Is crafting really that mandatory

propain · February 2025

Just hit level 50 on my first character and was trying to figure out what type of things I should be doing now for progression. I looked at some videos of what to do after 50 and it just seems like they all can't stop talking about doing this or doing that for crafting and do your daily crafting thing etc. On and on about crafting in the game for progression.

Well I don't want to have anything to do with crafting no matter how easy it is. It's not something I enjoy at all in a game. So what are my options for PVE gear progression and just overall character progression? and how far can I take my character in power without crafting because people are making it sound like crafting is super mandatory.

robpr · February 2025

It's not mandatory, but convenient.
Daily gold aside, even if you won't use any craftable sets, you still need to research stuff to be able to use trait transmutation and sticker book reconstruction to full extend.

If you really don't like crafting, at least level Enchanting and Alchemy. Being able to craft your own consumables saves a lot of money, and Alchemy passive extends the duration benefits of the pots for maximum uptime.

Renato90085 · February 2025

craft passive can help you save money and give you some material
like..Dreugh Wax price close 20k each
gold a set need 20 wax if you not have passive it 400k.. all part set spend 2.8m
if you have passive ,you use 8 wax close 160k ,1.12m
but if you really dont want
but in dps all gold build just better 1% than all purple same build and just need weapon gold

LootAllTheStuff · February 2025

Going to echo what @robpr said: if crafting isn't your thing, there's no need to do it. There is a TON of story content between the three factions, all the chapters, and the current/upcoming DLC. Plus lots of group PvE at a range of difficulties above base game, and there's PvP as well.

You'll find that to do all that you start needing more specific gear, traits, and enchantments. That you can either trade for, purchase from guild stores, or craft - in that sense, you may find yourself wanting to pursue at least one crafting line. The comment about potions is also a good one - there are a couple of passives that are really helpful.

Just go do whatever it is you find enjoyable.

Taril · February 2025

Crafting isn't mandatory, but it's helpful.

1) Upgrading gear to Purple/Gold is easier with the crafting skill line passives that improve it.

2) Transmuting/Reconstructing gear requires you to have researched traits, which the crafting skill line passives improve a LOT.

3) Crafting your own potions can save a lot of gold. Especially if you want some premium stuff.

If you're not into end-game content and thus don't need optimized gear or fancy potions, then crafting is completely skippable. But the more you care about having the best gear, the more that crafting becomes notably useful.

spartaxoxo · February 2025

No. It's not mandatory. Everything in game is more expensive without it but you don't need to get into it if you don't want to. You'll just need to find a different way to make coin and use that to buy additional upgrade material if all you want to do is improve your gear real quick. You can buy gear from other players or farm it yourself by killing stuff that drops it.

You may want to consider researching what specific traits you'd like (e.g divines and bloodthirsty) on the gear you'd actually use, but that's really it. You can buy your consumables from other players.

AlnilamE · February 2025

At the very least, take the time to research the optimal traits for the gear pieces, so you can transmute them at the station.

Other than that, deconstructing some of the gear you find along the way will get all your crafting skills except Alchemy and Provisioning to level 50. Then you can unlock the passives that save you mats when improving and you are good to go.

SkaiFaith · February 2025

Everyone is saying right comments. What I want to point out to you is that the reason every content creator or guide tells you to start crafting as soon as possible is because it will take literally months of gameplay to become master crafter and have all the passive things you "need". I think it can take even longer than 1 full year, if done wrong especially.

So it's okay if you don't want to get into it, but if later on you'll find yourself wanting/needing it, you'll think how much time you've wasted not doing it before and you'll feel bad.
Still if you're sure you never want to get into it, it's possible, just disadvantageous.

CrazyKitty · February 2025

It's not mandatory, but it's going to be a real problem if you have to ask someone else to craft gear for you every time you want new gear. Much better off to start learning all the crafting knowledge on your main toon so you can do your own crafting when needed. And start immediately. To learn everything will take six to twelve months.

spartaxoxo · February 2025

CrazyKitty wrote: »

It's not mandatory, but it's going to be a real problem if you have to ask someone else to craft gear for you every time you want new gear. Much better off to start learning all the crafting knowledge on your main toon so you can do your own crafting when needed. And start immediately. To learn everything will take six to twelve months.

Crafted gear is 100% unnecessary in this game. The best sets come from dungeons and trials.

Overland is easy enough you can just use whatever you find lying around until you get the chance to do dungeons.

The optimal traits take almost no time to learn and there's very few.

The main reason to learn crafting is honestly just it's an easy and lucrative income stream and furnishing writs. There's also some passives in alchemy and provisioning you may want if you're interested in sweaty min-maxing for maximum uptimes in the most difficult content but that's not really an issue to the vast majority of content. So, it depends on what OP wants when it comes to the content they want to run.

Alchemy and Provisioning can be power leveled easily, get it done in a day. So, OP if you change your mind later, don't even sweat it.

The whole year thing is about researching every trait so you can make the best crafted gear for stuff like crafting writs. If that doesn't interest you, then you only need the optimal traits which takes like a day or two passively in the background.

Soarora · February 2025

You don’t need to do writs, but as others have stated, you should level crafting and get the important traits researched. Food and alchemy you need to make things to level, the others you can deconstruct to level.

spartaxoxo · February 2025

Also OP if you're wondering other ways to make coin

Selling stuff you farm in traders, including motifs and rare style pages in dungeons (when style pages are available).

Stealing. Sell treasures to NPCs and rare, unbound items to players

Digging up treasures from antiquities

Etc etc

Crafting is by far the easiest way to make coin but you can make coin with other methods, it just takes longer.

moo_2021 · February 2025

There is no gear progression. It's not linear. Random set drops are only useful for collection or selling to guild traders.

If you want a build, you'd have to build for it: crafted, reconstructed or transmuted sets from dungeon, overland, arena or mythics, in specific traits and improved to purple. Glyphs and potions and poisons too. Without max crafting you can't plan anything.

coop500 · February 2025

Sadly, it is required... To a degree.

If all you wanna do is overland, the occasional normal dungeon, and maybe easier normal trials as DPS (not an important role like tank or healer) then you could get away with overland sets/asking guildies to make you Order's Wrath and get a mythic from excavating.

HOWEVER, if you want to tackle vet dungeons, especially vet DLC dungeons, higher tiers of the Infinite Archive, PVP, vet trials, or soloing dungeons, then yeah you need to bite the bullet. At the very least you'll have to do the trait research so you can reconstruct dungeon gear in the right traits. Trust me, this will save you years of hardache.

DenverRalphy · February 2025

A few alts, and you can have all traits researched for reconstruction in less than a week. And that's without a single skillpoint put into crafting.

spartaxoxo · February 2025

coop500 wrote: »

Sadly, it is required... To a degree.

If all you wanna do is overland, the occasional normal dungeon, and maybe easier normal trials as DPS (not an important role like tank or healer) then you could get away with overland sets/asking guildies to make you Order's Wrath and get a mythic from excavating.

HOWEVER, if you want to tackle vet dungeons, especially vet DLC dungeons, higher tiers of the Infinite Archive, PVP, vet trials, or soloing dungeons, then yeah you need to bite the bullet. At the very least you'll have to do the trait research so you can reconstruct dungeon gear in the right traits. Trust me, this will save you years of hardache.

You can farm the normal dungeons for gear and use overland quests sets to do it. Normal dungeons are not difficult. And it's the same gear in a normal dungeon that you get from the vet version. All normal trials are also easy to do in regular questing gear.

I'm kind of surprised how many people think you need crafted sets to tackle normal dungeons. Overland gear is dirt cheap on traders. And easily obtainable by questing. It is all you need to do any normal content in the game. You can do normal group content to build up to vet group content.

Genuinely the only part of crafting that's going to save someone time that hates crafting is researching the optimal traits and that takes like a day, maybe two depending on the number of traits/activities they want to do.

The only reason to research every trait is to master crafting. But a person who hates crafting isn't going to want to be a master craftsman. They aren't going to want to build all their own furniture or do crafting writs every day for coin.

This is how I gear up all my alts and I honestly only using crafting for furniture and coins for the most part. Yeah I got the passives for extending food/potions but I'm only chugging those often enough for it to matter in like vet trials.

katanagirl1 · February 2025

A lot of great responses above, but I just would like to add one thing.

Crafting gives you great independence in not having to search out someone to help you do something or have to buy something you need. I can’t imagine how much it would cost just to buy the food I use on my characters. This (the independence part) is invaluable to me. Of course, I don’t mind taking the time to level up crafting. It only takes time to decon everything versus selling gear, and a few moments to start research of traits. Unless you are into decorating houses, you can pretty much get all the materials you need for crafting gear just from taking time to do daily crafting writs. It’s really the only gold income I have now that shortened guild trader listings destroyed my other method of getting coin.

coop500 · February 2025

spartaxoxo wrote: »

coop500 wrote: »

Sadly, it is required... To a degree.

If all you wanna do is overland, the occasional normal dungeon, and maybe easier normal trials as DPS (not an important role like tank or healer) then you could get away with overland sets/asking guildies to make you Order's Wrath and get a mythic from excavating.

HOWEVER, if you want to tackle vet dungeons, especially vet DLC dungeons, higher tiers of the Infinite Archive, PVP, vet trials, or soloing dungeons, then yeah you need to bite the bullet. At the very least you'll have to do the trait research so you can reconstruct dungeon gear in the right traits. Trust me, this will save you years of hardache.

You can farm the normal dungeons for gear and use overland quests sets to do it. Normal dungeons are not difficult. And it's the same gear in a normal dungeon that you get from the vet version. All normal trials are also easy to do in regular questing gear.

I'm kind of surprised how many people think you need crafted sets to tackle normal dungeons. Overland gear is dirt cheap on traders. And easily obtainable by questing. It is all you need to do any normal content in the game. You can do normal group content to build up to vet group content.

Genuinely the only part of crafting that's going to save someone time that hates crafting is researching the optimal traits and that takes like a day, maybe two depending on the number of traits/activities they want to do.

The only reason to research every trait is to master crafting. But a person who hates crafting isn't going to want to be a master craftsman. They aren't going to want to build all their own furniture or do crafting writs every day for coin.

This is how I gear up all my alts and I honestly only using crafting for furniture and coins for the most part. Yeah I got the passives for extending food/potions but I'm only chugging those often enough for it to matter in like vet trials.

I already said if they just wanted to do normal dungeons, they can skip crafting.

But truth of the matter is, if they skip crafting, they're gonna skip a lot like having the right traits on their gear, unless you think OP is gonna farm for hours on end to make sure they get the right one. This is what crafting provides. it's not just about crafted sets, those can be bought on guild trader or even friendly guildies will make you a blue or purple set for free.

It's about everything ELSE being skipped, the shortcuts that are taken all add up to the point where you'll be at least half-carried in vet dungeons and that's not fair to the other three players.

And your remark about needing researched traits is my point, but OP said they wanted NOTHING to do with it, no matter how easy. That's what my response is going off of. No crafting, research, or ANYTHING

DoofusMax · February 2025

propain wrote: »

Just hit level 50 on my first character and was trying to figure out what type of things I should be doing now for progression. I looked at some videos of what to do after 50 and it just seems like they all can't stop talking about doing this or doing that for crafting and do your daily crafting thing etc. On and on about crafting in the game for progression.

Well I don't want to have anything to do with crafting no matter how easy it is. It's not something I enjoy at all in a game. So what are my options for PVE gear progression and just overall character progression? and how far can I take my character in power without crafting because people are making it sound like crafting is super mandatory.

It's not mandatory at all. Aside from being a side activity, it's a solution to a couple of other issues. First, it's hella convenient to make your own gear rather than relying on RNG for gear drops (or Transmutes for making it again). There are some craftable sets which are really nice for PvE (PvP has its own craftable sets), but you could just as easily get someone to make those for you if you didn't mind coughing up a bit of gold; some crafters might do it freebies if you didn't want expensive traits, styles, or purple/gold upgrades. Second, it's a way around the problem of needing gold. It's inventory-intensive if you don't sub, but crafting is good for a few thousand gold per day off the daily writs. Third, Alchemy and Enchanting Master Writs are an excellent source of XP; gear and Provisioning writs can be a bit more problematic on other fronts, but you can't get the writs or do the writs if you don't work up those crafting skills. I try not to have any writs left undone while there's a double-XP event running. It's a long haul to CP3600 and I'll take whatever help I can get on that front. Fourth, and this is still a way down the line, but I'll get into furnishings eventually and that's an pricey pastime, just a bit less pricey if you can make your own.

But the fact still remains that you should not be doing it if you don't enjoy it. The whole purpose of a game is to have a good time, so don't do anything which interferes with that. I really dislike PvP, so you'll seldom find me in Cyrodiil and almost never in Imperial City. Whitestrake's events are about the only exception I make and even that is just for the tickets.

Sluggy · February 2025

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Crafted gear is 100% unnecessary in this game. The best sets come from dungeons and trials.

I just wanted to point out a few things.

1) Crafted gear for is a great gateway to doing harder PvE content so that you can get better gear
2) In PvP crafted sets are some of the best gear you can get depending on your playstyle and build strategy.
3) Future updates always mix things up. You never know when an old set becomes BiS because of a small change ZoS innocently made. On of the highest DPS patches I ever had (for its time) was when New Moon Acolyte was the best things you could stack on a pure one-button jabplar build.

moo_2021 · February 2025

You'd still need to craft something for overland traveling: a set of adept riders or coward's with swift jewleries, in addition to the wild hunt. Fast running is crucial in delves and public dungeons where you cannot ride. The default speed feels like snail crowling.

freespirit · February 2025

Also a fact that is worth considering......

If you are likely to get into buying houses and decorating, many of the really beautiful furnishings are CRAFTED!

Not only are they crafted, all of them require a certain amount of skill in the particular craft used to make them, some a lot more than others.

Ofc there are many, many achievement furnishings, zone housing vendors and you can buy crafted items from guild traders but imo you will struggle to be happy with your designs without some crafting ability.

spartaxoxo · February 2025

Snipped for brevity

coop500 wrote: »

It's about everything ELSE being skipped, the shortcuts that are taken all add up to the point where you'll be at least half-carried in vet dungeons and that's not fair to the other three players.

And your remark about needing researched traits is my point, but OP said they wanted NOTHING to do with it, no matter how easy. That's what my response is going off of. No crafting, research, or ANYTHING.

The traits thing is the only thing I really agree with. Which they can do for next to nothing and it's like one interaction a single day.

I don't think someone is going to be carried wearing say Spriggan's and Briarheart as they do normal dungeons. Or whatever. Just toss on damage sets, literally any will do for normal.

Realistically the only thing they need to do to not be carried later is simply to gear up in normal dungeons/trials before jumping into vet content, which is something that new players should be doing anyway. So they can familiarize themselves with the mechanics. Even people who know how to craft should do that before hitting the vet content because most of the best gear is not crafted.

I don't use crafted gear on any my characters, even new alts. I have not done so in years and it's never been an issue.

coop500 · February 2025

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Snipped for brevity

coop500 wrote: »

It's about everything ELSE being skipped, the shortcuts that are taken all add up to the point where you'll be at least half-carried in vet dungeons and that's not fair to the other three players.

And your remark about needing researched traits is my point, but OP said they wanted NOTHING to do with it, no matter how easy. That's what my response is going off of. No crafting, research, or ANYTHING.

The traits thing is the only thing I really agree with. Which they can do for next to nothing and it's like one interaction a single day.

I don't think someone is going to be carried wearing say Spriggan's and Briarheart as they do normal dungeons. Or whatever. Just toss on damage sets, literally any will do for normal.

Realistically the only thing they need to do to not be carried later is simply to gear up in normal dungeons/trials before jumping into vet content, which is something that new players should be doing anyway. So they can familiarize themselves with the mechanics. Even people who know how to craft should do that before hitting the vet content because most of the best gear is not crafted.

I don't use crafted gear on any my characters, even new alts. I have not done so in years and it's never been an issue.

Once again, I said carried in vet dungeons, not normal dungeons. But I can see you are arguing in bad faith and won't bother continuing this.

Desiato · February 2025

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Crafted gear is 100% unnecessary in this game. The best sets come from dungeons and trials.

Overland is easy enough you can just use whatever you find lying around until you get the chance to do dungeons.

The optimal traits take almost no time to learn and there's very few.

It's 100% unnecessary for some players.

Anyone who engages in PVE combat or PVE end game activities will eventually regret not having all traits researched for various reasons, but most importantly transmutation and reconstruction.

Plus crafted sets are historically highly valuable in PVP and extremely convenient to have access to for end game PVE players, at least for alts.

It takes months to research all traits and a player may find interest in a new activity like PVP or Trials at any time, so I suggest they start now unless they are firmly single player chapter players.

coop500 · February 2025

Fact of the matter is, OP said they're not gonna touch crafting no matter how easy it is. That is their words, not mine, and I can only take them at their word. Which means, yes, no traits either.

spartaxoxo · February 2025

coop500 wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Snipped for brevity

coop500 wrote: »

It's about everything ELSE being skipped, the shortcuts that are taken all add up to the point where you'll be at least half-carried in vet dungeons and that's not fair to the other three players.

And your remark about needing researched traits is my point, but OP said they wanted NOTHING to do with it, no matter how easy. That's what my response is going off of. No crafting, research, or ANYTHING.

The traits thing is the only thing I really agree with. Which they can do for next to nothing and it's like one interaction a single day.

I don't think someone is going to be carried wearing say Spriggan's and Briarheart as they do normal dungeons. Or whatever. Just toss on damage sets, literally any will do for normal.

Realistically the only thing they need to do to not be carried later is simply to gear up in normal dungeons/trials before jumping into vet content, which is something that new players should be doing anyway. So they can familiarize themselves with the mechanics. Even people who know how to craft should do that before hitting the vet content because most of the best gear is not crafted.

I don't use crafted gear on any my characters, even new alts. I have not done so in years and it's never been an issue.

Once again, I said carried in vet dungeons, not normal dungeons. But I can see you are arguing in bad faith and won't bother continuing this.

Right but you're saying ignoring the crafting will lead to problems later in vet dungeons.

I'm saying it will not because the same gear drops in normal. So, all they have to do is hit normal first and then they will not have to be worried about being carried in vet.

I'm not arguing in bad faith. I simply disagree that skipping anything but the research will cause problems in vet dungeons later.

And I don't even think they need all the traits as some insist. Someone who hates crafting in every video game is unlikely to suddenly change their mind about that down the road. So, they really don't need all traits. Only the ones they'd want to transmute to later.

coop500 · February 2025

spartaxoxo wrote: »

coop500 wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Snipped for brevity

coop500 wrote: »

It's about everything ELSE being skipped, the shortcuts that are taken all add up to the point where you'll be at least half-carried in vet dungeons and that's not fair to the other three players.

And your remark about needing researched traits is my point, but OP said they wanted NOTHING to do with it, no matter how easy. That's what my response is going off of. No crafting, research, or ANYTHING.

The traits thing is the only thing I really agree with. Which they can do for next to nothing and it's like one interaction a single day.

I don't think someone is going to be carried wearing say Spriggan's and Briarheart as they do normal dungeons. Or whatever. Just toss on damage sets, literally any will do for normal.

Realistically the only thing they need to do to not be carried later is simply to gear up in normal dungeons/trials before jumping into vet content, which is something that new players should be doing anyway. So they can familiarize themselves with the mechanics. Even people who know how to craft should do that before hitting the vet content because most of the best gear is not crafted.

I don't use crafted gear on any my characters, even new alts. I have not done so in years and it's never been an issue.

Once again, I said carried in vet dungeons, not normal dungeons. But I can see you are arguing in bad faith and won't bother continuing this.

Right but you're saying ignoring the crafting will lead to problems later in vet dungeons.

I'm saying it will not because the same gear drops in normal. So, all they have to do is hit normal first and then they will not have to be worried about being carried in vet.

I'm not arguing in bad faith. I simply disagree that skipping anything but the research will cause problems in vet dungeons later.

And I don't even think they need all the traits as some insist. Someone who hates crafting in every video game is unlikely to suddenly change their mind about that down the road. So, they really don't need all traits. Only the ones they'd want to transmute to later.

And once again, they said they won't touch crafting, so no traits are being researched and if someone is unwilling to do that, they're likely going to be unwilling to do other things to improve their build, and will go in there with mismatched gear.

Look, I've been running vet dungeons with people who rely on drops and ***, and it is HELL. People who won't put in the effort to pull their own weight in vet dungeons don't deserve to be carried.

Hapexamendios · February 2025

I'll echo sone others and say it isn't necessary, but is convenient. I like being able to do whatever I need td do with the character I'm on and not have to go shopping or ask someone else. Plus if you want to change traits or reconstruct armor or weapons, with the transmute station you can only do that yourself.

spartaxoxo · February 2025

coop500 wrote: »

And once again, they said they won't touch crafting, so no traits are being researched and if someone is unwilling to do that, they're likely going to be unwilling to do other things to improve their build, and will go in there with mismatched gear.

Look, I've been running vet dungeons with people who rely on drops and ***, and it is HELL. People who won't put in the effort to pull their own weight in vet dungeons don't deserve to be carried.

I'm assuming in good faith they are asking what's strictly mandatory because they'd prefer to farm their gear through content like dungeons and trials. I've met those people you described and it does suck.

But I've also sold stuff to people and made stuff for people that were completely willing to upgrade their gear, they just didn't want to deal with crafting. They didn't mind that it was more expensive as long as they didn't have to deal with the crafting system. I have sold gold glyphs to these people, for example. The competent ones who play without crafting aren't noticable in dungeons and trials (except when they occasionally ask for or pay for an item in a specific trait) because they performed the same as everyone else.

DenverRalphy · February 2025

coop500 wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

coop500 wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Snipped for brevity

coop500 wrote: »

It's about everything ELSE being skipped, the shortcuts that are taken all add up to the point where you'll be at least half-carried in vet dungeons and that's not fair to the other three players.

And your remark about needing researched traits is my point, but OP said they wanted NOTHING to do with it, no matter how easy. That's what my response is going off of. No crafting, research, or ANYTHING.

The traits thing is the only thing I really agree with. Which they can do for next to nothing and it's like one interaction a single day.

I don't think someone is going to be carried wearing say Spriggan's and Briarheart as they do normal dungeons. Or whatever. Just toss on damage sets, literally any will do for normal.

Realistically the only thing they need to do to not be carried later is simply to gear up in normal dungeons/trials before jumping into vet content, which is something that new players should be doing anyway. So they can familiarize themselves with the mechanics. Even people who know how to craft should do that before hitting the vet content because most of the best gear is not crafted.

I don't use crafted gear on any my characters, even new alts. I have not done so in years and it's never been an issue.

Once again, I said carried in vet dungeons, not normal dungeons. But I can see you are arguing in bad faith and won't bother continuing this.

Right but you're saying ignoring the crafting will lead to problems later in vet dungeons.

I'm saying it will not because the same gear drops in normal. So, all they have to do is hit normal first and then they will not have to be worried about being carried in vet.

I'm not arguing in bad faith. I simply disagree that skipping anything but the research will cause problems in vet dungeons later.

And I don't even think they need all the traits as some insist. Someone who hates crafting in every video game is unlikely to suddenly change their mind about that down the road. So, they really don't need all traits. Only the ones they'd want to transmute to later.

And once again, they said they won't touch crafting, so no traits are being researched and if someone is unwilling to do that, they're likely going to be unwilling to do other things to improve their build, and will go in there with mismatched gear.

Look, I've been running vet dungeons with people who rely on drops and ***, and it is HELL. People who won't put in the effort to pull their own weight in vet dungeons don't deserve to be carried.

You can research all traits without any crafting whatsoever.