Turning my first alt into mainly a crafter and not much else.

Zombocalypse · October 28

I got my eight characters in my account mapped out with what I want for each of them. My main and first is a shield tank whose attribute points are all put on health.

My second guy will be the clan's master crafter. I got the Khenarthi's Roost house in the moon sugar farm as my first house, and probably stick to it for a long time.

I was wondering how far I must take my second character into the Aldmeri Dominion starter zone story before I can safely abandon story progression and just stick to him crafting in the crafting stations in that first house I got. I will, of course, put crafting stations in that house. All seven if I can help it. It's furnished. But my ESO+ will double what I can put? Right? Hopefully that's enough for all seven stations.

Also, are there storage chests players can put in their houses to store items with? I heard they can be earned through Imperial City Tel Var. Is farming for those soloable? I'm not in the mood to do PvP anytime soon, so hopefully I'll just have to kill trash mobs.

Please help. Thanks.

Dagoth_Rac · October 28

Zombocalypse wrote: »

I got my eight characters in my account mapped out with what I want for each of them. My main and first is a shield tank whose attribute points are all put on health.

My second guy will be the clan's master crafter. I got the Khenarthi's Roost house in the moon sugar farm as my first house, and probably stick to it for a long time.

I was wondering how far I must take my second character into the Aldmeri Dominion starter zone story before I can safely abandon story progression and just stick to him crafting in the crafting stations in that first house I got. I will, of course, put crafting stations in that house. All seven if I can help it. It's furnished. But my ESO+ will double what I can put? Right? Hopefully that's enough for all seven stations.

Also, are there storage chests players can put in their houses to store items with? I heard they can be earned through Imperial City Tel Var. Is farming for those soloable? I'm not in the mood to do PvP anytime soon, so hopefully I'll just have to kill trash mobs.

Please help. Thanks.

You get 1 free storage chest as a level-up reward. The others can be bought with Tel Var, Writ Vouchers, or Crowns. You'll probably want to use Writ Vouchers, which come from doing master writs. You won't get many master writs at first, but just do daily crafting writs and they will start to come. Or buy them (the master writs, not storage chests) with gold from other players.

Destai · October 28

I think whatever character you play the most should be your crafter. And just to level set, this means the character you do research and motifs with. Any character can level the skills, but getting all the motifs and research is where the true work is. Focusing on your main character, who you will play most content with, will naturally acquire more skill points and materials to support crafting.

katanagirl1 · October 28

Crafting requires a lot of skill points to invest in leveling up to max tier materials, doing research to learn traits, upgrading, and deconning items to get the most of them. You can get skill points from doing quests that grant them (the Harborage main quest is a good one for that, or the faction quests) but you can also grab the skyshards overland or in delves and public dungeons, or run group dungeons for the quest and the skill point. I think that will be your limiting factor, how easy and how many of those skill points you can get. I added them up recently and to max out all crafts and get hirelings it is about 100 skill points.

EDIT: typo

Erickson9610 · October 28

Remember that some crafting skill lines (like Alchemy and Provisioning) provide buffs via the passives that would be helpful for PvE and PvP activities. I'd recommend leveling the crafting skill lines on your main character, or at least just the ones with useful passives.

Danikat · October 28

You don't have to do any specific quests or amount of quests on a crafting character, but you do need skill points. Main quests (both the main story quests and the main zone quests, as well as dungeon quests) give skill points, so it may be worth doing those, but you can also get skill points from collecting skyshards which are found dotted around all the maps.

I started off doing quests for skyshards but one One Tamriel came along and allowed us to take any character to any map I found it was quicker and easier to just collect skyshards.

In case you're not aware you can put your skill points into combat skills, use them to complete quests and get skyshards to get more points and then visit any Rededication Shrine to reset them for a small gold fee, so you can put them into crafts instead. You can also use the free Armory Station to have both a combat build and a crafting build saved.

Also you might find it more convenient to keep your crafter in a town that has boards and a drop-off point for daily crafting writs, at least at first. Daily writs are a good way to level crafting, and the only way to get master writs which give you writ vouchers used to buy rare furnishings (including the storage chests), but it quickly gets tedious going between zones to do it.

You can see a list of towns with writ boards and drop-off points, and some notes on other pros and cons, here: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Crafting_Writs

From memory Alinor, Daggerfall, Mournhold, Necrom, Sentinel, Vivec City and Vulkhel Guard also have free inn rooms or cheap apartments in the city. (Rawl'ka has a house very close too, but it costs 335,000g (or 4,400 crowns) so I didn't include it in my list, but I know if I don't mention it people will keep bringing it up.)

Gingaroth · October 28

I think it's a good idea to have a dedicated crafter, certainly when you're just starting out. Becoming a master crafter takes so many skillpoints there aren't much left to also be a good adventurer, at first. Just make sure you have enough bank space for you other characters to dump their motives and recipe on.

Alternatively, you can use the armory station to save a Master Crafter Build and a Solo/Gatherer/WhateverYouWant Build for your crafter.

As for storage space, Moonmirth House counts as a small house.
Crafting stations are traditional furnishings, you can put up to 200 in a small house with ESO+.
Storage coffers and armory station are collectible furnishings, a small house has room for 10 of them with ESO+.
Assistants (like bankers or traders), pets, and mounts are special collectibles, you can place 4 with ESO+.

(Btw, If you are interested in getting a bigger house in the long run, don't miss out on tickets this festival and the next.
You can collect the Haven of the Five Companions house this year for a total of 65 tickets (50 for the 5 keys + 15 for the imp fragments))

I agree with Danikat above here, though. It's more convenient to have a house near a crafting hub. My own favourite house for this is the Sugar Bowl suit in Rimmen, with easy acces to all crafting stations, drop-off point, horse trainer, bank, traders and outlaw's refuge. Bonus: if you teleport to 'outside home', you're actually outside, on the street, you don't first need to leave the inn. It's also a room you can get for free with the 'tenant wanted' quest.

Besides buying crafting stations with tickets, there are 8 crafting stations you can collect for free with antiquities: 2 for metalworing and 1 for all other crafts each.
These function as your standard basic crafting station but are made to look special, with some 'local flavor'.
It's a lot of work getting all of them, but as your character will gain levels and find skyshards and loads of sellable loot along the way, maybe it's not a bad idea. There are:

Anvil of Old Orsinium (in Wrothgar) and/or Ayleid Blacksmithing Station (in West Weald)
Shipbuilder’s Drafting Table (on Galen)
Apocryphal Clothier Station (in Apocrypha & the Infinite Archive)
Apocrypha Jewelry Crafting Station (in Apocrypha & the Infinite Archive)
Daedric Enchanting Station (in the Deadlands)
Druidic Provisioning Station (on High Isle and Amenos)
Telvanni Alchemy Station (on the Telvanni Peninsula)

barney2525 · October 28

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Crafting requires a lot of skill points to invest in leveling up to max tier materials, doing research to learn traits, upgrading, and deconning items to get the most of them. You can get skill points from doing quests that grant them (the Harborage main quest is a good one for that, or the faction quests) but you can also grab the skyshards overland or in delves and public dungeons, or run group dungeons for the quest and the skill point. I think that will be your limiting factor, how easy and how many of those skill points you can get. I added them up recently and to max out all crafts and get hirelings it is about 100 skill points.

EDIT: typo

you can also get lots of skill points by farming skyshards. Go to a normal zone (easiest) just run around and pick up skyshards, and do the delves. Public dungeon skyshards can be ignored depending on the combat capability of the character.

Vulkunne · October 28

So I went about this a little differently. My main character is both a Master Crafter and Tank.

It really makes sense to combine these two functions because many of the things I build come from sets looted from dungeons and my Tank, who is also a Crafter, can go where I need him to go, organizing 4 man groups and securing things I need.

Other characters have different uses however combing Crafter/Tank has over many years proven to be a powerful and time saving combination.

freespirit · October 28

As someone who has decided that on my second account, that I actually play on and want to have all the achievements on my main character but do crafting dailies on alts, this is how I do it on the alts.....

So the tutorial has changed today BUT I spend time in the tutorial zone killing stuff to get to at least lvl 4, ideally lvl 6 but sometimes I get bored.

I then start the Main Quest story in the Harborage to get some more skill points.

By this time I am levell 6 at the very minimum and I get my new character certified for crafting, which in turn allows for crafting dailies now to be done.

Then I start my research, where you may have difficulties/progress slower, is your main character doesn't craft or do crafting dailies does it? I feed my new alt all the inspiration traited items my main gets and also gear that has traits for research that my new alt needs.

I then sit back, do the crafting dailies and keep an eye on my research, the alt lvls up via xp from those dailies and the time spent in the Tutorial Zone and Harborage Quests gave me enough skill points to start unlocking the crafting skills I need. There are skills in those lines you will not need, for example if you are parking your crafter in one place you do not need to unlock 'keen eye'.

I do not rush to get my new crafter to fifty nor do I unlock the first passive to enable use of higher level materials, I find it easier to start with low level mats as they are easy to source.

I do usually unlock the first passive in Jewelry to 5/5 because it requires less skill points, I also research Jewelry traits asap, the reason I do this is Jewelry Master Writs, which will drop frequently once the conditions are met and for you this will give a good source of vouchers to get you those storage chests for your house.

Another good source of skill points are the Mages Guild and Fighters Guild story lines, so actually your new crafter does not need to do any zone story quests at all.

I now have 5 crafting alts on this second account, non have done anything other than the Tutorial, Harborage and Crafting dailies......all are lvl 50 in all crafts but some still use lower lvl mats, depending on how fast you want to go will obviously affect how much questing you need to do on your alt!

Good Luck! 💕

crappyjazz1964 · October 28

You want to have at least one Grand Master Crafter which will take months if not a year or two depending on how much you play. Then as you level other toons and get skill points doing the Harborage and other stuff recommended in this thread you can use the armory to save them as "primary" or whatever and then respec all their skills into crafting and save them as "Crafter". You can take your time leveling their crafting skills but you will make 3 to 5k each day and get more mats for your main crafter to use. Good dependable daily income.

Nestor · October 28

The thing about a master Crafter is the skill points needed and more importantly the Trait research.

You need 100 to 130, maybe more with Jewelry, skill points to fully flesh out a Crafter. You can recover some of those points if you ever get done researching traits.

Traits can take 18 months without the Crown Store to learn them all. You can be an effective Crafter with just 6 traits known on the critical items you use. That will just take a few months.

If your goal is to be able to do any Master Writ you get, you have 130+ Motifs to collect.

Nharimlur_Finor · October 28

Nestor wrote: »

The thing about a master Crafter is the skill points needed and more importantly the Trait research.

You need 100 to 130, maybe more with Jewelry, skill points to fully flesh out a Crafter. You can recover some of those points if you ever get done researching traits.

Traits can take 18 months without the Crown Store to learn them all. You can be an effective Crafter with just 6 traits known on the critical items you use. That will just take a few months.

If your goal is to be able to do any Master Writ you get, you have 130+ Motifs to collect.

Further to this:

Push out your researching for wood, metal and fabric, to four skill points as quickly as possible. Take note of the projected times, as they are quicker for the first six or so levels and get frustrating longer after that. Pick the traits you might want early. ESO+ will reduce the 30 days for the 9th trait back to 27 days. Jewellery is different and has changed since release; I'm not up to date on that now.

Recongnise that researching will take well into and over six months. With that in mind, there's no need to rush everything else. Keep your purchases of Motifs limited to 'bargain priced' at the beginning and when you have most of various sets, then go on buying hunts to complete each Motif. Prices of various sets change over time to reflect recent Events.

If you have ESO plus, then just save all your refineable mats for later, when you have enough skill points and progress to ensure you get the maximum benefit from refining them.

Danikat wrote: »

In case you're not aware you can put your skill points into combat skills, use them to complete quests and get skyshards to get more points and then visit any Rededication Shrine to reset them for a small gold fee, so you can put them into crafts instead.

Further to this:
This is something that you'll need to do. I suggest that you do it early and regularly. At some point, you'll realise that you need to engage in combat in delves and dungeons, in order to get the shards in those. Change your skills point (not research) out and place them in your combat skill-lines and gather these shards as a planned, bulk exercise. Same for quests that provide skill points. Then re apply all your skill points into crafting lines to level them up. Doing this early will keep your costs down.

Note the charges as you do the skills reset as they increase as you get more points. From memory, once you get to about 200 skill points, the charge is about 10000 gold each time. So over time, your costs will go up dramatically for this.

Personally, I prefer Snugpod in Grahtwood for my base house. It's close to the Stable, Outlaw refuge and the Dedication shrine. Upstairs are two banks and multiple craft stations, Not sure how that fits with your RPing.

As a farmer, get yourself a set of Coward's Gear for speed and survivability. It will help when re-running dungeons with speed runners. Dungeons will also give you access to a range of gear that you can mix and match with for combat purposes.

You're a PS player? NOW IS THE TIME to decide to continue with your console, without access to Addons; or move across to PC and get some real benefits from addons. Any decision to change later will be harder when you see how much effort is wasted. Just sayin'...

zaria · October 29

Destai wrote: »

I think whatever character you play the most should be your crafter. And just to level set, this means the character you do research and motifs with. Any character can level the skills, but getting all the motifs and research is where the true work is. Focusing on your main character, who you will play most content with, will naturally acquire more skill points and materials to support crafting.

Yes, you get more than enough skillpoints doing the zones, add in dlc zones, the smaller ones like clockwork city, murkmire, southern Elsweyr and so on tend to give 8-10 skill points for its main quest.
For the main zones its 3 skill point + all the skyshards. Add group dungeon quests.

BXR_Lonestar · October 29

Since I do a lot of PVP on blue, my first character (a red) is largely used for the same reasons. I play him in hard dungeons, trials, and do storyline on him and that is about it. I usually spend more time on my other characters these days.

katanagirl1 · October 29

I don’t recall if this has been suggested yet or not, but I would advise getting your first character up to level cp160 before starting your next one. You will have CP (Champion Points) and also Enlightenment that accelerates your later characters XP gain and as soon as your second character hits level 50 they will skip to whatever level your first character is at that time. It’s a big time saver and makes leveling the new toons easier.

tsaescishoeshiner · October 30

My one regret is not making my crafter and quester the same character! My crafter is starved for skill points, while my quest chars all way too many from all the quests and exploring. Just a convenience that saves a lot of running around just to be combat-viable, if desired.