Food and potions

barbarian340

So I'm slowly trying to learn endgame... I just hit 160 CP so now I'm trying to focus on gear/ builds and such

I see ppl talk about potions and food and I get lost... I understand the basics, but it seems so overwhelming I don't know where to start... So some pointers please

1. What's the consensus on food? Is it better for stamina/magicka recovery? Or is it better for damage buffs?

2. Same question for potions...

3. I see ppl talk about blue potions... Is there a color scheme to the potions? If so what do they represent?

4. Do ppl usually craft all potions and foods? Or do they buy them? If the latter, where would I buy them from? Is there specific vendors?

5. Are the potions in the store worth it? Or are they generally considered a waste of money?

Is there a place online where I can see all of the best foods/potions and how to make (or buy) them? Thanks!

T3hasiangod

1. Use bistat food if you can sustain a rotation. Otherwise, use the highest quality regen food you can. For stamina DPS, you will almost always be using regen food like Artaeum Takeaway Broth or Dubious Camoran Throne. For magicka DPS, there are a few builds that can use bistat food, but there are also builds that need to use regen food (Clockwork Citrus Filet or Witchmother's Potent Brew). Tanks always use tristat food. Healers will usually go with a magicka regen food.

2. Stamina DPS should use Weapon Power Potions, made with Dragonthorn, Blessed Thistle, and Wormwood. Magicka DPS and healers should use Spell Power Potions, made with Lady's Smock, Corn Flower, and Water Hyacinth. Tanks usually use tristat potions, made with Columbine, Bugloss, and Mountain Flower.

3. Potions take a few colors that represent what stats they give or restore.

4. The strongest food and potions are player crafted.

5. Base game potions (or trash pots) are usually not worth it unless you are an Argonian.

idk

Simply put, you always want food that has max health and your max stat (stam or magicka). That is without question. Depending on your needs you can use a food that has those max stats and also regen for your resource of choice such as Witchmother's brew and the other recipes mentioned above.

I added this to make what T3h stated above a little more clearer for someone simple minded as myself to understand. Their information is good. I just restated the first part.

I would suggest joining an active social guild as they would have people to help you with questions. By an active social guild I mean one that has daily events you can get into such as normal trials and dungeons for now to vet dungeons after you gain some CP and experience.

Beware that there are a lot of poorly managed guilds that have full rosters but it is mostly players that do nothing with the guild because the guild leadership does not have enough organization to keep everyone's attention. The leaders tend to think because they have 500 people they are doing well.

barbarian340

Ok good info! Also I have a question about monster gear... When I look it up, it shows that they drop in certain dungeons... All I have to do is play the dungeon on normal or vet for the chance that it drops? Or are there prerequisites? As stated before I'm CP 160

MrBrownstone

1. There are two types of food that non-tank players use. Bistat food (Max Mag/Stam + Max Health) and sustain food (Max Mag/Stam + Mag/Stam recovery + Max Health). As you can see, the extra health is important. Bistat food gives better max stat and health while sustain food gives lower max stats but adds recovery. It totally depends on your character. If you can sustain max stat food, it's the better choice because the higher Magicka/Stamina you have, the higher damage you do (Especially for Magicka characters). Most tanks use tri-stat food (Max Magicka + Max Health + Max Stamina) because tanks use all resources but I use Orzorga's Red Frothgar (5000 Max Health + 500 Magicka Recovery) since max Mag/Stam doesn't matter on a tank and sustain is more important. (And no, max stat =/= sustain). 1500+ Magicka Recovery on a Dragonknight tank is crazy.

2. There are lots of types of potions for PvP and PvE. Unless you're doing some actually organized end-game content or playing PvP, crafted pots are not necessary. The potions you loot from the enemies restore Magicka/Stamina enough. But crafted pots have another important use, they give Weapon/Spell crit or damage buffs. Some classes can obtain these buffs from skills already. For example, Sorcerers have a skill called Critical Surge which gives Major Sorcery, increasing the spell damage by 20%. Therefore they don't have to gain that buff from potions. However, slotting these skills and adding them to your damage rotation hurts your dps, so using pots is the superior choice while doing some serious content. For example, I never waste my crafted pots in pug base game dungeon/trials. I only use them when I'm doing serious content in an organized group.

3. It's just the color of their icon. There are no Superior/Epic/Legendary etc. potions. Magicka potions are blue and Stamina potions are green. (Btw food has quality colors but better color doesn't always mean better food, actually most blue food is usually better than legendary food),

4. It's always a bit cheaper to craft your own consumables but not everyone can bother with them and they just buy them. People that can craft them sell them in guild stores so you can buy them from other players.

5. Crown Store potions are not better than crafted ones and since they're consumables, I don't think they're ever worth it. But I love it when the daily rewards give tri-stat pots. It's my main supply of PvP pots.

MrBrownstone

barbarian340 wrote: »

Ok good info! Also I have a question about monster gear... When I look it up, it shows that they drop in certain dungeons... All I have to do is play the dungeon on normal or vet for the chance that it drops? Or are there prerequisites? As stated before I'm CP 160

Monster sets are 2-piece sets, head and shoulders. Head piece is a guaranteed drop from the final boss of a Veteran dungeon. Shoulder pieces are random drops from the Undaunted chests. You can look up which set drops from which dungeon and which Undaunted chest. You need keys to open chests and you get the keys by doing the daily Undaunted pledges. You can find the chests in the Undaunted enclave, where you get the daily pledge quests. There are 3 chests, the middle one drops DLC dungeon shoulders.

Unfortunately it's pure luck to obtain a monster shoulder piece. Getting the head piece is easy since all you have to do is to learn how to do a specific dungeon and you get it. But shoulders... Getting the weight right is a pain. You might be looking for a medium piece and end up getting a heavy piece... I wasted 20+ keys for a shoulder piece last time I wanted to get a specific set.

Don't ever go for the right trait, you can just transmute it.

barbarian340

MrBumblefoot wrote: »

1. There are two types of food that non-tank players use. Bistat food (Max Mag/Stam + Max Health) and sustain food (Max Mag/Stam + Mag/Stam recovery + Max Health). As you can see, the extra health is important. Bistat food gives better max stat and health while sustain food gives lower max stats but adds recovery. It totally depends on your character. If you can sustain max stat food, it's the better choice because the higher Magicka/Stamina you have, the higher damage you do (Especially for Magicka characters). Most tanks use tri-stat food (Max Magicka + Max Health + Max Stamina) because tanks use all resources but I use Orzorga's Red Frothgar (5000 Max Health + 500 Magicka Recovery) since max Mag/Stam doesn't matter on a tank and sustain is more important. (And no, max stat =/= sustain). 1500+ Magicka Recovery on a Dragonknight tank is crazy.

2. There are lots of types of potions for PvP and PvE. Unless you're doing some actually organized end-game content or playing PvP, crafted pots are not necessary. The potions you loot from the enemies restore Magicka/Stamina enough. But crafted pots have another important use, they give Weapon/Spell crit or damage buffs. Some classes can obtain these buffs from skills already. For example, Sorcerers have a skill called Critical Surge which gives Major Sorcery, increasing the spell damage by 20%. Therefore they don't have to gain that buff from potions. However, slotting these skills and adding them to your damage rotation hurts your dps, so using pots is the superior choice while doing some serious content. For example, I never waste my crafted pots in pug base game dungeon/trials. I only use them when I'm doing serious content in an organized group.

3. It's just the color of their icon. There are no Superior/Epic/Legendary etc. potions. Magicka potions are blue and Stamina potions are green. (Btw food has quality colors but better color doesn't always mean better food, actually most blue food is usually better than legendary food),

4. It's always a bit cheaper to craft your own consumables but not everyone can bother with them and they just buy them. People that can craft them sell them in guild stores so you can buy them from other players.

5. Crown Store potions are not better than crafted ones and since they're consumables, I don't think they're ever worth it. But I love it when the daily rewards give tri-stat pots. It's my main supply of PvP pots.

And at what alchemist level can I craft these high end pots? Same for foods... And how do I figure out the recipe?

mague

MrBumblefoot wrote: »

barbarian340 wrote: »

Ok good info! Also I have a question about monster gear... When I look it up, it shows that they drop in certain dungeons... All I have to do is play the dungeon on normal or vet for the chance that it drops? Or are there prerequisites? As stated before I'm CP 160

Monster sets are 2-piece sets, head and shoulders. Head piece is a guaranteed drop from the final boss of a Veteran dungeon. Shoulder pieces are random drops from the Undaunted chests. You can look up which set drops from which dungeon and which Undaunted chest. You need keys to open chests and you get the keys by doing the daily Undaunted pledges. You can find the chests in the Undaunted enclave, where you get the daily pledge quests. There are 3 chests, the middle one drops DLC dungeon shoulders.

Unfortunately it's pure luck to obtain a monster shoulder piece. Getting the head piece is easy since all you have to do is to learn how to do a specific dungeon and you get it. But shoulders... Getting the weight right is a pain. You might be looking for a medium piece and end up getting a heavy piece... I wasted 20+ keys for a shoulder piece last time I wanted to get a specific set.

Don't ever go for the right trait, you can just transmute it.

There is also a mechand in Cyrodiil. She sells golden shoulders. Each weekend and only weekend a different one. Might take some time till yours is available.

Runefang

barbarian340 wrote: »

MrBumblefoot wrote: »

1. There are two types of food that non-tank players use. Bistat food (Max Mag/Stam + Max Health) and sustain food (Max Mag/Stam + Mag/Stam recovery + Max Health). As you can see, the extra health is important. Bistat food gives better max stat and health while sustain food gives lower max stats but adds recovery. It totally depends on your character. If you can sustain max stat food, it's the better choice because the higher Magicka/Stamina you have, the higher damage you do (Especially for Magicka characters). Most tanks use tri-stat food (Max Magicka + Max Health + Max Stamina) because tanks use all resources but I use Orzorga's Red Frothgar (5000 Max Health + 500 Magicka Recovery) since max Mag/Stam doesn't matter on a tank and sustain is more important. (And no, max stat =/= sustain). 1500+ Magicka Recovery on a Dragonknight tank is crazy.

2. There are lots of types of potions for PvP and PvE. Unless you're doing some actually organized end-game content or playing PvP, crafted pots are not necessary. The potions you loot from the enemies restore Magicka/Stamina enough. But crafted pots have another important use, they give Weapon/Spell crit or damage buffs. Some classes can obtain these buffs from skills already. For example, Sorcerers have a skill called Critical Surge which gives Major Sorcery, increasing the spell damage by 20%. Therefore they don't have to gain that buff from potions. However, slotting these skills and adding them to your damage rotation hurts your dps, so using pots is the superior choice while doing some serious content. For example, I never waste my crafted pots in pug base game dungeon/trials. I only use them when I'm doing serious content in an organized group.

3. It's just the color of their icon. There are no Superior/Epic/Legendary etc. potions. Magicka potions are blue and Stamina potions are green. (Btw food has quality colors but better color doesn't always mean better food, actually most blue food is usually better than legendary food),

4. It's always a bit cheaper to craft your own consumables but not everyone can bother with them and they just buy them. People that can craft them sell them in guild stores so you can buy them from other players.

5. Crown Store potions are not better than crafted ones and since they're consumables, I don't think they're ever worth it. But I love it when the daily rewards give tri-stat pots. It's my main supply of PvP pots.

And at what alchemist level can I craft these high end pots? Same for foods... And how do I figure out the recipe?

You need to be at maximum level alchemy to make pots for your level. With 8 points in solvent proficiency. For provisioning you want to max the top 2 skills. Buy the recipe you need from a guild trader.

Also on pots they’re not at all worth the cost of running til you’re doing vet dlc dungeons and vet trials. Run trash pots instead, these are the ones which drop from enemies. Instead of expensive pots you want to make sure you are running a skill which gives you major sorcery (if Magicka dps) or major brutality (if Stam dps).