My thought is that if the person in charge of assigning reward value to the writs is basing their math on a material value that ZOS decided was reasonable, and over time the material value inflates beyond that so that the writ is pointless, it's on ZOS to find ways to bring the value of those materials back in line with what they are intended to be worth according to their own value estimations on the writ rewards.

Either that or change the reward structure based on some new intended value.

The problem is that ZOS doesn't really want to control the economy that tightly and probably shouldn't, but when you base rewards on a set value, knowing that value will fluctuate over time, you're setting yourself up for problems later down the line. I'm not certain jewelry writs were ever worth it compared to others and the situation has only gotten worse over time.

You can make an argument that blue writs are borderline worth it, especially during double xp events, but purple mats are just too valuable (PC/NA) and anyone doing gold jewelry writs should just sell their platings instead and pocket the extra gold rather than just throw it away.

To get to the point, the solution proposed is really just a solution to a problem that ideally shouldn't exist in the first place. It would be ZOS admitting they can't balance their own system and never intend to. Just the ability to exchange trash for something slightly more useful. They could just give you that slightly more useful thing instead without having to design a new system that forces them to admit their inability to balance their own reward structure.

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

redspecter23 wrote: »

My thought is that if the person in charge of assigning reward value to the writs is basing their math on a material value that ZOS decided was reasonable, and over time the material value inflates beyond that so that the writ is pointless, it's on ZOS to find ways to bring the value of those materials back in line with what they are intended to be worth according to their own value estimations on the writ rewards.

Either that or change the reward structure based on some new intended value.

The problem is that ZOS doesn't really want to control the economy that tightly and probably shouldn't, but when you base rewards on a set value, knowing that value will fluctuate over time, you're setting yourself up for problems later down the line. I'm not certain jewelry writs were ever worth it compared to others and the situation has only gotten worse over time.

You can make an argument that blue writs are borderline worth it, especially during double xp events, but purple mats are just too valuable (PC/NA) and anyone doing gold jewelry writs should just sell their platings instead and pocket the extra gold rather than just throw it away.

To get to the point, the solution proposed is really just a solution to a problem that ideally shouldn't exist in the first place. It would be ZOS admitting they can't balance their own system and never intend to. Just the ability to exchange trash for something slightly more useful. They could just give you that slightly more useful thing instead without having to design a new system that forces them to admit their inability to balance their own reward structure.

the main problem with jewelry mats is that even the tempers and trait materials have "unrefined" versions, so you need 10x more of the drops to get the effective same amount as other crafts

if they removed the "unrefined" tempers and trait materials, most jewelry mats would probably start trending closer in price to other crafts

with other crafts, refining craft mats has a chance to grant tempers, so you refine leather you chance get a dreugh wax, with jewelry you refine ounces and chance to get a GRAIN, of which you need 10 of to make a single plating, so even assuming absolute best case of getting a grain on every refine, you would still need 10x of the raw materials of normal crafts to get the same quantity (1 full temper)

another thing that jewelry doesnt have is a hireling, which also doesnt help the scarcity of the mats

They want to keep the mats scarce so the gold necklaces and rings have value as rewards.


As for OP suggestion all for it, I made the mistake of learning the 9 traits on all 18 of my characters so I drown in those blue jewelry master writs, I just put them up in traders for 20 gold apiece anyone that wants to do them is welcome to them.

Maybe even expand the idea to survey maps as well, let me exchange X number of surveys for 1 of a different type, might actually clear out most of my enchanting and alchemy surveys I have been holding onto if they did that.

Jusey1 wrote: »

For example, I always been a bit lazy getting the Ebony and Glass styles because how expansive normal writs are... Then I spent like 20k for 650 writ vouchers because it was a Jewelry Writ... I love that. I don't mind grinding the resources necessary to get it, it usually doesn't take a long time if you have a good grind spot.
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You could have just sold the mats for 700k-1mil depending on which writs you got and bought the styles for gold.

But hey, it's great that someone is buying.

I farm jewelry raw and refined mats and the upgrade mats, and I don't want to deal with the time and energy to sell or give away even the blue writs. We don't need an upgrade, we need a DOWNGRADE of the blue writs to green.

The terne platings are sitting waiting for me to use them. I don't bother selling them, I just accumulate the green platings at this point from refining my left over platinum grains from selling stacks. If they gave out green writs that would be awesome!

Jewellery many years on is still too expensive to even craft these writs, the reward is just not worth it but seeing ZoS very rarely goes back to adjust old systems I doubt you will see any change with these.

I just assume that jewelry writs have low mat availability to keep them 'special' and exclusive, as well as keeping the power creep from freely manufactured jewelry components restricted to lower levels, or else everyone would be running around with easily acquired/crafted jewelry bonuses and higher power levels.

Additionally, they can flood the loot tables and inventories with 'useless' junk loot, so you 'get' loot, but it's worthless at a vendor and almost worthless at a guild vendor compared to taking up a limited sale slot for low yield, as well as expensive as a master writ mode to earn writ vouchers from Rolis. It keeps one more vehicle for inflation under control.

Jusey1 wrote: »

See, funny thing, one's laziness is my profit. Buying these Jewelry Writs at extremely cheap prices to get HUGE amount of Writ Vouches easily is something I absolutely adore and love. For example, I always been a bit lazy getting the Ebony and Glass styles because how expansive normal writs are... Then I spent like 20k for 650 writ vouchers because it was a Jewelry Writ... I love that. I don't mind grinding the resources necessary to get it, it usually doesn't take a long time if you have a good grind spot.

So, please guild stores, keep selling your extremely cheap Jewelry Writs, I love them and will keep profiting off of them.

I do them occasionally because they have a higher amount of vouchers so they are less effort, but they are generally more expensive than doing the other writs even though the master writ itself has a lower cost. This is because the costs of materials themselves. Even if you are farming the materials, you have the opportunity costs of the materials to factor in, as you could have chosen to sell them instead.

Personally the way I view it, assuming I already have the materials passively generated from my everyday activities...

Jewelry Writs = more expensive, easier
Other Writs = better price per voucher, more work

I generally only do the other writs for that reason and trash the Jewelry ones. But every once in a while, I'll do some Jewelry ones as long as the trait item is a basic easy one to get.

The writ voucher rewards are complicated even further by different material prices on different platforms/megaservers. A reasonable voucher reward on PC-NA might be way too many cheap vouchers on XBox-EU. An exchange is a good idea because it could work anywhere. Regardless of underlying prices, if voucher reward of a master is more than materials expended, you do the writ. If voucher reward is worth less than materials expended, you hold onto writ and eventually combine/exchange for a writ that is worthwhile.

As material prices fluctuate, the writs you do immediately versus writs you combine/exchange will also fluctuate. As opposed to right now, where a voucher reward that is worth less than materials expended is essentially a worthless piece of vendor trash. Getting a gold jewelry writ or gold clothing writ is rare and should be exciting. The game should not have legendary rewards that make you grumble and throw them away. That is bad game design.

Maybe something like combine two same quality writs, get a similar quality writ worth 75% of original writs. So, combine a 25 voucher blue jewelry writ and a 28 voucher blue jewelry writ, get a single writ worth 25 + 28 = 53 * 0.75 = ~40 vouchers. You lost out on 13 vouchers, but you also saved on materials. Still not worth it? Throw in another 25 writ blue voucher. 40 + 25 = 65 * 0.75 = ~49 vouchers. Maybe at 49 vouchers it becomes worthwhile.

I think it would be better if they had a look more generally at resource drop rates.

Jewellery was supposed to be rare. But, aside from platinum and ochre, the materials are actually so rare (especially the grains for platings, of which you need ten for a single plating), that it's less rare than it is absurd and has made a whole game mechanic -- jewellery master writs -- pointless.

At this point, jewellery master writs feel more like a selling tool for buying storage chests etc than usable items.

But, obviously, the drop rate problem isn't limited to just jewellery. Furnishing materials like mundane runes drop with a frequency and quantity that is simply not viable given the number required by furnishing plans to make even basic items. The (welcome) trend for new houses that are good for custom builds is all for nothing if it takes you two years just to build the walls.

And some of the zone specific materials drop at such crazy low rates that you might as well not bother with furnishing plans for those zones at all (eg Blackwood -- two ivory clasps for a nothing furnishing item when ivory clasps do not reliably drop from the dailies).