Master Writ drop chance: Motif styles and recipe knowledge

StrafeSinnlos

I've recently started doing dailies on all of my 12 characters again, and I would like to maximize the number of Master Writs I can get. But there are a couple things I don't understand even now, maybe someone here can clarify...

1. I have a Master Crafter who knows almost all the Motifs in the game. The rest only know the basic blue racial styles and the cheap single-page purples (like Barbaric). I cannot afford to learn all (or even most of) the Motifs on all the other characters, so for know I can do one of the following:

A) Start learning all Motifs on a second character to increase his number of known Motifs. I will eventually run out of cheap styles to learn, but I will then have 2 characters with BETTER than average Motif knowledge.

Start learning Motifs equally on all the characters to incase their knowledge. The numbers will increase slower, but then EACH character will know a bit more than just the basics.

Which of these two options is more likely to increase the Total Master Writ drops for my account?

2. I know that Provisioning Master Writ drop rate is based on recipe knowledge. Do blue recipes count? Or is it just purple and gold ones?

I would appreciate some insight on these questions. I know there are amazing Master crafters out here or maybe you had a similar "Motif learning" dilemma and can share your experience.

P. S. I apologize for any mistakes, English isn't my first language.

redspecter23

The increase in master writ drops from motif knowledge is relatively low compared to the number of motifs you have to learn. Also keep in mind that you need the entire style learned for it to count. Pages alone won't do it until you get that entire style. By all means learn Ancient Elf, Daedric, Barbaric and Primal on each toon if you want. They are very good return on the investment. Any other very cheap motifs might also be fine such as Skinchanger or in the past, Hollowjack, though that is now a bit more expensive due to low supply.

My opinion is that once you learn a motif on one toon, there is very little reason to learn it on an alt. The increased master writ chance just isn't worth the hassle. The writs you want more of are Alchemy and Enchanting and those are comparatively much easier to achieve max writ chances. I have one main toon with most motifs learned and 16 alts each with nothing and I don't notice a difference, though I'm sure it's there if I were to pay closer attention. You'll do better with trait knowledge as that's basically free up until nirnhoned. There is also potential benefit to having traits learned on alts as it reduces toon swapping for transmute and reconstruction.

As far as provisioning is concerned, I don't think blue recipes count, but someone correct me if I'm mistaken.

Taleof2Cities

That's a pretty good summary, @redspecter23.

Here's @tmbrinks Google doc which outlays the master writ criteria (only purple/gold provisioning recipes count by the way).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yQDUjYNQVsIFl0ktkbkSlfYPkzP6pgCOTMQ-qCuzfaI/edit#gid=1019946123

StrafeSinnlos

Thank you for the answers. Yeah, I am learning traits on my alts, it's gonna take a while though... I have only 3 more characters with 7+ traits in all crafts, all those were researched back when I had much more time to play. *sigh* The rest are only just beginning.

Omg, that spreadsheet is amazing! I love spreadsheets, will definitely look into it when I'm not on the phone. The statistics part looks a bit too complex for me (yea, I am dumb in the maths department), but the sheer amount of data is incredible!

Thanks for the help!

LadySinflower

In my never - ending journey toward Master Crafter, I don't specifically seek out motifs for any toons except my main. The main does all of the master writs I get, and if I have to buy a motif to complete one, she gets it. My alts are numbered second, third, etc. I give surplus motifs and recipes I don't plan to sell to #2, then #3, etc. All in the same order. This builds up one at a time in an ordered manner instead of randomly. But I'm not anywhere near completed on my main, let alone any alt. It's a long grind no matter how you do it.