Is crafting even worth the work?

gareee

We started playing a month ago, and I'm up to level 36 or so. I've been training and deconstructing anything that looks remotely worthwhile, but I have yet to craft one single item better than items I've found.

So my question, is at some point can you craft items better than you get in loot drops? My bank and inv is chock full of crafted stuff to enchant weapons, but if I look at selling them they are only worth 5 gold each... so obviously they hold very little value.

I'm wondering at this point if I should just dump all the crafting stuff, and just go with loot drops? My wife is in the same boat, and at this point the game is feeling less like an elaborate multiplayer skyrim, and more like a big fancy Gauntlet. (Which isn't really bad.. we both love gauntlet!)

We've both skimmed crafting tutorials and watched a few videos, but there is just a TON of info to consume.

Nestor

gareee wrote: »

We started playing a month ago, and I'm up to level 36 or so. I've been training and deconstructing anything that looks remotely worthwhile, but I have yet to craft one single item better than items I've found.

So my question, is at some point can you craft items better than you get in loot drops? My bank and inv is chock full of crafted stuff to enchant weapons, but if I look at selling them they are only worth 5 gold each... so obviously they hold very little value.

Crafting gear while leveling your first character is not all that much fun. Nor do you have the skill points to spare for it. Once established, then yes crafting is good.

And quite frankly, with all the dropped sets around, I still use Hundings Rage or Law of Julianons on all my characters. You have to Craft those. I mix in dropped set items. But i have yet to find exclusively dropped set items that are better than what I am wearing now. Sure there are drops in Trials and certain Group Dungeons that might be better or really on Par, but it all depends on your build and how you play.

As for leveling crafting so you can use it later on in the game, you are approaching it in a good way. Oh, note, don't look at prices listed in the Inventory Screens to get an idea of the value of something, do that at a guild kiosk.

I am going to leave you with my Crafting Leveling Primer, as I have a feeling your leaving out Trait Research. Knowing Traits allows you to craft the good stuff, the more you know, the better the gear you can make.

Take a deep breath and dive in:

Here is the thing about Crafting, you don't need it until End Game (post CP160) but you can level it in preparation with few to no skill points invested. Crafting can eat up 122 Skill Points to fully invest, so this will gimp your combat while leveling. Best to invest as few points as possible while leveling your character and crafting.

Equipment Crafting

Decon all mob loot other than what you are using to research traits. Research traits, learn two on all items you would use, then learn 3, etc. Focus on Divines, Infused and Training for your first three for Armor, Sharpened, Precise and Training for your Weapons. Then go for the other ones. Nirn is expensive, and a lot of people suggest putting a priority on that, I can't see why. The Trait is all but useless for Armor or Weapons. Best place to find Mob Loot is Public Dungeons, then over land grind spots. Grind on mobs until your bags are full, then go on a decon fest. Remembering to save the ones you need or want to research. Use the Lock Function and or an Inventory Mule to hang on to those. Only invest Skill points while leveling it into the Research and Extraction Passive, the last really only needing one point.

Enchanting

Ignore all the "advice" on the web about using an enchanting partner. First, use Mob Loot decon to raise this up to a point. Later on as you approach end game have some some gold, then start making Green, Blue or Purple Glyphs on one character and decon them on an Alt. You will level Enchanting faster than trading the glyphs with another player, which is tedious by the way. (like pull out your hair and make a doily tedious). Use Green up to about L15 in the Enchanting Skill, Blue up to about L30/35 and Purple up to about L46/47. Then learn the runes you don't know, you should be at or near 50, if not, make/decon some more Purples.

Provisioning and Alchemy

Don't worry about these, you can level these professions in about an 20 minutes, for both. Just collect the Various Solvents and Reagents and Provisioning Ingredients/Recipes as you go along. Once end game, then you can level it. Use Mushrooms to level Alchemy, or Flowers that make potions you won't use. Make sure you grab solvents (waters) as your leveling as they can be rare to find in the guild stores. For Provisioning, make the highest level Green Recipes you can make. Blue or Purples do not give any more inspiration than Greens, so save those for character use.

Yes, use Drop Sets for now, and Yes, level your crafting skills and do the Trait Research. Traits are why you craft as they allow you to make Special Crafted Sets. There are two sets in the game that your going to want to make, Julianos for your Magic Characters, and Hundings Rage for your Stamina Characters. There are no better sets in the game to have 5 pieces of. Period. Well, Twice Born Star is great to, but your a year out from making that. But you need to start learning your traits now.

Leveling Equipment Crafting is easy, just decon the mob loot you are not either selling to cover repairs or using to research traits. No skill points needed while leveling it, other than maybe a point or two into the Extraction Passives.

Back to the Crafted Sets, it takes 6 traits known to be able to make Hundings or Julianos, 9 Traits for Twice Born Star. You don't need to know these traits on everything, but you do need to know them on the items you will use. So, start learning those traits. Focus on the gear you will use first, then fill in the rest later. This means:

Casters
Heavy Chest/Legs
Light Feet/Hands/Waist
Shoulders and Heads are good to, but there are 2 Piece Monster sets that can take up those slots. So learn the traits on these pieces, but prioritize the ones above.
Staves (all 4 of them)

Stamina
All Medium Armors
Daggers, Swords, Bow and Shield

Learn Training, Divines and Infused on the Armors first, Sharpened, Precise and Training on the Weapons. Powered is good for the Healing Staff, Defending is good for Sword or other one handed Melee. Then fill in the rest until you have 6 or eventually 9 traits. Some people recommend Nirn as an early trait to learn. Unless they change it, don't listen to them. You might use it on a Shield or a Weapon but that is about it. You need it someday, but it's expensive and you need your gold for other things.

Invest the skill points into the Research Passives. I can't stress enough how much of a time sink Trait Research is. Be able to learn more than one at a time, and reduce the time needed. Get an addon for Trait Research Tracking, I recommend Craft Store. If your on the Consoles, find one of the spreadsheets out there or make one to track this. Have I mentioned you need to learn your traits?

Doing this you will be ready to invest skill points into Crafting when it matters and not have to spend months getting ready. Did I mention Trait Research and how much a time sink it is? The last two traits will take you a month each to learn, on each item you learn them on. Get started now, yesterday would have been better.

JKorr

You can make potions better than the ones that drop in loot.

Personal preference; it is totally up to the player as to what kind of experience you're looking for in the game. If you're on PC/NA, having a good guild could help a lot with getting/crafting gear, along with suggestions about builds, and dealing with managing inventory for people who don't have the crafting bag.

phileunderx2

I don't particularly like crafting but I do have one character that in about 2 weeks will be done with all research and I can go and get those 12 skill points back. So I would recommend having 1 crafter as it makes life easier if you like to play alts.

IronCrystal

While certain sets may still be locked behind traits for you, at low levels I can much more easily craft gear in the sets I want in the traits I want (usually training :P).

I do recommend to everyone to have at least one crafter character because simply being able to upgrade your own weapons and gear (since a lot of it is BOP) is a reward in of itself. You'd have to pay 20 tempers to upgrade to gold per item vs 8.

raglau

It;'s not worth it in game terms, and i speak as a master crafter, because crafting is more of a grindy minigame than anything meaningful, due to loot drops being of more power.

but there is something intrinsically rewarding about being able to make your own gear, and help your guildies out when levelling etc. So I still get something out of it.

xaraan

If you can make some friends that can craft, then no it's not.

Learning enchanting, alchemy and provisioning can be good. But most crafted sets aren't good for end-game (there are a few exceptions for certain builds) and if you want to try to earn writs/vouchers for more money or crafting, then it can be good to do.

BUT, most of the best sets to use are drop sets and most people end up wearing costumes because of this. So all of the motifs you'll work and pay to learn you'll never get to see.

At this point, I'd recommend just leveling it on the side while you do other stuff in case ZOS decides to be smart and do something to make crafting useful one day. But I wouldn't dedicate too much to it yet in gold or anything if you don't have it.

wayfarerx

Provisioning and alchemy are pretty indispensable IMO and they are very easy to level up.

Equipment crafting is certainly useful for improving the quality of the drops you get. You can't trade bound drops to a crafter friend and have them improve them for you.

As for crafting your own gear from scratch at max level it can be quite helpful to have the ability to craft a set of Julianos or whatever to wear while you are farming drops or to fill out the last bit of a build.

gareee

We don't even know if we want to play with more than one character. We joined a guild, but they wanted 10,000 gold a week.. we are lucky if we make that much gold in a week as it is... LOL! (So we of course left that guild.)

I figured by now we would meet other players in game to show us the ropes, but without joining a guild that uses discord, in game communication is kind of limited.

DanaDark

Honestly. I'd say not at all. Maybe food and drink. Everything else. No.

Perhaps after you are maxed out lvl wise and only making cp160 gear.

When I got to lvl 20, made myself a bunch of nice stuff that took forever to gather everything I needed for.... 2 dungeon runs and it was completely replaced.

I imagine max level would be a much different experience, so, I will continue working towards it.

TamrielSaviour215

Once you get to CP160 and use the crafting stations you can make a set like the Julianos set (at the crafting stations in southwestern Wrothgar). Once you improve them all the way and add enchantments and traits, they can be better than most of the things you find. Plus you get to craft them to your liking and you aren't stuck with whatever style the drop is. I love crafting but as Praglaud said, it is a SUPER DUPER grind to get things where you need them to be. But it will pay off as guild members will ask you to craft things and you can make decent gold doing this.

Glamdring

There are quite a few crafted sets that are viable, they might not be Best in Slot but thats only if u are a min maxer and want to squeeze out the last % . Seducer, julianos, twice born star, alchemist, eternal hunt, hundings rage, nightmothers gaze are some of the crafted sets that are really nice. The drawback with crafted sets are that you cant Craft jewelry but on the other hand you can Craft em in whatever style, trait and armourtype you like.

gareee

Yeah, thats what we've run into.. my wife actually did craft one piece of armor slightly better than what she had after collecting stuff for a few hours, and then on the very next quest we did, she got two better replacements for it in loot drops.

That kind of started our discussion about it.

When we started, people said to save everything.. but with the limited bank and personal stash, you simply can't do that, and we are subscribing to a game just for a bigger inventory.

BTW, thanks for the various insights, guys!

Brrrofski

Yes, it is.

Mainly because you spend 2 minutes every few days to press a button and let it do it in the background. It's barely any work.

When levelling, you will outgrow your armor a lot.

When you get to cp160 though, you always have the option of crafting. Seducer will be very stong next patch, some sets like Julianos, hundings, night mother's gaze etc are still good end game options until you game a LOT and get the right gear in perfect traits.

Alchemy can be done super quick. Just grab all materials as you go along. Same with provisioning​. Then when you have all you need, both can be levelled in like 30 minutes.

Enchanting, just decon any glyphs you get. It takes a while, but you get there eventually. You can even make glyphs for each other from the materials you get for the other one to break down for some small, additional XP to speed it up.

If you play as a pair, another option is to break it up between you. One do light armor, metal weapons, woodworking and say alchemy. Other one do medium armor, provisioning, enchanting and heavy armor. Pass the relevant stuff to each other to research, breakdown or craft.

WhitePawPrints

Short answer: No.

Long answer: No, there are no sets that you can craft that make crafting competitive.

Loves_guars

I'm also a master crafter, I'd say no, it's not worth it.

I do it because I like that false feeling that I won't need another player crafter in case I need something. But the reality is that you don't need crafted gear.

Maybe level provisioning and alchemy since they are easy, cheap, and somehow useful. But the gear is useless and looking at the new gear sets in Morrowind I'd say Zenimax doesn't have the least intention to change this. Not to mention the lack of transmog option.

raglau

gareee wrote: »

Yeah, thats what we've run into.. my wife actually did craft one piece of armor slightly better than what she had after collecting stuff for a few hours, and then on the very next quest we did, she got two better replacements for it in loot drops.

That kind of started our discussion about it.

When we started, people said to save everything.. but with the limited bank and personal stash, you simply can't do that, and we are subscribing to a game just for a bigger inventory.

BTW, thanks for the various insights, guys!

It's one of those things that, for me anyway, has a value above what the game assigns it. Being a skilled crafter means that I have a calling in the game that is above just slaughtering mobs, and that adds a certain something to the game, for me personally.

That said, I do still wear Julianos, Night Mother's Gaze and Tava's Favour on my 3 main chars, even at end game. They are complemented by trials dropped sets, but those 3 are viable sets in their own right. So there is something in it.

I am not a good salesman though, I usually take pity on people and make them all their gear for free!

max_only

wayfarerx wrote: »

Provisioning and alchemy are pretty indispensable IMO and they are very easy to level up.

Equipment crafting is certainly useful for improving the quality of the drops you get. You can't trade bound drops to a crafter friend and have them improve them for you.

As for crafting your own gear from scratch at max level it can be quite helpful to have the ability to craft a set of Julianos or whatever to wear while you are farming drops or to fill out the last bit of a build.

This is all true. Crafting pays off at the end, not while you are leveling. Keep at it though, it never hurts to be maxed out and you can always respec the skill points back into the crafting lines when/if something awesome comes around. Also crafters can make their own truly superb prismatic glyphs -- the hakeijo can be found or bought cheap (sometimes 10k) and the crafted glyph has a huge markup (sometimes 17k). So 7k profit for one item, Pure 17k profit if you find your own Hakeijo.

Long story short: Don't give up!

zaria

Glamdring wrote: »

There are quite a few crafted sets that are viable, they might not be Best in Slot but thats only if u are a min maxer and want to squeeze out the last % . Seducer, julianos, twice born star, alchemist, eternal hunt, hundings rage, nightmothers gaze are some of the crafted sets that are really nice. The drawback with crafted sets are that you cant Craft jewelry but on the other hand you can Craft em in whatever style, trait and armourtype you like.

You can also easy make sharpened weapons of the crafted sets, this is an very large benefit.

Trying to get sharpened flame+lighting staff or bow+2x daggers of an dropped sets will take longer with intensive farming than waiting for an 6 trait set to unlock. You can buy weapons for overland bis sets or you can buy an medium house
But yes you can also tips an guildmate to make the set for you.

Brrrofski

People saying no, you all never used drop sets all through the game right? When you were VR 3 (CP 30) you had all your aether and vo and burning spell weave sorted right? And they always dropped in gold for you right?

True endgame does not currently use endgame sets but until that point crafted gear is a very viable option. PvP makes use of crafted sets a lot as well. Alchemist, eternal hunt and seducer are used quite a lot already. Kags is still a bit and will see more of it next patch no doubt.

Saying it's useless is bizzare in my opinion. Especially seeing as you can do it as you go. 5 minutes of sorting things out after a bit of questing is not much. There are a crazy amount of skill points available as well. It's not a huge time sink for the potential crafting gives.

Prof_Bawbag

Sets are a bit meh. but crafting is worth the effort. Maxing enchanting and being able to craft any glyphs is a huge money maker. Provisioner is a money spinner too. Then there's the extra chance of getting gold mats from sinking points into the 3 gear crafts.

WalksonGraves

Only cooking is worth leveling.

Shardan4968

I was curious about this too, but I noticed that armor I craft and improve is way better than looted one, and it is better than many loots from higher levels. Of course it's also grinding which is boring as hell, but Improving and traits are the keys.

gareee

As fairly new players, what we are seeing in the game is its not a 5 minute ordeal to work on crafting... you run back and forth to the bank to swap out your inventory, and then run between several locations to break things down, or craft a few items to level up the skills. So it really ends up taking maybe an hour a day all told to collect resources, and work at several of the skills.

The feedback here on the system is great though, and I want to thank everyone for the excellent advice and answers.

IronCrystal

max_only wrote: »

wayfarerx wrote: »

Provisioning and alchemy are pretty indispensable IMO and they are very easy to level up.

Equipment crafting is certainly useful for improving the quality of the drops you get. You can't trade bound drops to a crafter friend and have them improve them for you.

As for crafting your own gear from scratch at max level it can be quite helpful to have the ability to craft a set of Julianos or whatever to wear while you are farming drops or to fill out the last bit of a build.

This is all true. Crafting pays off at the end, not while you are leveling. Keep at it though, it never hurts to be maxed out and you can always respec the skill points back into the crafting lines when/if something awesome comes around. Also crafters can make their own truly superb prismatic glyphs -- the hakeijo can be found or bought cheap (sometimes 10k) and the crafted glyph has a huge markup (sometimes 17k). So 7k profit for one item, Pure 17k profit if you find your own Hakeijo.

Long story short: Don't give up!

While I agree some people mark up the prices, you are forgetting the value of the kuta that went into the glpyh.

WacArnold

Yes, making glyphs, potions, and food esp. There are a few decent armor sets and you never know but since all you really have to do is research and deconstruct stuff you don't need, why not you know? I would keep an eye on it. It just makes it a lot easier not to rely on other people, but I like to be self sufficient and my opinion. Since both you and your wife play split up the roles one can be an enchanter, blacksmith and cook , the other can be a clother, wood worker and alchemist. Another good thing is if you all make new characters you craft gear for them and they are ready to start leveling. But when you really need something it's alot easier to get exactly what you need when you can make it yourself.

Cpt_Teemo

Basically only worth it to you mostly, whenever you want a skin in game or armor set up you can make it yourself anytime, but yeah other than that you rarely get people wanting you to craft stuff and also be careful cause some of them are scams, some people will ask you to craft a legendary max level item and then say oh I don't need it anymore.

max_only

IronCrystal wrote: »

max_only wrote: »

wayfarerx wrote: »

Provisioning and alchemy are pretty indispensable IMO and they are very easy to level up.

Equipment crafting is certainly useful for improving the quality of the drops you get. You can't trade bound drops to a crafter friend and have them improve them for you.

As for crafting your own gear from scratch at max level it can be quite helpful to have the ability to craft a set of Julianos or whatever to wear while you are farming drops or to fill out the last bit of a build.

This is all true. Crafting pays off at the end, not while you are leveling. Keep at it though, it never hurts to be maxed out and you can always respec the skill points back into the crafting lines when/if something awesome comes around. Also crafters can make their own truly superb prismatic glyphs -- the hakeijo can be found or bought cheap (sometimes 10k) and the crafted glyph has a huge markup (sometimes 17k). So 7k profit for one item, Pure 17k profit if you find your own Hakeijo.

Long story short: Don't give up!

While I agree some people mark up the prices, you are forgetting the value of the kuta that went into the glpyh.

Well yes, I guess I've never purchased a Kuta... I was around for 4K Kuta and now people are trying to buy 1.7k Kuta.

I'm not complaining about the mark up, I'm just saying that in the end you can make a lot of money.

Oh and Furnishings! You need crafting levels to make a lot of the most desirable furniture.

QUEZ420

Yes it is worth it.

Lavennin

Nestor wrote: »

gareee wrote: »

We started playing a month ago, and I'm up to level 36 or so. I've been training and deconstructing anything that looks remotely worthwhile, but I have yet to craft one single item better than items I've found.

So my question, is at some point can you craft items better than you get in loot drops? My bank and inv is chock full of crafted stuff to enchant weapons, but if I look at selling them they are only worth 5 gold each... so obviously they hold very little value.

Crafting gear while leveling your first character is not all that much fun. Nor do you have the skill points to spare for it. Once established, then yes crafting is good.

But I'm new like the OP and have plenty of skill points to spare, leveling all six and putting most points in the three armor/weapon crafting skills.

I made sets for both me and my friend. I am wearing seducer + Magnus (able to do it when reaching lvl 20), but also keep that +sneak speed set and a Hist Bark set in inventory when no one is tanking WB, or when I'm doing DB daily. I put green enchantments on every piece because why not, they are dirt cheap to make.

But it did take a little planning ahead. I like reading tutorials, so I knew very early about those sets and traits.

It's been very rewarding. I have zero resource management problem. My damage is very satisfying. And the best part is I look fabulous
(The quest reward and loot you get aren't even remotely this good. With crafting you get the whole set, you can optimize, you can customize...)

Crafting is very much worth it for a new player, and it costs only a little extra time (you can save it back by crafting training gear.) The only reason I can think of to not do crafting is if you absolutely hate it.

ofSunhold

Yes. Some day you'll make yourself a weapon, with the trait you want, the same day you decided you want it, that will complete one of the sets you're wearing - rather than grind the same dungeon over and over several hundred times hoping for the right one to drop.

That will be a good day.

Nestor is wise. I only differ on one point: don't wait too long to level alchemy. There is a passive that, fully leveled (three points) will make potion effects last 30 percent longer. That's a big deal, even more so post-Morrowind.

Flaminir

Crafting is worth it in every way...

As you level just research random drops each day...

Deconstruct junk in your bag, that levels the crafting skill and you can sell the mats.

When you get enough skill points and are level 50 in that craft then the daily crafting writs give you a constant supply of quick and easy gold upgrade mats

Master writs (From end game crafting writs) are a good source of money! I make quarter of a million a week on average just from those.

RoyalPink06

Which platform are you guys on? If PS4, I'd be happy to invite you to our guild - super friendly to newer players, no mandatory fees, and we use Discord