Is provisioning a Total Waste of Skill Points?

Deathgiggle · August 2016

I hit level 50 finally and thought I'd start running more dungeons so I better level up my provisioning. My thought was that I'm a Magicka Nightblade and my health is low so I thought making my own food would be beneficial to boost my health and magicka a little. I sunk a lot of points into it, 15 points to be exact! I got everything except the ones for drinks cause I don't use drinks. At the end when I capped out I thought GREAT, now I'll go buy a recipe for my level and make me some food!

I went to the Guild vendors outside of Grahtwood and started looking for recipes but I searched for food instead not knowing they were under the crafting tab. What I saw made my me kind of sad to be honest. I found that there were a lot of foods listed for pretty cheap prices that someone else had already crafted. My heart kind of sank as I realized how many points I just used to level Provisioning.
Now 3 days later I'm CP 60 and the best food I can make for my level is Corinthean Roast Kagouti which gives 4342 Health and 3973 Magicka for one hour. I can craft my own for no cost cause I have tons of provisioning materials but I went to the Guild Traders to see if anyone was selling it. I found a stack of 50 for 3000 Gold. I was like wow, can't hardly believe how freaking cheap it is. I mean that's 50 FREAKING HOURS worth of food for only 3k gold. Why did I even level provisioning??

Please tell me that at later CP levels the provisioning becomes worth it? I mean the food listed is so cheap I'm wondering if I should of just kept my 15 points. I'm not hurting for points I have more than I need but it's just the thought of I could of put them into other crafting areas.

Also is the Provisioner Hireling worth it? Today he brought me 15 wheat and 15 of something else, but again I can get that stuff in like 30 seconds on one of the floating ships along the coast. Maybe I wasted points on him too. The other Hirelings do bring me good stuff once in a while, so no complaints there.

Transairion · August 2016

At the very least you'll want to invest skill points into the passive/s that increase the duration of consumed food/drink (by up to 30 minutes I think?), since that'll eventually add up and saves you money in the long run.

Zerok · August 2016

It's only worth it for the provisioning writ. This writ is like a government bond: no-risk, low reward (600g per day, ingredients, and a cheap recipe).

Sometimes you get a psijic ambrosia recipe fragment that you can sell for 4-5k gold. Sometimes you get a blue or purple quality recipe.

starlizard70ub17_ESO · August 2016

At higher cp levels like 160cp provisioning is well worth it. You just need to find the right recipes, blue and purple ones. Purple recipes at 160cp will boost all stats by ~4800 to 5000, and Blue ones will boost 2 stats close to 6000. I would by recipes until you hit 160cp, just search everywhere to find them. You'll only need 2, maybe 3 good blue and/or purple recipes and you'll be set. As for the hirelings, put 2 points into them, at higher levels the hirelings are nearly the only way you'll get the valuable purple food mats.

idk · August 2016

Your going to either craft your food or you will make it. It's really your choice.

I have multiple characters. I've levels up provisioning on each to get the extended time for food. I keep the points in 2 for crafting and getting matts.

You will need for for most group content or you'll likely be kicked often.

NewBlacksmurf · August 2016

Its not a waste but if all you do is buy...and don't want the passive time or to make food yourself, you can use those points elsewhere but if you're doing most of the content, not all, you should have enough points to choose all professions as well as all class skills, at least one armor and one weapon in addition to some guild skills and racial passives.

Just depends on how you play.

Flameheart · August 2016

One of the best and most usefull crafting ability ever.

You need blue and purple recipes. There are no builds, raids or group content without buff food. The passives improve duration and number of items you can cook, I don't want to miss that.

It's enough to have just one char for the real cooking, but the passives for increased duration for all played chars might be usefull. No problem for chars at over 300 skillpoints in the end.

bertenburnyb16_ESO · August 2016

15SP is not a whole lot, theres like what? 350 or something in the game now

Iselin · August 2016

Waste of skill points?

Just about everyone eventually has 50+ unallocated skill points even after training and morphing everything.

Provisioning just like most of the crafting in ESO is not really about getting rich by crafting. But it's still useful as all hell to do it yourself.

THEDKEXPERIENCE · August 2016

Food isn't a good money maker because, as your stated, 50 hours worth of food can be had for 3000 gold. Alchemy, however, can be a gold mine if you have the gold (or time) to collect the mats.

That said, a lot of people get sticker shock at the price of top end potions because they don't realize how expensive it is to make them. The ones I'm using now give me health, health recovery, magic, magic recovery and immovable. To make 4 of them it costs me over 1,000 gold on XBox. 700 for 1 columbine, 150 each for 1 Bugloss and 1 Wormwood, plus a marginal cost for Lorkan's tears. 1 group of 10 potions costs the maker 2500 gold! I try and sell them for 4 to 6k depending on the market per 10. People burn through them like hotcakes so business stays busy.

Ourorboros · August 2016

Leveling provisioning is worth it if you play a lot and plan to do end game content or PVP. Others in your group will be quick to point out if you do not have a food buff, rightfully so. While food may be cheap to buy, being able to craft your own means more time playing, less time shopping guild kiosks. The hireling is one of only two sources of purple mats, so unless you are strapped for skill points or do not craft your own food, it's as good a places as any to use those skill points. As you increase your CP and tackle harder content, you will need your food buff. Crafting it yourself saves you time and a little gold, gold that you may need to get better equipment.

Gargath · August 2016

It's worth to have provisioning maxed out on a single crafter character, who can do max lvl food/drinks for the rest of family and friends

.
On other characters it's wise to just increase it to 50 adding skill points just to level it faster on next level waters, after it's levelled re-skill the useless crafting points and leave only passives.

s7732425ub17_ESO · August 2016

Yes, yes it is.

CapnPhoton · August 2016

Zerok wrote: »

It's only worth it for the provisioning writ. This writ is like a government bond: no-risk, low reward (600g per day, ingredients, and a cheap recipe).

Sometimes you get a psijic ambrosia recipe fragment that you can sell for 4-5k gold. Sometimes you get a blue or purple quality recipe.

This. Plus it could be useful to your guild. As for spending points on hirelings, you don't need to max it out, especially with all the materials you can find in the game. I would prefer to make my own food for main and alts.