Crafting in Elder Scrolls Online can be a little daunting. There are 6 professions, each with their own unique resources to gather. And while some professions have recipes, enchanting and alchemy leave it up to the player to find out combinations. Enchanting in ESO can be more confusing than alchemy, as players need to gather three different types of runestones and combine them in certain ways to make enchanting glyphs. And it seems that lately, trying to craft trifling glyphs of Magika, Stamina, and Health in ESO is giving players trouble.
Would-be enchanters in Elder Scrolls Online need to find three different types of runes: Aspect, Potency, and Essence. Aspect runes govern what rarity the resulting glyph will be: base, fine, superior, etc. Potency runes are just like they sound — the more powerful a Potency rune, the better the resulting glyph will be. Finally, Essence runes determine the type of enchantment the glyph will be, and which item the glyph can enchant: frost damage on a weapon, health increase on armor, fire resistance, magicka regeneration, etc. How these runes affect the player depends on which item they enchant.
This is skipping ahead a bit, but it’s worth noting now, as it’s not clear in the game. Once you make a glyph, it just sits in your inventory. To actually enchant a piece of armor or weapon, you need to right-click (on PC) the item you want to enchant, and select “enchant” from the drop-down menu. The game will then display a selection menu with glyphs you can use to enchant that item. Click on the glyph you want, and you’re good to go!
Resource Gathering For Glyphs in ESO
The most time-intensive part of crafting is resource gathering. As you venture out into Elder Scrolls Online’s open world, you’ll find glowing stones that look like this:
You can safely ignore the text on that image; it’s woefully outdated, as are some of the guides and wiki entries you’ll find on enchanting in Elder Scrolls Online. Runestones out in the wild are no longer divided between Aspect, Potency, and Essence — each runestone you gather has a chance for any of the types, and you’ll usually gather two runes.
There are quite a few guides on YouTube that talk about the “best” farming location for runestones. I’ve found that the best way to get runestones is to find your own route around an area you know well. To make sure you don’t miss runestones that are cleverly placed around the world, I highly recommend the HarvestMap addon, which will display resources – including runestones – on your map. You’ll have to tell the addon not to display every single type of resource to unclutter your map, but it’s worth it.
If you find yourself with a ton of Essence and Potency runes, and very few Aspect runes, you can always buy the runes you’re missing from the Enchanter that stands near enchanting stations. These runes will always be white quality, so you won’t be able to do this with anything but the lowest-quality runes — but it helps when you’re just starting and really need a particular rune. To find the Enchanter, and his station, simply look for the crystal symbol on your map, usually within a city or stronghold.
Crafting Glyphs in ESO
Now that you’ve gathered the runes you need to make a glyph, head to an enchanting station. Actually crafting the glyph at the enchanting station gives you three blank spaces to place runes, with spots for the Aspect, Essence, and Potency runes. There’s no hand-holding here, so if you place runes that don’t work together, you won’t get a glyph.
Here’s the recipes for Trifling Glyphs of Health, Stamina, and Magicka:
Trifling Glyph of Health: Jora, Oko, Ta
Trifling Glyph of Stamina: Jora, Deni, Ta
Trifling Glyph of Magicka: Jora, Makko, Ta
The Jora rune means the glyphs are of Trifling quality, and the Ta rune means they’re white runes (which also governs quality, really). Oko, Deni, and Makko each give a boost to one of your character’s three main stats. Simple, right?
Now, you can remember these combinations, or write them down, but you don’t want to use Trifling Glyphs forever! My last piece of advice is to get the Enchant Maker addon, which streamlines the enchanting process by giving you the “recipes” for glyphs. All you need to do is tell the addon what glyph you’re trying to make, and it tells you what three runes you need to make it.
There you have it! You’re now ready to craft basic enchanting glyphs to help enhance your character’s three main stats! Know any more tips and tricks to gathering runestones and crafting glyphs in Elder Scrolls Online, or want more guides like this? Let us know in the comments! And be sure to check out the rest of our ESO guides for more help as you venture all over Tamriel.
[images courtesy Zenimax Online Studios and Bethesda Softworks, LLC]
