I can't find an explanation on how the materials availability changes with character level/skill.

When Unna got her Blacksmithing upgrade to allow Steel, suddenly all the ores she finds are High Iron instead of regular iron, and she can't find the mats for the writs that want the lower grade. She's finding both Flax and Jute, and Rawhide scraps drop with the Hide, and she finds Oak as well as Maple, even though neither of those skills has yet advanced to where she can use the next material. Just added the Hireling in each trade, so haven't received anything from those yet, but I'm expecting the same mix there.

She hasn't simply moved to another zone. If she goes back to square one (in her case Bleakrock Isle) she finds the same mix, so the material spawns depend on her, not the place she's in. I looked on UESP, but found nothing there. Does anyone here remember what they found out?

Oh, I would get a lot of use out of a Hide Pants and a Hide Shirt toggle.


ghastley, half of the material nodes should be at Unna’s crafting level and half at her character level across all zones. So if she is still finding jute plants and rawhide scraps, she should see some regular iron ore as well. I’ll drop some Tier 1 materials into the bank to get her through her old writs. Her new writs should be for Steel and the like. I can’t explain why she’s seeing zero iron ore except for the possibility that someone came through before her and scooped up the character-level nodes.


Added: Oh! I think her character level just bumped her into the second tier materials, so since she upgraded Blacksmithing she will see 50% High Iron from her character level and 50% High Iron for her Blacksmithing level. The tier 1 materials you are seeing will always be tier 1 until she upgrades those skills, while half of those nodes will change with her level.

She's not in need of iron for anything right now, but noticed the effect and got worried. She has a Clothier writ for Rawhide, but her character level has halved (if your numbers are right) her chance of finding the rawhide scraps. I'd imagine any Smithing writ would be for steel, and thus no problem. I'll just have to watch out for those transitions of character level, and make sure to keep skill levels in sync.

While we're on the subject, what are the benefits/drawbacks of creating a second character to trade with? The construct mine / deconstruct yours synergy looks useful, especially as the game reminds you who made something. This materials availability effect may mean having characters at different levels could help, too. I probably need to look for guides on making a crafting character, and what else to use them for.

Unna has made herself a homespun Bosmer "shirt" for when she feels the need to breathe. She may do a rawhide one, too. On the other hand, she keeps getting greaves and pants from which she'd like the bonuses. Being able to wear a helmet that doesn't show is just taunting her.

ghastley, any time you need materials for writs, just ping me (or mail me if I'm not online) with a request. We have TONS of lower level mats sitting in our Craft Bag that we can def share with you. I won't be putting them in the guild bank because they take up slots I'd rather leave open for more unique items such as set armor and the like.

It's almost useless to collect set gear until you hit level CP160, because you burn through the levels so fast. Keep an eye on the sets you do pick up, and if you find something you'd like to try at CP 160, let us know and we'll see what we come up with. (by us I mean the Guild) Until then, it's better to use crafted sets because they're easier to make, especially with mALX burning the midnight oil putting in those tables at our guildhall so fast.

Maz is nearly complete with her nine trait research, just on her last one or two pieces now. So she can make any trait for you - any glyphs as well for enchantments. If you ever need something for your character's level but can't make it because you don't have enough traits or some such, just let Maz (aka Mazul gra Duroch) know. She'll be more than happy to put a full set of gear together for you - she loves crafting more than pounding enemies (especially spiders) into the ground . . .

It’s a great idea to have a second character help with crafting. I recommend that you choose one to focus on the three equipment skills because of motifs. I made the mistake when I started of letting three characters each do a single equipment skill. At first that was fine, but then I realized that if I wanted a set in a rare motif, I would have to find multiple copies of the motif book for them all to learn. When I started over on PC, I made one crafter (Elke of Green River) for all equipment. Other characters are still researching traits and increasing their skill through deconstructing loot, they’re just not putting points into those skill lines.

Furniture crafting rewards a single character leveling multiple skill lines. I have a furniture crafter (Pog the Magnificent) who has all six crafting skills at the top level so that he can craft the furnishings that require multiple skills. Pog and Elke passed items to decon as well as trait items to research back and forth while they were leveling.

Both of my dedicated crafters have builds that are easy for me to play so that they can get where they need to go with only a few points in their combat skills. They can gather materials and collect Skyshards without too much trouble, but neither of them will be attempting to solo any difficult content. (Although Pog has been fine solo in his Wrothgar questing.)

A final note, it pays for all characters to run their Alchemy and Provisioning skills up to 50 to take advantage of passives in the Alchemy and Provisioning skill lines, but it’s not necessary. All of my characters do at least tier 1 Provisioning and Alchemy writs for that purpose.

OK, so I'm likely to start up Lora Craft (or some similar name) as a "pure" crafter soon, and have her do all those skills. I can then swap crafted items for decon, and Unna will just Smith etc. for her own use. I note there are costumes for Smith and Chef, so I'll have to avoid the temptations.

How big a deal is the Orc racial effect on Crafting? I was planning the eventual Blossom as an Orc with Heavy Armour concealed under a formal gown, and dual-wielding axes. If it's useful, she may also become another crafter.

I had forgotten that orcs get that crafting bonus. It will help Blossom get to 50 in her skills 10% faster? But more importantly, yay Blossom!

Fortunately with the ability to reassign skill points (for some gold of course) there's no drawback to having characters work on crafting. You can always get those skill points you invested back if you change your mind, and you can run a skill up to 50 without investing points just in case you change your mind later. What you can't change is recipes and motifs learned. Those stay with the character.


ADDED: Here's a site where you can look up different equipment styles in all of the different material tiers: ESO Fashion

I'd have to say that being an Orc definitely has an effect on one's crafting - Maz has become my main crafter for everything - all six lines plus furniture. Her emphasis in furniture is blacksmithing, following her earlier tendencies, but as she is maxed out in all six lines, she gets the furniture recipes that Alise (my woodworker/clothier) already knows, and same with Julian's recipes. Argis is my alchemist, so he gets first dibs on the Alchemy furnishing recipes, but other wise Maz gets them all.

Likewise, she gets first dibs on all the style motifs. The ones we can get without crowns, that is . . .

As with Unna, my objective with Blossom will be to match her outfit to the one from Oblivion..

So that needs a formal hairstyle (I have the pack, and there are a couple of decent candidates), a tiara, a formal dress with as much boobage as possible (probably this one) and a pair of Breton axes, which should be gold-hued if possible. I probably won't get the right dyes for some time, of course.

If I get close enough, I'll post a screen-shot in the appropriate thread.

I think it is quite doable to bring Blossom to ESO with her Oblivion good looks quite intact. The weapons, however, are not dyeable (yet, I hope this changes). So the gold hue likely will be the Dwarven level, but then disappear with higher levels (if I recall correctly). However, at CP 160, the Rubedite weapons will be a deep red, so that should still work with a lovely ruby red Ancestral Homage gown.

And yes, there are a lot of beautiful formal hairstyles in the pack that should suit Blossom beautifully.

Yeah that gown is probably going to be your best bet for, um, maximum boobage. As Rider said, weapons are not dyeable, yet (why this is completely mystifies this one).

What you find in the world is based half on your character's level and half on your character's skill level. So if your character levels up to wearing the next tier in materials; you should then start finding half the nodes you would need for her level; and half the nodes you find should be at her skill level. If she is still doing the lowest level Writs, then she should still be finding the lowest level mats half the time; and the other half the time be finding the high iron ore.

That said, it won't be every other one you see; but will average out to half over your farming. I can send you a ton of the low iron ore; I'll send it the next time I'm in game! I've got so much of it I can't give it away, lol.


** Oh, I see Grits explained this much better! Sorry about that, lol.

I always kept my characters doing base level Writs right up until their experience level for a type of crafting had reached 50; THEN sank the skill points into raising the skill level for crafting. The reason for that is:

1. Skill points were more needed for combat and building a character's strength via passives. If you spend them all in crafting, your character will end up too weak to go out and gather mats for the writs after a few tier level-ups.

2. If you spend any skill points to raise your crafting level; then your character will only gain experience from items their own level or above that they deconstruct. As long as you keep their skill at the base level then everything they deconstruct gives them experience; so you level up that skill much quicker and easier.

Of course, the down side to that is that someone else has to make that character's armors and weapons for them. You do have a whole guild full of people willing to help you do that; I had a close friend make all mine for me right up till my first character was level CP 130; at which time I knew what skills I needed most = respec'd her and sank the freed up points into crafting.

(either that or you can "skyshard hunt" for the extra skill points needed to spend in combat skills and still have enough to level up your crafting = I think Acadian did this).

** If you plan to have a character become a crafter; you need to "Research" all the "Traits;" to learn them = because it takes a LONG time to learn all the traits. Each piece of armor or weapon can be made with 9 different traits that enhance and make that item more powerful for the wearer.

Each piece means that even if you learn the chest piece for light armor; you still won't know it for heavy or medium armor (only for light armor). So that is a lot to learn; if you want to make a crafter you should start learning that early.

Of the nine traits; each trait you learn for a piece takes a specific amount of time to "absorb" the knowledge and have it be applied to your character. The fewer traits you know for one piece; the quicker your "learning process" will go. (Example: your first trait learned on an item takes 24 hours to learn).

So it is much quicker to learn the traits BY TRAIT instead of by piece of armor or weapon. (Example: Learn all the infused traits for all armor types and weapons before moving on to the next trait; that way each one takes only one day to learn; etc).

Anytime you want research pieces, just ask on here and one of us will make it and stick it into the guild bank for you.

** The only exception to this is for the Nirnhoned trait; which costs way too much to hand out. That is why everyone learns it last; so their character is strong enough to go to Craglorn and farm it so it is free. Otherwise if you have the gold you can buy it from either a member or from Guild Traders.

I'm sure I've seen a gown similar to that in the Crown Store; just maybe a little less low cut in the front.

The Cyrod Patrician Formal Gown is similar in appearance to that dress. Problem is, it’s not in the Crown Store anymore. It’s currently only available through Crown Crates, while the season lasts (probably another month).

Unna is starting to Skyshard hunt now that she's done the Stonefalls quest line. She'll go look for the nine she missed in that zone before moving on. We already went back to complete the sets for Bleakrock and Bal Foyen. She can probably stop crafting now that the others can construct for her.

Blossom and Laurie Craft will take note of the Trait advice. They're starting to pass each other stuff for deconstruction, as a sink for the low-level materials. We can at least convert those to experience. Some of it will also go to my other characters, who are still low-level enough to make use of them.

I'm still trying to work out how to optimize material gathering. The crafting duo are still generating a lot of lower-level mats, and using up the higher ones too fast. Unna gathers all she can find, and the ESO plus sharing does help a lot there. Construct/swap/decostruct will also use up the lower stuff.

Hmm! This is good to know!

Anyone still remember my mats farming path in Stonefalls between Davon's Watch and Ebonheart that can show it to Ghastley? It is a great place for any new character = low level enemies and tons of mats (and the Davon's Watch crafting stations are handy and convenient).

It's not so much where, as who and when.

Unna's level/skill gets her High Iron almost exclusively, whereas Blossom and Laurie get a mix. So do I do all my prospecting with Unna, and before crafting each day? Or do everyone's daily writs first and see what runs short? The Crate/Satchel/Case provides enough lower mats without gathering (I think) and anyway, the low-level characters can get fired up to forage if I need those.

And do my crafters need to go out and level in combat more? There seems to be a penalty for deconstructing items above your own level. That implies, too, that I should keep them even, so they get most benefit from deconning each other's work.

The enemies need to include critters if you need hide of any kind, so maybe there's some need of a path that includes mainly non-NPC enemies, or you're wasting your combat effort. On the other hand, people are a source of deconstruction experience, too, as they drop more equipment.

And things may have changed over the course of time. I gather they decreased the rates of Surveys, and made lower level mats more common, so that crafters could serve all levels. This would change what you need to prospect for, and so change the optimal strategy. It also probably changes with character level, and the gap between the combat player(s) and the crafter(s) in levels.

I took the motifs from the bank for the basic styles, so the crafters can use more of the style mats. The writs are all for "normal" stuff so far, so the trait gems aren't an issue. Unna is progressing fast enough that her needs keep changing, so she'll mainly use what she finds, and send the surplus down for deconstruction.

You gain no XP from deconstructing any items below your character's skill level = that is why I kept my characters all working at the base skill level until their experience level for each equipment crafting reached 50. After they reached 50 in Blacksmithing; Clothier; or Woodworking = then I sank skill points into bringing up their crafting in that.

The reason for that is that if your character is at the base skill level, then Everything they deconstruct is at or above their skill level = so they get full XP for absolutely everything they do. Especially as they level up and are grinding up stuff that is above that first tier.

During the period in between when I'm getting their crafting experience level to 50 I fleshed out their combat skills and gathered any skyshards I could get my hands on so that I would have the extra skill points to spend on their crafting when the time came that they were ready to sink skill points into it.

If all your skill points go into crafting; then when you have to go out and gather materials you will be out there with higher level enemies and no combat skills to protect yourself. And even Blossom = if she is going to be your crafter; there are some places she will need to go personally to get motifs/recipes/etc.

Example: Up till now, you couldn't get Soul Shriven without besting Molag Bal. (Although I hear that changes with the next DLC).

Not to mention that to have a dedicated crafting character takes a lot of skill points; and they will have to level up and gather skyshards or do main questline quests from DLC; Alliances; and the Main quest (the Prophet) to get those skill points to spend.

So imho you should definitely shape your character first; while learning and increasing your experience levels in the crafting = then raise their crafting levels up to match their experience levels in the crafting.

But deconstructing items above skill level reduces material return, if I read the message correctly. Or it could have been character level, I'm not sure.

So your method is basically: go out with the crafters to get combat experience and raise their overall level, and hoard the skill points for later. Main combat characters can feed skill points into combat skills. Everyone forages for mats and runes, and ingredients, as that's pooled. Crafter do writs daily, which stay at low level, so they're easy to do, and mats are plentiful. Presumably those are also low-xp writs?

Once crafters reach 50 in one of Smithing, Clothier, or Woodworking, then use the skill points saved up for that. I presume that allocation has some order to it as well. I was wondering about the deconstruction boost skills, such as Metal Extraction, Unravelling etc. to get more back from decon, but would that be at the expense of XP? Should those be taken before lvl 50?

With the wait for 50 scheme, the combat-only characters won't get any contribution from the crafter(s) until that magic 50 point, as they can't make good stuff. They're reliant on drops and rewards until then. Which is much the same as playing just one character, except that crafting can be ignored (some other character's problem). Once the crafter cut in, everything changes.

Still a bit confused...

Well, you do have a bunch of folks who are willing to outfit you free of cost until you get a crafter where you want them, if you want to take mALX’s advise.

To give you an alternative method, Khajiit decided to make his first character, Mira, his crew’s dedicated gear crafter after he realized how daunting it would be to get motifs for multiple characters (not to mention she also knew the Imperial motif right out of the box, which normally is super rare to find or expensive to buy). What this one did with her was keep her crafting skills even with her character level (each craft level is actually good for several character levels). We worked really hard on writs and grinding up found weapons and armor during the time between craft levels to make sure her gear crafting skills were advancing. Khajiit should mention that her only offense comes from the one hand and shield skill line with heavy armor passives for defense, so it’s not like she is focused on combat (although she does fairly well against numerous baddies and group content like world bosses and dungeons).

You learn more when you're not just given the answers. I don't want my character to use unearned equipment, as that might gimp her ability to learn how to use her skills effectively. A poor swing with an OP weapon might kill the mob, but she needs to make a good swing with a wimpy one first. Then when she has both equipment AND skill, she'll be unstoppable. Some of that skill is character skill, and some is player skill. I'm learning this with her.

Unna raced a bit ahead of herself in the Main quest, and has completed the Five Companions, and did half of the Hollow City stuff before I pulled her back to "reality" to level up some more. She'll go skyshard hunting for a while, to get some more moves in her arsenal, and then start thinking about equipment. Plus, we're waiting to see what Outfits brings. If she can keep the bear-rider look as an effective custom costume, then she'll have more equipment options without affecting her style. She also hasn't really made any use of the weapon/skill bar swapping capability since she got it. Balancing those for different enemy types is on the to-do list.

So a bit of development of the Crafting characters was in order. I could have played Cat Man Dhou, Wizwen, or Spreads more, but doing too many styles at once would just confuse me.

ghastley, I leveled my crafters as their skills increased because I wanted them to make the crew's armor while they leveled instead of waiting. Adventuring and questing brought in materials and gear to deconstruct along with skill points to use on combat and crafts. Elke who did all three equipment crafts got in a bit of a bind with her skill points and had to hunt Skyshards to fill in a few combat passives. Doing it this way may have been slower, but she was able to keep up as the main adventurer/attention hog leveled.

I haven't been able to find a recent chart of xp gains for various gear deconstruction, but I don't recall anyone getting zero xp for decon as they leveled. The lowest tier stuff and the 0 gold value stuff provided so little that the bar barely moved, but it still did something. If memory serves, it is always good to decon higher level gear. Never mind if you can't regain all of the materials, or whatever the message says. It still moves that xp bar to the right.

The only issue I can think of with breaking down gear that is a higher level than your crafting tier is that you will end up with some inventory-clogging materials that you can't use yet. If you subscribe to ESO + and get the associated crafting bag, no worries. The materials just whisk into your magic bag where they wait for you to need them. Otherwise there's the guild bank, trading with other crafters, and of course staring at those 5 ingots of rubedite in your bank until Laura gets to 50.


Which brings me to the thought, I'll stick stuff with the Intricate trait into the bank for decon as I get it. Anyone who is leveling a crafter, help yourself.

I do have ESO Plus, and the shared bag makes a huge difference. Especially with Alchemy, where one character finds one ingredient and another finds the matching one; or with Enchanting, where the pool of Potency Runes does the same thing.

The shared bag is what made me think it was advantageous to level the crafters to match the combat specialists, as the latter would then provide mats at the right level. mALX's method relies on the crafters getting enough low-level mats on their own, which could also be viable, given the preponderance in the supplies returned for writs.

Other opinions are welcome, as this seems to be a fertile area of debate. (Or a load of fertilizer).

Yeah, Khajiit’s crew is feeling the pain of not having advanced alchemy, enchanting, and provisioning along with the the other craft skills. We’ve got two characters over CP160 and can craft awesome weapons and armor, but nobody to make top tier enchants! Brenna is working on it though. She’s currently at 37 in enchant.

As someone who has bought two toons to top tier in all six crafting lines (and two others not that far behind, just not maxed out on their crafting passives), I can speak to the grind of getting the first toon or two through the mid levels where materials can be quite scarce. Ironically, now that I have four toons doing top tier daily writs (and Maz doing all the motifs, and both her and Alise doing most of the furnishings), we are overflowing with the formerly scarce mid level materials.

Now with the recent influx of new guild members, and being part of a rather large but friendly trading guild, I find myself dipping into those stores more to help out those who are stuck short of the mid tier materials. It makes our own pain all worth it, as we have had help from friends with more advanced toons and more materials to spare when we needed it.

I suspect if you play the game long enough, you will be in the situation where you will be the giver, not the recipient. And it's a good feeling when it's payback time.

I never hoarded skill points; I sank them into combat skills to help my character get the skyshards and skill points needed. As for the armor for that first character getting their crafting skills up to 50 before sinking points into it = I had a friend who crafted whatever armor I needed during the interim; she would just tell me what mats and how many of them she needed and I would give them to her to make the armor with/improve it/etc. (I offered to pay her, but she refused to take any money)

Once Misa reached level 50 in experience from all the deconstructing she did (which really didn't take that long) = I respec'd her to get back some skill points I had spent in things she would never use (points spent trying to figure out what combat style suited her best).

When I respec'd her I kept all her best combat skills intact; kept all her passives; Armor and Class skills; etc. The rest of the skill points all went into crafting.

** Also, I DID spend points in the extractions for the crafting; did spend points in speeding up researching for all the equipment; and did spend points in "Improving Tempers" so I could improve dropped items I picked up and used (like the Viper stuff that you USED to be able to find out in the world).

No, I only had one character back then = Misa. She went around adventuring, and gathered mats as she went out in the world. I didn't even know about doing Writs until Grits taught me about how much money I could make by doing them. All my leveling up in crafting came from deconstructing the items I got in my travels. When Grits told me about doing Writs, I barely got started doing them before she was at level 50 from the grinding up of items.

Back then (before One Tamriel) = the starter zones all had low level mats; you had to go to higher level zones to get the higher level mats; meaning if you sank skill points into crafting it would put your character into high level zones to gather the mats or deliver the drop-offs.

They don't do it like this anymore; since the One Tamriel patch the mats in the world are all based on your character's level and skill level for that node. So my way of doing it may not be necessary anymore, but when my characters were starting out it was the best plan for any early crafters.

Also, back then you couldn't go to the other Alliance's zones till after you beat Molag Bal, meaning you were blocked from getting 2/3 of the skyshards; so your ability to get enough skill points to sink into crafting and still be a viable character were nill back then. That is why it was done that way before One Tamriel.

So I guess now it doesn't matter how you do it; but that is the way it was done at the time my characters were starting out.

** also, no one here is debating; (or trying to suggest what you should do in your own game) - we are all just sharing our experiences in raising a crafter with you because you asked about it. Each of us has a little different way of doing it; but it all works out in the end. You find the way that suits you the best; of course = just like we all did.

Any tips on leveling alchemy and provisioning?

Especially Provisioning. It seems you start off knowing no recipes whatsoever, so you can't make anything until you find some. And of course any writs will be for things you don't know. Presumably you make food and drink to use as "potions" until you have a decent portfolio. I haven't really got my head around using food/drink that way, so snacks during battle isn't part of my game.

I'd guess that designating a provisioner among your characters and having that one learn any recipes you find is the way to go. Maybe others know better.

Alchemy is very different from other ES games, in that you can't fail, and waste materials. It also appears that there are fewer materials to collect and know. The fact that poisons negate all but base weapon damage has put me off using them. I'm sure there are special cases where they're an advantage, but you don't have time in this game to consider the options. So I'm just making restorative potions to supplement the supply I find (so far).

The equipment crafting has easily understood gameplay consequences, Enchanting is similar, but Alchemy and Provisioning are harder to figure. You don't have the Archer/Poisoner thing in ESO.

Provisioning: I am a big fan of Provisioning, as having a food buff active makes such a difference in my gameplay. I keep a food buff active at all times and use hotkeyed potions for emergencies during combat. When a food buff wears off you get a glowing flash of stat bars, and they shrink. That’s my cue for a snack.

To level Provisioning, empty every crate, sack, and barrel for ingredients, loot every furniture piece and backpack for recipes, and do the writ every day. You will find all of the recipes you need for the writs at your Provisioning level (and I think the one below) for sale in taverns. The Brewer sells drink recipes and the other guy sells food recipes. Writ reward boxes will occasionally contain recipes in addition to the other supplies, but never a recipe that you will need for the actual writs. This is because those recipes are for sale from the NPC vendors.

Another good source of Provisioning ingredients is theft. If memory serves, you can use stolen ingredients without laundering them on the character that did the stealing. For the honest characters, find a delve (like Ilessan Tower in Glenumbra) that is loaded with containers. They are instanced to you, so clean them out with a clear conscience. Reloading will refill them again. There’s a warehouse in Vulkhel Guard that’s a grey area. You can steal everything from the barrels without crouching because there is no guard, then head down to the Outlaws Refuge to pay for your groceries by laundering them with the fence. Every time you leave the Outlaws Refuge, the barrels will have respawned. You can launder 50 items per day without using any perks in Legerdemain.

I suggest having one main Provisioner keep up with your highest level character and plan out your levels for the rest. Crafting higher level food and drink rewards more xp per ingredient used, but increasing the skill tier by spending skill points changes the level of recipes you will find. Keeping a few characters at lower levels is helpful if you want to find all of the recipes. It takes a lot of writs to get the blue and purple recipes as rewards. Your main Provisioner will want to speed through levels and will probably miss a lot of them. Your backup lower level characters can gradually fill in the gaps. Also check the Guild Bank and take whatever recipes you need – that’s why they’re there!

Alchemy: again, do your writs for the inspiration (crafting xp) and reward boxes. Alchemy surveys are great if you are short on reagents. I use the poison solvent if I’m trying to discover effects or when just making a bunch to sell back when my first Alchemist needed to move up a tier, since they drop from critters and such and are pretty much limitless. Others can help out with routes for gathering plants, I just get the first level Keen Eye passive in Alchemy on every character and have them pick plants as they quest and adventure.

Kill those mudcrabs for their chitin and zombies for fleshfly larvae. Er… and assassin beetles for beetle scuttle. I know I am forgetting some. Oh, the pretty bugs! Rivenspire abounds with torchbugs and butterflies, but there are more common reagents to practice with if you are not an insect murderer.

Thanks for the suggestions G! Looks like we just need to start crafting stuff!

If you're planning on straight up grinding the skills (which will mean missing out on a decent amount of recipes for provisioning), you can buy a stack of provisioning ingredients from guild stores for about 1.5-2k gold. Might even go the extra mile and get progressively stronger recipes that use the same ingredients (normally they're dirt cheap, too, if they aren't used for writs) Blue and Purple recipes give more EXP for creating them, too.

If you're hunting for recipes, it pays to look through stuff. Honestly. There are so many recipes out there at so many levels and qualities, chances are you won't have the "Perfect" recipe for your level or desired quality, but you can try to avoid that by looting as much as possible. I'd suggest doing what Grits says and keeping a backup Provisioner for getting any recipes you might have missed from a certain tier. (IIRC, First Tier drops recipes Levels 1-15; 2nd is Levels 20-25, and this is when Purple recipes begin to drop; 3rd is Levels 30-35; 4th is 40-45, and this is where the recipes required for writs are the same across all alliances; 5th is CP10; 6th is CP15-CP150, good luck getting the cp150 purple recipes, I've only gotten one (1) to drop since One Tamriel went live) Edit: Here's a list of all the recipes used for the writs.

It also pays to know what recipes drop in what zones, since they still drop the original leveled recipes half the time (and if you're after the CP level ones, keep in mind which zones are Silver and Gold). It took Hates and Jo'zira doing writs for missing recipes to finally get them all for the Crafting Monkey (I don't even know how Eolan got them all, since all he was missing was the 2nd Tier of Blue recipes). Slow Simmered Rabbit Goulash... It's honestly hard to tell what you'll find since, again, the drops follow the old leveled world and it can change from one end of the zone to the other. Usually it matches up to the tier of recipes you get from writs, though, so 1-10 is the starter islands, 10-15(?) is the first zones, etc. After the five main zones of your alliance, the next tier drops in Coldharbour, then your Cadwell Silver's zones (iirc, the same ones throughout all zones), then Gold, then Craglorn, then Wrothgar (and the other DLC?).

For Alchemy, there will be certain cheap reagents you can also buy in bulk (Spider Eggs, apparently?). Also remember that you won't get more EXP from three reagents, so don't waste em.

Is that strategy, or just Jerric being Jerric?

That is strategy. A good one. Most of us design that into the character's build. For example, I want Buffy to fight at 18.5k hp. Therefore, she is built with a few thousand less than that and food brings her up to target. Keeping a food buff active all the time when adventuring is not a hard habit to develop. Note, if the using character takes the appropriate provisioning perks they can extend the duration of any food by 20 minutes.

Triple attribute food (purple recipe) gives a small boost to all three attributes, lasts 2 hours but is challenging to keep stockpiled due to the need for somewhat rare ingredients.

Single attribute food (green recipe) gives a large boost to one attribute and is cheap/easy to get but only lasts 35 min.

Double attribute food (blue recipe) gives a decent boost to two attributes, lasts one hour, is easy to keep stocked and most of us consider it to be the 'sweet spot' for food.


Short answer: If you are a magicka character, learn to love blue 'Savoury' recipes/food; if you are a stamina character, learn to love blue 'Ragout' recipes/food. If you are a hybrid or tank then learn/decide what your best food option is.

As far as alchemy goes, I found this very helpful - http://tamrieljournal.com/list-of-useful-p...eagents-in-eso/

Since the food lasts for between 35 minutes to 2 hours; most Players eat a snack between dungeon crawls or before leaving town to go adventuring; never during fights or even during dungeon crawls (eat before going into the dungeon).

To check if your snack is about to run out = click on "C" and scroll down through your "Active Effects" to see how much longer you have on any food or drink.

If you keep Alchemical potions in your Quickslots: you can hit "Q" in the middle of combat and get that potion boost if needed; but you should never have to actually eat food or drink drinks while in combat or even while dungeon crawling unless you just stay in the dungeon a long time to farm the boss spawns. (like during Festivals when the bosses drop gift boxes, lol).

To add anything to your Quickslots, click on "I" for inventory; then click on the last tab at the top of that Inventory window to get to your Quickslots window. Add whatever you want quick-slotted (including costumes, emotes, etc if you want to be able to change them on the fly).

If you eat something and then drink something does it nullify the thing you ate?

I think it does nullify, and you only get the benefits of the last thing ingested = except when you drink specialty drinks like the Festival drinks.

But IIRC, I don't think potions effect your food buffs; and can be stacked on top of the food/drink when needed.

Ew

Khajiit really thought those were stackable because they do two different things. Food for max attribute and drink for recovery.

That is what I thought too, but someone told me it didn't work that way. You can check = eat a loaf of bread (raises health for 1 hour or something), then drink something for regen mag or stam = then check your Active effects to see whether both are showing.

I'm getting a bit confused by some of the miscellaneous stuff that gets picked up. I tracked the "Left Hand of the Construct" down to the Clockwork City Precursor quest (after I found the Right Hand), so they were undeclared/optional quest items. However, things like the "Multifaceted Eye" and "Imp Effigy" don't appear to be quest-related, or even things I can put on a shelf in my home as a souvenir. I gather the game tracks them for Achievements, but other than that, are they of any use whatsoever? I need to check the valuations, as they may just be "gold tokens" like the Foul Hides, Ectoplasm etc. that have no use but to sell. Taking up an inventory slot with a unique item means they have a high nuisance factor.

You are correct, the game tracks them under Journal-Achievements-Character-Trophies for achievements. If memory serves the items are bound to character, so you can't even move them through the bank to another character as an RP gift. (Jerric tried to give a polished shell he found to Steams, but couldn't.) Sell them with no worries, or if you're worried, first check your journal to make sure what you've found is on that trophy list.

The problem I had was I couldn't believe how pointless they were. I kept thinking "there has to be something more". They don't even seem to be valuable when you sell them, despite being unique. The items marked "sell to merchant" aren't so bad, as you can collect a bunch of them in one slot before cashing in. These take a slot each.

Yeah those things are pretty stupid. Don’t worry your head about them and just sell them.

Since the writs return shipments of the mats at the level below the items crafted, I'm trying the experiment of trying to arrange my crew to use each others' "rewards". So Unna, who is the highest overall level, and just crafting to equip herself, will keep advancing her blacksmithing, as she goes. Laurie will do Woodworking as she'll need that for furnishings more than the other skills, and Blossom will be the clothier. The other three will stay at the base level and use the lowest level stuff. Once we need four levels at a time, we'll bring in one of the other three and so on.

Hopefully, that will get us past the issue of foraging all the time for the higher mats, to keep multiple crafters supplied.

I'm still having issues with Crafting. My main character Unna is advancing her level faster than the others, so she finds 50% materials at her playing level, and 50% at her crafting level. This means that the half she gathers at her playing level won't get used unless:
1. She raises her own crafting level to use them, or
2. One of the crafters keeps up their crafting level in line with Unna's playing level.
Either way means Unna can have appropriate level equipment. The crafter who raises crafting level ahead of playing level will find 50% of mats at that level, when they do their own foraging. So they can fill in if Unna doesn't find enough, except that it will be the exception, rather than the rule, because they don't explore as much.

Currently I'm doing both at the same time. Unna does her own Blacksmithing, but leaves Clothier to Blossom, and Woodworking to Laurie Craft. So she's now finding Spidersilk and Flax, but no Cotton. She gets Hickory and Oak, but no Beech. (Hide and Leather levels confuse me). Writ supplies keep the other characters supplied with iron, Jute, Rawhide and Maple, so they don't need to be gathered. Blossom and Laurie gather levels 2 and 3 materials. Level 3 from crafting, level 2 from playing level. Each finds what the other uses half the time, and Unna also supplies the lower level. They're close to raising their crafting levels to catch Unna's playing level of 4.

But now I'm about to get a gap. Once Blossom and Laurie get to level 4 on their main crafting skill, nobody will be doing level 3. If they each raise the "opposite" skill to 3, then the gap is at level 2. I suppose I could raise up another minor crafter to fill in at 2, but I'm rapidly getting to the point where I don't know who should go foraging for what. Should Unna raise her secondary crafting skills to playing level minus one? Or is she the gap filler at level 2 for using up the supplies? Should I have stuck to just one character instead of confusing myself? Do bears turn brown in the woods...?

It really isn't a very good idea to divide up the equipment crafting amongst different characters; because that will mean each character will have to learn a motif separately before they can craft it. Some motifs can be very expensive or nearly impossible to obtain. It really works out better if you use a hierarchy; where the person who will be your ultimate crafter gets everything first; and anyone else gets it after the main crafter has learned it in whatever order you deem.

My own game, I just have one character do the farming for everyone who is doing Writs. Since I don't raise anyone's skill level up until their experience level is 50 (so they can go right to the top level crafting) - I only have to craft with two levels of materials = the highest and the lowest. Everything else I get ends up being sold for income. It is much less complex than trying to keep up with 8 different skill and materials levels and who has which skills. (all my characters do all 6 crafting disciplines when called on to work).

Gonna second what mALX said. It used to be more feasible back when the only motif split in chapters was Dwemer and there weren't many motifs to learn to begin with (which is why my Squad do crafting the way the way you described) but now, especially with the changes to crafting, it's probably better to have one universal crafter that you sink most of your resources into while the rest are more supplementary crafters, assuming you want to deal with all this management.

Speaking of my Squad, I also kept them all at similar character levels (never more than a 3 level difference among them) even as their crafts leveled past that point. I can see this being a useful strategy even in the current system, but it's probably more micromanagement. I still have horrible flashbacks of the Veteran Levels and keeping up with Enlightenment