When reaching lvl50 - crafted or dropped gears?

Gargath

So I reached lvl50 with several alts that were lower lvl veterans before (but I have 370 CP per account, so they all are now ready to be geared up for CP160), and have the issue to choose proper gear without spending milions of gold.

The question is should I push for crafting all gears myself which means a lot of grinding and money lending or to use those CP160 drops from guild stores?

I mean, is it really worth crafting CP160 gears, per their stats difference from random drops of the same level and Purple quality?

If it's a big advantage to craft a new set, would mean tons of very expensive mats to obtain, so... are there known any spots in base game to gather those CP160 materials? Spots without the need of any DLC. Because number of relevant materials in guild stores is actually low and these stacks I saw were selling in very high prices (few times more than average MM) .

phaneub17_ESO

In gold zones (160CP) you can either farm treasure chests, Public Dungeons, or Dolmens, repeatedly. They will have at least 140-160 gear available, the void items will give you 4-6 base mats per item you deconstruct, while ruby items will give you 1 base mat per item you deconstruct. If you're looking to farm ruby mats in the base game, Cyrodiil for cloth, wood, and ore; dungeons like Wayrest Sewers for leather scraps.

I would give you another option, but that has already passed. I posted it before, about buying up VR16 gear for cheap, in bulk before DB released like Bahraha's Curse, Syvarra's Scale, Agility, Willpower, and Endurance. They were all going for very cheap around 200-1000g per item if you didn't care about BiS traits, even the best ones didn't go for more than 2000g for most items. Now however they are scarcely to be found or more than double their cost a week ago.

Duiwel

Gearing up 1 char if you have the mats and just need the tempers/resin/ oil ect. under current prices would cost:

For 7 pieces of legendary light armour: 336 000 gold
For 7 pieces of legendary medium armour: 336 000 gold
for 7 peices of legendary heavy armour: 448 000 gold

note that is excluding weapons and glyphs as well as taking into account you are willing to grind for the mats yourself

So OP while you won't be spending millions for just 1 char you will be darn close to a million IF you make it legendary.

My suggestion? Make the weapons legendary first and then the large pieces, if you can.

This should be your primary gold sync not motifs, not mounts, not skill resets the gear comes first! This is an MMO and gear is everything...

phane already told you how to get items. I suggest doing DB dailies or PvP for quick and easy gear so you at least have "something" that's VET 16...

either that or buy cheaper sets off guild vendors in the mean time while saving up...

Rome was not built in a day. My suggestion - craft VR14 gear if you have to and use it. Don't waste your mats on VR15 gear ( if you make a full set of VR15 you might as well have made 1 VR16 piece already... )

Nestor

Gargath wrote: »

I mean, is it really worth crafting CP160 gears, per their stats difference from random drops of the same level and Purple quality?

OK, I will say, No its not worth the mats to make CP160 Gear.

I have a set of CP150 Julianos improved to purple, I have a set of CP160 Julianos Improved to CP160. Based on the raw stats for Spell Power (5th bonus) it is 285 on the CP150, and 299 on the CP160 gear. So, 14 more spell power, less if I have improved the CP150 to Gold. The total Magic difference between the two gear sets is less than 600 total (Gold Glyphs on both gear sets). Being at 30,000 Magic, another 600 is not going to make all that much a difference. I get a little more Crits too, like 1% or something like that, but I am already in the 60% range, so any increase is meaningless in overall effect.

CP160 Weapons, yes, those are worth it. CP160 Armor? Only if you have the excess mats. Until then, don't feel like your missing out on all that much extra stats.

kylewwefan

I mostly agree with Nestor. VR16 gold weapons provide quite a jump, like 300 extra weapon damage. I've been at it for some time, and all my armor are VR16.....mostly purple still, but I gold out monster sets also.....the good ones anyways, divines/infused.

I have started doing writs on multiple characters; it helps out majorly getting mats and tempers. And the surveys. I would also recommend putting all 10 skill points in crafting/clothing level, as the mats that drop are at your crafting level.

disintegr8

Crafted armour is generally better than dropped armour but Nestor said it all - weapons are worth the jump to VR16 gear but armour is not. Having appropriate sets for your character is all you need and VR15 gear will be sufficient. VR16 weapons and jewelry can be got from chests, dungeons, undaunted dailies and weapons can be improved to gold and re-enchanted if you want to.

I have 4 characters doing all daily writs and with the gold items I get for delivery added to the gold items I get from refining the raw materials I harvest (from the survey maps I also get), I have all the gold improvement items I need.

SpAEkus

Depending on what those ALTs are going to be doing, do you need to craft more than two sets if you go the crafting route? One set for BIS Stamina and/or Magicka. Or even just a CP150 set of each.

I have 5 Crafter ALTs that I think I'm now going to get to L50 and then put CP150 with all training on the items and share them and just do all their Silver and Gold zones just to grind CP. I only have 337 after the patch and would like to catch up to Max before the next DLC if possible.

Gargath

OK, thx for tips so far. So I bought from stores a purple weapon of CP160, one from Sithis and Willpower sets for different alts, but now is it worth improving those drops into gold quality, considering I will have the gold mats?
Will they have the same basic weapon stats like manually crafted CP160 weapons of the same traits?
Or crafted ones are always better than drops, even if drop is improved into gold manually from purple?

I'm not considering to buy any armors from CP160 since I like to have an own style and different motifs per each alt, and so I understand it would be hard to find a full set of CP160 armors in desired daedric or xivkyn or glass motifs. I even barely stand the standard look of CP160 bow from Sithis set, for which I changed my former vet8 glass bow, just to try the new champion damage .

And following your above recommendations I'll stick to crafting CP150 armors max. Decided that for base game only, still without any DLC/subscription, I won't have much chances for an ultimate contents like trials, for which I'd need really an ultimate armor and gold enchants, like I was told by some people.

Ourorboros

I have two DKs that jumped from v1 to CP160 with DB. I outfitted them with Rewards of the Worthy gear. I had tons of CP160 Leki, Fury, Marksman, Fasalle gear, including jewelry clogging my inbox. I saved the Divine, Infused, Impen pieces and geared them both out, with leftovers to decon. They aren't the greatest sets, but it was a cheap way to get my newest max level alts fully geared in functional sets.

disintegr8

Weapons are well worth improving to gold as there is a large increase in damage - as mentioned in several responses in this thread already.

Duiwel

I wouldn't upgrade the sithis stuff unless you actually plan on using the set long term
I see no benifits from it, I mean how many times are you going to Blade of Woe an NPC civilian and then port back to where ever you were in the wild for that Bonus damage? (Berserk or whatever they call it)

Use it for a buffer ( while finding proper gear ).

Might I suggest PvPing and gaining AP? Every 20k AP you get you get a mail with a item... You might get some nice things OP

Otherwise just farm mats in Wrothgar or Hews Bane ( I recommend Wrothgar ) and then have someone craft you purple mats... It's weekend soon you can easily farm about 200 mats a week night for little effort and on the weekend itself if you're determined you can farm enough for a full set of VET 16 ( just have it made to epic quality and bam you are now sorted for a few months ) IF you pick the optimal set for your play style you might not even have to switch the gear on the next DLC

Gargath

That is insightful, with a little detail - I'm base game only - no dlc, no sub and no Wrothgar, Orsinium, IC etc available.
I use 4 pcs. Sithis for stamina bow nightblade, so without Blade of Woe because I can't use it, no Dark Brotherhood.

Some may see such playing hard limited, for me it's just more challenging .

Duiwel

Base game only but Dark Brotherhood gear and Blade of Woe?

IF you have Dark Brotherhood you have 1 DLC mate

Do Vet Dungeons and use that gear instead then. They drop nice set pieces.

What level is your templar ? If he is level 50 and you are CP 160+ ( I prefer 501 though ) I can inv you tonight for a few dungeon runs and you can get some monster helms and possible gear sets.

Monster helms are great for gearing up alts...

So is IC. I would actually recommend IC but since you prob won't get it, you can still get some VET16 stuff by doing PvP as I mentioned

Nestor

Gargath wrote: »

OK, thx for tips so far. So I bought from stores a purple weapon of CP160, one from Sithis and Willpower sets for different alts, but now is it worth improving those drops into gold quality, considering I will have the gold mats?

@Gargath

One thing to keep in mind. If you improve a dropped item, you are also improving the underlying glyph that is already attached. This does not apply to crafted items. This can save you from having to make a new Glyph too, if the Glyph is something you want.

And, you can always que the item up the improvement window to see what the difference will be and decide for yourself.

However, unless your gunning for leaderboards with Trials (and in some cases the Trials themselves that have DPS requirements to avoid mechanics) or in 1vX PvP, Purple level gear is almost always good enough.

Gargath

I usually go into normal dungeons and restrain myself from doing veteran, even when I'm at CP370 now. I just have some bad memories from time when I was dying too much in one vet. dungeon, in which I partipated only because friend requested. But now indeed normal dungeons became a little too easy, so I'll be trying vets... Those special set items looks nice, hope to find some.
Though I'm not sure if such noob like me is a good choice for someone like you, who prefers to go with CP501s. Thanks for proposal, but I may try my first runs with some of my guildies .

Duiwel wrote: »

Base game only but Dark Brotherhood gear and Blade of Woe?

I bought 4 pcs. (all jewellery + bow) just because my CP370 stamina nightblade needed new CP160 gears, and Sithis set is now really cheap in purple quality. For me these jewellery and bow made a great addition to stats, since these gears I had before were not so good.
Similar when I bought cheap Willpower Staff + Willpower jewellery for my magicka templar. Cheaper probably due to healthy trait not arcane, but since I lack the health on my templar dps, I thought I'll do better with some extra survivability. It seems that it was a good choice. Btw my templar is already geared to vet15 and ofc CP370.

As for the Blade of Woe, I still wonder (because I could not find any info anywhere) if this is an execute that works only if a player has DB and/or finished it's relevant quest, or is it an ability that is automatically trigerred when any player uses full set of Sithis, even players who haven't DB?

Nestor wrote: »

One thing to keep in mind. If you improve a dropped item, you are also improving the underlying glyph that is already attached. This does not apply to crafted items. This can save you from having to make a new Glyph too, if the Glyph is something you want.

Enchanting isn't really a problem since I have an alt fully capable to make glyphs of all levels. But ofc if I can save some gold on yellow glyphs and mats, I'll definitely do it .

Duiwel

OP Blade of Woe according to me only works on NPC's. AFAIK it's an insta NPC kill ( except for guards ) and is only toggle-able once you have "accepted the DB story-line" from the DLC and talked to the speaker for the first quest : Introduction to the Dark Brotherhood ( or something like that ).

That's why personally Sithis set is not as good imo. I mean sure the HP are nice and if it's cheap it's a good buffer set before you get proper gear, but I see the 5 piece set bonus as a waste of what could have been something useful.

Also what spec / build is the char you are using the set for?

Magicka or Stamina?

You can pick up some nice PvP stuff ( TG edition ) for really cheap now... (since it sounds like you would rather buy than PvP )

So NB and Templar are the 2 you need to gear up atm?

Good good...

I just got my Templar gear last night ( for my Magplar )... got him to VET16 in April and parked him, didn't use him once until 2 days before DB came. He was still using level 46 gear ( it's what I used till VET16 grind on him) usually I use VET5,9,14 gear but this time I didn't.

So he was using level 46 ( apart from full arcane willpower and Kena helm ), weapons everything. Until last night.

He was kinda squishy in Dungeons, now? He is like a panzer

Stamblade? Or Magblade?
Stamplar? Or Magplar?

OP pls don't waste kuta's on this set

Gargath

Thanks for the interesting insight into BoW issue .

I have so many characters and different combinations or gears, I sometimes loose control over sorting them out . Too much to post here, but all of my alts have crafted armor sets - all in different motifs.
That means I can't rely on dropped v16 sets - they are just supporting jewellery and sometimes weapons, but in time I'm willing to change weapons for craftable ones.

It's like with my favourite Dwemer gears - I changed v6 Dwemer 2H Sword for the most relevant Sithis v16 drop and it wasn't the best choice due to much worse overall look of the weapon. Sithis 2H sword is more like Daedric style, which I already have exclusively on my Sorcerer and so don't want to copy elsewhere, also because it doesn't look good with Dwemer medium armor . I already realised that an option to use a full dropped armor means I loose control on the armor motifs. Even if that will make me less effective than other players (per stats), I can pay this price to keep the style .

Last but not least, I'm aware the special drops like Kena helm and others, would give a lot more useful things, but from the other way, they look so diabolic , so unique... Personally I'd like them to be somehow obtainable in a way granting the same motif as is our actual helmet (I know it's rather impossible), because sometimes when I see players wearing these helmets I have an impression their armor and helmet/shoulders doesn't fit too well (at least in my personal taste) .

Gargath

I found an answer for my doubts when I finally was able to craft my first gold weapon in ESO . Golden crafted bow with golden crafted enchantment seems indeed much more powerful than the dropped Sithis', also because of the Nirnhoned trait. It's also in my favourite glass motif, not some poor DB style without style .