WHY can you not gather Crafting Mats at lower levels?

Athan1

This system makes sense. You normally need mats at your level or lvl 1. If we could gather mats of all levels, people would be moaning that they are not necessary and a waste of time. If you need mid-level mats buy them from traders or remove skill points from the respective crafting skill.

Sylvermynx

SteveyP777 wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

I have literally thousands (nearly tens of thousands) of each of those "low-level" mats, simply from the extra rewards from doing daily writs. I have zero use for them personally, since all my characters are way above CP 160. I've tried selling them in my guild stores, but they are slow moving and take up sales slots, so I just let them pile up in my craft bag.

When somebody in zone asks for a low level material because they're crafting, or doing writs or what not, I take and mail then a stack of the material, not asking a thing for it.

That's actually helpful because I keep reminding myself I'm *new* at this game. So my worry that I'm in a deficit of low level mats may actually just be a very short-term concern - based on what you're saying, low level mats are extremely likely to come my way and in the long run, you're implying I'm going to have so many I won't know what to do with them!

That's actually reassuring so thanks - I'm assuming this is a short-term issue

@SteveyP777 - I've been playing for 2.5 years now - and on my accounts on PC NA I have TENS OF THOUSANDS of mats below the CP 150 level.

If you're on PC NA, I would be very happy to send you what you need with no payment necessary. Put up a list if you're on PC NA, and it'll be like Christmas tomorrow!

I don't have that kind of mats available on PC EU; I've only had the accounts there just under a year (because my previous satellite was so awful I could never get logged in to make characters.... HughesNet is just so much better!)

JKorr

SteveyP777 wrote: »

Greetings all,

I have come to that point in the game where most newcomers scratch their heads and wonder... WHY is there no mechanic in the game that enables you to CHOOSE what level mats you are wanting to gather out in the world?

I've looked everywhere and the advice tends to be; 'just get a lower level toon to do it for you' or get someone in another guild to do it for you which is fine but in my mind that is still basically a workaround for something that should be quite easy for the devs to put into the game! You'd be talking about a toggle somewhere that gets you to chose which level bracket you're wanting to gather at (as long as the level bracket is below or equal to your own).

Is it too complex for them to do this or is there some other reason why what you gather absolutely *has* to scale to your level?

I'm wanting to support a friend through the lower levels and help to craft sets and gear for them at their level and I simply can't - for a game that is so sociable, it just seems strange to me that something so intuitive and (in my opinion as a programmer myself) easy to fix hasn't been woven into the fabric of this wonderful game!

Anyway - there is probably a good explanation so let me have it!

And thanks as the support on this forum is outstanding!

SteveyP777.

The main explanation is because people wanted the game to change, so the devs changed it and revamped the crafting systems.

The mats are set 50/50 with your character level and crafting skill.

Max out your character on crafting, and level to 50, and you'll only find rubedite/ruby/ancestor silk. Max out your character level but not your crafting, and you'll find rubedite/ruby/ancestor and iron/jute/maple.

Do normal writs and get the crafting rewards; lower level mats.

Have your friend farm the mats and give them to you to craft. You'll only get the correct ones for their level.

Buy what you need from guild traders.

Before One Tamriel, which the devs started because of the requests, complaints/rants/begging/pleading from players, the mats were by zone. Want iron? Go to the starting zones like Bleakrock/Kenarthi's Roost/Stros M'Kai and Stonefalls, Auridon, and Glenumbra. You were locked into your faction zone, so you really didn't have a choice. Head to the next zone for steel; Deshaan for EP, for example. And so on. If you wanted the then max level mats, go to Craglorn for voidstone, nightwood, and the fiber I can never remember; spidersilk? maybe?

Sylvermynx

@JKorr - the lower level mats aren't generally available on the guild traders. When they are, they're prohibitively expensive compared to level 150-160 mats.

Which is why I have gazoolas of alts, and they all harvest mats when I have them out playing. Which is also why I have many thousands of lower level mats. I have two accounts PC NA - both are 18/18 characters. But there are serious lowbies on both - and I have mats for them, as well as when playing those lowbies they are gathering the level-appropriate mats.

Now, on PC EU, it's a different situation. The same two accounts are less than a year old on EU - and since when I play there it's always EU peak time, and there are so many more players than when I'm on NA (WAY off-peak) it's a struggle to harvest. And again I don't find many low level mats on the guild traders when I need but don't have them.

It's manageable - because I did a gold swap EU to NA shortly after I set up the EU accounts. But of course that's not always an option for people.

SteveyP777

wrote:

If you're on PC NA, I would be very happy to send you what you need with no payment necessary. Put up a list if you're on PC NA, and it'll be like Christmas tomorrow!

I don't have that kind of mats available on PC EU; I've only had the accounts there just under a year (because my previous satellite was so awful I could never get logged in to make characters.... HughesNet is just so much better!)

@Sylvermynx that is an incredibly generous offer - unfortunately I'm on EU servers! And thanks to all the advice me and my friend have found a way forward that is working for us HOWEVER.... I have written your name down and will certainly take you up on the offer should we find ourselves low on the required mats which I'm hoping will be an unlikely scenario now!

Once again, really appreciate the help/offer

Sylvermynx

Well, at least you got something figured out! Happy adventures and happy holidays, whichever of them you keep!

JKorr

Sylvermynx wrote: »

@JKorr - the lower level mats aren't generally available on the guild traders. When they are, they're prohibitively expensive compared to level 150-160 mats.

Which is why I have gazoolas of alts, and they all harvest mats when I have them out playing. Which is also why I have many thousands of lower level mats. I have two accounts PC NA - both are 18/18 characters. But there are serious lowbies on both - and I have mats for them, as well as when playing those lowbies they are gathering the level-appropriate mats.

Now, on PC EU, it's a different situation. The same two accounts are less than a year old on EU - and since when I play there it's always EU peak time, and there are so many more players than when I'm on NA (WAY off-peak) it's a struggle to harvest. And again I don't find many low level mats on the guild traders when I need but don't have them.

It's manageable - because I did a gold swap EU to NA shortly after I set up the EU accounts. But of course that's not always an option for people.

My main crafter is maxed; she'll only find rubedite/rubedo/ancestor/ruby level mats. All of my other alts have their crafting skill set to the mats I want to find; one will find ruby level mats, and ebony, another will find ruby level mats, and voidstone, and so on. My second account is set the same way, although I haven't managed to fill all the slots on it yet.

Sylvermynx

JKorr wrote: »

My main crafter is maxed; she'll only find rubedite/rubedo/ancestor/ruby level mats. All of my other alts have their crafting skill set to the mats I want to find; one will find ruby level mats, and ebony, another will find ruby level mats, and voidstone, and so on. My second account is set the same way, although I haven't managed to fill all the slots on it yet.

Yes, that works too. Though I don't care if I have any more 50s than I already do - well, one more on my second account EU; she's 45, and will hit 50 during New Life most likely. After that the lowbies will just progress very slowly - I really enjoy low level questing etc.

BenevolentBowd

Mithgil wrote: »

You gather mats based on two criteria;

1. Your character's level, and
2. The Rank for the crafting skill in the profession in question.

So, you can end up with 50% mats based on level, and 50% mats based on the crafting skill Rank.

.

Just a few more additional comments to the great feedback already.

The crafting proficiency effects mats farming in two ways. The conventional way is the 50% / 50% split affecting the level of the nodes you see in the world.

If you do crafting writs, you can use you crafting proficiency to your advantage.

When you do writs, you will be mat reward boxes or surveys. The mats in these reward boxes are at the same or lesser tier than you current proficiency. Doing writs a mid-tiers will help you build a stockpile of lower materials.

So another option is to give a few surveys to a character with the desired crafting proficiency to quickly collect the mats you need. The survey locations will have a 50% / 50% based on the gathering characters proficiency and adventure level.

Vevvev

Doing daily writs is another way to get lower grade materials since the shipments drop them at random. After a few weeks you'll have materials of every single crafting level you can use. Doesn't work with enchanting and alchemy, but with enchanting you can go to one of the PVP merchants and buy glyphs for making lower level stuff.