Some basic tips for beginner crafters (especially with birthday event)

For this week

1. The daily quest reward boxes are giving some things that are MASSIVELY valuable for crafters - rare motifs and rare style mats. Do as many of these as you can this week. World boss dailies in Gold Coast, wrothgar and news Bane are a good source of these...plenty of grown ups to protect you, lol. If you don't have dlc access, the fighters and mages guild in any capital city has dailies too.

2. Start crafting writs this week...these reward the gold boxes too, and between the trade skills you can earn six in like twenty minutes...way faster than fighting dailies. To start writs you need to be like level 3 in a skill (I think). Decon some stuff...learn traits...then you go to the mage guild and fight guild in your starter city for training in each of the six skills.

3. For the motif and other stuff rewards, when in doubt don't dispose, store with an alt. If you need the space, create a holding character. As a new player you won't know what it very valuable and what's junk. Don't stress, just hold it until you learn what all this crap is, lol.

General craft tips:

1. Writs are a good way to level your skills, and to start collecting valuable purple and gold mats. What level writ you are asked for is determined by how many points are spent in the first passive for each trade skill. If you "lump" them together, writs all drop at the same place and are easier to complete.

2. As other said, nodes generate based on your player level and trade skill "rank". Not the level,,but how many points spent in that first passive. A good rule of thumb is to keep your trade skills slightly ahead of your player level, so that you're collecting the mats you'll need in the near future. I.e., if you're wearing steel gear right now, level your smith so that you're seeing steel and orichalum (I think that's next) nodes.

3. If you're going to be a crafter, don't worry about spending skill points in these passives. One Tamriel gives you access to all the zones and their shards. Unlike the old days, you can be a crafter and fighter right away.

4. If you want to someday craft the powerful armor sets, Start trait research. As you can, expand the passives to allow 2-3 items at a time. Complete Trait research takes about a year...ugh. Don't stress...but learn the system. And if you move forward w research, there's an android and iOS app called ESO workbench that is INVALUABLE in tracking your research.