Crafting Writs are now dead

camknox · October 2016

So thanks to OneTamriel it seems for many at least Crafting Writs will now be dead. The changes are just so varied and wow not thought out. Let's address;

1. Crafting Writ X hand-in location changed from Wrathgar to Craglorn. This is cool. Makes it accessible for people without the DLC. Go for it.
2. You now get a box of goodies if you don't get a Survey. This would be fine if the goodies you got had any relevance to the Writ level you just handed in. I got Superb Hide and Iron handing in max level Writs. Junk that does not come close to covering what it cost to produce the Writ in stock.
3. Provisioning Writs now seem completely random levels. Also stupid. Now each time you collect a Writ you have to remake new food. Way to exhaust stockpiles.
4. Surveys now send you to ANY overworld zone. This is the most stupid of all. Handing in max level writs and you get a BOUND Survey for Alik'r where you can harvest lower level stuff you no longer need. Can't even sell it.

So yeah they're dead. What a waste of time.

Beardimus · October 2016

1. That was the case before, you only got Wrothgar if you had the DLC, otherwise that was top tier location
2. This was requested by this forum. To allow crafters to still harvest lower tier mats. Read the oatch notes think its a 25% chance of lower
3. Not totally random, but other recipes in Recipe Improvement passive tried 6 (which covers CP100&150 I believe. Waiting to hear on other threads if this is intentional or a mistake
4. As per patch notes and I agree a bit annoying as they will be so scattered. Point being to get people travel. And as per 1 you are wrong about lower level materials, that's the point of one tamriek, its all your tier now.

Nestor · October 2016

1. No comment needed, I prefer Blekarth myself than tripping over each cobblestone in Orsinium
2. With the changes to Nodes, Ruby Mats drop in all zones now so the Material Prices are going to plummet. Top end writs are going to be cheap, like they were back when Void was selling for 600 a 100 Stack. The Lower Tier Mats containers is ZOS's solution to pretty much eliminating the mid level mats from the game as the nodes scale to character or crafting material level now. This is not an ideal solution, but it is what we have for now
3. There is some weirdness with the top tier writs, in that sometimes you make CP50 or CP100 stuff now. This might be a bug and should be addressed if it is one. I don't mind making CP100 as I save ingredients used for CP150 stuff
4. The Surveys are scaled to the character doing the Survey, not the character that got the Survey. So, the mats you find are scaled to that harvesting character, not the zone you are going to. So, a maxxed crafter with 10 in Material, will be seeing only top end Mats from the survey.

camknox · October 2016

Beardimus wrote: »

2. This was requested by this forum. To allow crafters to still harvest lower tier mats. Read the oatch notes think its a 25% chance of lower
3. Not totally random, but other recipes in Recipe Improvement passive tried 6 (which covers CP100&150 I believe. Waiting to hear on other threads if this is intentional or a mistake
4. As per patch notes and I agree a bit annoying as they will be so scattered. Point being to get people travel. And as per 1 you are wrong about lower level materials, that's the point of one tamriek, its all your tier now.

Except NO. It's not. In any zone you have a chance to see the zone level or your crafting/character level. This is old. They did it ages back. Crafting writs, and this just happened to me, can spawn as the *** zone level.

Also my provisioning writ was for CP50. Nope not interested.

Nestor wrote: »

2. With the changes to Nodes, Ruby Mats drop in all zones now so the Material Prices are going to plummet. Top end writs are going to be cheap, like they were back when Void was selling for 600 a 100 Stack. The Lower Tier Mats containers is ZOS's solution to pretty much eliminating the mid level mats from the game as the nodes scale to character or crafting material level now. This is not an ideal solution, but it is what we have for now
4. The Surveys are scaled to the character doing the Survey, not the character that got the Survey. So, the mats you find are scaled to that harvesting character, not the zone you are going to. So, a maxxed crafter with 10 in Material, will be seeing only top end Mats from the survey.

See above.

BergisMacBride · October 2016

camknox wrote: »

1. Crafting Writ X hand-in location changed from Wrathgar to Craglorn. This is cool. Makes it accessible for people without the DLC. Go for it.

I'm ok with this - kind of nice to get back to Craglorn, although I am beginning to miss Orsinium for my writs and crafting.

2. You now get a box of goodies if you don't get a Survey. This would be fine if the goodies you got had any relevance to the Writ level you just handed in. I got Superb Hide and Iron handing in max level Writs. Junk that does not come close to covering what it cost to produce the Writ in stock.

Since all zones mats scale to crafting and player CP level, this is the only means for maxed crafters to get the old mats. I'm glad they did it although I imagine I'll begin to pile up huge surpluses of this since I run writs every day on several chars.

3. Provisioning Writs now seem completely random levels. Also stupid. Now each time you collect a Writ you have to remake new food. Way to exhaust stockpiles.

I've only seen this on my highest level provisioning writs, where there is now a mixture of the prior tier and current tier recipes. I'm hoping this is a mistake. If it is intentional, IMO they need to revert it back to highest level recipes only.

4. Surveys now send you to ANY overworld zone. This is the most stupid of all. Handing in max level writs and you get a BOUND Survey for Alik'r where you can harvest lower level stuff you no longer need. Can't even sell it.

I'll probably store my recipes on one char and do weekly harvesting runs now. The level mats in that zone and all zones will scale to your char and/or crafting level, so if your CP 160 and maxed crafting you'll only be harvesting the highest level mats. I'm seeing folks everywhere talk about a glut of ruby level mats since they are now so ubiquitous.

As for me, the jury is still out on writs as it is for any major change. I'll keep doing the consumables since the mat cost is so low and they are so quick for the return. I'm closely following the equipment ones to see if they will be worth doing. My main concern is my preliminary drop rates on surveys are abysmal (3.5% as of this morning), but I am monitoring that closely and hopefully will know more as I gather more data.

Nestor · October 2016

camknox wrote: »

Except NO. It's not. In any zone you have a chance to see the zone level or your crafting/character level.

Zone Levels do not exist anymore with regards to Crafting Mat Nodes. Only your character level or your crafting material level matter. If they are different, you are supposed to have a 50/50 chance of getting one or the other level.

Otherwise, explain why I was seeing Oak in Craglorn last night on my CP538 with L2 Wood Material Level.

camknox · October 2016

Nestor wrote: »

camknox wrote: »

Except NO. It's not. In any zone you have a chance to see the zone level or your crafting/character level.

Zone Levels do not exist anymore with regards to Crafting Mat Nodes. Only your character level or your crafting material level matter. If they are different, you are supposed to have a 50/50 chance of getting one or the other level.

Otherwise, explain why I was seeing Oak in Craglorn last night on my CP538 with L2 Wood Material Level.

In that same instance why am I seeing Iron in Daggerfall on my 50/50. I shouldn't be but I am. Something is broken. The zones still seem to be working the way they did prior to OneTamriel. Where you have a 50% chance to display the "zoned resources" or your scaled resources (where the zone allowed that)

Nestor · October 2016

camknox wrote: »

In that same instance why am I seeing Iron in Daggerfall on my 50/50. I shouldn't be but I am. Something is broken.

Yes, something may not be right. However all over Wrothgar, which has always been scaled, I was seeing Oak and Ruby on my L50 with L2 in Wood Mats. On the PTS, I was seeing a 50/50 mix of the nodes for those zones I did some farming in.

I will be doing some farming tonight in various places on various characters. Perhaps some nodes were not replaced for the update. You would think they would use a Find and Replace function.

What they really should have done is leave the nodes alone and let people make any level of armor out of any level of material. Just use more and have the material level investment reduce the amount of mats needed.

Elsonso · October 2016

Beardimus wrote: »

2. This was requested by this forum. To allow crafters to still harvest lower tier mats. Read the oatch notes think its a 25% chance of lower

I don't recall this being requested by the forum. I think this was a ZOS wonderful idea, in response to forum comments that it was not possible to get lower level crafting materials in the game. I'd rather blame someone in the forum, though. Any links?

AzraelKrieg · October 2016

lordrichter wrote: »

Beardimus wrote: »

2. This was requested by this forum. To allow crafters to still harvest lower tier mats. Read the oatch notes think its a 25% chance of lower

I don't recall this being requested by the forum. I think this was a ZOS wonderful idea, in response to forum comments that it was not possible to get lower level crafting materials in the game. I'd rather blame someone in the forum, though. Any links?

Check the PTS forums. It was a feedback in the first round of PTS patch notes.

newtinmpls · October 2016

camknox wrote: »

why am I seeing Iron in Daggerfall on my 50/50. I shouldn't be but I am. Something is broken. The zones still seem to be working the way they did prior to OneTamriel. Where you have a 50% chance to display the "zoned resources" or your scaled resources (where the zone allowed that)

50/50 doesn't matter for purposes of what you harvest. What matters is that first crafting passive; X/10.

Nestor · October 2016

Yep, if your Material Level is 1 for Metal, then your going to see Iron half the time. Now, this is a 50/50 chance per Node, so you can come across a dozen iron before you get a rubedite. But, it will balance out to 50/50

I just farmed across several zones and the mats were evenly distributed between my character level and material level.

Nestor · October 2016

lordrichter wrote: »

Beardimus wrote: »

2. This was requested by this forum. To allow crafters to still harvest lower tier mats. Read the oatch notes think its a 25% chance of lower

I don't recall this being requested by the forum. I think this was a ZOS wonderful idea, in response to forum comments that it was not possible to get lower level crafting materials in the game. I'd rather blame someone in the forum, though. Any links?

It was a large thread about this. Basically, you now have to build your character to farm a certain level of eq crafting material, either with material passives or character level. Also, about half the mats, all the old Vet Level mats other than Ruby, has been rendered obsolete except for first characters. And, even then, it's questionable if you really need much of those old vet level mats.

I would love it if they would allow any material to make any level gear, just level the amount needed, and then just randomly spawn nodes, or give a zone a 50% preference for one level and random for the other 50%. Then we can see all the different materials in the game, some of which are much more attractive than Ruby is. Especially if your Dyeing it.

disintegr8 · October 2016

I think it will be the end of writs for max level characters with max level crafting skills. If I get top level raw material from nodes everywhere I go, I will no longer need the materials I get from the much reduced survey maps.

The only reason to do them might be to keep a small supply of lower level materials coming in from the crafting boxes. I'll see how it goes when they come to PS4 in a couple of weeks and I can test it all for myself.

nraner81 · October 2016

PS4 player without the add ons that cpu players have.
writs will deff be dead to me. I rem learning the spots in crag/wroth as I kept an alt at 9 for the nirn. and cant imagine wanting to search other areas for HOURS looking for that ****ing X...... yea ill jus skip writs when OT comes to PS4.

T@rty · October 2016

Have to agree, its pointless and not cost effective to bother with the writs now. Whoever at ZoS thought this was a good change has clearly been on the Skooma. Since the writs started both my girlfriend and I done them virtually every day with a brew before leaving for work, guess we'll be getting a lay in now.

GG ZoS

psxfloh · October 2016

nraner81 wrote: »

PS4 player without the add ons that cpu players have.
writs will deff be dead to me. I rem learning the spots in crag/wroth as I kept an alt at 9 for the nirn. and cant imagine wanting to search other areas for HOURS looking for that ****ing X...... yea ill jus skip writs when OT comes to PS4.

THIS!
Who the hell can memorize all survey locations all over the world? I was glad I knew all wrothgar locations without looking them up - but that will be over in a couple of days!

!

While it's not as bad with a smartphone or tablet, where you can lookup the exact locations - it still is VERY annoying to look up the location of each and every survey..
PS Browser would be a nice alternative - but unfortunately it is not: every time you switch to the game and back it reloads the whole page, which takes aaages!

So the surveys will pile up unused in the bank until they're destroyed due to the very limited bank space.. Really, only 240 slots? And 200 per character? For a zillion crafting materials and item sets?!
I don't know if I got the exact numbers, but aren't there 5 zones with 5 surveys (1 for each crafting line) + 2x5 in coldharbour + 3x5 in craglorn + 3x5 in wrothgar for a total of 65 different surveys maps?!

saucefarb16_ESO · October 2016

hell the patch killed questing for me, it is so unenjoyable now with all the activity, unless they make it all instanced it will never work for leveling, the scaled gear based on levels and rarity makes sure you will never use crafted gear again unless you want to sit and make new gear for every 5 levels, the gear from dungeons scales up to 160 and there's no reason to use anything else now.

I can't count how many things this patch has broken, i wish we could revert the entire thing all together.

bellanca6561n · October 2016

I don't think any system will please everyone but this one feels as if it tried. Which means it will probably annoy more people in one way or another.

Durable Goods

Like many of you, I do a gaggle of writs daily and unwrap the rewards once a week. Had 7 each of Smithy, Tailor, Carpenter in my bag when the update landed. Several "shipments" "arrived" when I unpacked them, each containing 25 of something I don't need: lower level ingots, wood varieties and leathers. Two surveys: one for Wrothgar and one for The Rift.

Okay....The Rift has the most pleasant collection of incidental soundtracks of any zone in the game...Northpoint Nocturne being my favorite. I'm trying to stay positive here.

I may one day decide to make a new character. I could wake up one day with Wailing Prison nostalgia, who knows? If so, those crates of 25 rawhide each will seem heaven sent...or Sovengarde sent...

Oh and the nice bit now is that the surveys will stack in you pack.

Other Goods

Two of my characters are old cooks. I wouldn't call them that to their faces, of course...especially not Sharli...she's tough...

Twelve level 7 Provisioner Packs total in their bags. The usual stuff. Only change was what Sharli had to cook to earn her next one. No purple psychic-whatever recipe bits but my cooks rarely get those anyway, and have been getting duplicate pieces now for quite some time. I have no expectation of getting all 7 pieces and no real interest in getting them except to sell.

Three of my characters are maxxed out enchanters.

Patrician%20Dress%20Back%20Enchanting_zpswnzqbtiy.png

Goodness knows how many boxes they had, in total, waiting. The usual yield here...3 or 4 Kutas, plenty of green glpyhs with the typical 2 empty soul gems tossed in.

I was actually relieved when no surveys turned up in this large batch as I've gone 18 surveys with zero Kutas and was feeling snake bit by these things.

Conclusion

ESO has a primitive crafting system to begin with and these writs are an EXTREMELY diluted version of Ultima Online's Bulk Order Deed scheme. No wonder....the original creative director for the game was on the original UO design team. Thus, no matter what they do, it still will come down to an RNG affair that will feel....not entirely rewarding...

camknox · October 2016

bellanca6561n wrote: »

I was actually relieved when no surveys turned up in this large batch as I've gone 18 surveys with zero Kutas and was feeling snake bit by these things.

I've had well into the 40+ enchanter surveys and have never seen a Kuta. I've had 4 Rekuta and 2 Denata at the same time off the one node but have never, never seen a Kuta on the survey nodes. I am of the opinion that either the drop rate is sub 1% or that they just completely removed them from the "new" style nodes they made (that drop everything; at least the survey ones anyway).

newtinmpls wrote: »

50/50 doesn't matter for purposes of what you harvest. What matters is that first crafting passive; X/10.

I have MAX skill points spent in all trades. I am 50 Skill and 50 Level. I should NEVER see any other types of nodes; by virtue of their "it scales off either your tradeskill level or your player level" testament. I DO see other types of nodes regularly.

Elsonso · October 2016

camknox wrote: »

I have MAX skill points spent in all trades. I am 50 Skill and 50 Level. I should NEVER see any other types of nodes; by virtue of their "it scales off either your tradeskill level or your player level" testament. I DO see other types of nodes regularly.

You give me hope that they may never fix this.

newtinmpls · October 2016

camknox wrote: »

I have MAX skill points spent in all trades. I am 50 Skill and 50 Level. I should NEVER see any other types of nodes; by virtue of their "it scales off either your tradeskill level or your player level" testament. I DO see other types of nodes regularly.

Wow. I would say put in a bug report.

I have lots of different characters, different levels & different X/10 ranking; and I experience an alternation between "character level" and "passive rank" some are really close to each other; two examples; I have a lvl 22 person with 1/10 woodworking seeing either maple (passive rank) or oak (character rank), I also have a CP 400+ some person with 1/10 who is seeing either rubedite ore (level of character) or iron ore (level of passive).

What I think is interesting is that when I am adventuring with my beloved (we run various characters in pairs), we both tend to see "character level" stuff OR "passive level" stuff. It didn't "cross over" with one seeing character level and the other seeing passive level.

Synfaer · October 2016

camknox wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

camknox wrote: »

Except NO. It's not. In any zone you have a chance to see the zone level or your crafting/character level.

Zone Levels do not exist anymore with regards to Crafting Mat Nodes. Only your character level or your crafting material level matter. If they are different, you are supposed to have a 50/50 chance of getting one or the other level.

Otherwise, explain why I was seeing Oak in Craglorn last night on my CP538 with L2 Wood Material Level.

In that same instance why am I seeing Iron in Daggerfall on my 50/50. I shouldn't be but I am. Something is broken. The zones still seem to be working the way they did prior to OneTamriel. Where you have a 50% chance to display the "zoned resources" or your scaled resources (where the zone allowed that)

My 50 level 10/10 crafting character NEVER sees low level materials no matter where she is, so if you do i would say your character is bugged somehow. I have done about 30 surveys since OT and all have been 100% top tier materials.

.

STEVIL · October 2016

Synfaer wrote: »

camknox wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

camknox wrote: »

Except NO. It's not. In any zone you have a chance to see the zone level or your crafting/character level.

Zone Levels do not exist anymore with regards to Crafting Mat Nodes. Only your character level or your crafting material level matter. If they are different, you are supposed to have a 50/50 chance of getting one or the other level.

Otherwise, explain why I was seeing Oak in Craglorn last night on my CP538 with L2 Wood Material Level.

In that same instance why am I seeing Iron in Daggerfall on my 50/50. I shouldn't be but I am. Something is broken. The zones still seem to be working the way they did prior to OneTamriel. Where you have a 50% chance to display the "zoned resources" or your scaled resources (where the zone allowed that)

My 50 level 10/10 crafting character NEVER sees low level materials no matter where she is, so if you do i would say your character is bugged somehow. I have done about 30 surveys since OT and all have been 100% top tier materials.

.

Ditto here though more surveys run since OneT.

the only onet writ issue i have seen is some odd belkarath recipe things on provisioning but that may have been addressed, yesterday's didn't do it and am still seeing purple on provision crates for top tier.

Mandragora · October 2016

I know it was requested by some players to have random drops, but I have the same problem - gathering maps are on the real level of my alt, who is gathering them, gathering in a zone too and reward are refined already and random level = I have almost 0 of crafting mats I need for my crafting level dependant wrist.

but my friend had an idea, which is really good - it is actually old, but in One Tamriel it would solve all - what about crafting wrists without material restrictions?

you would get this task:
craft a bow

you could choose material which you have + as close as possible crafting level, so you would get exps.
And according to your chosen material you would get also amount of crafting xps - if you would craft a maple bow on your level 9 of woodworker, you would get almost 0 xps, but better than nothing. Atleast you woulnd't feel so limited as it is now.

And even more important:
you could also get your reward in your chosen level of you crafting task, so if you would need a maple for your crafting, you would get more of maple.

I know you wouldn't be able to farm still, but atleast you could get reward on the level you wanted.

Jayne_Doe · October 2016

My husband and I were playing one night a few days ago. We had characters of different level and crafting skill. I saw Mahogany where he saw Ruby Ash. As it should have been.

However, when I opened an Enchanting node and saw a potency rune, I left it (not harvesting the essence or aspect) and let my husband harvest it for the chance at a Repora. However, when he opened it, the potency was a Rekuta, my level. So, I'm guessing that once a node is opened, it is set to that level. So, in theory, someone could run around opening but not harvesting anything and the nodes would get set (at least until they despawned/respawned).

Not sure if this would actually be the case, but at least for Enchanting, the node was set to my level once I opened it.

Elsonso · October 2016

Jayne_Doe wrote: »

My husband and I were playing one night a few days ago. We had characters of different level and crafting skill. I saw Mahogany where he saw Ruby Ash. As it should have been.

However, when I opened an Enchanting node and saw a potency rune, I left it (not harvesting the essence or aspect) and let my husband harvest it for the chance at a Repora. However, when he opened it, the potency was a Rekuta, my level. So, I'm guessing that once a node is opened, it is set to that level. So, in theory, someone could run around opening but not harvesting anything and the nodes would get set (at least until they despawned/respawned).

Not sure if this would actually be the case, but at least for Enchanting, the node was set to my level once I opened it.

Yes, nodes have random scaled content, until opened.

Unsent.Soul · October 2016

I'd remove #1 from the OP. That's never changed.

Tevalaur · October 2016

camknox wrote: »

1. Crafting Writ X hand-in location changed from Wrathgar to Craglorn. This is cool. Makes it accessible for people without the DLC. Go for it.

Unsent.Soul wrote: »

I'd remove #1 from the OP. That's never changed.

Actually, it did change. Before if you didn't have Orsinium yes you delivered to Belkarth, but what you made and the rewards received were based on the level IX writ even if you had the points in for X. Now they are the X-level crafts and rewards.

Also, now even if you have Orsinium you deliver to Belkarth. Very different