One of the reasons I continue to play ESO and I believe I will continue for some time is because of the steady improvements to the game and how receptive the development team is to their players. For this reason I will be posting a series of improvements to the game that I think will further enhance the game play and make the game even more enjoyable.

The first topic that I would like to discuss is Enchanting and what I would recommend in order to improve the current system.

Enchanting

Current Condition: Overly cluttered crafting system.

Issue 1: Many of the Potency Runes affect varying level ranges even though they share the same potency level. For example one Potency Five Rune affects level 40 to 50 while another Potency Five Rune affects VR1 to VR3 “not to mention that level 50 and VR1 gear is entirely different and a level 50 enchant cannot be applied to VR1 gear or vise versa”. This often leads to players mistakenly using sparse resources to make enchants they want only to realize it cannot be applied to their gear “my poor Rekuta”. This is a common problem in a system that has close to if not more than 100 material associated that have the same visual representation and are only different in name. Locating the Potency Level Five Rune that crafts a VR1 to VR3 Weapon Enchant is hidden in all the other Potency Runes that cannot be sorted by level causes this mistake to happen to me more than I care to admit.

Recommendation: I believe it would be more beneficial and user friendly to have all Potency Runes of the same Potency Level affect the same level range. Have all Potency Level Five Runes affect level 40 to VR3. I would even go as far to suggest dropping the low cap all together having a Potency Level Five Rune affect up to VR3 gear and everything below. This would make the system much more user friendly and the addition of an equipment cap for enchants would prevent overpowered low level equipment. So if the player wished to waste a Potency Level Five Enchant on his level 20 gear that is his choice but it would only give him the equivalent of the highest Enchant available for the level range of 20.

Issue 2: Currently the enchanting system is overly cluttered and is often a daunting task to make multiple enchants for level specific gear. Clothing, Blacksmithing and Woodworking utilize backwards planning when crafting “my preferred method” while Enchanting uses a more “let’s see what we get” approach. With the other crafting systems you choose your finished product “I want a Heavy Armor Chest Piece VR1” and the system tells you what you need in order to craft the product, then you have the option to add traits. With enchanting you randomly add material together to see what you get. At first this is fine and it’s kind of fun to discover the different traits. However this gets a little annoying every time I go back to try to make a new enchant.

Recommendation: I highly suggest retaining the discovery system within enchanting. However once a player discovers what each enchant does it should slowly develop into a backwards planning system much like the other crafting system “excluding alchemy”. I would recommend having a tab at the top of the crafting window with the options of “Weapon Enchants, Armor Enchants and Jewelry Enchants”. The player will choose what kind of enchant he is looking for and then the level range required. At that time he can scroll through the varies enchants that he has discovered for that level range “like the other crafting systems two boxes that can be selected for display enchants that I have material for and enchants I have knowledge to craft”. Once the player selects the type of enchant he wants “Weapon” the level range of the enchant and the effect “Causes X fire damage”, he will then choose the appropriate Aspect Rune to determine the strength of the enchant. If the player has the material required than the enchant will be a success and crafting complete. If the player does not have the material required but has the knowledge to craft the enchant than the player knows what material he will have to acquire. However if the player has not discovered the specific traits from the Potency, Essence or Aspect Runes it will simply state Unknown to the player.

This concludes my suggested improvements for today. Please tell me what you thank or any alternate suggestions that you believe would be better than the ones I suggested.