Puttin' on the Writs

carljokl

I am trying to figure some best practices for performing daily writs.

One debate I have is about getting the best value out of them.
Writs generally pay better than other quests for low level characters.
For higher level characters the money seems less and less of a good deal.

As money seems to be tied to character level not the crafting skill level, it seems better value for money to get a character with bottom level skill to do the crafting.
If that character is not going to put skills into a given craft then the enlightenment training up that skill like is not really being used anyway. It is the same money but uses less and easier to obtain materials.

On the other hand, for a trainee crafter the enlightenment is important to the progression. In that sense the most effective returns seem to involve using the most and least skilled characters for a given skill.

I know that the value of the reward packs should be factored in too as better rewards are given for crafting higher level items even if the money pay out is the same.

I also wonder about taking the surveys from characters who obtained surveys for their low level zones and passing them to characters for whom those are the veteran zones to get higher level raw materials from the same surveys.

This may not apply so much for alchemy as the reagents do not seem to be noticeably levelled and the solvents are not included in the survey anyway as far as I know.

xilfxlegion

i dont believe you can transfer surveys to other characters.

carljokl

I am pretty sure I have already done it. I can certainly put them in the bank and take them out on another character. There is a constraint about only being allowed to have one copy of a given survey in your inventory or in the bank at a given time. The same applies for treasure maps.

That said I haven't yet tried using a writ gained in a standard zone in a Gold / Silver zone yet. I will try it tonight and report back.

Nestor

You can transfer the Surveys to other characters, how ever the surveys are scaled to the character that earned them, not the one at the survey (unless it's the same character of course)

As for leveling crafting, the Writs help, but your going to get as much Inspiration deconning 2 or 3 items as doing an Equipment Writ.

The trick to making the max gold is to have a high level character doing low level writs, as the mat costs are usually lower than top end mats. But, if you have a good supply of mats from farming, then even top end writs can gain you gold, if you ignore the opp cost of selling the farmed mats themselves.

Writs are really a source of Tempers, Repair Kits, and Intricate/Ornate items to sell. Currently, top end writs can be a net loss of mats (ranging from a small loss to a quite significant loss)

bryanhaas

xilfxlegion wrote: »

i dont believe you can transfer surveys to other characters.

Yes you can.

bryanhaas

carljokl wrote: »

I am pretty sure I have already done it. I can certainly put them in the bank and take them out on another character. There is a constraint about only being allowed to have one copy of a given survey in your inventory or in the bank at a given time. The same applies for treasure maps.

That said I haven't yet tried using a writ gained in a standard zone in a Gold / Silver zone yet. I will try it tonight and report back.

Did they change it so you could pick up writs in gold and silver? I don't think you are going to be able to accomplish what you are after. However enchanting nodes are scaled and so are the surveys so transferring those to a high level character would make sense.

carljokl

I am certainly not able to pick up writs in Gold and Silver zones. I can only collects writs in my own alliance zones or Coldharbour. The Writ boards in the Gold and Silver zones I don't think I can even interact with.

I have certainly exchanged writs with characters playing in the same alliance. This has been practical as most of the alts are low level characters that might struggle to survive harvesting nodes in the higher level nodes. I managed to get them to the drop of points by galloping on a horse to the target city running away from any combat and then subsequently traveling directly with a way-shrine. The drop off points are in the safety of cities where writs can be dropped off without any combat.

One day the alts will be levelled up enough to be more self sufficient. Having ESO Plus and the crafting bag, whoever does the actual harvesting doesn't matter as it all lands in the same bag shared with all the characters. Food and Alchemy ingredients and basic runes are easily harvestable in any zones. Whichever character I play I try to harvest whatever I come across.

It tends to be the equipment writs that are more difficult because of relying on materials that are zone specific. Even the lowest level materials can be tricky if they have to be shared amongst all the alts with non-upgraded equipment crafting skills.
I don't tend to use equipment writs for money making unless I have built up a lot of surplus materials.

The provisioners writs seems to be the easiest to complete. The resources they use are plentiful and have not come close to running out.

Nestor

I just keep my extra surveys in the containers. I typically store up about 20 of them before I go out and collect.

Prior to the Update, I had collected up a bunch of equipment survey writs and pulled over 2200 Raw Mats from the Surveys.

carljokl

Are you training up a crafter, is it inspiration that you're after?
Then get your fix
Doin' all the writs

Gold in short supply, afraid combat would have you die?
Cook fishy sticks
Doin' all the writs

=== Extract from ESO - The Musical ===

carljokl

I suspect the most probable outcome. I think I will be able to put the writ in my inventory. However when I turn up to the spot in a Gold / Silver zone I expect nothing will be there. If the surveys are specifically coded to only work in non veteran zones then the nodes are probably removed / disabled the same way as the writ boards don't work.

There is one way to find out though.

Nestor

Oh, the survey locations are only going to show up in the base Alliance Zones for your character.

Now, if you do transfer the survey to another Alt that has that zone as a Silver and Gold Zone, then they will battle through Silver or Gold leveled mobs to harvest mats scaled to the base alliance zone.

In other words, my EP character does a writ and gets a Survey for Stonefalls that drops Iron or Jute or Maple. I transfer this survey to a DC character for which Stonefalls is a Gold CP160 zone, I still get Iron or Jute or Maple from the Survey, but the survey location is surrounded by CP160 Mobs.

NordSwordnBoard

Jayne_Doe

I never did this with the equipment surveys, but I used to do Enchanter writs with a low-level alt who hadn't explored much outside of Daggerfall. Rather than trying to get her to the survey location in Glenumbra, I would give the Enchanter surveys to my main, for whom Glenumbra is a Silver zone. When she harvested the nodes, she always got Kedeko, etc., rather than Jora, Jode, etc.

disintegr8

All of my characters are level 50 in everything and are set to simply do either Craglorn writs (for nirncrux from surveys) or Wrothgar writs. One character harvests all of the surveys and I get CP90-140 mats from Craglorn and since the patch I now get all CP150-160 mats from Wrothgar.

I don't really do them for gold, I primarily do them for raw materials, gold improvement tempers, psijic recipe pieces, kutas and nirncrux. Any gold I make above the writ rewards is from selling excess tempers and psijic recipe pieces through guilds and selling the bonus value writ reward items to NPC traders.

Having said that, I have made a lot of gold from guild trading - which is where the money really is.

carljokl

Well I tested last night. As described by Nestor the resources were present but only at the level of the base zone so Jute and Rawhide in this case.

carljokl

I am not at a stage where my characters are far enough along to have surplus to trade in the Guild Stores.

The things I have plenty of are of low value. The things I have of value are limited and I am still using myself.

It feels like it could take a long time to have characters a sufficiently skilled that their service are of value to others. I am always likely to lay behind people who have been playing for a lot longer. Even when I eventually hit master crafter I wonder if over-saturation with so many other master crafters, being only one of many, my skills still would not be that valuable. Maybe if there is some churn of veteran players getting bored and moving on and new players joining.

Nestor

carljokl wrote: »

I am not at a stage where my characters are far enough along to have surplus to trade in the Guild Stores.

The things I have plenty of are of low value. The things I have of value are limited and I am still using myself.

Even when I eventually hit master crafter I wonder if over-saturation with so many other master crafters, being only one of many, my skills still would not be that valuable. Maybe if there is some churn of veteran players getting bored and moving on and new players joining.

Crafting is not so much for making money, it is for saving money and being self sufficient. Crafted Sets are effective end game gear, either mixed with dropped sets, or all crafted. Plus, you can pimp out your alts. Sure, I pick up some gold making things for others, but it is not a source of income.

Low level mats sell as so many people are farming those mats because they are broke. Plus, if you have a high level non crafting alt, you can do writs with no skill points invested in crafting and get scaled gold and experience rewards. However the mats you get from writs (deconning the gear you get) and surveys are scaled to L1. But I had a Vet character doing L1 writs and she picked up 4K in gold each day, plus 20K in exp using low end easy to get mats. Plus, I have 4 low level mules running hirelings so I get lots of L1 mats that way too.

If your looking for easy to find stuff to feed the guild stores, go pick Alchemy Flowers. Columbine, Mountain Flowers, Bugloss, Namira's Rot all sell for good prices, but all flowers will sell.

carljokl

I was just noting yesterday that I am down to 50 Columbine. I used to have well over 100.

*Musical interlude* "Blame it on the Writs"

There is something satisfying about creating your own gear.
It is a shame my main character does not have high enough crafting skill to create gear at his level. The gap is closing slowly.
It is nice to wear a set of matching gear rather than a collection of miss matched quest rewards / random items found in dungeons.

I will get there eventually. Last weekend I cleared out every remaining Skyshard that I had missed from my alliance territory and from Coldharbour to buy more crafting skills. Now clearing out the first Silver zones. Trying to do the calculations hoping there are enough Skyshards left to make enough skill points to max out crafting.

I have enough Alchemy writs in a backlog that if I got Columbine each time I would do quite well.

Most recently spent 20K on emeralds to create training gear for Alts. Things like trait materials and improvement tempers can be tricky because there is less control over getting them vs harvesting.

Nestor

carljokl wrote: »

Trying to do the calculations hoping there are enough Skyshards left to make enough skill points to max out crafting.

You need 122 Skill points to max out crafting. This is with no points in Keen Eye, and you probably want to spend a few points on that (Alchemy and Clothing are good, others are not needed).

So, that means 366 total skyshards....

http://eso-skills.com/

Make sure you do the Main Quests for each Silver and Gold zone, that is at least 25 skill points there for Silver, and 25 for Gold, plus a ton of Champ Experience.

You have 16 Shards per zone, so that is 160 shards for Silver and Gold, or another 53 skill points. So, with the Zone Main Quests and the Shards and whatever points you have now in Crafting, you can max out crafting on one character and still be deadly on them.

carljokl

Quite a weekend. I experienced Cyrodil for the first time and enjoyed it more than expected.

It ended up being good to earn a few relatively easy skill points.

More importantly I too the advice of @Nestor and sold some Columbine. I discovered I had to be in a guild to sell in it.

One of the guilds I am in mentioned they had rented a guild store. Maybe as well I hadn't done the guild purge I had planned. Especially given the name "The Stoner Club" it sounded more like a drug ring than a credible guild and was high on my list to drop out of. Still I had no idea where the stand was.

Maybe it was fate. I found it when not looking for it. I was completing a clothier survey in Glenumbra. One of those lonely random stands in the wilderness in this case near the Wyrd Tree Wayshrine. I found I had more Columbine than I thought, 153 if I recall. So I decided to try my luck. I believe it was said that people will pay 1000 for each piece of columbine. I am still a bit skeptical so I listed 50 for 25k at half that.

Then I went off to do something else. Now the second guessing starts. Would it sell better if split the Columbine into stacks of 25 or 10 or 5? Is anyone really going to buy from a stand out on its own in the wilderness?

Some hours later I got the notification the Columbine had sold. I could happily do that again though I just sold off a third of all my supply so I can't sell that many so often.

Nestor

carljokl wrote: »

Still I had no idea where the stand was.

Maybe it was fate. I found it when not looking for it.

@carljokl

Just so you know, you don't have to be at the stand to list items. Any banker in the overworld (not in Outlaw Refuges or Cyrodiil) can access the guild store for a bank you are in.

As for the size of the stacks to sell. Figure people are going to want to make a full stack of potions, so 200. Each Flower can make 4 with the Alchemy Passives, so best to sell in stacks of 50. However, a stack of 25 can be quite useful to people too for Alchemy and Provisioning Ingredients.

As for Kiosks in the out of the way locations, they move product if you price it right. This does not mean you have to be half the price of Wayrest traders or anything like that. Just price it low enough that people will travel to the wayshrine next to the trader and shop. Also, note, most of the out of the way rural kiosks are as close or even closer to the their wayshrines that most of the citified kiosks are.

carljokl

I knew about the guild banks in the main banks. Now I have the banker assistant I rarely go to the bank anymore. Still it helped to actually see the guild store to confirm it was accessible outside the guild.

carljokl

Having now got over the hurdle of finally visiting Cyrodiil I am weighing up the merits of farming materials for writs there. Cyrodiil (and presumably similarly configured zones) has the helpful aspect of material nodes producing materials that match the character's crafting skill (give or take a level or so).

In Cyrodiil it also seems easier to be able to move around and harvest nodes without being attacked by mobs. Even bumping into other characters may not happen much if away from the fortresses and their associated farms, lumber mills and mines.

On the other hand the resource nodes are quite scattered an not especially common to come across. I haven't properly been able to gauge how it compares in density to the PvE zones. Cyrodiil in general feels a lot more open and free to move around compared to alliance zones. Even in alliance it is possible to be stuck running around looking for resource nodes and struggling to find them.

Yet another aspect is potential for annoying other players if I am taking up team capacity but harvesting instead of focusing on the combat. Still it is possible to mix a bit of both.

I haven't decided on balance if trying to use Cyrodiil to farm writ materials is worthwhile.