One main and Seven crafting mules ?

winterbornb14_ESO · January 2017

I was told there was a step by step guide somewhere that shows you how to add a new account just for Crafting/Harvesting for money.
I have yet to see anything and it may be a very small percent of the player base that want to run a account full of characters like a business, but maybe someone here knows where to look.

In short you have one main character that you level to 50/160+ for adventure and seven alts that each specialize in a crafting trade mainly for the hirelings and writs.
This should cut down on the training time, give you more bag space and have lots of hirelings plus there must be a way to maximize writs, maybe one character per tier etc. ?

Anyone know the crafting alt tips the pro's use ?

miteba · January 2017

Dont know any pro tips first because i am not pro at it, second because it is not my playstyle, but i can give my opinion on the matter since i do the writs almost everyday:

It is viable if you have a lot of time and want to have a more specific playstyle based on crafting (tempers merchant or something like that) but you will have to breathe ESO all day:

1 - Low % of getting master crafting writs
With Homestead you will have a chance of getting master crafter writs, which will depend of your character crafting level, achievements, number of traits researched, motifs known, proficiency, etc etc ... so you can just do the regular writs but you probably will not have a great % of finding those.

2 - Time sink #1
It is not difficult to place a character at level 50/160+ but it takes some time anyway... and one thing is to reach that level and have some essential skills to play PVE or PVP ... another completely different is the time needed to get some gameplay skillpoints and the crafting ones, plus get/buy motifs, research times, etc etc...

3 - Time sink #2
Almost everyday i do the writs with 6 characters, which are already loaded with the necessary stock of items needed, and i am skilled with the equipment rotations writs so i do them quick (30~45min) and believe me... i already die of boredom

4 - Low crafting level = weak tempers/surveys/gold revenue
Even if you dont reach a higher level for the mules, and have 2/3 skills for gameplay, you will always have to invest a lot of time upgradind the crafting trees for them to have the last hireling passives. If you plan to only certificate them and do the most basic writs... the tempers and surveys drops are very low and i only gain 200gold per writ (630gold per writ in master crafting characters)

So the fact that consumes lot of time in one account... plus the playstyle you have in the main account... is it viable for you?
In my personal playstyle it´s not. I do the regular writs with my main toons to stack my tempers (and the gold revenue is welcome) and to be prepared for the master crafter writs release with homestead.

Stopnaggin · January 2017

First thing, do not split you crafting between characters. One crafter only, your main. There are enough skill points to be a crafter and adventurer. The cost and time grinding motifs and research traits is crazy. While this may take more time in the beginning it is worth it in the end.

Having different crafters is a pain. Having to switch between them to craft and what not. Alchemy, provisioning and enchanting are a easy enough to level. Only the gear takes time.

I have one main who is my crafter. I also have crafting level up on alts but not the research. This allows me to turn in high level writs. I keep one low level toon for farming lower tier materials. Anything gathered will be refined by my main who has all the passives.

The master writs seem to be pretty random at this point. Also they are tradeable and I assume sellable, so they will be available.

For money crafting isn't viable yet. Farming mats can earn you gold. Reagents still sell, tempers and gold upgrade mats sell but have lowered in price. Refined mats are selling for about 5k a stack on console, raw goes for about the cost of the gold mats. Tri-pots, food and glyphs are good sellers. We will see with housing if anything makes crafting profitable. At this point I'm hording my upgrade mats and surveys, unless someone has a request for glyphs or gear in which case I charge if they don't have the mats.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · January 2017

I dont know about separate accounts, one is enough, but I will give you my insight. For reference, I do 6/6 max level writs on 8 toons every day. I am working to have 10 by patch day, as master writs are coming and I need 37 test dummies cuz reasons.

Using some addons and making a lot of stuff in bulk ahead of time, I can do 48 writs in 37 minutes (yes I have timed it).

As others have suggested, I think it is advantageous to have one main crafter, mostly for simplicity. This allows you to focus your Motif and skill point collecting. To have a fully maxed crafter requires a lot of skill points, but it is doable to do that and have enough for normal skill bars and passives so you can actually play. I have one toon that is 9 trait across the board and knows about 85% of the motifs. You could also split your your craft skills 3 and 3, one for wood armor and cloth, the other for prov, alchemy, and enchanting.

I do have another toon that is 9 triat on half, and working to bring her up to scratch as well, and have four more toons at 4-5 traits and counting. The only advantage to having multiple crafters with multiple traits is, as said earlier, you will have a better drop on master writs. To me this is easier than trying to learn all the motifs on every alt, but ideally you would do that as well if you really wanted master writs.

As others have suggested, the higher level writ you do, the better your reward. We do these for Gold Mats, Gold, and Surverys (raw mats). On 8 toons, I usually get about 8 gold mats and a handful of surveys every day, plus approx 32k in gold from turning in the quests. This certainly adds up. It does come at a cost however. If you play the game a fair amount, you will probably get enough materials to support 2-3 toons doing writs on a daily basis. If you want to do 8, you will either need to farm or buy some raw mats, mostly rubedite and silk, occasionally, wood and nirnroot. Everything else seems to be pretty self sustaining.

It takes something like 65 skill points to have max hirelings and be able to do 6 max writs on a toon. If you have alts that are parked and not doing anything, this is easy. If you want to play them, then you have some sky shard hunting to do. You also need to actively grind your crafting skills to level 50. Wood, Blacksmith, and Cloth level pretty fast from deconstructing high level gear. Alchemy and Provisioning can be power leveled in about 15 minutes each. Enchanting is the one that takes work. I usually just funnel all my glyphs through my bank and have one toon always deconstructing then move to the next. You can also power level if you make purple glyphs on one toon and decon on another. I am working on my 10th max enchanter now, and working on my 11th for every other skill line.

TLDR: Writs are very rewarding, and will be even more so next patch. They do take time at first to level your skills and get skill points, but after that, its a pretty efficient way of making consistent money and gold mats. You will also never need to worry about a repair kit or soul gem ever again. I have thousands and thousands of each.

Victoria_Marquis · January 2017

One of the biggest problem you will run into is Skill Points, it took us several months to level one character and get all the sky shards in game to have a master craftsman.

It's easier to have several crafter characters and just do a few starting quests, and delves to get enough sky shards for skill points....

winterbornb14_ESO · January 2017

Hmm, it sounds as if the time investment is better spent just harvesting mats if you look at it as gold per hour.

I was thinking of getting sky shards, disc. xp, books etc. for enough skill points per mule character to get max hirelings and what ever level writs are worth doing (if any) in one profession. I figured I would have one main that is maxed out on all crafting lines with motif's etc. that can harvest but the rest just as money makers and extra storage until I can level another line for more hirelings.

So are 7 mule alts with max hirelings in say 3 crafting lines plus writs going to be more efficient than just harvesting on my main max level crafter/adventurer?

Oreyn_Bearclaw · January 2017

winterbornb14_ESO wrote: »

Hmm, it sounds as if the time investment is better spent just harvesting mats if you look at it as gold per hour.

I was thinking of getting sky shards, disc. xp, books etc. for enough skill points per mule character to get max hirelings and what ever level writs are worth doing (if any) in one profession. I figured I would have one main that is maxed out on all crafting lines with motif's etc. that can harvest but the rest just as money makers and extra storage until I can level another line for more hirelings.

So are 7 mule alts with max hirelings in say 3 crafting lines plus writs going to be more efficient than just harvesting on my main max level crafter/adventurer?

I think it is worth it in the long haul. The fastest way to get the skill points needed is to simply power grind an alt to 50. That can be done in about 5 hours now. Then you can just park them and do writs until you get around to skyshard hunting for skill points to acutally fight. Its also nice if you havent to start making your alts now (I have 2 of each class in my alliance, 1 in the other two alliances, a dedicated tank, and will eventually make a dedicated healer for number 12). That way you can start feeding horses and give yourself a lot more inventory space.