Fighting v. Crafting ... how do you balance your collection of builds

RizaHawkeye

No, this isn't a build question - it's more of a management question.

There are six "crafts" in the game. If you have one "crafting" character, they slog along, getting good at nothing, and struggling in-game because you're spreading the skill points across too many skills. So I tried two crafting characters, each undertaking three crafts, which I thought would work and still leave me enough points to build a character strong to survive in PvP.

But I'm not feeling good about this, either. My skill points go to crafting and weapon/class skills, and I don't feel like I have enough for armor/race/class/weapon passives (some but not enough).

I'm interested in hearing how others balance these two skill areas. And do you use your craft character for PvP or PvE?

Thanks!

Tholian1

Suffer with one character and learn all the crafts and make an alt for pure combat. But don't forget to still put points in alchemy and provisioning for the food, drink and potion buffs.

Keep in mind though that eventually you do have a lot of skill points to spread around.

delushin

I run two crafts which leaves enough skill points (provided you are collecting them all) for me to have 4 different bar make ups for my magicka templar.

Full heals - PvE

DPS - PvE

DPS - PvP

Hybrid - PvE/PvP

Each of them is not always using the same skills, of course there are some that get used in each build but I also take most passives as well, except things specific to hitting with weapons like dual wield, although I do have passives in that line as well.

Another thing is if you are in a guild for example with RGC we have dedicated Craft Masters so this gives others lots of freedom with their points, those who are Craft Masters mostly limit themselves to 2-3 crafts and then have a main build they run such as tank etc.

Rioht

I have one character that is max on every skill and can do anything/craft anything (through respec).

I then have alts that I use to take advantage of the fact that you can hoard crafting writs and open them after each patch for tons of chances at the 'new' trait styles and make hundreds of thousands of gold each patch to buy new gear.

Darlgon

I have three crafts on my main. Frankly, with 278 skill points, I still need more. But, it allows me to only have to have motifs on one character. (Cloth, Blacksmith, Wood)

I have one alt who has all the Enchanting and Alchemy stuff. Here again, its a push to have enough skill points because I am still working on getting them on my main. My other alt is a Provisioner, she has enough SP just to get her to make recipes for my main. They are both suffereing for being low levels, because even tho they are 50 in their professions, their writs only take them to 40 without access to Coldharbor. Soo.. no real goodies from them. Storage is also a problem on both, and I have to transfer mats thru shared, pretty much min 3 times a day.

But, if you want to be solely self sufficient, its the only way I can see.

bareheiny

My original main (abandoned progression at l37) is focusing on the item crafting (smithing, carpentry and clothing). She's got a full inventory of the related items at all levels, and I use her for construction and deconstruction to keep her leveling. She has enough SPs to max the relevant trees....and I'll do that once IC hits consoles (too cheap to pay for a skill reset).

Once those are done, I think I'll get her working on alchemy and enchanting.

My current main is working on provisioning.


Long story short, I (now) have a character specifically for crafting and research. I may have to level her some more once her crafting writs are deliverable outside of areas she doesn't have access to.

MissBizz

I suffer with one character. Plan on levelling her up soon though.. As once your a high level you should have enough skill points to go around.

Austacker

There's roughly ~320 Skill points available in ESO to date.

You can easily do all 6 professions at max + have plenty of points left over for skills on one character.

You just have to invest the time into tracking down all the skillpoints this game offers first.

But you can easily do it all on just one character.

helediron

My former main is semi-dedicated to only crafting. It has fixed nb stamina dps build and that way it can have all crafting skill points (139) for all professions. Then i have a fighter copy of the main for other build(s) and both are at max level. In fact six veteran toons all have every profession maxed, but some of them have only partially skill points assigned to professions.

Paradox

Crafting? No thanks, I think I'll stick to NOT collecting 150 mats for one piece of gear.

ryanmjmcevoy_ESO

My main does 3 crafts, the other crafts are taken care of by friends for me. I do well enough. I wish i had some more points, but ive gone down two weapon lines, all class lines, two armor lines, and picking a few from the guild/alliance war lines and i think im good enough atm. Still have a few spare points.

SpAEkus

I started at Launch (has it been that long) always planning a dedicated crafter. That crafter has been the only char leveled to VR so far and I started 6 Alt-crafters for storage and hirelings.

My 8th character was always going to be my main dedicated PVE-PVP.

Due to my own pace (slow) I have maxed all crafts on that dedicated crafter and the alt-crafters have only leveled enough to obtain more crafting points as needed with just enough PVE points to obtain shards or level hirelings.

My PVE-PVP main has been sadly neglected to the point that I will have no problem respecing him for the skill-item changes brought from IC patch.

My Crafter main has all crafts maxed and is strong enough to continue completing Gold on the way to reaching VR14 and beyond. There are enough skill points after VR1 that the major skills required for a successful build are easily placed.

With the new CP system, there seems to be two options for me, continue leveling my Crafter-main just for the CP to pass to my PVE main for leveling or rapidly reach VR1 on the PVE and focus only on him.

If you quickly level a crafter-main up to VR1 and then quickly run Silver and Gold for the Zone access and the shards, you will have all crafts leveled and ready to concentrate on you PVE-PVP char with a ready source of materials and armor-weapons.

Even if you don't separate the two, that crafter-main can continue to level to end-game holding the major required skills. Most end-game builds I have researched do not require every single skill unlocked and maxed out.

My only regret is that I didn't rush at least one character to VR14 at launch to take advantage of all the early (removed) options for massive Gold and material/items harvesting.

Mitchblue

I like to combine. My main, VR2, is also a crafter in provision, alchemy, and clothing. Other main, blacksmith and wood crafting.

iidcjrii

Mitchblue wrote: »

I like to combine. My main, VR2, is also a crafter in provision, alchemy, and clothing. Other main, blacksmith and wood crafting.

Not a good idea considering motifs aren't sccount wide only to specific char so you would have to find two of each motif bc you have clothing on a diff char than blacksmith n woodwork

max_only

I had my crafts split up between characters. This game punishes you for that because motifs are per character (pissed me off when I found out crown store motifs are for 1 character only). Also, you can't bank vouchers (the currency received from master writs) so one character has to do them all or you're going to have vouchers all over the place.


Edit: Oh WOW this is a huge necro.

actosh

Wow! Necro Deluxe

Drummerx04

My main character wants for nothing. She has enough skill points to have

• All skillpoints allocated to allow crafting anything, improvement, deconing, and extended potion/drink/food timers), I skipped hirelings and a couple other random things like keen eye because they aren't as helpful anymore. No points in research timers... because I'm done researching.
• All racial passives
• All light armor
• Most heavy armor
• A couple medium armor
• All class active and passive skills + morphs
• 3 weapons with all passives and the active skills I use with a few points scattered around in the other weapon trees for messing around when I'm bored
• All undaunted passives and most skills
• All alliance war passives and most skills (vigor is useless to me on magsorc for instance) + morphs
• All vampire passives and active skills + morphs
• A few soul magic passives
• All mages guild passives and actives + morphs
• Useful fighter's guild passives
• Scattered points in Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, and Ledger around 10-15 total
• Around 20 skill points unallocated

Basically, you don't need to pick and choose whether your character is going to be a combatant in pve/pvp or a crafter. There is more than enough skill points available to do both easily.

MLGProPlayer

There are more than enough skill points to max out all relevant crafting and combat skill lines, and even miscellaneous skill lines (like TG/DB).

mewcatus

1 character can have enough for both crafting and combat, it just depends on how much time and investment you are willing to put into that character. I spent alot of time doing dungeons, looking for shards and quests. Suffice to say, I have enough for both endeavours.

Linaleah

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

There are more than enough skill points to max out all relevant crafting and combat skill lines, and even miscellaneous skill lines (like TG/DB).

look at the date of the thread. there are more then enough skillpoints... NOW. back then? it was a bit more challenging to get enough.

Enslaved

There are, like, 380 skill points available, all but just a few are not locked behind DLCs. My main have 4 weapon skill lines completely unlocked, all armors, all WW, all useful AvA stuff, some legerdemain,usefull TG/DB and full crafting. If I had max skill points, I would add some into few more legerdemain I guess.

Bam_Bam

1 main crafter - all crafts/motifs except the 4 most recent and 1 from before that.

I have 11 other characters - all have Alchemy and Provisioning maxed (or are very near) for writs and for potion and food/drink passives.

Asardes

I don't manage them separately. All my 4 vet characters are fully trained fighters, who can fulfill at least 2/3 roles in 4 man vet content and maxed crafters. The first is master: 9 traits, most styles, almost all food and drink recipes, working on furnishing ones. I have also started research on my 4th. The others have a few traits researched as well.

AzraelKrieg

@iidcjrii dude. You really need to see when the last post was made in a thread. You've necro'd 3 topics since you joined the forums.

crusnik91

PVP. Get high ranks in pvp = more skill points

Destyran

I have all skill point available but only rank 25 in alliance i have all crafts all passive every relevent skill resto destro dual weild 2h passives ulti and sword and shield. I have 5 skill points left

Bombashaman

My main toon is also master crafter. The skillpoints do spread thin, but when you get all the quest and skyshard skillpoints from normal areas, you have enough to have all the needed passives and skills you need. Of course if you have DLC's or do PvP, it gets laughably easier.

max_only

Please close this necro

Nyghthowler

WTF is with this necro??? By the Daedra, the thread is rotted and should be left in peace...

hamgatan

RizaHawkeye wrote: »

No, this isn't a build question - it's more of a management question.

There are six "crafts" in the game. If you have one "crafting" character, they slog along, getting good at nothing, and struggling in-game because you're spreading the skill points across too many skills. So I tried two crafting characters, each undertaking three crafts, which I thought would work and still leave me enough points to build a character strong to survive in PvP.

But I'm not feeling good about this, either. My skill points go to crafting and weapon/class skills, and I don't feel like I have enough for armor/race/class/weapon passives (some but not enough).

I'm interested in hearing how others balance these two skill areas. And do you use your craft character for PvP or PvE?

Thanks!

its possible to do all on one character and still be viable for playability. on my main which i've run since launch-early access i have pretty much all 399 skyshards, done cadwells silver + gold and have (almost) every skill point in the game bar a few.. and i have all 6 crafting lines maxed out.

the thing is though - it is going to require a rework of your skills (reallocation) at some point. my main is a PvE Tank. Only the skills I specifically need for Undaunted Dungeons / Trials are unlocked. Sure I levelled the crap out of everything along the way and I've had more build changes than I can remember - but i respecced many times over.

It's also neccessary because think about it this way - you stick skill points into Research Timers, Hirelings etc but at endgame those are useless wastes of skills once you have researched every trait. You can claw back at least 30+ Skill points when you reallocate those points afterward. As a Tank I'm only using S&B now, so where I previously had points in DW/2H i reclaimed a good two dozen more points just by dropping them as I'm not stacking two different weapon types. Same with Armor, I don't even run Undaunted Passives anymore, so I don't need to stick any points into Light/Med anymore either.

Now because I have everything invested in that one Char, but it's still playable - I don't need to waste time or skill points on other Chars on crafting and can get straight into doing what I want to (except for maybe Alchemy because of the passives when consuming pots). You can do it all on one char, but as I said you need to vest a ton of time into that one to begin with, but it is possible.

Knootewoot

I have all crafts maxed on my main and have all armor types, various weapon skills and all class skills maxed. I can easily swap morphs to switch from magicka to stamina build. There are more then enough skillpoints in the game.