Is it worth leveling up all toons to lvl 50 to craft writs even though i can only play on weekends?

DraggOOn_021

So I am a returning player and have been wondering, since I am looking for easy ways to get gold, is it worth spending the two days I can play every week on leveling up toons level 50 and not working on a main character/ adventuring character?

Jim_Pipp

Only you will know, but I don't imagine you will regret it... If you are having the itch now you might have it again! There is some other value added by having a full roster!

Playing as you are, it will take a very long time for your new alts to pay for themselves, there are more fun ways to make money!

I wouldn't recommend grinding characters unless that's what you love, you will stop PLAYING the GAME if you make it a JOB.

It is most efficient to level a number of new characters simultaneously - armor and builds can get handed down every few levels - I find being a tank and doing the daily random dungeon is at least a level a day, and until level 45 a dungeon is rarely 20 minutes per character.

DraggOOn_021

What other 'fun' ways would you propose I should do?

etchedpixels

Most efficient is probably to do a battleground and random dungeon each day to level 45, then do a battleground each day. At level 45 you can get DLC dungeons so if you have ESO+ or anything but the base game you actually get penalized and risk ending up in long hard ones. At that point pair with a guildmates low level and swap back and forth so one of you is low.

Annoyingly some people just queue for an RND and quit if it's a DLC, which is rather anti-social.

It also helps to level your new characters as tank or healers. Both are not particularly hard roles to do adequately for a low level dungeon, and you can respec at 50 if need be - mag healer and mag dps are basically the same builds except for champion points/gear and the odd extra skill anyway. Doing it that way you'll get near instant dungeon queues.

As you can put the CP of your main on the low level toons it's pretty fast and a level 20 tank with CP 600 is basically indestructible on low level content even with minimal sword/board skills and passives.

El_Borracho

If you are talking about getting gold from the rewards you get from finishing the writ, then yes, there are far more effective ways to get gold. Farming sets like Mother's Sorrow out of the public dungeon in Deshaan to sell in game or in guild traders works for some. But if you want to play the game without running the same thing over and over, run delves and public dungeons. Very easy to load up on ornate gear and mats, or even just a bunch of white level gear you can sell.

If you like group content, group dungeons contain even more ornate gear. And if you like trials, running veteran AA or HRC can get you between 12,000 and 15,000 gold in Undaunted Plunder for 30-40 minutes of work.

EDIT: One more. Running Kyne's Aegis on vet or normal will usually drop a Sea Giant motif page. You can sell those through guild traders for 50-250K depending on the motif

SpiritofESO

Jim_Pipp wrote: »

... Playing as you are, it will take a very long time for your new alts to pay for themselves, there are more fun ways to make money!

I wouldn't recommend grinding characters unless that's what you love, you will stop PLAYING the GAME if you make it a JOB.

Right. If you turn the game into a "job" you will soon learn to hate it. Naturally, there are efficient ways to play but that has to be moderated by doing what you enjoy with an eye to spending your limited time wisely and profitably.

I remember only being "broke" (could hardly afford to purchase Soul Gems) as a low level until I discovered THIEVES GUILD which taught me pickpocketing and forcing locks (it's quick) with plenty of easy and fun-to-get gold ... which then led me to the Dark Brotherhood which taught me the maxim: "Pickpocket three times, then kill with Blade of Woe to allow NPCs to respawn quickly."

I did concentrate on ONE character for a long time, and only as I approached CP810 did I create my first Alt and when she was "matured" as a crafter I made a second Alt.

Three Random Dungeons (Transmute Gems plus loot) and Daily Crafting Writs from three characters provides me with everything that I need without overtaxing my time.

DraggOOn_021

Would you say that its still worth pickpocketing and stealing even though I don't have thieves guild and the dark brotherhood, also another question, how much gold would you say you regularly have throughout your playtime?

DraggOOn_021

Adding onto that question, how would you make it not a job? If I do it everyday does that make it a job?

etchedpixels

DraggOOn_021 wrote: »

Would you say that its still worth pickpocketing and stealing even though I don't have thieves guild and the dark brotherhood, also another question, how much gold would you say you regularly have throughout your playtime?

In some locations you will get the odd rate interesting items. crafting motifs etc with stealing. There are also a bunch of leads from safeboxes. Depends how you play and what you enjoy - I happen to have an argonian assassin who spends his spare time pickpocketing and murdering telvanni slaver scum for profit - it fits the toon nicely popping over to the east side of vvardenfell and leaving a trail of dark elf corpses.

At the moment the most efficient thing to concentrate on appears to be doing all the jewellery surveys and selling chromium plating for stupid gold. At some point it's going to get so insane Zenimax will have to do something but for now every chromium plating I get is another small house with furniture.

Beaverton

DraggOOn_021 wrote: »

So I am a returning player and have been wondering, since I am looking for easy ways to get gold, is it worth spending the two days I can play every week on leveling up toons level 50 and not working on a main character/ adventuring character?

I like to farm alchemy mats in Hollow city while queued for dungeons, cyrodiil or battlegrounds.

DraggOOn_021

@etchedpixels if you don't mind me asking, what do you get from murdering the telvanni and what is the route?

JKorr

DraggOOn_021 wrote: »

Adding onto that question, how would you make it not a job? If I do it everyday does that make it a job?

If you pick flowers and pick up mats while doing other things, you can still make gold. Selling tempers and flowers can make you quite a bit of gold.

etchedpixels

DraggOOn_021 wrote: »

@etchedpixels if you don't mind me asking, what do you get from murdering the telvanni and what is the route?

Pick pocket them first (small chance of telvanni motifs) then murder them for enslaving argonians 8)

Danikat

DraggOOn_021 wrote: »

Adding onto that question, how would you make it not a job? If I do it everyday does that make it a job?

I don't think it matters how many days you play, the problem is when you start feeling like there's certain things you have to do in order to make gold before you're allowed to have fun with the game.

I've fallen into this a few times. I log in and know I've only got an hour or so to play today, so what I want to do is hop straight on one of my adventurer characters and do some quests, or maybe a dungeon. But first I "should" log into my crafter, deconstruct excess gear I banked last time I played, do the daily crafting writs to get gold and add some stuff to my guild store to keep my slots full and make a bit more gold...then I end up sorting out the other odds and ends left in my bank. It doesn't take that long really, but my play time is limited because I have other things I need to do with my day so I don't get to spend as much time actually playing as I'd like. And then the next day it's the same because those daily quests have reset and if I'm lucky some stuff has sold through the guild store so I do it all again...

The end result is I spend the majority of the time I do have focusing on things that make gold, but I'm not really enjoying it (which is ultimately the point of playing a game) and it's pretty pointless because it means I don't have much to spend that gold on, since I'm not putting as much time into my other characters or activities.

So it's a balancing act: do you want to level up a bunch of crafters and do the crafting writs 1-18 times each day you log in, taking time away from other activities? Or do you want to find other ways to make gold which are more in-line with what you enjoy doing, or accept that it will take you longer to get gold than for other people, and focus on enjoying the game?

It doesn't have to be all or nothing of course. I've got 7 characters but only 1 crafter, and I try to make sure I skip the writs on days when I know my time is especially limited so I don't fall into that cycle above. That's the balance that works for me.

DraggOOn_021

How would I balance it in the instance of thieving or even farming materials, should I just do quests and loot if I see any container? Or should I do quests and any materials I see I farm (even though there won't be a lot I can gain from doing either)
or should I have a specific time for doing quests and a then a specific time for farming for gold? For example, if im doing a quest in glenumbra, should I do some and then go to daggerfall and thief some houses, go to wayrest and then pickpcket there, and the fence and go back to questing, same case for materials, should I quest in Alikr desert and then start doing dolmens and the repeat?

NoSoup

Given the price of GOLD mats at the moment (temper, wax, rosin) its definitely worth it. Having said that, I don't believe you have to be lvl 50 to do the writs, just have the character 50 in blacksmithing etc....

lazarusrevives

For gold try one of these:

1) Level up to 50 in provisioning on one character and farm some good purple recipes to sell food/drink from.
2) fish for perfect roe and other items to sell.
3) farm resource nodes in craglorn for the chance at nirncrux.
4) do quests and sell stuff along the way.

This game is a marathon, not a race.

The only reason to get multiple crafters is for mats. Coins are okay, but the mats and things like master writs that you get rewarded are nice. I'd really recommend that you start with full focus on one main character though, so you don't get burnt out on leveling..or too scattered across a bunch of characters and lose sight of what you're working on.

DraggOOn_021

Would you say that if I do whats in the above, I will be able to have fun but gain gold at the same time and not burn out?

DraggOOn_021 wrote: »

How would I balance it in the instance of thieving or even farming materials, should I just do quests and loot if I see any container? Or should I do quests and any materials I see I farm (even though there won't be a lot I can gain from doing either)
or should I have a specific time for doing quests and a then a specific time for farming for gold? For example, if im doing a quest in glenumbra, should I do some and then go to daggerfall and thief some houses, go to wayrest and then pickpcket there, and the fence and go back to questing, same case for materials, should I quest in Alikr desert and then start doing dolmens and the repeat?

Would you say that if I do whats in the above, I will be able to have fun but gain gold at the same time and not burn out?

DraggOOn_021

Also, if you don't mind, can you tell me the best ways to level up provisioning to level 50? or even good places to farm them? Same thing with the fishing, I am afraid I don't really understand how that works.

lazarusrevives

DraggOOn_021 wrote: »

Also, if you don't mind, can you tell me the best ways to level up provisioning to level 50? or even good places to farm them? Same thing with the fishing, I am afraid I don't really understand how that works.

Make food....lots and lots of food. Level it up each time you can and make food at the level you are. I level provisining on alts in a matter of minutes doing this.

What server/system are you on? If you're on xbox i can throw a few ingredients your way to help out! Focus on stuff that only takes 1 ingredient to make...that will save some coins along the way. There are sure to be folks willing to lend a hand. My GT is the same as my profile here. Feel free to look me up if you need a hand and are on xbox too!

DraggOOn_021

Well unfortunately I am on the PlayStation so we can't reach out to each other but thanks for the helpful information regardless!

SpiritofESO

DraggOOn_021 wrote: »

Adding onto that question, how would you make it not a job? If I do it everyday does that make it a job?

"If you do what you love you never work a day in your life," is a saying with great wisdom -- even for your playtime.

If what you do (how you play) seems like "work" (drudgery) you will learn to hate it and you will quickly become a "former player" from any MMORPG.

"Playing" (enjoying) every day is not a job -- it's fun.

"Working" (drudgery) every day is a job -- and it's not fun.

My Main (Bosmer Nightblade) is my favorite character and I can stand around and play the lute, run quests, do dungeons, go to Cyrodiil, and it's all fun.

My Altmer Templar and Imperial Dragonknight are "supporting" characters who do a daily random dungeon (transmute crystals) and all seven crafting writs (materials, surveys and master writs which are good for Writ Vouchers).

My two fully functional CP 810, fully skilled Alt characters help to "pay the bills" but since they require only a short amount of time per play session they are very valuable to me, but also that is why I have only TWO Alts. Even though I can play every day if I want to the Alts can finish quickly and my Main can then come on and I can "play" (have fun).

And, by the way, I did purchase with Crowns ALL Skyshards (because my go-to girl, my Nightblade worked HARD to get ALL Skyshards, even those inside Elder Scroll Temples (Cyrodiil) and the one on top of the mountain in Cyrodiil (which is the ONLY SOLO SHARD Achievement that you can get).

I also purchased with Crowns any Skill Lines (Assault, Support, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, etc.) that I thought be useful to them. If you don't have "the time" but you do have "they money" to spend on Crowns, wait for them to go on sale (about four times a year) and buy 21,000 Crowns and lavish them on your Alts which will be a MAJOR time saver.

This is not "pay to win" really, it's more like "pay to save time" which, in my case, is more important than the money.

I look at it this way -- I have DIRECTV. It's not cheap but since I love the programming and functionality of the satellite service I play the monthly fee (lowest tier of programs + HBO which is great) which is BEAUCOUP more money than ESO ever will be.

SpiritofESO

lazarusrevives wrote: »

Make food....lots and lots of food. Level it up each time you can and make food at the level you are. I level provisioning on alts in a matter of minutes doing this.

Provisioning and Alchemy.

You will definitely want the best tri-stat food and tri-stat potions that you can make.

Definitely worth it.

DraggOOn_021

I apologize if this is a dumb question, but what do transmute crystals do? And how do you get money from only just doing dungeons? And do you use any other ways to make gold or no? Sorry if im asking too many questions, I have been conflicted about this ever since I got the game during summerset and I just want someone experienced to tell me if im doing things right because I only want the gold to get the dlcs, nothing else.

Athan1

No. But you should level up your crafting skill lines so that you can do higher level writs.

GreenHere

As mentioned earlier in the thread, you don't need your alts to be level 50 themselves to do max-tier writs; the writs' level is determined by the character's skill in that particular craft. I have a few level ~30 characters that have their craft skills leveled up to 50, and they do the same exact writs as my master crafters. So don't go out of your way leveling alts for that reason alone, tis unnecessary.

As for leveling the crafts themselves? Provisioning, Enchanting, and Alchemy can all be done more or less "instantly", given you have the materials. The short version is "craft enough food/drink til you're level 50", "create enough poisons and learn alchemy ingredients' traits until you hit 50", and "gather a LOT of glyphs and deconstruct them until you hit 50". There's a bit more to it than that if you want to do it efficiently (and you should, because it's costly no matter how you slice it), but that's the gist. All three of those crafts combined can be done in like half an hour (if you have the materials). Alcast has a handy guide here. (just navigate to alchemy & enchanting via the menu at the top; that link's for provisioning)

The "hard" crafts -- blacksmithing, clothing, woodworking, & jewelry (if you have access) -- all work pretty similarly; most people just decon items on the long road to level 50 (again, talking about the crafting skill 50, not character level here). It takes a LOT of stuff to level up that far, but that's how it's done as far as I know. It takes longer, just because of the amount of fodder needed. Most people don't have thousands of trash items just lying in wait. You also get small amounts of xp for creating items and doing writs (even the lower level ones), but this would take longer, and cost a lot in materials.

If I'm not mistaken, all writ levels have the same gold payout, though. You don't need to do them at max level for good payout (unless I'm mistaken). It's just more convenient, as all your characters are using the same materials; cuts down on farming a slew of various raw materials. Doing all 7 writs nets me 4,648 gold per character per day. Multiply that by however many characters you care to do the writs on, and that's your base pay. You'll get valuable items you can sell for more, as well. I get just under 80K gold each day this way; not even counting the bonus items.

All that said? Writs are something of a tedious chore, and while it's worth it (subjectively, at least), it's certainly not for everyone. Doing this on your limited free time might make you hate the game entirely for all I know. You gotta find something that's actually enjoyable (or at the very least tolerable) for you. It's your free time, and none of us can tell you what will be best for you personally.

But at least you know the basics now! : P

More fun ways of earning gold? Echoing and adding to what other's have said above:
- Running dungeons and trials for motifs! Always in demand, and have a good sell value vs effort to acquire.
- Farming for sellable gear pieces! Depending on how much you enjoy the various methods of seeking said items.
- Harvesting raw materials for others to buy! Lots of crafters & writ doers don't wanna harvest their own mats, so selling them is an evergreen market; it's also extremely low-stress and accessible, if you're not into "hard" content.
- PvP! If you're into it, you can turn your Alliance Points ("AP") & Tel Var into gold in a lot of ways. There's always PvEers looking to buy things without needing to set foot in PvP content. Always.
- Buying & Selling! Some folks play the ESO economy like a market, and just go around buying up under-priced goods on guild traders, and selling at-value (or above, depending on their trader location and other factors) -- and these people can make millions per day. There are good guides floating around out there, but it's about as straightforward as it sounds afaik. Easier on PC with addons.

Good luck!
: )

Sorry for the wall of text, haha

GreenHere

DraggOOn_021 wrote: »

I apologize if this is a dumb question, but what do transmute crystals do? And how do you get money from only just doing dungeons? And do you use any other ways to make gold or no? Sorry if im asking too many questions, I have been conflicted about this ever since I got the game during summerset and I just want someone experienced to tell me if im doing things right because I only want the gold to get the dlcs, nothing else.

Forgive me if this is too basic, but just to make sure it's not overlooked:

Most of the methods listed above for making gold involve selling things to other players. You'll need to join a trade guild for that. Otherwise, you'll have to do each transaction in-person, manually -- which sucks, and is totally impractical if you're looking to do any kind of serious volume. Don't be afraid to look up a guide on how guilds/traders work, and learn a little bit about the ESO economy. It's not too deep or difficult to get into.

Transmute Crystals are for changing the inherent Trait that gear drops with. Say you get a Powered sword, but you wanted Sharpened? Get yourself 50 Transmute stones, hop over to your nearest Transmutation Station, and away you go. (You can only transmute to traits you've already Researched, iirc! Here's info on researching traits)

Crystals can also be used for reconstructing Set Collection (aka "Sticker Book") items, which is also done at the Transmute Station. Adding items to your collection makes them eligible for Reconstruction, as outlined in yet another UESP wiki link. : P

Minyassa

Two days of a full stable of crafting writs is still more money and xp and surveys and master writs than two days of one toon doing them. It's quick easy stuff that can make you a small pile of gold every weekend, I would go for it. You don't have to relentlessly level them all to that end, though it does affect how much money and xp you make. Just focus on them as you like, they will gradually get better over time. I've just now finished getting my 18th toon up to 50 but have been doing writs with even my last lowbies and getting reward goodies with them.