Farming Chests in ESO
The most efficient way to farm for set pieces in ESO is to find a route that contains a lot of chests that can be easily traversed. Unlike world/delve/public dungeon bosses, which drop specific set pieces on cooldown, treasure chests (that are intermediate difficulty and above) guarantee a set piece drop of any kind (body, jewels and weapons). Master chests drop two set pieces! Check out the different ESO chest farming routes for each zone below!
Chest Looting Etiquette
Please, please do everyone a solid and loot a treasure chest CLEAN every time you pick one, yeah? Leaving any items in a treasure chest will make it so that it will not respawn with new, fresh items, until ALL of its contents have been looted. Don’t be that guy and take everything but an empty soul gem from a chest so that no one else gets a chance to receive proper loot from it. It doesn’t feel good when YOU discover a half-looted chest with nothing but garbage in it. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, if you will.
ESO Chest Farming Addons
Although it isn’t necessary for farming chests in ESO, the addon “Harvest Map” does highlight node locations and types (including chests) on your map, your compass, and in the actual world. This can prove to be pretty handy when you are looking to establish a chest farming route. I highly recommend you take a look at it!
Another great addon for chest farming in ESO is “Map Pins“. Map pins will display treasure chest and thieves trove spawn locations right on your map. Unlike Harvest Map, you do not have to have previously discovered the node before it shows up on your map.
ESO Chest Farming Passives
I also recommend investing some skillpoints into the “Locksmith” passive from the Legerdemain skill line. This skill, when maxed out, will greatly increase your chances of force-picking locks. This makes it so that you do not have to waste time trying to pick a lock open, for you can simply break open chests with the mere touch of a button. If you want to maximize the efficiency of your farming in ESO, this is the way to go.
ESO Chest Routes
Check out a compilation of these chest routes that have been outlined by other fellow ESO content creators! Click on the buttons below to be taken to a Youtube video of the best chest farming route for each zone that I personally follow whenever I am looking to kill some time by farming chests for set pieces.
Featured Route: Bangkorai
Looking for the Ring of the Pale Order lead? Check out our easy and efficient Bangkorai Chest Farming Route to get it in no time!
Bangkorai
Noteworthy Sets: Spriggan’s, Seventh Legion
Two stamina dps pvp sets that fade in and out of relevance as time passes. Spriggan’s is similar to Stuhn’s, both are great sets for penetration (the former providing consistent pen while the latter is more stat dense but relies on a proc and has a cooldown). Seventh is still considered for some builds due to the fact that it can be procced on the backbar and that 350 weapon damage and health recovery carries over to the front bar
Rivenspire
Noteworthy Set: Necropotence
A magicka dps pvp set for builds that utilize pets (Sorcerer pets, Nightblade’s shade, Warden’s netch and bear etc) and benefit from large magicka stat pools.
Looking To Farm Pariah & Briarheart Gear?
Check out my favourite Wrothgar chest route for all of your Briarheart and Pariah gear farming needs!
Deshaan
Noteworthy Set: Mother’s Sorrow
The best magicka dps pve set that can be acquired through overland content.
Wrothgar
Noteworthy Sets: Briarheart, Pariah
Two popular stamina sets. Briarheart is a great pve buffer set (it can be used to supplement harder-to-get trial gear) and a decent set for pvp builds with a lot of crit. Pariah is a strong pvp tank set, particularly for builds that focus on having a lot of health and/or mitigation.
Northern Eslweyr Gear & XP Farm
While I am in the process of hunting down a chest-route for Northern Elsweyr (to farm for that precious crafty Alfiq gear!), I would recommend checking out Orcrest, and running laps around the first area. There are 5 chests and 1 public dungeon boss in a very small area, making this spot a perfect place for a gear farm!
Northern Elsweyr
Noteworthy Sets: Crafty Alfiq, Darloc Brae
Crafty Alfiq is a meta pvp set for builds that benefit from having max mag. Darloc Brae is used for overland farming while in vampire form to always remain hidden while never running out of resources. Casual pvp builds that focus primarily on stealth also utilize this set.
Western Skyrim
Noteworthy Sets: Venomous, Eternal Vigor
Both sets are incredibly powerful in pvp, particularily no-cp pvp. Venomous is commonly incorporated into DoT builds and Eternal Vigor is arguably the best pvp sustain set (for all resources, health included) in the game.
The Reach
Noteworthy Sets: Radiant Bastion, Witch-Knight’s, Voidcaller
All three sets have various uses in pvp. Radiant Bastion is great for tanks, Witch-Knight’s is like a better NMA for poison builds, and Voidcaller is essentially Fury but for mags.
Tamriel Trade Secrets 