Khajiit learned this lesson very quickly. Originally, Feng was going to be clothing and Mira was going to be blacksmithing with both of them learning woodworking. This one realized that it was a better idea to have a dedicated gear crafter instead of splitting the skills that need a motif between different characters because Feng would never be able to create Imperial style items (unless he somehow got his hands on the Imperial Style book, which is very rare and expensive in stores), which Mira knew right away being technically an Imperial. So, we had Feng make base model items in the traits he knows and then paid the gold to redistribute his skills to focus on combat and thieving. Mira then researched all the traits he knew, and built up her clothing skill. Brenna is our consumables crafter and is almost a master level (50) enchantress. We also have Razak who is learning all crafting skills. He won’t be doing much adventuring as his crafting skills are going to eat the majority (if not all) of his skill points.

My advice is the same as the others.' I suggest choosing one character to be your first equipment crafter for all three skills. Have her deconstruct everything and keep her crafting tiers at the same level as your highest level character so she can craft for them. Respec the rest of the crew so that they can keep doing Tier 1 writs for cash and the survey reports. Getting a survey report on a Tier 1 crafter is like turning iron into gold (or whatever level ore you've reached) when your main, highest-level crafter takes them and goes to harvest the mats. This method is hard on the crafter, because she will be struggling for skill points for a while. However this is much more feasible now than before One Tamriel, because she can freely move around the zones clearing delves for Skyshards. She just needs to get out there and cover some ground.

I found that if Elke, my equipment crafter, increased her character level at roughly the same pace as my primary adventurer, she was always able to gather the highest level mats that they both needed. Once Elke hit top tier in her crafts, other characters took over decon to raise their crafting level (number) while staying on the lowest tier. Then any time someone wants to move up, they just need to spend the points.

This is all just about equipment, though, not the consumables.

Another thing, I did not fill in most of the crafting passives until after she hit the top, simply because she needed the points to keep up with Jerric's level. The passives I did have her (and others) take are the first Keen Eye ones that help you find more mats.

I think my real issue is balancing playing level with crafting level. Or not. When the two differ, then the lower level mats accumulate with nobody using them, and the immutable law of Murphy says you'll get more of them than the ones you want. So as Grits points out, the primary crafter has to match the main explorer in playing level, too. I may have to just let the intermediate mats build up, and sweep them up when the time comes to have characters bring their crafting level up to their playing level. Trying to use them as we go along isn't working.

I'm already feeding the surveys up, as much because the lower level characters don't know the territory.

Some of my problem arises because Laurie Craft was created to craft, but Blossom has a racial boost for it, so she wanted in. Splitting the job between them meant they compete for materials, and so I wanted to split their needs by giving each one a different area of expertise. We have hit the skill point shortage a few times, too, so they go shard-hunting. But then they raise their playing level, and mess up their material balance. If I pick one (probably Blossom, as she has the crafting racial) and catch up to Unna, then the other can wait until it's settled, or get respec'ed down.

I first started out like you did, ghastley, with Julian, Maz and Alise splitting the equipment crafting among themselves. Worked until One Tamriel dropped, and the number of motifs multiplied, as monkey said.

Now I do as mALX says - Maz is my main crafter, and she gets first dibs on all the mats. However, once she hit CP160, I respec'd her skill points to get all her crafting passives up. There are a couple passives we haven't used/maxed out because we don't need them (keen eye for runestones come to mind - their glow makes them always easy to find). But I do have hirelings maxed out for all the crafting lines.

Alise gets second dibs on equipment crafting plans, and Julian gets second dibs on provisioning (she was first initially, but now she is happy to let Maz handle all that - she already has so many recipes . . .)

As for furnishings, I still divide them according to each toon's original focus, so Maz gets all the blacksmithing furnishings first, then Alise gets first dibs on wood and cloth, Julian gets first on provisioning and enchanting, and Argis gets first on alchemy. Maz is second dibs on those that aren't blacksmithing.

We are beginning to sell off the extra plans, so let me know if you want any particular ones, and if we find them we will give you (ghastley and treydog) first dibs before we put them up for sale.

Part of the reason this one brought Razak on board as a consumables and gear crafter is because a lot of the furnishing recipes require points put into other crafting skills. Mira is fine for the furnishing recipes that only require blacksmith, clothier, or woodworker skill, but if a recipe also calls for her to have skill in, say, alchemy, then she will not be able to craft the item.

One thing that may not be obvious in the Outfit system is that you can go back and adjust the outfit in a slot without having to rebuy everything, but reverting an item (i.e. removing an armour piece from the outfit so the original item shows) is a change, so it costs you. Same thing with undying - it will cost as much to undo.

I haven't yet determined if changing an armour piece on a subsequent visit costs the same as doing that piece from scratch, but I suspect it will. No refunds for the one it displaced. However, that's a single change, so you aren't charged for undoing the old, plus adding the new (unless you're masochistic, and do those steps in separate sessions with the outfit station).

That's good to know. Thank you!

When I noticed that there was a gold charge to use the invisible helmet in the outfit, I decided to go ahead and choose at least a plain hood for the outfit that could be hidden with the Hide Helmet collectible hat that's now on everyone's quickwheel. I wonder how much they will charge to hide shirts and pants? I know a Nord who will gladly donate to the Chorrol Pantsless Delvers Fund.

This one may be partially untrue, but it's so far an observed bias at least.

If a low-level crafter refines materials, they'll get low-level tempers/resins/tannins. If the same mats are refined by a higher-level crafter then the crafter's level rather than the material's appears to determine the by-products. I've been getting more pitch from the crew who haven't put points into crafting, but Laurie gets more Turpen. This was being masked by the return in the writ supplies, which does match the materials used - because the writs are at the crafter's level - so I was seeing the combined rates of drop. And my daily cycle usually had Laurie do all the refining in case there's experience from it. She'd also do her writs first, so the supplies would be returned for the levels below her.

This has been an issue because the lower levels of furniture are Woodwork, and use Pitch (except Wood Elf stuff which is Clothier). When we get around to clutter, and the fancier stuff, not just basics, it won't be so clear, as we'll need more of everything. Plus an item needs 9 Pitch, or 6 Turpen, or 3 Mastic, and ultimately only 1 Rosin - the same amount for any item at the same level, green/blue/puple/gold, regardless of the size of the item being made. The amount of the style material does vary between plans. And so do the Heartwood/regulus/bast quantities - sometimes strangely, as a tuffet, which is a stool with a cushion on it, uses less than the same throw cushion.

Bottom line is that if you need the low-level improvement mats, use the low-level characters to do refining, and make sure they do their writs to get more.

----

On a completely different subject, the "Bank Space Upgrade" reward at character level 16 doesn't happen. It was reported as bugged that way on PTS, and expected to be removed, but it wasn't. You do not get an upgrade. I suspect the having ESO+ counts as an upgrade, so you don't get it again. You can only receive an upgrade from 60 to 70.

Another observation:

Unna is now at the point where she finds level 5 materials. Since she is the highest level character in my crew, she does all the gathering of the surveys, and we've noticed that she often finds a lot more materials on the way to the survey site. I just realised that the lower level the zone, the more material nodes exist, and so she finds more mats.

This means I should have her do any foraging in the earlier zones of any alliance, as there will be more to find. When they changed over to One Tamriel, the tie between material level and zone was removed, but not the density of the material spawn locations. So you find your own level of mats, but at the zone's frequency.

Then to feed Laurie's need for Pitch, Honing Stones, Hemming, etc. I should have the low-skill characters do the refining, while she does all the deconstruction for the inspiration, and to retrieve the most content.

Can anyone explain to me what I can and can't do with a Dye Stamp. You get one as a level-up reward (at level 32), and the colours are ones that don't appear to be available otherwise. Is there any way to add the colours to the available pallete, or can they only be used (once) as a set? I don't recall if there's any way to get them out of inventory, other than use or destroy.

Ghastley, I've no experience with Crown store dyes but did find this link: http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Crown_Store#Dyes

T'would seem they are one time use and simply drop the three colors into a costume's three dye slots. No idea if you can choose which dye goes in which slot.

I'm pretty sure you can't, as the seasonal dye stamps sometimes just have the same dyes in a different order. I should probably just find a way to drop/destroy/get rid of it, as the inventory slot seems more useful. If no other way presents itself, I can dye and then revert an unused reward costume.

You have to choose one at level-up, or you don't get the other goodies. I picked one that had otherwise unavailable colours, just in the hope they would be usable. Not much difference from getting account-wide things you already have, but a tad more annoying because of the space.

On the same front, the Cyrodiil Assault crate is a pain, as you have to unpack it to move it from inventory, and then the contents take up more slots in the bank than the crate did in the player's inventory. And for extra annoyance, Unna and Laurie got differing content that won't stack. The costumes, mounts etc. at least don't have a downside if you don't want to use them, but some of the "rewards" are more of a curse.

Yeah it kind of sucks. Liberal use of the “Destroy” function may be necessary.

Since the conventional wisdom is that two-hander = DPS and should use medium armour. I built Unna to use Heavy (for looks alone) but the Outfit system means she can wear Medium but show Heavy. Should I respec her for Medium for max synergy? Whatever the facts, she might still wait for "hide pants" before she actually wears hide pants.

If your focus is PvE stamina dps then, yes, a medium armor centric build is good.

Most top players wear 5 of their chosen armor and 1 piece each of the other two types. This is to optimize the top Undaunted passive which gives you 2% to each of your attributes for each type of armor worn - hence, wearing all three types give you +6% to all three attributes. The reason the chosen armor retains 5 pieces is that the top passives and active skill for each armor type requires 5 pieces. Undaunted is easy (but slow) to level up by doing daily Undaunted delve quests (easy / solo).

If you embrace this path, I would not worry about respec'ing at this point since you would still want the lower passives for heavy.

Buffy only manifests as one stamina character (bow/bow stamsorc) and she runs 5 (med) / 1 / 1. As magplar healer and magsorc dps she runs 5 (light) / 1 / 1. Acadian the DK main tank runs 5 (heavy) / 1 / 1.

My reason for asking is that she's "outgrowing" her current gear (Heavy Torug's/Plague Doctor, but many levels down, and some green) so we're looking at the next set. Laurie could probably make her some decent Medium at this stage, but Unna hasn't put any points into it. Plenty of Skyshard opportunities as she does Cadwell's Silver, so could catch up on Medium if it's a good idea. Her weapon/racial/class points are not a concern.

If there was no Outfit, she'd have stuck with Heavy and not worried. Her build was OK for solo play, or at least the way I was playing it, which probably isn't optimal for ESO. Stamina/weapon for offence, armour sets providing health, and just enough magicka to get by. Group play would dictate more specialisation, but we're not there yet.

Laurie's researched between five and six traits on both Medium and Heavy, as they run concurrently. She wears Medium herself, so has neglected Light when there was a Medium/Light choice of what to research. That can wait until we build Wizwen's or Spreads' levels. So Hunding's is in sight for both of them, especially with a scroll or two to help with the last traits.

They also both use dropped weapons, improved where applicable, to keep up, so heavy armour research has taken precedence over weapon research. That could flip the other way if Unna starts wearing Medium, and Blacksmithing is for swords.

ZOS introducing one- and two-piece sets in the level-ups has confused matters too. 5+5 is becoming 5+3+2 or whatever.

I'll get even more confused when I start growing a tank or healer. (Cat Man Dhou and Wizwen could be those).

Can anyone explain the Glass Motif in its current state to me? Googling or UESP seem to give me a mix of the old method and the new, and confused even more by trying to explain the transition. I know that you need to be at Master level to craft that style, be it Blacksmith, Clothier or Woodworker, but has it become the same page/book model as the other styles, or does it still have a unique setup?

The sub-material part is already clear, and that seems to be the same for a few other styles, such as Dwemer, Ancient Orc.

I'm asking because one of the Jubilee boxes gave me a page(?). I don't think it was one of the now-obsolete fragments, but the sources I found suggest there should now only be the complete book.

With the recent addition of the full motif book in the Master Writ merchant, the old split chapter version is obsolete and no longer obtainable through fragments, but any fragments one obtained before the change can still be combined into a random chapter.

So the chapters still exist within the data, and since the event draws from all motif chapters I guess it makes sense that they'd drop. It's especially helpful for people that were only had part of the motif when the change came and find buying an entire motif book wasteful. (I got 2 pages so far since yesterday, but no one to use them on :v)

Jerric installed the crew’s housing storage mail boxes, and I love them so much. It’s true that they can pass things through the bank with or without Tythis, and Tythis is standing very close to one of the mail boxes. But when they use their mail box instead, the recipient can just clear out the whole box because it’s all for them. No more picking through the entire bank inventory! Even collecting things from the various supply boxes is more of a pain than an otherwise empty mail box. This was such a great tip!

They've been a life time saver for me because there's absolutely no way I'd be able to swap around as many items at once as I am with a single character using the bank alone, not to mention the nightmare of having to look for them in the mess that is my bank. Yes, it's a downside of not being subscribed, but it's a testament to how helpful these are. Best 1k+ vouchers spent.

Did they ever say whether or not you can research transmuted gear? I'm quickly reaching the Transmutation Crystal cap and making Nirnhoned gear for an alt would be a good way to use these up as more keep coming. (so far I only have one indication that it isn't possible to research the transmuted trait)

EDIT: Found another one saying no. Welp. I'm guessing you can't get the new trait stone from deconstruction, either.

Same here. Each of my characters does their dailies, puts any Motif Pages, or Furnishing Plans (or recipes) in the coffer, and Laurie Craft takes them out and learns them, all without leaving home!

And it's the one Taminwe got as a level-up reward, so no cost, either.

Update, you totally can.

I just transformed 50 Transmutation Crystals into a Potent Nirncrux. If you're willing to risk not getting anything, it's a decent way to actually make use of the crystals as you keep getting more over the event. (And not have to hang onto the boxes containing them forever)

I'm having a problem with Unna and Laurie's equipment. Laurie has just reached 50 in Blacksmithing, and isn't quite there yet in Clothier or Woodworking, but both of them would really like some new armour. What they have is a mix of a level 40-ish crafted set with uncoordinated dropped pieces at CP160. Laurie has the traits researched for Hunding's or similar, but can't yet use top-level materials in anything but heavy. So we've been putting off replacing until she gets that last level or two.

The issue is that the mobs haven't waited for them, and they're now rated near-naked. So do I

1. Try to assemble a set of dropped stuff at CP160
2. Make the best sets Laurie can manage now, with level 9 mats
3. Soldier on with foraging for drops to deconstruct

Of course the last one has to continue anyway, or she'll never finish the other crafts. The question is whether we'd get more stuff if we invest more short-term. And I suspect it will be a bit of "all of the above" as we''ll want to combine a crafted set with a dropped one until jewel crafting arrives.

Laurie ran into the prologue quest "Through a Veil, Darkly' last night, and died several times on her way through. Strangely, the single-combat boss fights weren't the hard parts. She had more problems with being mobbed by the filler enemies, especially dodging out of one AoE into another.

Just a note on something I hadn't really thought out properly.

When you do a total skill re-spec (in my case using a scroll from the level up rewards), you get all the skill points refunded, but your levels in those skills aren't affected. Laurie hadn't used any Ardent Flame skills at all, so was unable to put points in it (bar one). She'll have to grab skyshards as she goes while building up that line (so she can get Fiery Grip).

I did at least remember to re-allocate all her craft skills first. She needed those to make her Heavy armour to replace the Medium set she had.

Discovered from a bit of Googling that what I suspected is true. The nodes for the crafting surveys do NOT drop any furnishing materials, like the regular ones. However, in Craglorn, you can get Nirncrux.

My crew are running short of Heartwood, (and Blossom needs Rubedo Leather for her new suit), so we have a bunch of foraging ahead of us. We're also trying to include regular runs of Dreloth Tomb, as it seems to provide racial motifs (including, we hope, the elusive Imperial) and plans and recipes. Minx is hoping that one of the Hlaalu Lantern formulae will drop - any size will work. Of course the Guild Bank is getting a lot of duplicates (mostly Dunmer stuff this time).

We need to find good places for Altmer and Orcish plans, but with our luck they'd all be woodworking ones, anyway.

Transmuted gear is not researchable, according to ZOS's patch notes for the PTS.

Transmuted gear is bound to the account; so you can't get it from anyone else = plus you can't transmute any item without already knowing the trait for that item, so won't need to transmute something just to research it = just make it.

Look at it this way; you are wasting your transmute stones either way (by what you are talking about doing or by losing them from over collecting above the Transmute Crystal cap).

That cap of 200 is really ridiculous, and makes no sense. There are 12 slots of armor and weapons, the cap on Transmute Crystals should at least match what you need for one character. It is irritating to feel you HAVE to either blow them or watch them just disappear after you've earned them.

You can try deconstructing the item to see if you get the stones back, then crafting another item with it; but you'll never be able to make an item with Transmutes that you couldn't already craft anyway; so it is just a waste of your time to do all that rather than just make the item.

^I got like 5 Potent Nirncrux by deconstructing transmuted gear lol. At least those Crystals were put to good use.



I actually learned that the hard way when Homestead finally went live. I had been hoarding surveys so I could get a ton of furnishing materials from the start, but not one of them ever gave me the materials. I would later learn it was intended. :T

(Also the Nirncrux dropping from Craglorn surveys is the reason we get a random survey from writs now. People complained when high-tier writs were moved to Wrothgar and all the surveys stayed there since Nirncrux was no longer readily available)

Except maybe the transmute to Nirnhoned. If you can get nirncrux back (as monkey confirms) then you're changing transmuting crystals to nirncrux, via a random item.

But ... don't you have to use a Nirncrux from your own stash first for it to be transmuted to it? I thought you had to have the trait stone for it to make it?

If not, I may turn all my weapons into Nirnhoned and grind them up!!! Go into the business of selling potent nirncrux,

Ditto. I had stacks of surveys saved up, boy was I disappointed;

AFAIK, nope, don't need the style material. Made sure to check my supply before doing so, and my number of crux stayed the same. It's how I survived the event. :T

Well, I see a way to make Potent Nirncrux to sell then,

Is there any way to determine which plans etc. are available by what means? For example, the word is that the skooma bubbler can only be obtained by robbing drunks in one region. If some things can only be found by pickpocketing, then Minx has to start training. Well, she should anyway, but we'll also need to know where to go to work.

I think that Skooma Bubbler is only by pickpocketing actual paupers in some specific location or locations; but there are only a few actual paupers in the game and somehow they misnamed them something like "Commoners" (or misnamed the Commoners to Paupers, or something) = so as it turned out, you could be pickpocketing yourself blind and never get the Skooma Bubbler unless you Googled it to find the actual spot the correct NPC's were.

What you have to do to find out that information is to get the correct name of the item and Google it = which getting the actual name seems to be the hardest part of that. But the UESP or ESO pages on the items will usually give the information about where to find them.

However, that said = you can usually still buy them at various guild traders. I think the one at our Guild Hall was a gift from a member, because I still haven't found the right NPC to pickpocket to get one, lol.

iirc the servants in a specific place only accessible during a specific quest in the Thieves Guild questline used to drop them but ZOS being ever so protective of their crappy, grindy game design, nerfed the hell out of that.

Guides help a lot, but the general rule is that half of the time you'll find the style corresponding to the region (Nord in a Nord zone for example) and when pickpocketing, NPC class also determines what you'll find. (Like the Racial thrones dropping much more often from nobles in specific regions)

I imagine there's a little more complexity to that, though.

I'd just picked the Skooma Bubbler as the extreme case, rather than it being the one I wanted. The real point is that we're doing a lot of Dreloth Tomb runs as a reliable way to get plans, recipes, and the occasional motif, but started wondering if some of what we wanted was on the "steal-only" list.

ESO Fashion tells me what things CAN be found that way, but not which one can ONLY be obtained by stealing.

Oh, that is really interesting! I didn't know any of that! The only time I've ever actually pickpocketed was in that Priest Hole, and they have fixed it where you can't pickpocket them anymore,

A generic question: What are the considerations if you decide to re-spec a character?

My Unna (DK) is feeling the lack of a second weapon skill. I've run her as 2H/2H so far, and that means she has no real ranged option before she closes in. She has no skill usage in Bow, so even if I move some skill points into it, she can't use them until she gets more levels of Bow itself.

I've also considered switching her further, from DPS to tank, and moving her attributes from Stamina to Health. Here again, she has no S/B skill, even though she does have Heavy Armour fully fleshed out from her lower-level days.

I did it once, with Laurie becoming a tank, but she was trying to run sword and board as DPS/solo, which meant she'd raised her tank skills before the change. She just needed to collect a few more skyshards to put points in a few other places. She still needs to practice more with the chains/ranged taunt to raise their levels.

Re-allocation of CP apparently isn't a big deal (even if the results may be) as there's no further work required to use them. However, I'm wondering if there's more to the skill/CP/gear combos that I currently understand.

I've only respecc'd one char - from stam to mag and it went well. I attribute that to making sure I had her future armor and weapon skill lines pretty much leveled up (mostly by reslotting things when turning in quests) and by having an excess of skill points to deploy. That way when I actually did the respec she had enough of her new requirements to have a reasonable start.

When you are talking about DK's and Tanking vs DPS = Attributes/CP Points/and gear are all crucial to what role they are playing.

Gear: Britta has a huge health line = even naked; but while she is in her DPS gear that blue crab World Boss can kill her instantly with his AoE = but when she puts on her Tanking gear; she can go toe-to-toe with him till he dies without her health even flickering. In the same respect; gear designed for Tanking does NOT make good DPS gear. It takes Britta forever to take down an enemy in her Tanking gear; but if I put her in DPS gear she can clear a room in short order. In DPS gear she is still under 6000 DPS, though. (because her CP points and Attributes are set up for Tanking).

CP points: can make or break your build. For Tanking they are sunk heavily into defense; with almost nothing in damage at all. (A really good Tank's DPS is usually under 2000). They have a ton of sustain, but no attack whatsoever. They are made to play in a group where two DPS handle all that for them; and a Healer keeps them up. If you solo a lot, you won't want a Tank build because they are only fun to play when they are doing what they were built for.

Better to play a hybrid build if you solo play a lot. (High stam for decent DPS; but split that out with high health to sustain you in solo play. My NightBlade is a hybrid because she goes everywhere solo 99% of the time. She can do decent DPS for her needs = still under 22,000; but I'm not trying to solo Vet dungeons with her. If I went for straight DPS and used just stam; she could do over 38,000; but she'd spend all her time dead if she was solo = no fun.

A hybrid doesn't make a really good Tank or DPS; (either one) but they are really fun to play because they can kick just enough ass and live through it. She can do baby Trials like AA or Dragonstar Arena; but I can't take her into the Veteran mode dungeons or Asylum or anything = (places my Tank excels in) = but you will survive in solo play.

Attributes: Tanks = you have a choice of playing them either as high health or high stam (or even high mag if you want) = but either way you will have to mitigate lack in your other attributes. If you go high health; then sink high CP Points into things that will mitigate your stam usage (like Warlord and Shadow Ward) - etc. (and then drink Magicka potions when needed to replenish your mag, etc.

I have only played a health Tank because the man who built my Britta had always played only a health Tank. That (high health) is the old fashioned one that has been around forever. The current trend is toward stam Tanks; which I haven't a clue how to do. I have heard a lot of people who do use them referring to Alcast (who does some amazing builds to use as foundations for your characters = but then tweak them to your own specifications and play styles).

Acadian is absolutely right; don't go into a respec on the spur of the moment. Plan it out on paper first; and like he said = build up the skills by keeping your back bar full of raw skills you want to raise up = do quests and then make sure to flip to your back bar right before turning in the quests. (or bring her to Dolmen with the items you want to raise up = but with training traits on them; and use some of those XP scrolls the game keeps giving us. That will give you plenty of assistance while you are still at base level on those skills; but raise you up quickly.

The guy that built Britta had her train up all her skills; not just S&B. She has two handed/bow/dual/and destruction staff at 50 too. She doesn't use them; but the skill points are sunk there just in case she needs to one day. (which is why she doesn't have any skill points left for crafting, lol). She did all her training up in the other skills while in DPS gear; not Tanking gear.

Oh, one thing I always do before actually respec'ing my characters = respec them on the PTS server; test them out first before making the changes on the Live server. That way; if you don't like the changes (it is fine, because you never really spent all that money or actually did any of it).

But if you do like the changes; then you can go ahead on the Live server and do them.

Also = before ever touching my character on either server; I LOG all my character's stats completely (Attributes/CP Points/Skills/etc = including armor and weapons along with each piece's set/traits/and enchantments; (and I usually make a Test 1, 2, etc sheet for each change to compare stats later and see what worked and didn't).

That way if a Test respec doesn't work at all; I can always reset them back to normal and try something else the next Test. (I have tried out several builds I found online that way; most of them were sheer crap).

I still have some things to do before taking that step. Laurie made her a decent Hunding's bow, and she's building up some skills. We got her Caltrops as a backup/supplement. She may just go 2H/bow and follow Alcast from here, with some concession to her 2H skills. His suggested rotation doesn't use any!

She wore pants for the Battlegrounds runs, because she wasn't using her bear, but didn't feel comfortable that way. I'm still trying to work out how that increased her weapon critical a bit. They were the sixth item of Sword Singer, so shouldn't have affected that set's bonus, and there was no enchant or trait on them for that. She already had the five pieces for any armour passive, so it must just be a general equipment consistency thing. I hate hidden factors like that.

Blossom's already using a bow with her twin axes, but she could use Vigor/Caltrops too. She'll be doing some BG's soon, as they seem like a better alternative to Cyrodiil. You get 7k AP just for queuing up, more if you get carried.

Wow, I didn't realize you could get so much AP from the Battlegrounds! (Or that the BG helped your Alliance War skill lines!) Do you get rankings doing that too?

Thanks for the info on that; I might want to use that to get some of my lower skilled characters some of the great Alliance War skills!

As far as I can tell, it's exactly the same as going to Cyrodiil, except for the guaranteed AP. There are also smaller AP rewards for challenges, one of which is just "participate in 5 games". Four-person teams, but no tank/healer/dps profiling, so unlike random dungeons.

Seems to be a faster way to get the skills, too.

Wow, that sounds great! I hated the Battlegrounds because I couldn't do anything but die in them; even with Britta = didn't realize they paid out so much AP or that it could be used for AW skills! I'm really glad you brought this up, it will help me a lot! I haven't done as well in Cyrodiil since their patch changed everything down there a year and a half ago; but I really want Vigor for my NightBlades. Thanks for the info; Ghastley!!!

FWIW, we've been doing the flag ones, Capture the Relic, and Chaosball. They appeared to be the easiest to blunder through. Your mileage may vary, depending on PvP skills.

And of course, I should have mentioned the endless cycle of queuing, getting the "someone has declined" message, and queuing again. ZOS are supposedly fixing that tomorrow. It was much worse for the random dungeons, apparently.

There would be a lot declining to play with me on their team when they see my useless crafters coming,


Thanks for your help on this!

New Life Festival is ongoing. A couple tips that have helped me:

For the Betnik quest (get honey + mystery meat), the quest circles are irrelevant. You can get honey from any wasp on the island. Same for mystery meat - any wolf/mudcrab/rabbit, etc on the island. Mudcrabs on almost any beach seems perhaps the easiest.

For the Shadowfen fishing quest, the two special fishing areas don't care a bit what kind of bait you use. Any bait at all works equally well.

To add to the above, during the Bergama torch lighting quest, you don't have to wait for the animation to complete for the torch to be lit. You can run off as soon as the quest updates (earlier, if you already know the timing)