Questions About Crafting System, Skill Points, and Crafting Alts

Ignotus

Hello, I'm new to ESO. I started a few days ago. I played a little in beta, but didn't stick around or play at launch. I have some questions about crafting. I've tried Googling for tips and such, but haven't found a lot. The primary thing that perplexes me about crafting is how skill points are properly utilized.

Most of my experience is with games like WoW, or most other MMOs I've played, but I'll use WoW since I played it most recently and it's simple. In WoW, you have the option to learn two primary professions like blacksmithing (weapons and plate mostly), tailoring (cloth goods), leatherworking (leather and some mail), engineering (gadgets), alchemy, etc. Provisioning would be considered a secondary profession in WoW (cooking) and is learnable by everyone. Mining, herb gathering, and skinning (leather) are considered primary professions in WoW.

In ESO, it seems that you can do pretty much everything if you want. I don't see how that would be efficient though. In WoW, crafting is a completely separate system. In ESO, unless I understand things incorrectly, I'm using the same skill points (SP) that I could use for combat skills (dual wield, medium armor, fighter's guild, mage's guild, world magic, racial skills, and my 3 nightblade lines). Would I not gimp myself by spending SP on crafting, or are there so many SP that it's inconsequential?

I've been playing with the assumption that I need to spend my SP on my skills, especially early on. I've not spent any in crafting, but I feel like I should be. I enjoy crafting. I feel like I should be at least buying the keen eye skills (at least for alchemy so far) and the hireling skills. Do I need to make craft alts and split up the crafting lines across characters so that I'm not spending too many points on crafting on one toon? Maybe have a weaponsmith, an armorsmith, a light armor clothier, and maybe a medium armorer? Then spread alchemy, provisioning, and enchanting between them somehow? Would I need to go out and level and quest those alts to get the SP to level their crafting?

Sorry about the length. I'm just a bit confused about how this all works. I want to craft, but I don't want to gimp my toons. I want to be efficient too. Seems like spreading it out will let me research more stuff simultaneously too. TIA!

Syntse

So, the SP is the same that you use for your fighting skills, however there will be plenty of SP around that you don't gimp yourself.

Personally I would not put all crafting to one char. Currently I have one char that does Blacksmithing and Clothing lines and another char that does Woodworking, Enchanting and Provisioning.

You don't need to put points into gear professions until when you hit lvl 15 or 16 before that you are able to craft freely without SP put into skill. For some like Alchemy and Clothing you might want to put SP into keen eye so you notice those mats easier. However Blacksmithing, Woodworking and Enchanting might not need keen eye as those are quite noticeable anyway in the world. Hireling is ok and can bring you some of the rarer mats time to time but might not need to max out.

If you want to make crafting alts you will need to level those to get the SPs. And one thing you want to take is Provisioning unless you are planning to buy all those buff foods, it's easy to level and the foods are nice help.

Ignotus

Thank you for replying! I had been waiting on a response from someone. I also was told ingame a few minutes ago that there are plenty of skill points to go around, so I guess that concern was unfounded. I still think I'll probably use them for combat abilities early on, but will still try to get the hireling and keen eyes for now as well.

Nestor

Ignotus wrote: »

In ESO, it seems that you can do pretty much everything if you want. I don't see how that would be efficient though.

Would I need to go out and level and quest those alts to get the SP to level their crafting?

Sorry about the length. I'm just a bit confused about how this all works. I want to craft, but I don't want to gimp my toons. I want to be efficient too. Seems like spreading it out will let me research more stuff simultaneously too. TIA!

Your are correct in the thought that making one toon do all your crafting would not be fun or efficient. Most of us who do craft will limit our Toons to one or two lines (one line during early leveling, then add in another). Skill points and inventory will work against you if you try to do more than this until late in the VR Levels)

What some people do is level a character to say, L15 (two or three zones worth) then respec their points into Crafting and leave that character at a Crafting Hub. This allows you to respec the points back into combat if you want to level the Crafter some more or find more skyshards for more points, then respec them back (or have them be able to do some combat and craft).

I have one toon that does Woodworking/Clothing, one that does Blacksmithing, one that does Enchanting. These toons also know Alchemy and Provisioning, but do not do any crafting in those lines right now. Mostly because I don't have a need for those items. They level more slowly (not character leveling but overall skill development in combat or defense) because they craft. But, they do not level too slowly for the game. Just too slowly if your of the mindset that leveling to the end game is the goal (it's not for PvE, just for PvP)

Oh, just to keep in mind, to make the better armor and weapon sets, you need to know Traits. You research those over time. However the Traits don't' count across characters, only with a character. So, two toons knowing 4 traits each does not mean you get to make an 8 Trait set.

Ignotus

That's pretty good info, especially the part about leveling to 15 and then respecing into crafting. It sounds simple, but I hadn't thought about the respec option. Thanks for the info!

Ourorboros

At this point in the game, there are so many master crafters, it would be easy to ignore crafting and rely on trading for what you need. If you want to do crafting, I would say it's a measured decision on whether to do all crafting on one toon or spread crafts across several toons. I chose the former, which meant I spent a lot of time on inventory management and careful use of skill points until VR levels. But I didn't repeat the same quests over and over leveling a number or toons. Either way you do it, you need to log between toons to share resources; on the single crafter method using alts as mules is almost a necessity. I'm happy with my toon that has mastered all crafts, and is now collecting achievements. But at the end you'll have to decide yourself how to proceed, which is kind of the point of the game

I will say it is better to start leveling provisioning now, as the materials are tied to character level, and your character can out-level the mats needed to advance in provisioning. There is a revamp to provisioning in the works. Enchanting will go easier if you collect potency runes ( square ones) as you level, otherwise you'll have to buy them or go back to lower levels (but at least you can find them). Enchanting levels slowly, even after this was improved, so you may want to jump on this early as well. The smith skills are easiest to level in terms of getting materials, and you can advance them without crafting anything just by deconstructing your loot.

kewl

I have one crafting char that does it all. Initially he was a touch weak compared to my other chars; but after lvl 40 SP became less of an issue. I'm now running him through Cadwell's Silver. Midway through he 2nd zone, I have spare SP.

If you got this route, I'd recommend a DK tank build (1H Shield & Destro Staff.) Only need a few skills to be combat ready early, good survivability and tank role gets you into delves quickly for those skill points.

Nestor

Ourorboros wrote: »

The smith skills are easiest to level in terms of getting materials, and you can advance them without crafting anything just by deconstructing your loot.

Don't forget Researching. You start to get huge amounts of insp for items when the research times start to be multiple days. It's nice to login and see the message about how your toon advanced in a crafting skill because they finished some research.

Ignotus

Speaking of crafting alts, what do you all think is the most convenient crafting location? I'm looking for something with a bank and craft stations located close to each other. I assume that I can get even my level 3 alts to this location by traveling to a guild member's location and then running to the town or whatever. Can I travel to another faction's locations in this manner if the best spot is in, for example, Daggerfall Covenant and my toon is in the Aldmeri Dominion?

EDIT: OK, I see that "travel to player" isn't an option for guild members that are in another faction's zones. I've got alts in all 3 factions because I plan to actually play them eventually, so I spread them out. Any opinions on crafting spots in each faction?

ArielleJureaux

My characters are all still low level (20's) and I like Elden Root, Grahtwood for AD and Wayrest, Stormhaven for DC. I don't have any EP characters.

I hope this helps.

Nazon_Katts

Rawl'Kha is the place to be, everything in one spot.

Syntse

AD best spots are Elden Root, Velyn Harbor and Rawl'Kha

Nestor

Ignotus wrote: »

Speaking of crafting alts, what do you all think is the most convenient crafting location? I'm looking for something with a bank and craft stations located close to each other. I assume that I can get even my level 3 alts to this location by traveling to a guild member's location and then running to the town or whatever.

Rawkla in Reaper's March (AD) is the best with everything close together. Wayrest for the DC folks is pretty good. I hear Riften is good to, I just have not spent enough time there. Elden Root is decent, just a lot of running around to get to some places in there. Shornhelm is pretty good too.

The only issue with going to a city early is you may have to do a quest to get the city cleared of Bandits or invaders or whatever. You might not be leveled enough to do those quests.

Ourorboros

In order to get access to all zones, you will have to complete Caldwell Silver quests; that will get you to Caldwell Gold first zone. There is a great addon called Luminary Teleporter that lets you teleport free to any guild member from all your guilds without traveling to a wayshrine. You still have to have access to that zone. As far as locations go, the best in each alliance IMO, based on proximity of craft stations, wayshrine, and bank are:
DC-Shornhelm (alchemy and enchanting are poorly located)
AD-Rawl'Kha (lacks only a grocer, preferred for many top level players)
EP-Riften (only stable is really inconvenient)

catpower

For EP Riften is great. For lower levels the first city in the Argonian zone is not bad, Stormhold I think it is.

Ignotus

Thanks for the tips Ourorboros. I just traveled to Shornhelm at 17 and it seems that it would definitely be the best one in DC that I've seen. This toon is primarily a weaponsmith and clothier. Both are right beside the bank. It's about the same in Daggerfall too, but the Daggerfall Wayshrine is pretty far from the bank and crafting area in Daggerfall, which is inconvenient when I need to travel back to town to unload and deconstruct.