Crafting gear worth the effort?

Tourist_McGee

So far, i have a 30 Templaer, a 20+ Warden and a lowbie Necromancer and i've not yet been able to craft any gear that's even close to the loot drops i've been getting. I spend literal hours running around gathering mats to level the crafting professions and i'm wondering if there's really a point to it. Should i just not worry about crafting and just rely on gear drops?

Maythor

You will eventually want to transmute, upgrade and reconstruct items as you progress in the game.

Although you won't necessarily need to craft armour for yourself, levelling your crafting skills are pretty necessary for doing those things!

I wouldn't knock yourself out too much to do it though, it'll level as you level so long as you don't ignore it completely

katanagirl1

I had the same experience with my first character, once I had enough leather to craft something the XP I got from farming it bumped me up to the next rank of materials!

It works better once your character gets the crafting lines maxed out and passives enabled. If you do daily crafting writs, you can get surveys that point you to locations with concentrated mat nodes that make it easier too.

I do craft whole sets for my new characters when I’m leveling them up now, and I also can reconstruct drop gear sets if I need them, which I just did for one character recently.

So it’s a long term investment really.

MidniteOwl1913

Yeah, found gear is really better. I run dungeons as soon as I can to provide me with XP and gear, it helps a lot.

Tourist_McGee

My bank is full of various set pieces for alts to level up into. As much as i like having gear just fall into my outstretched hands, i'd rather make it and have a player based crafting economy (if there is such a thing, i've not seen any sign of it).

What's the "reconstructed" you mentioned?

Grizzbeorn

Tourist_McGee wrote: »

What's the "reconstructed" you mentioned?

Using the transmute station to craft gear from your Set Items Collection, or "sticker book."
That process is referred to as "reconstruction."

https://eso-hub.com/en/guides/sticker-book-guide

katanagirl1

Grizzbeorn wrote: »

Tourist_McGee wrote: »

What's the "reconstructed" you mentioned?

Using the transmute station to craft gear from your Set Items Collection, or "sticker book."
That process is referred to as "reconstruction."

https://eso-hub.com/en/guides/sticker-book-guide

Yeah, you can actually craft sets that were originally drop sets if they are in your sticker book. The more of the pieces of the set you know, the fewer transmute gems are needed to reconstruct a single piece. This is something I never expected they would give us, but it is now possible.

Iselin

There are some crafted sets that are BIS or at least, pre-trial BIS, that you will want to craft when you're CP160+

You'll also want to level up the gear crafting skill lines so you can improve any gear, including drops using fewer mats.

You'll want to research all the traits because crafting some of the better gear requires you to have all traits learned and also for reconstructing gear from your sets collection with the traits you want to use.

So yeah, you definitely do want to level-up your crafting.

Kalik_Gold

Yes, you can be efficient at 50/160cp+ with crafting sets at max level. Especially in PvP.

merpins

- Some crafted gear can be BiS for some builds.
- Transmuting requires you to know the traits, so you need to research them so your gameplay later will be easier.
- Upgrading gear is cheaper if your crafting level is higher. Gold mats are expensive, so it's worth leveling 'em up.
- Daily writs will make you a lot of money. The more toons you can do them on, the better.
- Jewelry in particular is a good money maker. Some crafted sets in rings and necklaces sell for 100-300k for blue jewelry; you'll only spend 60k to make it. It takes time to sell them, but they do sell.
- Do daily writs on every character, even if they're not leveled! You can get surveys (a scroll that leads you to an area with a ton of crafting materials) regardless of your level, and can then put them in the bank to do them later when you have a toon that is max level in that particular craft.

Deconstruction is the best way to level up your crafting. This goes for EVERY crafting skill line except cooking and alchemy. Do not waste your time making gear to level up your other skill lines, it's best to just collect gear and deconstruct it when your inventory is full, and repeat until everything is leveled, then move gear you get to your bank to decon on toons. The more crafters you have the better. Also, make sure you always have all your trait research slots filled on a single character. You only need one character to do traits.
Alchemy is good to level, as it's much cheaper to make your own potions than it is to buy them. A stack of weapon power pots only costs 20k to make, but sells for 40k. Same with glyphs; gold glyphs sell for between 6 and 12k each, with the most expensive (there's 2 i think) that cost over 60k. It'll only cost you 2-3k to make glyphs (if not for free if you gather your own mats), other than the 60k glyphs which have a specific material to make that you get in imperial city sewers and imperial city proper (the pvp areas). Cooking is also worth it since it's very cheap to make your own food.

Tourist_McGee

You mention selling pots, but how do i sell them? i see no auction house to post them and i don't have the patience to stand in town and yell. :P

I usually just vendor pots i don't need.

tmbrinks

Tourist_McGee wrote: »

You mention selling pots, but how do i sell them? i see no auction house to post them and i don't have the patience to stand in town and yell. :P

I usually just vendor pots i don't need.

ESO uses a guild vendor system. A guild of 50 or more people can bid on stalls to sell their wares at around the major cities. As a member of those guilds you can have up to 30 items for sale on the trader. You can be in up to 5 guilds, so 150 slots at a time.

Use the in-game guild finder and search for "trading guilds"

Tourist_McGee

Ah, nice.

Amottica

Maythor wrote: »

You will eventually want to transmute, upgrade and reconstruct items as you progress in the game.

Although you won't necessarily need to craft armour for yourself, levelling your crafting skills are pretty necessary for doing those things!

I wouldn't knock yourself out too much to do it though, it'll level as you level so long as you don't ignore it completely

Pretty much this.

Also, there have been times that a couple of sets have been BiS and close to it, though not now. Outside of trying to be BiS meta though there are some nice sets that are fine, especially until getting something better.

katanagirl1

As long as you are not in a trial team, crafting sets are fine. My main character’s been wearing NMG and Hundings for years.

Tourist_McGee

I'd like to run group content at some point, but trails sounds like timed content which i really don't care for. Only "group" content i've done is healing people that are in the same publick dungeon or closing a portal.

JKorr

If you're farming mats to craft things to level crafting; don't. You level a lot faster by deconning items, the highest level items you can find. Give all the drops to your main crafter to decon. Having a friend or guildmate who has cp160 characters give you the loot drops they don't need to decon helps leveling a lot. Get certified to do writs; you get intricate items as rewards that boost experience when you decon them. Look in guild traders; players sell intricate items for people leveling crafters.

Find a good player guild; even social guilds can and do get traders, no dues or required sales needed. Friendly guilds do exist; people who don't mind questions and have crafters who like to help out anyone making a crafter. It makes trait research a lot easier and more organized if you can ask someone to make the items you want to research in the traits you want when you're ready for them.

Pick flowers and mushrooms; don't ignore "trash" like worms either. I see people in zone chat moaning they are flat broke, then see those players run past cornflower and columbine. They just ran past 600-800 gold for each flower. One person went on a rant once when I mentioned worms were going for 45-55 gold each at that point. Having access to a guild trader makes getting gold not so hard.

Panachudo

Tourist_McGee wrote: »

So far, i have a 30 Templaer, a 20+ Warden and a lowbie Necromancer and i've not yet been able to craft any gear that's even close to the loot drops i've been getting. I spend literal hours running around gathering mats to level the crafting professions and i'm wondering if there's really a point to it. Should i just not worry about crafting and just rely on gear drops?

There is huge worth in crafting. It taps into various aspects of the game. To answer your sets question specifically.

I personally run nothing but crafted sets on my characters. With the odd exception here and there to build specific themes. The crafted sets in game are oftentimes overlooked and considered subpar. My experience is the opposite. I can run the hardest content, win in PvP fights, and most of all, enjoy myself, with what we have available in the crafted sets. Further to this. Crafting in the style for the theme or character I am running it quite satisfying.

I think advancing your crafting is an essential aspect of the game. It takes time and investment. The pay off is worth it though.

Pan.

Mascen

Unfortunately crafted gear is more or less a stopgap measure these days. Great for slapping together sets on characters youre leveling, but more often than not mediocre and dated when it comes to endgame meta. Nowadays between the outfit system and the stickerbook crafting is relegated to little more than daily/master writs and furniture crafting.

FlopsyPrince

I like to wear crafted training gear as I level alts, but I am at 18 max on PC NA and about 4 max on PC EU, with others leveling near there (8 or 9 total). I only recently realized I could reuse leveling gear, so I was always making new stuff along the way. Wasteful, but making purple stuff is not hard if you run a number of dailies and decon most drops. I usually have a blue neck and use whatever rings drop along the way.

This gives me set bonuses and the Training xp boost.

Your mileage may vary as they say.

Aggrovious

Tourist_McGee wrote: »

So far, i have a 30 Templaer, a 20+ Warden and a lowbie Necromancer and i've not yet been able to craft any gear that's even close to the loot drops i've been getting. I spend literal hours running around gathering mats to level the crafting professions and i'm wondering if there's really a point to it. Should i just not worry about crafting and just rely on gear drops?

Crafting gear is worth it depending on your build. I use Deadlands Demolisher for my bash Necromancer, so yes, it is nice. However, crafting gear comes at the cost of how many traits you know. At your current level, I would elect 1 character to be your master crafter and research everything. Deconstruct everything. Unlock the passives to allow more research. An example is Deadlands. It is a 7-set trait requirement so you can not craft each piece of armor from this set if you don't meet the requirement of knowing 7 traits for legs/chest/arms etc. It is also worth being a master crafter because of the potential to score dreugh wax or chrome plats to gold jewelry.

Not to mention, it is a consistent way to gain 5k gold once you hit CP 160. 3 characters=15,000

Lumsdenml

Mascen wrote: »

Unfortunately crafted gear is more or less a stopgap measure these days. Great for slapping together sets on characters youre leveling, but more often than not mediocre and dated when it comes to endgame meta. Nowadays between the outfit system and the stickerbook crafting is relegated to little more than daily/master writs and furniture crafting.

I would disagree with this statement. Sets like Clever Alchemist and Shacklebreaker are widely used in end game content.

Holycannoli

My crafter toon always crafts gear for my pre-50 characters. I don't upgrade it past blue and I do pass it down to lower level characters like every 10 levels or so, and I like to sometimes experiment and craft little-used sets like Orgnum's or Sload's and mess around in battlegrounds. My characters outgrow the gear eventually anyway so why not?

Actually come to think of it even my main only uses crafted and sometimes overland gear (Spriggan's). No dungeon sets, no trial sets, just crafted and what I can find fairly easily. It's because I'm a filthy casual lol.

So yes crafted can be worth the effort.

JKorr

Holycannoli wrote: »

My crafter toon always crafts gear for my pre-50 characters. I don't upgrade it past blue and I do pass it down to lower level characters like every 10 levels or so, and I like to sometimes experiment and craft little-used sets like Orgnum's or Sload's and mess around in battlegrounds. My characters outgrow the gear eventually anyway so why not?

Actually come to think of it even my main only uses crafted and sometimes overland gear (Spriggan's). No dungeon sets, no trial sets, just crafted and what I can find fairly easily. It's because I'm a filthy casual lol.

So yes crafted can be worth the effort.

At last, someone else who plays around with mix and match sets under cp160. Cold Harbor's Favorite/Morkuldin's, Morkuldin's/Hunding's, any sets that catch my "Gee, wonder what this would do"

Lumsdenml

JKorr wrote: »

Holycannoli wrote: »

My crafter toon always crafts gear for my pre-50 characters. I don't upgrade it past blue and I do pass it down to lower level characters like every 10 levels or so, and I like to sometimes experiment and craft little-used sets like Orgnum's or Sload's and mess around in battlegrounds. My characters outgrow the gear eventually anyway so why not?

Actually come to think of it even my main only uses crafted and sometimes overland gear (Spriggan's). No dungeon sets, no trial sets, just crafted and what I can find fairly easily. It's because I'm a filthy casual lol.

So yes crafted can be worth the effort.

At last, someone else who plays around with mix and match sets under cp160. Cold Harbor's Favorite/Morkuldin's, Morkuldin's/Hunding's, any sets that catch my "Gee, wonder what this would do"

Oh yeah, totally! I'm always playing around with different craftable/reconstructed sets for under 50 pvp. Always keep trying to make this set work in pvp, and it just doesn't... though I love the idea of it... *sigh* From what I've found, it really has only one good use, is putting detect poison on NBs... They can't stealth for like 8 seconds, which is pretty amazing. Other than that, there are a bunch of sets that outperform this one, but I keep trying!

MonkLoHan

Tourist_McGee wrote: »

So far, i have a 30 Templaer, a 20+ Warden and a lowbie Necromancer and i've not yet been able to craft any gear that's even close to the loot drops i've been getting. I spend literal hours running around gathering mats to level the crafting professions and i'm wondering if there's really a point to it. Should i just not worry about crafting and just rely on gear drops?

I'd say pick one of those characters to be a dedicated crafter. Have that character learn ALL traits and before you know it, you'll be able to craft most of the bis sets in no time.

Try to do daily craft writs on all three of your characters though. Place the intrinsic trait items into your bank and have your "main crafter" be the one to decon them. This will level up your crafting skill lines.

Holycannoli

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Oh yeah, totally! I'm always playing around with different craftable/reconstructed sets for under 50 pvp. Always keep trying to make this set work in pvp, and it just doesn't... though I love the idea of it... *sigh* From what I've found, it really has only one good use, is putting detect poison on NBs... They can't stealth for like 8 seconds, which is pretty amazing. Other than that, there are a bunch of sets that outperform this one, but I keep trying!

I have one character using this set with a bunch of poisons I crafted https://eso-sets.com/set/legacy-of-karth and I even want to experiment with the poisons.

It's not a set I would consider using at CP 160 so I'll use it while leveling.

Lumsdenml

Holycannoli wrote: »

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Oh yeah, totally! I'm always playing around with different craftable/reconstructed sets for under 50 pvp. Always keep trying to make this set work in pvp, and it just doesn't... though I love the idea of it... *sigh* From what I've found, it really has only one good use, is putting detect poison on NBs... They can't stealth for like 8 seconds, which is pretty amazing. Other than that, there are a bunch of sets that outperform this one, but I keep trying!

I have one character using this set with a bunch of poisons I crafted https://eso-sets.com/set/legacy-of-karth and I even want to experiment with the poisons.

It's not a set I would consider using at CP 160 so I'll use it while leveling.

Ha! I paired Assassins and Karth, too! I mean, kinda makes sense. I ran double poison on my front bar and stealth/magic/stam draining on my back bar. Unfortunately, 20% proc time is just not going to outperform for pvp (or just keep even with).

Lumsdenml

Holycannoli wrote: »

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Oh yeah, totally! I'm always playing around with different craftable/reconstructed sets for under 50 pvp. Always keep trying to make this set work in pvp, and it just doesn't... though I love the idea of it... *sigh* From what I've found, it really has only one good use, is putting detect poison on NBs... They can't stealth for like 8 seconds, which is pretty amazing. Other than that, there are a bunch of sets that outperform this one, but I keep trying!

I have one character using this set with a bunch of poisons I crafted https://eso-sets.com/set/legacy-of-karth and I even want to experiment with the poisons.

It's not a set I would consider using at CP 160 so I'll use it while leveling.

I've not tried pairing Assassins with this one, though... Hmmmm.......

Holycannoli

Lumsdenml wrote: »

I've not tried pairing Assassins with this one, though... Hmmmm.......

Only problem is it's a dungeon set and will be very difficult to farm for the correct sub-50 levels I'd need. Maybe transmuting it if I want to waste transmutes lol.