Provisioning: I think I figured it out

je25ffb14_ESO · July 2014

First off, the mats for provisioning match the level of the area where you are, just like everything else. For example, you will see Iron and Jute in low level areas just like you will see provisioning mats in barrels and crates.

Secondly, the way to level provisioning is to get your inventory down to somewhere around 30/80 or 20/70. Go to each 'habitable' area and every single dungeon and loot EVERY SINGLE barrel and crate. Gather all of it. You will have to do the lowest level areas until level 35+ provisioning. The difference between other crafting is that just making a recipe provides a lot of XP, since there is no deconstructing. So gather a lot, and craft a lot.

Preferably, you will want to do this after you've out
leveled the area, unless you want to level provisioning first.

Just my two cents..

Pele · July 2014

I am not certain about non-vets, but for vets, prov mats match your character's level not your current zone's level. Vets cannot find low level prov mats or recipes regardless of what zone they are in.

deathmasterl_ESO · July 2014

Pele wrote: »

I am not certain about non-vets, but for vets, prov mats match your character's level not your current zone's level. Vets cannot find low level prov mats or recipes regardless of what zone they are in.

I really see that as a problem, you should be able to find whatever you want no matter the craft. So trying to get into provisioning at a later level is extremely difficult.

Kashiwagi · July 2014

deathmasterl_ESO wrote: »

I really see that as a problem, you should be able to find whatever you want no matter the craft. So trying to get into provisioning at a later level is extremely difficult.

But there is an easy solution - just create an alt character and use him to loot everything in starter city. Reload and repeat, then put everything in the bank.
You can even travel with him to the second area (just stay on main roads to avoid fights) and gather lvl20-30 ingridients there.

Still, I hope they will fix this. Ingridients SHOULD depend on the area, not on the level.

Sharee · July 2014

je25ffb14_ESO wrote: »

First off, the mats for provisioning match the level of the area where you are, just like everything else. For example, you will see Iron and Jute in low level areas just like you will see provisioning mats in barrels and crates.

That is mostly correct, but there are exceptions. Namely, what i call 'special ingredients' - for example red wheat, or pepper. Red wheat is used for creating higher quality foods across multiple levels/tiers of food, and so it can be found anywhere from the level 15 area up to vet12 areas.

Nightreaver · July 2014

The biggest difference to me between Provisioning and other Crafting skills is that the easiest way to level the other Crafts is to avoid crafting altogether until you reach level cap where as Provisioning needs to start at a low level.

You can level Blacksmithing, Clothing, Enchanting and Woodworking without ever actually crafting a single item. Get a toon to max level then just decon your way to 50.

Alchemy, almost the same. The mats needed at level 1 are the same mats needed at level VR12 and are found in all zones with the exception of the water which determines the level of the potion being made. The correct water needed can be easily attained by going to a zone whose level corresponds with the level of the water needed.

And then there's Provisioning.
If you waited until reached level cap then the first thing you will notice is that you are unable to loot anything but the highest tier recipes making it impossible to even start leveling Provisioning without purchasing the recipes from other players or leveling an alt to get the recipes and mats needed. The second thing you will notice is that even in starting zones you will be looting mats used in high tier recipes.

So while the other crafts can wait, I would recommend leveling Provisioning along with your character.

Woolenthreads · July 2014

Also, you might want to consider not looting every container because those containers in "enemy" faction held areas like "North Beacon" in Auridon, "Farwatch" in Glenumbra or "Dagger's Point Invasion Camp" in Stonefalls hold enemy faction provisioning materials which require enemy faction recipes to use.

Soulshine · July 2014

Nightreaver wrote: »

The biggest difference to me between Provisioning and other Crafting skills is that the easiest way to level the other Crafts is to avoid crafting altogether until you reach level cap where as Provisioning needs to start at a low level.

You can level Blacksmithing, Clothing, Enchanting and Woodworking without ever actually crafting a single item. Get a toon to max level then just decon your way to 50.

Alchemy, almost the same. The mats needed at level 1 are the same mats needed at level VR12 and are found in all zones with the exception of the water which determines the level of the potion being made. The correct water needed can be easily attained by going to a zone whose level corresponds with the level of the water needed.

And then there's Provisioning.
If you waited until reached level cap then the first thing you will notice is that you are unable to loot anything but the highest tier recipes making it impossible to even start leveling Provisioning without purchasing the recipes from other players or leveling an alt to get the recipes and mats needed. The second thing you will notice is that even in starting zones you will be looting mats used in high tier recipes.

So while the other crafts can wait, I would recommend leveling Provisioning along with your character.

eh good luck leveling enchanting that way... lol

Nightreaver · July 2014

eh good luck leveling enchanting that way... lol

Well my Enchanter is only 46. I haven't found any incentive to putting much effort into leveling it further.

Enchanting is slow to level no matter how you do it but yes, deconstructing high level Glyphs was still the best exp I found. Gather runes, send them to another Enchanter to make Glyphs, he sends the Glyphs back that I then decon. Gave me far better exp than I was getting from making Glyphs myself

Srugzal · August 2014

deathmasterl_ESO wrote: »

Pele wrote: »

I am not certain about non-vets, but for vets, prov mats match your character's level not your current zone's level. Vets cannot find low level prov mats or recipes regardless of what zone they are in.

I really see that as a problem, you should be able to find whatever you want no matter the craft. So trying to get into provisioning at a later level is extremely difficult.

This.

There is another, hidden difficulty, and that is that recipes also match your character's level... which means that if you didn't get the recipes early on, you can't even craft anything. There are solutions, of course, such as buying the recipes from your guild store, but if you're a solo player... you're screwed.

I've started leveling a couple of characters just to get recipes and mats for the initial levels of provisioning, until my provisioner is far enough along to use the mats/recipes from her own area. And don't get me started on the alliance-specific recipes/ingredients...

How much the upcoming changes will address these problems remains to be seen.

EDIT Just noticed that @Nightreaver‌ said pretty much the same thing. I'm hoping the changes will make Provisioning less storage intensive, too.

je25ffb14_ESO · August 2014

I had NO idea that the mats weren't lootable at VR+ level. Now I'm glad I'm a hoarder and loot barrels with major OCD as I level.

je25ffb14_ESO · August 2014

I leveled provisioning to 50 first out of all other professions. I had initially thought it was the biggest pain to do, but it's actually the opposite. All you have to do is put in the effort to continually loot barrels and crates.

AlexDougherty · August 2014

je25ffb14_ESO wrote: »

I leveled provisioning to 50 first out of all other professions. I had initially thought it was the biggest pain to do, but it's actually the opposite. All you have to do is put in the effort to continually loot barrels and crates.

Initially it is the biggest pain, it takes ages to get to the point where you can craft level 20 recipes, it's just that after that it gets easy as anything.

Sasky · August 2014

AlexDougherty wrote: »

je25ffb14_ESO wrote: »

I leveled provisioning to 50 first out of all other professions. I had initially thought it was the biggest pain to do, but it's actually the opposite. All you have to do is put in the effort to continually loot barrels and crates.

Initially it is the biggest pain, it takes ages to get to the point where you can craft level 20 recipes, it's just that after that it gets easy as anything.

If you're a compulsive looter (from other TES games), it's by far the easiest to level. I started leveling provisioning just to make some amount of gold from the materials I was looting from containers. I'd just loot everything while questing, then at around a stack of materials I'd go ahead and craft the green food/drink to NPC vend.

With that, I got my character to max level using level 2 or maybe level 3 recipe crafts. In comparison, just deconstructing gear you run across is enough to level crafting mostly in-line with your character level. Alchemy needs a small amount of focus to get the crafting material and water to keep pace with your level. Enchanting is really the only one you can't keep pace with your level without a lot of additional effort.

HeroOfEvbof · August 2014

I leveled Provisioning as I went. I maxed to 50 somewhere around lvl 27. Once I had the six necessary lvl 25 recipes it was a done deal.
I never traded daggers, so my Blacksmith didn't max until level 45. It took a long time before I could count on making blue armor. That damn "90%" is baloney.
Once I was veteran, I leveled three mules to provisioning 50 mostly by careful guild store shopping. I kept watching the stores and jumped on bargains whenever grapes/mash/malt came up.

Woolenthreads · August 2014

If you have Alts then the highest Alt can get appropriate level recipes and give a copy of the first regions L15 recipes and the second regions recipes to the other Alts, for which the First Alt farms the ingredients.

That's currently what I've been doing, though I need to level one of the junior Alts up high enough to get a Combwort Recipe because the recipes available apparently level with the character and my DC Main is in Bangkorai and only gets high recipes.