New crafter question.

lukoi

Can you craft upgrade the blue/ purple gear that drops in key sets and if so are they comparable to the gold versions that I believe drop in vet versions of dungeons?

Just got my first guy to 50 and I am close to this 160 CP max equipment level nirvana I've been told about, Thanks for any clarifications out there.

iAmLoki97

You can upgrade all armor/weapons and jewelry to gold as long as you have the mats to do this. I do not recommend upgrading to gold until you level up the skills for them as it costs 20 Dreugh wax for example to gold an item without the perks and 8 with all the perks.

tmbrinks

The gear that you upgrade from blue to purple/gold will be identical to the gear that drops at the more difficult versions of the dungeon/trial/etc. (Only exception are "perfected" versions from a few trials (vAS, vCR, and vBRP)

The only downside is cost, since you have to pay for the upgrade materials.

There is a passive in each of the crafting still lines that reduces the amount of upgrade materials needed to improve an item. It is highly recommended that you have that skill line maxed out to reduce the cost as much as possible.

Vet versions of dungeons drop purple gear, by the way, so people even upgrade those that do run vet.

lukoi

Perks, do you mean the passives you can take as you level in a craft line?

Thanks for the answer btw! I'm not in a guild so doing vet dungeons seems like it's a bit more of a challenge with random pairings. Being able to craft upgrade to comparable or nearly so gear would be a welcome backup option.

iAmLoki97

@lukoi Yes. For example the Temper Expertise in the smithing skill tree.
https://eso-skillbook.com/skill/temper-expertise

ghastley

If the item you have is not of the set you ultimately want to use, then purple quality may be enough for now, as you're only using it to let you get the preferred one. E.g. a tank may run purple Fortified Brass in order to collect Ebon Armory, which will be the ones you promote to gold.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

One other thing you can do if you have the trait unlocked is transmute gear to a trait favorable to your player class. It requires the use of transmute crystals which are bound to your account so you can't buy them or trade for them. They are awarded via veterans dungeons, first random daily dungeon, Undaunted pledges, some PvP and holiday events. It requires 50 so if you obtain them one or occasionally two at a time via Undaunted pledges and the first random dungeon as I do it can take some time. However it is frequently faster than farming those one or two special pieces when you are having a bad RNG stretch.

Also keep in mind that with the exception of the hardest dungeon and trials there are many crafted gear sets that are up there in quality to what you can pick up in normal mode PvE content. Some examples are Law of Julianos or Hunding's Rage crafted sets for magicka and stamina DPS builds. Just be sure to craft them after you can make the CP160 level as to not wasted materials.

GoldenLight

It can be done and works well on upgrading any gear. The gear and weapons are easier to upgrade to Gold but it took quite a while to upgrade the rings and necklace to gold on my character.

It just depends on time (Or money) you are willing to spend to get there.

Nestor

Until I know for sure that a set item is what I want for a long time on an Alt, I only improve to Purple. The difference between Purple and Gold on Armor or Jewelry is depressingly small.

Weapons are worth taking gold, but I still make sure it is something I really want to keep.

GoldenLight

Had my stuff for 2+ years so totally understand about going to gold. I had to make sure it was something i wanted to stick with before I did it as well.

lukoi

Thanks all. Really appreciate all of the info here.