how to raise crafting skills

soulclaw

I got my blacksmithing to level 3 and noticed that when I made armour or weapons I got very small amounts of experience for that skill. At 15 gold each for the cultural geegaw this will get expensive quickly.

Is there a better way to increase a crafting skill?

Howitczar

Level your character, use every bookshelf, and deconstruct all the gear you find. Blacksmithing level 25+ by veteran. Easy mode.

Destabilizator

Deconstructing all the way, keep materials you gather (in case you get unlucky and find cloth/leather items all the time), you can sell them later.

Sorpaijen_ESO

Make sure to decon things you did NOT create; I use an alt to create stacks of daggers and hats and bows and then my "main" crafter deconstructs those for bigger xp than she could get by crafting them herself (or deconstructing her OWN creations).

"Unfortunately" this means I am leveling up a second crafter solely as a source of grinding gear for the main; at least I don't have to invest style books or (many) skill points in the alt.

RiverWalker

additional note: you don't have to buy the racial material. they are rather common loot in containers (the same containers that supply lots of food materials, motif books and cooking recipes) and once you accumulate a handful of motifs.... well, this cost is not really a big issue.

knightblaster

The game is basically designed such that crafting items, in and of itself, grants little crafting XP -- with how plentiful mats are in the game, it would be too easy to grind it up quickly, like we see with provisioning, for example.

So the system is designed such that the bulk of your crafting XP comes from the more painful (and slower) process of deconstructing things you find -- or, faster, if you work as a team and deconstruct each others' combines (supporting teamwork by design). That is, you get more "inspiration" (which is crafting XP) for deconstructing things others have made, and get a stiff penalty for deconstructing stuff you make yourself (again, they don't want it to be easily grindable, unless you are working in a team). It isn't designed to be powerleveled up by stockpiling mats and then grinding out combines as in other games -- at least not with the main crafts. Provisioning works that way, which is why it is basically trivial to level.