Gear and Crafting

Armour, weapons, jewellery, enchantments, potions, poisons, food and drink all have levels associated with them. You cannot use an item that has a higher level than your character but you can always use one that's a lower level (however, it's not going to be as effective as one that's closer to your level).

Armour

Armour types are broken up into Light (for magica users), Medium (for stamina based characters) and Heavy Armours (for health focused characters like Tanks). You need to be wearing at least 5 pieces of your armour weight in order to unlock the full benefits of the passive skills for that type.

Weapons

Weapons are divided into one-handed and two-handed weapons, and further sub-divided into stamina and magica users. Magica users would equip a destruction staff (fire/lighting/ice) or a restoration staff (for healing). Stamina users would equip

Jewellery

The jewellery you can wear in Elder Scrolls Online are one necklaces and two rings. They can be part or the same sets of armour and weapons and can be crafted or found in the world.

Enchantments

Enchantments can be applied to Armour, Weapons and Jewellery to tune the gear to suit your character. Armour Enchants are limited to improving the basic stats for health, magica and stamina. Weapon and Jewellery enchants have a broader range of effects.

Then can be found in the world, as rewards from crafting writs, and bought from in-game vendors. Higher levels can be crafted or bought from player-run guild stores.

Potions

Potions give fast acting, limited time, positive effects to your characters and are found or crafted. Poisons can be equipped with your weapons and affect monsters or players in PvP scenarios.

You can make your own using the Alchemy crafting line, find lower quality ones in the world, buy them from in-game vendors or from other players directly, or via guild stores.

Food and Drink

Food and drinks give longer duration positive effect and are found or crafted. You should always have food "on" as they can add up to 10% to your stats. In general, food gives you a flat improvement to one or more of health/magica/stamina and drinks give you an improvement to the regeneration of your health/magic/stamina.

You can make your own through the Provisioning crafting skill line, find lower quality items in the world, buy them from in-game vendors or from other players directly, or via guild stores.

There are 10 ranks of armour, jewellery and weapons from L1 to CP160 (see Levelling your Character for more information), each using a different material to craft (or that you receive when you deconstruct items that drop in the world). Items that drop in the world will always be at your level, so you should always be able to equip them.

Metal, Cloth and Leather, Wood

Material types below are listed in the order for Metal, Cloth and Leather, Wood, Potions, Poisons. Materials can be found from nodes in the work (metal, jewellery metals, cloth, wood, flowers and mushrooms for alchemy, and water for potions) or from monsters (leather and liquids for poisons). You can also buy (and sell) materials to other players via player run guild stores or directly.

1. L1-L15: Iron, Jute (Homespun) and Raw Hide, Maple
2. L16-L25: Steel, Flax (Linen) and Hide, Oak
3. L26-L35: Orichalcum, Cotton and Leather, Beech
4. L35-L45: Dwarven, Spidersilk and Thick Leather (Full-Leather), Hickory
5. L46-L50: Ebony, Ebonthread and Fell Hide, Yew
6. CP10-CP30: Calcinium, Kresh and Topgrain Hide (Brigandine), Birch
7. CP40-60: Galatite, Ironthread and Ironhide, Ash
8. CP70-CP80: Quicksilver, Silverweave and Superb Hide, Mahogany
9. CP90-140: Voidstone, Void cloth (Shadowspun) and Shadowhide, Nightwood
10. CP150-CP160+: Rubedite, Ancestor Silk and Rubedo Leather, Ruby Ash

Jewellery Levels

There are less levels of jewellery materials than other items. You will only be able to craft jewellery if you bought the Summerset Chapter at launch or unlocked Jewellery crafting via the Crown Store, however all players can farm materials (and possibly sell to other players).

1. L1-L25: Pewter
2. L26-L50: Copper
3. CP10-CP60: Silver
4. CP70-CP140: Electrum
5. CP150-CP160+: Platinum

Enchantment Level

Enchantments are used on weapons, armour and jewellery and are used to add additional stats or effects. However, enchantments do not always match the other gear levels; pay attention to the level spans of the enchantments.

When creating enchantments, the level is controlled by the square X rune. Obtain the right runes by finishing them from Enchanting nodes in the world or buying them from an Enchanting vendor or from another player.

Note that the level requirements refer to the level of the gear, not the level of your character.

Making enchantments requires 3 runes, a levelled "positive" or "negative" rune, a rune to specify where the enchant is to be used (jewellery, weapons or armour) and a rune to specify quality.

1. L1-L10: Jone and Jode, L5-15: Porade and Notade
2. L10-L20: Jera and Ode, L15-25: Jejora and Tade
3. L20-L30: Odra and Jayde, L25-L35: Pojora and Edode
4. L30-L40: Edora and Pojode, L35-L45: Jaera and Rekude
5. L40-L50: Pora and Hade, L50-CP10: Denara and Idode
6. CP30-CP50: Rera and Pode
7. CP50-CP70: Derado and Kedeko
8. CP70-CP100: Rekura and Rede
9. CP100-CP150: Kura and Kude
10. CP150: Rejera and Jehade, CP160: Repora and Itade.

Basic weapons and enchantments are white coloured, followed by green, blue, purple and gold. Each improvement level increases the quality level of the item, improving its stats significantly each level. You should be working on getting better quality gear as you move through the game.

Gear that drops in overland content is mostly white for basic gear and green for set items (with rarer drops of blue and purple quality).

Set gear that drops in normal dungeons and trials are mainly blue and gear that drops from veteran dungeons and trials are mainly purple.

Gold jeweller is rewarded at the end of a veteran trial or from leaderboard rewards.

Quality

Quality level is divided into five levels.

1. White - basic gear/enchantment/food/potions. Equip if you have nothing better. Sell to vendors. Deconstruct enchantments.
2. Green - better quality. Equip/use if you have nothing better. Deconstruct gear and enchantments.
3. Blue - event better quality. Usually a minimum for dungeons.. Good sets in good traits should be improved to purple. Everything else should be deconstructed. Blue jewellery is usually good to keep. Blue food is usually the minimum for dungeon and greater content.
4. Purple - Good quality and will take you through most of the game, even harder end game content. Sell excess gear to other players or deconstruct for materials. Purple level food is good in certain situations and will usually last 2 hours rather than the 1 hour of blue food.
5. Gold - The best quality. When you have reached CP160+ and have your "forever gear" consider upgrading some of it to gold, starting with weapons and then the "big" pieces of head/chest/legs. Always make gold enchants for all gear at end-level. Gold mats are very rare and you need 8 to upgrade a single piece of armour/weapon.

Improving gear

All gear can be improved by a crafter, either other players for non-bound gear, or by yourself if the gear is bound (all sets that drop from dungeons and trials). If you're in the game for the long haul, you should be levelling your crafting skills on at least one character.

DO NOT USE GOLD MATS ON LOW LEVEL GEAR

Improvement materials come from (occasionally) Crafting in-game mail (spend skill points in the crafting tree), deconstructing gear of that level, refining raw materials of any level, crafting writ quest reward boxes, and buying them from other players.