When deconstructing, you should go for the highest gear possible. You can deconstruct gear that is way above your level. You won't get the materials back if you can't make that tier of gear yet, but you level the skill much faster.
Level 2 items cannot be crafted. If you make low level items, level 4 is the best ratio of inspiration to material requirements. All higher tiers of gear should be made at the lowest level for that tier to get the most inspiration out of your materials.

As I tried to say, level 4 (and not level 1) is the best level for max inspiration per material stack if you are making the lowest tier of gear. For all other tiers, make the lowest level for that tier and you will get the most inspiration from your raw mterials.

I think a dedicated crafting alt is a great idea. You free up so many skill points (hard to obtain at the start) and inventory space from your main characters, leaving them to focus on combat skills/loot, etc.

Some things to keep in mind - your crafter has to eventually reach at least veteran rank 1 in order to access Craglorn and the writs and crafting stations therein.

You need about 100-120 skill points for crafting professions in total, which means you'll need to get all the Home faction Skyshards and skill point quests and group dungeons and maybe even Cyrodiil Skyshards in order to have enough points on such a low level toon.

You will have extremely few points for combat skills so leveling up a crafter might be difficult for a brand new player. However, as you gain a little bit of experience, the 1-50 content is so easy that it's no hardship to clear all the way to Cold Harbour with one bar of skills and no passives. It's what I did.

One option is to level up a character normally or through grinding to veteran rank 1 and then respec.

In either case, start working on your trait research right away as this takes an unavoidably long time. The first traits you should research are infused on the "big" pieces (hat/cap, chest/cuirass, greaves/trousers, shields) and divines on the "small" pieces (gloves, boots, belt, epaulets/pauldrons). For weapons, get precise, sharpened and infused. Ignore the preceding and begin with Nirnhoned if you can afford it (25-30k a piece).

If you can't find a trait you should be researching and have a slot free - better to research something random than waste too much time looking. Focus on one type of weapon first (like swords, rather than every kind of one handed weapon), diversifying later.

Do all your weapons/armour research on the same character to avoid having to buy multiple copies of motifs, especially the expensive ones. If you can, make sure your crafter is an imperial to save ~70k on having to buy the motif eventually.

On your main character(s), you WILL require provisioning and alchemy at level 50 for the connoisseur, gourmet and medicinal use passives (9 skill points in total per character) but leveling up these two is very easy and takes 15-20 minutes if you prepare in advance and have materials ready. Some people would retain their main as their provisioner/alchemist for this reason but I still provision on my dedicated crafter and free up the additional skill points the whole skill line would take up on any of them.

You get full inspiration from alt-crafted gear!

Earelith wrote: »

@Sharee Yhanks..that seem a major disadvantage So I ll have to start over I guess.

btw, noobish question: Do I get the tripple insipration bonus when deconstructing items that my alt make? Or the game recognize those items as "player crafted"?

You don't really have to start over. Since you can respec, park your crafter for a while and spec all their points into Crafting. Have them make the stuff for you other alt that you are leveling. Once your alt gets to a point where they can't get stuff made by your crafter, park him for a couple of weeks, then respec your crafting alt back into combat. Then level them up to 50 or so to get the skill points needed, then respec them back into a crafter.

The main advantage to this is, as you get better at the game, you need less skills or skill usage to prevail. You have learned that you need to move around, dodge and block and how to use support skills to make your combat skills better. Things like that.

I did just this very thing with my master crafter. I got her to 28, put her into crafting and she did nothing but make clothes, wood, potions and food until my main was over her crafting level. Then I leveled her some more.

Do you get the same amount of Inspiration if you decon it on you new same named main? To test, make something at the same level etc and decon it on the same character, note the inspiration, then decon the one the old character made and see if there is a difference.

Earelith wrote: »

@Nestor Yes I tested it and I get the same inspiration

Good to know, even if they are bad results. Thank you.

To be honest, forget about leveling the skill up for the time being.

Focus on playing your main and sending loot items you find to your 'crafter' to deconstruct while doing trait research. Deconstruct the glyphs you find. Learn recipes. And save up Alchemy mats and solvents.

Once you are into the vet levels, you will have done much of the research and will now be getting veteran rank loot, which will give you much more inspiration when you deconstruct it. If your skill isn't already 50, it will be in no time at all.

You don't have to make any concerted effort to get the skill up if you aren't in a hurry. Simply deconstructing loot (I only deconstruct blue and higher, sell whites and greens to the Merchant vendors for gold) while you play will get your skill up slowly and surely and save you a lot of time, gold and effort.

Earelith wrote: »

@Lithium Flower thanks for the info to be honest, i know that leveling crafting on your main and first character 8s not ideal, but what i like the most in mmos is crafting my own armor while leveling..i know i dont need to, but i fi.d it fun and immersive and part of my character progression.

It will work out. I did that on my main as well. You do not really need all that many skillpoints in combat skills to be able to level through the PvE content, it is fairly easy once you know what's what.

One bit of advice, invest in the 'refining' passives in the crafting trees. That way refining raw materials can yield components you will later need for crafting blue/purple/gold items. Without the refining passive, you only get the green components, with it you can get the higher ones.

I deconned loot for my first few characters through the first few levels ... err maybe through 18 or so, and it worked out fine.