Is Crafting Worth It in ESO? A Deep Dive for Aspiring Artisans
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Absolutely! Crafting in The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) is not just worth it; it’s practically essential for maximizing your character’s potential, saving gold, and even making a fortune. While it requires time and dedication, the benefits of becoming a master crafter far outweigh the initial investment. From creating powerful gear and consumables to fulfilling daily crafting writs, crafting opens up a world of possibilities within Tamriel. Let’s delve into the intricacies of crafting, exploring its advantages, profitability, and overall impact on your ESO experience.
The Undeniable Advantages of Crafting
Crafting in ESO offers a plethora of benefits that extend beyond simply creating items. It’s a pathway to self-sufficiency, customization, and economic opportunity.
Gear Up Like a Pro
One of the most significant advantages of crafting is the ability to create powerful gear tailored to your specific build. While you can acquire gear from dungeons, trials, and quests, crafted sets offer a unique level of customization. You can choose the specific traits, enchantments, and set bonuses that perfectly complement your character’s abilities and playstyle.
Crafted gear becomes especially valuable at higher levels, particularly after you reach Champion Point 160 (CP160), the gear cap. At this point, you’ll want to optimize your equipment, and crafting allows you to create “god-rolled” pieces with the exact stats and bonuses you need. Furthermore, the ability to upgrade crafted gear to gold quality (legendary) makes it viable for all content except perhaps the very newest veteran trials and some achievement runs.
Become Self-Sufficient
Crafting allows you to become self-sufficient by creating your own consumables, such as potions and food buffs. Alchemy enables you to brew powerful potions that restore health, magicka, and stamina, while also providing beneficial effects like increased weapon damage or spell resistance. Provisioning lets you cook food and drinks that grant temporary stat boosts, crucial for optimizing your performance in combat. Created alchemy pots and poisons are the best in the game. Food buffs are not only beneficial but extremely important.
By crafting your own consumables, you can save a significant amount of gold that would otherwise be spent on purchasing them from vendors or other players. This self-sufficiency is particularly valuable for players who enjoy solo content or those who want to minimize their reliance on others.
Make a Fortune
Crafting can be a very profitable venture in ESO. You can craft and sell items to other players through guild traders or directly through the in-game mail system. Some of the most profitable crafting professions include:
- Blacksmithing: Crafting heavy armor and metal weapons.
- Woodworking: Crafting staves, bows, and shields.
- Clothing: Crafting light and medium armor.
- Jewelry Crafting: Crafting rings and necklaces (requires the Summerset DLC).
- Enchanting: Crafting glyphs that add enchantments to armor, weapons, and jewelry.
- Alchemy: Crafting potions and poisons.
- Provisioning: Crafting food and drinks.
The demand for crafted items is consistently high, especially for gear with desirable traits and enchantments. By specializing in a particular crafting profession and mastering your skills, you can establish yourself as a reliable source for high-quality crafted goods and generate a substantial income. You can also offer your crafting services for a fee.
Daily Crafting Writs: Easy Gold and Experience
Daily crafting writs are daily quests that reward you for crafting specific items. These writs are a fantastic way to earn gold, experience, and valuable crafting materials. They are relatively quick and easy to complete, making them a reliable source of income and progression. Completing crafting writs also provides a chance to obtain master writs, which are more challenging crafting quests that reward you with writ vouchers. Writ vouchers can be exchanged for valuable crafting materials, motifs, and furnishings.
Overcoming the Challenges
While crafting offers numerous advantages, it’s important to acknowledge the challenges involved.
Time Investment
Leveling up your crafting skills and researching traits can be time-consuming. Each crafting profession has its own skill line that needs to be leveled up, and researching traits on items can take weeks or even months. However, the time investment is well worth it in the long run, as it unlocks access to higher-level crafting recipes and allows you to create more powerful and valuable items.
Material Gathering
Crafting requires a constant supply of materials. Gathering materials can be tedious, especially for rare or hard-to-find resources. However, there are several ways to streamline the material gathering process:
- Invest in crafting skills that improve your ability to find and harvest materials.
- Use addons that highlight resource nodes on your map.
- Join a guild and participate in organized farming runs.
- Purchase materials from guild traders.
Skill Point Allocation
Crafting requires a significant number of skill points. Allocating skill points to crafting skills may mean sacrificing points in other areas, such as combat skills. However, it’s possible to respec your skill points at any time, allowing you to adjust your build as needed. You can also earn a large number of skill points throughout the game by completing quests, exploring delves, and collecting skyshards.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Can you learn all crafting in ESO?
Yes, you can learn all crafting professions on a single character in ESO. This is a significant advantage, as it allows you to become a self-sufficient artisan capable of creating a wide range of items. You’ll need to invest time and skill points into each crafting skill line, but the benefits are well worth the effort.
2. Is crafting mandatory in ESO?
No, crafting is not mandatory in ESO. You can certainly play the game without engaging in crafting. However, you’ll miss out on the benefits of creating your own gear and consumables, as well as the potential for generating income. The only real downside is that if you don’t know the traits, you can’t transmute or reconstruct gear with traits.
3. What is the best race for blacksmithing in ESO?
While any race can excel at blacksmithing, some races have racial bonuses that provide a slight advantage. Orcs are known for their smithing skills and make excellent armorers. Redguards or Nords are a good choice for weapons. Ultimately, the best race for blacksmithing is the one you enjoy playing the most.
4. What is the best money-making craft in ESO?
There’s no single “best” money-making craft in ESO, as profitability can vary depending on market demand and competition. However, blacksmithing, woodworking, and jewelry crafting are consistently among the most profitable professions, as they allow you to create high-demand gear. Becoming a master crafter can be a profitable way to make money in ESO.
5. Is it better to sell or deconstruct ESO?
When leveling, it’s generally best to deconstruct unwanted gear. Deconstructing gear provides you with crafting materials, which you’ll need to level up your crafting skills. Selling gear is more profitable at higher levels, when you’re selling high-quality crafted items.
6. How do you make millions in ESO?
There are several ways to make millions in ESO:
- Crafting: Mastering crafting professions and selling high-demand crafted items.
- Farming Valuable Sets: You are going to farm valuable sets in areas where they drop.
- Trading: Buying and selling items on the market.
- Completing Daily Quests: Doing daily quests for gold and rewards.
- Harvesting Crafting Materials
- Stealing
7. What items sell the most on ESO?
Some of the items that sell the most on ESO include:
- Runestones
- Food
- Cooking Ingredients
- Low-Level Potions
- Crafting Materials
8. Can I respec my skill points if I want to change my crafting skills?
Yes, you can respec your skill points at any time in ESO. This allows you to experiment with different crafting builds and adjust your skills as needed. You can respec your skill points at a shrine in most major cities.
9. How do I research traits on items?
To research traits, you need to find an item with the trait you want to learn and use a crafting station. Select the “Research” option and choose the item you want to research. Researching traits takes time, with each trait requiring a progressively longer period to research.
10. What are master writs and how do I get them?
Master writs are high-level crafting quests that reward you with writ vouchers. You can obtain master writs by completing daily crafting writs. The higher your crafting skill level, the greater your chance of receiving a master writ.
11. What is the Craft Bag?
The Craft Bag is a feature available to ESO Plus subscribers that provides unlimited storage for crafting materials. This is a huge convenience for crafters, as it eliminates the need to manage inventory space for crafting materials.
12. What does trait “training” mean?
The Training trait increases your experience gain from kills while worn, helping you level up faster.
13. Does the Blackwood chapter increase the max level of crafting professions?
No, the Blackwood chapter does not increase the max level of crafting professions. The max level for all crafting professions remains at 50.
14. What is the transmute station used for?
Transmute Stations allow you to change traits on gear, a process called transmutation. To transmute an item, you need the item, 50 Transmute Crystals, and knowledge of the new trait you want to apply.
15. Where can I learn more about crafting and game-based learning?
You can explore the intersection of crafting and game-based learning at the Games Learning Society. Their website, GamesLearningSociety.org, offers resources and research on how games can be used to enhance learning and skill development.
The Verdict: Crafting is a Game-Changer
In conclusion, crafting in ESO is undoubtedly worth it. It empowers you to create personalized gear, become self-sufficient, and generate income. While it requires time and dedication, the rewards are substantial and significantly enhance your overall ESO experience. So, grab your hammer, pickaxe, or alchemist’s tools, and embark on the journey to become a master artisan in the world of Tamriel!