To craft with my main or not...

CHESTY45

That is the question I'm asking for wisdom on.

Or should I just create a character to do that primarily with and swap to occasionally and craft with ingredients and items from my shared chest.

Any tips and thoughts are well appreciated.

I know some of you have some inside intel and secrets you know and I'm not asking for that. You guys probably wouldn't even tell your wife what they are lol.

But anyways, just the general thoughts and tips will be appreciated.

Thanks

sadownik

I dont. crafting is pointless untill you are high in vr ranks so i took my main to vr1 - parked it after la grande finale which isnt finale at all btw and made second character - a skilled cratfer and thief (helps a lot getting resoruces and stealing armour and weapons from shops do deconstruct just those instanced ones mind you). Its tough i always have too little skill points so crafter fighting abilities are.. lacking but he goes through content at snail pace.

Nestor

You can do some crafting on your main but it is better to have a dedicated crafter, or two.

See this for some thoughts I have on the Crafting and a single or main character:

Nestor wrote: »

Skill Points and Inventory are the main reasons. Note I did not say it was impossible, just not a good idea. I used to think that making a character who is a crafter and deadly was a perfectly sane thing to do. Until I made a non crafting character. Wow, did the light switch turn on then.

Now, yes, once your to VR14, you have enough skill points. However up until that level, and certainly starting a new character in the game, putting all your crafting on one character is not going to work well if you want to be deadly, or deadly before you get to the VR Ranks. Or you can be a two skill rotation for the entire game (entirely possible with some skill lines)

Inventory management is the other issue. Even at 140 to 170 slots on the characters and more than 200 in the bank, I can't see one character being able to hold all the crafting inventory that they would need and be able to loot anything efficiently. NOt to mention being able to afford that amount of bag space before deep in the VR Ranks. The only reason my Templar is 200K to the 240K goal she needs to unlock the last 30 bank spaces is simply because she can vendor loot/sell loot in the guild stores. And, she has the bag space to make loot farming reasonable.

Heck, my clothier/WW can barely carry what she needs and loot. As it stands now, I am leaving dungeons and delves halfway through them to empty bags. No, I can't leave an unlooted corpse behind, it's not cricket I tell you. It was even worse back when she was neck deep in researching traits, she had no bag space to use, so she was parked for 2 months. Now, of course I have this silly idea that a crafter should be able to make stuff for any level character. Some only craft for VR14, and that does reduce inventory needs significantly. Me, I can craft for anyone at anytime, with the occasional mule log for large orders.

To split up the equipment crafting to WW/Cloth on one, Blacksmithing on another allows for characters to carry the inventory they need, but still have room to loot or whatever or have skills to fight with. Plus, they can pick up support crafts like Provisioning and Alchemy as skill points allow. Enchanting could work like this too, but I only have one enchanter because I don't make glyphs for others and I don't need enchanting that often. Enchanting is still not easy to level, but again, how many enchanters do you really need?

So, can it be done, sure. But when I have made alts who are non crafters and have no skills in crating at all, it is amazing how fast I can build them up as I am leveling them, and have all or most of the skill lines for combat and defense fully leveled by the early VR ranks. And how rich they get, money is easy to get from Vendors in this game if your not deconning everything. I used to think that Templars were the OP class of the game, as that was my first non crafting character. Nope it's just she has all the skill points she needs to be deadly in anyway I want her to be.

So, now I have characters who craft, and characters who fight. I find the game much more enjoyable this way. The crafters are deadly enough that they can farm or get to the crafting stations. The only time it is an issue is when I have to log to a crafter. But, I would be logging to an inventory mule anyway at some point, so what's the difference? I craft most things in batches, so I only need to cook once a week or so, make potions once a week or so etc. I don't make gear that often, so my two equipment crafters mostly just hangout in a crafting hub.

True, I have a bunch of characters doing Provisioning writs, but I am only doing that to chase recipes.

CHESTY45

Wow, thanks guys.

Some good advice there.

Use a thief to aid in picking up stuff to decon.


Also, limit a crafting character to about to trades is timewise.

Have fighters and crafters separate due to loss of power if you try to do both.

Good stuff. Thanks y'all.

Robbmrp

Buy as much bank space as you can also. Create new characters so you can use their 60 backpack spots also. Even if you split up your crafting between multiple characters they still will share the same bank and you will run out of space. Best thing to do is to hold those materials for that crafter within their backback. It will free up your bank space for other things.

CHESTY45

Thats cool. Thanks bud

UltimaJoe777

I spread the crafting skills across 6 characters so each does 1 thus letting them both craft and still fight well.

whyB

I'm currently crafting with my main. I have troubles juggling leveling and bank runs, however I have not been to the point where my bank and bags are completely full. I find that it is more time consuming (now) to do everything on one character. But, when I do not get an unlimited amount of time to game, I find it makes the most sense for me to just use the one character instead of having to re-log into a mule or crafter. I'm only level 17 as of now (been playing as I can since console release). I have 3 bag upgrades and 1 bank upgrade. I have skill points in ALL crafting and provisioning skill lines + my fighting skill lines and world skill lines. It's easy enough during the beginning stages of the game where skill points are falling out of the sky to dump them in crafting and then just reset your skill points later on down the road, if needed or as required. For instance, I have skill points in all of the different "researching" skill lines and I have a good amount of researching already done. Once I've completed all of the researching, I could reset my skill points and put them towards something else.

TL;DR version: I see where an alt mule or crafter could be beneficial, but with minor juggling it is possible to craft with your main.

Nestor

whyB wrote: »

I'm only level 17 as of now (been playing as I can since console release). I have 3 bag upgrades and 1 bank upgrade. I have skill points in ALL crafting and provisioning skill lines + my fighting skill lines and world skill lines. It's easy enough during the beginning stages of the game where skill points are falling out of the sky.

You are coming into the Skill Point Desert. From about L15 to L30 skill points are precious as you start unlocking the really good class skills, the interesting morphs, and the passives in all the lines. You will find your self starving for skill points in the coming levels, unless you ignore passives, and you don't want to do that.

You also hit the same desert in the low 40s too.

whyB

Nestor wrote: »

whyB wrote: »

I'm only level 17 as of now (been playing as I can since console release). I have 3 bag upgrades and 1 bank upgrade. I have skill points in ALL crafting and provisioning skill lines + my fighting skill lines and world skill lines. It's easy enough during the beginning stages of the game where skill points are falling out of the sky.

You are coming into the Skill Point Desert. From about L15 to L30 skill points are precious as you start unlocking the really good class skills, the interesting morphs, and the passives in all the lines. You will find your self starving for skill points in the coming levels, unless you ignore passives, and you don't want to do that.

You also hit the same desert in the low 40s too.

Interesting, didn't know this. Is this including the fact that you can get additional skill points from certain quests and all of the skyshards?

Egg_Death

whyB wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

whyB wrote: »

I'm only level 17 as of now (been playing as I can since console release). I have 3 bag upgrades and 1 bank upgrade. I have skill points in ALL crafting and provisioning skill lines + my fighting skill lines and world skill lines. It's easy enough during the beginning stages of the game where skill points are falling out of the sky.

You are coming into the Skill Point Desert. From about L15 to L30 skill points are precious as you start unlocking the really good class skills, the interesting morphs, and the passives in all the lines. You will find your self starving for skill points in the coming levels, unless you ignore passives, and you don't want to do that.

You also hit the same desert in the low 40s too.

Interesting, didn't know this. Is this including the fact that you can get additional skill points from certain quests and all of the skyshards?

I can see this being a thing. At 15 I'm having a hard time choosing what I want to look into, and I have some points I wish I could get back. That being said, I don't see how re-speccing the points doesn't get you past most of this issue (you end up with points to use higher-level mats, but the others aren't necessary after a point, or at all). If you limit to maybe 2 crafts you're not missing too many points, and I see no reason to worry about competing with people who are dumping God-knows-how-much time into alts or second mains so they can min-max everything. I have nothing against people who choose to do that, but it's not for me (and not how the game was designed to be honest). A good game should do as much as it can to prevent min-maxing from breaking the game compared to balanced builds. Perhaps they should require skill points to equip items made of different materials, thus equalizing the playing field for crafters in skill points. At least then you could get away with one or two tactical points to speed things up and respec later. It's kind of nonsense to have 8 points for each craft locked out just to use better materials.

IMHO you shouldn't even be able to trade crafted gear/consumables between alts (materials, found items, etc. are fine), but I suppose serious players would riot over that. You could circumvent it with guilds crafting for each other with alts, but at least then you're preserving the identity of your crafter and not just exploiting him/her as a slave for your main, and you're boosting teamwork to boot. I'm hoping that on PS4 at least there will be much fewer hardcore players who are willing to go to the extremes to gain an advantage. I enjoy crafting so far, and I'd feel like I was missing out if I skipped an entire aspect of the game on my main.

Just my 2c

Reverb

I am max level at all 6 crafts on my main, and get 5 hireling mails daily for him. Two of my alts have gotten to max in a few crafts just from deconning things not worth selling, but they only have points in provisioning (for hireling mail and max level writs back when I used to pray for oats and tomatoes). All my alts feed mats to my mules, to be used by my main. It works well for me, and I wouldn't want to spend the time leveling a toon just to have points to put into crafting.

It may be worth noting, my main has earned 25 skill points from pvp, that's not true of everyone. Skill point rationing would be a very valid reason not to craft on your main.

Nestor

whyB wrote: »

Interesting, didn't know this. Is this including the fact that you can get additional skill points from certain quests and all of the skyshards?

You are getting plenty of skill points, assuming your chasing the Shards and the Main Quest for the zone. It's just that all the cool skills, passives and morphs unlock faster than skill points come in.

Calidus1

I would definitely recommend having a separate crater if you are serious about crafting. Most of my characters do some crafting: provisioning, alchemy, or crafting for hirelings. However, my crafter does all six. He has learned all the recipes and all the motifs. He stores all my armor crafting mats (while i use mules for a strategic reserve of mats as well as high level armor). I talk about a recommended build here:

Calidus1 wrote: »

TL,DR: take 5 battle skills, 1 ultimate, some passive, and then put the rest into crafting

It took me until about v4-6 to be have all crafting skill lines perked on my crafter (and still have him be able to earn xp/quest/kill badies). I am now going to quest him a bit just for fun and increase his dps (so he can better farm in high vet areas).

Since he was a crafter, I centered my build on survivability. I used a male Nord dragonknight. Had him take one and only one skill from all DK skills to train each tree to 50. Took one ultimate. Then I took two two-handed skills to fill out my bar (did not use a second bar). For passives I only took Nord Skills, Heavy Armor Skills, and Two handed Skills and not all of them.

You should also fully train your horse inventory and take increased bag space.

It is a skill point balancing act between the crafting perks and the other perks but it worked for me. When I was starting out, I also simultaneously trained consumables on my main character (both provisioning and alchemy give good passives and I am of the opinion that every character should train them). This allowed my crafter to concentrate on the armors and weapons until closer to vet levels. You need to get him/her started on research.

I would highly recommend having a crafter. I can keep all my consumable materials in the bank (for other characters to use) and all my armor crafting materials on him. This is great for inventory management.

Ourorboros

My main character is also my only one with all crafts maxed. Part of this is just because I didn't really think about it, just created a character to play through the game with, with plans for other characters later. But since I am also chasing achievements, this is the only character that will purposely have as many achievements as possible. There are others like me, so having a main that quests and crafts is doable. But as Nestor pointed out, until you gain access to the skyshards and skill points from other alliances, every skill point has to be weighed carefully. Inventory is also tight for this type of character. But I'm glad I did it this way.

CidxLucy

you can have all crafting pts max out plus have all the skills you want all on one toon. There over 250 skill pts you can get in this game.

shatulance

Depends on playstyle..I'm vr2 so far and only have the one character.for most of the game I've had a surplus of skill points, I've not unlocked many abilities because I'm happy with the few that I have and I've concentrated on a decent amount of passives.inventory space was a bind at times but after a few personal and bank upgrades and prioritising what I keep I manage pretty well.

Tardistiles

I'm a Vet3 right now with only one character, and she hasn't had any trouble juggling being a main and a crafting mule. I have literally every ability/spell/whatever unlocked that I need to actually play the game and be good at it. I have tons more skill points to get, so I can comfortably max my crafting fields and have a healthy surplus of skill points for whatever else I need. Inventory space hasn't been an issue yet, mostly because I only save what's necessary. Crafting with your main character is very doable.

RazzPitazz

I took the route where I brought my main to VR1, and realized a few.... mistakes I made.
So I turned him into my crafter, rather than grinding all those skill points again I now have all the ones I need and then some.
Hands down the worst parts of crafting are
1) Trait Research. This will take 3 months at least. Start early and do it often.
2) Enchanting. My God... for some reason this one takes the longest to level, despite the plethora of enchantments to decon from just playing the game.

gwillard_ESO

I do all the equipment crafting on my main character so as to minimize the investment in rare and epic motifs. All research, except Nirnhorn is complete. Just recently been able to afford Nirnhorn research so starting...

Enchanting and Alchemy are on two other characters.

My main and all my alts have provisioning. Only one has skill points invested in all the related provisioning lines: making purple foods/drinks, multiple pots/drinks, etc.

I have an alt at each of the provisioning levels, 3 at Level 6. Also chasing recipes.

Mopar63

Novel thought but what about the RP for the character? I have an Orc I am leveling right now that is a pure warrior/blacksmith. He is slowly bringing both up at once and it works well for me. People get to caught up in the min/maxing of the characters. Instead play the character as a person and decide what he would do and do it.

jackiemanuel

I'm in the same boat as the OP. I just hit level 25 and to that point had been crafting all my gear. 5 light armor, 2 heavy, 2 staves. Now I'm at an impasse. My clothing and woodworking are at 11 but blacksmithing only at 9. So even if I wanted to continue this I have to deconstruct a ton of stuff to even craft heavy armor at my level.

And that's before even considering skill points. I'm 41,work a lot, have a girlfriend and dog so I don't know how viable having a dedicated crafting character would be. I could do it but it would be a huge time dump I think. I only get to play a couple hours each night, more on weekends.

I'm not sure how to proceed. I went after all the skyshards in my current zone last night wit the intent of putting those points in crafting but didn't and decided to think it over. What are my best options going forward?

Can I truly gain enough skill points over time to appropriately level those the crafting skills plus class skills, destro,restore staves, racial, armor, etc? Would i only be sacrificing power in the short term or would I come up short on points later on?

I like crafting. I have a lot of motifs and enjoy making my gear look exactly how I want. I'm in am active traders guild so money isn't really a problem for increasing inventory or buying things I want.

If I cease crafting all my gear how would I go about getting it without an alternate toon? Just buy it from a guild store as needed and supplement with good drops? I also have a friend in a crafting guild who sells stuff at a pretty good price so theres that.

I guess I want to have my cake and eat it too. I enjoy crafting but also am finding myself having to be incredibly judicious with skill points now, wanting more morphs and skills than I can afford.

Ourorboros

jackiemanuel wrote: »

I'm in the same boat as the OP. I just hit level 25 and to that point had been crafting all my gear. 5 light armor, 2 heavy, 2 staves. Now I'm at an impasse. My clothing and woodworking are at 11 but blacksmithing only at 9. So even if I wanted to continue this I have to deconstruct a ton of stuff to even craft heavy armor at my level.

And that's before even considering skill points. I'm 41,work a lot, have a girlfriend and dog so I don't know how viable having a dedicated crafting character would be. I could do it but it would be a huge time dump I think. I only get to play a couple hours each night, more on weekends.

I'm not sure how to proceed. I went after all the skyshards in my current zone last night wit the intent of putting those points in crafting but didn't and decided to think it over. What are my best options going forward?

Can I truly gain enough skill points over time to appropriately level those the crafting skills plus class skills, destro,restore staves, racial, armor, etc? Would i only be sacrificing power in the short term or would I come up short on points later on?

I like crafting. I have a lot of motifs and enjoy making my gear look exactly how I want. I'm in am active traders guild so money isn't really a problem for increasing inventory or buying things I want.

If I cease crafting all my gear how would I go about getting it without an alternate toon? Just buy it from a guild store as needed and supplement with good drops? I also have a friend in a crafting guild who sells stuff at a pretty good price so theres that.

I guess I want to have my cake and eat it too. I enjoy crafting but also am finding myself having to be incredibly judicious with skill points now, wanting more morphs and skills than I can afford.

The key to your question is 'over time". There are plenty of skill points in the game, but 2/3 are not available until you start questing in the other 2 alliances. I'm a VR14 with crafting maxed, multiple weapon lines maxed, skill points to spare, and still have skill points I have not gained yet. If you want to do this, there is nothing to stop you. It's just hard until you finish the first alliance.

Nestor

Mopar63 wrote: »

Novel thought but what about the RP for the character? I have an Orc I am leveling right now that is a pure warrior/blacksmith. He is slowly bringing both up at once and it works well for me. People get to caught up in the min/maxing of the characters. Instead play the character as a person and decide what he would do and do it.

It is not that much an issue to learn one or two crafting skills as you level. That is doable and my two master crafters came up that way. It is trying to learn and level all crafts while leveling a single character that it gets real difficult.

This is why most of us, at least initially, used multiple crafters. Now I have a VR14 that is proficient in all the crafts, but not a master of all of them. I certainly can use some more skill points, but I like having her deadly right now.

whyB

jackiemanuel wrote: »

I don't know how viable having a dedicated crafting character would be. I could do it but it would be a huge time dump I think. I only get to play a couple hours each night, more on weekends.

I believe this is your primary point. Ultimately this is a game and we are supposed to enjoy it. If you're going to feel as though you get more enjoyment rolling a new character to be a dedicated crafter and then re-grinding the same stuff you did to get to the point you're at now, and then some - roll a dedicated crafter. However, since you're in the same boat as I am (limited time), I would recommend doing what I am doing and crafting with my main (ie: my one and only character)

jackiemanuel

Yeah it really does boil down to that. I get wrapped up in the minutae sometimes and forget that it really is about just having fun.

LordBurl

I too have limited play time (got the game at release for consoles, just hit level 11 last night). Due to this, I am not considering multiple characters, I have my one character, and that is it. I do feel as though my character could do more in combat if I were not splitting my points up so much, but he is effective, and so far I have only died once or twice, and the second time was because I forgot to map my health potion to my quick slot, lol. It is doable, but I can already tell that only using one character is going to be more cumbersome. I have invested the gold to unlock the first two back pack upgrades, the first two bank upgrades, and am working on leveling my horses carry capacity as well, so inventory is not too bad right now. I craft any time my bag gets full, and this seems to help keep my combined inventory from being really difficult to manage right now. I prioritize what crafting items I need/want, and sell (or put in guild bank) the rest. One of the big ones for me are the racial trait stones. I know three styles right now, so I only keep racial trait stones for those three. When I decided to do that, it cleared out nearly 10 bank slots. I realize that I will eventually need a mule, but I will put it off for now, because I hate logging in and out.

failkiwib16_ESO

I would recomend you to learn alchemy and provisioning with your main char, so that food, drinks and potions have longer lasting effects. Regarding the other crafts, it is best to go with other chars for that purpose, to ease your main from all the skillpoints..... research time can also be made faster with multiple chars crafting the same skilllines, such as 1 char researching blacksmithing weapons, another char researching blacksmithing armor - the 8th and 9th traits take about a month each to research.

In case you really want to use your main for everything, then please go do :
-group dungeon quests.
-veteran group dungeon quests.
-mage guild quests, fighters guild quests.
-main quest in the game.
-main quest in faction.
-public dungeons quests and the group challenge in the public dungeons.
-go to Cyrodiil and take the tutorial there, it also grants you a skillpoint << you don't even have to pvp for that ...in case you choose to pvp, the first couple of ranks are easily gained and you get a skillpoint for each rank.
-get a skyshard addon and hunt down skyshards. Do not forget Cyrodiil (no pvp is needed for this) ...and Craglorn if you are a veteran.

My main char is maxed in all crafts, and I use over 110 skillpoints to keep her running with hirelings and crafting skills and beneficial passives.

OnThaLoose

I only read the first few posts, but I wanted to give my opinion. I craft on my main ATM and I'm doing fine. I'm VR2 so far, and I'm doing blacksmith, clothier, and WW. I do have a alt that I store materials on, but I'm doing alright. I didn't want to spend the time releveling crafting skills and get skill points to unlock the required passives on my alt, so I continued to craft on my main. Eventually, I may make the mule a crafter, but ATM I'm fine with my main crafting. Luckily I played on PC, so I knew what to expect going into console release. As long as you don't mind being short about 30 to 40 skill points (you'll have like 250 by the time ur vr14, which is plenty) and relogging on alts to get mats, it's not bad. Just my opinion.

SeaNBeGoNe

I started 3 chars and am concentrating 1 profession on each but trying to level all 3 up one by one to get the 2nd hirelings first because hirelings are amazing !

Majzkatten

Mopar63 wrote: »

Novel thought but what about the RP for the character? I have an Orc I am leveling right now that is a pure warrior/blacksmith. He is slowly bringing both up at once and it works well for me. People get to caught up in the min/maxing of the characters. Instead play the character as a person and decide what he would do and do it.

I feel the same. Min-max a game kills the fun and the immersion for me. But we are all different, i dont judge anyone, i only speak for myself