Why arbitrarily lock enchants to items for no reason?

Vodkaphile · May 2014

There's a lot of much larger problems in this game, sure, but this one is really starting to *** me off.

As a Nightblade, every single SET piece of Medium armor comes with Stamina, unless I craft it myself. So the dropped sets are 100% useless to a Magicka build. Is this intended?

Is it intended that one-off quest rewards, like Spitescarred Leggings, are completely useless to Magicka builds as well? How could the design team be so short sighted in the itemization department as to not see that not every single Nightblade is going to stack Stamina?

It's incredibly frustrating that I leveled enchanting, for it to be almost useless to me because I cant enchant the pieces I want to. I have a stash of almost 70+ of every single type of rune in the game, and the only thing in demand right now is fire resist and weapon enchants because the rest of the gear you find is locked and useless.

This is a terrible, terrible design decision or oversight and it needs to be rectified. There is literally no reason these enchants need to be locked other than arbitrary "flavor" which isn't fun or intuitive to the player at all. I can guarantee not a single player every looted an item and stated "Sweet! Locked enchant!".

Fix this glaring annoyance please. There is no reason it needs to exist. It has no bearing on balance, as the values are near identical or worse.

Millitum · May 2014

It is frustrating to say the very least. I would thorough enjoy being able to modify the enchants on set items to suit my needs for the build I run. Perhaps, this will be some soft patch they do later on in development, however, I highly doubt it will come to us any time soon.

Vodkaphile · May 2014

I think it's crazy that every single set item that drops in the world that is medium armor comes with stamina. There is no variation at all. It's either a huge oversight or complete narrow minded design.

The bottom line is, locked enchants never needed to happen. They should've been weeded out in alpha testing. They serve no function or purpose whatsoever.

PBpsy · May 2014

It is to make crafting worthwhile. As it is now almost none of the crafted sets would be appealing compared with to the dropped ones if their enchants and traits could be changed.

Vodkaphile · May 2014

Crafting is already worthwhile.

Any piece of crafted gear is already better than anything you can find at the same level. Crafted pieces have more armor, more damage, etc.

I would like to be able to find something worthwhile, too. Right now, looting a good item is still inferior to crating one. So I dont see how crafting relies on this arbitrary lock to maintain relevance; it will always be superior based on the disparity between a crafted item and a looted one.

PBpsy · May 2014

Vodkaphile wrote: »

Crafting is already worthwhile.

Any piece of crafted gear is already better than anything you can find at the same level. Crafted pieces have more armor, more damage, etc.

I would like to be able to find something worthwhile, too. Right now, looting a good item is still inferior to crating one. So I dont see how crafting relies on this arbitrary lock to maintain relevance; it will always be superior based on the disparity between a crafted item and a looted one.

Hm . Between the PVE drops and the PVP sets and how easy is to cap armor and stats I wouldn't even consider crafted sets If I could enchant and change traits. The dropped sets are not useless either you just have to build around their weaknesses,

Mykah · May 2014

I'd like to see them unlock enchants for rings and amulets, since those are the only 3 slots that offer real build variety besides hp/stam/mana.

Vodkaphile · May 2014

PBpsy wrote: »

Vodkaphile wrote: »

Crafting is already worthwhile.

Any piece of crafted gear is already better than anything you can find at the same level. Crafted pieces have more armor, more damage, etc.

I would like to be able to find something worthwhile, too. Right now, looting a good item is still inferior to crating one. So I dont see how crafting relies on this arbitrary lock to maintain relevance; it will always be superior based on the disparity between a crafted item and a looted one.

Hm . Between the PVE drops and the PVP sets and how easy is to cap armor and stats I wouldn't even consider crafted sets If I could enchant and change traits. The dropped sets are not useless either you just have to build around their weaknesses,

You cant build around the fact they have have the same stat for every single item in the set, unless you want to be a stamina based build with no room for variation. That's the whole problem, the fact that you're looking at one build, a weapon ability based build, no matter what. A purely class based ability build would not work with medium armor based sets.

Beyond all of that though, is the underlying point that this restriction serves no purpose. It adds no balance, it severely devalues already inferior items, and as far as anyone can tell, is purely arbitrary in nature. If the item enchant or item itself was more powerful, I would understand if not condone the lock for flavor and uniqueness. As it stands though, there is no point except to frustrate and pigeonhole players into a restriction, and we know there's enough restrictions in this game already.

j.frank.nicholsb14_ESO · May 2014

I always love it when someone states as a fact that a dev team did something for no reason - lol... consider this scenario:

Dev Team flush with unlimited cash to spend on developing a new MMO (not) sitting around one day and one says, "what should we do about locking enchants on gear?". They all look at each other over their latest copy of IGN and shrug. One of them picks up a dart and throws it at a dartboard with several authoritative looking answers listed on it and announces - "there is the design teams decision".

Or on the other hand, maybe they actually had reasons, and failed to see why they should include you in the confidential discussion email.

Oh, thats right, you don't really care WHY they did something - what reason they had, you simply don't like the way they do it and want to make them look stupid - since if they are not stupid, someone else must be...

Vodkaphile · May 2014

j.frank.nicholsb14_ESO wrote: »

I always love it when someone states as a fact that a dev team did something for no reason - lol... consider this scenario:

Dev Team flush with unlimited cash to spend on developing a new MMO (not) sitting around one day and one says, "what should we do about locking enchants on gear?". They all look at each other over their latest copy of IGN and shrug. One of them picks up a dart and throws it at a dartboard with several authoritative looking answers listed on it and announces - "there is the design teams decision".

Or on the other hand, maybe they actually had reasons, and failed to see why they should include you in the confidential discussion email.

Oh, thats right, you don't really care WHY they did something - what reason they had, you simply don't like the way they do it and want to make them look stupid - since if they are not stupid, someone else must be...

If you had cared to read anything past the first sentence of my OP, you would see that I DO care why - I stated that if it was for balance purposes or the enchants or gear were stronger I could totally understand it.

However - the gear is worse than crafted gear, the enchants are not stronger than average (they're actually weaker than the higher rarity enchants) and the locked enchants make the items useless to 2/3rd's of the people playing a specific class. Even the 1/3rd that can use the item could craft better. This is why these locked enchants make zero sense.

This game already suffers from item diversity problems, being that you can only stat 3 different things outside of jewelry. Locking those three things further dumbs the game down, and it's already as basic as you can get in this regard. There is so little thinking that goes into gearing right now that the absolute last thing you want to do is take even more choice out of the equation.

Victus · May 2014

Yeah while I'm not going to *** and moan about such a catastrophic oversight this is (rolls eyes) I will agree that being able to do this a bit more on a lot of quest reward items would be a nice change.

Also, I believe that same level of green dropped/quest gear vs crafted has the same armor values or damage of the item.

Alpha_Protocol · May 2014

Why are you wearing medium armor for magicka based build?

Edit: I get the passives part... but still, you said magicka based.

Galen_the_Black · May 2014

Light = Magic boost
Medium = Stamina boost
Heavy = HP boost

Dropped gear sets are sets made by someone else (it's in the description) so it has locked enchants.

If you want armor sets with non standard enchants with set bonuses, go to a world crafting spot with the set bonus you want, craft the armor type that you want and attach the enchant that you want.

The dropped armor sets are sets that the maker of those sets (by lore the makers of the set, by meta the devs decisions) chose to make. You are looting second hand items made by someone else. You have no right to complain that it does not match your specific build.

Your sense of entitlement makes me laugh.

PBpsy · May 2014

Alpha_Protocol wrote: »

Why are you wearing medium armor for magicka based build?

Edit: I get the passives part... but still, you said magicka based.

For some stealth based NB builds with primarily class skills. you want best stealth from medium , you want best physical crit chance for your class melee skills from medium and you want to have your magicka capped for the best damage. Medium with lots of magicka and health works great. I understand what the OP wants to do but i also understand the reasoning for the lock. If they would be unlocked they would be the best gear in the game for some builds.

zaria · May 2014

Galen_the_Black wrote: »

Light = Magic boost
Medium = Stamina boost
Heavy = HP boost

Dropped gear sets are sets made by someone else (it's in the description) so it has locked enchants.

If you want armor sets with non standard enchants with set bonuses, go to a world crafting spot with the set bonus you want, craft the armor type that you want and attach the enchant that you want.

The dropped armor sets are sets that the maker of those sets (by lore the makers of the set, by meta the devs decisions) chose to make. You are looting second hand items made by someone else. You have no right to complain that it does not match your specific build.

Your sense of entitlement makes me laugh.

Yes, dropped sets tend to have better set bonuses than the crafted sets, you can also get set jewelry.
Downside is that the values and armor types are set an set with all part is say light armor with magic regeneration enchant and a trait who boost enchant will take you very deep into regen overcharge.
Some of this is for balance other is just oversight.

R0M2K · May 2014

Medium armor / stamina & melee are a total mess.

Agree with OP, theres some nice medium armor droped sets that are just vendor/decon trash since they are stamina enchanted.

Singular · May 2014

So loot basically sucks then. What does that mean for end game? I mean, normal end game, we farm loot to improve. Here we farm...crafting mats?

Veakoth · May 2014

The trials sets can be enchanted over but some of them are trained with Mundus which is a real kick in the nuts

PBpsy · May 2014

I think a cool option would be to just randomize enchants and traits and keep them locked. It would give an incentive for hunting them around without influencing the value of crafted sets to much. Better yet make sets research possible but complicated.

Natjur · May 2014

Let the V12 Warlock Jewelry set have an unlocked enchantment, so I can replace it with spell power

The regen on it is over the top and a double up

ArRashid · May 2014

Yeah... why do we even have enchanting in this game if we can't use on anything we don't craft by ourselves?

for example Warlock set - 3 pieces of jewelry all have +Magicka regen, and the 5p bonus is ANOTHER magicka regen - not to mention having even ONE piece of warlock jewelry puts you beyond regen cap on that level..

Hell, I still use lvl 20 warlock jewelry and I'm STILL beyond magicka regen cap on lvl 47!

PBpsy · May 2014

Natjur wrote: »

Let the V12 Warlock Jewelry set have an unlocked enchantment, so I can replace it with spell power The regen on it is over the top and a double up

Is there a VR 12 Warlock set? Where?

Natjur · May 2014

PBpsy wrote: »

Natjur wrote: »

Let the V12 Warlock Jewelry set have an unlocked enchantment, so I can replace it with spell power The regen on it is over the top and a double up

Is there a VR 12 Warlock set? Where?

Drops from the first boss in Trails in Craglorn and its BLUE

its a nice upgrade. Join a first boss farming group and get yourself a set. Unless your a templar or NB then it will be harder to get a group as they normally only take DK and Sorc's

zaria · May 2014

PBpsy wrote: »

I think a cool option would be to just randomize enchants and traits and keep them locked. It would give an incentive for hunting them around without influencing the value of crafted sets to much. Better yet make sets research possible but complicated.

A good idea, more reason to hunt for sets,

PBpsy · May 2014

Natjur wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

Natjur wrote: »

Let the V12 Warlock Jewelry set have an unlocked enchantment, so I can replace it with spell power The regen on it is over the top and a double up

Is there a VR 12 Warlock set? Where?

Drops from the first boss in Trails in Craglorn and its BLUE its a nice upgrade. Join a first boss farming group and get yourself a set. Unless your a templar or NB then it will be harder to get a group as they normally only take DK and Sorc's

Well thanks for ruining my day even further.

Ilidio · May 2014

I agree that dropped set items should be enchantable. I don't see how "lore created the item" is even an argument.

Either let us enchant gear how we want, or allow us to research new set items like someone suggested so we can craft our own. Crafting is such a fun part of this game, but putting in sets that may have better set bonuses for our build and not allowing us to customize the enchant is lame imo.

In any mmo, I think the more customization the better. Need to fall back on the "Play how you want" motto they pushed and let us do just that. If that means everyone will wear a certain set, thats probably because it isn't balanced well enough and needs some reworking.

My 2 cents.

Veakoth · May 2014

To add to my earlier post the traits on trails set pieces are wierd, im pretty sure the traits are the same across all set pieces regarless of light/heavy medium
helms - (reinforced) increased armour value
legs - (infused) increased enchantment effects
gloves - (divines) increased mundus effect
shoulders (divines) increased mundus effect