Sunshine Daydream's Guide to Crafting (more recent updates)

Tevalaur · May 2016

NOTE:
I've put a lot of work into this! You may freely LINK to the guide on our website, but do not copy this into other sites without attribution and without obtaining my permission.

Sunshine Daydream's Guide to Crafting

Introduction to Crafting

Craftable Traits

The Special Craftable Sets

Jewelry Crafting

Summary of Crafting Styles and How to Acquire Style Motifs & Style Materials

Basic Motifs found all-in-one as a full book
Rare Motifs typically found by the chapter, with 14 chapters in a full book)

Skills for Anyone (even the non-crafting consumer)
Skill Progression for the Provisioner
Food Ingredients
Drink Ingredients
Leveling Provisioning
Daily Provisioning Writs
- Recipes for Writs
Provisioning Your Characters
The Exotic Menu (rare & special treats)
- Orzorga's Recipes
- Unique Benefits of Festival Recipes
- Ambrosias (experience elixirs)

Alchemy

Skills for Anyone (even the Non-Alchemist)
Skill Progression for the Alchemist
All About Solvents
All About Reagents
Quickly Discover Every Reagent's Traits
Leveling Alchemy
Introducing Poisons
Alchemical Recipes
- Multi-effect Poisons
- Super Potions (with multiple effects)
Applying What You've Learned
- Master Writs
- Further Experimentation

Housing & Furnishings

EDIT: July 1, 2016 - added new sections on multi-effect poisons and on craftable sets; updated much of the text throughout
EDIT: Sept 1, 2016 - removing the link for the 103-page PDF as it's just too difficult to keep the full PDF updated even with minor changes; each section still has a PDF available and linked near the appropriate webpage's title
EDIT: Feb 13, 2017 - added new section on Housing & Furnishings
EDIT: June 9, 2017 - Typically I have drafts ready to upload upon the launch of a major update but I simply was unable to do so this time. Due to a death in the family in May, I was unable to prepare from the PTS so website updates were instead finalized in the first week of June, 2017. All pertinent information should now be considered updated!
EDIT: June 18/19, 2017 - 3 major edits:
1. Noticed that I'd not updated these links/overview to include the separate page on Craftable Sets and a few other recent layout changes/enhancements, so updated the overall list/links
2. Added Master Writs to the Alchemy Guide and enhanced the organization within the tables of alchemical recipes
3. Reworked the Styles page, publicly revealing the design of a long-planned and finally underway renovation of this section.
EDIT: May 26, 2018 - added new section for Jewelry crafting, several major changes in Alchemy, a new subsection in Traits, and updated several other sections for Summerset
EDIT: April 1, 2020 updated links to point to sunshine-daydream.org (our new domain)

crazmadsci · May 2016

Wow very very well done and even updated for Dark Brotherhood. Thank you for all of your hard work.

Isarii · May 2016

Holy crap! Amazing piece of work. I think this is going to be a great community resource.

Loralai_907 · May 2016

Amazing!! I love one stop shopping for information. I will for sure be coming back and using this as needed in the future!

HeroOfNone · May 2016

Like this review for several reasons:

It doesn't have any obnoxious Spyware ads on it
It breaks down several of the properties on each trait, alchemy, and a whole lot more in one spot
It shows the typically used powerful alchemy combines with alternatives (the alternatives which others make a mistake of promoting)
It CITES SOURCES for several of the reasons to use something, something you rarely see in guides. A lot of other guides I see will post up information from several others and barely whisper that they got help
It is easy to understand pictures of what to look for in game

What I dislike on this, however

the tutorials are too good, likely to make ZOS change the influence gain to negate the quick leveling. But that's on ZOS, not you
It gives too much information to new players and may spoon feed them a bit too much. I'd link this to any veteran player looking for a quick look up sheet but I'd hate to spoil a new player with this

Overall pretty good, I'll link it up for some and Definitely recommend posting it on Reddit as well =3

Tevalaur · June 2016

The Guide to Enchanting has had a bit of an update. I was waiting to see the resolution of the issue brought up in the Official Feedback thread, which has still not been truly finalized but with the last statement by a GM there "Any changes to these crafting nodes will be after Dark Brotherhood launches, but we are working on it. Thanks for your feedback!" I probably should have made this update at that point instead of waiting to describe what will eventually be ZOS's "final" plan, but my guide is now updated anyhow.

The Guide now reads:

"After Dark Brotherhood, every runestone you find in the wild has a 1/3 chance to drop a potency rune in addition to its aspect & essence runes. Each time a potency rune does drop, it has a 50% chance to be based on character level and a 50% chance to be based on points in Potency Improvement. If you are unable to find the proper potency runes in the wild, you can now purchase them from a vendor."

and

"Every runestone should contain an essence rune along with an aspect rune since the launch of Dark Brotherhood. Essence runes are random; which area you farm makes no difference to the rune you acquire."

and

"Every runestone should contain an aspect rune after the launch of Dark Brotherhood; aspect & essence runes are found together in all runestones when they spawn. Aspect runes are random; which area you farm makes no difference to the rune you acquire."

Note that it is unclear whether there will come a time when potency runes are distributed this way only in battle-skilled areas rather than all nodes everywhere (GMs seemed to misunderstand the issue of concern in the official feedback thread). It is possible they may make gathering resources for enchanting more similar to gathering other resource nodes and make this 50/50 split only occur in battle-zoned areas (Cyrodiil & DLCs) with other areas (at least partially?) tiered to the level of the zone.

Tevalaur · June 2016

HeroOfNone wrote: »

Like this review for several reasons:
It CITES SOURCES for several of the reasons to use something, something you rarely see in guides. A lot of other guides I see will post up information from several others and barely whisper that they got help

Too bad websites that are now using portions of my guide or especially noticeably my instructions for leveling alchemy don't bother attributing the work!

Folks, please, if you want to republish my work, point out that it IS my work. Don't claim you uniquely came up with the same things in the same layouts often with the very same paraphrasing of how things are described in the game! Especially sites many folks evidently turn to...

I've had one request to work with a site to republish a part of my guide on their website, and I'm in consultation with them to help get the information out there more widely. However I'm now seeing my work posted elsewhere without a request to republish or even saying I wrote the material or that I did the logic puzzle on how to level alchemy.

How very disappointing and rude!
(not to mention that it is illegal copyright infringement)

tist · June 2016

Was looking for something like this. Thank you!

Tevalaur · July 2016

Several sections have been updated recently and today I added a section on multi-effect poisons. I've updated the initial post with the new links.

NOTE:
I've put a lot of work into this. You may freely LINK to the guide on our website, but do not copy this into other sites without attribution and without obtaining my permission.

oneshot_onekill · July 2016

You, sir, deserve an award. Awesome guide.

Tevalaur · July 2016

oneshot_onekill wrote: »

You, sir, deserve an award. Awesome guide.

Thank you, but I'm not a "sir"

Most of my characters are "Teva (Something)" and the "laur" part of my username here stands for "Laura" (my real name).

Captain8504 · July 2016

Tevalaur wrote: »

oneshot_onekill wrote: »

You, sir, deserve an award. Awesome guide.

Thank you, but I'm not a "sir"

Most of my characters are "Teva (Something)" and the "laur" part of my username here stands for "Laura" (my real name).

I could use a leveling buddy

what system are you on?

Tevalaur · July 2016

Captain8504 wrote: »

I could use a leveling buddy what system are you on?

Sorry, I'm already at level 50 for all crafts. Try asking in zone chat on your server?

Tevalaur · September 2016

I needed to remove the link to the overall 103-page PDF. It's simply too difficult to keep the cumbersome to re-combine file up-to-date after even minor edits to one section; each section still has its own associated PDF which is linked near the top of each webpage, just below the page title.

I've also reworked some of the sections and added an Introduction / Table of Contents which reads something like this:

Introduction to Crafting

Gear received as rewards or looted from dead bodies can be studied (trait research) or deconstructed for materials & crafting inspiration (leveling). Stolen items and items with a value of 0 gold will give far less inspiration than other items.

Style materials (and occasionally motifs) are typically found in furniture such as desks, cabinets, dressers, trunks, and urns. Provisioning ingredients can be found everywhere but abound in crates and barrels. If you kill an animal, you may find many items -- including a usable hide for leatherwork (not foul hides, sell those). During your travels gather nodes of ore, fallen logs, fibrous plants, runes, alchemical reagents and pure water.

Rough wood must be sanded, ore must be smelted into ingots, hides must be processed, and raw fibrous plants must be spun & woven before being used to create items. This is done in the "Refinement" tab at a crafting table. Each craft has its own crafting table, located in most cities throughout each region and at special crafting sites (oriented to crafting a particular set) which are scattered about the wilderness.

When ready to create an item, bring refined materials of the proper level, a style material, and a trait gem if you wish the item to have a trait (only items destined for a writ delivery or crafting buddy's decon should not have a trait). After gear is crafted it can be improved in quality or have an enchantment added or changed, but the trait, style, and item level cannot be altered.

Each character automatically knows how to craft in their own racial style, but must study before creating other styles. This is done by reading style motifs (books and/or chapters). The basic racial motifs (blue books) and the Imperial motif (gold book) can be learned immediately, but other motifs require an investment of skill points into the material tiers before they can be understood (except when purchased from the crown store).

Upon reaching character level 6, the game offers tutorial quests, started by approaching the "writ board" in your starter city. These tutorials cover these basics and, once complete, enable you to do crafting writs.

Gradually Invest Skill Points

This plan will help keep the points from getting out of hand when skill points are difficult to get in early levels. Eventually you'll find you have plenty of points to put in all recommended or desired skills.

Provisioning would be the first place to invest points in my opinion. Spending points in Connoisseur (to extend the duration of drinks) is essential before drinking Psijic Ambrosia (the experience booster). The ability to make food at your level (Recipe Improvement) in at least blue quality (Recipe Quality 2) is significant and should be invested next. While Brewer & Chef might also be handy, they are only absolutely necessary once using perfect roe to create recipes such as Psijic Ambrosia & Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch as other ingredients are relatively plentiful.

On a first character, invest one rank into Keen Eye for Blacksmith, Cloth, Wood, & Alchemy as soon as possible to learn what these materials look like and to begin gathering these resources as you play. Keen Eye is not necessary for Enchanting however; all runestones glow already and do not blend into the vegetation like many other collectible materials, so once you learn to recognize them they can be easily spotted from afar.

Always invest as rapidly in possible in the skills that reduce research time and allow simultaneous trait research studies. Further invest in your blacksmith/cloth/wood skills as you level, keeping your material tier useful to your most advanced character's level.

Early on I'd skip putting points into Enchanting, focusing on leveling enchanting through deconstruction. I'd also ignore Alchemy skills for a short while -- except for the 2 skill points that help effectively learn all traits while starting to level the craft nicely.

If you follow the recommendations in Sunshine Daydream's Guide to Crafting you'll eventually invest around 100 points for a well-rounded do-it-all crafter:

11 points Alchemy (plus 4 for consumers)
15 points Enchanting
14 points Provisioning (plus 3-6 for consumers)
20 points Blacksmithing
20 points Clothing
20 points Woodworking

Other Considerations

If you don't normally wear light armor but wish to level up the Light Armor skill line, craft a sash (light belt) to minimize the loss to your armor. If you don't normally wear heavy armor but wish to level up the Heavy Armor skill line, craft a cuirass (heavy chest piece) to gain the most armor rating. If you wish to level up the Medium Armor skill line, craft bracers (medium hands) if you typically wear heavy armor or guards (medium legs) if you typically wear light armor.

One trick I wish I had used when researching traits: study either light or medium armor (whichever you are more likely to actually wear) and heavy armor on your main crafter while initially studying on light/medium (the other option) armor and metal weapons on another character. Then consolidate traits by having that alt make study items for your main crafter. This saves no overall time, and eventually all traits are learned on your main crafter anyhow, but does greatly reduce the time before being able to make the best set pieces.

Motifs can be expensive! You'll only want to purchase one copy of these, so keep blacksmithing, clothing, and woodworking on the same character for shared knowledge of style motifs. Some folks prefer to split off the consumables crafting (provisioning, alchemy, enchanting) to lower the percentage of skill points dedicated to crafting, but my main character is also my crafter (in all schools) and I like it that way.

If your playing characters know provisioning & alchemy you can always make food, drink, & potions when needed during your gameplay and without an interruption to change characters. Plus, unlocking the crafting level necessary for useful skills will be easily done while leveling the crafts anyhow.

Remember that while your main character(s) will eventually have plenty of skill points, it can be difficult to gather sufficient levels & skill points on a character designed solely around crafting. However, if you are creating a dedicated crafter, Orcs should be considered because they receive an inherant 10% boost to crafting inspiration. Also of note, high level Orcs can choose the Swift Warrior passive which increases sprint speeds while reducing sprint cost for faster gathering runs.

Gathering runs include lots of time sprinting. The Steed Mundus Stone's bonus to movement speed and medium armor with the well-fitted trait and stamina enchantments will aid in gathering runs. Consider using armor sets whose bonus includes a boost to stamina, such as Night's Silence, Hunding's Rage, and Eternal Hunt.

Have you just hit CP 160? Congratulations! Now prepare to spend a lot of materials to make your final gear... Each weapon or piece of armor can require most of a stack of rubedite ore, rubedo leather, ancestor silk or ruby ash wood. Age-old wisdom has it that weapons show the biggest difference, so first craft a gold-quality version of your weapon. Until you've gathered sufficient resources to craft CP 160 armor (or perhaps even longer) wear CP 150 armor pieces improved to purple quality.

If you have Champion Points to spend, place 30 thief points into Sprinter in The Tower and 10-75 points into The Lover. 30 points on The Tower boosts all crafting inspiration 20% and placing those points into Sprinter will help you gather resources faster. The first 10 points in The Lover grants Plentiful Harvest, which doubles the yield when harvesting from crafting nodes. If you place a total of 75 points in The Lover you reduce the time to actually gather from a node by 50% which can make it easier to grab materials before being attacked. If your character's main focus is crafting, consider focusing on the Mooncalf aspect of The Lover as it will allow you to sprint more while gathering resources.

Bloodcrow · September 2016

This is just awesome! Thanks a lot for your work on this.

Suter1972 · September 2016

Ditto, as a new crafter this is perfect. Thank you

bladeheartwolfeb17_ESO · September 2016

AS a returning player I found this very useful, thank you.

Tevalaur · February 2017

Edited the original post today to add a link to the new page on Housing & Furnishings as well.

Forni · March 2017

WOW!!! Amazing work!!! As a new player to ESO I have looked many times for a definitive guide to crafting. This guide is all I need! Thank you so much for putting this together. What is your in game name so I can send a gold donation?? I don't have much to give as I am a new player, but I would like to send something your way as a huge thanks for this awesome guide!

Tevalaur · June 2017

Typically I have drafts ready to upload upon the launch of a major update but I simply was unable to do so this time. Due to a death in the family in May, I was unable to prepare from the PTS so website updates were instead finalized in the first week of June, 2017. All pertinent information should now be considered updated!

EDIT: For example, changed lists of which furnishings could be purchased where and for how much, especially those with Rolis Hlaalu or the new vendors in Vvardenfell although some other vendors also gained an expanded inventory (i.e. the Dark Elf Column Lantern).

drakhan2002_ESO · June 2017

I love your work - thank you for this awesome contribution and guide. One thing to consider during your "harvesting runs", not mentioned in the above article:

Gathering runs include lots of time sprinting. The Steed Mundus Stone's bonus to movement speed and medium armor with the well-fitted trait and stamina enchantments will aid in gathering runs. Consider using armor sets whose bonus includes a boost to stamina, such as Night's Silence, Hunding's Rage, and Eternal Hunt.

Another option would be to do the PVP introduction quest in Cyrodiil once you hit level 10. It will reward you with 2 skill points and open up the Alliance War skill line. In that skill line, under Assault (iirc), the first ability is called "Rapid Maneuvers". This gives you huge increase to base run or *mount* speed for 30 seconds. This makes travelling across the map much quicker.

Tevalaur · June 2017

This weekend's edits:
EDIT: June 18/19, 2017 - 3 major edits:
1. Noticed that I'd not updated these links/overview to include the separate page on Craftable Sets and a few other recent layout changes/enhancements, so updated the overall list/links
2. Added Master Writs to the Alchemy Guide and enhanced the organization within the tables of alchemical recipes
3. Reworked the Styles page, publicly revealing the design of a long-planned and finally underway renovation of this section.

P.S. Will also add a sentence about Rapid Maneuvers to that paragraph on sprinting; thank you for the suggestion @drakhan2002_ESO

Tevalaur · May 2018

Summerset brings Jewelry Crafting to ESO, and this week we published Sunshine Daydream's Guide to Jewelry Crafting:

Jewelry Crafting

EDIT: May 26, 2018 - the original post in this thread was edited to add the new section for Jewelry crafting, several major changes in Alchemy, a new subsection in Traits, and updated several other sections for Summerset

EDIT: April 3, 2020 updated links to point to sunshine-daydream.org instead of sunshine-daydream.us

soundzen_PT · April 2020

i know im late on ths amazing post but... link not found on any info posted
i would like to have at hand all the ingredients needed for any recipie or potion pls
be safe, stay home ...and play ESO

Tevalaur · April 2020

soundzen_PT wrote: »

i know im late on ths amazing post but... link not found on any info posted
i would like to have at hand all the ingredients needed for any recipie or potion pls
be safe, stay home ...and play ESO

I'm sorry, each page was supposed to (and initially did) automatically forward to the new location. Obviously something broke in the time since it was initially moved from sunshine-daydream.us to sunshine-daydream.org and now. I will go through the original post and update the links!