Crowns or Writs

The_Hawk_1975

So I am a new player and am stuck in a bit of a dilemma. I have a couple of homes and am looking to put in some crafting stations and wonder which is the best way to go. Should I pay the 3000 crowns for the stations and get them now or should I wait and use "writs". I have yet to try and complete on of the crafting requests in order for me to get the writs as I am not too sure where they are or how they work. So then I am thinking just use the crowns and get the stations right away. So the questions for a NOOB, such as myself, use crowns or get the writs?

Jim_Pipp

Depends on you. Personally I would never spend crowns on something I can earn in game.

With that said, earning crafting writs is an endgame activity. You need to max out the crafting skill line to get the top level daily crafting quests. The number of crafting achievements you have (eg whole motif styles known) and number of traits researched will effect the drop rate of the rare master writs. Even on a master crafter it is rare to get a good master writ, so prepare to grind out dailies for a long time.

I recommend you make gold in game and just buy master writs from guild traders. Easy and reliable.

anitajoneb17_ESO

Question : why do you want crafting stations in your home in the first place ? It will cost you a fortune (gold, vouchers, crowns, dollars) for very little benefit.
Use public crafting stations (you'll need the banker/merchants/traders around anyway) , or join a guild with access to big guild halls with all stations.

The benefit of owning crafting stations personally is minimal. Now if you still want some, of course the way to go is to get them ingame (vouchers and gold). I believe buying them directly for gold is better than buying writs, converting them in vouchers and then buy stations.

Pheefs

Stations are fun & useful to have at home (especially the dye station)

Crowns are too expensive when you want All the stations in multiple houses.
Writ vouchers path and don't forget GOLD!
I agree with Anita, you can save up the gold & skip the writs entirely
The going rate for the Stations themselves on Guild Traders is around 40K

Nestor

Also, if your in a guild, you probably have a "guild hall" that has crafting stations, or there is a guild member who has pimped their house out already that you can use. So, no rush to get the expensive crafting stations.

Jaimeh

I would use vouchers because they are not a lot (~35 per station) and if you drop a good writ (or if you buy one) of 100 vouchers you get almost three stations right there. Sure, writs are not cheap to buy, and the ones that grant a lot of vouchers are not cheap to craft, but if you are a little patient you can easily gather the vouchers for all the stations, and spend the crowns elsewhere. You can even just farm gold and buy the stations from traders.

TheCyberDruid

If you can earn gold in game to buy motif pages (or don't mind just getting them by playing the game) and master writs I'd go for vouchers. If you struggle to earn money though it can be hard to get the right writs for your knowledge and thus the vouchers. Once I learned about half of the styles in the game and about 7 traits for everything getting the vouchers is quite easy.

The_Hawk_1975

yeah, it is like 3000 crowns per station and that seems crazy. I think buying the writs from the guild traders would be a goo route to go. So do I buy them from my own guild trader or what type of guild trader are you referring to?

Nestor

The_Hawk_1975 wrote: »

yeah, it is like 3000 crowns per station and that seems crazy. I think buying the writs from the guild traders would be a goo route to go. So do I buy them from my own guild trader or what type of guild trader are you referring to?

You should always support your guild first by shopping them first. Then, Vouchers are sold on every guild trader out there. Just make sure you know the Motif and the Trait and have the Nirn before you buy the writ.

Powder_ESO

Personally I used some writs for an enchanting table and a dye station for my Home. I might get an alchemy station at some point but IMO these are the only ones worth buying with any type of currency for your home. Most guild halls have access to the attunable stations or at least the standard stations. There isn't any reason IMO to place the standard stations in your home cause you can just jump to a city and use them there.

Feric51

Another option would be to contract a guild member to buy the stations for you with their writ vouchers if you're not able/comfortable to complete master writs yourself. There are a lot of crafters out there with banked writ vouchers who would gladly convert them to gold by buying the stations then selling them to you.

It's just another option. I would definitely not spend real-life money on something that can be acquired relatively cheaply for in-game gold.

Jayne_Doe

I agree that writ vouchers or gold are your best options. If you aren't yet able to get MWs and don't have the knowledge to complete most of them even if you do get one, you might be better off just buying them from guild traders.

It will take a while to earn enough vouchers to buy them that way, as you first have to get your crafts to 50, put the necessary points in them to be able to craft CP150 gear/consumables, and then start doing writs for a CHANCE at a Master Writ dropping. Even then, you may not have the necessary knowledge (trait researched, motif learned, etc.) in order to complete them. The consumable crafts are much easier to get into and it's easy to complete the majority of their MWs, thus the number of vouchers they award is quite low. Gear MWs can be much more rewarding, but often those high-level writs will require nirnhoned, legendary tempers, high-trait sets, and rare motifs.

I also agree that the stations aren't really necessary, but if you do want them for your home, I think that the best station to get is the dye station. This allows you to create outfits and dye costumes/armor without having to worry about the players who seem to have nothing better to do than stand around spamming spells in order to distract those working at the station.

Then, I'd think about the provisioning and alchemy stations. For me, they are convenient since I like to park my characters in my homes (for RP, though this adds load times when you need to get elsewhere). If they're low on food or potions, it's easy to just make some at home before I head out.

I do have all the stations in several homes, but that's largely because I wanted to have a crafting area in certain homes. It was also convenient when I had alts doing research, as I'd just log in, check their mail/research and log out. Of course, you can just as easily park your characters in the crafting area of a town and accomplish the same thing, with the added advantage of less load times if you're also wanting to do writs or dailies/quests with them.

kind_hero

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Question : why do you want crafting stations in your home in the first place ? It will cost you a fortune (gold, vouchers, crowns, dollars) for very little benefit.
Use public crafting stations (you'll need the banker/merchants/traders around anyway) , or join a guild with access to big guild halls with all stations.

The benefit of owning crafting stations personally is minimal. Now if you still want some, of course the way to go is to get them ingame (vouchers and gold). I believe buying them directly for gold is better than buying writs, converting them in vouchers and then buy stations.

This^

To the OP: Also if you discover trial dungeons, like Atherian Archive in Craglorn, these have all the crafting stations and at least a NPC vendor, so you can teleport to such a spot to do your crafting/deconstruction selling stuff. Best is to join a guild that has a decent equipped castle. In my guild someone has every crafting station in the game (with dlcs) and all the services, plus some mundus stone. So having your own crafting station is convenient but not really important. This will come with time, when you will have enough vouchers.

I bought my dye station with crowns, and I really regret that impulse that made me get it. Soon after that my main char made enough vouchers to buy all the other stations in a time of 2 months or so... Just take your time and keep the crowns for crown exclusive items.

ghastley

If you want stations, then you're someone who likes doing it yourself, so the in-game methods should appeal more. If you're considering Crowns, then maybe you're not as much a crafter as you think.

reoskit

If you're on PCNA, last I looked, the base crafting tables are going for about 30K (gold). Just buy them from a guild store* or ask in zone if anyone is selling base crafting tables. Way easier.

Otherwise, you have to level a toon enough to get master writs, then get the master writs (RNG on dailies), and then have all the right requirements to fulfill the writs (motifs, amt of traits researched, etc), and have the mats to do so.

And, as someone already said, never spend crowns on what can be earned in game.


* My position as a trade guild GM has absolutely no sway over my advice here. But... come visit us in Mournhold if you like.

Anotherone773

You can buy stations for like 35k-40k gold off traders, that is the route i went. I wouldnt pay crowns for such an easy item to obtain in game.