Hi, it's me again- LavenderLight. I'm back with another guide because ~crafting~ was really confusing to me when I started and I know it's confusing to others. And yeah there are YouTube videos but I have a short attention span and want to go smash stuff in ESO so don't want to watch those. And maybe, just maybe... you don't either.

Also, this is a guide purely for the basics. I won't go into Master Writs, or which sets are useful, or Perfect Roe or Aetherial Dust or anything. This is just to help players get started since I was really confused and overwhelmed by crafting when I started.

I'm going to try my best to be clear and keep it simple, but crafting is kind of complicated if you're starting from zero. So please, if you're confused by anything, don't be afraid to reach out to me for help or ask in discord in the #traders-corner channel!

Crafting in ESO is... weird because it doesn't level like a normal skill. Yes, you can get it to 50 like Duel Wield or Light Armour, but a character with Level 50 in Blacksmithing is nothing compared to a Master Crafter in Blacksmithing.

Crafting has three things to "level up" - the skill itself, the ranking (technically a skill but I will call it a "ranking") and the traits. To become a Master Crafter, you have to level up all of these.

First, you should probably learn how to *literally* craft in ESO. Simply approach a station for whatever type of item you want to work with (Blacksmithing for Heavy Armour and Weapons, Woodworking for Staves, Bows, and Shields, ect.) At the top are different tabs for different things. Let's go from Left to Right!

Refine lets you take raw materials and refine them into materials that can be used for crafting. Such as turning ore into ingots, or grains into plating. You can only use refined materials for crafting itself.

Creation is self explanatory. It's where you go to build stuff. Type is what you're making -are you making a Light or Medium chest armour? Are you making an Inferno Staff, or a Lightning Staff? Material is the level quality of what you're making (discussed more below). Is your stuff to help a guild mate who's only level 20? Or are you making stuff for yourself at CP 160? Style is how the item looks. You may have seen "Motifs" while out and about, these add more style options to your menu. And finally, Trait lets you apply a trait to it, such as Training for extra XP or Infused to make an enchantment stronger. You may know these (or can learn them) from stuff you pick up while adventuring.

Deconstruct lets you break down gear and weapons you don't want for XP and materials. Very handy for clearing out your inventory. I strongly recommend not deconstructing stuff until you've learned the trait for it. Which will be discussed more later.

Improvement lets you improve items to get extra juice out of its stats. You may be familiar with the system that "grades" items via color (White > Green > Blue > Purple > Gold) and this tab lets you upgrade your stuff. I would not recommend bothering with it when you're starting out, since you can get skills that make upgrading easier and more efficient later on.

Research let's you break down an item to learn its skill. See "Crafting 101: The Traits" for more info.

And finally, The Last Tab has a different name for each station. This is where you go to make furniture you've learned. Each station has different furniture and they're usually themed around that station. For example, you can make burlap sacks and cloth bedrolls at the Clothing Station, or plates of food at the Provisioning cooking pot.

This is what you're used to levelling: do the thing to get XP to make the number go up until you hit 50. Making and deconstructing stuff gives you XP in Blacksmithing, Woodworking, Alchemy, etc. Simple and easy.

Keep an eye out for Intricate Items - the things that have these lil light blue loop-de-loop icons. They give you extra XP when you deconstruct them!

If you're in a pinch, check guild banks or guild traders for Intricate items. Some Master Crafters will also make you stuff to deconstruct if you ask nicely. :) (and I believe you get extra-extra XP for deconstructing things made by others. A win-win!)

In your Skills menu, under Crafting, each skill there will have one that goes up to 10 (5 for Jewelry, 8 for Alchemy, and 4 for Enchanting and Provisioning). It's always the very first top skill. Like with other skills, the more you level up the more skill points you can put into this. And at Level 50, you can max it out.

These skills determine the level quality of what you make. For example, if you have max Level 50 Blacksmithing but no skills, you can only work with Iron and make baby gear for low level babies. Stuff that your strong CP 500 muscles are too big for.

Because this takes a looooot of skill points, people usually either use their main character (ie, the one they play the most and thus do the most quests or skyshard hunting on) or a specific designated character for crafting.

Traits are not actually required, only if you want to make cool special sets for yourself.

If you're following a cool hip build guide that says to use New Moon Acolyte and they say "it's easy because it's a crafted set!" Then yes, traits are required.

Because otherwise, you'll charge down to Ye Olde Guilde Halle and approach the crafting station only to see sad red greyed out (redded out?) icons and red text saying you need 9 traits to craft anything.

And that isn't fun.

Traits are, as the kids say, a PITA because they take *a long time* to max out. We're talking six months minimum. Of real life time. So you want to start as soon as possible. Thankfully, they're very easy. Simply go to a crafting station, go to the Research Tab, and pick an item to research. Now do this for every type of armour and weapon, and every trait in the game. And oh, each one takes longer than the last.

Thankfully, there is a handy skill in each tree that reduces the time a bit and lets you study up to three items at once.

You can also get special scrolls as Daily Rewards or from the Crown Store that shave off days at a time that help.

(or, you can buy them with Writ Vouchers once you unlock Master Writs)

I know this was a lot of text, and yet rather short. But like I said, this is just to help people get started. It should be more clear over time as you do it, not to mention, you can always ask for help! If I forgot anything, I'll add it. If you haven't, I recommend checking out my AddOns guide for some that help with the crafting process.

So until then, happy crafting! :)