ESO Farming? Don’t Be A Butthead

Two rude and inconsiderate things to avoid at all costs when ESO farming.

One of the best things about The Elder Scrolls Online is the ability to interact with other gamers and share an adventure with people from around the globe. As a whole, the ESO Community is amazing and like most of you, I’ve met some incredible people in-game. That said, I’ve come across my fair share of griefers too — especially when ESO farming.

RELATED: How To Sell Items In ESO Without Being A Total Fetcher

ESO Farming

Farming nodes in The Elder Scrolls Online can be quite lucrative. The ore, wood, and plants harvested in the wild can be used for crafting or sold for a profit. Serious money can be made once you reach Veteran Rank and start farming in Upper Craglorn — the only place in Tamriel where Potent and Fortified Nirncrux can be found (current selling prices are north of 16,000 gold for a single piece of ore).

Naturally, with big money comes big competition. On any given day you’ll find a number of players ESO farming in Upper Craglorn, hoping to strike it rich. For every ore, wood, or plant node harvested, players stand a random chance of finding a chunk of Nirncrux. Although the actual drop-rate is unknown, it’s extremely rare to find this valuable ore. In my experience, it takes an hour or more of concentrated ESO farming to hit it big (note: for a great guide on Nirncrux farming, take a look at this article by Deltias Gaming).

eso farming void bloom
Harvested nodes can bring riches.

ESO farming is a profitable, yet solitary grind, and nothing makes the experience more frustrating than rude and inconsiderate fellow players. Whether it’s from ignorance, laziness, or pure maliciousness, there are two ESO farming practices that are simply bad form.

Many nodes are guarded by enemies, and it takes time and effort to clear mobs. One of the worst things a player can do is jack someone’s node while they’re in the middle of a battle. Even though it’s just a game, there’s no reason to be obnoxious. Leave the node to the player who got there first.

eso farming mobs
Don’t steal someone’s node while they’re busy clearing mobs.

Sometimes when ESO farming, players will find Worms or Crawlers when harvesting nodes. It may be tempting to leave this bait behind, but don’t — it’s bad form for two reasons:

  1. It wastes the time of other players who harvest the node later.
  2. It takes longer for the node to respawn.

PC players have the option of using an add-on like the Wykkyd Loot Manager to auto delete collected bait out of inventory as soon as it’s picked up. This not only saves time when ESO farming, but helps a farmer to be courteous to fellow players.

Note: With the recent ability to craft Psijic Ambrosia, the ESO Community may hopefully start seeing a decrease in players leaving bait behind (read How To Craft Psijic Ambrosia In The Elder Scrolls Online and ESO Economy Is Insane Since The Psijic Ambrosia Launch for some insight into this new development).

MUST READ: ESO Fishing Changes in Update 1.6

eso farming bait
Don’t leave those worms behind for the next player.

So how about it fellow gamers? Have you ever had a node jacked or run across inconsiderate players when ESO farming? What are some things that you find rude or thoughtless? Share your opinions in the Speak Your Mind section below, and remember: life is amazing, so make each and everyday an adventure!

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Shane Scarbrough
Shane Scarbrough

Shane Scarbrough is the founder of the Skyrim Fansite. He's a business owner, video game journalist, and role playing game aficionado. When he's not working he enjoys reading, writing, and playing video games. He's currently on his third playthrough of Skyrim, and is playing as a Templar in The Elder Scrolls Online. You can find Shane on Google+ and FaceBook.

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Max
Max
8 years ago

Thanks for the tips.

Always enjoy your articles.

Just wondering for a newbie who wants to have an alt for crafting, is there a recommended build for (solo) farming?

Davey
Davey
8 years ago

Awesome tip on the worms and crawlers. I never even considered that leaving them prevents a Respawn.

Additionally – and this is a somewhat untested theory – I believe that entire areas (i.e., all of Craglorn, or all of Auridon) attempt to leave a minimum number of active nodes on the map at any time. In other words, at 3 am the map is relatively empty and if I pick a node it will take a long time to respawn. However, during peak hours that same node will respawn much faster. I theorize that the system sees the map emptying of resources in peak hours and pushes nodes out faster.

Whether this holds or not, my best farming luck has been finding a lonely area during busier hours, when I’m not in direct competition but other players are packed into other areas of the map.

Terry
Terry
8 years ago

I feel you about the rude players. Wrothgar is getting ridiculous. I will be standing on the crafting node or literally right by the chest trying to rush and kill the mobs. Here comes a jerk and jacks the node or the chest. I don’t understand it. I wish that I could then engage in a PvP combat right then and there and kill them LOL. I have never done this to another player. I will see them struggling to kill the mob and I see the node right by them. I usually help them kill the mob and I stay put until they went through to get whatever nodes they were going for. What they decide to leave behind when they leave the area I then will go through and pick the rest.

Penny
Penny
5 years ago

I know this is an old article but when someone jacks my node I look at their character and find that they are usually lower level. At that point I start a conversation explaining why that’s not cool. Most of them apologize and thank me for telling them something they didn’t know. The occasional jackass has said something to the effect of “I know, but those enemies are hard for me and you were handling them just fine. I have no other way to get materials that are guarded.” Or they say they don’t care, mats are fair game whether somebody got there first and was fighting enemies or not. If the person is beyond the noob stage and should know better, sometimes I chase them with a barrage of mud balls. Just today I was running my favorite runestone route and some female toon started popping up every time I had to fight for a node. She would calmly walk up, take it, then move off and stand there. It became obvious that she was following me waiting for me to have to fight so she could take the runestone. I whispered to ask her to stop But she ignored me. She was in the CP120 range. Not high level But not a noob either. She got mud balled until she pulled out her map and disappeared. It was rude what she was doing. But it’s something I thought was just common sense. Apparently not.