3 of something else...currently whitestrake (the dmg shield one) but I think deaths wind (the knockback one) was better for my playstyle, I think, but being more noticeable has a lot to do with that probably.

There seems to be a lot more appealing options for caster and magicka builds, but if memory serves there are some good ones for stamina when you have 8 traits. I'm at 5 and 6 + now. And there was an official post in another thread a couple weeks ago that said they are going to look at making more sets for stamina builds available, so that will be interesting to see. Just started some caster alts so I'm excited to see what all I can make for them.

One thing I would love to see is the 3 and 5 piece requirements dropped to 2 and 4, personally. I understand why this limitation exists, but think it would open things up to more set customization and combos if we could effectively use 2 of what is now 5 piece effects or 4 of what are now 3 piece effects or some combo but this is just a wishlist kind of thing I have. I do understand if they thought it might be a bit op.

But, yeah, I really like being able to craft sets. Adds an extra dimension to crafting and with regeneration effects commonly being available on sets it opens up jewelry glyphs for more interesting things. Also gives research value beyond just having the traits.

Actually, in general, of all of the complaints I may have about the game I think the crafting is a very fun part of it and look forward to more as we get further along.

In fact, as I wrote this, it just occured to me that crafting is probably my favorite part of the game, come to think of it. Looking forward to more set options for sure, though.

jpsmithub17_ESO1

I did not see much point to crafted sets, from the beginning, for the Nightblade archer/DW. I found the random looted Kyne's Flight set to be good enough, and cheap to upgrade for early Veteran levels. I figure the Clothing skill will be more useful for upgrading random set pieces later.

AreoHotah

Not really.

Grim13

Again, both Yes and No.

Yes, the numbers make them worth it on paper... No, because many of the bonuses appear to currently be broken.

Gokmak

I enjoy the crafting in this game. At least you can make some useful stuff.

In other games, like Neverwinter, the crafting is useless garbage. In this game, some of it is pretty darn good. Maybe not the best, but still good.

kieso

Ideally you should be able to craft any set in the game that drops or is purchasable through "special points"; in an MMO the best gear distribution scenario is one where you can get items through multiple means; be it achievement points of any kind, random drops or through crafting. I really hope they take a look at crafting soon.

poodlemasterb16_ESO

I dunno 'bought 'worth the effort. Just timed my run to the Vampire's Kiss station in the Alkir Desert. It was 34 secs from the wayshire, and my blacksmith's horse is no speed demon.

The stations are mostly pretty fast to get to, once you know the way.

neueregel

I like crafting a set, because I can control the way it looks. Some of the drop sets are fugly...

Dekkameron

Fleymark wrote: »

My main is a stamina archer build so there really aren't a lot of options. Last couple of teirs I've gone 5 pieces of hundings and 3 of something else...currently whitestrake (the dmg shield one) but I think deaths wind (the knockback one) was better for my playstyle, I think, but being more noticeable has a lot to do with that probably..

Yer i think Hunding's rage and Nights Silence are really the only two viable archer sets alas (Nights silence doesnt work though i believe)

Vazkahkatz

Hehe I love going into pvp wearing the death's wind set, jumping into a Zerg and popping my vamp swarm ult then when I die... BOOM!

AlexDougherty

Dekkameron wrote: »

Fleymark wrote: »

My main is a stamina archer build so there really aren't a lot of options. Last couple of teirs I've gone 5 pieces of hundings and 3 of something else...currently whitestrake (the dmg shield one) but I think deaths wind (the knockback one) was better for my playstyle, I think, but being more noticeable has a lot to do with that probably..

Yer i think Hunding's rage and Nights Silence are really the only two viable archer sets alas (Nights silence doesnt work though i believe)

Hunding's rage was supposed to be bugged too, don't know if they fixed it.

Delte

I find that crafting is not as important in the game as the devs have stated in previous videos. Once again the game caters to the gear grind instead of a healthy balance between crafting and loot drops.

ESOcrafter

Delte wrote: »

I find that crafting is not as important in the game as the devs have stated in previous videos. Once again the game caters to the gear grind instead of a healthy balance between crafting and loot drops.

Agree w/you 100%. The main reason I preordered this game and have been playing since EA was because of the promise the Devs have made that crafted items would be if not the best items that they would be at the very least on par with what is. In the current state the crafted sets are by no means the best or on par with what is.

ZOS needs to live up to what they said crafting would be when they were hyping this game up before release.

HeroOfEvbof

All the trials runners in my guild use crafted sets. Most of the PvP people use PvP sets, sure cause those are the bomb.
The guild crafters in my guild are constantly making VR12 gear for each toon that reaches that level. Along the way we make gear for VR8's and VR10's. Meanwhile for every guildie making an alt, we make gear for them as well, even going so much as to make lvl 8 gear.
My guild doesnt dislike dropped sets, it just doesnt see the need to have each member pay gold in zone chat for each particular piece of the good dropped sets.
Our crafters only charge enough to recoup purple or yellow tempers or purple or yellow runes. Green and blue are free.
Even in our trade guild adjunct guild, green is free and a person only pays for ingots/cloth at the normal store rate of 6g per.
Thus we all run around in crafted gear, even some of our top PvP players who have 800,000 Alliance Points prefer to run around in crafted gear.

Vanzen

For PVP you need impenetrable, so you need crafted set ...
Writing this I know understand why droped set have such crappy traits, its to keep crafted superior to looted

LonePirate

The 2-6 trait sets are worth the time required to research them.

The 8 trait sets are not worth the refined mats used to create the white versions of the gear, let alone the 2 months or so of time needed to create them.

Ashtaris

shadowz081 wrote: »

Most crafted set are quite useless or very situational...The trait 8 sets are just plain bad for the amount of time you have to put in to get it, honestly, I would get a seducer set which is 3 traits than most of the 8 trait sets.

I have to agree with you there. Considering it can literally take months to research 8 traits on five items, and looking at the 8 trait sets, it just doesn't seem like it was worth all that extra time. Most of the sets I wear are 6 trait sets or below because they have a better buff than most of the 8 trait sets.

blutstein

I'm not a hardcore player, and only have a limited time to play - therefore its more timeconsuming to form dungeon groups (i think i will never do raids in ESO) and hoping for a drop, so crafting is my best option to be at least near the top equipment. so yes, for me, its totally woth the effort.
And i choose my sets not for min-maxing. i choose them to fit my playstyle.

eliisra

Crafted sets > dropped and bartered sets.

Traits are more important than the actual 5-set bonus. Which makes 90% of all dropped sets obsolete.

I really don't get it myself, why go through the trouble of creating all these sets when they cant be used effectively? ZoS really needs to step it up when it comes to itemization. There's actual VR12 gear with exploration and training...

Either make all traits viable, or allow us to change traits.

Vanity reasons as well, equally important imo. Crafted gear looks so much better.