BEGINNER CRAFTNG GUIDE
GET STARTED WITH CRAFTING IN ESO!
Crafting in ESO is extremely useful for making your own Gear, Potions & Buff Food / Drink as well as a good way to make money later in the game.
There are 6 Crafting Professions in the Base Game & 7 in total with addition of Jewellery Crafting which was added with the Summerset Expansion. The Base Game Crafting Professions are Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Clothing, Enchanting, Provisioning & Woodworking.
You can walk up to any Crafting Table straight away in game, & at Level 6 you will be able to get Certified in each Profession in order to be able to start doing Daily Writs.
CRAFTING CERTIFICATIONS
To get Certified in the Base Game Crafting Professions you will need to go to the starter city for your faction and find the Master Crafters, Millenith in the Fighters Guild & Danel Tellano in the Mages Guild.
Each Master Crafter will give you three Quests which you will need to complete one at a time. Each Quest will Certify you in one of the Crafting Professions & once you have completed all six Quests you will be able to complete Daily Writs from the Writ Boards found in any Major City throughout Tamriel.
For the Jewellery Crafting Certification you will need to find Felarian who you will find near the Crafting Area in Alinor in Summerset.
CRAFTING MATERIALS
Materials used in Crafting can be found throughout the World in several ways. Resource Nodes will provide Raw Materials like Ores, Plant Fibers, Logs, Plants for Alchemy & Rune Stones.
You can get other Materials from killing enemies or animals in the world or from looting Containers you find in Dungeons or the Overworld. Keep in mind that some containers are owned by NPCs and if you are caught Stealing from them you could wind up face to face with a Guard.
Alternatively, you can buy most Crafting Materials from Guild Traders around the World, though the prices vary from trader to trader and can be rather expensive depending on the Rarity & Quality of the Material.
Trait Materials can be occasionally dropped from Resource Nodes when you are Mining for Resources, but more often you will get them when you Refine the Raw Materials at a Crafting Station.
More in depth information can be found on each Material & Trait in our ESO Advanced Crafting Guide.
CRAFTING TRAITS
You will notice that many weapons & pieces of Armour in ESO have a “Trait” listed in the description. This Trait gives the item a Bonus Effect & is active at all times as long as the piece is not broken.
Having the right Trait on an item can be very beneficial as you progress in the game & will be immensely important as you progress towards End Game content like Veteran Dungeons & Trials. This is where Research & Transmutation Stones come in.
Transmutation Stones are little purple stones you will pick up in game as you complete the Daily Random Dungeon (You receive 10 for the first Daily Random Dungeon of the day & 1 for each subsequent Random Dungeonon the same day). Undaunted Pledges & Rewards of the Worthy from PVP sources (Battlegrounds & actions in Cyrodiil & The Imperial City). These will allow you to change the Trait on any item you wish, so long as you have Researched the Trait yourself.
Transmutation Stones are non - transferrable, meaning you cannot give them to another Player to have them Transmute an item for you. You can only have 500 of these stones on you at a time (1000 with ESO+) & it Costs 50 stones to Transmute one item.
Researching items allows you to Learn the Trait for a given item & it takes IRL World Time to Research. The Research timer is active even when you are Offline & as you unlock more Traits on an item the amount of time to Research the next Trait grows. The first Trait on an item takes about 6 hours to complete & by the time you get to the 9th Trait it can take as long as 64 IRL Days.
There are Passive Skills in each Crafting Skill Line that will reduce the time each Trait takes, but even with all the Passives Unlocked it still takes about 30 IRL Days to complete the last Trait. To start off with you will only be able to Research 1 item at a time, but there is another Passive that will allow you to Research up to 3 items at simultaneously for each Craft.
The Research timer is on a per item basis, so if you have 4 Traits complete on Light Legs in the Clothing Station, the next Trait on that item will take up to 2 IRL World Days to complete. But, if you have not researched anything on the Light Head Piece, then that one will still be around 6 Hours to Complete.
LEVELLING YOUR PROFESSIONS
Experience for Crafting is called “Inspiration” & is earned when you Craft or Deconstruct an item. You get more Inspiration from Deconstructing than anything else for Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Clothing, Woodworking & Jewellery Crafting.
For Alchemy & Provisioning you get most of your Inspiration from making items. As you Level each Craft, you will be able to invest more Skill Points into it & Unlock the ability to Craft better items & get more Resources from Deconstructing & Refining.
Your Crafting Levels are independent of the Level your Character is, so you could have a level 45 Character but only Level 1 Blacksmithing. The Crafting Level also influences the types of Resource Nodes you find in the world. Let’s say your character is at CP160, the max level for gear, but your woodworking is only at Level 4. When you come across a log in the world, it could be either the CP160 Material (Rough Ruby Ash) or the Material you can make at Woodworking Level 4 (Rough Hickory). This system allows you a chance to pick up materials for your current Player Level as well as a chance to pick up materials you can actually Craft with.
