Equipment writs

Strider_Roshin · July 2015

Wow are these bad. I enjoy doing the consumable writs so I figured I'd try out equipment writs, and these are just terrible. Not only do they consume an enormous amount of your material to fulfill but the rewards are absolutely pathetic. I will not attempt to do another one of these unless they severely reduce the amount of items you have to craft; like 2 or 3 items rather than 10. And greatly increase the rewards. One crafting jewel, a repair kit, and a crappy piece of equipment is just insulting considering how many materials you just used in order to fulfill the writ.

starkerealm · July 2015

Yeah, pretty much the only use for these is two stage gambling in craglorn at max level. You roll the dice hoping to get an upper survey (most days you won't get one, and some days you'll only get a lower craglorn survey), then on the survey you're hoping for nirncrux. Which, the survey nodes have a much higher chance to drop the stuff.

So it's not completely pointless. Because one Nirncrux sale can cover about a month's worth of materials. But... it's not really more profitable than just rolling the dice for nirncrux by grabing nodes in upper craglorn naturally, it just requires less time logged in.

AlnilamE · July 2015

Well, you also do get gold improvers from them.

But the days where you just get a gem are not good days...

leeux · July 2015

If I have a bunch of mats stocked I normally do them at higher level, but if not... no point in farming/buying mats just for doing them. I just wait for mats to restock again through hirelings...

So, in average I do maybe one, or two tops, per week.

KiraTsukasa · July 2015

The Clothier and Woodworking writs aren't so bad. The items in those skill lines are fairly cheap to make, requiring only 3-5 wood or jute or whatever to make. But I completely agree on Blacksmithing. I ended up needing 39 ingots to fulfill one writ for Blacksmithing, whereas Woodworking has required around 15 wood at most. That's kinda ridiculous.

Flaminir · July 2015

I don't think they're that bad....

I've always had pretty ok luck, its a relatively short time involved, and you have the ability to get good rewards either by:

Getting gold tempers in the reward urn
Getting gold & items to sell to a vendor which covers the cost of the materials used.
Chance of getting Nirncrux from survey report.
Refining the raw mats from survey reports gives more gold tempers

I found if I just did the odd one or two & the RNG was against me then it wasn't worth it.

Doing them regularly doesnt take long, and then teh RNG evens out & you get a good steady strem of gold tempers & also make a fairly good profit on all the other stuff, Nirncrux etc.

Strider_Roshin · July 2015

I'm maxed out on all of my crafts, and I did all three, and they were do horrible rewards. If I'm sitting on a couple of 200 stacks of void or shadow, I may do this again but after getting 3 very horrible rewards I have no plans to in the near future. At least they did a good job with the consumable writs.

istateres · July 2015

Run the numbers. The "value" of all these writs is based on what you can sell/buy the crafting materials for. At max crafting level, Clothing materials are generally cheap (~1200g a stack). You need about half a stack per writ and get 600g for each writ. So basically, EVERYTHING you get besides the gold is profit. Will you get rich? No. Is it profitable? Yes.

Is Blacksmithing? I think so. Is Woodworking? Not for me, as mats are too much (~2500 a stack).

Sausage · July 2015

I just bought couple days ago stack of 200 vr14 material for 2-4k. Check AHs, its full of them now. I still think herbs are the problem, demand for potions is alot like 10 timer higher than supply. I know theres that one CP-trait what makes your gathering 50% faster, how about if it gave more materials too.

Tors · July 2015

A stack of Void Steel or Voidcloth = 600ish gold

Reward = 600ish gold + chance of tempers and/or survey

Whats your problem?

If you feel you are being short changed then noone is forcing you to to them.

I will continue to on 8 characters

And I have millions of gold, so I am doing something right

Strider_Roshin · July 2015

Tors wrote: »

A stack of Void Steel or Voidcloth = 600ish gold

Reward = 600ish gold + chance of tempers and/or survey

Whats your problem?

If you feel you are being short changed then noone is forcing you to to them.

I will continue to on 8 characters

And I have millions of gold, so I am doing something right

I've stated that I don't plan on doing them anymore unless something changes. Out of three writs I got 2 repair kits, 3 crafting jewels, and 2 pieces of white armor. If it's an RNG issue, that makes sense since I consistently have terrible luck when it comes to acquiring look in video games. You obviously have much better luck than I do so keep at it. I'll stop wasting my time with it.

Reeko · July 2015

I have been doing all the writs everyday for over a month now. I havnt had one complaint nor have i ever needed to go farm the materials just for the writs so i don't see the issue here.

MissBizz · July 2015

Well, IIRC from Quakecon... with IC doing equipment writs will be how you acquire pieces for the glass motif... so looks like that is the incentive they are going to give.

UrQuan · July 2015

As long as you can make more in the gold reward for the writ than the cost of the mats used then it's profitable (and this applies regardless of whether you're buying the mats from someone to do the writ - if you happen to have the mats on hand from your own harvesting, but you could sell them for more than you'd get from the writ, then you're gambling in the hopes of getting something good from the writ).

Having said that, all of the equipment writs are vastly less worth doing than the consumables writs. The consumables writs are always worth doing. The equipment writs are really only worth doing when the price of mats on the market is low (otherwise even if you end up ahead in the long term, it's not worth spending the time on it that could have been spent doing more profitable activities like going out and fighting some stuff, or running around harvesting).

It sounds like the changes coming with IC will have an effect on this, though. Since the equipment writs will be the source of the glass motif, the equation changes. Also, this talk of survey nodes in both upper and lower craglorn having a chance to drop nirncrux (I'm still not clear on if this is an upcoming change or if it's already been implemented) changes the equation for those doing max level writs. So they should soon be more worth doing than they are now.

Xendyn · July 2015

Sausage wrote: »

I just bought couple days ago stack of 200 vr14 material for 2-4k. Check AHs, its full of them now. I still think herbs are the problem, demand for potions is alot like 10 timer higher than supply. I know theres that one CP-trait what makes your gathering 50% faster, how about if it gave more materials too.

There is one for that...sort of. It gives you a chance for more mats from nodes. It's earlier in the trees than the faster gathering one, too.

starkerealm · July 2015

Xendyn wrote: »

Sausage wrote: »

I just bought couple days ago stack of 200 vr14 material for 2-4k. Check AHs, its full of them now. I still think herbs are the problem, demand for potions is alot like 10 timer higher than supply. I know theres that one CP-trait what makes your gathering 50% faster, how about if it gave more materials too.

There is one for that...sort of. It gives you a chance for more mats from nodes. It's earlier in the trees than the faster gathering one, too.

Yeah, if you're getting the increased harvest time bonus, you're already getting a 10% chance to double the yield from any node you harvest.

Potenza · July 2015

Stopped equipment writs months ago - isn't even worth the occasional gold upgrade nor the survey which is a joke as it can never replenish the cost of mats used. So yea I am in the same boat as you OP - not doing them until something changes.

Flaminir · July 2015

Strider_Roshin wrote: »

Tors wrote: »

A stack of Void Steel or Voidcloth = 600ish gold

Reward = 600ish gold + chance of tempers and/or survey

Whats your problem?

If you feel you are being short changed then noone is forcing you to to them.

I will continue to on 8 characters

And I have millions of gold, so I am doing something right

I've stated that I don't plan on doing them anymore unless something changes. Out of three writs I got 2 repair kits, 3 crafting jewels, and 2 pieces of white armor. If it's an RNG issue, that makes sense since I consistently have terrible luck when it comes to acquiring look in video games. You obviously have much better luck than I do so keep at it. I'll stop wasting my time with it.

It is RNG...

So if you just do one or two then yeah, your luck is likely to not be great on that small a number...

as a few have stated here though, do them regularly & the RNG levels out and you can make profit from them, and they become a good source of higher level tempers with a very small amount of time invested.

Curtischoy · July 2015

"It is RNG...

So if you just do one or two then yeah, your luck is likely to not be great on that small a number..."

Actually, it is just as likely for your luck to be complete garbage as it is for it to be amazing, assuming it is coming from a normal distribution. It does not matter how many times you try.

"as a few have stated here though, do them regularly & the RNG levels out"

This is true.

For newer players, the writs are worth it to level up the skill. The mats would just sit in your bank or sell for cheap in the store, so u might as well use them to get some crafting exp as well as gold. Occasionally you can get an item that has 280% increased inspiration from decon on it, which is nice. I have done lots of these writs and I don't think I have ever got an upgrade mat from one of them. Usually what people have been saying, trait gem, repair kit, piece of gear that either has 280% inc inspiration or 280% more gold from merchants.

istateres · July 2015

Check out the Xbox patch notes from Monday: "Nirncrux can now be obtained from all rich ore, rich wood and rich cloth harvest nodes in Craglorn, not just the ones in the upper reaches of the zone, and not just from the highest tiers of material."

IF that comes to PC and PS that's an increase of 2 - 3x in Nirn drops from equipment writs. Still think they aren't worth doing??

Egg_Death · July 2015

KiraTsukasa wrote: »

The Clothier and Woodworking writs aren't so bad. The items in those skill lines are fairly cheap to make, requiring only 3-5 wood or jute or whatever to make. But I completely agree on Blacksmithing. I ended up needing 39 ingots to fulfill one writ for Blacksmithing, whereas Woodworking has required around 15 wood at most. That's kinda ridiculous.

Are you $***ting me? I have probably amassed 500+ steel ingots total and in the last few days over 300 orichalcum ingots just from deconstructing gear dropped/awarded during quests and stealing everything from the fighters guild in Grahtwood. There is so much blacksmithing gear there alone that I could do a craft writ every day just from that, and my upstanding mage has no trouble ripping them off for everything they have. I only wear one heavy chestpiece, otherwise I decon everything and don't give a crap about researching traits on anything else. My blacksmithing is 3-4 levels above my clothiering, and I literally save all types of hide and harvest any Jute/etc that I can find and I never have enough to even keep my crap at my level. I could probably craft a full set of heavy armor every day and spend only 20-30 minutes doing so tops.

There is a slight benefit to experience having both light and med armor in the same tree, but materials don't share at all. Hide/Leather is FAR easier to harvest (just farm some mobs) and you still get to dismantle found gear. Blacksmithing has both armor and weapons in the same tree with the same mats, so anything not wood or light/med armor gives you mats for whatever you want. Also, last time I checked ore deposits don't look exactly like other rocks the same way jute looks like every other blue flower. I've harvested more metal than fiber, and I have had keen eye for fiber plants since a very low level.

Most of my money I've made from selling hides and ingots. The only thing I have to spend time on for writs is clothing, and guess what? It's almost always light armor and not medium armor for the writs, at least for me. It's also never just gloves and shoes or smaller items, it's the robe and breeches (2-3x each) to take up 30+ mats to do one writ. It also screws me to invest in light armor (which I use more pieces of than anything) to my current level, because writs will only be accepted in the next area and I can no longer find mats in the wild. It's honestly ridiculous that stealing crap is the fastest way to level crafting. That poor wood-elf vendor in Skywatch must think he has a magical termite infestation I've stolen his wares so many times right in front of him. That's what he gets for charging 700 gold for a staff I can't sell for 20 if I made it.

Strider_Roshin · July 2015

istateres wrote: »

Check out the Xbox patch notes from Monday: "Nirncrux can now be obtained from all rich ore, rich wood and rich cloth harvest nodes in Craglorn, not just the ones in the upper reaches of the zone, and not just from the highest tiers of material."

IF that comes to PC and PS that's an increase of 2 - 3x in Nirn drops from equipment writs. Still think they aren't worth doing??

Yes. I'll stick to harvesting resources, and if I ever come across nirnhoned on a piece of gear, I won't be able to gem it in my gear until it becomes useless.

Zusia211 · July 2015

KiraTsukasa wrote: »

The Clothier and Woodworking writs aren't so bad. The items in those skill lines are fairly cheap to make, requiring only 3-5 wood or jute or whatever to make. But I completely agree on Blacksmithing. I ended up needing 39 ingots to fulfill one writ for Blacksmithing, whereas Woodworking has required around 15 wood at most. That's kinda ridiculous.

Which woodworking writ you get? There is usually from what I seen create 2 restoration staffs and 6 shielfs or there is create 3 of each inferno, ice, and lightning staffs. Each staff on low portion takes about 6 wood and same with shield. So only using 15 is impossible.

istateres · July 2015

Zusia211 wrote: »

KiraTsukasa wrote: »

The Clothier and Woodworking writs aren't so bad. The items in those skill lines are fairly cheap to make, requiring only 3-5 wood or jute or whatever to make. But I completely agree on Blacksmithing. I ended up needing 39 ingots to fulfill one writ for Blacksmithing, whereas Woodworking has required around 15 wood at most. That's kinda ridiculous.

Which woodworking writ you get? There is usually from what I seen create 2 restoration staffs and 6 shielfs or there is create 3 of each inferno, ice, and lightning staffs. Each staff on low portion takes about 6 wood and same with shield. So only using 15 is impossible.

Doing writs at low skill level use very few resources, but return less valuable rewards.

Zusia211 · July 2015

istateres wrote: »

Zusia211 wrote: »

KiraTsukasa wrote: »

The Clothier and Woodworking writs aren't so bad. The items in those skill lines are fairly cheap to make, requiring only 3-5 wood or jute or whatever to make. But I completely agree on Blacksmithing. I ended up needing 39 ingots to fulfill one writ for Blacksmithing, whereas Woodworking has required around 15 wood at most. That's kinda ridiculous.

Which woodworking writ you get? There is usually from what I seen create 2 restoration staffs and 6 shielfs or there is create 3 of each inferno, ice, and lightning staffs. Each staff on low portion takes about 6 wood and same with shield. So only using 15 is impossible.

Doing writs at low skill level use very few resources, but return less valuable rewards.

Even low levels lowest was using 3. So for the 2 different writs: 6 wood in restoration staffs and then creating 6 shields 36 wood=42 material....Shield low level still took 6...
Other writ 9 for inferno+9for ice+ 9 for lightning= 27.....

Egg_Death · July 2015

Curtischoy wrote: »

"It is RNG...

So if you just do one or two then yeah, your luck is likely to not be great on that small a number..."

Actually, it is just as likely for your luck to be complete garbage as it is for it to be amazing, assuming it is coming from a normal distribution. It does not matter how many times you try.

"as a few have stated here though, do them regularly & the RNG levels out"

This is true.

For newer players, the writs are worth it to level up the skill. The mats would just sit in your bank or sell for cheap in the store, so u might as well use them to get some crafting exp as well as gold. Occasionally you can get an item that has 280% increased inspiration from decon on it, which is nice. I have done lots of these writs and I don't think I have ever got an upgrade mat from one of them. Usually what people have been saying, trait gem, repair kit, piece of gear that either has 280% inc inspiration or 280% more gold from merchants.

Perhaps wording could be better, but it is true that your luck is not going to be representative of the underlying distribution if you don't do many writs. Yes, the odds are the same, but until you get a decent sample size you could be way above average or way below. It is possible buy incredibly unlikely that your outcome will be anything other than normal-ish in either direction if you do writs every day for a month or two.

Sausage · July 2015

Xendyn wrote: »

Sausage wrote: »

I just bought couple days ago stack of 200 vr14 material for 2-4k. Check AHs, its full of them now. I still think herbs are the problem, demand for potions is alot like 10 timer higher than supply. I know theres that one CP-trait what makes your gathering 50% faster, how about if it gave more materials too.

There is one for that...sort of. It gives you a chance for more mats from nodes. It's earlier in the trees than the faster gathering one, too.

Nice to know, but nevertheless, I think Alchemy still isnt right. Increase herbs or make potions alo more powerful.

starkerealm · July 2015

KiraTsukasa wrote: »

The Clothier and Woodworking writs aren't so bad. The items in those skill lines are fairly cheap to make, requiring only 3-5 wood or jute or whatever to make. But I completely agree on Blacksmithing. I ended up needing 39 ingots to fulfill one writ for Blacksmithing, whereas Woodworking has required around 15 wood at most. That's kinda ridiculous.

Oh, man, I'm jealous... well, not really, because I remember the systems, but still. My woodworking writs cost around 70 wood minimum. Usually closer to 90.

AlnilamE · July 2015

You guys may want to read the patch notes for the IC update.

Equipment writs just got way more attractive...

starkerealm · July 2015

AlnilamE wrote: »

You guys may want to read the patch notes for the IC update.

Equipment writs just got way more attractive...

...if you're turning in nightwood, voidsteel, shadowhide, or voidweave writs.

But, yeah, that got mentioned at Quakecon and I've been holding off on my writs until it goes live.

Thymos · July 2015

They didn't get attractive to me... still lots of thrown away materials just to get a chance for a fragment of a chapter of glass motif?

Yeah, you gotta collect 10 fragments and buy an item from a Mystic vendor to make a single chapter.