What to Watch For

ESO is soon to launch into Pre-Release in just under 12 hours. We are all going into this thinking we know how we want to play. Whether we want to skip dialogue, or listen/read to every sentence an NPC has to say. Or whether we want to get into PvP as soon as possible, or explore the PvE content as much as we can. Thinking you'll be a crafter? You'll probably be pulled into a different direction. Even your play style for your class. Throughout the PTS beta, nearly every of my preconceived notions on how I want to play has changed.

As skill information leaked (prior to me joining the beta), I made what I thought was going to be an epic build as a sorcerer wearing medium armor and using a two-handed sword. I carefully balanced magicka and stamina usage, as well as balanced out the skills on my weapon swaps. I stuck to this build as long as I could, and eventually figured out that it was going nowhere. After seeking out the advice of others on how my class could beat boss Mannimarco (who has since been nerfed) I realized I had gone in such a direction that my character could be much, much better. After some tweaking, adopting as much advice into my build as I could, I was able to beat Mannimarco. While this seems to have nothing to do with the game economy or making gold, there is a lesson to this story. The lessen is that the wisdom of the experienced can prove to be invaluable. All you have to do is listen.

(This was my character a few hours after fighting Mannimarco and had time for a breather, and the time to take a selfie evidently)

Time is a precious thing. We here at Tamriel Gold Goblin have been saying for ages how time is money. Truth is, money is money. Time is just another currency that we take to the bank and exchange for money (gold). Saving time doesn't always mean saving money. First, you need to spend time learning and understanding before you get the best exchange rate of time for money (gold). Not everything can be read online, some things need to be experienced.

Between level 1 and level 10 I found I was mismatching gear because that is just what I was picking up. If you know what kind of gear you want (light, medium, heavy, or a combination), ask your guildmates and party members to keep an eye out. The same goes for weapons, and this advice isn't limited to levels 1 through 10. If you can get gear for free, perfect. If you can get gear without you or a friend paying a guild store fee, awesome. It's a win-win. Plus, come launch and pre-launch, how many guild stores will you even have access to? Not many.

"Vendor Trash" is typically considered common gear that isn't worth taking the time to sell to players. This is such a dirty word on new servers and for new characters. On the last character I created, I was still using level 4 gear on a level 10 character. Why? Because I hadn't come across anything better. Loot tables may not always be balanced, and nothing is guaranteed. Everyone needs better gear, even what others may consider to be trash. Find something you think is useless to your build? Post it in party and guild chat. If someone wants it, sell it to them for a bit more than the vendor would offer. They get gear, you get gold.

There are also a number of items you will NOT want to vendor. Some of the immediate ones I can think of are Racial Motif Books, Soul Gems, Green, Blue, Purple, and Yellow crafting materials, Blue, Purple, and Yellow Provisioning recipes, Racial Style crafting materials, and treasure maps. Each have their own value, even if its only that you'll end up buying them at some point. Racial Motif Books and their crafting materials are super important to anyone crafting weapons or armor. The books unlock styles, and the materials are used for that respective style. The rarer the style, the rarer the material. The colored crafting materials and recipes are also harder to come by, and are essential for top of the line gear. Soul Gems go like hotcakes in PvP. If you haven't heard, these are needed to resurrect yourself and others in both PvP and PvE. Most bosses in group dungeons prevent you from resurrecting yourself, so it would be nice if your group mates had a few to spare.

So, you think you know what craft you want to do (or have decided not to craft anything). Well, you're wrong. Even if you're already in a guild that has all the crafts covered by various players, you're going to want to gather materials for a craft you're not doing. Namely Alchemy and Provisioning materials. These are consumables that restore resources and temporarily enhance your character. While potions and food drop and can be bought from NPCs, the crafted quality is superior to any drop or vendor item. Some Alchemy and Provisioning materials are rarer than others, and all recipes call for specific ingredients. Anyone crafting these items will always have a shortage of certain ingredients. By picking these up from level 1, you will (eventually) find someone who wants to buy them, or find a crafter that can use them to make you something you want.

In terms of which armor to use, or to craft, there are a few things you should consider (or reconsider). Light armor is designed for magic users, medium designed for stealth, and heavy for tanks. Be sure of which you want to use. Making the crafting switch could cost you months of time in researching traits, and tons of gold in new crafting materials. If you aren't 100% sure (pretty much anyone who wasn't playing PTS in my opinion) then keep your crafts available by researching some of everything. Eventually you may want to respec your skill points towards a different craft. And so if you research some other gear, the time sink will be lessened. There is the trade off of wasting time and energy in performing the research. In my opinion though, it is worth it, even if you think you are 100% sure of what craft you want to focus on. In terms of using armor though, I recommend going all in on what you think is best. Switching what armor you use is a relatively painful process.

Prioritize your expenses. The main things you will need to save gold for are bag/inventory upgrades, and buying a horse. At some point you may also want to re-spec your character. These are the three big sinks of gold. Start saving your septims, and decide which you are saving for. If you have the Imperial Edition, you start with a basic horse. There are even better horses though, and you are allowed to have more than one. I myself would save that even better horse for late game. A budget would also help to manage things like wayshrine fees and vendor purchases. Setting a budget on things like these will help reduce your spending and help you save for those major purchases.

And finally, the most important tip I can give you for your first character: Loot Everything. Especially in the tutorial areas of Cold Harbour. Cold Harbour can leave your character fully equipped and enough gold to upgrade further as soon as you leave. You'll also learn which types of containers provide which kinds of loot, and begin to recognize them from a distance.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to head over to the convenience store to stock up on supplies, attend a guild meeting, finish upgrading my computer, then take a nap before I hop on ESO tomorrow. I hope to see you all in game.

Re: Alternative Currency for ESO?

Today I am going to follow up on a previous article I wrote entitled Alternative Currency for ESO?. If you haven't read it yet, you may want to brush up on the subject, but it isn't required reading. Cliff notes from that article is:

Some MMOs have so much in game money floating around that players start using rare items as currency. Think Stone of Jordan in Diablo 2. So I came up with a short list of the most likely candidates, and discussed the probability as each being the Stone of Jordan for ESO. The short list included certain tier of gear, crafting materials, glyphs, and soul gems.

I am proud to say (and glad I am legally allowed to say) that I have been beta testing ESO on the private test server since late last year. Unfortunately this means I was severely limited in what I was permitted to share, and had to feign ignorance. Just like Kyle and Josh from the Shoddy Cast, and Evarwyn from Elder Scrolls Off The Record (among many other people covering ESO content). But now I get the chance to pass along correct information, with very little speculation.

Now that we are all at least vaguely familiar with the topic, lets re-visit that short list of mine.

Will crafting materials become currency in ESO? I really doubt it. On the PTS server even the highest end and rarest materials barely broke 10k gold on average. While 10k IS a lot of gold, plenty of things cost more. A basic horse costs 17.2k. A higher tier mount costs 42.7k (unless they lowered the prices since I last checked). Basic siege equipment costs 450 gold (that adds up quickly if you're saving up alliance points), and re-speccing can reach over 10k as well. Also, the way the loot tables work for those rare materials (improvement/upgrade materials to be more specific) is that you get them through high level deconstruction and refining. It is tilted in favor of the crafter (on account of refining). And having played a crafter in the beta (and not exploiting certain bugs) I can tell you that they are too rare for a crafter to trade away. More likely scenario: Rare crafting materials will be sold/traded/given to friends and guild-mates, while keeping a healthy reserve for yourself.

So will certain tier of gear, or certain gear in general become currency? Not a chance. Sure people will trade pieces of gear, i.e. Chillbilly's werewolf buffing item for my vampire buffing item. But it won't be a regular and consistent occurrence. Looking at crafted gear, they at most have mid value in terms of best gear right now. The best gear is bought with alliance points, and bind on pickup. So then, can you trade alliance points? Not currently. In fact, alliance points can not (currently*) be bought, sold, nor traded, and buy the best gear in the game. Makes me want to PvP. Likely scenario: Gear will be bought and sold like normal. The better and rarer it is will fetch for more gold, as per usual.

Soul Gems? Nope. Sorry.

Glyphs I am less certain about. The way enchanting stood when last I checked (which wasn't recently), is that the skill was hard to level up (but SO worth it). The veteran ranked glyphs (level 50+) weren't dropping correctly, as in they weren't dropping at all. Even after this has been fixed, the PTS server is soon to be wiped and I simply don't have the time to measure the rarity of VR glyphs until post-launch. As it stands right now, VR glyphs do have the rarity potential to be used as currency, especially if the skill line progression isn't fixed. The main issue with the line progression is the imbalance in materials, and low inspiration (exp) rewards. I realize I'm going off topic, but bear with me, it will all tie together.

Creating glyphs need three types of runes. Aspect, Potency, and Essence. Combined, all three types are equally common to other crafting material gathering nodes. On top of that, Aspect types are slightly less common than the other two. And for good reason. Aspect controls the rarity. Of the three, Aspect runes are highest in demand, since there is the least variation, and they affect the rarity of the produced glyph. In a few of my guild banks, you'll find hundreds of Potency and Essence runes, but you'd be hard pressed to find more than 10 Aspect. My point here not clear? If it is, congrats. If not, let me tell you. With hundreds of unused materials (because they can't be used), there are literally hundreds of tiny little inspiration gains that will not happen, hindering Enchanting skill line progression. This doesn't even factor in people throwing these runes away, or hoarding them. Most likely scenario: Enchanting will be the hardest but most profitable of the crafts.


After everything is said and done, I do not think the players of ESO will adopt any form of alternate currency. There are plenty of gold sinks, including horses, potions, respec, gear, crafting styles, and bank/bag upgrades. On top of that, there is no evidence that there is anything rare and valuable enough to become this currency.

*Alliance points cannot currently be bought, sold, or traded. I predict that if ESO ever opens a pay-to-win style cash shop, you will be able to buy these very precious alliance points. This will open up alliance points becoming an elite currency.

The Floodgates Are Open: ESO

Friday February 14, 2014 marks the day Zenimax lifted the NDA pertaining to content available in the Beta weekends (any additional tests for any other content still have additional NDAs associated with them). And I have to say, even within my own guilds, tons of content has flooded in from beta testers, myself included. In this article, I'm going to quickly cover some aspects about ESO, with as many screenshots as possible.

The armor in the above screenshot is merely a costume (replaces the textures of your equipped gear). Such costumes are obtained primarily through quests. The costume above was optional in a quest, where my character could choose to use to sneak past enemies without having to fight them. All costumes are bind on pickup (soul bound, account bound, etc), and unfortunately cannot be traded.

Any Gold Goblin (or any goblin for that matter) loves chests. I am no different. Like most MMOs, there are chests or similar containers that spawn in certain locations with loot in them. In ESO, these chests feature a lock picking system, similar to what was implemented in TES IV: Oblivion. The contents contain gold and items ranging from a plain white item (lowest rarity) to multiple items of varying rarity.

The difficulty of the chest doesn't seem to determine the contents. I've unlocked master chests in higher leveled zones and received less impressive loot. This chest only had a simple lock (simple being easiest, master being hardest). At present, chests spawn in set locations on any given map. The same is true for gathering nodes for clothing, enchanting, blacksmithing, and woodworking. This could change at any time. Such is the case with alchemy ingredients.

In my quest to unlock all the alchemy effects, I can tell you that chests and plants to not follow the same re-spawn rules. From what I've seen, chests always re-spawn in the same place. This is not (entirely) true for plants. Alchemy nodes re-spawn when another node has been harvested nearby. The type of ingredient that spawns seems to be random, as long as it meets certain conditions. Nirnroot for example only grows alongside water, and some areas only spawn certain types of plants (mushrooms or flowers for example). As for location, there are more possible locations than there are "spawned" nodes. Again with examples, say there are 10 alchemy nodes spawned at any given time, but there are 20 possible locations they could spawn to. This ensures that multiple people can farm these resources at once, but no one person can abuse this mechanic.

While (loosely) on the subject of crafting, lets talk Racial Styles.

There are a total of 14 motif books in total. Books 1 through 9 are the alliance races. These motif books are the most common, but still fetch a pretty penny. Average market price for these have been around 2k in the beta. Book 10 is Imperial, allegedly the rarest. Considering that I found one, I doubt that. Books 11 through 14 are for the non-playable races of Ancient Elf, Barbaric, Primal, and Daedric. The (beta) average market price for these are somewhat harder to determine. I've seen one person constantly trying to buy them for 10k, but people tend to start a bidding war for them. They've gone for 15k, probably higher. That is almost the price of a horse.

So in short, if you can find a way to farm those books, you really, REALLY should farm them.

In the last article I wrote, we took a look at how crafting actually works. What wasn't mentioned, is that you can craft set items. Yup, set items that are typically the pride of dungeon raiders are also craftable.

There are specific locations (some hidden) where set items can be crafted. The ones that aren't hidden are marked with a flame icon with a hammer underneath. Normal crafting stations are marked with a flame with an anvil underneath. Set items (shockingly) have additional requirements in order to craft them. Set items have tiers, and these tiers are dictated by how many traits must be researched to unlock the item. Ashen Grip for example, needs two traits researched (per item) for that item to be unlocked for crafting. When dealing with set items, whether looted or crafted, keep in mind that the set bonus takes up the enchantment slots of that item. So if the set bonus proves to be useless, then the item is worthless.

Have a question? Want to weigh in about the article? Want to learn about something specific? Just want to say hi? Drop a comment below, we'd love to hear from you.

Americans Are Boring

So this weekend, as many readers are aware, is Elder Scrolls Online's biggest beta weekend yet, with over 500,000 beta keys being given away by Curse.com. After combing through leaked footage, and footage recently released by various media outlets, I have come to the conclusion that Americans are boring and predictable. All of the English speaking videos I've seen depict Questing, PvE, and PvP, with a strong focus on the first hour of gameplay. The only videos I have found depicting crafting come from outside North America, from our Spanish and German speaking friends. Unfortunately the German video I found also has a German UI, so I can't really comment on what is going on in the video. The Spanish video (also embedded below) is using the English UI, so be prepared for my breakdown on the crafting system!

Before I begin on my analysis on the video, I would just like to say sorry in advance if the videos linked are leaked gameplay footage. I respect ZOS, and respect their NDA. With that said, let us listen to some very fast speaking Spanish.

So the first thing you'll notice is that both the Clothing and Blacksmithing stations are located near each other. This is somewhat of a standard in MMOs, to have different crafting stations within close proximity. I for one am glad to see this. I find it a huge time sink to run all over town to work on my different crafts, especially if you need to craft components from one craft to make something in another. If you haven't experienced this, I envy you.

We can also get a glean into the crafting skill lines. They are: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Clothing, Enchanting, Provisioning, and Woodworking. In the video we see some of the Blacksmithing skill line. Metalworking lets unlock new materials to craft higher tier items. Keen Eye: Ore makes it easier to spot ore gathering nodes (probably some sort of graphic appears on screen). The Miner Hireling will send you crafting materials and possibly "other items" everyday (I suspect these are additives, tempers, or style materials).

Now let us take a look at the crafting interface. On the Creation tab we see Type, Material, Style, and Trait. Also note that there are check boxes for 'Have Items' and 'Have Knowledge'. These will let us filter out what we can't craft, and help us plan how to progress in our crafting skills. The Type and Material toggles are pretty standard for MMOs, so we'll all feel at home with those. As would be expected (espcially if you've played past TES games) the material used affects the look of the item. But here is where it gets interesting with Style. We can craft items in the different racial styles (Dunmer, Altmer, Orc, Nord, etc), which also affect the appearance of the item. Spoiler: Ancient Elf, Reach, Primitive, Daedric and Imperial are also craftable styles. We've already been introduced to the (easiest) way to unlock Imperial. The rest however are not playable races, so there is probably a lot of grinding and opening sacks involved in finding these racial styles. Rest assured, there will be money to be made if you can craft Ancient Elf or Daedric armor. Moving along then, Traits. Traits as we can see are the "additive" ingredients we have long heard about, but never seen. They add effects to crafted items such as Precise which increases weapon and spell critical values, and Defending which increases total armor and spell resistance. We don't get to see all the traits in this video, but I would bet you a sweetroll some traits that are more useful than others. So keep an eye out for Traits.

The next tab we see is Improvement. Pretty straight forward. Select item, toggle quantity value, press Improve. Moving on. Extraction is another common theme in MMOs that we should all be comfortable with. Select item, press Extract, get crafting materials. Moving on.

Research. From what we see here each piece of gear needs each trait to be researched. if we flip back to 0:58 in the video, we see a skill called Metallurgy. I'll bet you TWO sweetrolls this skill has something to do with research. If you're in the beta and have an interest in crafting, I encourage you to check out that skill to learn more.

At 3:18 in the video we get a look at Alchemy, one of the three consumable types of crafting (the others being Provisioner and Enchanting). The interface here is much different than Blacksmithing, which I suspect is why they are showing it. After selecting a Solvent (base liquid, Natural Water in this case) you can select two Reagents. Sadly they didn't have any Reagents to show us in this video. Reagents are things like Mountain Flowers, Imp Stool, Nirn Root, etc. These are harvestable flowers and plants you can find in game.

We also get a look at a blacksmith vendor, where you can buy Style materials. I can't say I'm a fan of this. One of the (what should be rare) materials needed for crafting can be bought from an npc for 21 gold, including the ones for the rare styles (Ancient Elf, Reach, etc). This will severely reduce the value of crafted gear.

Now that you've watched the Spanish video, and understand what they are showing you, I recommend watching the German video. They played a higher level character and better show the Extraction and Improvement process.

Adapting to the surroundings. Elder Scrolls Online

I use the same methods no matter what game economy.

That's a bold statement. It's true nonetheless. I have been speaking with several of my future guild-mates. My specific job has been handled and changed, but remains almost the same. I have recently been pseudo-promoted to a position as a battalion general / tactician. One of the many reasons why I was selected for this position was that I have an ever changing mind. I am able to adapt. Adaptation in several colleges around the world is considered a virtue. Adaptation is something I consider to be a very good quality in someone who is claiming to be a Gold Goblin. Adaptation allows you to achieve more than you would prior to becoming adaptive. However, I spend most of my time using the "same old tricks" as it were. Everything is primarily the same each game, each area in which you are trying to learn. So without current game or beta knowledge, I am certain I can achieve greatness and overcome challenges with the upcoming release of Elder Scrolls Online. 

As with my tactics in PVP, my strategy so to speak is going to be that of the same. Pick a foothold. Any will do, but it needs to be sufficient with the goal set in mind. Our goal, like any other sword swinger is to be victorious. So how would we go about being victorious in a pre-decided battle of wits? Easy. We prepare. We train. We fight. 

So how would we go about being victorious when it comes to money? Easy. We prepare. We train. We calculate. A small difference, but it can mean all the difference. Preparation is one of those acts that I like to thump into the heads of my pupils. Preparation can mean the difference between 10 gold, to potentially 1000 gold. Without the proper money guided knowledge, how can you expect to take advantage of the markets? 

What is my strategy at launch you might ask? 

Without prior knowledge to what is happening in the beta, I can only tell you this. Penny pinching. Buy only what you need, and save the rest. Set aside every penny you can afford. Do not neglect yourselves, repair bills and food. Set a budget. Calculate what you want to have by the end of the day. When you press that button to log out, you should have more money in your bag than you started with. As long as that number keeps going up. You are on the path to success. 

Here are some helpful tips for you. 

• Goblinism - Sell grey or otherwise useless items
• Hoarder - Do not keep items that are no use to you. ie. Do not save materials that you are going to use later like for blacksmithing or weaponsmithing. Sell it now, deal with it later.
• Level. Your. Toon. - The first thing everyone worries about is money to spend on items such as fast travel and gear. Do not worry about these things, they will come with time. 
• Preparation. - In world of warcraft terms, this would be considered a chest spawn, or node spawn. Keep up with these places. Mark them down on a little pad of paper, so you can come back later. 
• Ironforge Jumping - When you find yourself bored, and you are merely jumping around in place, or conducting lewd acts in trade chat. Go fishing, go back to those areas you have completed, help another player. Anything that can result in your pockets jingling a little more than earlier is a step up. 
• Research - Many of you, will just ask, others will seek. Whatever you have to do, you need to explore as much for yourself as possible. If someone tells you, you may not remember. If you see it for yourself, you most certainly will. 
• Notes - I keep a journal of everything I bid on, sell, research. I keep it in the filing cabinet next to my computer. If I want to know what the market price of iron was 2 weeks ago, and want to know the contrast of what it is today. I have those records. I can establish a median on my own. 

As far as techniques go, Well I guess you will have to follow me won't you? I will divulge as much information as possible prior to launch. I am afraid it won't be until after launch that I really get down into the nitty gritty. With the NDA under the beta, I cannot release any information what so ever, as far as the game goes. Having that said here are some helpful informational tips on the beta:

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I hope that helped.

-Ashleign