Introduced in Update 5, crafting writs are essentially daily quests for professions. Once eligible your character can take up to 7 crafting writ quests once a day and complete them for additional materials, but even more importantly Inspiration (crafting XP).
This beginner’s guide will take a closer look at crafting writs and how they work.
Quick jump: Certification, Taking Crafting Writs, Rewards.
Certification
Before you can take crafting writs, your character will need to be certified in a particular crafting skill. Fortunately this is way easier than you might think: simply walk to the nearest Writ Board in a city of your choice, and then visit a certification trainer NPC in Davon’s Watch, Vulkhel Guard, or Daggerfall.
These certification trainers will give you a quest explaining the basics of crafting. There are two separate certification trainers: one for equipment crafting professions which are Woodworking, Blacksmithing, Clothing and Jewelry Crafting, and the other for consumable crafting which are Alchemy, Provisioning, and Enchanting.
You can only have ONE certification quest from EACH of these trainers at any given time but you only need to complete the certification process once, so you will quickly go through all 6 (or 7 with Jewelry Crafting) of these quests. Do note that your character must be at least level 6 before you can take on certification.
In case you have Rank 10 in a particular profession already, you can completely skip the certification process by selecting the right dialogue options when talking to trainers. If you’re already experienced with crafting or if you read our crafting basics guide, you’re likely safe to skip certification altogether as it won’t teach you anything new.
Jewelry Crafting certification can only be done in Alinor (Summerset). I highly recommend avoiding doing other certification quests in Alinor as there’s a great deal of walking back and forth. Towns in newer DLCs such as Vivec in Vvardenfell or Rimmen in Northern Elsweyr are decent for doing certification quickly.
Taking Crafting Writs
They are generally pretty hard to miss, but if you’re wondering where to grab crafting writs this should help explain it.
Once a day you can visit a Writ Board in any major city in the game and pick up your daily quests. Assuming you’re certified in all professions, you can pick up all seven writs at the same time.
Crafting writ quests are fairly straightforward. You’ll be required to create specific items corresponding your skill level in a profession, and deliver them to NPCs who requested them.
Rewards for Crafting Writs
As you’re about to find out, completing crafting writs every day has plenty of benefits.
1. Inspiration
Substantial amount of Inspiration Points (IP) for your profession will be added for completing each crafting writ, much more than you’d usually get for crafting those items. It’s a great way to boost your professions without spending as much time or gold on them. If you want to power level your professions you can still of course craft as many items as you like for additional IP, but doing daily writs is definitely recommended.
2. Materials
Alongside significant IP gains you will also receive packages of raw materials, trait stones, reagents, and improvement materials.
Note that with the addition of crafting writs the chance to receive upgrade materials (especially legendary ones, Dreugh Wax, Tempering Alloy, and Rosin) from Hirelings has been greatly reduced, so doing crafting writs every day and picking up materials as rewards now has a greater chance to award yellow improvement mats.
3. Survey Reports
In addition to the above you also have a chance to receive a Survey Report. Woodworkers, Blacksmiths, and Clothiers will get them about 15% of the time, Enchanters about 30%, and Alchemists around 50%. Survey reports are essentially “treasure” maps indicating a cluster of high-yield resource nodes which are visible only to you.
Be sure to check out our survey report maps to save time searching for these locations. We have maps with all zones and locations covered so feel free to take advantage of it.
Since drink and food materials aren’t looted from harvestable nodes, Provisioners have a chance to receive recipes instead of Survey Reports.
In conclusion crafting writs are a great addition to the game, giving you yet another reason to log in every day. Writs are a fast-track way to level up professions, though it will still take some time.
Writs are very much worth completing every day even if you already have max rank in tradeskills, since you have a decent chance to receive legendary Tannins, Resins, and Tempers. Daily crafting quests are absolutely huge for gold making.
Survey reports will also give you a decent amount of raw materials you can refine for an even greater chance at valuable materials. On average each survey report should give you over 2.500 gold. You will quickly get used to the idea of completing Writs on a daily basis because of how profitable and easy they are.
Do you have any additional questions or thoughts about crafting writs? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
I started writs when I was about 20 level, I got all the certifications, but just let them for occasional boredom. But I noticed when I got level 37 that I was no longer able to find fibrous materials, like raw jute, instead I found flax everywhere. Does this mean that if I didn’t collect jute before, I won’t find it later in the game? Are this materials, and other like high iron leveled? I’ll be able to get this low level material just from guilt traders (that are anything but cheap)?
You can occasionally receive low level materials by doing crafting writs. You can also consider unlearning all your skills, and leave crafting passives at whatever level you need to farm materials. You can also buy lower level items from guild traders to deconstruct them, this is often cheaper than purchasing materials directly.
You probably don’t have much gold at your level, but it shouldn’t be overly expensive to respec your character, and there’s probably a few morphs you’d like changed so it might be the best option.
Materials you receive from harvesting raw material nodes in the world are based on your character level and profession rank (50% chance to find materials equaling your character level, 50% chance for materials to be equal to your profession rank – these are the ones you will need for daily crafting writs).
I’ll do as you say. This is the best info I’ve got about this particular issue around the web.
Do I need to know the recipe to fulfill the writ?
You can obtain a recipe after you get a crafting writ. Or you can purchase items required to complete the writ if you can’t craft them yourself. All Provisioning recipes required for daily crafting writ quests can be purchased from Brewer and Chef NPCs typically found very near cooking stations or inns.
Are the survey reports given one time only for each location or is there a chamce that ifter harvesting I can recieve the same one again later on?
Yes, I currently have 2 for enchanter: coldharbour 1 and 2 for woodworker: coldharbour 1.
And also, am i missing out on anything if I always do my crafting writs in the same city?
Several survey reports seem to place me at caches from which I must steal in order to get the materials. Is this usual?
There are no survey reports requiring stealing. Rich nodes of materials are the same as regular ones, they only give additional materials.
If I am max lvl crafter, does it matter with which material I do the crafting?
Like I am lvl 50 wood working but I am crafting the items with low level material, do I still have the same chance of upgrade materials?
You have the same chance to receive upgrade materials no matter what level of raw materials you use. For daily crafting writs you should consider using only low-level materials to craft (Jute, Iron, Maple), as they are significantly lower in price compared to max level materials. You can read more about this in the “crafting alts” section of my gold guide. Rewards from completing daily writs are the same regardless of which materials you use, however you are unable to get Master Writs unless you use CP160 (highest level) materials.
Have material I need to craft yet I still get missing style material. Any idea all my crafting is at 50 . Concerned.
Style materials can be purchased from vendors for 15g a piece. There’s typically a Clothier/Blacksmith/Woodworker vendor next to stations who can sell base motif style stones (High Elf, Argonian, Breton, etc.). Buy whatever your character’s race is, because that style you already have unlocked.