Lower Level Materials are RARE

webrgesner · August 2018

I havent made a new character for awhile. I got it to level 19. So i get on my crafter about to make level 20 gears. Then i realise i only have like 10 steel ingot. I go to light armor and checked if i had enough flax to craft 5 light gears, and i was short of 20. I go to woodworking to craft me a level20 shield , i had 8 sanded oak which is not enough. But i had a lot of lvl150 materials. Why is the lower level materials so rare?

max_only · August 2018

Couldn’t your new alt be harvesting as it goes along? The nodes that appear are based on your characters level AND on the characters crafting level. That’s why my top level characters that aren’t crafters see both iron nodes and rubedite nodes.

smacx250 · August 2018

If you do the crafting writs regularly on your crafter, you'll have plenty of lower level mats - they drop refined whenever you don't get a crafting survey. If you don't do that, you'll need to farm for low level mats on your low level characters, as your maxed out crafter can't harvest the lower level stuff in the wild.

starkerealm · August 2018

Because of how material scaling works.

Your material nodes are split 50/50. Half will match your character's level (if you're above 150, then this will be Ruby tier on every level 50), half will match your crafting passive. So, the best you can make.

If you have one max level character who has no points spent, you'll see Iron and Rubidite. You'll never see steel drop. If your level 50 has maxed Blacksmithing, you'll only see Rubidite drops.

Now, if you go harvesting on your level 19, you're going to see a bunch of High Iron Ore, that's what you refine to make Steel.

webrgesner · August 2018

Ohh i see. I never done the writs or even know what it is but i heard of it. I mainly PvP but when i see materials ill pick them up. I was just surprised i had more lvl150 matts than i did for lvl20. Steel Ingots in guild stores cost 2500 for 25 of them :O while rubedite ingot cost 2000 for a stack

Azuramoonstar · August 2018

they changed how it was done, they should revert the chat for mats to go be level of the zone, not so much character/craft level.

smacx250 · August 2018

Yeah, it's a somewhat sad consequence of the zone scaling introduced with One Tamriel. Prior to that you just went and harvested in whatever zone to get whatever level of mats you wanted. But let's not rehash all those old discussions...

webrgesner · August 2018

@Azuramoonstar I highly agree. Its not fair for a max level with high crafting skils to start a new character and have no materials to craft gears.

JasonSilverSpring · August 2018

webrgesner wrote: »

@Azuramoonstar I highly agree. Its not fair for a max level with high crafting skils to start a new character and have no materials to craft gears.

The new low level can harvest mats easily or if the high level character does writs they should have plenty of low level mats.

The 1T system means one can harvest anywhere they want which is much better.

Androconium · August 2018

There's plenty around in guild stores.

Azuramoonstar · August 2018

JasonSilverSpring wrote: »

webrgesner wrote: »

@Azuramoonstar I highly agree. Its not fair for a max level with high crafting skils to start a new character and have no materials to craft gears.

The new low level can harvest mats easily or if the high level character does writs they should have plenty of low level mats.

The 1T system means one can harvest anywhere they want which is much better.

not really, not everyone wants more then 1 character (i don't) traveling is super easy in this game with free mounts, mounting at start, ability to fly between wayshrines for free. No reason to remove, or chance a system. And iirc it didn't change at 1T, it was an update after the fact.

No one wanted it, i recall the outcry.

DanteYoda · August 2018

My high levels still get low mats.. when i'm out questing different parts of the map seem to have different grades of mats..

Not sure if this is a bug on my end or how its suppose to be but i get low and high on my cp 300 characters..

Mid range nothing though.

starkerealm · August 2018

Azuramoonstar wrote: »

JasonSilverSpring wrote: »

webrgesner wrote: »

@Azuramoonstar I highly agree. Its not fair for a max level with high crafting skils to start a new character and have no materials to craft gears.

The new low level can harvest mats easily or if the high level character does writs they should have plenty of low level mats.

The 1T system means one can harvest anywhere they want which is much better.

not really, not everyone wants more then 1 character (i don't) traveling is super easy in this game with free mounts, mounting at start, ability to fly between wayshrines for free. No reason to remove, or chance a system. And iirc it didn't change at 1T, it was an update after the fact.

No one wanted it, i recall the outcry.

I remember the opposite. Before that Ruby tier mats were exclusive to the DLC zones and Cyrodiil, so if you wanted 160 gear you needed to pay real money, PvP, or grind instanced areas like dungeons until your eyes bled.

Azuramoonstar · August 2018

DanteYoda wrote: »

My high levels still get low mats.. when i'm out questing different parts of the map seem to have different grades of mats..

Not sure if this is a bug on my end or how its suppose to be but i get low and high on my cp 300 characters..

Mid range nothing though.

nope not a bug after 1t was added they made an update to change how mats worked. As you level your crafting and character nodes change.

imo they should just stuck to the mats on zone level, or just have all the mats ina zone. no real need to have nodes scale.

Azuramoonstar · August 2018

starkerealm wrote: »

Azuramoonstar wrote: »

JasonSilverSpring wrote: »

webrgesner wrote: »

@Azuramoonstar I highly agree. Its not fair for a max level with high crafting skils to start a new character and have no materials to craft gears.

The new low level can harvest mats easily or if the high level character does writs they should have plenty of low level mats.

The 1T system means one can harvest anywhere they want which is much better.

not really, not everyone wants more then 1 character (i don't) traveling is super easy in this game with free mounts, mounting at start, ability to fly between wayshrines for free. No reason to remove, or chance a system. And iirc it didn't change at 1T, it was an update after the fact.

No one wanted it, i recall the outcry.

I remember the opposite. Before that Ruby tier mats were exclusive to the DLC zones and Cyrodiil, so if you wanted 160 gear you needed to pay real money, PvP, or grind instanced areas like dungeons until your eyes bled.

and? thats normal for MMO. dungeon or raid gear should be the better option to crafting gear. mmo are about the grinds at endgame.

also please don't complain. I played an MMO where it took you MONTHS to lvl up, and YEARS to get the bis gear.

starkerealm · August 2018

Azuramoonstar wrote: »

DanteYoda wrote: »

My high levels still get low mats.. when i'm out questing different parts of the map seem to have different grades of mats..

Not sure if this is a bug on my end or how its suppose to be but i get low and high on my cp 300 characters..

Mid range nothing though.

nope not a bug after 1t was added they made an update to change how mats worked. As you level your crafting and character nodes change.

imo they should just stuck to the mats on zone level, or just have all the mats ina zone. no real need to have nodes scale.

Well, neither of those would solve the problem. Regionalized nodes would just "force" players to run in certain zones (it wouldn't, but that would be the perspective), and would be more confusing than this. Mixing nodes across a zone would put a lot more pressure on players, because you'd never find usable mats.

For either of those systems to work, you'd have to unhook gear from levels. Which, I mean, you could do that, and they might work. There might be more elegant ways to handle this, but, this way you will always have materials you can wear, and materials you can craft with, on your current character.

Salvas_Aren · August 2018

It's perfectly fine that you harvest 50% what you can wear and 50% what you can craft.

If you need low level mats for a new char, hand this char some coin and steal gear. Launder it to level Legerdemain and move it to the crafter for decon.

Taleof2Cities · August 2018

starkerealm wrote: »

Well, neither of those would solve the problem. Regionalized nodes would just "force" players to run in certain zones (it wouldn't, but that would be the perspective), and would be more confusing than this. Mixing nodes across a zone would put a lot more pressure on players, because you'd never find usable mats.

For either of those systems to work, you'd have to unhook gear from levels. Which, I mean, you could do that, and they might work. There might be more elegant ways to handle this, but, this way you will always have materials you can wear, and materials you can craft with, on your current character.

Correct, @starkerealm.

Which means @Azuramoonstar's idea is out ... because the top tier mat zones would be way over-farmed.

The correct solution should be nodes driven 100% by the character's first passive in the craft.

That way, players have control over the mat tiers by simply adding passive skill points into the craft.

FloppyTouch · August 2018

I got about 2k of every kind crafting mat, writs are ur friend everyone should be doing them.

Mr_Walker · August 2018

Log in to level 20 character. Steal, launder, deconstruct... profit?

Anotherone773 · August 2018

Run dungeons problem solved. Dungeon sets are better than crafted anyway unless you are going to craft some purple or gold level 20 gear. The items you dont need from a dungeon deconstruct you will get refined mats that way as well.

VaranisArano · August 2018

I've got Alt-itis so my max level crafter is often making lower-level training armor for my alts.

Here's how I manage that:

1. The character that needs the armor farms the mats. I pick up mats as I play, bank them, and let my crafter use those. This works well if I don't have a stockpile of those mats. This does mean that I need to be farming as I quest, and after level 15, if I want more than 50% of my level of mats, I need to invest in my crafting passives.

2. During ESO+ events, I build up a stockpile of lower level mats to be used by/for alts. This stockpile can come from outright buying the mats or from doing writs. I've got a lot of the Tier 1 mats so my alts can do writs during the anniversary event. Everything else I keep a couple hundred to 1k of, just so I have it on hand for making gear for alts or for my friends and guildies.

When it comes to farming for lower level mats, there's a couple ways to make it easier. In my experience, the 50%/50% ratio holds true over a large amount of farming, so the biggest hurdle causing one mat to seem "rarer" is that its harder to see while farming.

Keen Eye. Most of the lower level mats are harder to spot than the max tier mats. Jewelry crafting is really bad in this regard. If you don't know what to look for, it can be easy to miss the mat you want. Pre-One Tamriel, the worst was hunting for cotton in Eastmarch, because white cotton flowers in a snow field? Yeah, it was hard to see. Keen Eye makes a huge difference.
Run a familiar farming route. Its a lot easier to find crafting mats of different levels if you know the places where they ought to spawn. I had no trouble finding jewelry seams right after the Summerset patch because I stuck to the farming routes I knew like the back of my hand. So if I need to farm a lower level mat thats going to be harder to see than, say, ruby ash or rubedite, I'll follow a farming route I'm familiar with.

Hope that helps! I'm all in favor of the current system of 50% level/50% passives and I haven't had issues with farming or obtaining lower level mats, and these are some ways I've been able to stay happy with it.

pod88kk · August 2018

I usually get them from doing writs, half max level half lowest level so that I can use the jute/iron & maple to get surveys which I turn into silk, rubedite and ruby ash. If they make surveys character bound I'm screwed

runagate · August 2018

@webrgesner if you play on PC/NA /w @runagate I have tons and tons of low level mats I'll happily give you whatever you need. That's why I keep em.