Crafting Writs Changes Are Seriously Needed

defilade__ESO

• My provisoner needs four ingredients to make one food and one drink. However, when I make my food and drink i make four of each, so I make enough of each to stick in the bank and reused to complete three more writs.

• My enchanter needs one component, and needs to make one ruin.

• My alchemist needs one weed, and uses two more weeds to make one potion

• My blacksmith and clothier on the other hand have to make up to nine items, using over 100 ingots or cloth, and my reward is sometimes one freaking trait stone and one useless piece of white, armor that does not even have a trait.

I'm not suggesting we require the other crafting professions to make insane amounts of products, like blacksmith, to complete the writ, I just want some balance with clothier and blacksmith.

Jayne_Doe

This has been a common complaint since the launch of crafting writs. The equipment writs are more costly to complete with less rewards than the consumables, even with the addition of a very small chance at a gold temper or crafting survey.

I'd like to see the item requirements reduced somewhat for the equipment writs, but more than that, I'd like to see better/more consistent rewards:

-each equipment writ should contain a trait stone and repair kit - always
-each equipment writ should also always contain a piece of gear, with the chance of it containing a useful trait and or being green or higher
-then, there should be a good chance at a green temper or higher (with decreasing chances at the higher levels) - this way, you still have the same chance at a gold temper, but you have at least a higher chance of getting some kind of temper

Just my two cents...

defilade__ESO

Agreed, it's bad enough that the gold tempers are so rare. I have never used any gold tempers, been playing the game for over a year, and have mined/refined thousands of nodes, and still only have 30 gold tempers.

The drop rate for the gold enchanter Kuda could stand to be increased slightly, for that matter.

Jayne_Doe

defilade__ESO wrote: »

Agreed, it's bad enough that the gold tempers are so rare. I have never used any gold tempers, been playing the game for over a year, and have mined/refined thousands of nodes, and still only have 30 gold tempers.

The drop rate for the gold enchanter Kuda could stand to be increased slightly, for that matter.

Since the great hireling nerf, I have received exactly ONE Kuta from my enchanter hireling. I have received a number of Kutas from the writs (I do them daily), but the rate is about one per week.

I actually have 80 tempering alloys now, but I've been playing since early access. I still get them from blacksmith hirelings, so they weren't as badly nerfed as the enchanter hireling. And I do get them on occasion from refining. I only do the writs when I've built up enough extra mats from my wanderings/hirelings, so I've only done a handful of them and have received at least one. But, it's so disheartening to use up 80-100 quicksilver ingots to only get a turquoise and ornate bracers.

Defilted

I would like to make a suggestion.

Along with a friend of mine we split some of the crafts. I took Alchemy/Enchanting/Clothier. He took Provisioning/Blacksmithing (We are both doing woodworking)

We used skills that got us all the hirelings and one level in keen site if available. We both look for and pick up all types of materials and we send to each other along with the Hireling deposits and I see the frequent purple and gold MATS( two to six a week)

We can of course then send things back and forth for deconstruction/research as well. It has worked out pretty well and has kept us fat with MATS.

I would imagine there is a lot of people doing this already, but I thought I would suggest it to increase the chance you get what you need.

sloppy_O_Shot

Then it takes like 7 legendary tempers at the highest level to get a 100% chance of upgrading from an epic to legendary. Now if you want to do that with heavy armor then that's 7 pieces of gear. If you're duel then you also need that for both weapons. That's 9x7=63 That you would need to make one full set of gear and 2 weapons. Oh that is only if you already have the perfect set of gear from buying or drops. If you want to fully craft it you need a ton of materials.

I'm starting to rethink being a crafter. I don't feel like I'm going to gain anything. I'm lvl50 in Woodworking, Blacksmith, & Clothing. Just hit lvl40 in enchanting (did it alone because nobody wanted to help). I have lost count of all the skill points I used at around 63 or something close. It really hurt my power the beginning and sure I'm still suffering because of it. However it would more them make up for it if I could get the materials to make to gear every 3-4 lvls. I mean come on....I can't even sell the gear I made myself because it is bound to me. I will be lucky to get a few legendary stone back from deconstruction. Please fix this as I'm about to respec and just buy my gear......

Nestor

sloppy_O_Shot wrote: »

Then it takes like 7 legendary tempers at the highest level to get a 100% chance of upgrading from an epic to legendary. Now if you want to do that with heavy armor then that's 7 pieces of gear. If you're duel then you also need that for both weapons. That's 9x7=63

I'm starting to rethink being a crafter. I don't feel like I'm going to gain anything.......t really hurt my power the beginning and sure I'm still suffering because of it. However it would more them make up for it if I could get the materials to make to gear every 3-4 lvls. I mean come on....I can't even sell the gear I made myself because it is bound to me. I will be lucky to get a few legendary stone back from deconstruction. Please fix this as I'm about to respec and just buy my gear......

It's 8 Legendary Tempers, on top of the 4 Purples, 3 Blues and 2 Greens you also need to make something legendary, if you have all the passives.

Yes, making a crafter means your character is not as deadly. But, guess what, now you can make gear for your Alts you are leveling. You know how strong a L8 in a Full Set of Green is? Or a L16 in a full set of Blue? Couple that with armor like this you can wear for 10 levels while leveling, you are sitting in the perfect position. You can decon loot along the way, or better, vendor it all and buy bag spaces or horse upgrades or materials from a guild store so you never have to farm again.

My first two characters are master crafters, I knew that going in and fully expected them to be weak, And, they were while leveling. However once in the mid to upper VR Ranks, I had the skill points needed to be deadly and crafty. However, the two Alts I leveled after? They were deadly from day one and never got weaker.

It's like the parents who move to a new area, scrimp and save to get their children through college so the kids have an easier time. Your Alts are your kids, go exploit their prowess with your crafter made gear. So, don't respec your crafters, roll alts, you will enjoy things much better.

defilade__ESO

..and then you hold off from depleting a year's worth of gold tempers, because they will raise the level cap, or alter the armor sets. A guildie did all his armor gold, then they changed the armor set he made, and it was no longer worth using. I felt really bad for him.

Eocosa

defilade__ESO wrote: »

..and then you hold off from depleting a year's worth of gold tempers, because they will raise the level cap, or alter the armor sets. A guildie did all his armor gold, then they changed the armor set he made, and it was no longer worth using. I felt really bad for him.

The thing is this is a reality in MMOs, you work and work, save and save, to get the best possible gear you have. Then something gets nerfed/buffed or a new update comes out which increases the player level and therefore there is a new "tier" of gear one must gather.

There are essentially only 2 options when it comes to this. A: Only upgrade your gear to the bare minimum you need to get through the content you desire (seldom does one NEED best in slot gear at all times), or B: Do all the content that requires the best in slot gear, but one SHOULD ideally be getting either enough drops to break down and gather another stockpile, or at least get enough loot that they can sell to others or just simply loot enough gold to get buy enough tempers again.

Admittedly I have not reached endgame yet (started day one with the console release), but from what I can tell it seems like at cap there is little to no reason to spend gold so perhaps one can buy tempers with the anticipation of the "next wave" of gear they will need.

UrQuan

I would agree that I'd like to see more balance between the different writs in terms of the return on investment.

Provisioning writs clearly give the biggest ROI - especially since Psijic Ambrosia came on the scene. Those are the only ones that I make a point of doing on every character every day. The other consumables writs are worth doing too, but to a lesser extent. Alchemy writs always give you more back than you put into them (albeit not by as much as Provisioning), and Enchanting writs on balance give you more back than you put into them (that may or may not be true for any given Enchanting writ, but over time when you take into account surveys and the occasional Kuta you'll definitely get more out of them than you put in). Fun story: I hadn't done any enchanting writs in a while, but over the weekend I did all of the consumables writs each day with all 8 characters on my main account, and I ended up with 6 Kutas from 16 writs (2 of those came from a node in a survey)!

The equipment writs, on the other hand, all give you a negative ROI unless you've got a source of the materials that's cheaper than the gold reward you'll be getting for the writ.

defilade__ESO

It's almost like they dont want us to make gold items, and push us to grind gathering resources. It's why you can barely ever find a node to gather in upper Craglorn.

Artemiisia

one wits will make give you like 20k worth of stuff, and to spend 100 mats to get it, is worth it. and if you dont get anything some times its still worth doing when u add it up. Just stop thinking you will get something good every time.

Dinobot

Artemiisia wrote: »

one wits will make give you like 20k worth of stuff, and to spend 100 mats to get it, is worth it. and if you dont get anything some times its still worth doing when u add it up. Just stop thinking you will get something good every time.

One writ has never given me anything near that amount. What does it give you that amounts to that much?

I_killed_Vivec

Dinobot wrote: »

Artemiisia wrote: »

one wits will make give you like 20k worth of stuff, and to spend 100 mats to get it, is worth it. and if you dont get anything some times its still worth doing when u add it up. Just stop thinking you will get something good every time.

One writ has never given me anything near that amount. What does it give you that amounts to that much?

You might get a survey, which might give you materials in Upper Craglorn, which might give you a nirncrux, which you might be able to sell for around 20K.

When the writs started I found it difficult to keep up with the equipment requirements, but now I have materials coming out of my ears - and a significant boost to my stock of tempers from the boost to refinement.

Artemiisia

Dinobot wrote: »

Artemiisia wrote: »

one wits will make give you like 20k worth of stuff, and to spend 100 mats to get it, is worth it. and if you dont get anything some times its still worth doing when u add it up. Just stop thinking you will get something good every time.

One writ has never given me anything near that amount. What does it give you that amounts to that much?

my record with one blacksmith with was 1 gold temper, 1 survey, that lead to two nirncrux stones

in total worth of 45.000g

thats enough to buy 45 stacks of mats to do again, and by then you will come on top of it.

Nestor

Talk about the Cobblers Kids. I went to make some gear for a couple of my characters and found that I had used up all the mats doing Writs......

There needs to be a big change to the Equipment Crafting Writs. At low levels, they work out as a stack can do several writs and the gold alone can keep you in a surplus of materials, even after covering your materials used. It is when they get past mid levels that the return is skewed to you paying the game more than the game pays you for doing a writ.

The nebulous value of the Nirn no longer cuts is as I am seeing 4 figure prices on those stones now, not 20K like it was a few weeks ago.

FancyTuna8

I'm still new to this game on xbox, but at least at the beginning Provisioning and Enchanting are much harder to level. Maybe the later levels are a catch-up/slow-down mechanic?
Anyway, I'm extremely frustrated right now that I'm being held back on provisioning because of ONE recipe, Golden Lager. I have been checking the guild traders for 4 days now heavily, plus still trying to loot recipes. As far as I can tell, the provisioning, alchemy, and enchanting require less because of the randomness of the ingredients. You know you are going to get one of two ores, and all over the place, when farming them. But for flowers, runes, food, and recipes, what you can farm is very randomized.
I do wish that provisioning was a little more forgiving--Carrot Soup and Golden Lager held me back for a long time, and even now the only work-around I've found is abandoning the writ at the end of the day and hope I get a different one the next day. So at best, 2/3 of days I do provisioning. Yet I have never gotten those recipes as a reward for the writ, and never found them in any container, and was only able to purchase one through a guild trader. I have bought well over 30 other recipes, plus finding at least 25 on my own, and I still can't fill a level 1 provisioning writ. Even if I could buy the food itself, it wouldn't be satisfying, as I want the recipe so that I can provide it to alts and guild members easily. I'm unsure about moving up to level 2 provisioning, because what if I have the same roadblock of recipes there? Despite buying most recipes I find for a fair price, I'm sure there is at least 1 out there that I could be stuck on.
This is a side note, but I've come to the conclusion that recipe drops must be determined, at least in some way, by where they are obtained. I have been looting Daggerfall repeatedly, and can't figure out why I have 6 copies of Green Scourgut tea (?), plus 2 other recipes, yet none of plenty of other level 1 recipes? I know it could be bad luck, but this many looting runs through Daggerfall, and that skew?
I actually clicked on this thread because I thought it was going to be about the randomness of provisioning.

sloppy_O_Shot

Nestor wrote: »

sloppy_O_Shot wrote: »

Then it takes like 7 legendary tempers at the highest level to get a 100% chance of upgrading from an epic to legendary. Now if you want to do that with heavy armor then that's 7 pieces of gear. If you're duel then you also need that for both weapons. That's 9x7=63

I'm starting to rethink being a crafter. I don't feel like I'm going to gain anything.......t really hurt my power the beginning and sure I'm still suffering because of it. However it would more them make up for it if I could get the materials to make to gear every 3-4 lvls. I mean come on....I can't even sell the gear I made myself because it is bound to me. I will be lucky to get a few legendary stone back from deconstruction. Please fix this as I'm about to respec and just buy my gear......

It's 8 Legendary Tempers, on top of the 4 Purples, 3 Blues and 2 Greens you also need to make something legendary, if you have all the passives.

Yes, making a crafter means your character is not as deadly. But, guess what, now you can make gear for your Alts you are leveling. You know how strong a L8 in a Full Set of Green is? Or a L16 in a full set of Blue? Couple that with armor like this you can wear for 10 levels while leveling, you are sitting in the perfect position. You can decon loot along the way, or better, vendor it all and buy bag spaces or horse upgrades or materials from a guild store so you never have to farm again.

My first two characters are master crafters, I knew that going in and fully expected them to be weak, And, they were while leveling. However once in the mid to upper VR Ranks, I had the skill points needed to be deadly and crafty. However, the two Alts I leveled after? They were deadly from day one and never got weaker.

It's like the parents who move to a new area, scrimp and save to get their children through college so the kids have an easier time. Your Alts are your kids, go exploit their prowess with your crafter made gear. So, don't respec your crafters, roll alts, you will enjoy things much better.

I don't know if I will want to start all over with an alt. I say that now but maybe I will when I reach VR14 (VR7 now). I love crafting....However I was under the impression I would be able to have the best gear all the time. Also I should be able to sell any gear I have made in the store. If I was the one who made it then it should never be bound to only me. Now if someone other than the original crafter wears it......then by all means make it bound to them. The only way I see value in being a crafter is like you said....making armor/weapons for alts. But what if I don't want to make an alt? Shouldn't I still have some value in my craft or crafts?

I noticed last night that it was 8 and not 7. That makes even more of a point. I have 500+ green 30 blue 10 purple and 7 Gold. Now I did however make some blue armor for myself and some purple armor for a buddy. He got better armor because he gave me Imperial, High Elf, and Primal crafting books. So I think he earned it. Even then he still had to buy some blue and purple tempers as I didn't have anymore. Even with him sending me items to breakdown.


I just don't see why they are so cheap with the materials. The worst being blacksmith. I say that because it would be the most common. See woodworking only used for wood weapons and no armor. So if you're making anything but a shield you only need one because it is 2 handed. Clothing is only for armor and no weapon. Blacksmith is both armor and weapons. Granted if you don't use heavy armor and or any wooden weapons might not matter to you. Out of the three I tend to get less tempers from blacksmith then any of the other two. It should be the other way around in my eyes. You got get the most from blacksmith. Next would be Clothing. Last would be Woodworking. Even then they need to up the amount you receive from both refining and dismantling. This coming from a guy who takes 5 times as long to do anything because I stop and pick up any raw materials I fined.

xaraan

Agreed. The smithing/clothing/ww writs cost too much in materials for what they often yield.

Nestor

sloppy_O_Shot wrote: »

Also I should be able to sell any gear I have made in the store. If I was the one who made it then it should never be bound to only me. Now if someone other than the original crafter wears it......then by all means make it bound to them. The only way I see value in being a crafter is like you said....making armor/weapons for alts. But what if I don't want to make an alt? Shouldn't I still have some value in my craft or crafts?

I agree that we should be able to wear our gear that we made, then be able to sell it and it become BoE at that time. And, since my 4 characters all wear different armor mixes, I can't even do hand me downs....

I have only taken 3 things to Legendary in this game. Usually I stop at Blue or Purple (my hirelings are good at bringing in the Purples for me) and it's good enough.

There are ways to make money from equipment crafting, but it's all in making items for others to research. On the PC, L1 Researchables sell for 200 to 500 gold each. It's easy to keep a guild store stocked with those. However, most of the money I make from Crafting is on the inverse, selling the mats I get from Deconstruction, not making things for others. Or, using those mats to do crafting writs.

Also, one of the last times I attempted to make a set from a zone chat encounter, the person wanted me to make stuff from 3 different crafted sets, in 4 different racial styles and some items improved to Blue, some improved to Green. They even sent me the mats. I sent them back and politely suggested they learn how to craft.

So, I rarely craft for others, and when I do, it is because I am giving someone a gift to help them out.

defilade__ESO

Artemiisia wrote: »

one wits will make give you like 20k worth of stuff, and to spend 100 mats to get it, is worth it. and if you dont get anything some times its still worth doing when u add it up. Just stop thinking you will get something good every time.

You have completely missed my point, I do not view the purpose of crafting writs with all the cool stuff I can sell to other players, in mind.

defilade__ESO

FancyTuna8 wrote: »

I'm still new to this game on xbox, but at least at the beginning Provisioning and Enchanting are much harder to level. Maybe the later levels are a catch-up/slow-down mechanic?

The thing with provisioning is that once you have accumulated a lot of the ingredients and a few recipes, you can level an alternate character to master in just ten minutes time. It's just a little slow at first, but still clearly the easiest crafting profession to level up.

FancyTuna8 wrote: »

Anyway, I'm extremely frustrated right now that I'm being held back on provisioning because of ONE recipe, Golden Lager. I have been checking the guild traders for 4 days now heavily, plus still trying to loot recipes. As far as I can tell, the provisioning, alchemy, and enchanting require less because of the randomness of the ingredients. You know you are going to get one of two ores, and all over the place, when farming them. But for flowers, runes, food, and recipes, what you can farm is very randomized. [I know what you mean, some of the recipes the writs want you to make are hard to find, but you do not need to do writs in order to level.

I leveled my provisoners to master before the crafting writ system ever came out.

Love_Chunks

I dont undestand why people still have issues with the writs. The reward potential is waaaaaaaay better than it used to be while still requiring the same if not less amount mats. Remeber when legendary boosters didnt drop from wits at all? Or even better: only green recipies (and sometimes the recipe you just used to comlete the writ)? Less complain enjoy the game.

FancyTuna8

defilade__ESO wrote: »

I know what you mean, some of the recipes the writs want you to make are hard to find, but you do not need to do writs in order to level.

I leveled my provisoners to master before the crafting writ system ever came out.

Ha-ha! I guess I just needed a pat on the back and a sympathetic ear! I feel better after complaining about it, and I know I could just cook a bunch of stuff and level, but I feel like I'm stuck in a catch 22 with provisioning....if I could do the writs, I'd get the recipes....but I need the recipes to do the writs....

UrQuan

Love_Chunks wrote: »

I dont undestand why people still have issues with the writs. The reward potential is waaaaaaaay better than it used to be while still requiring the same if not less amount mats. Remeber when legendary boosters didnt drop from wits at all? Or even better: only green recipies (and sometimes the recipe you just used to comlete the writ)? Less complain enjoy the game.

You've missed the point entirely. This thread isn't about "oh, writs aren't worth doing" (although that's still largely the case for equipment writs). This thread is about the imbalance between the writ rewards across the different crafting professions. It's about the fact that provisioning writs provide you with by far the best return on your materials investment, followed by alchemy writs, followed by enchanting writs, followed by the equipment writs in a 3-way tie for last place. Having them all be worth doing, and all provide a comparable return on your investment of mats is what we want. As it is, if you only want to spend the time to do 1 writ each day, it's an absolute no-brainer which one of the 6 you should do, and that's a sign that it's not balanced.

I_killed_Vivec

UrQuan wrote: »

Love_Chunks wrote: »

I dont undestand why people still have issues with the writs. The reward potential is waaaaaaaay better than it used to be while still requiring the same if not less amount mats. Remeber when legendary boosters didnt drop from wits at all? Or even better: only green recipies (and sometimes the recipe you just used to comlete the writ)? Less complain enjoy the game.

You've missed the point entirely. This thread isn't about "oh, writs aren't worth doing" (although that's still largely the case for equipment writs). This thread is about the imbalance between the writ rewards across the different crafting professions. It's about the fact that provisioning writs provide you with by far the best return on your materials investment, followed by alchemy writs, followed by enchanting writs, followed by the equipment writs in a 3-way tie for last place. Having them all be worth doing, and all provide a comparable return on your investment of mats is what we want. As it is, if you only want to spend the time to do 1 writ each day, it's an absolute no-brainer which one of the 6 you should do, and that's a sign that it's not balanced.

To examine it further, the ranking you give is correct for two reasons - effort and reward.

The provisioning writs, followed by alchemy and enchanting, require the least effort. Provisioning especially - I haven't done any "cooking" for ages because you can pre-prepare food and drinks , use a 4-1 multiplier on ingredients, and it all stacks in your bank. Similarly for alchemy. Enchanting is a bit different, because you can't stack glyphs in your bank, but the materials are over-abundant - I have hundreds of Ta runes. There's no specific farming required, just pick up when you see them while farming materials for equipment writs. And you do have to farm these materials because equipment writs need so much.

Then there's the rewards. Provisioning ALWAYS gives materials and a recipe. They don't have surveys, but allegedly there are special fragments that other people get (still haven't had one myself). Alchemy and enchanting rewards are always reasonable, even without surveys.

But create 4 pieces of armour and five knives or six bows and two shileds - using 100 top grade materials - and only get a rubbish trait stone as a reward?

That's a slap in the face.

The only good point about having to harvest materials for equipment writs is that you do get a lot of tempers from refining them.

bigbri2k5

@FancyTuna8 There is an excellent guide here:forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/196867/provisioning-writ-recipes-for-all-factions which tells you all the recipes you'll need for writs for each faction. That way you can get a headstart on collecting them.
That being said I wouldn't bother with early provisioning writs, they aren't worth the hassle. The rewards are generally unimpressive, with some random mats and a recipe. Better to simply level past the annoyingly difficult to find early ones.

FancyTuna8

Thanks for the link. Made me feel better that the author also had a heck of a time getting golden lager. Now I can plan when to move up; I think I may have 5 or even all 6 of those 2nd tier writs.

FancyTuna8

Bigbri,
This info helped me so much--I printed out the chart and checked off what I have.
Now I have a question:
I have 5 of 6 recipes for the first 3 levels of writ in my faction, but I have all 6 for the 4th level of writ. Should I just put skill points into that and skip straight to the 4th level for now?

adino

I agree with the original poster. The writs are boring and lopsided. The rewards, however, I think are worth the boredom. I would prefer harder writs and better rewards. The problem is I spent like 10 minutes thinking of harder writs and I just could not come up with a viable set.

On another note: Please make fishing more than just a rare roe finding mechanic. Some things fishing should produce:
1. treasure chest maps
2. things to sell for gold
3. Fishing quests from NPCs. Fish 3 rare fish or something like that
4. Rare fish should sell for more

I just want fishing to have more reward. I would love it if you would change the mechanic. Like press E for quick jerk or R for a small jerk or X for reel in.

That being said, please fix other things first.

Love_Chunks

UrQuan wrote: »

Love_Chunks wrote: »

I dont undestand why people still have issues with the writs. The reward potential is waaaaaaaay better than it used to be while still requiring the same if not less amount mats. Remeber when legendary boosters didnt drop from wits at all? Or even better: only green recipies (and sometimes the recipe you just used to comlete the writ)? Less complain enjoy the game.

You've missed the point entirely. This thread isn't about "oh, writs aren't worth doing" (although that's still largely the case for equipment writs). This thread is about the imbalance between the writ rewards across the different crafting professions. It's about the fact that provisioning writs provide you with by far the best return on your materials investment, followed by alchemy writs, followed by enchanting writs, followed by the equipment writs in a 3-way tie for last place. Having them all be worth doing, and all provide a comparable return on your investment of mats is what we want. As it is, if you only want to spend the time to do 1 writ each day, it's an absolute no-brainer which one of the 6 you should do, and that's a sign that it's not balanced.

Not balanced? Did you for get that you get about 600g just for turning the quest in? That's about the going rate for 100 tier 9 mats. Thats part of your return yet it seems most people over look it. Also it confuses me as to why you call it an investment when it is clearly a gamble. You choose to gamble you mats for a chance at high value items. How much work you put into writs does not affect the outcome what so ever. Id say doing crafting writs (no matter how tedious and unrewarding they are to you) and possibly getting a gold booster/survey, is much better than having stacks of mats taking up valuable inventory space.