Do you still find crafting rewarding in One Tamriel? What is your experience?

Elsonso

aldriq wrote: »

Still enjoying it after 11 months, but I haven't reached CP160/max writ level yet.

Still, hoping that update 13 will blow away some cobwebs from the proverbial crafting tables.

My feeling is that by the time ZOS does anything positive to fix crafting, we won't even be able to see those cobweb covered tables.

Bouldercleave

I enjoy crafting, but once you hit top tier it does "evolve" quite a bit.

1) I craft all gear, enchantments, potions, and food/drink for all my alts and any guildie that needs something.

2) I do the daily writs for 2 fully tiered crafters - One of the very best ways to get gold mats.

3) I HARVEST more than CRAFT for income. Financially I make more off of selling mats than finished product.

4) I keep enough gold tempers, waxes, and rosin to create one complete set of gear and simply sell off everything else.

5) I am hoping with the housing update, somehow crafted furniture will make crafting a bit more "active".

BenevolentBowd

Recently, I described ESO crafting as

12 characters doing crafting writs everyday, sometimes feels like living the 12 days of Christmas trapped in the movie Groundhog Day.

Since 1Tamriel, I have rarely seen any crafting requests. I used to see many in various zones. Nowdays, the most frequent requests are for research items.

Bouldercleave

BenevolentBowd wrote: »

Recently, I described ESO crafting as

12 characters doing crafting writs everyday, sometimes feels like living the 12 days of Christmas trapped in the movie Groundhog Day.

Since 1Tamriel, I have rarely seen any crafting requests. I used to see many in various zones. Nowdays, the most frequent requests are for research items.

I think that has a lot to do with the 1,543,213,513,665 drop sets that they put in the game. 1T didn't kill crafting, but drop sets everywhere you go, on everything you kill, and in every chest you loot sure put a nail in the coffin.

Elsonso

Bouldercleave wrote: »

BenevolentBowd wrote: »

Recently, I described ESO crafting as

12 characters doing crafting writs everyday, sometimes feels like living the 12 days of Christmas trapped in the movie Groundhog Day.

Since 1Tamriel, I have rarely seen any crafting requests. I used to see many in various zones. Nowdays, the most frequent requests are for research items.

I think that has a lot to do with the 1,543,213,513,665 drop sets that they put in the game. 1T didn't kill crafting, but drop sets everywhere you go, on everything you kill, and in every chest you loot sure put a nail in the coffin.

Crafters are the buggy whip makers of One Tamriel

Lord_Wrath

To keep it short, master crafter has been a great personal tool as well as income from other players. The downside are people that cant make their orders simple where it becomes time consuming and a questionare of what they want. The other downfall are people that think crafting should be cheap/free and put no consideration to the time it took for accomplishments required to craft or the expense of mats.

aldriq

I still see purple pieces of Julianos going for 8K at some guild traders, so there are a few crafters making money out of their time and work. But I agree it's all rather impersonal if folks are just buying off-the-shelf, basically treating crafted sets as dropped ones.

cyberjanet

RedJoker wrote: »

A few crafting ideas I'd like to see ZOS implement:

1) Jewelry crafting
2) Being able to change the style of dropped or crafted armor

100% agree. I have written elsewhere else that being able to craft SKINS that you can apply to dropped armour would make crafting worthwhile again.

I've given up on writs and motif collection since One Tamriel. I don't find writs worth doing any more, and there is no reason to buy motifs as crafting armour and weapons isn't a good source of income. Mostly I do it for free, for friends and guildies, as long as they supply materials. Why spend 25k on a motif?

I think the new aetherial dust could be utilised in skin crafting. Maybe even a specialist crafting station. And a nine traits requisite would make the skill point expenditure and cost of acquiring nine traits worth the effort.

Jewellery is a nice idea, but I have no thoughts on implementation. Do you make it craftable if you have nine traits in all armour, or is it a separate craft line? And how do you learn enough traits to craft Julianos jewellery, for example?

G-sus_NL

Very disappointed. For me it's useless right now until I have the full 9 trait everything so I can create a single set of TBS but that's it. And even that is still months away, so I guess I have levelled my crafting for nothing.

I do collect motifs just for collecting's sake, so it would be awesome if we could change the style of droppped and crafted armor. If you could also do this for other players (and even bound sets) then it would pay off the (enormous) cost for motifs.

Andohir

I decided my current main toon to be my crafter. He's cp225 now and I have done the researches nearly all the time. More or less I'm at about five to six unlocked traits on every item. Most researches now last a week and more. I crafted a lot in the 1-50 times, e.g. about every five levels I replaced my weapons with better crafted ones, but after 1T and me reaching cp160 I didn't craft anything anymore. Instead I use a mix of cp160 zone & quest sets I got and get when doing Cadwell's Silver and will continue so estimatedly later in Gold too.

Last weekend I finally got blacksmithing, tailoring and wood work to 50, there's only enchanting left at 36.

I couldn't max all the crafting skills yet (that currently requires 139 skill points, I only put points into the most important ones) to have enough points left for armor, class and weapon skills for a basic open pve build. Especially on my journey to get more skill points it is a bit limiting to play a designated crafter, because regarding available skills I'm not that versatile yet as other toons and have to stick to only a few ones. But it gets better with every additional point.

Preyfar

I don't find crafting of value anymore. Dropped sets are too good, motifs don't matter since you can't change set looks and you can't upgrade jewelry.

Some crafted sets are still good, like TBS, Hundings, Julianos and Tava's, but for the most part there's not a huge call for them as much anymore. Enchanting is always needed.

I only really use crafting anymore to upgrade gear.

Mush55

Food and potions are about it for crafting now, with all the set drops the rest are not worth the effort..

agn231

Still doing daily equipment & potion writs on 2 max crafters and am pleased with the gold mats and rewards. Have gotten 2 ambrosia fragments in the past couple of weeks after a LONG drought.

Would love to see crafted gear sets updated to compete with the dropped sets!!!!!!

Zedrian

- Another idea that has been running in the back of my mind would be for crafters to have the ability to morph existing and bound equipment either by strictly combining two crafted sets, or one crafted and one dropped set. Obviously you would not gain the traits of both sets, and instead simply get to chose which pairing traits between 2 sets.

- Now that the cp 10-150 ingots have become useless unless you are fresh new players, and we still get some from the writs (that we can't refine... thanks ZOS seriously), maybe crafters at max level could use a Philosopher Stone to transmute Iron into Steel, and so on?

drifter1138

I have posted in other threads about how I think the changes to crafting to be a 'backhand' to dedicated players.
Many people play this game just for the crafting aspect and many guilds are built entirely around crafting.
It infuriates me that I burn 30 rubedite ingots (I forget exact numbers for items) to get 25 galatite ingots in return with no tempers, a few gold and (unless enlightened) little experience. Heck I'd rather take the raw galatite instead of the ingots for a shot a temper.
I won't rant too long because I've done that in other threads but here's a basic summary of ideas I've posted elsewhere that I think would encourage crafting again:
1) Jewelry. Why in the world do we still not have the ability to craft jewelry yet??! Give metalworking jewelcraft!
2) Remove all level requirements for metal to be bound to an item. That means I can make a level 10 rubedite dagger or a maple CP 160 bow and a level 15 voidsteel sword. The material doesn't dictate the level, the crafter ability dictates the level.
3) Allow 9 item crafters (herein referred to as master crafters) the ability to deconstruct a 5 item monster/dropped set of anything in their inventory (all in one shot) and allow them to construct that set and it's abilities. Nirnhoned swords of agility? Sounds good to me. Galatite viper set? I don't see why... but ok... that's gonna be 500,000 gold please... 300,000 if you provide materials.
4) Remove fixed name resource nodes from the game (similar to what enchanting nodes had done) so that any node spotted in the wild are called metal resource node or wood resource node. Inside each resource node will be a random raw material of any given type for refinement. Couple this with point 2 and there will never be a resource shortage.

Just /showerthoughts

I get that point 3 is a little far fetched but you have to admit. If crafters could make jolting sets or worm cult sets etc. then they would never be left alone long enough to roll in the money people would throw at them to make the sets. But on the other hand... why wouldn't you implement something that? Say it would take 60 days research a set and you could only research one set at a time. Would be fun but would unbalance the game.

STEVIL

@drifter1138

To me the idea of having a collectable consumable level control cclc is basically a core design decision. Its neither better or worse than a skill all you want, just different. Either can be done well or poorly, either can enrich gameplay or stymie it.

There was another what if thread suggesting getting rid of "sets" and just having lotsabdifferent one piecers. Same answer there. Make core decision, then design, play tweak til it works.eso was built with the decision to use cclc. Thats not like "how do nodes scale" but more foundational. All the crafts except provisioning have cclc. Provisioning has instead recipes which are many and varied but reusable.

So for me, what-if we dont use cclc at all, make mats just cosmetic is just different not better.


But it does raise questions.
Under that, different mats just affect appesrance.
But glyphs, potions and poisons have no appearance, so are they just all gone now, just plain water and raw fat nodes?

Truth be told, i am not opposed to it if a core change was desired. My "remove lower gear cap" coupled with 1T node scaling isnt that far off... only real diff is mats gathered early d9nt do much for you later which encourages gather as you go vs stockpiling.

nraner81

haven't touched equipment writs since OT.
Learning those X's in worth/crag on ps4 sucked not even going to try when they are all over the place.
that being said I do understand this is a console issue, though still a crappy one.

Garrick

As a more casual player I find crafting took quite a nerf from 1T. I still find crafted sets useful, my issue is more with obtaining tempers and lower tier mats.

If the problem with writ rewards is people farming writs on multiple characters, as someone suggested, then pubishing everyone by nerfing the rewards seems like a stupid move because now only these farmers will be viable. They win, everyone else loses. It would be far better to implement some form of "enlightenment" mechanic where the first writ of each type has much better rewards, and multiple writs have diminishing rewards. Or just gave an account-wide timer on the top tier writs (sort of like champion writs).

Having most traits be useless or have a very specialized use also seems poor design. Perhaps dropped items should have a few widely applicable traits, like sharpened, precise, defensive, and more specific traits should be crafted only, like training, prosperous, impen. This could benefit crafting by having some specific crafted traits not found in loot, and make the loot drop people happier too. Some of the traits could be boosted too. Precise could also affect crit damage, charged could reduce cooldowns more, reinforced could raise the armor cap, powered could reduce cost of healing.

As for nirncrux: maybe that is needed by a crafter to change the trait of an item. To change a trait you use up one nirncrux.

Overall, i would say that crafting needs a boost, but more in terms of versatility and applicability, rather than power creep. That said, some of the crafted sets could be brought more in line with dropped sets, particularly the overland sets.

STEVIL

@Garrick

I agree completely that crafting for equipment needs an upgrade after 1t. I view it as finishing the 1T overhaul of how necessary gear and mats is done.

However, honestly, 1T dud not reduce writ rewards.

Before 1t you spent the same to finish writs as you do now. You got some pieces of gear, gold, insp, tempers rsndom etc. On occasuon you got a survey.

After 1t, three changes were made for equip.
Survey chance cut in half but survey yield boosted by 2. Net no diff
Survey maps point to other locations. This does make immediate cash in take a littke longer in some cases.
Whenever you dont get a survey you get a box of goodies - lower level mats you never got before. This a pure boost.

The rewards for equip writs were increased, not reduced, for 1t.

There is a situstion for provisioning in belkarath thats odd but noth8ng to do with equip.

Ourorboros

Seems the biggest OneTam complaint is the min/max of nodes. I don't really see this as a problem. First, it's really a waste of time to craft sets for lower levels. They can become obsolete within hours of creation, it's so easy to level. It's just as effective and much easier to just equip dropped items up to level 50. For those still below CP160, there is no reason they can't gather the mats they need to give to a crafter if they want a crafted set. And, again, getting to CP160 is so fast and easy, at most two sets should be good until CP160 can be worn.

I don't do writs much, I have a huge stockpile of mats already. Since I've been maxed in all crafts before writs ever landed, they have always been a sweet/sour deal. It never made sense that top tier writs reward Inspiration. Duh, what good is it to a max crafter? Players have complained about writ rewards since writs were created. Things haven't changed that much with OneT.

Crafting is still useful. It's very handy to be completely self-sufficient. But IMO, crafting is too rigid. As others have mentioned, there should be more options, at least at max levels. I know most motifs, but will likely NEVER craft some of them, unless I get a request. I'm sure not going to create another set of Gold Julianos just to have a different motif....tempers are too expensive for that. But it would be nice to have an option to change styles on existing items, especially since zos keeps dropping more motifs into the game. This is but one example of the many options max crafters should have. That would make crafting more interesting and fun, instead of just a useful utility.

Zedrian

I felt I should share my daily writs results so far. You can find them in Google sheets here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15mhbGzyprQBxx0eToLuCqSoW5lQdT45Y2RTKoGEJuM4/edit?usp=sharing

My current pool of results is still too small and the margin of error is still too great (i.e. compare Alloys % with Waxes %).

What I did realize is that you are barely profitable if you don't have the chance to get a temper and covers the crafting costs. Of course this also depends on the average price of materials at guild vendors. I am on PS4 EU and you will notice the price of tempers are very expensive.

You become a lot more profitable once you earn a temper, and so far the % chance of getting a tempers varies too much to my liking between crafts. I will post my results again once I reached 100 writs. I know someone else posted his results but I wanted to confirm the results myself and they seem consistent. (~33% for tempers, ~8-12% for surveys).

N.B. For some reason the formulas didn't copy between excel and google sheets, but its really basic math.

STEVIL

Iirc my writ results are about the same for surveys at abt 10% and less for gold stuff at about 1 in 4 or 5.

Parrot1986

I get a good return from my writs on 3 characters. Normally get at least 1 gold reward across the 3 Alts each day and although surveys are less I'm getting at least 3 a week for each material type. Also Glass Frags are a few a week and ive had 2 Ambrosia Frags since the new recipe came out so all I all I'm fine with the writs.

Crafting other than that is less useful now. I have the motifs but already either crafted my gear and made it gold so won't re-do it just for a new style. I'd rather have the option to re-style an item as a crafting perk to make use of the new motifs. Also lot of the BiS gear isn't crafted but looks awful so having an option to re-style this would be cool.

One thing I want is being able to craft jewlery would make build diversity so much bettter in the game.

STEVIL

Parrot1986 wrote: »

One thing I want is being able to craft jewlery would make build diversity so much bettter in the game.

I agree with this esp now that jewelry drops with every set. its no longer a rare thing.

However, i have come to a different notion of late.

It stems from not wanting crafted equip to just be another mechanic for making alternative sets that otherwise are the same as drops.

So as part of a large package of changes they need to finish the 1T changeover for crafted equip (see below in my sig) and instead of jewel crafting i want them instead to allow crafters to remove one of the 2-3-4pc set bonuses from crafted items at the moment of crafting. That lets us make 4pc sets with the former 5pc set being now at 4pc.

For many sets that would turn it into possibly three 4pc versions and one 5pc version.
The existance of 4pc crafted options would create a whole lot more "build diversity" with 1pc maelstroms, 2 pc monsters, 3 pc jewelry, 4 pc crafted and 5pc crafted/drops.

This gives drop sets the jewels and gives crafted sets the 4pc option.

for a number of the crafted sets there is one "off bonus" that can be dropped.

I think this would give crafted something unique, would leave drops with something unique and be a real reason to craft no matter how many drop sets are added.

IMO much better than just chasing the same features of drop sets by adding jewels and more fixed sets for crafting.

See my sig for more details if interested.

Aliniel

There should be a chance to get UNKNOWN motif so that the real crafters profit from the writs. The chances should be proportional to the crafting skill, player level and champion points. Maybe even to the number of writs completed.

HickGamer

So, I hoped on my main craftsman today and ran all six of my writs for the day. I normally do this on more than one character mainly for the extra gold as anyone can obtain them....or so I though. I have no idea what happened, but after I completed all of my writs, I hoped over to another character to do them again and they weren't available at all. My main craftsman has all of the crafting trees maxed out and filled with skill points, my others do not, maybe this has something to do with it, but I don't know. I do know it kinda sucks that I can't make a little extra gold from writs on my other characters though. I'm hoping I just missed something or whatever, anyone have some insight into why this is going on?

STEVIL

HickGamer wrote: »

So, I hoped on my main craftsman today and ran all six of my writs for the day. I normally do this on more than one character mainly for the extra gold as anyone can obtain them....or so I though. I have no idea what happened, but after I completed all of my writs, I hoped over to another character to do them again and they weren't available at all. My main craftsman has all of the crafting trees maxed out and filled with skill points, my others do not, maybe this has something to do with it, but I don't know. I do know it kinda sucks that I can't make a little extra gold from writs on my other characters though. I'm hoping I just missed something or whatever, anyone have some insight into why this is going on?

this am i ran six writs each on seven characters plus a few stray writs here and there on others.

So whatever lockout you experienced seems not to be widespread.

Obviously logout and try again comes to mind.

But it is not a change in how writs work across char.

HickGamer

Thanks, got it all cleared up. It was a bug of some kind. ESOTS took care of it for me.

Feric51

I can see crafting playing a bigger role once housing rolls out. I highly doubt chairs, barrels, or bed frame pieces are going to start dropping off mobs or in chests.

Hopefully certain furniture styles will require 6-9 traits to reward crafters who have taken the time to research everything.

Just a poor craftsman's dreams......

HickGamer

Just my two cents here, but I really don't need player housing in ESO. There are plenty of other things ZOS could invest their time and money into other than yet another potential crown store money grab. There are plenty of bugs that STILL need to be worked out that would mean a whole lot more to me than another collectible luxury item. Any way, sorry for the rant.