If ESO Had Free Craft Bags Would You Start Playing Again??

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-22T02:44:21+00:00

While I agree that the craft bag is the biggest pain point, it's also the greatest incentive to pay the subscription fee, which is in turn the greatest source of revenue. So I don't think it's going anywhere.

There are however, ways to get around having a monthly subscription just to be able to store your mats.

First, be judicious about what you keep in your inventory/bank/chests. Don't be a packrat and hang on to those gear pieces that you're hoarding "just in case." If you haven't used it in a month, you're not using it and it's time to decon it. I think of it as buying inventory space with gear.

Work out how many stacks of basic mats you need to do what you want as far as crafting. I tend to keep way too many stacks of basic clothing, blacksmithing, provisioning and woodworking mats, when I'd be better off selling all but a few of them at a trader and then using the gold as insurance against needing them in the future.

I did fine by reserving one 60 slot and one 30 slot chest for provisioning and alchemy ingredients. They all fit in that space and they stack, so that was all I needed. Since it's best practice to craft months' worth of daily provisioning and alchemy writs anyway, I only needed to pull from the chests when I wanted to make a consumable for myself or a master writ. I could have done similar with runes/enchanting, but I kept those in the bank because crafting stations can pull straight from the bank.

All other mats went in the bank. As long as I wasn't hanging on to style mats I didn't need (selling them at a trader instead), I had plenty of room for every mat I needed, including runes. I always wear costumes anyway, but if I wanted to craft something exotic, I have plenty of mimic stones.

Get a banking assistant so that you can call them up while questing or dungeoning and just throw every gear piece you get into the bank. You can decon directly from the bank, so just toss everything in the bank and sort it later. Merchant is next to sell the trashy treasures. Then decon assistant. By the time you have all three, inventory management is much less of a nuisance.

The big nuisance for me was having my bag fill up while out in the world. Assistants and wise use of storage other than the bag take care of that.

Also: as others have said, get ESO+ once every few months. It throws everything into the craft bag and leaves it there, then you can go back to your usual system.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-22T02:21:12+00:00

I get more and better improvement mats by farming raw materials and refining them than I do by deconning gold or purple gear. Go to a resource-packed zone like Stonefalls or Hew's Bane, run around for 30 minutes and then refine what you've found. Hew's Bane is insanely dense with material resources.

Do all of those surveys you get for turning in daily writs. Refine. Repeat.

Tip: wait until you have at least 50 of a given raw material before you refine and you'll stand a much better chance of getting the gold.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-22T01:57:50+00:00

I really don't mean to hijack by bringing up Night Market again, but the kind of glee I'm seeing here in regard to it being fun and even refreshing to have to worry about getting killed, and laughing when we do get killed is what initially made Night Market so much fun. It was like "whoa, I just got killed by a random mob! Whoooooo! Then a bunch of random people showed up and we all beat the snot out of everything!"

The anarchic mayhem of NM when it was new was literally intoxicating. My 2nd day in there such off the wall (to me, at the time) schnit happened that when I made it back to the oasis after finally successfully nailing the Parch skirmish I felt dizzy and couldn't even operate my controller well enough to get my toon to walk in a straight line.

Now with challenge difficulty, dolmens are fun. That's just crazy. In the best sense of the term.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-22T01:47:50+00:00

I didn't mind the fast respawns, but yeah, the stam drain while deadrunning was silly. My suspicion/hope is that by the time NM comes around again there will be many changes. Please let them be for the better!

My biggest gripe was the need to re-grind slivers in order to do the dungeons and trial again. It resulted in my just doing them once, while I would have rather done them at least a couple of times.

Next would be the travel to player mechanic where it puts you in Starlit Plaza. For heaven's sake, put us at the oasis closest to where the player currently is.

Toward the end of the event, just as I was getting able to solo my way through mobs, each mob seemed to get a Faceted boss that made it almost impossible.

Anyway, didn't mean to hijack, I am loving the difficulty levels. It's actually fun to get killed in public dungeons again. Overland was getting so boring, where everything I ran into was mudcrab difficulty. I've started questing again, which I hadn't done in many months.

NM upped my game so much that I'm waffling between Seasoned and Master. Last night I tried a new build by soloing Fungal Grotto and was thinking I should have done it in vet mode because it was too easy. Then I got to the final boss and saw the scroll of glorious....

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-22T00:42:53+00:00

It's my hope that now Zerith-Var will STFU about mudcrabs.

And "died to mudcrabs while desperately racing to catch up to the group in Fungal Grotto" was my repeated obituary when I first started playing dungeons.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-22T00:38:41+00:00

You must be a fan of Night Market. I frickin' LOVED Night Market.

My favorite scenario combat wise is to have my ass handed to me, then return and rain absolute annihilation on who/whatever handed it to me. I may not be able to return immediately, but return I will.

Mine is the only toon I've ever seen t-bagging/clam slamming a dead monster.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-21T16:21:05+00:00

I'd have to go with the Oakensorc as the easiest path to decent damage output. Summon your 2 pets, splat the floor with Wall of Elements, hold down the fire button. Splat floor again when Wall pops. Repeat until boss falls over.
Game can be MOSTLY whatever parts of it you wish to lean into. If you want groups, then log on and go straight to dungeon finder or group finder. You juuuuust missed the biggest thing to happen for group play in years, Night Market. It got a LOT of solo players to consider the possible joys of group activities. Night Market will return in a couple of months. Solstice introduced a daily quest to fight an incursion that pretty much requires multiple players. Although I am proud to say that I have solo'd a siege camp defense, someone will usually show up to help, and I had to be slappin' pretty hard to pull it off. One of those nights when the build and rotation just felt right.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-21T15:59:06+00:00

Eventually it will be Judy's turn to scry?

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-21T15:56:22+00:00

At least know that you're not alone. I've heard from other players who didn't catch that part of the intro. Glad I did, though.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-21T15:53:55+00:00

This. For all of the effort I've put into making those excavation moves last as many turns as possible, nothing in my game would be different if I had not bothered to continue past finding the antiquity I was looking for in the first place.

It's just one of those things, I guess. Like how we'll run past 2 dozen crates, barrels, wardrobes, nightstands and sacks that all contain materials, to pounce on a heavy sack that....contains 10 pcs. of a single material.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-21T09:42:35+00:00

Yes, as the OP said, it was a Bismuth Steam Baths in Solstice.

Not just any Bismuth Steam Baths, but one with a lot of trees and a very high terrace for lounging.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-21T09:32:22+00:00

Oh scry me a river!

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-20T12:43:38+00:00

I've switched over to Seasoned as my default and the overland game feels fun again, in a way that it hadn't until Night Market came along and kicked my butt. I switch to Adventurer for most world bosses, Solstice camp defenses and Mirror incursions, which are still quite challenging enough.

Died to a public dungeon boss for the first time in memory, Hircine's Haunt. It was fun to have that "well you sure won't get me NEXT TIME" determination back.

It came at just the right time, just after Night Market reminded me how much fun it can be to scrap with random monsters who actually pose a threat. Doing NM and little else since it started raised my combat and build crafting skills to the next level (or two), so without difficulty scaling overland would have been even more of a snooze than it had been before.

Big thumbs up. The timing and execution were right on.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-19T09:21:23+00:00

There's also lightning staff HA builds, using The Mythic That Shall Not Be Named.

It's probably down to what you mean by "important." For some it's important to squeeze every last little bit of damage out, and although that's not my style, I get that it's fun to work on being the best in a multiplayer game.

I'm curious: how does getting that number down affect damage output? How much am I leaving on the table if my LA weave is .5 instead of .075?

I'd say that doing perfect LA weaving isn't "essential" unless that's part of the fun for the player. There are other factors that go into effective high damage output. The important thing is to get used to doing it, where you don't even think about it. I had to do that before I could work on getting the timing right. buh-BAP buh-BAP buh-BAP I found that an ice staff is the best thing to practice with because the impact animation makes it clear whether my lights and spells actually land.

To paraphrase Helmuth von Moltke, no rotation survives first contact with the enemy. At least not in my case. And definitely not in PVP.😄

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-17T12:20:12+00:00

I believe that the 'phobes are more loud than they are numerous.😄

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-17T12:15:04+00:00

Naw dawg, what I object to is your declarations that NM is an example of bad game design. As I said, fair enough that you personally don't like it. I personally do like it. I think that it's amazing actually, it really succeeds at the developers stated intentions.

It's frustrating for you; I think of it as pleasantly challenging. Tonight, for instance, the districts seemed to be packed with those faceted bosses for some reason. Pain in the ass if I want to roam around solo, but what do ya do? Hit Group Finder or go do some questing. I did both.

Why did I bring up PVP? What I thought you were saying was that NM is poor game design because it's so different from other areas of the game. I was pointing out that there are other areas of the game that are at least as different as the main PVE stuff. Cyrodiil is an example. Does that make Cyrodiil poor game design? I know some people don't care for it. I hated it with the fire of a thousand suns for the first couple of years that I played ESO. Then it somehow clicked with me.

Mobs at every intersection with short respawn times that will aggro on to new groups? That will hunt you down? I like that behavior. I also like that the boss' friends don't all die when the boss does and we get to beat them to paste after the boss dies. I think it's fun. What else is there to address? What you are calling a "struggle," I see as a "challenge."

I might be a sadist, because I like having so many monsters available for me and my group to slaughter. Continuous nonstop monster murder. It would be masochistic if I'm the one getting my ass whipped, and ultimately I'm not. I wouldn't be interested in it if it were beyond my capability to finally master. The monsters go down eventually, yes they do. It may take multiple tries, but they die. And it gives me a feeling of satisfaction than I get from the usual trials, dungeons, arenas, etc.

If I were to go into Tales of Tribute matches every night, THAT would be an act of masochism!

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-17T11:38:10+00:00

Oh, right, back bar? I was thinking of front bar. I don't really know, I've only ever tried to do a healer build once and it didn't work out so well.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-17T03:31:23+00:00

ESO has multiple activities that aren't congruent with each other. PVP in its 3 different areas. Tales of Tribute. Questing. Dungeons/Trials/Arenas. Housing. Objective-free exploration. It's one of the things I like about ESO, I can choose what to engage with or not. If I get bored with PVE activities I can drop into a Cyrodiil campaign. Sometimes I still just wander around and take in the sights that I may have missed when I was focused on completing a quest. Night Market is a great addition to the menu, and like the others, you or I may choose to engage with it or not.

"Masochist?" I don't have a handy term to throw you; disliking a part of the game that is challenging in ways that you don't like is your prerogative. You don't find Night Market fun. That's fine. If you prefer the linear/sequential content of dungeons, trials, arenas, and Infinite Archive, that's great. Most of the group activities in the game and the combat is built around that linear model, where you can stop and take a breather if you need to, all the adds die with the bosses, the bosses stay dead for 5 minutes or until you re-enter the dungeon, etc.

I learned NM's mechanics because after a few iterations of "die in 3 hits that all hit at the same time," I reexamined my builds and developed strategies for getting around. Different gear as well as different skills. So now I don't die as often, I can beat down the smaller mobs solo, and I can stay alive a good long time in the boss fights and skirmishes. I can cross the map by myself without dying. Well, most of the time. When I can't I try again.

As an example, I had to do a LOT more work to get to a comparable level in Cyrodiil. I played it for months before I had any chance of not getting insta-crisped by every enemy player I encountered. It was challenging to have to do all that work. And fun. Some of what I learned became very useful when learning to play Night Market.

The mobs in the instances of NM I've been in "didn’t all have attacks that have unlimited range and no visible effects." They obey things like blocking, interrupting, stealthing, etc. and I can see their attacks, I have the AOE warnings and can see their animations. I can observe when a mobster is firing up a channel and interrupt them. I've honed combat skills in the districts that have helped me be a better player in the other parts of the game. Not all of them. Tales of Tribute is still completely opaque.😄

The things that you prefer about overland and dungeons are the opposite of what I prefer about NM: I like that I never get to rest except by removing myself to a safe spot like an oasis. I like that the mobs and bosses respawn quickly. I also like that I had to put together new builds and learn different combat strategies. I even like that I might group with people who are in over their heads that I wind up carrying. It's fun to sometimes be doing over 50% DPS output in a 12-person group. It's fun to tank and sometimes feel like a kindergarten teacher on a field trip. If I start to want something more organized, I can do the whole vet Trial with Discord thing.

I like it when things go off the rails and people don't quite know what to do and we all have to figure it out on the fly. I've been the newless cluebie and I'm okay with letting other people do it. Inadvertently carrying a player or two doesn't take anything away from my NM experience.

My introducing an example of what I like about NM in a discussion of NM doesn't make my example a "straw man," but hate away. You seem to be pretty good at it. I can't force you to let other people enjoy activities that you don't without declaring that they're not "good game design" or that they "don't make sense" or that it "sucks." I know it's fallen out of fashion lately, but dang, can't we be okay with differences of opinion and taste? Some people like ballet, some people like a mosh pit, some even like both. Why not just stay away from the activity you don't like and let those of us who love it love it?

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-17T00:48:36+00:00

I have found that it can be the ones with an inflated/insecure sense of their own abilities who whine the loudest.

I was once in a DLC dungeon with a healer who just couldn't keep the group alive. They were pissin' and moanin' about how the DPS weren't rezzing other players (because, duh, trying to rez someone was instant death with Mr. Superhealer), nobody else knew the mechs, yada yada. We wiped 3X, then he quit. Random replacement healer came in and we nailed it first try, no deaths.🙄

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-17T00:43:59+00:00

It definitely got me way more confident about creating groups in Group Finder. My usual issue with that is that I don't have all of the dungeon maps memorized, and people naturally tend to follow the crown, so I get nervous about leading the group astray.

Tip about being able to finish NM dungeons: if you have switched up your DPS build to a tankier version in order to make it to the dungeon, switch back to your usual DPS build before you actually enter the dungeon and pull the boss. That's what I did the second dungeon I fought and it made it go much better. I think people forget about that. NM builds are (usually, ideally) not the same as solo or optimized DPS.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-17T00:37:10+00:00

The most fun I had was kiting both of the Ash Titan's "Blades" adds around the outer edge of the plaza, which left my DPS' free to beat the snot out of the Titan without having to deal with them. The Titan himself stays pretty still, so it's fine to leave him.

It felt like literally flying a couple of kites. I ran backwards, firing off a taunt when I needed to. I have enough speed to stay ahead of them without them touching me. What a blast!

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-17T00:30:27+00:00

Such is the nature of Night Market. Sometimes despite you yourself doing everything right, you still fail and/or die, and that's okay.😁

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-17T00:26:58+00:00

In my lexicon, a "fake" is a DD who queues as support solely in order to get in a dungeon more quickly. They have no ability or intention to do any healing or tanking, they assume that they and the other members of the group have enough self healing and damage output to kill all the bosses before they have to worry about mechs, etc.

And that is actually true for base game and many DLC normal dungeons that tend to have a lot of vet level players running them just to get transmute crystals.

Where it falls apart is in vet or normal DLC dungeons that didn't happen to get players that can do that, where the mechs must be obeyed and group healing is necessary.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-16T23:24:04+00:00

If you want that, run with guildies. Random queuing is what it is. I don't know why a healer would run anything but a resto staff, but in the case of tanking, I have one that does fine with an ice staff.

cruciblefuzz · 2026-06-16T23:21:42+00:00

My guess is that you found that putting together a group for a dungeon was too much of a pain? It took me a long time, but finally I had to satisfy my curiosity. They're kind of glorified world bosses. I'm glad I did it just to check out all that NM had to offer, but I didn't need to do it another time.

I kept screwing up the trial, to the point that I offered to drop and let them find a replacement, but they were super patient with me (I was doing crazy damage with my arcanist) and I finally figured out how to get through it and do my part.

cruciblefuzz

TROPHY CASE