How to Break Collection Habbit

Skye · July 2021

Hello,

It seems like in every game I play, I get into the habit of wanting to collect everything. (This being a better way of saying I am a packrat...) This means that most of the time my games turn into inventory management simulators more than actually playing the game. Now, I am low level and so most items are white and green, and I know everyone says you can decon these unless they have a trait that you need to research.

I, however, hate decon/selling unique items. Like the Forgotten Adventurer's Boots, Shirt, and Trousers which are Miscellaneous items you start with. It seems like these are unique and there is no way to get the look back if you delete them. What if at some point I want to wear that outfit? Another thing is with weapons and armor without a style. Like just the generic Iron Daggers without a Breton/High Elf/Etc. style. There doesn't seem to be a way to craft something like this either, so that makes me want to keep them in case I just want the look of the daggers later.

Any advice for overcoming these habits and just deleting things I don't need?

Fennwitty · July 2021

Make a new character, get the starting items again. No reason to keep them.

You won't want the 'look' of a dagger which has no style.

I suspect they actually do have a style but it's not displaying ... but outside the hardest core of roleplaying you would never, ever use such a style.

Because you can't apply "no style" at an outfit station, meaning you have zero way to make your actually useful gear look a certain way that doesn't exist.

Anyway how did you get that dagger in the first place? You just picked it up off the ground. They spawn there.

Furthermore people sell those things at guild traders. Anything not bound.

Fennwitty · July 2021

This game is actually quite good at letting you get the same items you've had in the past.

The 'sticker book' system lets you remake almost any dropped gear at any time in the future. Just a time investment to get the needed transmute stones.

The outfit system allows you to reskin any worn gear to look like any other style your character knows. And generally you can learn particular styles for cheap or a reasonable cost (excluding the newest released styles which are high-priced for a while, and a few styles that are crown-store or event granted).

ESO does have a lot of stuff that "looks" like it's useful and valuable but which really aren't once you've been playing a while.

The only things you can't recreate are 'named items' from special quest rewards or dropped from monsters. Literally the only thing special about 99% of them is they have a different name and some flavor text. Otherwise you can reconstruct the same item with the stickerbook at any time in the future -- you just won't have the same special name.

But you *can* get those special named items by repeating the quest with a different character, or killing the same monster again until another appears.

Since nobody can look at your character's gear though, there's nothing to gain by having a special named item except for yourself. The named items however tend to usually be 'bad' traits, which then necessitates you transmute the trait to be useful. Not really worthwhile in my opinion.

VaranisArano · July 2021

If you like the look of something, learn the motif and then you can apply the style to your regular weapons through the Oufit Station. If there is no style listed, equip it and then check a site like https://eso.mmo-fashion.com/motifs/ to see if there's something similar.

As for unique gear, I'm guessing you mean the Quest rewards or special Boss weapons that have a name and a little description attached?

I don't know what will work for you, but my rule of thumb is to keep unique pieces from sets I think I'll use one day (must be CP 160) or that are particularly meaningful to my character's roleplaying. My main, Varanis Arano still has several low level weapons from the Main Quest purely as mementos.

If you want to hold onto a lot of unique pieces, I highly recommend building up your available inventories. That means creating alt characters who increase their mount's carry capacity daily, earning gold to pay for bank and bag space upgrades, and looking at how you want to buy the shouting storage chests. You get one for free while leveling up, while the rest are bought for Tel Var, writ vouchers, or Crowns.

El_Borracho · July 2021

In addition to what the others have said, you need to come to the realization that there are far more "rare" items in this game then there is inventory space. I started this game also being a hoarder. I've since realized that it is pointless to try to keep all of this stuff. You just have to periodically be ruthless with your gear and get rid of stuff you don't use.

Skye · July 2021

Thanks, everyone! I went through and cleared out my inventory. It took a bit to go through and it hurt a bit deleting everything, but it's something I just need to get used to and accept I'm never going to wear any of this stuff again.

fiender66 · July 2021

LOL. I have a toon that only keeps armor items (a mule, you'd say), and another that stores spottable items and the like.
My bank, (dutifully enlarged) keeps weapons, jewels and monster sets. Needless to say I' have ESO+.

As I'm playing since several yrs, I know what fits my needs, and which sets keep some value notwithstanding nerfs and changes, so my hoarding is somehow not extreme.