Can you earn any decent gold by actually DOING Master Writs?

CasgarTheSomnolent

Recently, facing yet another inventory crisis after one of the events, I finally bit the bullet and said "I'm going to go get more storage coffers and chests." With writ vouchers. So, I started doing some of the master writs I'd acquired on my main crafter (maxxed out on all skills, 6-9 traits researched on all equipment.)

And it was surprisingly fun. When my writs ran out, I started going around the guild traders and finding these legendary writs that I could actually do with my trait and motif knowledge. And I did them at my guild's house and pretty quickly had all eight storage containers. It's fun making these combinations of things no one would ever make and trying to find the writs and materials at good prices. I got pretty analytical, even made some nice Excel graphs, and can get most equipment writs (not jewelry, of course) done for 700-750 gold per voucher total cost including materials.

But now I have all my storage, and I do the occasional writ to top off on vouchers for instant researches, and that's about all I need for myself. But I enjoy the activity, so I wonder if I could actually make gold off of doing the writs. Of course, this would have to involve converting writs into vouchers, and then buying things with the vouchers, and then selling those things at a net profit. I like the idea of making money by adding value to something rather than just trying to buy low and sell high.

However, there's only so much that you can buy between Rolis and Faustina, and I'm not sure if any of it can be made decently profitable. Take the Glass motif, for example. 180 vouchers. On Tamriel Trade Center, it's listing at about 130k in a various places. 130k/180 vouchers = 722 gold/voucher, which would be at best a minor profit for a large investment. The Ebony motif would be a straight loss at its TTC prices, and the Aetherial Ambrosia recipe would be a modest profit at best.

I'm just wondering if I'm missing something, or if this really is just how it is. I'm not going to spend hundreds of thousands of gold to make 5% profit. It would be pretty cool to turn a virtual hobby into a virtual job, but I'm not going to be naive about it. What are y'all's thoughts and experiences?

tmbrinks

I am making pretty good money by doing master writs and selling the items I can buy from the vendor.

However, there is one big, HUGE difference. I am not buying any master writs. I am only doing the ones that I get (other than JC) from doing my own personal writs. This cuts the cost down to between 300-350g per voucher for me to make them with my own personal materials that I get from those same writs and collecting the surveys. So being able to sell items for 650-700g per voucher (which is where it's at on PC/NA) nets me a decent profit.

CasgarTheSomnolent

Hmm, interesting. Makes sense. Kind of figured it was probably a bust if I had to buy them, but I wanted to at least ask.

I get master writs trickling in on my main crafter, but there aren't that many, and they come with small voucher numbers. Burned through them pretty quickly and had to go hunting if I was going to get the vouchers for my storage. That's how I learned about these large, legendary writs and got kind of hooked on them.

(As an aside, I've done plenty of searching about master writ drop rates, and it still seems pretty mysterious, and a lot of the info seems outdated. Seems it's related to number of crafting achievements. Do the number of vouchers per writ also scale with achievements. If this has been answered satisfactorily with recent info somewhere, just point me in that direction, no need to get into that here.)

Before I asked this question, I was kind of facing a choice with how I wanted to approach master writs. I have four other lowest level crafters who are good for easy money and other writ rewards, but they're, of course, not getting me master writs. I kind of wanted to avoid the hassle of grinding them all up the ladder to top level, but I guess that's what I need to do if I want to get a decent influx of master writs.

My initial thought had been that I would then need to get into the business of selling the writs themselves. I think I could price them right since I've bought so many myself, but since they're random, they're certainly going to be a question mark in terms of demand. Your idea actually offers a decent middle ground. Save all my master writs for myself, keep building up my ability to craft them, and then convert them into more standard things people would be interested in buying. I could get behind that. Thanks.

commdt

Vouchers now cost ~800gp. So if your material cost + buying price (if you buy them) is lower than that, than it is profitable.
As for how to monetize vouchers, I can think of these ways:
1. Research scrolls sell fine at even at slightly higher prices than other voucher goods
2. You can always spend your vouchers on recipe containers (aka "Documents"), preferably Morrowind ones (as it is nearly impossible for them to drop the other way than from documents). Not sure what an average rate would be as it is random drop
3. You can just sit on your vouchers and wait for occasion as ZOS regularly through there something new. I.e. I recently sold 3.500 vouchers for nearly 3.5M as attunable jewelry stations for some guildmaster
4. Other than that raw material are always in demand, like Animus stone or Diminished Aetherial dust

tmbrinks

CasgarTheSomnolent wrote: »

Hmm, interesting. Makes sense. Kind of figured it was probably a bust if I had to buy them, but I wanted to at least ask.

I get master writs trickling in on my main crafter, but there aren't that many, and they come with small voucher numbers. Burned through them pretty quickly and had to go hunting if I was going to get the vouchers for my storage. That's how I learned about these large, legendary writs and got kind of hooked on them.

(As an aside, I've done plenty of searching about master writ drop rates, and it still seems pretty mysterious, and a lot of the info seems outdated. Seems it's related to number of crafting achievements. Do the number of vouchers per writ also scale with achievements. If this has been answered satisfactorily with recent info somewhere, just point me in that direction, no need to get into that here.)

Before I asked this question, I was kind of facing a choice with how I wanted to approach master writs. I have four other lowest level crafters who are good for easy money and other writ rewards, but they're, of course, not getting me master writs. I kind of wanted to avoid the hassle of grinding them all up the ladder to top level, but I guess that's what I need to do if I want to get a decent influx of master writs.

My initial thought had been that I would then need to get into the business of selling the writs themselves. I think I could price them right since I've bought so many myself, but since they're random, they're certainly going to be a question mark in terms of demand. Your idea actually offers a decent middle ground. Save all my master writs for myself, keep building up my ability to craft them, and then convert them into more standard things people would be interested in buying. I could get behind that. Thanks.

The master writ drop rate, from all understanding I have is based on the following

Blacksmithing/Woodworking/Clothing/(Probably Jewelry) - Number of Full, Complete, PURPLE level motifs your character knows (there are few exempted, usually the ones introduced in the last year)
Provisioning - The number of PURPLE recipes your character knows
Alchemy - The number of reagents your character knows all 4 traits of
Enchanting - The number of runestones traits your character has "discovered"

(I also have all my crafters as 8-trait crafters, not 100% sure if that affects the rate or not, but it's easy to research items, so I did it)

The lowest level writs are nice, because they are self-sufficient. That is going to change with the next DLC as they are revamping rewards. I, however, do the max level writs on all my characters, as I use the master writs to make a good amount of gold now.

Best of luck in your crafting endeavors!

jhall03

I basically have the same questions as the OP: what's the best way to make gold from doing master writs. So far, sone said to sell research scrolls, recipe containers, and raw materials.

Would the best advice be to sell more of the cheaper items or save up for larger items? Are there any other recommendations of items to purchase with writs that sell consistently?

Thanks

commdt

Larger items generally cost less per voucher. But not if they were released just today

tmbrinks

jhall03 wrote: »

I basically have the same questions as the OP: what's the best way to make gold from doing master writs. So far, sone said to sell research scrolls, recipe containers, and raw materials.

Would the best advice be to sell more of the cheaper items or save up for larger items? Are there any other recommendations of items to purchase with writs that sell consistently?

Thanks

Most of the items for sale in the writ voucher vendor have similar values on a per-voucher basis. I've found most are between about 600-700 gold per voucher (on PC/NA). Doesn't really matter if they are large items or small items. So, I would say that it's based on whatever you're more comfortable doing.

If you're only earning say 25-100 vouchers a week from master writs, maybe go with the research scrolls, guilding wax and other smaller items. If you're 100+, maybe you want to sell larger items. It'll all work out to be pretty even in the long run.

Research Scrolls, Guilding Wax, tend to sell well. I've had some success selling the crafting (non-attunable) stations in my guilds recently as well, usually only takes a day or two to sell.

jhall03

tmbrinks wrote: »

Most of the items for sale in the writ voucher vendor have similar values on a per-voucher basis. I've found most are between about 600-700 gold per voucher (on PC/NA). Doesn't really matter if they are large items or small items. So, I would say that it's based on whatever you're more comfortable doing.

If you're only earning say 25-100 vouchers a week from master writs, maybe go with the research scrolls, guilding wax and other smaller items. If you're 100+, maybe you want to sell larger items. It'll all work out to be pretty even in the long run.

Research Scrolls, Guilding Wax, tend to sell well. I've had some success selling the crafting (non-attunable) stations in my guilds recently as well, usually only takes a day or two to sell.

Thank you; that's a great response.

Jayne_Doe

Regarding master writ drop chance, not much has changed from this official post:

ZOS_Bel_Shezzar wrote: »
Tradeskill mastery (which determines your odds of receiving a master writ from a top tier writ reward box) is meant to imply a long-term dedication to the craft. This varies from tradeskill to tradeskill.

For Blacksmithing, Clothier, and Woodworking, this means motif knowledge and overall completion of trait research. This does not include Crown-exclusive motifs or motifs for the 9 base player races. It focuses on motifs that take some effort to learn – like Xivkyn, or Minotaur, or Celestial.
For Provisioning, this is instead your collection of known purple and gold recipes as they are a strong overall representation of dedication to craft.
With Enchanting, we instead look at the total overall rune word translations you’ve completed on that character.
And with Alchemy, we look at how many reagents from which you’ve completely learned all effects.

Over time, the contributing factors for this may expand as the associated tradeskill mechanics do.

And, unfortunately, this knowledge does not contribute to the value of the master writ, only the chance to get one.

And, as far as gear writs are concerned, you need to keep up with the motifs that they add to the writ pool in order to maintain the max chance to get gear Master Writs. Only motifs included in the pool count towards the max chance, which has remained flat since Morrowind, iirc. So, we're not going to get an increased chance at master writs with each new motif we learn that's been added to the pool, it will only keep us apace with the max chance.

It is unclear whether any crafting achievements contribute to this chance (outside of the ones obtained by meeting the above requirements, such as trait research or learning reagents). Some have speculated that furnishing crafting achievements have an effect, but as far as I know, the only official word from ZOS is the above quoted post.

tmbrinks

Jayne_Doe wrote: »

Regarding master writ drop chance, not much has changed from this official post:

ZOS_Bel_Shezzar wrote: »
Tradeskill mastery (which determines your odds of receiving a master writ from a top tier writ reward box) is meant to imply a long-term dedication to the craft. This varies from tradeskill to tradeskill.

For Blacksmithing, Clothier, and Woodworking, this means motif knowledge and overall completion of trait research. This does not include Crown-exclusive motifs or motifs for the 9 base player races. It focuses on motifs that take some effort to learn – like Xivkyn, or Minotaur, or Celestial.
For Provisioning, this is instead your collection of known purple and gold recipes as they are a strong overall representation of dedication to craft.
With Enchanting, we instead look at the total overall rune word translations you’ve completed on that character.
And with Alchemy, we look at how many reagents from which you’ve completely learned all effects.

Over time, the contributing factors for this may expand as the associated tradeskill mechanics do.

And, unfortunately, this knowledge does not contribute to the value of the master writ, only the chance to get one.

And, as far as gear writs are concerned, you need to keep up with the motifs that they add to the writ pool in order to maintain the max chance to get gear Master Writs. Only motifs included in the pool count towards the max chance, which has remained flat since Morrowind, iirc. So, we're not going to get an increased chance at master writs with each new motif we learn that's been added to the pool, it will only keep us apace with the max chance.

It is unclear whether any crafting achievements contribute to this chance (outside of the ones obtained by meeting the above requirements, such as trait research or learning reagents). Some have speculated that furnishing crafting achievements have an effect, but as far as I know, the only official word from ZOS is the above quoted post.

Thanks for sharing this. I do seem to recall that they added a few more motifs to the "pool" recently though... perhaps with Murkmire? I'll see if I can find the patch notes for it. (Also, I just re-read what you wrote, after drinking my coffee, and you were saying something different than what I initially read... I really shouldn't read the forums before coffee. I thought you were saying the "pool" had remained stable since morrowind, but you were saying the "chance" has remained stable, even with the pool increasing)

EDIT: Found this in the patch notes for Summerset

The following Motifs will now contribute to your chance to acquire Master Writs:
Apostle
Bloodforge
Dreadhorn
Ebonshadow
Fang Lair
Scalecaller
Worm Cult

I wonder what the requirements are for Jewelry Master writs? Perhaps, if it's really easy to get to "max chance" this would explain why a lot of people are adamant that their drop rate is higher.

EDIT 2:

You can now obtain Jewelry Crafting Master Writs as a potential reward from completing normal Jewelry Crafting Writs.
Much like other tradeskills' Master Writs, these come in a tradeable, sellable item. Once you consume the item, however, the quest is bound to you and must either be completed or abandoned.
Learning additional Traits in Jewelry Crafting will increase your chances of obtaining a Jewelry Crafting Master Writ.

So... the requirements for getting JC master writs are significantly easier than the others (other than Alchemy and Enchanting perhaps)...