Enchanting system is horrible in this game.

[Genesiser]

Obviously when I say enchanting system I am talking about the materia system they put in this game. The reason I say it is terrible is not because you have to disenchant gear for random materia used for enchanting (I find that annoying, but it's not my main gripe) but instead it's because the whole point of enchanting gear is to give you the ability to customize your gear to your preference.

First off, they introduced stat caps on gear. Why would they do such a thing? If they wanted to limit the stats on gear, instead of saying you can only have x amount of a stat on an item, instead allow only certain gear slots be able to have certain enchants on them. Like, only chest piece and gloves can have str/mnd/vit/ etc and all other pieces can only get any secondary stat on them - any amount of any secondary stat. In other words if you wanted to put 20 skill speed on an item, go for it - if you wanted 10 skill speed and 10 determination, have at it. All their current system does is ensure that everyone ends up with the same stats with no customization. The only variance on gear would be if someone overmelded a stat and ended up not getting the full benefit of the enchant.

Now if stat caps weren't enough, dungeon gear can't even be enchanted. Who thought of that brilliant idea? Why would they want everyone that gets end game gear to have THE EXACT SAME STATS? Where is the customization? Why would you NOT allow people to enchant any piece of gear? What is the point of having a materia system in the game, if you can't even use it on end game gear? The enchanting system in this game is flat out horrible.

Anyway, for those of you that say, "people would do the same enchants on their gear anyways because it is best in slot" that may be the case for many people - however, it allows you to have choice on what kind of stats are on your gear. It allows people have different builds like maybe someone would like to have a crit heavy build vs a determination build. Perhaps the determination build would come out a bit more on top in terms of dps, but someone may like to see big numbers as opposed to smaller numbers. So while most would go the way of determination, at least people would have the OPTION to try to have a different playstyle.

The old materia system was kind of like what you want...

Actually the kind of system I enjoy is the WoW system. I used to spend hours re-enchanting/gemming my gear and hitting a target dummy to find out what the best set up was. I would try all crit, all haste, a mix of them, and other combinations just to see what would give my guy the best dps with my playstyle (many times I would go against what was "best" and would way outperform people with the normal setup and regularly was in the top 30 in worldoflogs.com without best in slot gear). Anyway, that is missing from this game - once you get your gear you are done with it, you don't think about it anymore. You can't say "maybe a heavy skill speed set would be better than x set" and then try it out. Instead, you have no choice in the matter. And not having a choice is never a good thing in an mmo.

[Grundy]

Thank you OP, I now have Sandal from Dragon Age shouting "Enchantment" in my head.

One of the things that annoys me is that I never recover materia when it's removed, it's always destroyed, always. What's the point?

[mythicrose]

Thank you OP, I now have Sandal from Dragon Age shouting "Enchantment" in my head.

Sandal, "Enchantment? Enchaaaantment!"


Edit : Please ignore all the dead monstrosities around Sandal... Surely he wouldn't shank you for those enchantments.

[OldGeezer]

The same reason they don't allow level 50 characters to grind low-level dungeons at level 50. Balance. They don't allow you to overstack sets so you have a unfair advantage and unbalance the instance. Another reaason is twinking. When PVP comes out I'm sure a ton of people will try to overoptimize their gear so they don't have to use actual skill.

[Appleh4x]

The same reason they don't allow level 50 characters to grind low-level dungeons at level 50. Balance. They don't allow you to overstack sets so you have a unfair advantage and unbalance the instance. Another reaason is twinking. When PVP comes out I'm sure a ton of people will try to overoptimize their gear so they don't have to use actual skill.

Actual skill? Are you serious? This is a GCD based MMO, skill doesn't even come into this. Gear is all that matters.

[Flionheart]

Actual skill? Are you serious? This is a GCD based MMO, skill doesn't even come into this. Gear is all that matters.

Ok. We'll both parse a Titan fight. You stand in every AOE, and I'll dodge every AOE.

[Kosmos992k]

Actual skill? Are you serious? This is a GCD based MMO, skill doesn't even come into this. Gear is all that matters.

How do you balance that against the legions of fail-DPS, fail-healers and fail-tanks that exist? If it's not about skill, and it's all gear and GCD based how do you explain all those player who fail so hard?

[Tupsi]

How do you balance that against the legions of fail-DPS, fail-healers and fail-tanks that exist? If it's not about skill, and it's all gear and GCD based how do you explain all those player who fail so hard?

Uhh...to be fair a lot of 'fail (insert)' usually, 99% of the time do this:

"Healer I'm dying over here! Cure me! D:"
Fail Healer: "Huh? I use cure on you? Nah I'll just spam Stone II or Ruin II on the mob."

"Skill" varies in meaning since it doesn't take "skill" to hit your Cure button, you have to actually hit it lol. The "skill" is how effectively you know how to hit your buttons, but above all: Actually hit the button XD.

[ufufu]

Uhh...to be fair a lot of 'fail (insert)' usually, 99% of the time do this:

"Healer I'm dying over here! Cure me! D:"
Fail Healer: "Huh? I use cure on you? Nah I'll just spam Stone II or Ruin II on the mob."

"Skill" varies in meaning since it doesn't take "skill" to hit your Cure button, you have to actually hit it lol. The "skill" is how effectively you know how to hit your buttons, but above all: Actually hit the button XD.

Their problem was getting hit by AoEs. Stop that and things will be fine.

[Pooky]

How do you balance that against the legions of fail-DPS, fail-healers and fail-tanks that exist? If it's not about skill, and it's all gear and GCD based how do you explain all those player who fail so hard?

They are not mutually exclusive. You need basic understanding of mechanics to be successful, regardless of gear. You can have the best gear or no gear, if you can't dodge or target properly, you will fail. Once you get past that though, its all about gear. You are not going to outperform someone with great gear because of your "great skill". Its a RPG. You get better with stats and gear, not by aiming a bow better or swinging a sword harder. Which is why the whole idea of "I wanna be different!!! Why won't materia let me do what I want!!!" is silly. Like someone said, you don't see bards stacking PIE with their 30 customizable points.