working on a better hireling...

Rhastar · August 2014

I was hoping someone cold iron out some information (or rumors?) that I heard regarding hirelings that I wanted to clear up. Basically, I was wondering what skill types (if any) in the different crafting trees improved the items that hirelings sent?

Are they improved only buy improving the hireling skill?
Does your main character crafter and hireling have any correlation other than the fact my main can receive its mail?

Long story short... was looking how to improve the quality of items my hireling sends me.

Any other tips or tricks would be awesome!
Thanks

Kuratla · August 2014

Ok. Let's see if I can help you here.

First off, having a level 3 toon with rank 3 in a craft and hireling 1/3 in that craft is going to get you crap. Once per day, you'll get like 3 iron ore. It is possible to get green, blue, purple or gold improvements from your 1/3 hireling but really really really rare. Certainly nothing to bank on.

Then you go up to rank 12 in a craft and get yourself 2/3 hireling. Still only getting stuff once a day but you'll more reliably get improvements but probably not good ones like purples or golds.

Finally you get to rank 32 in the craft and get 3/3 hireling. Here's where hirelings shine. You get mails every 12 hours (after opening the hireling mail) and the chances of getting a purple or gold improvement are quite high.

It's all RNG but here's a couple things I've noticed. Your character level has nothing to do with the quality of the stuff you get from hireling mails. I have characters at level 10 who get purple and gold improvement as often as my vet 12 does.

Improving your crafting skill to 9/9 only means that you'll get voidstone ore (for example) instead of iron ore (at 1/9) but doesn't seem to have any effect on the quality of hireling improvements. I have 7 toons with 3/3 hireling in Blacksmithing, for example. Only one of those toons is rank 50 with 9/9 metallurgy. The rest are rank 32 with 1/9 and I see no difference in improvements obtained.

Hireling 3/3 is where it's at. Not sure if the crafting rank has an impact on the hirelings mails directly but you need rank 32 for hireling 3/3 so you need to be quite high in the craft to get the best hirelings. Pretty sure there's no difference in improvement quality over a rank 50 vs a rank 32. At least, none I've seen.

Best thing to do is aim for rank 32 in the crafts and get hireling 3/3 asap. Regardless of whether your schedule allows you to log in twice a day for mails or not, hireling 3/3 is straight up better and more reliably gives your good improvements over 2/3 hireling. If you can log in twice a day, it's golden. More chances at a better RNG.

Rhastar · August 2014

I don't think there could have been a more fantastic response to this question. ALL HAIL KURATIA!

My next question would be how did you go about leveling up these additional hirelings? Did you do it primarily through crafting/deconstructing items, or did you have to go out in the world and gain some levels?

You rock

Cabot · August 2014

Rhastar wrote: »

I don't think there could have been a more fantastic response to this question. ALL HAIL KURATIA!

My next question would be how did you go about leveling up these additional hirelings? Did you do it primarily through crafting/deconstructing items, or did you have to go out in the world and gain some levels?

You rock

Just to be clear on this, the 1/3, 2/3 and 3/3, that was mentioned in the post above, was referring to the skill points put into the hireling skill. This does not mean you gain a second and third hireling.

Any additional hirelings for a certain craft would come from an alternate character learning the minimum rank in that craft to gain the hireling skill, and using a skill point on it.

Rhastar · August 2014

Got it. Thanks for the input.

Someone told me that the crafting skills of the main character also influenced what a hireling sends, even if it is from another ALTs hireling skill. Good to know

mythmakerdr2002ub17_ESO · August 2014

Rhastar wrote: »

Got it. Thanks for the input.

Someone told me that the crafting skills of the main character also influenced what a hireling sends, even if it is from another ALTs hireling skill. Good to know

This was true originally when hirelings sent hireling boxes but they got rid of them for this reason exactly. People would farm boxes and then open them up on their "crafting main" to get all voidstone ore or the other resources. The hireling mails now come with the mats in the mail instead so you cannot do this anymore.

Kuratla · August 2014

Leveling up to 3/3 hirelings on your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc toon can be done in a couple of ways. One way is to use a high level toon to grind public dungeons in high level zones (like Coldharbour or vet zones). You'll end up getting a ton of dropped gear from the mobs. Just put them in your bank and deconstruct them with your low level toon. You'll zoom up the ranks of crafting amazingly fast that way.

Another way to do it is to use your main crafter (assuming you got rank 50 in Blacksmithing or Clothing or Woodcrafting) to make V12 gear (daggers, or belts or bows, for example), put in your bank and let the low level toon deconstruct them. This way is a faster way than grinding public dungeons but it's going to cost a lot of gold because you'll need to buy a ton of mats from zone chat or guild stores. I have usually gotten to around the rank 25 mark from deconstructing dropped gear and then I get anxious because rank 32 is so close and then I empty out a guild store or two of mats and level up the last ranks that way.

My 8th and last toon will be hitting 3/3 hireling in BS, Wood and Cloth this week due to the above methods. Then I need to get all 8 toons to Enchanting 32 (which'll take forever because Enchanting is a different animal from the main three crafts). Or I may just skip the Enchanting and not worry about it. I got 2 toons now with 3/3 Enchanting hireling and it's great for getting potency 9 runes and usually Rekutas but, even maxed out, it really rare to get Kutas from the hirelings. Maybe 1 or 2 Kutas a week from all hirelings combined.

robeauch · August 2014

This may already be clear from the above, but just to make it extra-clear: The raw materials your hireling sends will be of the highest tier your crafter can make. If you're at 3/9 on blacksmithing (able to use iron, steel, and orichalcic steel), the hireling sends orichalcic ore. When you go up to 4/9 (dwarven steel), the hireling will start sending dwarven ore, and so forth.

By comparison, putting points into the hireling skill won't result in higher-tier ore, but may get you more of it, as well as better odds on "extras" (solvents, trait ingredients).

Kuratla · August 2014

robeauch wrote: »

By comparison, putting points into the hireling skill won't result in higher-tier ore, but may get you more of it, as well as better odds on "extras" (solvents, trait ingredients).

There's no maybe about it. The more points you put into hireling, the better stuff you are going to get. 2/3 hireling rarely gives purple or gold improvements while 3/3 hireling gives them regularly.

neueregel · August 2014

I have had 7 alts that have 2/3 hirelings in all crafting for a while now. I get purple and gold items just fine. I am not saying every time, but not rarely either. My main has 3/3 in all crafting, he does get them more often, but not drastically more. 2/3 is a good start, and you shouldn't be discouraged if this is all you can do. 3/3 on all 8 players takes a good amount of effort. I just now got all 8 players 3/3 for provisioning, which in my opinion is the easiest craft to get to 3/3. The mats alone that you can refine help you get purples and golds too. Just dont refine on the alts... use your player with the best refining skills. Oh and my main with 3/3 hirelings on all crafting does NOT get them regularly. He has had 3/3 on all for like 3 months now.