Provisioning Help

jhacks1993 · June 2017

I am relatively new to this game (about a month in) and I was tasked with becoming the new master provisioner within my guild. I understand that this skill is pretty easy to level but what's the best way to do it quickly?

Reivax · June 2017

Make the highest level green recipes you can, preferably ones where the materials are easier to get.
You gain more inspiration on a blue recipe, but you also burn a rarer/more valuable ingredient. Considering how easily available the common ingredients are all over Tamriel, it shouldn't be too tough to do this completely with green.
If you need green recipes, they are really cheap in guild stores.

FluffyReachWitch · June 2017

It's basically just a grind that goes easier with a bit of luck.

First, get tons of recipes. Loot every backpack, drawer, cabinet, and piece of furniture in general for a chance of finding a provisioning recipe. If you need to, buy basic recipes from the chefs and brewers around Tamriel. Or if you have extra gold, consider buying recipes from guild shops. (High availability might mean a better deal from guilds of course.)

Get tons of ingredients. Always stop to loot the crates and barrels and sacks lying around delves, plus the food lying around in plain sight. If it doesn't say "Steal", grab it. You can build up a decent stockpile this way.

Head to a cooking fire and start cooking. Better recipes meant to be eaten at higher levels means more experience, so craft the best thing you can and watch the bar go up.

As your skill line increases, invest in the perks that let you cook better foods and the hireling perk. Provisioning hirelings bring back small piles of ingredients on a daily basis and can also provide rare ingredients.

Do daily provisioning writs to get more ingredients, rare ingredients, bonus experience, and better recipes.

Merlin13KAGL · June 2017

Make stacks of L19 Green food/drinks until you can sink a point in Recipe Improvement.

Make stacks of L29 Green food/drinks until you can sink another point.

Stacks of L39 until point...

Stacks of L49 until maxed.

A few grand worth of ingredients and you can complete it withing a matter of hours.

If you have bonus skillpoints, you can put points into Chef/Brewer and get more servings per craft (while you level) and get some of your gold back that way.

From that point out, do crafting writs for recipes and ingredients, and hireling if you really want it.

jhacks1993 · June 2017

Thanks for the advice guys, I already have about 10 new recipes that are better for me to use now that I went to the guild traders.

Tevalaur · June 2017

Leveling Provisioning

Common sources of inspiration boost include joining ESO+ which grants a 10% boost to inspiration gain or spending thirty (30) Champion Points in The Tower for a passive 20% boost to inspiration gain. However as these bonuses are not available to all players, they are not reflected in the data below which displays base values without any inspiration bonus.

Purple or blue recipes do not grant greater inspiration than green recipes, but often use more rare/expensive ingredients. So focus on green recipes to save ingredients unless you're crafting for your own usage.

With how plentiful ingredients are, the fastest way to level provisioning is simply to gather ingredients and recipes while questing, then craft at any cooking fire whatever green recipes you've learned for the highest food/drink level possible.

(the link above also shows a chart with how many food/drink at each level to get to the next)

Merlin13KAGL · June 2017

Three other additions:

Make sure you're using the highest level recipe you can in the current unlocked tier (a level 25-29 recipe grants more IP than a level 20-25 recipe)
You may want to initially limit the number of recipes (especially lower level ones) to the ones that give the desired effect.
That is, you don't necessarily need 10 different versions of something to produce the same effect. This will save you much pain later on in having to sort through. (It's good to have options using different ingredients, but ingredients are cheap and plentiful, especially if your guild will be providing them.)
Do provo writs on all characters, but make the required items on your main crafter (this way you get 4 servings per, instead of 1). It's the only other craft besides alchemy that doesn't care who actually made the product.

Aurie · June 2017

jhacks1993 wrote: »

I am relatively new to this game (about a month in) and I was tasked with becoming the new master provisioner within my guild. I understand that this skill is pretty easy to level but what's the best way to do it quickly?

I would say that if you have been tasked with being Master Provisioner in your guild, then it's reasonable for the other members to chip in with ingredients and recipes.

Most of my characters are Master Provisioners, and without doubt the fastest way to level provisioning is not to stay with green recipes.

The best way to do it is to use the highest green improvement recipe you can at first, and then move on to blue recipes as soon as you have the skills to do so. There again go for the highest improvement that you can, remembering to put skill points into raising quality and improvement at every opportunity, and get new recipes accordingly.

You should be able to level from 0 to 50 within a couple of hours, but this is providing your guild are doing their bit and helping you out with the mats and recipes. Green recipes are very cheap, and blue recipes should easily be sourced below 1000g on guild traders.

Don't even think about going on to purple recipes for leveling....they are very expensive, and greens followed by blues will be fine to enable you to level provisioning fast.

Good luck!

Tevalaur · June 2017

Reivax wrote: »

You gain more inspiration on a blue recipe, but you also burn a rarer/more valuable ingredient.

Actually, blue food/drink use the same ingredients as green food/drink, it's purple recipes that use the rare ingredients. However they do not grant any greater inspiration than creating a green food/drink to be consumed at the same level so until ready to create blue foods that skill point in quality is wasted and since most blue food/drink use 3 ingredients you'll burn through your mats faster.

Aurelle1 wrote: »

Most of my characters are Master Provisioners, and without doubt the fastest way to level provisioning is not to stay with green recipes.

The best way to do it is to use the highest green improvement recipe you can at first, and then move on to blue recipes as soon as you have the skills to do so. There again go for the highest improvement that you can, remembering to put skill points into raising quality and improvement at every opportunity, and get new recipes accordingly.

@Aurelle1
I'm the author of Sunshine Daydream's Guide to Provisioning (and other crafts in ESO) and I have tested this and can tell you that the amount of inspiration changes with the level at which the food or drink is to be consumed and does not change at all based on the food/drink quality (green vs blue vs purple). You're probably thinking of the equipment crafts where the item's quality does give more inspiration...

Pan-Fried Trout (green meat) for use at level 15 = 4950 inspiration
Grape-Glazed Bantam Guar (blue savoury) for use at level 15 = 4950 inspiration

Chicken and Biscuits (green meat) for level 25 = 8250 inspiration (and uses 2 ingredients)
Hearthfire Vegetable Salad (blue entremet) for level 25 = 8250 inspiration (but uses 3 ingredients)

@jhacks1993
Do NOT use blue foods thinking that you gain anything to level Provisioning faster, all you do is burn your mats more quickly without benefit.

EDIT: the numbers from the above test are with ESO+ membership. If you want to compare the base inspiration at various levels, check the chart at the link in my prior post: Sunshine Daydream's Guide to Provisioning: Leveling Provisioning