crafting characters

JJBoomer

So I'm still learning about the game and learned that it might be good to invest in making a dedicated crafter. Now I think I'm more concerned with blacksmithing, woodworking and armor at this point right now.

So my question is, whats the best way to go about that? I've gotten a lot of different opinions and it has me thrown for a loop. How do you balance making your crafter combat viable enough to lvl to gain points, but not waste the points on non-crafting skills? Anyone know of any guide to making a crafter or anyone have any tips?

emeraldbay

my main PvE character (stamina sorcerer, DPS / Tank) is also my main equipment crafter (blacksmithing, woodworking, clothing). you'll have more than enough skill points to make a perfectly balanced character while also investing in crafting skills.

JJBoomer

emeraldbay wrote: »

my main PvE character (stamina sorcerer, DPS / Tank) is also my main equipment crafter (blacksmithing, woodworking, clothing). you'll have more than enough skill points to make a perfectly balanced character while also investing in crafting skills.

Thats what I've been told, but is that AFTER you get to 50 or as you go?

DKsUnite

tbh you only need a handful of skills to grind. What i did personally was made a crafter that had everything 50 and stuff so i could craft all my gear and everything i needed (since level doesnt matter) and then one day i decided to level him to 50 so i respecced, did my 50 levels and then respecced back

Etchos

A slightly unhelpful response is that there are more than enough skill points to allow you to pretty much max out all the crafting skills and still be combat viable.........if not badass. That does involve a big grind through Cadwells though.....getting all the quest skill points, collecting all the skyshards and doing the group events in public dungeons.

Focus on combat for the first few levels. Get enough core skills to do enough damage so you can progress then focus on the crafting skills you want. For woodworking/clothing and blacksmithing you want to get the skills that reduce research times and make sure that you constantly have research going. Making decent sets later in the game needs lots of research and although the first one takes 6 hours that extends to days later.........so get going as soon as possible.

Do the daily writs for inspiration gains and mats. Collect all the mats you can see on all your characters and use your crafter to refine them. If you have a crafting bag its easy if not then bank everything.

If you have a main that's high level then bank any gear he finds an deconstruct it with your crafter as higher gear means more inspiration return and will level the crafts faster.

JJBoomer

Etchos wrote: »

A slightly unhelpful response is that there are more than enough skill points to allow you to pretty much max out all the crafting skills and still be combat viable.........if not badass. That does involve a big grind through Cadwells though.....getting all the quest skill points, collecting all the skyshards and doing the group events in public dungeons.

Focus on combat for the first few levels. Get enough core skills to do enough damage so you can progress then focus on the crafting skills you want. For woodworking/clothing and blacksmithing you want to get the skills that reduce research times and make sure that you constantly have research going. Making decent sets later in the game needs lots of research and although the first one takes 6 hours that extends to days later.........so get going as soon as possible.

Do the daily writs for inspiration gains and mats. Collect all the mats you can see on all your characters and use your crafter to refine them. If you have a crafting bag its easy if not then bank everything.

If you have a main that's high level then bank any gear he finds an deconstruct it with your crafter as higher gear means more inspiration return and will level the crafts faster.

thanks so much for the tips! =D

AntMan100673

As you're levelling to 50 its not worth crafting armour for yourself, just use stuff you pick up while playing. If you do this then you only need to put skill points into the passive that increases research slots / decreases research times. When you feel you can spare putting some more skill points in then you can put skill points in to make higher level gear (to get more inspiration from writs to level the skill line quicker).

Lynx7386

Basically if you want to have a combat viable crafter, you need to be a completionist: find every skyshard, finish every public dungeon, and do every quest that gives extra skill points. You will pretty much always be starved for skill points, so you need to make sure you know exactly what skills you'll be using for combat, and dont spend points on skills you wont use all the time.

My nightblade main is also my crafter, and has maxxed out blacksmithing, clothing, woodworking, and alchemy. While leveling I always had problems with skill points, and spent way too much money on respeccing. I still feel point starved and I've got 251 skill points now, so that should say how tough it can be =P

franklinkimub17_ESO

my main is a sorc and has all skill points into crafting other than provisioning. I only put in 6 for hirelings and extended food time. I have an alt that makes all my food. I also have enough to put all skill points into two kinds of armor, and all other abilities.

But it is fully leveled, found almost every skyshard, done almost every skill quest. And I had to remove the skillpoints into Vampire when i respecced.

I would not put skill points into all crafting abilities until you go through cadwell's silver and gold. If you put all skill points into crafting from the beginning, you will have to make many hard choices. Which will make it harder and longer to grind up your morphed skills. Also, by deconstructing white/green/blue items to level up your crafting abilities, you decrease the number of items you can vendor, which will decrease your rate of gold intake. Gold is more important than leveling up your crafting abilities, in the beginning. For bag/inventory space and for a mount.

But, always have something in research. And, you don't need to put skill points into your crafting abilities to do so.

AlnilamE

It's really up to personal preference. As some have pointed out, it's possible to have all crafting in one character that is also combat viable.

I split my crafting between two characters. My NB is my clothier/blacksmith/woodworker (so I only have to learn motifs once) and my sorc is my alchemist/provisioner/enchanter.

One tip is get the hirelings as soon as possible. The mats add up. And if you have alts, level their craft enough that they can have the tier 3 hireling.

Volkodav

JJBoomer wrote: »

So I'm still learning about the game and learned that it might be good to invest in making a dedicated crafter. Now I think I'm more concerned with blacksmithing, woodworking and armor at this point right now.

So my question is, whats the best way to go about that? I've gotten a lot of different opinions and it has me thrown for a loop. How do you balance making your crafter combat viable enough to lvl to gain points, but not waste the points on non-crafting skills? Anyone know of any guide to making a crafter or anyone have any tips?

Since you have 8 characters you can make,and even buy more,why not make one for each crafting skill.Then run those skills right up without worrying about it doing quests,etc,..except for skill points.Make each one Masters of their chosen craft.
Make a Blacksmith,a Woodworker,a Clothier,..etc. You can level up and get points even with just a normal run of the mill build.Nothing special.
Name them so you can remember what their specialty is.
Blacksmith Bill?

Nestor

If I were to make a character today to be a Master Crafter in everything, here is how I would do it:

1. Play the Character to Champ Ranks, ignoring Crafting as far investing skill points into anything but two areas.
2. Decon every piece of gear or glyph I get.
3. Research Traits, getting two on each item I would use, then 3 etc. Once up to 6, then fill in the other pieces on two of the slots, using the third to chase the 7 to 9 traits on the items I use
4. Invest skill points into Research and Extraction Passives only, with Research getting preference. This will give you 3 slots to research with, so you can use the strategy in step 3. Extraction will help you get more Mats to use.
5. Then, once I have leveled the character enough to gain enough skill points to make them a Master Crafter in everything, decide if I want this character to be a Crafter only, or Craft and Combat. If the latter, then level them farther, otherwise, I now have a Crafter.

You can get a character to have enough skill points to be a Master Crafter by what used to be Vet6 or so. Now with the new zone layout, where you can get all the skyshards and do most of the skill point quests in any order, it can be done probably at an earlier time in the leveling process.

hrothbern

JJBoomer wrote: »

So I'm still learning about the game and learned that it might be good to invest in making a dedicated crafter. Now I think I'm more concerned with blacksmithing, woodworking and armor at this point right now.

So my question is, whats the best way to go about that? I've gotten a lot of different opinions and it has me thrown for a loop. How do you balance making your crafter combat viable enough to lvl to gain points, but not waste the points on non-crafting skills? Anyone know of any guide to making a crafter or anyone have any tips?

Best way to do it depends also on whether you want your crafter to have all motives.
With multiple crafters, you multiple motives.
Motives will be more difficult to gather than skill points.
So I think the best way to go, minimising needed skill points and motives, will be one crafter for Armor sets and perhaps another for Alchemy, Provisioning and Enchanting.

TheShadowScout

JJBoomer wrote: »

emeraldbay wrote: »

my main PvE character (stamina sorcerer, DPS / Tank) is also my main equipment crafter (blacksmithing, woodworking, clothing). you'll have more than enough skill points to make a perfectly balanced character while also investing in crafting skills.

Thats what I've been told, but is that AFTER you get to 50 or as you go?

After.
My main crafting character goes that way... fully combat capable, maxed&morphed all the class, two weapon and armor skills, as well as fighters guild, finished cadwells and orsinium, and also has all of the gear crafts maxed by now (best way to keep all the rare motivs on one character - find them on your other characters, transfer them to your crafter, the usual) and chasing down the super-rare motivs...
(the non gear crafts I have scattered over some other characters, since cooking, alchemy or enchanting don't need to be grouped for motiv sharing)

During your mainstory playthrough, you can pretty much ignore crafting as crafting - that is the time to get a heads up on trait research, and to decon everything non-researchable for materials and inspiration, since you'll outlevel your gear so quickly its pretty much not worth crafting yourself something decent, and you'll find more then enough stuff to get you through all of it... The only skill points you really need to spend on your crafting is for the research stuff, and maybe extraction... the rest can come later.

Once you get into veteran ranks, you should have most of your combat stuff maxed and morphed, and can start to put the skill points you gain through cadwells into the rest of your combat stuff, but also into your crafting, raising your material levels so you can start making decent stuff. (also remember, many rare motivs cannot be learned until you have your material level raised). Hirelings give you nifty materials, and funny stories, so they are worth their skill points. You can forego the "highlight respources" perk though, if you pay a little attention to your monitor, you can see it all without wasting skill points on that...

If you do want a dedicated crafter, writs are a good idea no matter what, though the ones for gear crafting are a bit of a pain in the... a-hem. But still... glass motiv!

Oh, and it does make sense to make a honest character your crafter, since there is more then enough skill points to be had for combat and three, maybe four craftings, but legerdemain, TG and BD passives would eat up those as well, so things might get a little tight if you want a crafter criminal...

Nirnrotten

I spilt my crafting between 3 characters.

1. Woodworking/enchanting
2. Clothing/blacksmithing
3. Provisioning/alchemy

Was able to meet my needs and always had enough skill points for combat while leveling up.

SolarCat02

As of yesterday, my main is also my crafter for everything. (Finally! Yay!) She's also been called a pretty strong healer. So it is doable! But she has skyshards from all normal and silver zones, plus two Cyrodiil factions, one gold zone, and most of the DLC. So you can't be a full-on crafter in everything at lower levels, but you CAN set yourself up for success.

You need to level your crafts, and research traits. The research is the longest term commitment to crafting, so that is what you need to focus. You will also want to receive hireling mails as well.

Level your crafting by deconstructing. You don't even have to do the writs, although they help. If you have other characters, have your crafter deconstruct any intricate pieces they get, too. If you have access to higher level intricate pieces, this speeds up a lot!

As you level the skill lines, put at least one point into the hirelings (more is better, but definitely at least one) and IMPORTANTLY put points into the passives that speed up your trait research times and give you more slots for research. ALWAYS keep ALL your research slots full. This is the MOST time consuming part of crafting armor and weapons.

In this way, by the time you can spare the points to craft the armor you want, you will also have enough traits researched to make the sets you want.

Put everything else into skills for questing and dungeons. Play with skills, and "waste" points to see if you like certain skills better than others. In this way, when you are ready for the respec to max out your crafting, you will also have a really good idea of what skills you really want, and which ones you don't like at all.

Elissandra has maxed out all six crafts (including research because I am still working on those), plus all passives and active skills for restoration and destruction staves, all Dragonknight passives and half those skills, the skills and passives for her armor types, all vampire skills and passives, and any other skills she used at least occasionally, plus all passives in those skill lines. And I still have 12 points left to play with.

So it's totally doable! Just prioritize the time consuming parts first - the trait research.

EDIT to add, also legerdemain! She doesn't pickpocket or anything, but those sneak passives are fun on a Cyrodiil-faring vampire, and forcing locks is my safety blanket for White Gold Tower.

AlnilamE

Volkodav wrote: »

JJBoomer wrote: »

So I'm still learning about the game and learned that it might be good to invest in making a dedicated crafter. Now I think I'm more concerned with blacksmithing, woodworking and armor at this point right now.

So my question is, whats the best way to go about that? I've gotten a lot of different opinions and it has me thrown for a loop. How do you balance making your crafter combat viable enough to lvl to gain points, but not waste the points on non-crafting skills? Anyone know of any guide to making a crafter or anyone have any tips?

Since you have 8 characters you can make,and even buy more,why not make one for each crafting skill.Then run those skills right up without worrying about it doing quests,etc,..except for skill points.Make each one Masters of their chosen craft.
Make a Blacksmith,a Woodworker,a Clothier,..etc. You can level up and get points even with just a normal run of the mill build.Nothing special.
Name them so you can remember what their specialty is.
Blacksmith Bill?

The only disadvantage of making separate characters for Clothing, Blacksmithing and Woodworking is that you need multiple copies of each motif (except for the WW ones that are split into pages).

ContraTempo

JJBoomer wrote: »

So I'm still learning about the game and learned that it might be good to invest in making a dedicated crafter. Now I think I'm more concerned with blacksmithing, woodworking and armor at this point right now.

So my question is, whats the best way to go about that? I've gotten a lot of different opinions and it has me thrown for a loop. How do you balance making your crafter combat viable enough to lvl to gain points, but not waste the points on non-crafting skills? Anyone know of any guide to making a crafter or anyone have any tips?

The biggest barrier is learning all the weapons and armor traits. Best case that will take you 8.5 months, plus another 9 months for the nirnhoned and that assuming you have maxed the metallurgy and stitching skill, have all items ready to go as soon as you need them, and don't forget to start your next research every time one ends. Obviously you should concentrate on the ones you will use first, but eventually you need them all. Different set crafting stations require you to have learned those some number of those traits for an item before you can craft that set item. On the low end Death's Wind and Ashen Grip only require 2 traits per item, while some like Armor Master require all 9.

Next is Enchanting, unless you are willing to spend a big pile of gold to get lots of high level glyphs to decon.

If you are NOT a subscriber you may want to have a different character do your consumables. Alchemy and Provisioning each require a lot of inventory slots. You just can fit all that, plus blacksmithing, enchanting, woodworking, and clothing into your bank. If you are a subscriber you have a crafting bag so yea you, no inventory issues.

Here is a page to get you started in alchemy. Just follow this guide. After that, do writs until you get to lvl 50.
http://www.sunshine-daydream.us/ESO/alchemy.html

Speaking of level, you WILL also need to level your crafting character. She will need to be able to gather mats in all zones and she will need to be able to get to the set crafting stations in all zones, and that requires being of a high enough level to get there.

You will also want to max alchemy for ALL characters in order to get the Medicinal Use skill maxed. Medicinal Use extends the duration of potions by 30%, which is huge. Once you have that done you can re-spec to recover all the skill points you put into alchemy, except the 3 needed for Medicinal Use. You might also do the same for Provisioning for the Gourmand and Connoisseur skills which extend the duration of food and drink, but that is not nearly as important and may not be worth the skill points to you.

NewBlacksmurf

You'll need to do all the skills quests and shards from 1-50, silver, gold and Orsinium.
Delves, normal and vet dungeons should net you enough skills to do all professions.

This will be you TES type of character

Volkodav

AlnilamE wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

JJBoomer wrote: »

So I'm still learning about the game and learned that it might be good to invest in making a dedicated crafter. Now I think I'm more concerned with blacksmithing, woodworking and armor at this point right now.

So my question is, whats the best way to go about that? I've gotten a lot of different opinions and it has me thrown for a loop. How do you balance making your crafter combat viable enough to lvl to gain points, but not waste the points on non-crafting skills? Anyone know of any guide to making a crafter or anyone have any tips?

Since you have 8 characters you can make,and even buy more,why not make one for each crafting skill.Then run those skills right up without worrying about it doing quests,etc,..except for skill points.Make each one Masters of their chosen craft.
Make a Blacksmith,a Woodworker,a Clothier,..etc. You can level up and get points even with just a normal run of the mill build.Nothing special.
Name them so you can remember what their specialty is.
Blacksmith Bill?

The only disadvantage of making separate characters for Clothing, Blacksmithing and Woodworking is that you need multiple copies of each motif (except for the WW ones that are split into pages).

Motifs are so easy to get anymore that it isnt a big issue though.They're a dime a dozen. My guilds add them in their bank for whoever needs them,No charge even.
The only ones that you would need to buy would be the more exotic ones,and those can be gotten for the most part in any guild stores,or any guild traders anywhere.
Not to mention drops.

Epona222

Volkodav wrote: »

JJBoomer wrote: »

So I'm still learning about the game and learned that it might be good to invest in making a dedicated crafter. Now I think I'm more concerned with blacksmithing, woodworking and armor at this point right now.

So my question is, whats the best way to go about that? I've gotten a lot of different opinions and it has me thrown for a loop. How do you balance making your crafter combat viable enough to lvl to gain points, but not waste the points on non-crafting skills? Anyone know of any guide to making a crafter or anyone have any tips?

Since you have 8 characters you can make,and even buy more,why not make one for each crafting skill.Then run those skills right up without worrying about it doing quests,etc,..except for skill points.Make each one Masters of their chosen craft.
Make a Blacksmith,a Woodworker,a Clothier,..etc. You can level up and get points even with just a normal run of the mill build.Nothing special.
Name them so you can remember what their specialty is.
Blacksmith Bill?

Because from glass motif onwards, they are more difficult to come by - so the idea of doing different armor and weapon crafts on different characters is very costly and inconvenient, because rare motifs you want to learn on 1 character that can do all the gear crafting. I agree that enchanting and consumables can be happily delegated to a different character, but 1 character for each craft is unrealistic if you want to be able to craft a variety of motifs.

thisisScoMan

Nirnrotten wrote: »

I spilt my crafting between 3 characters.

1. Woodworking/enchanting
2. Clothing/blacksmithing
3. Provisioning/alchemy

Was able to meet my needs and always had enough skill points for combat while leveling up.

I did this too. Split it between three. One in each Alliance.

All points from Skyshards went to Crafting until Crafting complete. All other points went elsewhere. No issues with combat or anything, but then I don't PVP.

I'm getting to a point with my main where he's getting a lot of excess points though, so maybe I'll end up with crafting crossovers.

Duiwel

As someone who has all 3 of those crafts @ 50 on at least 4 chars and close to it on 3 more OP I would suggest just play the game and decon your high level stuff on 1 char. ( bank all intricate and then decon it on the same char ).

You will get it eventually. ( slow & steady wins the race )

I didn't get it in a day, it happened over months.