Comprehensive Guide to Making Gold

willymchilybily

Belidos wrote: »

1. Grouping is good. When you are in a group you and your group-mates can all loot the same enemies, regardless of who in the group killed that enemy. For instance, if you and another player are not grouped and you kill an enemy, that player would not be able to loot that enemy and vice versa. However, if you two are in a group if you kill an enemy and can loot it, so can that other player and vice versa.

That's only partly right.

You don' get any loot if the other person kills the mob and you haven't hit it, but if you hit a mob you will get a chance at loot, even if you only do 1 point of damage. The exception to this is in IC where the loot rules have been changed so that only the 12 highest damage/heals will get loot from a mob.

I've found in IC i don't even have to par-take sometimes and i get loot if i'm grouped, im pretty sure some of the passive effects i have up can be enough to count towards my contribution and give me loot.

so odd. conversely if i am the first on a portal and soloing the first wave, i can still end up not getting a chest spawn for me if others come along. maybe some underlying mechanic issue, cant believe its just damage related.

Frawr

PinoZino wrote: »

nordsavage wrote: »

I found your guide quite lacking and I would elaborate but if everyone had tons of gold my millions would be worthless.

Ok. You're more about 'me, myself and I'. But why is it key that we know you're more on the selfish side?

Are you that important?

You have no clue how an MMO community works. It's not about 'me, myself and I'. In this setting you share. And the more you share, the more you will get.

Odds are high that countless people knows your 'secret' information anyway. It's pretty arrogant to assume it's not.

Inflation

PinoZino

Frawr wrote: »

Inflation

There are about 3 million players. A few thousands visit this forum. And maybe a few hundred would see his "Wooohaaa Golden Tip of the Month".

I don't think he should be afraid that suddenly everyone is using his golden tip.

anitajoneb17_ESO

AAN2 wrote: »

AAN2 wrote: »

That about covers it. Did I miss anything or get anything wrong?

RatedChaotic wrote: »

See alot of things incorrect. Wouldnt use this guide he posted. There are many guides that are more useful and more profitable.

*rolls eyes*

Name three things I got wrong.

I also find this "guide" pretty... misguiding. And in no way "comprehensive".

For instance, you advise people to farm raw mats, refine them AND SELL THEM TO NPC VENDORS FOR 4g EACH !!!!
Are you aware that nightwood (refined) sells for 50g ea on PC/EU at the moment, and never was under 18ea (about) ?

You can make quite a bit of money by selling crafted stuff to NPCs but it should ALWAYS, ALWAYS be checked against guild store / players' markets FIRST.

Then... while full of obvious things, your guide lacks the most basic useful advice for making money, which are :
- know all tradeable stuff in the game. Know how they're collected, how rare they are, what they are used for.
- Know FOTM builds for all roles and classes and how easy or difficult it is to get them (cf. VR14 martial knowledge in 1.6, footman rings, healer rings, ravager, etc.).
- know the playerbase, choose your audience, farm accordingly.
- analyse sales' histories in your trading guilds
- read patch notes to anticipate variations in supply/demand, stock up accordingly (or inversely get rid of your stocks)

etc, etc...

Third... you "advise" people to farm trophies in IC, open the vaults in the districts and the two dungeons and sell the loot. You forget to mention that you can also sell the trophies directly, thus avoiding the RNG-risk of looting the chest and getting a worthless item.

Fourth... you don't mention "farm dungeons" !! The richest players in the game are currently the ones who used to farm VDSA whenever it was weekly scoreboard. It was the one and only place to get some tradeable VR14 GOLD RINGS and that was at the time the most expensive and asked for loot in the entire game ! (There's nothing equivalent right now since IC dungeon loot is BoP but I'm confident there will soon be something equivalent => back to reading patch notes as soon as they come out !)

Fifth... you don't mention "buy cheap - resell higher". I know some people see this as "scam", and while I don't do it myself, it's still perfectly legit and part of the game. I know quite a few players who make their gold visiting all guild stores for cheaply priced wares and reselling them higher - sometimes in other locations.

Sixth... you also miss the entire area of "crafting on demand for other players". It's been a pretty lucrative niche for quite a few players since nirncrux, 9 trait-sets, and it will be again now with the new rare styles.

Seventh... you didn't mention vampire and werewolf bites. You can't make an awful lot of money with it since it's limited to 1 bite / week / char, but still.

.

AAN2

PinoZino wrote: »

I like this guide. Thx for sharing dude.

Thanks

Belidos wrote: »

1. Grouping is good. When you are in a group you and your group-mates can all loot the same enemies, regardless of who in the group killed that enemy. For instance, if you and another player are not grouped and you kill an enemy, that player would not be able to loot that enemy and vice versa. However, if you two are in a group if you kill an enemy and can loot it, so can that other player and vice versa.

That's only partly right.

You don' get any loot if the other person kills the mob and you haven't hit it, but if you hit a mob you will get a chance at loot, even if you only do 1 point of damage. The exception to this is in IC where the loot rules have been changed so that only the 12 highest damage/heals will get loot from a mob.

Incorrect, when you are grouped up and you kill a mob, the rest of the members of your group can get loot from that mob, regardless of whether or not they damaged it. I have tested this with groups of 2-5, where we would be in different sections of a dungeon and killing mobs, then finally looting after the mobs stop spawning for a bit. I went into rooms that I hadn't been in and looted mobs that I had not killed or damaged.

*As I was typing this I wanted to be absolutely sure that I was correct and so I tested it again. A group of 2-5 will exhibit this behavior.

It is possible, I suppose, that larger groups lose this benefit, but I haven't seen any evidence to indicate that as of yet.

Alvar wrote: »

Under storage tips:
Bag space max slots is now 200
last slot (140) is 64,500 to purchase.
130 is 46,000
Don't remember the other amounts, sorry.

Thanks, didn't realize that was part of the update. I managed to track down the amounts and have edited section Storage Tips to include the updated numbers.

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

AAN2 wrote: »

AAN2 wrote: »

That about covers it. Did I miss anything or get anything wrong?

RatedChaotic wrote: »

See alot of things incorrect. Wouldnt use this guide he posted. There are many guides that are more useful and more profitable.

*rolls eyes*

Name three things I got wrong.

I also find this "guide" pretty... misguiding. And in no way "comprehensive".

For instance, you advise people to farm raw mats, refine them AND SELL THEM TO NPC VENDORS FOR 4g EACH !!!!
Are you aware that nightwood (refined) sells for 50g ea on PC/EU at the moment, and never was under 18ea (about) ?

You can make quite a bit of money by selling crafted stuff to NPCs but it should ALWAYS, ALWAYS be checked against guild store / players' markets FIRST.

Then... while full of obvious things, your guide lacks the most basic useful advice for making money, which are :
- know all tradeable stuff in the game. Know how they're collected, how rare they are, what they are used for.
- Know FOTM builds for all roles and classes and how easy or difficult it is to get them (cf. VR14 martial knowledge in 1.6, footman rings, healer rings, ravager, etc.).
- know the playerbase, choose your audience, farm accordingly.
- analyse sales' histories in your trading guilds
- read patch notes to anticipate variations in supply/demand, stock up accordingly (or inversely get rid of your stocks)

etc, etc...

Third... you "advise" people to farm trophies in IC, open the vaults in the districts and the two dungeons and sell the loot. You forget to mention that you can also sell the trophies directly, thus avoiding the RNG-risk of looting the chest and getting a worthless item.

Fourth... you don't mention "farm dungeons" !! The richest players in the game are currently the ones who used to farm VDSA whenever it was weekly scoreboard. It was the one and only place to get some tradeable VR14 GOLD RINGS and that was at the time the most expensive and asked for loot in the entire game ! (There's nothing equivalent right now since IC dungeon loot is BoP but I'm confident there will soon be something equivalent => back to reading patch notes as soon as they come out !)

Fifth... you don't mention "buy cheap - resell higher". I know some people see this as "scam", and while I don't do it myself, it's still perfectly legit and part of the game. I know quite a few players who make their gold visiting all guild stores for cheaply priced wares and reselling them higher - sometimes in other locations.

Sixth... you also miss the entire area of "crafting on demand for other players". It's been a pretty lucrative niche for quite a few players since nirncrux, 9 trait-sets, and it will be again now with the new rare styles.

Seventh... you didn't mention vampire and werewolf bites. You can't make an awful lot of money with it since it's limited to 1 bite / week / char, but still.

Finally, thank you. Edited sections Gold FAQs, Questing, Player Versus Player in Cyrodiil and the Imperial City, Crafting (Blacksmithing, Woodworking, and Tailoring), Farming, Provisioning, Alchemy/Enchanting, and Guild Stores and Area Chat.

PinoZino wrote: »

Frawr wrote: »

Inflation

There are about 3 million players. A few thousands visit this forum. And maybe a few hundred would see his "Wooohaaa Golden Tip of the Month".

I don't think he should be afraid that suddenly everyone is using his golden tip.

The problem isn't other players using it and getting gold, it's it being patched... lol

Belidos

AAN2 wrote: »

PinoZino wrote: »

I like this guide. Thx for sharing dude.

Thanks

Belidos wrote: »

1. Grouping is good. When you are in a group you and your group-mates can all loot the same enemies, regardless of who in the group killed that enemy. For instance, if you and another player are not grouped and you kill an enemy, that player would not be able to loot that enemy and vice versa. However, if you two are in a group if you kill an enemy and can loot it, so can that other player and vice versa.

That's only partly right.

You don' get any loot if the other person kills the mob and you haven't hit it, but if you hit a mob you will get a chance at loot, even if you only do 1 point of damage. The exception to this is in IC where the loot rules have been changed so that only the 12 highest damage/heals will get loot from a mob.

Incorrect, when you are grouped up and you kill a mob, the rest of the members of your group can get loot from that mob, regardless of whether or not they damaged it. I have tested this with groups of 2-5, where we would be in different sections of a dungeon and killing mobs, then finally looting after the mobs stop spawning for a bit. I went into rooms that I hadn't been in and looted mobs that I had not killed or damaged.

*As I was typing this I wanted to be absolutely sure that I was correct and so I tested it again. A group of 2-5 will exhibit this behavior.

It is possible, I suppose, that larger groups lose this benefit, but I haven't seen any evidence to indicate that as of yet.

I wasn't talking about being grouped, I was talking about this line from the original quote:

For instance, if you and another player are not grouped and you kill an enemy, that player would not be able to loot that enemy and vice versa

You clearly say that you will not get any loot from a kill made by an UNGROUPED player, that's is only partially right:

In Group:
You will get loot from the a killed mob that your group members have killed regardless of whether you have hit it or not.

Out of Group:
You will not get loot from a mob killed by someone outside your group unless you hit that mob at least once, a single strike against the mob will trigger loot for you as well.

In IC:
When killing a mob (I assume this is bosses, someone might need to clarify etc) only the twelve players with the highest dps/hps will receive loot.

anitajoneb17_ESO

AAN2 wrote: »

Finally, thank you. Edited sections Gold FAQs, Questing, Player Versus Player in Cyrodiil and the Imperial City, Crafting (Blacksmithing, Woodworking, and Tailoring), Farming, Provisioning, Alchemy/Enchanting, and Guild Stores and Area Chat.

Thanks for taking some of those into consideration.

There are still a couple of mistakes :
- Max bag space is 200 now (140 bag merchant + 60 horse)
- Bound items can be sold to NPC
- You mention that most trading guild charge membership fees and that's not true, most don't ! (on PC anyway). And even if they do, advantages by far outweigh this small cost.

This last point is representative of why most players will still find your guide... misguiding. Let me explain :

Your guide explains very well how to make gold with the game's mechanism and the NPC vendors. Obviously you've done a lot of it and know the topic very well. BUT you don't seem to be very experienced with trading with other players, always describe it in some kind of negative light (risky, costly, time-consuming, etc.) and as something secondary.

Truth is, the game (as an MMO) is designed to make trading with other players far more profitable than trading with NPC or collecting quest rewards.

Trading with NPC in an optimized way will get you something like 50K-100K per month. Trading in an optimized way with other players via trading guilds (and area chat to a lesser extent) will get you 500K-1000K per month (if not much much more for some dedicated farmers/traders). And 1000K gold per month is the kind of gold you need in order to enjoy your money and make it "quality of life" (buy gear instead of farming it, buy potions instead of farming ingredients, buy recipes instead of looking for them, etc. )

As long as you don't emphasize on trading with other players as the main, if not only way to really make gold in this game, your guide cannot be taken seriously.

Try to get more experienced in trading with other players and you'll see what I mean.

Or else filter it, rename it and call it "the comprehensive guide of making gold in ESO without trading with other players".

PinoZino

Ladies,

Are you all aware about the length of this guide?

It's pretty long and complete.

Show some respect for the effort of @AAN2.

Sure, it contains a few mistakes and contains outdated data. Be constructive and follow @anitajoneb17_ESO her path.

Moan, but moan why and if possible provide a better solution. I'm sure that @AAN2 will listen and fix his stuff.

In the end, we'll have a much better guide, available for all who's interested.

Mettaricana

I make my gold 9trait crafting on ps4 there's very few players who have 9 in almost everything so armor master and twice born etc are the bread winner

Lord Xanhorn

This is amazing. I knew most of this already but I am a pretty experienced player. If I was newish to the game, this would be gold!

There is a critical flaw in people arguments that this guide doesn't consider trade guilds that should be noted.

This guide is for EVERYONE. Trade guilds and trading with other people is for only a select number of people. You can only list 30 items for each guild and you can join up to 5 guilds. So at a very maximum, you can only have 150 items up for sale at a time. If you consider that you really need to be in one of the top 15 to 20 trade guilds to really sell your wares quickly, the likelihood of you being in 5 of the top 15 guilds is very unlikely. Most people struggle with joining 1. Even if you join one of the very active guilds and sell your refined Nightwood to other players, its still a lot of effort to manage your wares and what's for sale and whats just sitting on the trade block for days and days unsold.

This guide is for the average person who maybe isnt in a big trade guild and still wants a shot at making money. They have a certain amount of time to play and they want their results to be consistent. Trading to other players is anything but consistent.

There are ways to make good amount of money in this game that doesnt involve selling to other players and this guide is great for showing all those options and the pluses and minuses of each.

anitajoneb17_ESO

Lord Xanhorn wrote: »

This is amazing. I knew most of this already but I am a pretty experienced player. If I was newish to the game, this would be gold!

Then maybe it should be called "Beginner's guide to making gold in ESO without trading with other players".

Lord Xanhorn wrote: »

Trade guilds and trading with other people is for only a select number of people.

Disagree (for being polite and diplomatic, because the truth is : false. Trade guilds are VERY easy to join for anyone. )

Lord Xanhorn wrote: »

So at a very maximum, you can only have 150 items up for sale at a time. If you consider that you really need to be in one of the top 15 to 20 trade guilds to really sell your wares quickly, the likelihood of you being in 5 of the top 15 guilds is very unlikely. Most people struggle with joining 1. Even if you join one of the very active guilds and sell your refined Nightwood to other players, its still a lot of effort to manage your wares and what's for sale and whats just sitting on the trade block for days and days unsold.

False, false, false.

Lord Xanhorn wrote: »

This guide is for the average person who maybe isnt in a big trade guild and still wants a shot at making money. They have a certain amount of time to play and they want their results to be consistent. Trading to other players is anything but consistent.

There are ways to make good amount of money in this game that doesnt involve selling to other players and this guide is great for showing all those options and the pluses and minuses of each.

Trading guilds are the very best way for people to sell without wasting too much time on it : put your items for sale, the rest happens by itself even if you're offline. And if you price your stuff correctly, results are extremely quick and consistent. You really don't know what you're talking about. You're free to refuse to use trading guilds, and live with the consequences, but all the reasons you're mentioning here for doing so are just plain wrong.

Any guide called "comprehensive guide to making money in ESO" that disregards trading guilds as the main source of income for any player is just a misleading joke.

Advising people to sell refined nightwood to NPC for 800 a stack, or even to craft bows with it to sell to NPC vendor, when then can sell it for 10000 in any guild store within 1 hour is pure swindle.

Lord Xanhorn

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Trading guilds are the very best way for people to sell without wasting too much time on it : put your items for sale, the rest happens by itself even if you're offline. And if you price your stuff correctly, results are extremely quick and consistent. You really don't know what you're talking about. You're free to refuse to use trading guilds, and live with the consequences, but all the reasons you're mentioning here for doing so are just plain wrong.

Any guide called "comprehensive guide to making money in ESO" that disregards trading guilds as the main source of income for any player is just a misleading joke.

Advising people to sell refined nightwood to NPC for 800 a stack, or even to craft bows with it to sell to NPC vendor, when then can sell it for 10000 in any guild store within 1 hour is pure swindle.

Maybe you should make a guide on selling goods in trade guilds. I know a lot of people who could use some tips.

You keep saying its so easy to make big $ in guilds yet so many people struggle to do it. You can find seemingly hundreds of threads on here about people ticked off there's no auction house cause they are simply left out of the system. They need help and shooting down a guide to making money when you're not in the guild system is pretty terrible of you.

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Trolling & Baiting]

anitajoneb17_ESO

Lord Xanhorn wrote: »

Maybe you should make a guide on selling goods in trade guilds. I know a lot of people who could use some tips.

Done that before => read thread entirely. (Repeat if necessary)

Lord Xanhorn wrote: »

You keep saying its so easy to make big $ in guilds yet so many people struggle to do it.

Don't know of anyone who (really) tried and failed. Of course you'll always find someone who listed 10 fishing baits for 1K and complains it doesn't sell.

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Trolling & Baiting]

Bhakura

why you need gold anyway? Played since launch and hardly ever bought anything ... the stuff i need want, ill get myself lol

Asherons_Call

Nice post. Thank you for the time you put in. Bookmarked!

nimander99

Now we just need a Comprehensive Guide to Making Cheese!

Ok, im done with the cheese references today... I promise

KronicDecay

Great guide. I also would like to add that if you're a master smith,clothier, woodworker etc that selling trait items in the guild stores is a good way to get a decent amount of cash also. Writ rewards such as gold mats or purp recipes/fragments are always a quick sell also.

AAN2

Belidos wrote: »

AAN2 wrote: »

PinoZino wrote: »

I like this guide. Thx for sharing dude.

Thanks

Belidos wrote: »

1. Grouping is good. When you are in a group you and your group-mates can all loot the same enemies, regardless of who in the group killed that enemy. For instance, if you and another player are not grouped and you kill an enemy, that player would not be able to loot that enemy and vice versa. However, if you two are in a group if you kill an enemy and can loot it, so can that other player and vice versa.

That's only partly right.

You don' get any loot if the other person kills the mob and you haven't hit it, but if you hit a mob you will get a chance at loot, even if you only do 1 point of damage. The exception to this is in IC where the loot rules have been changed so that only the 12 highest damage/heals will get loot from a mob.

Incorrect, when you are grouped up and you kill a mob, the rest of the members of your group can get loot from that mob, regardless of whether or not they damaged it. I have tested this with groups of 2-5, where we would be in different sections of a dungeon and killing mobs, then finally looting after the mobs stop spawning for a bit. I went into rooms that I hadn't been in and looted mobs that I had not killed or damaged.

*As I was typing this I wanted to be absolutely sure that I was correct and so I tested it again. A group of 2-5 will exhibit this behavior.

It is possible, I suppose, that larger groups lose this benefit, but I haven't seen any evidence to indicate that as of yet.

I wasn't talking about being grouped, I was talking about this line from the original quote:

For instance, if you and another player are not grouped and you kill an enemy, that player would not be able to loot that enemy and vice versa

You clearly say that you will not get any loot from a kill made by an UNGROUPED player, that's is only partially right:

In Group:
You will get loot from the a killed mob that your group members have killed regardless of whether you have hit it or not.

Out of Group:
You will not get loot from a mob killed by someone outside your group unless you hit that mob at least once, a single strike against the mob will trigger loot for you as well.

In IC:
When killing a mob (I assume this is bosses, someone might need to clarify etc) only the twelve players with the highest dps/hps will receive loot.

Ohhh, that's what you meant. Alright, edited the sentences to be more specific in Farming

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

AAN2 wrote: »

Finally, thank you. Edited sections Gold FAQs, Questing, Player Versus Player in Cyrodiil and the Imperial City, Crafting (Blacksmithing, Woodworking, and Tailoring), Farming, Provisioning, Alchemy/Enchanting, and Guild Stores and Area Chat.

Thanks for taking some of those into consideration.

There are still a couple of mistakes :
- Max bag space is 200 now (140 bag merchant + 60 horse)
- Bound items can be sold to NPC
- You mention that most trading guild charge membership fees and that's not true, most don't ! (on PC anyway). And even if they do, advantages by far outweigh this small cost.

This last point is representative of why most players will still find your guide... misguiding. Let me explain :

Your guide explains very well how to make gold with the game's mechanism and the NPC vendors. Obviously you've done a lot of it and know the topic very well. BUT you don't seem to be very experienced with trading with other players, always describe it in some kind of negative light (risky, costly, time-consuming, etc.) and as something secondary.

Truth is, the game (as an MMO) is designed to make trading with other players far more profitable than trading with NPC or collecting quest rewards.

Trading with NPC in an optimized way will get you something like 50K-100K per month. Trading in an optimized way with other players via trading guilds (and area chat to a lesser extent) will get you 500K-1000K per month (if not much much more for some dedicated farmers/traders). And 1000K gold per month is the kind of gold you need in order to enjoy your money and make it "quality of life" (buy gear instead of farming it, buy potions instead of farming ingredients, buy recipes instead of looking for them, etc. )

As long as you don't emphasize on trading with other players as the main, if not only way to really make gold in this game, your guide cannot be taken seriously.

Try to get more experienced in trading with other players and you'll see what I mean.

Or else filter it, rename it and call it "the comprehensive guide of making gold in ESO without trading with other players".

I've been a part of 8 trading guilds so far (I go for ones that have better traders) and out of those eight seven of them required some form of 'Guild Dues'. Whether it be payment via materials or via gold. When I first created this guide I made sure to ask around about the number of guilds that charge dues, and I can assure you that 'many' is an accurate term across all three consoles. At least for the North American servers.

As far as casting trading with players in a negative light, I fear you may have misread. Each time I described something as time-consuming or costly, I was talking about either mistakes one should avoid making or the amount of time one should expect to spend creating/gathering items. And the only times I described anything as being risky is in regards to stealing or buying low and selling high. The former doesn't even involve trading with players and the latter actually IS risky.

I did realize that I forgot to edit the 170s to 200s and so I corrected it. Thanks for the reminder

nimander99 wrote: »

Now we just need a Comprehensive Guide to Making Cheese!

Ok, im done with the cheese references today... I promise

I would, but Sheogorath beat me to it.

AAN2

Edited Gold FAQs, Player Versus Player in Cyrodiil and The Imperial City, and added section Fishing

AAN2

Edited Player Versus Player in Cyrodiil and The Imperial City and Legerdemain/Stealing

AAN2

Edited Crafting (Blacksmithing, Woodworking, and Tailoring) for clarity purposes.

AAN2

Edited Player Versus Player in Cyrodiil and The Imperial City and Fishing.

AudioVortex

Great guide! Made me want to try out a bit of fishing today as everything else is boring me. Need the roe for guildies to make me some exp potions!

anitajoneb17_ESO

Are you really advising "offering lower level players to run dungeons with them for gold" ? As a legit way of making gold ?

I'm speechless. Shame on you.

AAN2

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Are you really advising "offering lower level players to run dungeons with them for gold" ? As a legit way of making gold ?

I'm speechless. Shame on you.

Oh, I never said legit. Not once in the entire guide did I say legit. I was VERY careful not to. I said legitimate once, and that was referring to spoilers, not actually IN the guide.

That being said if you're a high level and a low level asks for your help in a dungeon where you're not going to get any drops I think it's reasonable to expect some compensation for granting your assistance.

anitajoneb17_ESO

AAN2 wrote: »

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Are you really advising "offering lower level players to run dungeons with them for gold" ? As a legit way of making gold ?

I'm speechless. Shame on you.

Oh, I never said legit. Not once in the entire guide did I say legit. I was VERY careful not to. I said legitimate once, and that was referring to spoilers, not actually IN the guide.

That being said if you're a high level and a low level asks for your help in a dungeon where you're not going to get any drops I think it's reasonable to expect some compensation for granting your assistance.

Well we disagree on that one. I don't think it's reasonable. Either you do it for fun or for helping or both, but low level players already struggle for gold while they have to spend it on bag and bank space and riding lessons, while endgame players have plenty of other ways to make lots of money.
But it's a free market, if people are stupid enough to get themselves exploited by mercenary players, there's nothing you can do. Let them be aware that having a high level player run with them will spoil both their fun (dungeon will be face-rolled) and their XP.
Seeing this in a guide to making gold is shocking. Just my opinion.

stewart.leslie76b16_ESO

I agree with @anitajoneb17_ESO in principle, however the xp and loot drops is mainly from the kills not from handing in the quest where the bulk of the xp is, I don't think twice about running people through dungeons on high level characters as 9/10 they are just after a certain objective like a skill point There's plenty of other ways to get xp in this game.

@AAN2 Was right to enter it in, but players that do this tend to get a reputation and people will avoid them in the long term.

AAN2

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

AAN2 wrote: »

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Are you really advising "offering lower level players to run dungeons with them for gold" ? As a legit way of making gold ?

I'm speechless. Shame on you.

Oh, I never said legit. Not once in the entire guide did I say legit. I was VERY careful not to. I said legitimate once, and that was referring to spoilers, not actually IN the guide.

That being said if you're a high level and a low level asks for your help in a dungeon where you're not going to get any drops I think it's reasonable to expect some compensation for granting your assistance.

Well we disagree on that one. I don't think it's reasonable. Either you do it for fun or for helping or both, but low level players already struggle for gold while they have to spend it on bag and bank space and riding lessons, while endgame players have plenty of other ways to make lots of money.
But it's a free market, if people are stupid enough to get themselves exploited by mercenary players, there's nothing you can do. Let them be aware that having a high level player run with them will spoil both their fun (dungeon will be face-rolled) and their XP.
Seeing this in a guide to making gold is shocking. Just my opinion.

You're making a couple of grandiose assumptions that are simply off the mark. The first assumption is that the amount of gold being requested is an extreme amount (like 20k per dungeon run), while in practice it's usually a quite reasonable amount (around 2k, a quarter of which is the quest gold-reward for most dungeons).

The second assumption is that the "mercenary players" have an 'all gain no pain' experience. Dropping an entire group dungeon nearly single handedly, face rolling or no, is a time consuming process. Not to mention what it does to your armor condition and weapon charges. Fact is most of these players see a profit of only about 1k gold, which is worth FAR more than the skill point they just helped the new player(s) get. Oh, and Skill Points > 250 gold for riding lessons for new players.

The third assumption is that new players are hiring 'mercs' to do dungeons with them for 'funsies'. Having the dungeon face-rolled is obviously the point of what they're paying for. Not to mention that it only ruins XP and loot drops if the new player LITERALLY DOES NOTHING AT ALL EVER. If they attack enemies, they get experience despite having done minimal damage. It works the same way with loot as well (in groups >12), unless you're five levels above or below the current level of the target. Not to mention that with a high level player, you can have a group of just 2 which further increases your XP gains (over a group of 3 or 4). I have helped friends 'group dungeon grind' and I can personally confirm that new players still get XP with assists. They also get loot off of assists.

The fourth assumption you've made is that other players in the game owe each other free stuff. Fact is that you never do anything for free. You do it because you get a reward. Whether it be a nice, fuzzy feeling or a chunk of change. And those that do it for the cash are generally more reliable and consistent than those doing it for their 'warm&fuzzies'. They are less prone to quitting on you and abandoning you in the middle of a group dungeon when the grind isn't fun anymore.

The fifth and final assumption is that somehow getting rewarded for taking time out of your life to help someone is wrong. No, it isn't. It's wrong to rip people off, it's wrong to put people out, and it's wrong to overcharge but it is not wrong to ask for a reasonable amount of gold to take the time out of your life to help someone do something that they do not NEED to do.

anitajoneb17_ESO

@AAN2 :

You write a guide that's supposed to help players make gold in the game. Fact is, the best and quickest way to make money in the game is to trade with other players. But you emphasize on every possible way to make gold with the NPCs and bury the most important part among plenty of other things that have nothing to do with making gold (such as fishing details or TelVar Stones mechanics). I told you that already, you ignored it, that's your choice, but I repeat it here : people, do NOT follow this guide, it's misleading. The first and only real advice people can get if they want to make gold is "forget about any NPC business and trade with players. Join trading guilds and go farm whatever sells highest at any given time". Anything else is time wasted on less profitable activities.

Now you include in this guide that it's a good way of making gold to play the mercenary to carry weaker or lower level players through dungeons. That's pretty much like selling them dope to win a race that they wouldn't win otherwise. It's against the spirit of the game, and close to cheating. Furthermore, your assumption that people who do things for money are more reliable than people who do it out of kindness is out of thin air (even heard of bites scamming ?). But certainly, dope is a more reliable way in the very short term to win a race than real practice and progress.

Now let me explain what the spirit of the game is :

People will face difficulties from time to time, especially when jumping from the solo levelling phase to the group play phase in dungeons. When confronted to these difficulties, people should ask for help (HELP, not sub-contracting, see the difference ?), communicate, socialize, join guilds. In those guilds they will find other players of the same level to group with and socialize with, and practice the dungeons with. That's a long-term asset for both them and the game. People will get better and be prepared instead of clueless once they reach endgame.

Mercenaries who sell their "services" to carry lower-level people through dungeons are purely and simply abusing them, ripping them off, and also prevent them from socializing, from joining guilds, which is the right way to go, they steal their satisfaction of achieving content by themselves and their own progress, and they finally prevent them from being ready when reaching endgame. That harms the players themselves, the entire community, and ultimately the game.

Your guide is generally full of bad advice, but that one is definitely the worst of them (for now).