How does one ever manage to level provisoning (without insane coin cost) in this game???

AtmaDarkwolf · August 2015

This may sound like a whine post, but its not. I easily (just by running the game, mining, deconstructing, gathering, etc) leveled up woodworking, blacksmithing, clothing, and enchanting (and a little alchemy but alchemy/potion making seems slightly limited as provisioning is)

First off, without spending 150 PER UNIT of items (Thats really an INSANE cost why the heck is it so high?) for 'basic' ingredients, your 'lucky' to find what you need out there. I mean opening every single barrel, crate, cabinet, etc, your going to be lucky to find a SINGLE garlic, or carrot, or (etc) - basically your going to end up with a full inventory, with no other loot, of just 'random' ingredients. (of stacks of 1 or 2 items in each) eating up a TON of space(Suggestion: Make a 'ingredient pack' for alchemy and provisioning to hold these that takes 1 slot of normal inventory maybe? This would solve much of the issues I complain about)

Then after that, when you FINALLY have enough to make a single unit (or 2-3) of a recipe, you have to be lucky to have the recipe. (Another suggestion: Do away with ALL of the 'common' recipes, or make 'advanced' versions of them so that one can make any of the simple items - fish sticks as example, WITHOUT a recipe, but HAVING said recipe makes it a 'better version' of the aforementioned item. Rarer/higher level recipes should exist as they are.)

I really think the provisioning (and to lesser extent, alchemy) professions should be redone somewhat(and re-mentioning the 'special packs' for both professions would make both more enjoyable and less 'stressful' on one's inventory space)

Boonie · August 2015

Provisioning was the quickest for me to level up. I did it by doing every delve, looting every barrel, crate, etc. go into houses and steal cheese, meat, vegetables off tables. You don't even have to launder them, you can craft with stolen items.

It sounds like you don't like to do that but it works. Just travel back to town, store all the ingredients in your bank then go back and get more. All your crafting can be done anywhere in the world without taking the materials out of the bank so I don't see what the issue is.

My bank has every ingredient in it except perfect roe, most of them stacks of 200. It can be done without spending a cent on ingredients, might need to buy a recipe or 2 though.

edit: typo

reaver1920 · August 2015

I started provisioning at vr4. I took me 4-5 hours of looting ingredients. I spent another hour crafting. Done. It's the easiest craft to upgrade. It didn't cost me a dime. You're doing it wrong if you are buying ingredients. Go into a town and steal all you need. Delves are amazing also.

BenevolentBowd · August 2015

One can get to level 50 in under 2 hours, if you have a level 10 recipe, level 20 recipe, around two stacks of mats for each recipe, and 1 Skill Point. Every region has at least one large delve, usually with bandits or cultists and a lot of containers. These containers have a 1 hour reset timer per character.

Occassionally, you will find ingredients on the guild traders. The grocer prices are expensive so I wouldn't bother. However, there is one grocer in the Grahtwood region that sells everything for much cheaper. You can find a list of grocer locations on my blog. I visited them all within the last couple of weeks.

The key to leveling is make the highest recipe you can, preferably the highest in the first two tiers. Personally, I make drinks for leveling crafting and save food for leveling adventuring.

AtmaDarkwolf · August 2015

Kinda confused how one manages. As comparison I have my bank (110 slots) and my toon(98 slots) full(Put EVERYTHING in bank on alts to use) and went out filling inventory with every single 'food' based item I could find(even stealing 2 towns worth lol) and went to craft. I was able to craft a total of 6-7 different items(all of them brew btw) and only 1 of the group of items(only was able to craft 4 of that mix) gave me any significant xp boost (got it to 12 total from 3 hrs of 'boring thieving'

To compare, my bank (ONLY bank) can keep ANY and ALL items I would need(with 20ish spots free) to craft anything (up to lv 40ish blacksmith/clothier/lv30 enchanting) and that would include dual(or more) stacks of items I no longer craft (Oak, iron, etc)

This my point. I also think the fact just normal 'playing' (Even if one never mines or hunts for plants) will provide plenty enough materials to keep your other crafting lines equivalent to your character level's needs. With cooking you have to go way, way out of your way, spend silly amounts of time digging up junk, and need your entire inventory free because of the massive number of different items. A 'special pack' would alleviate many of the issues with inventory space for provisioning / alchemy.

Also think, if u will not allow 'basic' recipes to be 'known', why not sell a regions (starter regions) recipes for dirt cheap somewhere easily accessible by newer characters?

Higher level materials and / or recipes I can see being 'as is' (IE: as the current situation) but not 'lower' level stuff (IE lv 1-40 provisioning should be 'somewhat' easy to get without a great deal of effort)

And biggest thing, the amount (the bloody sheer volume) of inventory space needed for provisioning (and alchemy, to a lesser extent) is not in-line with the other crafting professions. (Again why a specific 'pack' would be a good fix and I can't see it causing issues)

KerinKor · August 2015

Provisioning was the easiest craft to level by far in my experience, I've capped it on two characters simply from using the ingredients I've found while leveling my characters, and neither used the Writ system. For me, Enchanting was the biggest nightmare, due to the relative lack of runes found in the world in relation to the numbers needed to level, it took far longer than Provisioning.

Yes, inventory space needed managing, but that's what mules are for.

Brightxdawn · August 2015

I went from rank 4 to 50 in provision within 4-5 days. It was EASY. There is food everywhere to be looted. Green recipes are everywhere to be found and blue. Just cook the *** out of all the food you find.

MilwaukeeScott · August 2015

Boonie wrote: »

Provisioning was the quickest for me to level up.

Same for me.
Loot everything you can. Cook at every fire you see. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Antubis · August 2015

OP, seems like you are doing it wrong. I just loot as I play and have TONS of materials to make food/drinks with. I actually have become selective in what I loot now as ingredients are EVERYWHERE.

Could be you only have a few bad recipes, in which case, buy a few more. They sell from 200g up to 500g for basic recipes.

I_killed_Vivec · August 2015

You're right, that does sound like a whine post.

Provisioning was easy. With writs it's now even easier. Learn a few recipes, gather the required ingredients, cook, do writs, sell off unwanted food.

I find that the only annoying aspect is that I have stacks of ingredients I've never used that I keep "just in case"

Brrrofski · August 2015

It's super easy. Just craft highest rank food. Don't waste ingredients on anything below level 30. Save the ingredients.

Put skills into recipe improvement (I think... The one that has 6 stages)

Craft what you can, go off and do quests for a few days, gather ingredients, craft. Repeat.

Honestly, it flies by when you're not really paying attention to it

IIIMPIII · August 2015

Run around any city, rinse repeat

Pizza_Magician · August 2015

Well if you have alts you can find recipes which make use of different ingredients in the different zones, also the green recipes I usually buy for 1-200 gold in the guild store. You definitely need to dedicate your bank for food though.

AtmaDarkwolf · August 2015

and everyone pretty much repeats my issue with it yet still brings up how fast/easy it is to level(when you HAVE the ingredients yes it IS easy)

My point was, and is the fact it eats up a metric ton of inventory space. Saving 200 slots worth of random food items you found isn't really efficient use of your space.

Really quite surprised nobody decided to tell me about the vender selling food items @ 10coin each though, found that odd.

Again its not the LACK of food to cook, its the absolute huge AMOUNT of different foods - IE inventory spots, that was my issue, and still think, regardless of how 'quick' it 'can' be leveled, it eats up way more space than the other professions.

I mean, ANY of the professions can be 'leveled' as fast/easily if you had all the items sitting in the bank ready to use, right?

CGPsaint · August 2015

I only loot certain food items for the highest level recipes that I have that I'm able to use, as grinding the lower level recipes is a complete waste of time. For instance, Tawny Port is a level 15 recipe that requires Yeast and Methelgin. Otherwise, I found that I was wasting time and filling up my inventory with foods for recipes with low IP gain.

I_killed_Vivec · August 2015

AtmaDarkwolf wrote: »

and everyone pretty much repeats my issue with it yet still brings up how fast/easy it is to level(when you HAVE the ingredients yes it IS easy)

My point was, and is the fact it eats up a metric ton of inventory space. Saving 200 slots worth of random food items you found isn't really efficient use of your space.

Really quite surprised nobody decided to tell me about the vender selling food items @ 10coin each though, found that odd.

Again its not the LACK of food to cook, its the absolute huge AMOUNT of different foods - IE inventory spots, that was my issue, and still think, regardless of how 'quick' it 'can' be leveled, it eats up way more space than the other professions.

I mean, ANY of the professions can be 'leveled' as fast/easily if you had all the items sitting in the bank ready to use, right?

You don't need to stock them all. You don't need to do all the recipes.

For a start writs will only require three foods and three drinks - these in turn require about 10 ingredients (some double up between recipes). Start by stockpiling these, doing writs (which give back ingredients) and using up any other ingredients that you find (or selling them if you don't have an applicable recipe). You will need to farm your stock ingredients, but you won't have to save too many others (though you will want to keep purple ingredients). By the way, writs are made even easier because the food and drink they require only take up 6 slots once you've created them so it's easy to cook in bulk and have your writs done for weeks ahead.

If you level up provisioning as your character levels up then it is easier because you will find recipes that progress through the levels, and ingredients needed for those recipes, as you go through zones.

Use skill points to increase the level of recipe you can use and the level of writs you can fulfil. Cooking at the highest level you can will provide the most experience, so as you level up use your best recipes and ditch ingredients you no longer need as you move on to ingredients for better recipes.

You do NOT need to use loads of slots for ingredients.

Ysne58 · August 2015

I do agree that inventory management is a pain. It gets better as you purchase bank and bag spots and train your horse. That takes a huge amount of gold however.

Winterpsy · August 2015

I built up a 100-120ish large stockpile from every provisioning mat. And every since I loot no more containers.
Why?
The hirelings provide stacks of 10 daily.
From an ingredient I make 4 times as many food/drink due to Chef and Brewer skills maxed out.
Actually there are only 50 ingredient types in game. So that's 50 space in the bank constantly off.

Thecapeo · August 2015

I'm thoroughly confused here. Provisioning is by far the quickest and easiest crafting to get to 50. This weekend my friend literally went from 3 to 50 in less than 30 mins just by making the same lvl 35 recipe repeatedly. Just pick the highest level recipe you have with the simplest ingredients to farm. Super easy. The easiest ingredients to farm are stuff like game or any ingredient that spawns in the Hollow City (cheese for instance) or Cyrodiil as there is no stealing in either of those places so you can clean house.

As for bank space, it isn't an issue because theirs only going to be a few recipes you're going to make regularly so you'll just be holding to those particular ingredients.

Brrrofski · August 2015

AtmaDarkwolf wrote: »

and everyone pretty much repeats my issue with it yet still brings up how fast/easy it is to level(when you HAVE the ingredients yes it IS easy)

My point was, and is the fact it eats up a metric ton of inventory space. Saving 200 slots worth of random food items you found isn't really efficient use of your space.

Really quite surprised nobody decided to tell me about the vender selling food items @ 10coin each though, found that odd.

Again its not the LACK of food to cook, its the absolute huge AMOUNT of different foods - IE inventory spots, that was my issue, and still think, regardless of how 'quick' it 'can' be leveled, it eats up way more space than the other professions.

I mean, ANY of the professions can be 'leveled' as fast/easily if you had all the items sitting in the bank ready to use, right?

But you Don't. Like I said, don't cook anything under level 30. Forget other ingredients, just write down all the ones for your 30+ recipes. Go questing for a few days, keep picking them up, smack some culinary dishes out. Rinse and repeat.

Garlic, cheese, white meat, game, beets can be stolen from guild trade stalls (Sentinel is great). Cyril has loads of poultry, red meat, garlic, seasoning, flour, Saltaire in the two home camps.

What system and zone are you? If you're xbox EU I could sort you out with some ingredients. Got pretty much got a few of everything in my bank. Then stacks of 200 in some stuff

Try keeping all those ingredients and levelling enchanting at the same time. That is serious bank space. I keep ingredients so I can cook food for my guild before pvp. I still have to keep at least 20 rune slots to make higher level Glyphs Pete need. Just take the plunge, pay the gold and get more bank space

Rosveen · August 2015

Brrrofski wrote: »

AtmaDarkwolf wrote: »

and everyone pretty much repeats my issue with it yet still brings up how fast/easy it is to level(when you HAVE the ingredients yes it IS easy)

My point was, and is the fact it eats up a metric ton of inventory space. Saving 200 slots worth of random food items you found isn't really efficient use of your space.

Really quite surprised nobody decided to tell me about the vender selling food items @ 10coin each though, found that odd.

Again its not the LACK of food to cook, its the absolute huge AMOUNT of different foods - IE inventory spots, that was my issue, and still think, regardless of how 'quick' it 'can' be leveled, it eats up way more space than the other professions.

I mean, ANY of the professions can be 'leveled' as fast/easily if you had all the items sitting in the bank ready to use, right?

But you Don't. Like I said, don't cook anything under level 30. Forget other ingredients, just write down all the ones for your 30+ recipes. Go questing for a few days, keep picking them up, smack some culinary dishes out. Rinse and repeat.

Impossible. To craft level 30 recipes, you need rank 25 Provisioning and 2 points in recipe improvement. You can't do this without crafting lower level foods. Theoretically you could turn in writs with food crafted by someone else, but it would take an insane amount of time and money.

Brrrofski · August 2015

Rank 25 provisioning flies up. You can just spam the roast pig recipe you get and get to 15 well easy. Once you xan do rank 30 food, forget the rest

Thisguyrye · August 2015

Get access to a guild bank throw all you ingredients in there for a couple of days pull it all out level 50 in no time.

jarky · August 2015

I find that it's insanely difficult to find the recipes for provisioning writs. Where are you roast corn!?!?

Ingredients seem to be easy to find, just loot everything though it can be an inventory drain. But yeah once you have a few recipes of a higher level I just spam build those and I seem to level up pretty quickly.

WandaMey · August 2015

jarky wrote: »

I find that it's insanely difficult to find the recipes for provisioning writs. Where are you roast corn!?!?

you find lvl 1 recipes on noob islands (khenarti, bleakrock, stros...), but if you have leveled your skill just abandon your quest and retake it, it will ask for something else than roast corn.

Lokustreign · August 2015

AtmaDarkwolf wrote: »

and everyone pretty much repeats my issue with it yet still brings up how fast/easy it is to level(when you HAVE the ingredients yes it IS easy)

My point was, and is the fact it eats up a metric ton of inventory space. Saving 200 slots worth of random food items you found isn't really efficient use of your space.

Really quite surprised nobody decided to tell me about the vender selling food items @ 10coin each though, found that odd.

Again its not the LACK of food to cook, its the absolute huge AMOUNT of different foods - IE inventory spots, that was my issue, and still think, regardless of how 'quick' it 'can' be leveled, it eats up way more space than the other professions.

I mean, ANY of the professions can be 'leveled' as fast/easily if you had all the items sitting in the bank ready to use, right?

So much feels. Such wow.

Listen. There are 51 ingredients TOTAL for provisioning. Here's a link: uesp.net/wiki/Online:Provisioning_Ingredients Educate yo mind! That's not exponentially more or less than any other crafting profession...not if you take into account trait gems, style and improvement materials, etc., that are required for crafting.

It's not a metric ton of space. It is odd that your "point" (yes, I'm using scare quotes because it's a flimsy one that I don't particularly agree with) seems to be exclusive to provisioning, when in fact your issue is more about inventory or shared bank space.

It's also not anyone's fault for you not taking the time to look around at vendors. This is an MMO. And like all MMOs, it's immersive by design. It's made for you to be able to interact with everything. Your own fault for not taking advantage of that aspect of the game. It's not like anything is impeding your ability to talk to NPCs.

I recommend creating bank alts for the time being. It's extremely simple and fast. That's what I do. That's what everyone does. Eventually you'll be able to afford to buy more bank space and rely less on your alts.

Darlgon · August 2015

Err.. Wha? I am currently fishing for the achievement and only have one zone done. I went from level 2 to level 12 just cooking the fish I caught in Stonefalls and vendoring them. My provisioning alt went from 1=50 in a week, and she was level 12. The biggest hang up was getting her skill points to make better recipes.

BabeestorGor · August 2015

I've ocasionally needed to buy a specific foodstuff to fill a writ, in which case the profit plummets, but most of the time its over 200 profit per writ. I've never recieved a writ for a recipe I didn't have on 1 of my characters so I've been lucky there but if I did I'd cancel the writ and hope for a different 1 the next day. It levels ridiculously fast. My highest level character is 15th level and has 37 Provisioning. Her "speciality" Enchanting is 8 and crawling upwards.

SirAndy · August 2015

Boonie wrote: »

Provisioning was the quickest for me to level up.

All my 8 characters have been at provisioning level 50 for a long time now ...

Darlgon · August 2015

Antubis wrote: »

Could be you only have a few bad recipes, in which case, buy a few more. They sell from 200g up to 500g for basic recipes.

Dang.. can I sell the recipes I get from writs in your guild stores? Most recipes are selling for from 29-69 gold.

Ipsius · August 2015

I can't imagine spending a single cent on ingredients. Do people seriously do that?!