It might also help to explain how nodes spawn since One Tamriel. In the "old days," different zones had different level nodes...iron in Auridon, steel in grahtwood, orichalum in greenshade, etc. Now the system looks at your specific character to decide what spawns for smith, cloth and wood (and to some extent enchanting).

Anywhere you go, any given node can spawn as two different possible materials. The first will be based off that character's primary level. If you're level 1-15, iron will spawn. Once you hit level 16 you'll see steel start to appear. The second possible material is based off your rank in that trade skill. Rank is determined by how many points you've spent in the first passive in that skill line. If you've spent no points in smithing, and can only make iron items, iron nodes will appear. If you grind smithing and spend nine points to max it, rubedite will appear.

Roughly half the nodes will be based on player level, and half on skill line rank.

Tips:

- if you're going to craft your own armor, keep your skill line ranks around or slightly above your level. This will help you farm mats you need right now, as well as ones you'll need for your next set of armor.

- daily writs are determined by your rank too. This decides what materials you use to make required items, and where you need to drop them off. Keeping your rank the same amongst different skill lines helps keep the writs all the same place.

- if for some reason you want to farm mats under your character's level (i.e., you want to build up a bank for future toons), managing your skill line rank is the way to do it. If you ever outlevel the mats you want, you can respec your skill points and reset them to get the nodes you're looking for. It's unlikely you'll ever need this, but the option is there.

Farm routes:

note that you can free travel to any online member of any guild you belong to by going into the roster, finding an online member and selecting travel to. Feel free to open wayshrines the old fashioned way, but if you want to speed things up join a guild and do it this way.

A good farm route provides a range of nodes, then also something valuable. Some suggestions:

Upper craglorn, dragon star aaaaaaall the way across to the eastern anomalies. Wide variety of nodes, each has 1 in 200 chance of dropping nirncrux, a very valuable mat.

Gold Coast and Hew's Bane. If you have access to the DLCs, these zones are small and packed with nodes.

The Rift, up and down the waterways. There's an average number of nodes, but you find nirn root on the water. This has become very valuable...500-1000 gold each in guild stores. Any long stretch of water is basically the same...nirn is a good way for a yong player to start building a bank. It's so rare right now I don't think you even need to join a guild...just zone chat "100 nirn root, $50,000" and you'll get a buyer.

Central glenumbra: when there aren't a lot of players, this area is node heaven for some reason.

Alikr desert: average nodes, no special mats, but if you're unfamiliar with what nodes look like this can be a good training ground. The desert is flat and sandy, so everything stands out.