Issues with Writs

Lirkin · April 2017

I started to do Writs and find that they are keep asking to make the same things and the reward don't give me the style pieces. It's nice that they supply the material for the lowest level Writs but not the high level ones.
I also find that the higher Writs don't ever give back the material that the writs require. The writs require the highest material I can use but the boxes are always for a lower level material.
Seems like the higher level Writs are not worth the effort.
I also find that the Writs for enchanting always ask for the potency jora stone but never give it back and I am running out of them. Enchanting also only ever ask for stamina, magicka and health runes.
Alchemy also has only like three types of potions it asks for.

Doesn't seem to be very well done or very limited.

JKorr · April 2017

I never expect to get back the mats I use for writs. I am constantly farming mats any time I play any of my characters. The payoff is the gold for the high level writs. While some of the rewards might be worth it, it isn't the main reason people do the high level writs.

Reivax · April 2017

Lirkin, everything you say is correct and normal.
The benefits are going to be the possibility of getting master writs, the surveys and rarer ingredients.
Example, I get at least a couple Kuta a week in the Enchant bag, I get approximately 2 or 3 master writs per week, I get 3 each of Bervez and Frost mirriam in a provisioners bag, approx. twice a week, and the wood/cloth/metal Surveys are getting so frequent that I actually get sick of them, and I know where most of them are without even thinking twice.
I really wish provisioners bag would drop higher level recipes, blue or purple, but overall, if you're out and playing often and collecting materials off of nodes, the rewards are more than worth the efforts.

davey1107 · April 2017

Writs are designed to eliminate mats from the game, they will always be a net loss. If you're going to do them, it usually means buying some mats in guild stores. The writs are still well worth it - they essentially convert your basic mats into gold and gold tempering mats, which is a good trade.

The best guild stores are located in the three capitals and also Rawlkha. 99% of the time, if I need a mat I find it in a shop in one of these locations.

Writs pay about $600 plus the other rewards. My basic rule of thumb for where to get mats and how much you can pay before it becomes a loss:

Enchant: easy-peasy. Buy the potency runes from an enchanter NpC. They cost around $100, so even if you buy all of them you make a ton of cash doing these. If you run low on oko, mako, Demi or ta buy a stack in a guild store. 200 for $5k is a good price for the green runes.

Alchemy: nirnroot is the pain in the butt problem here. One writ in three asks for some, and you only get it by farming. You have a few options. One, buy it in guilds, in which case my price point is $500 each or less. Or two, drop the alchemy quests on days when nirn is required. The second option is more profitable. Note that your characters can exchange the potions asked for (one crafter can make a stack that anyone can use).

Provision: buy recipes from NPC brewers and chefs if needed. Then track down ingredients and make stacks of like 20 items for each recipe in your writ level. These items are also shareable between your characters.

Wood/Cloth/Smith: the main problem is the metal, wood, cloth. Your break even point is $6000 per 200 stack. If you can buy it for less than this, the writs are turning a profit. Some types of mats are a pain to find...if you encounter annoyingly rare mats, work your three trade skills up to the next level. And if you run low on style stones, don't forget you can buy them for $15 each from an npc. Don't spent $10k for a stack in guild stores.

In general writs are very profitable. But the best/easiest level is way up at the top, so if you can push your levels up to those high level writs it will be easier and cheaper to find mats.

Lirkin · April 2017

I appreciate your comments but my problem is that if the writs don't give certain items back and I can't harvest them I will have to buy them.

Drops seem to be set to the level of the character now and not the crafting level. I either get the character level mats or basic first level mats from harvesting.So how do I get the low level mats by harvesting?

I make yew items for a writ and I get back beech but it never asks me to make any beech items because it always asks me to make items to my crafting level and I can't harvest yew because my character level says that I get something else. Because my crafting level is yew that is all the writs I get asked to make. I don't what to put enough points into all of my crafting to go to the max level because I need the point for the character development.

I have 12 characters and they only have one craft maxed and those writs seem to be losers for what I get out of them so why level to max crafting level and waste the points?

Seems to be a poorly thought out system.

Lirkin · April 2017

Also if they always award max crafting level materials why give back lower level mats if they are trying to remove mats from the world?

wayfarerx · April 2017

Lirkin wrote: »

Drops seem to be set to the level of the character now and not the crafting level. I either get the character level mats or basic first level mats from harvesting.So how do I get the low level mats by harvesting?

Mats you harvest will be targeted at your character level half the time and your rank in the relevant crafting passive the other half of the time.

Lirkin wrote: »

I make yew items for a writ and I get back beech but it never asks me to make any beech items because it always asks me to make items to my crafting level and I can't harvest yew because my character level says that I get something else. Because my crafting level is yew that is all the writs I get asked to make.

Writs will always ask you to craft using the highest-level materials you can use. You should be able to harvest yew from half of the nodes you encounter if you can craft with yew.

Lirkin wrote: »

I don't what to put enough points into all of my crafting to go to the max level because I need the point for the character development.

I have 12 characters and they only have one craft maxed and those writs seem to be losers for what I get out of them so why level to max crafting level and waste the points?

There are enough skill points in the game to make every character a master crafter, you just have to go get them.

As for why to craft at max level:

Characters maxxed out on equipment crafting will harvest high-level materials everywhere, very useful given how many mats it takes to make cp 160 items.
Max level writs have a better chance to reward rare materials (gold tempers and such).
Master writs.

Lirkin wrote: »

Also if they always award max crafting level materials why give back lower level mats if they are trying to remove mats from the world?

Because it became impossible to harvest low-level materials on high-level crafters and people wanted access to low-level materials without having to down-level a crafter for farming purposes.

Jayne_Doe · April 2017

A couple of things:

First - when harvesting, you either get mats for your character level or mats for your crafting level, so you should be able to harvest yew, roughly 50% of the time.

Second - the reward of lower tier mats was added with One Tamriel when they changed the harvest nodes from set drops (e.g. Iron ore was only found in the first zone, second had high iron ore and later in the zone orichalcum, etc.). This was to provide a source for certain tiers of mats that crafters would not be able to harvest for themselves by going to a specific region, since the nodes now drop based on character/crafting level. So, you will never get mats of your level or above from the boxes, but you will get mats for your level if you get a survey.

(Incidentally, I have my lower level characters doing equipment writs for their level and if they get a survey, it goes to my crafter so I have a continuous supply of ruby level mats.)

To truly see the reward and profit from doing these writs, one needs to stick with them. Many days, you will get little back in return, but then some days, you'll get a gold temper, glass motif fragment, survey, and master writ (if doing top tier writs).

Taleof2Cities · April 2017

Is it a poorly thought out system or does @Lirkin not want to invest the time or skill points to earn the writ rewards?

That seems to be the question that needs to be asked.

Lirkin · April 2017

I don't mind the work to get the materials. I just want to understand the reasoning behind what is happening.

If what you say is correct I better understand why it works like it does.

I still think that it is wrong to always ask for the same runes to be used continually when crafting some things.
One Example: Every enchanter writ has asked for the positive rune to be used and not once has it asked for a negative rune.
All of my lowest level writ for 10 of my first level enchanting writs ask for glyphs to be made that require jora and all of my writs so far ask for stamina, magicka or health glyphs to be made.

Is this all the range or bad programming?

Thanks for all the feed back by the way!!