Are Hirelings still viable? How about in 1.6?

tcwHotshot

Hi all!


Let me just throw it out there: I've just started TESO and for the most part I like it quite a lot.

Now that I've started in crafting, I've read upon the idea of having Hirelings on other character and, not only active ones.

Say I make 4 chars just for the sake of having 3 Hirelings each (smithing, woodworking, clothing). You only need to play the Crafting Certificate quests and some deconstruction of materials, after which you hit lvl3 on those professions and you can invest into 1 Hireling each.

Now, does this still work like I think it should? Or do I only get low level crafting materials, as these "crafting chars" ARE low level? Is 1 point even enough to be viable as to getting "enough" materials in 24h for one skill point lost?

I've also read just now, that you have to be on-line for the delivery?!?!?
How does that even work? How does the game choose the time for me when I should be logged in (and how should I know what time that is?^^)

And now comes the fun part: how will it be after patch 1.6? There seems to be some speculation, but because I don't know how it relates to the current Hirelings, I'm a little lost...

Many questions; some may seem trivial but it's a system I don't really understand yet :-)


Thanks in advance for any help and hints!

cheers

Gyudan

The raw materials that you get from hirelings are linked to your crafting abiity: if you can craft voidstone, you'll get voidstone ore.
To get the delivery, you need to log into each character separately, which will refresh the 24 or 12 hour cooldown.

With update 6 the odds of getting rare upgrade materials (especially gold ones) are getting reduced a lot. Using only the first level of hirelings is probably very unlikely to bring anything good if even the 3rd level isn't that effective anymore.

Badrinath

First of all, your low level characters will only get low level materials from their hirelings. I believe the stuff they give you is tied to your character level. Moreover the first rank of hirelings will mostly only bring you raw materials (should be noted that the amount of raw material you receive at any rank is not a large amount), and maybe a trait reagent, maybe some green temper materials if you're lucky. In my opinion, one skill point into hirelings is not worth it.

In terms of when you get the materials, it is quite simple. When you log into that character you receive your materials, at that point the timer is set to 24 hours for the next delivery. So anytime you log in or are currently logged in after those 24 hours you get another shipment and the timer resets again. Should be noted of course that you can only receive one shipment at a time. If you are offline for 48 hours and come back online, you would only receive one shipment.

At rank two, then the hirelings start bringing the good stuff, like blue/epic/legendary tempers. Even then you aren't guaranteed anything but raw material, but the likelihood of blue and better tempers makes rank 2 worth it. Rank 3 does not improve the odds of getting good materials as far as I know, but it does make them arrive every 12 hours instead of 24.

In terms of 1.6 changes to hirelings, I don't think there are any. There may be but it is not something I have come across, nor do I think it would be necessary.

I hope this helped!

ch1no92

I've had hirelings since very early in crafting and I never got i.e.spider silk when I was only able to use jute. I got a daedra heart for the first time ever this week so it is well worth having those hirelings and leveling them up as soon as you can, my highest crafting (out of clothing, bs, and ww) is clothing at 23 or 25 not sure. So if your main crafter is say level 40 and your alts are still below 10 then you'll prob lose interest in whatever those hirelings are bringing them. But at first it may be a good idea in the early levels.

Rosveen

Raw mats are inconsequential, tempers are where it's at. People create 8 hireling alts because the chance of getting tempers is the same regardless of level. The tactic is to put at least 2 points in the hireling and in case of Enchanting, max out Rune Extraction. This gives you the most benefits. I'm not 100% sure about it, but I think going from 2 to 3 in hireling only increases mail frequency, but doesn't change rare mat chances for an individual mail.

Currently it's highly profitable and again, in case of Enchanting, the only reliable way of getting Kuta (gold Aspect rune). This changes in 1.6. Hirelings will be nerfed and purple/gold temper rates increased for crafting writs (ZOS said also for refining, but this was proven false in PTS testing). Here is Jessica's explanation.

I'm going to keep my hirelings in 1.6. I have more than enough skill points to do so, and a small chance is still a chance.

Kragorn

Badrinath wrote: »

First of all, your low level characters will only get low level materials from their hirelings. I believe the stuff they give you is tied to your character level.

The only aspect of crafting I have seen that's clearly based on character level is the basic mats you get from deconstruction, those are clearly determined by the mats you'd get harvesting at your level.

For example, my 'smith only got mats when deconning items at or below his level, at level 25 he could decon Ebony weapons till the cows came home and he never got a single ingot, he was lates 30s before he began to get an ingot or two.

tcwHotshot

Thank you all for your answers!!

So basically I would need dedicated, fully leveled crafting chars... each with at least the same level in the profession as I am. And two points in the Hireling skill - which is no problem because you get enough points easily enough.
But it's not really easy/fast to get the crafting skill to lvl12 (except Provisioning, which is pretty easy to lvl up)

Well, I guess I'll finish my last Hireling char and see how it goes. But I guess I'll mainly put points into crafting on my main char, to always get the loot I need.
From Skill Calculators I know that one gets enough skill points anyway, it's just how to prioritize at the beginning ;-)

AND I can always re-spec afterwards, which is nice.

Thanks again

Nestor

Rosveen wrote: »

I'm not 100% sure about it, but I think going from 2 to 3 in hireling only increases mail frequency, but doesn't change rare mat chances for an individual mail.

I have L2 and L3 Equipment Crafting Hirelings. L3 does make a difference in what you get. One, you can get up to 6 items in each email, two of which will be Tempers. I also get multiple tempers on those emails too. Recently I got a couple emails with 4 Blue Tempers each, and just this morning I got an email with 2 Gold Tempers in it, and this is not uncommon to get. L2's do give you up to gold tempers, but our only going to get one 99.9% of the time. But the frequency of getting Gold and Purple Tempers from L3's is higher that with L2's.

Of course this all goes out the window come 1.6

Nestor

tcwHotshot wrote: »

But it's not really easy/fast to get the crafting skill to lvl12 (except Provisioning, which is pretty easy to lvl up)

Well, I guess I'll finish my last Hireling char and see how it goes. But I guess I'll mainly put points into crafting on my main char, to always get the loot I need.

If you have a VR level character that feeds your crafter weapons and armor to decon, it does not take that long to get crafting to L12. However it seems that the higher level items do not give the higher amounts of crafting inspiration unless your character is also a high level. I tested this recently, and a low level character gets less inspiration than a high level character does, no matter what the crafting skill.

However, even with this situation, it just takes a weekend of farming public dungeons on level to get 4 crafters up to L12 in the 3 equipment crafts. By weekend I mean about 4 to 6 hours each day of dedicated mob farming. I did mine by farming the Vile Lab in cold harbor. But this was back when higher level items gave higher levels of Inspiration regardless of character level. So it might take a little more time to get 4 mules up to L12 in 3 crafts. But you can certainly get one mule/crafter leveled up that high.

Just note, most of us use Alts for crafting. This can be a character you played and leveled but then respecced into crafting or a character you make just for crafting. Reason, until you deep into the VR Ranks, the Skill points are precious and should be spent on combat and recovery skills first, then on crafting skills later on. You can level a crafter while leveling them as a viable combat character, your just going to be weaker.

Rosveen

Hirelings L2 aren't difficult to reach at all. I always pass down Intricate items from my main to my alts. Levels their crafts fairly quickly. Throw in some craft/decon shuffle and you're set.

Inco

So are hirelings a complete waste in 1.6? I'm hearing a pretty big "YES" on that over several threads.

If the FOCUS is being moved to DECON to obtain rare crafting mats then great, but if not this is not good for crafting.

tcwHotshot

Yep, now that 1.6 (at least in the US) is released, some info on 1.6-Hirelings would be great!! :-)
More users reporting, more data

lichmeister

according to the patch notes, the frequency of the rare tempers will decrease a bit from hirelings and increase a bit from writs which is how it should be, imo.
i still think the points are worth it once you can get the 2nd and 3rd tiers but, as @Nestor mentioned, at lower levels combat skills should be prioritized over a handful of gemstones and the odd item booster.
only time will tell if the frequency is enough to justify all the extra logging in/out and the points spent on those alts.
the 24h/12h CD on hirelings begins from when you log in so if you play daily you can do a quick pass though all your characters with hirelings when you log in and never miss a shipment. the 12 hour CD at tier 3 seems to be for the truly Hardcore since (unless i'm mistaken) it only affect the CD timer. you have to play a hell of a lot or be seriously dedicated to check all those alts every day, twice a day!
for the casual players and weekend warriors i doubt the points are worth it at all but (i dont know if its even possible) would be so much cooler if there was a modifier to the results based on how many days you have been logged out. so the weekend warriors among us would have slightly better odds on their weekly hireling results (say, in the background it rolls 1x result for every shipment you have missed and takes the best one)

T minus 20 minutes for patch....

tcwHotshot

@lichtmeister:
Thanks for your thoughts!
I totally agree: tier3 (12h) is pretty much only for someone who is either not working OR doesn't mind the extra effort and has the ability to just log in for a minute to check there Alts :-)

But the fastest and easiest solution which would make far more sense: hirelings work every day and send the stuff per Mail anyway: so why don't they send the mails even when you are logged off? The "I need to be online" just doesn't make ANY sense at all... it would help those with serious time constraints and those that haven't access to TESO 24/7.
But that'll probably never change...

As all skill/attribute points are going to be reset, I'm pretty sure on how to skill, now that I've played this game for a week and have at least some understanding of the different skills.
The only thing I'm not really sure of are attribute points: on one side I read I should only invest in health and get stamina/magicka from the armor.
The next thing I read is the complete opposite: only invest in magicka and stamina (as Nightblade).

What I do see: when there is a tougher opponent, meaning more health (and probably armor), I never seem to run out of either of those two, but I do die :P
So I probably need more health then anything else...

I'll probably try it this way and IF I really do need more stamina then I get from enchantments, I'll just use the next points as I'm leveling up :-)


PS: tried to log in this morning to let the game update itself while being in work: no luck.
After 3h, the server is still offline :-(

Swordmage

As I read the patch notes, we will still be getting blue and green tempers from the hirelings so I still plan on respect-ing the hirelings on my alts. As I level, I am only enhancing equipment to green or blue while saving the purple and gold for much later.

Anyway, if I don't have the hirelings, I would miss out on the neat drama in the mailings.

tcwHotshot

Swordmage wrote: »

Anyway, if I don't have the hirelings, I would miss out on the neat drama in the mailings.

Agreed