Need tips for crafting..

Earelith

Hello. I did not played a lot in pc and I ll start over in console and this time I want to make it as much efficient as possible My main character will be a Templar and I don't plan making an alt for a while..But I am willing to use a bunch of alts to assist my crafting main character. I read a lot here and there..I read about alts with the hirelings passives, I hear about alts make the crafting and then the main character deconstruct it to get tripple xp..

I plan having Blacksmith/Clothier/Woodworking on my Templar. Much later and if I have the skill points I might also level the rest crafting professions. I am very tempted to level provisioning also while leveling for the food buffs but I don't know if I ll have enough skill points.

Anyway, what is the best way to go with this? What is the minimum level/skill points an alt can have to assist in leveling my main character crafting? Is Hireling worth it and what level should I be so hireling give me good materials instead of low level ones?

Veteran players with lot of experience by now, if you could start fresh into the game how would you approach crafting and how would you use your ability to create alt character to aid your main?

Turelus

If you plan to have one main character it's often worth training all the crafts to 50 as some of the abilities in there can be very useful, even if you're not a main crafter.

Blacksmithing/Clothing/Woodworking.
- Hirelings (free money materials)
- Refining skill (chance for purple/gold materials when refining, if you want all achievements you will do that on a main)
- Upgrade skill Ability (saves you sending items to alts to be improved and reduces the cost of upgrade items)

Enchanting.
- Hireling.

Alchemy.
- Potion duration passive skill.

Provisioning.
- Hireling (access to purple food materials)
- Food/Drink duration.

As for leveling the skills you're right with sending items from an alt to your main will give you more Inspiration Experience than de-constructing items you find as loot. You should always be breaking down blue/purple items you find but don't need as the upgrade materials which can be gained from these sell for a good price.

Consider researching items for your crafts always, this is very lost cost research (with the exception of Nirnhoned items) but as it's a real life time investment it's worth always researching something. There are skills in the craft lines which can help you research more items at faster speeds.

Having many alts with hireling boxes isn't as beneficial as it used to be as ZOS have heavily nerfed the gold/purple items gained from these mails (active gameplay methods such as crafting writs and refining materials give better rewards now) however you will still gain free loot every day if you log into each of them.

Earelith

Thanks for the information. So lets say I am doing questing out in the world and I gather 100 iron ore..is better send them to an alt, craft items and then send the crafted items to main for deconstruct? Is that better than craft them myself?

Also, what determines what items you get from hireling? Is that your passive crafting level? eg. Blacksmith I, II, III etc? I guess that way it is better

Nestor

Earelith wrote: »

Thanks for the information. So lets say I am doing questing out in the world and I gather 100 iron ore..is better send them to an alt, craft items and then send the crafted items to main for deconstruct? Is that better than craft them myself?

Also, what determines what items you get from hireling? Is that your passive crafting level? eg. Blacksmith I, II, III etc? I guess that way it is better

The Material Level of the Alt who has the Hireling determines the mats you get (Iron, Steel etc)

Raw Mats are the most expensive materials in the game other than Tempers and Kuta's. Reason, they are one of the few sources of Tempers, hirelings being the other one. Yes, you can get Tempers from Writs, but it's not a steady source. You can also get them from Deconstuction, but you have to have Improved things to deconstruct, and those are rarer drops.

As for Deconstruction, it is the activity that gives you the most Inspiration (crafting experience). Your main crafter should be deconning everything to gain the levels. Also, the main crafter should be doing the Refining as you would probably have the Extraction Passive which gives a better chance for Tempers from Refining and Decon.

Making things on one character and sending them to another is one way to level, but really, you will level your skill just fine deconstructing your loot. Now, if you have a high level character that is just starting crafting, that is even better. Higher level items give more Inspiration on decon if you have a higher level character. So, your crafting goes up faster.

For Provisioning, just get the highest level recipe you can make, buy stack of the ingredients, and use the stack up. You will gain Provisioning quite quickly.

Traits are the main reason you craft equipment. They also take the longest to learn, and if you don't' approach it right, you can really spend to much time on traits. In other words, you can add months to the process if you do it wrong. See the following for some good Trait Research Tips

Nestor wrote: »

Here are some hints to researching Traits.

1. You only need to know 2 to 3 traits to start making some powerful crafted gear. Most of my VR characters use a 3 Trait set. The amount of time to learn a trait doubles for the second one, doubles again for the third etc. So, learn the two traits on each piece you will want to craft first before learning the third traits. Learn the third before learning the 4th. The best crafted sets in the game only require 6 traits, so don't start chasing the 7th and 8th traits until you know the 6th traits in all the things you want to craft.
2. Unlock the Research Passive to allow for more items to be researched in less time
3. The most useful traits on armor are Infused, Divines and Impenetrable. Nirn is good, but you need 20,000+ gold to even play on that table (to buy the trait stones). For weapons, Precise and Sharpened are the way to go. Training is good for anything. So concentrate on those traits first and foremost before researching the other ones.
4. Get the Addon Research Assistant so you don't deconstruct or sell something you need to research.
5. If you can't get the item you want for research from loot, then buy it in a guild store. Items made to be researched sell between 200 and 500 gold, try to find the cheaper ones. You can even find them less. It does not matter what level the item is, just that it has the traits that you want. Awesome Guild Store addon can help you find specific traited items.
6. If the item does not have a trait you need, or one your going to soon research, deconstruct it. You get crafting experience to level the craft line and you get trait stones and other things to make stuff with.
7. Join a Guild like Lone Wolf Help or similar as we run crafting nights where we make traited items for people to research. Even not on the crafting night, we will make something for a guildmate. If you want an invite, email me in game.

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/169603/learning-traits-and-styles

Tallowby

Good advice

I would add that the hard crafts (Blacksmithing/Clothier/Woodworking) all use racial motifs' to change the appearance of a crafted item. The motifs' can be hard to find or expensive to buy so spreading these crafts to different toons may increase the difficulty to master the crafts to completion.

If possible I recommend these 3 crafts to be lumped on one toon, and if possible that toon should be an Imperial. This will also make it easier since the Imperial motif is the most expensive in the game. You automatically know the racial style of your toon.

Yes the gold Dwarven motif book is more expensive but you can't play that race in the game.

Also see my sig below. The sheets have many tools to help you level crafting

Earelith

Wow, lot of great things here . Thanks a lot. Sadly i am going to play on console so probably i need to find another guild Nestor..

Faugaun

Accident...darn touch screen

Nestor

Earelith wrote: »

Wow, lot of great things here . Thanks a lot. Sadly i am going to play on console so probably i need to find another guild Nestor..

Lone Wolf Help has a PS4 Chapter.

Send a message here on the forums to @MissBizz and she can get you in.

MissBizz

Nestor wrote: »

Earelith wrote: »

Wow, lot of great things here . Thanks a lot. Sadly i am going to play on console so probably i need to find another guild Nestor..

Lone Wolf Help has a PS4 Chapter.

Send a message here on the forums to @MissBizz and she can get you in.

Hey thanks for the ping Nestor! Yes, Lone Wolf Help will be sending it's first round of invites out tonight actually! so if that is your console of choice, we can definitely help you out! Largely the guild will be new players, although I am slowly trying to get in touch with all our (originally) PC members to ensure I get invites out to them - so we should have a nice base of members. Unfortunately due to my own PSN issues the guild wasn't created in game until late yesterday evening.

helediron

Adding to what @nestor wrote, make a helper crafter. Make your main character your main crafter for first half year. Concentrate doing things which help you in short term. The helper can become your main crafter for few professions like provisioning and alchemy.

Some things take lots of time, farming or investment. You should make an early decision who would do these:
- Who learns nine traits?
- Who learns motifs? Who learns epic motifs?
- Who learns recipes?

The helper crafter can e.g.
- Learn all recipes.
- Learn less useful traits like sturdy and well-fitted.
- Learn half of traits in blacksmithing and clothing, e.g. weapons and medium armor.

I leveled up a copy of my main toon and i am retiring the main to a crafter. Putting skill points to all crafts limits the flexibility of the fighting side. Even about 300 skill points wasn't enough. A crafter of everything can have one good build, but not more.

SpAEkus

edit: Didn't catch it in nestor's quote above, already covered

ADarklore

Here is what I do, and can be a bit expensive, but it works for me.

First off, I only wanted to level Blacksmithing, Clothing and Woodworking as these are what applies to my character who is now up to level 20 with all crafts also at level 20.

I learned early on that buying the highest level VR gear with the Intricate trait and deconstructing them gives MASSIVE inspiration to craft skills. So I simply go to a low level area and farm mats for hours- metal, plants and wood- usually I get about 500 each before returning to town and beginning the refining process. The ONLY reason I continue to refine low level mats is because of the trait and improvement drops that come with it. I then sell those mats to a regular merchant- I could make more from selling on a Guild Trader but usually that involves waiting and plus, there are tons of low level mats on most Guild Traders. I then go find a bunch of Guild Traders and hunt for the highest VR with Intricate trait items I can find, then sell them. I don't even bother with crafting Writs, I gain much more XP with my process without the hassle of fulfilling the Writs.

Here is my trick though, being a lowby that I am. I respec, often. So when I plan to farm/craft, I respec my skills and invest in as many of the crafting skills as possible, including the research skills, as I am researching those armor and weapon pieces that I know I'll be crafting in the future. Oh, and my other trick, I BUY those high level mats from Trade Guilds, make future armor and weapon set pieces, before I respec back to my combat ability setup. Yesterday I made armor sets (yes, set armor/weapon) for level 24, 28, and 32. I find that I only need to change my armor every four levels. Once I get close to level 32, I'll repeat the process, and make set gear for the next few levels. Having my crafting skills already at level 20, I can already craft armor up to level 49.

As for other crafts, I find no reason to invest time into them. I simply buy everything else from Trade Guilds or Crown Store. I was actually surprised how easy it is to earn gold in ESO... and I don't mind farming for hours, so this process works well for me.