Sly_Hunter wrote: »

I don't want to make 100 axes so I can make one single one I can use at my level. Can a toon be viable without crafting?

The best gear:

• Is dropped rather than crafted.
• May be improved and/or transmuted based on your crafting skills.

In the simplest example, you should eventually use gold weapons, which in most cases you will need to upgrade from their original color to gold, which is forbiddingly expensive to do unless you've leveled Woodworking to a high level (I forget exactly how high -- 42?)

So it's worth leveling crafting, but there's no rush. Only when you're CP 160, getting good gear, and wanting it to be even better does crafting actually matter.

It also is easier to level your second and later characters if you craft gear and food for them every 10 levels or so, but of course not mandatory.

One thing -- you should use crafted food as you first level. It can be bought rather than made yourself, and indeed it's so cheap to make somebody may give it to you as a gift. But however you get it, it makes a huge difference.

As a side note, deconstructing stuff is way more efficient than making stuff when it comes to leveling up your crafting.

I recommend researching important traits like divines, impen, sturdy so you can trait change instead of farming for the perfect trait on every single item.

A lot of the really good gear is locked behind Group Dungeons etc.

But, during development there are pretty good sets that you can build for yourself provided you are up to it.

The relevant forges are all over the place and require that you know x traits in the item you are building to use them.
Thus it costs you little (except some Skill points) to research anything you do not know as soon as you can.

If you have ESO Plus you will have no limits to Materials stored and double your bank size for storing stuff you want to learn the traits from.

I have 10 characters and almost all of them have maxed the crafting skills by deconstructing gear until they get to level 50. Half of them have got the full 9 traits in everything, because once you get the Nirnhoned Traits for one character you only need to find (or buy) the Nirncrux or appropriately powered items to pass it on.

Malborn
PC-EU

Even if you don't craft gear, you still have to transmute your own gear, and improve your own bind-on-pickup gear from dungeons/trials. Others can't help with those parts.

So deconstruct any worthless stuff you find, and keep researching important traits.

As long as one of your Toons is 'going for Crafting', he can build gear for all your others (as long as he stays ahead of the rest). That was what I did.

Malborn
PC-EU
1002 CP
Legendary Master Crafter