Tips for a beginning crafter?

SocialAssassin

Now I tried doing a "search" before asking this question? And I am sure someone will "link" a thread and that's fine.

So what "useful and helpful" tips would you give to a beginner crafter. What should I keep? What should I take apart? I am asking this because my bank is getting fuller by the minute Basically what I have done so far is, sell what I can and deconstruct the rest. I try and not to get rid of "sets" but I imagine at some point I will have to? Thanks Also could someone tell me what the "colors" for gear are? I know there is White, Green, Blue lol! that's all I know so far.

cjhhickman39

Research everything you can first this takes the longest time
White: base, you just made it no improvement
Green: fine , first improvement
Blue: superior,second improvement
Purple:epic, third improvement
Gold:legendary, fourth and final improvement

Slick_007

do the dailies. gets mats, xp, gold, and raises your crafting

cjhhickman39

Look under players guide section of the forum you will find many helpful threads on crafting

Sparr0w

Research everything you can, I'd recommend doing all up to 6 traits together (as the arguably best crafted gear requires 6 traits).

Do the key traits first, training, divines, infused, sturdy, reinforced. Training, infused, sharpened, nirn, precise.

Daily crafting writs are great for levelling, gold and materials.

Decon everything you dont want to keep or research, literally everything but the ornate stuff (even then you can decon this if you want).

Also I'd probably hold off on refining raw materials until you get all the passives.

Finally be prepared to go skyshard hunting or retire a character as it takes a LOT of skill points.

Bodži

Gather pieces of armor and weapons of different types with traits that you did not research. That way you will have to start the next research as soon as its done. In order to learn all traits it will take a lot of time.

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to first research nirnhoned trait as it can be a source of income - selling to other players. Its most rare trait for ALL pieces.

If possible, invest into extraction passives. That way you will get more mats. If you don't have it maxed, I would buy already refined mats and sell raw ones. I have one char used for crafting that does deconstruct and refining with all passives maxed.
Downside is that it takes a lot of skillpoints so this char is only crafter and nothing else. If u hvae multiple chars then maybe you can divide skills (blacksmithing/clothier/etc) between them.

I usually decon white and inspiration one with char that I want to level it's crafting. If I dont have char that needs inspiration then I sell it in guild - it can be nice source of income.

The rest I also decon with master crafter.

Saturnana

1. As others already mentioned, research traits whenever you can. For the first 4 or so traits per item, I don't even bother with any specific order as they will go fairly fast. After that, focus on what you think you'll need first (so when researching clothing pieces, don't put all your effort into light gear when you don't plan on making/wearing that for yourself). Start with traits as early as possible, research them as often as possible, and you will have saved yourself a lot of hassle in the future. EDIT: I also suggest investing in the Metallurgy / Stitching / Carpentry passives (and Lapidary Research if you're into Jewelry) as they will reduce your research time.

3. If you're not in a guild already, join a guild. Preferably one with a vendor so you can sell to people outside the guild.

3. Sell 'valuable' gear you looted and deconstruct the rest - regardless of item rarity. I personally sell everything that's worth 1000g or more (according to Master Merchant, long live PC!) and deconstruct what is left. I realize some people don't sell gear at all and just decon everything, but this way I make a nice bit of money while getting crafting materials (from the deconstructing) AND keeping my inventory clean as well!

4. If you don't have ESO+... get ESO+ (for the crafting bag, I would go crazy without it). Not saying that it's impossible to be a crafter without this, but it is going to be really really difficult to balance needed materials in your bank and inventory. Especially if you plan to do anything else besides crafting all day long. One way to work around this is (very!) diligent inventory management, having several mules, and not wanting to do all seven professions at once.

5. Learn any motifs, recipes and furnishing plans you come across (except maybe for Buoyant Armiger, go on and sell those ). Especially the cheaper ones. Your list will fill up pretty fast while adventuring, and then by the time you'll actually want to start making things, you will already know a few armor styles, furnishings, etc.!

6. If you happen to come across some more expensive / rare / new furnishing plans, it may be worthwhile to learn them to your character and then craft a few to sell & make money. Be advised that some items are very expensive to make because of what they need! (Summerset furnishings, for example).

JKorr

If an item isn't "ornate", and you don't want to use it immediately, decon it. If it is "ornate" sell it.

Find a good guild that has crafters, or make friends with a crafter. Ask for trait research items; many crafters will make items for a low charge or free if you have the mats to give them, especially for research.

Research traits you might want to use first, like "training". It is helpful to be able to use the same trait on all the gear.

Sordidfairytale

Don't limit research to just one character. You can become self sufficient on your account for research and transmutation in less than a week.

Giraffon

Stated assuming new player with low skill levels in all crafting areas:

I agree that you want to keep your research moving non-stop in all crafting skills that have a research element to them. It is critical to do this because the next one learned will take longer with the 9th trait taking around a month to complete. Also be sure to go to stables and keep upgrading your mount. I suggest speed, then storage, then stamina.

That said, don't bother saving a bunch of stuff for the next round of research. Just go through your inventory and research anything you can then sell everything else. Only deconstruct the intricate items you get. Gold is the way to go. Get as much of it as you can. If you find yourself needing an item to research and you don't have one in stock, just go find a guild trader and buy the cheapest thing you can find that has what you want. You will save yourself a lot of time screwing around with inventory management that way and you won't go crazy trying to keep track of what you need and what you don't.

Now as you get up to 7 traits on something, then you might want to consider using the lock feature on that item and putting it in your bank until you need it for research. Early on though, there are just too many moving parts. Don't waste your time. Go quest and play as you will. Maxing your crafter (and I would keep it all on one character) will take about 6 months if you keep it moving, maybe longer if you don't play regularly.

Also, to push your skill level higher, you can buy CP150-160 Intricate items. Those will push your skill levels up way faster than that level 10 item you just found.

As a final note, get Master Merchant and join a trade guild. It will help you realize when you have something of value. As a new player, you might not realize that a yellow item you just snagged out of a night stand is worth 50K (example: Imperial Motif). But with MM, you will have this information even if you are inexperienced.

Good luck!

Soella

1. Don't keep anything until you are CP160.
2. Don't keep BoE gear unless it is something really good you might be using soon.
3. make a quick research for classes you are going to level first/already leveled, and keep only recommended sets, mostly divines/infused (only after CP160).
4. Create mules - it helps to solve bank issue.
5. I am vendoring all white items, sell on trader what I can, decon everything else.
6. Join trade guild, better with traders somewhere in Raw'kla/Mournhold/Stormhaven

SocialAssassin

cjhhickman39 wrote: »

Research everything you can first this takes the longest time
White: base, you just made it no improvement
Green: fine , first improvement
Blue: superior,second improvement
Purple:epic, third improvement
Gold:legendary, fourth and final improvement

So these are the colors for the gear?
White, Green, Blue, Purple, Gold or is that crafting only? Thanks

Tai-Chi

There is a lot of useful information already stated by others, so I shall not repeat.

If your goal is to eventually have one dedicated Master Crafter, then it will take a long time - and a lot of skill points.

1. Work towards getting all the Crafting passives that matter. I would not waste skill-points on the Hireling passive. You can harvest more from one or two nodes.
2. If you have the Imperial upgrade, make the Main Crafter an Imperial. At Lv 160, they receive 670g for handing in each writ - opposed to 644g. The difference is 1,274 more gold, per week, doing 7 writs per day. Imperials also receive slightly better loot from what they kill. NB. It might just be coincidence, but my Imperial (whom, unfortunately, came after my Main Crafter) tends to get better finds from treasure chests, fishing and filleting.
3. Put 75 champion points into the Thief Shadow Tree to get the Treasure Hunter passive. Send your Crafter to collect on Writ Surveys and Treasure Maps - unless of course you need mats of a different level.
4. I personally would not deconstruct purple gear or glyphs until my Crafter was at a level that was capable of extracting purple mats from the gear. Sell the gear with a Guild Trader, or even to an NPC if it is worth more than the mats you get out of it from deconstructing.
5. Whilst levelling up, or opening new skill lines, take advantage of the 'Enhanced Experience' slot whilst deconstructing and handing in your Writs.

I hope these few pointers give you some food-for-thought.

Tarukmockto

SocialAssassin wrote: »

So these are the colors for the gear?
White, Green, Blue, Purple, Gold or is that crafting only? Thanks

Those are quality levels for gear. Each higher level has slightly better numbers for damage/armor etc.

SocialAssassin

Sparr0w wrote: »

Research everything you can, I'd recommend doing all up to 6 traits together (as the arguably best crafted gear requires 6 traits).

Do the key traits first, training, divines, infused, sturdy, reinforced. Training, infused, sharpened, nirn, precise.

Daily crafting writs are great for levelling, gold and materials.

Decon everything you dont want to keep or research, literally everything but the ornate stuff (even then you can decon this if you want).

Also I'd probably hold off on refining raw materials until you get all the passives.

Finally be prepared to go skyshard hunting or retire a character as it takes a LOT of skill points.

Passives?

Nightfall12

Another perk for Imperial, is the imperial Starts with the imperial motiff knowledge, so you dont have to track down that gold book.

You want 1 crafter to handle wood blacksmith and clothing as these all share motif knowledge, you can divvy the other professions up to cut down on the skill point crunch you get trying to do all the professions. Best piece of advice on these 3 professions, is once you finish the research, you can respec of the perks that cuts research time, you wont need them ever again!
Provisioning is super easy and quick to level, you just need a good amount of mats and a few select recipes and you can get that to 50 in no time.
Alchemy is also quick but can be a bit more costly as you need reagents, there are plenty of guides out there to follow for unlocking the properties of each mat, you want to try and waste the least amount as possible learning.
Enchanting is a pain to move but basically decon every gylph you find, the higher the lvl the better, eventually it helps to partner with someone else, give your cp 150 mats to someone else and have them make a bunch you decon them, you can make them some that they can decon either way deconning someone else's is the way to go.
Jewelry...alikr dolmens for decon fodder...research research its all time on that one, but lvling is not bad if you griand those dolmens.

Once you are high enough you can do all 7 professions on one toon easy enough.

SocialAssassin

Nightfall12 wrote: »

Another perk for Imperial, is the imperial Starts with the imperial motiff knowledge, so you dont have to track down that gold book.

You want 1 crafter to handle wood blacksmith and clothing as these all share motif knowledge, you can divvy the other professions up to cut down on the skill point crunch you get trying to do all the professions. Best piece of advice on these 3 professions, is once you finish the research, you can respec of the perks that cuts research time, you wont need them ever again!
Provisioning is super easy and quick to level, you just need a good amount of mats and a few select recipes and you can get that to 50 in no time.
Alchemy is also quick but can be a bit more costly as you need reagents, there are plenty of guides out there to follow for unlocking the properties of each mat, you want to try and waste the least amount as possible learning.
Enchanting is a pain to move but basically decon every gylph you find, the higher the lvl the better, eventually it helps to partner with someone else, give your cp 150 mats to someone else and have them make a bunch you decon them, you can make them some that they can decon either way deconning someone else's is the way to go.
Jewelry...alikr dolmens for decon fodder...research research its all time on that one, but lvling is not bad if you griand those dolmens.

Once you are high enough you can do all 7 professions on one toon easy enough.

I knew provisioning is one of the easiest crafts, I have played the game before but that was a long time ago. And that's the one I usually start with. Because you can ingredients everywhere Lol! But the research thing I didn't understand? So I am glad I learned that too.

SocialAssassin

Thanks for everyone's feedback, and keep those tips coming.

JKorr

SocialAssassin wrote: »

Sparr0w wrote: »

Research everything you can, I'd recommend doing all up to 6 traits together (as the arguably best crafted gear requires 6 traits).

Do the key traits first, training, divines, infused, sturdy, reinforced. Training, infused, sharpened, nirn, precise.

Daily crafting writs are great for levelling, gold and materials.

Decon everything you dont want to keep or research, literally everything but the ornate stuff (even then you can decon this if you want).

Also I'd probably hold off on refining raw materials until you get all the passives.

Finally be prepared to go skyshard hunting or retire a character as it takes a LOT of skill points.

Passives?

As your skill [metalworking/clothier/woodworking] improves, you can put skill points into passives; example, "better chance to get back tempers and mats when deconning gear", or "research more than one item at a time". [This applies to all the crafting, actually; different passives for alchemy, enchanting, and provisioning.]

People are suggesting doing traits you might want to use for items first, because every trait you research about doubles the time it takes for the previous one. The first few traits are only a few to several hours; the last one is about 30 days.

You can make decent gear sets with only two traits researched. Since you will outlevel gear fast when you're starting out, its a good time to play around with the different craftable sets to see what stat boosts/effects might work best for your character and playstyle. Again, if you can find a good guild, crafters can help you out with both gear and research items when you want them, without hunting for that one piece and one trait you need. Each piece has to be researched separately. Getting "training" researched on a heavy cuirass doesn't count for a jack [medium] or robe [light].

Indaghdha

I have one main crafter, which I leveled up just by deconning stuff my alts made while he was doing all the research. I had an alt pick one profession to level, different from the others, to feed crafted items to be deconned by the main. This was just after game launch though, not sure if it's still viable information as I haven't found the need to level another master crafter.

JKorr

Forgot to mention, you might want to keep the smithing/clothing/woodworking to one character, no matter how you split up any other crafting you want to do. Motifs to make the different styles can be expensive, and they are NOT account wide. Only the character that learns a motif can make that motif in "real" gear.

Making a costume/outfit is different. Any character has access to all the styles you know when making a costume. Costumes are just that; costumes. No matter what they look like, they aren't "actual" armor/weapons.

Sordidfairytale

I'd recommend putting only 2 points in hireling passives. Even if you're not maxed out in a craft skill if you have 2 points in the hireling passive they can bring you a gold improvement and for Provisioning, the hireling is the only source of some ingredients.

Since Champion points were brought up; For your harvesting character, you'll also want to spend at least 10 points in the Lover tree under the Thief in order to unlock Plentiful Harvester (10% chance to get double mats from a node or container). And if you can afford it 75 points unlocks Master Gatherer (reduce gathering times by 50%)

For leveling your master crafter (and any alts for daily writs) you'll want to spend 30 points in the Tower tree under the Thief in order to unlock Inspiration Boost (Increase Inspiration* Boost by 20%)

*Inspiration is the point system for leveling crafting, it is not buffed by experience scrolls, experience potions, Enlightenment, or double xp events. IIRC the only means of increasing it is by Champion Point Passive, ESO+, and playing as the Orc race.

Jayne_Doe

There is a lot of great advice already posted here, but I thought you might find this website a helpful reference. It has pretty much everything that's already been recommended here, but it's a lot easier to sort through and find what you need.

http://www.sunshine-daydream.us/ESO/#craft