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?

[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.

[Mcshiggs]

The old materia system was kind of like what you want, no caps on stats, but the type of materia was limited by the piece of gear it went in, and sure enough, if you didn't have a hat at least triple melded with int, you couldn't get in a Garuda party, the stat allocation system lets you put points anywhere, but I have yet to see a bard with all 30 points in piety to maximize song durations. No matter the system, people will figure out what is best, and that will be what is expected. You would be able to try different builds, but unless it is endgame content, something like determination over crit won't really matter, it has and always will come down to endgame, and unless you have a group already, good luck getting one when you and they both know you aren't gearing your character in the way that most benefits the group.

[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.

[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.

[ufufu]

Can't you just call it the materia system?

[Mcshiggs]

Look at the new WoW system coming out, doing away with many stats like hit and expertise, making less items enchantable/gemable, trashing reforging all together, they want enchanted and gemmed gear to feel special, the current system, you plug your gear into a program, and it tells you what enchants/gems/reforges to do, it came down to loads of programming so it could be customizable, but few people took advantage to be unique, because uniqueness doesn't give you the best numbers, and that is what the people want. I'm all for characters being able to be unique, but the game is very new still, WoW had enchanting at release, but gemming didn't come out until BC, reforging until Cataclysm, games like this take time. I for one think a nifty way to add some flare would be jobstones, they have stat buffs already, make a repeatable quest, maybe on a one week cooldown so you can't do it everyday, where you can trade your white mage stone in for one that say increases your support potency (protect, stoneskin, regen), or one that increases crit rate on single target heals, or one that increases aoe heals, nothing really game breaking, but it could be something to add a little personality to your job.

[RowanLauron]

Melding is more like jewelcrafting than enchanting. There are sockets...you put materia (gems) into those sockets. How you get enchanting out of it is beyond me.

[Genesiser]

Melding is more like jewelcrafting than enchanting. There are sockets...you put materia (gems) into those sockets. How you get enchanting out of it is beyond me.

Enchanting, jewelcrafting, either way, the bottom line is those are avenues to customize your gear a bit to your liking. With stat caps and a majority of the gear being modifiable, the system in this game lacks the ability to do so.