Blacksmithing leveling is astonishingly slow.

Milk_Drinker

Am I doing something wrong here? I have deconstructed or build probably a hundred things by now, and my blacksmith level is 3.5. I can't believe how slow it is. I'm beginning to think this isn't even worth the effort at this point.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Milk_Drinker wrote: »

Am I doing something wrong here? I have deconstructed or build probably a hundred things by now, and my blacksmith level is 3.5. I can't believe how slow it is. I'm beginning to think this isn't even worth the effort at this point.

Are you deconstructing things you've found out in the world, or things you've crafted? The former gives more inspiration. Also, look for items that have the "Intricate" trait on them--they also give bonus Inspiration when you deconstruct them.

That said, it does take time to level up. There are some great player-created blacksmithing guides out there, too. Do a quick search and see if one helps?

Gabriel_Froste

My Blacksmith level is 6.

I mined 600 Iron Ore
Deconstructed Every Dagger I created and made more. Then deconstructed them again. I will now make Level 14 Iron Armor Sets for my guild. Numbering in the hundreds. And also Iron Swords. Then I will proceed to mine a Thousand steel and craft as many complete sets as I can on my guild store.

It'd go faster and be helpful if my guildmates helped me by gathering raw materials (can do that at any level). But I still intend to be a most glorious blacksmith. Since I'm not very good at PvP.

The Guild I am a part of is a secretive order... of Lions... yeah.

Milk_Drinker

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Milk_Drinker wrote: »

Am I doing something wrong here? I have deconstructed or build probably a hundred things by now, and my blacksmith level is 3.5. I can't believe how slow it is. I'm beginning to think this isn't even worth the effort at this point.

Are you deconstructing things you've found out in the world, or things you've crafted? The former gives more inspiration. Also, look for items that have the "Intricate" trait on them--they also give bonus Inspiration when you deconstruct them.

That said, it does take time to level up. There are some great player-created blacksmithing guides out there, too. Do a quick search and see if one helps?

Actually, I've been trading daggers with a friend, so we can deconstruct each other's stuff. I read this was the most efficient way. But after we traded dozens of daggers, I had barely moved up a level. I just couldn't believe it.

Gabriel_Froste

OH. The reason why I crafted daggers was because they use the least amount of material and have the highest value for the ingots they use. (At least for Iron)

I also improved some daggers and armor to the green rating then deconstructed them. Seemed to help a little... but I also have the 10% bonus from ESO+

ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Milk_Drinker wrote: »

Actually, I've been trading daggers with a friend, so we can deconstruct each other's stuff. I read this was the most efficient way. But after we traded dozens of daggers, I had barely moved up a level. I just couldn't believe it.

That is an efficient way, too, but deconstructing items with the "Intricate" trait will give you the most boost.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO

If you are only creating and deconstructing Iron daggers, progress will be very slow beyond level 10-15 in the craft. Move on to the next zone and use the higher tier materials. They give a lot more inspiration and level you up reasonably fast.

Gabriel_Froste

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO wrote: »

If you are only creating and deconstructing Iron daggers, progress will be very slow beyond level 10-15 in the craft. Move on to the next zone and use the higher tier materials. They give a lot more inspiration and level you up reasonably fast.

High Iron Ore takes longer to find. I have no yet developed a system, I just run around randomly and find it in random places. Plus I'd like to get some more upgrade stuffs and more cash to buy some more 'rarer' raw material or material material.

SirAndy

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom

I have played this game for almost 2 years now and i agree that out of all the crafting lines, blacksmithing levels by far the slowest if you are just playing the game.

From my experience, there seem to be two issues:

- Item deconstruction
The loot tables seem to favor clothing and woodworking items (in that order) with blacksmithing items coming in last.

- Inspiration gained
It also seems that items of the same level and quality result in less inspiration gain if they're for blacksmithing when compared to clothing and woodworking.

I have 8 characters, 4 of which i play regularly.

4 are basically storage mules. I played all my 4 mules to level 15 and they all have lvl 12 in each craft to unlock lvl 2 for all craft hirelings.

3 are dedicated crafting characters that i also use to experience the alliance gameplay from the ground up.
My EP characters is a blacksmith and provisioner.
My AD character is a woodworker and enchanter.
My DC character is a clothier and alchemist.

1 is a dedicated PvP character that has also unlocked lvl 12 in all crafting lines to get lvl 2 for all hirelings.

:TLDR:
Clothier levels by far the quickest with a clear abundance of dropped loot.
Woodworker comes in 2nd.
Blacksmith is dead last leveling by far the slowest.

Ourorboros

Check the numbers on your Blacksmith bar before and after you deconstruct something. Google inspiration values, and compare with your result. If you've deconstructed hundreds of items and you are still level 3 in smithing, there may be a bug. I'm assuming you are a new console player. I know blacksmithing is working for PC, as I have a character who has deconned a few hundred pieces and is approaching level 40. And while Intricate items do give more inspiration, you rely on luck to get them. FYI, you do get more ISP for deconning higher quality and higher level items. Maybe check a guild store for a cheap high level item and test the amount of ISP you get.

Nestor

Milk_Drinker wrote: »

Actually, I've been trading daggers with a friend, so we can deconstruct each other's stuff. I read this was the most efficient way. But after we traded dozens of daggers, I had barely moved up a level. I just couldn't believe it.

You know, this is not really an efficient way to level crafting, even Enchanting. I find the mechanics of trading things in bulk back and forth to be a bit of a pain. I have found that farming mobs is a great way to get the items for decon, and make money , and gain character levels all in one shot. Your better off over all.

There are one to two grind spots in each zone where the enemies respawn quickly, and you can always run a solo dungeon a few times too, even if you have completed it. Do that until your bags are full, sell the Ornates and maybe a few of the things you find, and decon the rest, repair your gear, go back and get some more. Public Dungeons are also great for farming mobs, but they can be overwhelming to do solo, so keep that in mind. Once you get some good A0E skills, then Public Dungeon Farming is the way to go.

I leveled 4 mules up to 12 each Equipment Craft in one weekend (two 4 hour sessions) so it does not take that long. However you do want to farm things at the level you are at for the most inspiration.

Milk_Drinker

Nestor wrote: »

Milk_Drinker wrote: »

Actually, I've been trading daggers with a friend, so we can deconstruct each other's stuff. I read this was the most efficient way. But after we traded dozens of daggers, I had barely moved up a level. I just couldn't believe it.

You know, this is not really an efficient way to level crafting, even Enchanting. I find the mechanics of trading things in bulk back and forth to be a bit of a pain. I have found that farming mobs is a great way to get the items for decon, and make money , and gain character levels all in one shot. Your better off over all.

There are one to two grind spots in each zone where the enemies respawn quickly, and you can always run a solo dungeon a few times too, even if you have completed it. Do that until your bags are full, sell the Ornates and maybe a few of the things you find, and decon the rest, repair your gear, go back and get some more. Public Dungeons are also great for farming mobs, but they can be overwhelming to do solo, so keep that in mind. Once you get some good A0E skills, then Public Dungeon Farming is the way to go.

I leveled 4 mules up to 12 each Equipment Craft in one weekend (two 4 hour sessions) so it does not take that long. However you do want to farm things at the level you are at for the most inspiration.

Thanks, Nestor. That sounds like solid advice.

SickDuck

Deconstructing all items you find (except the ones with Ornate trait) should easily get you to lvl 50 in all three gear crafting lines. That means no need to craft anything at all. You should be able to craft items at least on your level all the times. Levelling clothing is the easiest, due to the nature of loot distribution. Blacksmith is second and woodworking was always the slowest for me.

Other things that can help, but not required for the above to stand:
- ESO sub gives you 10% bonus that speeds things up
- Daily crafting writs usually give you one intricate item that you can decon
- Daily writs also give you a little crafting xp (inspiration)
- Doing writs is nice, you should have plenty mats from decon and you still get a little xp while crafting the quest items
- Ask guildies for intricate (high xp) items, the higher lvl the better
- Not for new players, but there's a CS passive that gives 20% inpiration bonus

It may seem otherwise now but maxing out crafting (including Enchanment) is disappointingly easy in ESO. Anyone can get there just by playing the game normally and decon some stuff, long before reaching max level.

senrabnaneek

I have found that while it does seem slow, since you can craft items aboit fifteen levels higher than you need to it doesn't really matter because you will always be able to construct gear at your level.

Personally I found helmets most profitable due to small amount of resources required and their value for sale. Also you don't need to put too much emphasis on deconstruction, just constantly make the highest level gear you can and sell it, then deconstruct the occasional item, definitely if it is intricate. Also if you are having difficulty finding the ore google (insert ore here) maps for (insert alliance here) there is one small area that is filled with ore for each ore, e.g. There is an area near where you first start on mainland filled with iron as well as maple, and there is the same further on in the higher level areas for steel etc.

Hope this helps

Nestor

Farming raw mats also gets easier once you leave the starter islands. By then those who don't want to farm are buying (they could not afford to in the starter zones) so there are less players farming as you go up in the zones.

deificus

Deconstructing found items is the way to go, along with writs as a way to convert the random materials you gather while questing into gold. Straight crafting and deconstructing your items, or even swapping with a friend (which is quite a bit faster than doing it alone) is much more painful by contrast.

One tip: the zero value items that litter the world give little in the way of materials or inspiration when deconstructed. But, this doesn't apply to stolen items. So every time you pass by a military camp or similar in the world, steal all the weapons and armor that are lying around, deconstruct them, and watch your tradeskills shoot up. This is particularly true for blacksmithing since the balance is heavily slanted towards weapons relative to other sources.

Ashtaris

I've always felt that Blacksmithing has been given the least amount of love by ZOS since the game was released. Although you can deconstruct weapons and heavy armor to obtain ingots, it seems that you get far more light and medium armor to obtain the materials for clothing. And for refining, there is a lot more cloth and leather available than there is ore.

In doing crafting writs, I seem to receive a Dreugh Wax much more often than I do a Tempering Alloy. For the hirelings I have received up to 4 Elegant linings in one mail whereas I don't think I have ever received more than 2 grain solvents, and I think that has only happened once or twice. If I look at just the number of Dwarven Oils, Grain Solvents, and Tempering Alloys I have in the bank and accumulate, it's no comparison to what I have for Embroidery, Elegant Linings, and Dreugh Wax.

I'm not sure if this was by deisign, or just an oversight by ZOS's part, but it needs to be fixed. And no, not by nerfing clothing

Rika_shinozaki

I have 28 blacksmith, and 25 cloth/woodworker. I deconstruct all looted/quest gear, and also go on stealing sprees. Most of what I've gotten is heavy gear, I have a full 200 stack of the refined material up to the Dwarven gear (my current level, so stealing always gets me Dwarven gear)

Btharrison

Yeah I am not having the same problem. From decon raid loot and sealing sprees I have been lvling my crafting rather easily. If anything wood working is lvling the slowest but that is to be expected since wood has now armor and the fewest items... Im not even rying to lvl blacksmith and have the same lvl as my wood crafting.

Btharrison

Sorry for the typos, my work keyboard a joke

Wreuntzylla

Realize that you can craft everything that is currently in the game at craft level 40. At craft level 45 you max your last passive and it's related to research.

The bigger point everyone should understand is that crafting in ESO is not a profession, it's just a component of progression.

Gear craft leveling is probably an order of magnitude faster than before they introduced intricate items and writs. Overall, I think crafting is way too fast now. As a result, there is not much value in crafting. There are so many maxed crafters that every other person you see is maxed (for console players, every other person will be maxed in short order). Further, materials people actually use, that used to be only available through hireling mail, are now largely found in PvE or refined from materials found in the open world.

You will get some value from crafting while leveling your first toon to veteran levels, but not afterwards, unless you find value in progressing your toon in every conceivable way.

The rest of this is a selective history to give you enough information to decide if crafting will be worthwhile for you personally.

When ZoS introduced an 8-trait set it was somewhat valuable, but 2-6 trait gear still made up a vast majority of the crafted gear. When the 9th trait was introduced, it was almost never used because it was not as good as 2-6 trait sets, and in any case, severely bugged. There is little market for 8 and 9 trait sets to this day. After 1.6, I don't know a single player that uses either the 8-trait or 9-trait set. So, your diligent research is largely worthless.

The 9th trait was valuable for making research pieces, but to make gold, you were much better off starting a new crafter from scratch, because you made gold off of research pieces. It took 30 days for a maxed crafter to learn the trait and make research pieces, but just a handful of hours if you started a crafter from scratch... You also had to complete the craglorn quest chain to receive ONE research piece, and had to trade with other players to get the remaining pieces, which was very time consuming. As ZoS set a precedent for introducing new traits, I would not be surprised if the next iteration will be much the same.

Recently, 9th-trait items have become valuable, but only because of the trait. People still mainly wear 2-6 trait crafted gear. You can make maybe 2k from each piece of VR14 nirn gear you make, but you can farm more gold in the time it takes to negotiate an order and craft the gear. Be prepared for many players trying to negotiate prices to a level where you lose gold on the deal... You should also realize that ZoS has announced that the 9th trait will be nerfed in an upcoming patch and likely will lose considerable value.

The only craft where you can make money is really alchemy, and only if you have enough gold to buy materials from reliable sources. Enough gold meaning that you can offer to buy any amount of material sent to you. That's why you will sometimes see people in zone chat offering to buy as much of a particular ingredient as you can send them at a fixed price.

They reduced the difficulty of leveling enchanting so much that it is now easier to level than any of the gear crafts, and arguably faster than all but provisioning. You can buy aspect runes in large quantities for dirt cheap off of guild merchants and rise to 50 in a few hours. They doubled the experience received from deconstructing white glyphs and increased experience in general, while also introducing crafting writs.

Provisioning used to be somewhat worthwhile, because some ingredients were only available from hireling mails and purple recipes were hard to come by. They upped the number of ingredients you receive in hireling mails in 1.6, and purple recipes are so cheap, that it is now practically worthless to level provisioning except to be self-sustaining. Since it is also the easiest craft to level, everyone can be self-sustaining without much effort.

For console players, you are much better off leveling your toon to VR14 as fast as possible and then concentrating on craft leveling. Materials received from deconstruction are limited by your overall level, and it's much easier to farm materials once you reach VR14. You should, however, research as much as possible as quickly as possible if you are crafting for the sake of crafting.

Realize, however, that you have a limited time window in which to profit, and then your crafting will have little value. Further, because they allowed PC players to transfer to console, it may be that the transfer players will reap all the benefit, and crafting will be back to worthless by the time you level your crafts.

Tallowby

Don't deconstruct item you create.... never. Worst return on Inspiration Points (IP)

• First Choice - Deconstruct items another player (or alt) has created - Best return on IP - Take material from deconstruction and make more and send to other player (or alt) for them to breakdown - rinse-n-repeat
• Second Choice - Deconstruct world found items - Much slower IP gains than above
• Third Choice - Deconstruct item you created - Don't do it... better to sell to buy raw materials with the gains

Research Traits - Keep timer always ticking - upon completion gain more IP.

Mastering Crafting is a time suck... I have played approaching a year and still have not researched all traits.

Nestor

Tallowby wrote: »

Don't deconstruct item you create.... never. Worst return on Inspiration Points (IP)

One thing I have noticed, there is a much higher chance of getting back Tempers and Runes from deconning things you make. I decon all the armor I make for myself once I am done with it (what else am I going to do with it really?) and almost always get back the Tempers. Well, one Temper for each Decon.

When I go to learn a new Rune, I decon the Glyph right after and almost always get 2 or even all 3 of the Runes back.

But as a source of Inspiration, yep, it's nothing.

Wreuntzylla

Tallowby wrote: »

Don't deconstruct item you create.... never. Worst return on Inspiration Points (IP)

• First Choice - Deconstruct items another player (or alt) has created - Best return on IP - Take material from deconstruction and make more and send to other player (or alt) for them to breakdown - rinse-n-repeat
• Second Choice - Deconstruct world found items - Much slower IP gains than above
• Third Choice - Deconstruct item you created - Don't do it... better to sell to buy raw materials with the gains

Research Traits - Keep timer always ticking - upon completion gain more IP.

Mastering Crafting is a time suck... I have played approaching a year and still have not researched all traits.

You can also trade items with an alt (level 2 toons on one account at the same time). It's same toon deconstruction that provides very little inspiration.

Vyle_Byte

Blacksmithing in ESO is nothing like in Skyrim where you could craft a ton of daggers and get the skill up quickly. It takes time, lots of time. Its not meant to level it in 1 or 2 days.

Play the game, pick up items, decon them all. ALL of them, ofc keep the stuff you need to wear but decon everything else. Refining raw materials does not grant any XP but researching items does so make sure you do that too.

Side note, if you think that Blacksmithing takes forever... I wouldn't recommend Enchanting LOL! Its the absolute worst.

Wreuntzylla

Vyle_Byte wrote: »

Blacksmithing in ESO is nothing like in Skyrim where you could craft a ton of daggers and get the skill up quickly. It takes time, lots of time. Its not meant to level it in 1 or 2 days.

Play the game, pick up items, decon them all. ALL of them, ofc keep the stuff you need to wear but decon everything else. Refining raw materials does not grant any XP but researching items does so make sure you do that too.

Side note, if you think that Blacksmithing takes forever... I wouldn't recommend Enchanting LOL! Its the absolute worst.

Enchanting is no longer the worst. They nerfed it severely. Just go to a guild trader and buy up 30+ jejota at a time. You can find them for 100 gold or less each (3k gold for 30).

If you are a console player, your mileage may vary initially.

Sunver

Farming Iron Ore -> 3k/100
Selling.
Buying 10 Intricate items of proper or higher level.
Deconstructing them.
Blacksmithing leveled up few times.
Repeat.

Also, deconstruct every item you get on your lvl, sell the higher/lower level items. Use the cash to buy Intricates.

NEVER deconstruct items you craft yourself.

Remember to do your research and writs daily.

Faugaun

Higher level items provide more exp, just deconstruct everything green and higher you find and vendor the white stuff your skill should keep pace with your level for the most part and you should be able to always craft gear fro yourself.

Ulaidian

I just enjoy the craic of finding stuff and then using it for research or deconstruction.. I suppose if I was after something very specific, I might look to farm it.. but I'm not totally sure I would!