Grianasteri wrote: »Thanks. Yes I have heard that writs are one of the main avenues.
I hate crafting writs, so I wondered if there was any methods outside of the usual writ/decon grind.
Taleof2Cities wrote: »One other important item to check @Grianasteri:
Are you actually improving your own gear sets and running the types of ESO content that require gold-improved gear??
Because the difference between purple and gold on weapons and armor is minuscule. And, purple works fine in the vast majority of the game’s content.
So, unless you’re trying to make a buck by selling gold improvement mats ... or chasing PvE Leaderboards or doing PvP raids ... there’s really no reason to invest the time in gold upgrades.
I have 18 characters doing maximum tier writs every day, and that's by far the most efficient method; it takes around an hour, but you can divide that time if you have less characters. Considering the drop rate for those materials from writs is around 35%, I expect to get 6 wax, 6 alloy, 6 rosin, 6 kuta every day; for chromium grains it's harder to estimate since I get double drops not that infrequently and sometimes a whole plating so I think 1-1.2 plating per day is the average. 16 also have hirelings, and I've seen 1-2 from the former category drop from those mails as well. Once a month I pick up my surveys, on average 6-8K raw materials from each category, so another 30-40 gold upgrade materials, since the drop rate is about 1 per 200 raw materials refined on average.
Making weapons gold is essential, but for armor and especially jewelry, not that much. The difference between purple and gold jewelry is minute. I usually prefer using purple jewelry on my builds until the golden vendor in Cyrodiil stocks the gold version or I get some from trials or leaderboards. I do upgrade my armor, but only if I'm absolutely sure the setup works. I never upgrade gear pieces from normal trial sets, if there is a perfected version for that set, I can farm later; the only exception is Asylum 2H where there is almost no difference in practice between normal and perfected (people never get so low on HP for you to get the 15th ultimate when you land the killing blow). Before I make a build I always calculate the stats with the build editor, and it's pretty easy to just replace purple with gold quality there and compare the stats, to see if it's worth it, or if the build is indeed effective, not to waste those materials. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor
Grianasteri wrote: »I have 18 characters doing maximum tier writs every day, and that's by far the most efficient method; it takes around an hour, but you can divide that time if you have less characters. Considering the drop rate for those materials from writs is around 35%, I expect to get 6 wax, 6 alloy, 6 rosin, 6 kuta every day; for chromium grains it's harder to estimate since I get double drops not that infrequently and sometimes a whole plating so I think 1-1.2 plating per day is the average. 16 also have hirelings, and I've seen 1-2 from the former category drop from those mails as well. Once a month I pick up my surveys, on average 6-8K raw materials from each category, so another 30-40 gold upgrade materials, since the drop rate is about 1 per 200 raw materials refined on average.
Making weapons gold is essential, but for armor and especially jewelry, not that much. The difference between purple and gold jewelry is minute. I usually prefer using purple jewelry on my builds until the golden vendor in Cyrodiil stocks the gold version or I get some from trials or leaderboards. I do upgrade my armor, but only if I'm absolutely sure the setup works. I never upgrade gear pieces from normal trial sets, if there is a perfected version for that set, I can farm later; the only exception is Asylum 2H where there is almost no difference in practice between normal and perfected (people never get so low on HP for you to get the 15th ultimate when you land the killing blow). Before I make a build I always calculate the stats with the build editor, and it's pretty easy to just replace purple with gold quality there and compare the stats, to see if it's worth it, or if the build is indeed effective, not to waste those materials. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor
Thanks
I make extensive use of the build editor to theory craft my builds.
I do not have the time to dedicate to crafting writs, so as I suspected, it would seem my best and most efficient route to gold mats, is to simply buy them from guild stores. I do plenty of content that generates gold, so that is probably the best option. Writs for me are not fun, plenty other content is, so I guess thats my answer.