Noob Question - Crafting

gamerguy757

So I just started on PC from 4 years on X1. I’m tryi
G to level my crafting skills and I noticed my method I used to do it isn’t working (steaming and then decon it). Did something change?
And if it did change what’s a good way to level crafting skills on a fresh a new toon and new account?

SydneyGrey

I never played on X1, but deconstructing items still levels the crafting skill on PC. Don't know what you mean by "steaming."

tsaescishoeshiner

Not sure what you mean by "steaming," but you get way less XP from deconning something you crafted yourself. Finding a buddy to swap crafted items with, or even better, deconning intricates, should work. Research also helps a lot, and those passives are worth getting ASAP anyway.

gamerguy757

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Not sure what you mean by "steaming," but you get way less XP from deconning something you crafted yourself. Finding a buddy to swap crafted items with, or even better, deconning intricates, should work. Research also helps a lot, and those passives are worth getting ASAP anyway.

Oh crud. I meant stealing. I used to steal all items and decon them.

static_recharge

Stolen items give next to no XP or materials when deconstructed unless they are from thieves troves. (Thieves troves drop actual set items, but are marked as stolen)

Arkangeloski

Just get a friend to craft you a bunch of 150 cp stuff decon and recycle give those back to your friend and rinse and repeat, and if it is for an alt just grab your main crafter and do the same and put it on storage and pick it up and decon with your alt. You get the most xp if someone other than you craft the stuff to decon, it will take you about 30 mins to get to max lv with that method. Good luck!

gamerguy757

Arkangeloski wrote: »

Just get a friend to craft you a bunch of 150 cp stuff decon and recycle give those back to your friend and rinse and repeat, and if it is for an alt just grab your main crafter and do the same and put it on storage and pick it up and decon with your alt. You get the most xp if someone other than you craft the stuff to decon, it will take you about 30 mins to get to max lv with that method. Good luck!

Completely new account. No friends unfortunately

bmnoble

gamerguy757 wrote: »

Arkangeloski wrote: »

Just get a friend to craft you a bunch of 150 cp stuff decon and recycle give those back to your friend and rinse and repeat, and if it is for an alt just grab your main crafter and do the same and put it on storage and pick it up and decon with your alt. You get the most xp if someone other than you craft the stuff to decon, it will take you about 30 mins to get to max lv with that method. Good luck!

Completely new account. No friends unfortunately

They changed the amount of crafting inspiration stolen gear provides to next to nothing awhile back.

Just use the gold you make when stealing to buy a load of intricate gear for 200 gold and under per piece, off guild traders, once you have one character with all the crafting skills leveled either keep buying intricate gear or make a load of cp150 gear to decon fill up your bank and decon on the next alt.

XxCaLxX

Stealing still works but have to launder before Decon. Steal enough to be able sell some too to even out selling and laundering. There’s faster ways but doing this will help level your legerdemain too.

BisDasBlutGefriert

Are you PcNA?

Nestor

Here is my General Purpose Crafting Leveling Primer. Good Stuff learned over years of leveling 18 Alts to Max:

Here is the thing about Crafting, you don't need it until End Game (post CP160) but you can level it in preparation with few to no skill points invested. Crafting can eat up 140 Skill Points to fully invest, so this will gimp your combat while leveling. Best to invest as few points as possible while leveling your character and crafting.

Equipment Crafting

Decon all mob loot other than what you are using to research traits. Research traits, learn two on all items you would use, then learn 3, etc. Focus on Divines, Infused and Training for your first three for Armor, Sharpened, Precise and Training for your Weapons. Then go for the other ones. Nirn is expensive, and a lot of people suggest putting a priority on that, I can't see why. The Trait is all but useless for Armor or Weapons. Best place to find Mob Loot is Public Dungeons, then over land grind spots. Grind on mobs until your bags are full, then go on a decon fest. Remembering to save the ones you need or want to research. Use the Lock Function and or an Inventory Mule to hang on to those. Only invest Skill points while leveling it into the Research and Extraction Passive, the last really only needing one point.

Enchanting

Ignore all the "advice" on the web about using an enchanting partner. First, use Mob Loot decon to raise this up to a point. Later on as you approach end game have some some gold, then start making Green, Blue or Purple Glyphs on one character and decon them on an Alt. You will level Enchanting faster than trading the glyphs with another player, which is tedious by the way. (like pull out your hair and make a doily tedious). Use Green up to about L15 in the Enchanting Skill, Blue up to about L30/35 and Purple up to about L46/47. Then learn the runes you don't know, you should be at or near 50, if not, make/decon some more Purples.

Provisioning and Alchemy

Don't worry about these, you can level these professions in about an 20 minutes, for both. Just collect the Various Solvents and Reagents and Provisioning Ingredients/Recipes as you go along. Once end game, then you can level it. Use Mushrooms to level Alchemy, or Flowers that make potions you won't use. Make sure you grab solvents (waters) as your leveling as they can be rare to find in the guild stores. For Provisioning, make the highest level Green Recipes you can make. Blue or Purples do not give any more inspiration than Greens, so save those for character use.

Yes, use Drop Sets for now, and Yes, level your crafting skills and do the Trait Research. Traits are why you craft as they allow you to make Special Crafted Sets. There are two sets in the game that your going to want to make, Julianos for your Magic Characters, and Hundings Rage for your Stamina Characters. There are no better sets in the game to have 5 pieces of. Period. Well, Twice Born Star is great to, but your a year out from making that. But you need to start learning your traits now.

While it takes 6 traits known to be able to make Hundings or Julianos, 9 Traits for Twice Born Star, you can make some effective gear with a few traits known.. You don't need to learn all of these traits on everything before you craft anything. In fact, there are nice sets that you only need to know 2 or 3 or 4 traits to make. So, learn 2 traits first, then 3 etc. This way you can be making set items in just a few days. So, start learning those traits. Focus on the gear you will use first, then fill in the rest later. This means:

Casters
Heavy Chest/Legs
Light Feet/Hands/Waist
Shoulders and Heads are good too, but there are 2 Piece Monster sets that can take up those slots. So learn the traits on Head and Shoulder pieces for Transmuting later, but prioritize the ones above.
Staves (all 4 of them)

Stamina
All Medium Armors
Daggers, Swords, Axes, Bow

Tanks
All Heavy Armors, Sword and Shield and maybe Staves (Ice is your tanking stick). Can add in Axes or Maces for the weapons if you want.
For Armors, Sturdy, then Divines, Infused, Reinforced. Same with Shields but Nirn can be nice on a Shield.
For Weapons, Infused, Sharpened, Defending. Charged for the Staff.

Learn Training, Divines and Infused on the Armors first, Sharpened, Precise, Infused and Training on the Weapons. Powered is good for the Healing Staff, Defending is good for Sword or other one handed Melee. Then fill in the rest until you have 6 traits on each piece of gear you will use. Eventually you will learn all 9 traits. Some people recommend Nirn as an early trait to learn. Unless they change it, don't listen to them. You might use it on a Shield or a Weapon but that is about it. You need it someday, but it's expensive and you need your gold for other things.

Invest the skill points into the Research Passives. I can't stress enough how much of a time sink Trait Research is. Be able to learn more than one at a time, and reduce the time needed. Get an addon for Trait Research Tracking, I recommend Craft Store. If your on the Consoles, find one of the spreadsheets out there or make one to track this. Have I mentioned you need to learn your traits?

Doing this you will be ready to invest skill points into Crafting when it matters and not have to spend months getting ready. Did I mention Trait Research and how much a time sink it is? The last two traits will take you a month each to learn, on each item you learn them on. Get started now, yesterday would have been better.
Based on testing I did several months ago (so things could have changed a bit):

Mob Loot gives the most Exp
Other Player Made and Alt Made give about 90% of the Inspiration of Mob Loot.
Deconning stuff made on the same character gives about 10%, but you get a better chance of getting a Temper, Style and Trait back, important for deconning things with Nirn or rare Style Mats

Alt made is better than other player made as you don't have to deal with the friction of being able to send only 6 items at a time. You can just deposit a batch in the bank and decon them out of the bank. However:

I still think farming a public dungeon or overland grind spot is better as you gain character experience/champ points, skills, gold, set items on occasion, and have a net gain in Mats. Making and deconning items will burn up 70% of your mats on average. OK I guess if you have a ton of mats but I would rather use my Ruby stuff for making gear for my characters. I farm the mobs, sell the white items to pay for repairs, then decon what is left. This is how I leveled all my characters to 50 in Eq Crafting.

The only exception is with Glyphs, since most looted Glyphs are White and Improved Glyphs give so much more Inspiration, it is better to make Improved Glyphs on one character and decon on an Alt. Use Green up to about L10, Blue up to about L35, then Purple up to 46 or so. Then, learn all the runes you don't know, and that should get you close to L50. No need to make the CP160's unless you have a bunch of Potencies, CP150 or even CP90/140 Glyphs are fine for this process if you have more of those potencies.


Simple really. Make Glyphs on one character, and decon them on another. You level both Alts in Enchanting in about an hour, assuming you can buy or have the Aspects.

The game already provides the ability to make Intricate Glyphs, something you can't do with gear in fact. Use better aspects to make your Glyphs.

Green up to L15, Blue up to L30/35 and Purple up to about L45/48. At that point learn all the unknown Runes, and then finish off any leveling you need with some more purples. Enchanting is done.

gamerguy757

Nestor wrote: »

Here is my General Purpose Crafting Leveling Primer. Good Stuff learned over years of leveling 18 Alts to Max:

Here is the thing about Crafting, you don't need it until End Game (post CP160) but you can level it in preparation with few to no skill points invested. Crafting can eat up 140 Skill Points to fully invest, so this will gimp your combat while leveling. Best to invest as few points as possible while leveling your character and crafting.

Equipment Crafting

Decon all mob loot other than what you are using to research traits. Research traits, learn two on all items you would use, then learn 3, etc. Focus on Divines, Infused and Training for your first three for Armor, Sharpened, Precise and Training for your Weapons. Then go for the other ones. Nirn is expensive, and a lot of people suggest putting a priority on that, I can't see why. The Trait is all but useless for Armor or Weapons. Best place to find Mob Loot is Public Dungeons, then over land grind spots. Grind on mobs until your bags are full, then go on a decon fest. Remembering to save the ones you need or want to research. Use the Lock Function and or an Inventory Mule to hang on to those. Only invest Skill points while leveling it into the Research and Extraction Passive, the last really only needing one point.

Enchanting

Ignore all the "advice" on the web about using an enchanting partner. First, use Mob Loot decon to raise this up to a point. Later on as you approach end game have some some gold, then start making Green, Blue or Purple Glyphs on one character and decon them on an Alt. You will level Enchanting faster than trading the glyphs with another player, which is tedious by the way. (like pull out your hair and make a doily tedious). Use Green up to about L15 in the Enchanting Skill, Blue up to about L30/35 and Purple up to about L46/47. Then learn the runes you don't know, you should be at or near 50, if not, make/decon some more Purples.

Provisioning and Alchemy

Don't worry about these, you can level these professions in about an 20 minutes, for both. Just collect the Various Solvents and Reagents and Provisioning Ingredients/Recipes as you go along. Once end game, then you can level it. Use Mushrooms to level Alchemy, or Flowers that make potions you won't use. Make sure you grab solvents (waters) as your leveling as they can be rare to find in the guild stores. For Provisioning, make the highest level Green Recipes you can make. Blue or Purples do not give any more inspiration than Greens, so save those for character use.

Yes, use Drop Sets for now, and Yes, level your crafting skills and do the Trait Research. Traits are why you craft as they allow you to make Special Crafted Sets. There are two sets in the game that your going to want to make, Julianos for your Magic Characters, and Hundings Rage for your Stamina Characters. There are no better sets in the game to have 5 pieces of. Period. Well, Twice Born Star is great to, but your a year out from making that. But you need to start learning your traits now.

While it takes 6 traits known to be able to make Hundings or Julianos, 9 Traits for Twice Born Star, you can make some effective gear with a few traits known.. You don't need to learn all of these traits on everything before you craft anything. In fact, there are nice sets that you only need to know 2 or 3 or 4 traits to make. So, learn 2 traits first, then 3 etc. This way you can be making set items in just a few days. So, start learning those traits. Focus on the gear you will use first, then fill in the rest later. This means:

Casters
Heavy Chest/Legs
Light Feet/Hands/Waist
Shoulders and Heads are good too, but there are 2 Piece Monster sets that can take up those slots. So learn the traits on Head and Shoulder pieces for Transmuting later, but prioritize the ones above.
Staves (all 4 of them)

Stamina
All Medium Armors
Daggers, Swords, Axes, Bow

Tanks
All Heavy Armors, Sword and Shield and maybe Staves (Ice is your tanking stick). Can add in Axes or Maces for the weapons if you want.
For Armors, Sturdy, then Divines, Infused, Reinforced. Same with Shields but Nirn can be nice on a Shield.
For Weapons, Infused, Sharpened, Defending. Charged for the Staff.

Learn Training, Divines and Infused on the Armors first, Sharpened, Precise, Infused and Training on the Weapons. Powered is good for the Healing Staff, Defending is good for Sword or other one handed Melee. Then fill in the rest until you have 6 traits on each piece of gear you will use. Eventually you will learn all 9 traits. Some people recommend Nirn as an early trait to learn. Unless they change it, don't listen to them. You might use it on a Shield or a Weapon but that is about it. You need it someday, but it's expensive and you need your gold for other things.

Invest the skill points into the Research Passives. I can't stress enough how much of a time sink Trait Research is. Be able to learn more than one at a time, and reduce the time needed. Get an addon for Trait Research Tracking, I recommend Craft Store. If your on the Consoles, find one of the spreadsheets out there or make one to track this. Have I mentioned you need to learn your traits?

Doing this you will be ready to invest skill points into Crafting when it matters and not have to spend months getting ready. Did I mention Trait Research and how much a time sink it is? The last two traits will take you a month each to learn, on each item you learn them on. Get started now, yesterday would have been better.
Based on testing I did several months ago (so things could have changed a bit):

Mob Loot gives the most Exp
Other Player Made and Alt Made give about 90% of the Inspiration of Mob Loot.
Deconning stuff made on the same character gives about 10%, but you get a better chance of getting a Temper, Style and Trait back, important for deconning things with Nirn or rare Style Mats

Alt made is better than other player made as you don't have to deal with the friction of being able to send only 6 items at a time. You can just deposit a batch in the bank and decon them out of the bank. However:

I still think farming a public dungeon or overland grind spot is better as you gain character experience/champ points, skills, gold, set items on occasion, and have a net gain in Mats. Making and deconning items will burn up 70% of your mats on average. OK I guess if you have a ton of mats but I would rather use my Ruby stuff for making gear for my characters. I farm the mobs, sell the white items to pay for repairs, then decon what is left. This is how I leveled all my characters to 50 in Eq Crafting.

The only exception is with Glyphs, since most looted Glyphs are White and Improved Glyphs give so much more Inspiration, it is better to make Improved Glyphs on one character and decon on an Alt. Use Green up to about L10, Blue up to about L35, then Purple up to 46 or so. Then, learn all the runes you don't know, and that should get you close to L50. No need to make the CP160's unless you have a bunch of Potencies, CP150 or even CP90/140 Glyphs are fine for this process if you have more of those potencies.


Simple really. Make Glyphs on one character, and decon them on another. You level both Alts in Enchanting in about an hour, assuming you can buy or have the Aspects.

The game already provides the ability to make Intricate Glyphs, something you can't do with gear in fact. Use better aspects to make your Glyphs.

Green up to L15, Blue up to L30/35 and Purple up to about L45/48. At that point learn all the unknown Runes, and then finish off any leveling you need with some more purples. Enchanting is done.

When it comes to decon For exp, I have read stealing gear, laundering then deconstructing works?

Nestor

Not for years. That bug was patched out a long time ago. Inspiration from stolen items is 1/10th Mob Loot. Same for any of the few non owned gear items you can pick up in the world.

Mob Loot and Player Made Items give the same Inspiration when deconned. Note, you have to decon stuff you make on an alt to get any inspiration.

Farming Zombies and Bloodfiends are the most efficient overall source. You get Character Exp, Gold, Bait, Gold, and Gear and Glyphs for decon. And they respawn quickly so you can run a pattern.