Provisioning - How many characters are enough?

Lixiviant

I have 5 characters and 2 of them are at level 50 Provisioning. Then I started getting Master Writs. Now I find I hate banking/giving away recipes and using my other characters learn to cook. Does everyone max out all of their characters on Provisioning or am I going overboard on this? Is there really a reason to have more than 2 characters pulling writs and cooking every day? I'm wondering if I need an intervention or something...

tmbrinks

Many people don't... some of us do..

I personally have 37 characters that are maxed out in all 7 crafts that do writs most days. I probably am the one who needs an intervention

Lysette

i do all the normal crafting writs on my 14 characters - this is my source of income - i never sell anything in guild stores.

This said, it is a huge help to have all crafting stations at home - it reduces the time to craft a whole lot

redspecter23

Assuming you have the mats, it takes about 5 seconds to max out provisioning so I just do it on all toons just because. It makes daily writs much easier if all your toons are at the same tier for provisioning.

Ackwalan

I have enough characters that I have one for each skill level. Some of the lower level purple recipes sell for good gold.

Lixiviant

Thanks for the replies! You've all made some good points. Now that I have to really look for the recipes for the Master Writs I find I loot everything.

Nestor

There are passives that increase the duration of the food. Not much, an extra 20 minutes. And i don't think you need max rank to unlock all of those. Provisioning is super easy to level, provided you have some Green Recipes at each rank to grind on. Well, its a click or two now.

Master Writs are a nice source of experience, especially under exp boosters, like during events. I am saving up about 60 Provisioning Master Writs for the upcoming event. I can do all of those in a couple of minutes. Same with Enchanting. Alchemy, not so much.

But, a leveled alt doing Tier 1 provisioning writs gets as much gold and ingredients as any other Tier. If that is your goal with writs, no need to level provisioning.

If you want Hirelings to get purple ingredients, i think you need at least the second rank of the hireling.

YandereGirlfriend

I only have Provisioning on one character but it's easy to level and then you can mass-craft the Level 50 recipes and never have to actually cook anything again for months.

You can do that with alchemy as well since those items stack and take up relatively little inventory space.

TheShadowScout

technically, one is "enough"... but then, flavorless protein paste would also be "enough" and yet we still prefer to get more tasty food.
Pretty much the same here.
So, do it on as many characters as makes sense for -you- and don't worry about what is or is not "enough"...
(I got 4 well trained provisioners, and a couple I am still thinking about starting it... just for the fluff actually, but yeah, writs are a decent thing, and the perks of cooking good food buffs yourself are also something that cannot be underestimated...)

Danikat

I just do crafting on one character, for a few reasons. Mainly because my time is limited and if I was trying to do multiple sets of crafting dailies every single day I'd never have time for anything else. Limited time to play also means I often stop when my characters are out in the middle of no where or down a delve or something, and having to take them back to town to craft and then back where they were would be annoying. My crafter mostly just stays in town, so he doesn't have that problem.

I did level up provisioning a bit on my warden, because I really wanted her to have the Witch title from the Witches Festival and I might keep going with it at some point, but only if I have a reason.

Linaleah

I only ever level provisioning on a single character. as in max it out. I eventually end up leveling up provisioning to the point of being able to unlock passives, but i still keep it low rank. i don't cook on every character, i precook on my actual cook and withdraw writ food on alts, when they do crafting writs.

Asardes

I max all of my characters, but don't learn expensive recipes on them, just 100 of the cheap ones to get Recipe Compendium achievement, the green and blue ones are cheap enough not to be worth selling in guild stores so I learn them on alts instead. AFAIK that achievement contributes towards master writs.

Another advantage is that I only have 6 types of food & drink pre-crafted for the daily writs. I have stacks of it and only get it out of the bank to turn in.

RD065

I have all crafting on 1 character its also my main. Thought I did max out Provision & Alchemy on another some time ago. I would not enjoy if I had to switch to a bunch of other characters every day. So if I started a new character and needed something, switching to one and only one character is doable. Not sure how people do it on 10+ characters. I also don't login to do writs if I'm not planning to play. Logging into to just do writs, again, not fun.

tmbrinks

Asardes wrote: »

I max all of my characters, but don't learn expensive recipes on them, just 100 of the cheap ones to get Recipe Compendium achievement, the green and blue ones are cheap enough not to be worth selling in guild stores so I learn them on alts instead. AFAIK that achievement contributes towards master writs.

Another advantage is that I only have 6 types of food & drink pre-crafted for the daily writs. I have stacks of it and only get it out of the bank to turn in.

ZoS has stated that only your knowledge of Purple and Gold recipes contributes towards your master writs. But I wouldn't be surprised if what you say is true, since many others are tied to achievements.

Lixiviant

So, with your experience, do the Master Writ recipes normally only drop as rewards from doing writs or do you need to find them while exploring the different zones? I already know about buying them from a Guild Trader, but hoped I could possibly do this on my own.

ChimpyChumpy

Lysette wrote: »

i do all the normal crafting writs on my 14 characters - this is my source of income - i never sell anything in guild stores.

This said, it is a huge help to have all crafting stations at home - it reduces the time to craft a whole lot

What about loading screens? They didn't bother me until I started doing writs on 16 characters. To add coming and going from housing would slow down daily writs even more (it seems to me) wouldn't it?

tmbrinks

Lixiviant wrote: »

So, with your experience, do the Master Writ recipes normally only drop as rewards from doing writs or do you need to find them while exploring the different zones? I already know about buying them from a Guild Trader, but hoped I could possibly do this on my own.

They only drop from doing daily writs, and only at max level.

Lysette

RD065 wrote: »

I have all crafting on 1 character its also my main. Thought I did max out Provision & Alchemy on another some time ago. I would not enjoy if I had to switch to a bunch of other characters every day. So if I started a new character and needed something, switching to one and only one character is doable. Not sure how people do it on 10+ characters. I also don't login to do writs if I'm not planning to play. Logging into to just do writs, again, not fun.

Yeah it is not fun to do just writs on characters - but not because it would take long to craft at home with all stations near to each other - but because I waste more than 3 minutes per character waiting on loading screens - and I teleport mainly between my own homes to save time - with 14 character that is nevertheless about 45 minutes wasted on loading screens.

Otherwise each station takes me less a minute - but with 14 characters this amounts to about 80 minutes - fetching the writs and delivery of the items and unpacking the "gifts" takes about 2.5 minutes per character - 35 minutes for that.

So the effort to do all the normal 84 writs is about 160 minutes - 2 hours and 40 minutes -what explains why I'm not doing them every day, but just when I need money to buy stuff or a house.

My normal routine is:

characters are parked in Abah's landing at it's crafting area - this is start and end point for them.

So grabbing the writs - teleport to lucky cat landings - do the writs - teleport to Snugpod in Eldenroot - deliver across the bridge - unpack the "gifts", run to Eldenroot and teleport to Hew's Bane - cleaning out in Abah's landing - done

ShawnLaRock

I don’t max provisioning on my alts - but I do hand-down all known recipes for them to learn, as well as Intricate B/C/W items.

S.

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo

1 that can do everything is fine (achievement point main)
2 or 3 extras if you want to do daily writs for legendary materials is more than enough.
*Provisioning only needed on that main*

SeaGtGruff

Whenever any of my characters find a blueprint, pattern, recipe, etc., it goes into the bank.

Then, after all of my characters have completed their daily crafting writs, I have each of them look through the blueprints, etc., and use the ones they don't know yet. I do this in a specific character order, although it isn't according to priority per se; e.g., my main character comes first, but my usual secondary character comes fourth, and my newest character (who is currently my secondary character in terms of playing time) comes last.

Then, the last character to look through the blueprints, etc., withdraws all the ones that everybody knows and deposits them in a guild bank account.

But most if my characters are at the lowest crafting levels as far as which materials they can craft with, and all other skills or perks in the different crafting lines, because it's easier to have most everybody crafting with the same materials, and Level 1 gear uses the least amount of materials; plus, it's easier to farm more materials if most everyone is farming at least 50% of the Level 1 materials.

I know I'm not making as much money as I could if I increased everyone's crafting levels, but I don't want to spend Skill Points on the crafting skill lines on those other characters-- at least, not when there are more important skill lines to invest points in.

Rory_FightingToFifty

Here’s one note I’d add to make provisioning writs more profitable.

(Side note, I max it on every character to 50, because why not? And I set them to do daily writs because at least alchemy and provision can be piled up for months of writs, so any time I log into a character, there’s a couple thousand in income)

The real value right now in provision writs is NOT master writs. These aren’t worth that much, and they come along like once every fifty stupid writs. What is way more profitable for me are blue and purple recipes that ARE NOT max level.

Everyone is running max level provision writs for the master writs, and the recipes they provide are flooded in the market and mostly worthless. However, virtually no one runs level 2, 3 or 4 provision writs, and there are barely any purple recipes for lower levels in game. I have my toons set up to do those lower level writs, and they’re pulling several purple recipes a week that I sell fast for $5-$10k each, and I push the blues out for $2-3k each. That provides a lot more money that having them do max level writs.

(For novices, you set your characters to do lower level writs by spending less skill points in that first provisioning passive. Just don’t spend there to level it all the way to six. This character can’t then make top level recipes, but they shouldn’t need to if they’re not your main provisioner.)

Nanfoodle

I draw the line at 2 characters doing daily writs. It's enough of a time sink and I like having a life outside gaming.

vgabor

Lysette wrote: »

My normal routine is:

characters are parked in Abah's landing at it's crafting area - this is start and end point for them.

So grabbing the writs - teleport to lucky cat landings - do the writs - teleport to Snugpod in Eldenroot - deliver across the bridge - unpack the "gifts", run to Eldenroot and teleport to Hew's Bane - cleaning out in Abah's landing - done

Vivec. No loading screen just running around, and everything is near to each other:

Character parked at clothing station next to item writs post -> grabbing writs -> clothing station -> woodworking station -> blacksmith station -> consumables writ post other side of bank -> bank (or provisioning / enchant / jewellery / alchemist stations) -> deliver writs -> bank to sell writ rewards -> clothing npc to clear out inventory (and since character already next to the item post for tomorrow just exit and login next character)

Lysette

vgabor wrote: »

Lysette wrote: »

My normal routine is:

characters are parked in Abah's landing at it's crafting area - this is start and end point for them.

So grabbing the writs - teleport to lucky cat landings - do the writs - teleport to Snugpod in Eldenroot - deliver across the bridge - unpack the "gifts", run to Eldenroot and teleport to Hew's Bane - cleaning out in Abah's landing - done

Vivec. No loading screen just running around, and everything is near to each other:

Character parked at clothing station next to item writs post -> grabbing writs -> clothing station -> woodworking station -> blacksmith station -> consumables writ post other side of bank -> bank (or provisioning / enchant / jewellery / alchemist stations) -> deliver writs -> bank to sell writ rewards -> clothing npc to clear out inventory (and since character already next to the item post for tomorrow just exit and login next character)

I can't move there - stutter all over the place and overcrowded with people starting particle effects all the time - it's just terrible there and if I would have to do 84 writs there I would go nuts.

Aznarb

Your choice I guess.

I've 6 char, I play 1 only, but all of them are maxed and do wrist everyday : easy gold & mat'.

Lysette

Well, I have lucky cat landing and my courtyard is my crafting area - all stations there to do the daily writs. No one around, i can do it efficiently and in a nicely lighted peaceful atmosphere - stress free. Vivec would just be stressful.

Wandering_Immigrant

I'm still building but, I have a crafter who's close to maxed out. I start each day by logging into her, she does her writs and deconstructs any trash gear my other characters left in the bank overnight. I use ESO Toolkit to track all my characters research so while she's logged in I'll check that to see if anyone's timers are up, and if so she'll craft what they need and throw it in the bank. I'll also use her to run any errands I might need done like buying/selling, farming, doing maps, whatever. She's sorta become like my account manager, everything runs through her.

Once she's done her thing I'll log into any who needed research done to get that out of the way, because otherwise I'd forget about it and wonder why this random piece of gear keeps showing up in her deconstruct window. After that's done I pick a character to "play" and hunker down.

My other characters, I only really care about their crafting as far as unlocking the passives for provisioning/alchemy, the passives for upgrading gear, and researching their relevant traits. I also give them all the tier 1 keen eye for alchemy because some of the reagents blend into the environment too much and you can never have too many. I don't go above tier 1 though, tier 1 I'm just grabbing things on my way by, anything above that and I'm farming and that's what my crafter is for, I didn't speed cap her just so I could go farming with Slowy McSlowerson. I do their writs whenever I'm logged into them because it only takes a few minutes but I never log into them specifically for writs, I don't have the patience for character hopping that much. None of them deconstructs anything or learns any recipes more than the ones they need to complete writs.

Although, some of them do know a whole bunch of low level recipes because when I started off I did a lot more micromanaging and would let them learn the ones my crafter already knew. I wish I could unlearn them tbh, it just adds to the scrolling I have to do for writs.

SydneyGrey

I max out provisioning on every single character, just because I don't want to have to switch characters just to make a stack of 20 blue food.
I only learn the rarest recipes on one master crafter, though.

Rowjoh

It's very very easy to level provisioning so why not have all chars on it

RD065

Rowjoh wrote: »

It's very very easy to level provisioning so why not have all chars on it

If you've been around awhile and have mass ingredients to do that. But is it something you can do very quickly.