Currently, items enchant values that are equivalent to the item’s level. However, there’s a major change coming in the next build, and this thread was the most appropriate to communicate it in given the topic at hand.
In the next Beta patch, Legacy items (or items that drop prior to Patch 2.0.1) will no longer be able to be enchanted. This was a decision we ultimately made because certain Legacy items, when enchanted, became disproportionately strong compared to new items, which isn’t the intent.
However, there’s an interesting “bug,” if you’d like to call it, that will result from this change in the next Beta patch – all items gained up until the patch will no longer be able to be enchanted. This is an artifact of the fix implementation, and we felt it prudent to communicate this as soon as we could for those of you in the Beta. All items that drop in Patch 2.0.1 and forward will be able to be enchanted, so this shouldn’t be an issue as we move into the live patch and onward to the expansion launch.
Remember in F&F, weapons had damage in the range of 3-4K. That was nerfed going into closed beta and never adjusted when players began enchanting legacy weapons. The way the developers do things gives me the inclination that they really don’t have a clue as to what their math and algorithms are supposed to do (to where they have to put large numbers on the high end, and then bring them down based on the data they collect as opposed to actually being closer to where it should be from the get go – notice how they do this for skills, proc coefficients, drop rates – I call this the dart board approach to finding balance).
And that is the issue when very good level 60 items can be enchanted, and still be better than their level 70 equivalents even after they have been enchanted. It’s a design and implementation flaw of loot 2.0 items. What is even more hilarious is that we’re allowed to re-roll only ONE SINGLE property. And if certain legacy 1.0 items become that disproportionately strong compared to loot 2.0 level 70 items, then that is a complete failure on the developers part. Un-enchanted level 70 items should by their nature be better than enchanted legacy 1.0 items.
Here’s an even simpler way to look at it in vanilla. How many of us are actually using any level 50-ish items on our level 60 characters while grinding through Inferno difficulty? I would bet that aside from a very small niche of self-found players, most of us tend to use level 60 items. That’s an outcome of the itemization system where lower level stuff just no longer scales. Thus there shouldn’t even be this discussion about removing enchanting on legacy 1.0 items because patch 2.0 level 70 items should be trumping them. This just shows how much they’ve botched loot 2.0. And this is what happens when you continually try to apply a bandaid approach rather than actually fixing the foundation.
Yes, I do understand that some folks were still playing the auction house hoarding up current BiS items so that they could be enchanted in Reaper of Souls. I personally don’t care if folks were making money or spending money based on assumptions/expectations (I myself did neither). I also get that the developers want us to play the game (patch 2.0.1 and/or expansion) to get our loot and don’t want a bunch of players bringing in BiS level 60 items, enchanting them (to where some slots will be better than the level 70 equivalents).
The issue I have is them not being able to find that balance or as mentioned above, evaluating just how bad of a job they’ve done in the past 1.25 years, “working” on loot 2.0, where certain 1.0.x level 60 items are just plain better. Fix loot 2.0 items, and they should most of the time, be better than their 1.0.x equivalents even when both are enchanted. Furthermore, this is yet another example of how they do not grok the whole rewards versus effort thing I’ve harped on in previous postings.
Lot of players put in quite a bit of time and effort since launch for whatever personal gaming objectives they had. Wyatt Cheng himself also mentioned how they wanted to be careful to not invalidate players gear for loot 2.0. This of course applies when transitioning from the 1.0.8 systems to 2.0.1 in the vanilla game. Expansions however should be common sense self-explanatory that ones gear will be obsoleted when the level cap is increased. There is still that transition period though where current gear is viable in the expansion. As one levels though, the expectation is that higher level gear will obsolete most current legacy gear. The point is that enchanting legacy gear before hitting level cap, is a way that continues to validate ones prior efforts. This ability to enchant is a reward in and of itself.
If loot 2.0 had been designed properly, there wouldn’t be a need to even have this ridiculous discussion in the first place. And this decision exhibits perfectly, how they do not get the psychology of rewarding players for their efforts as they’ve just invalidated the spirit of that aspect by removing an ability which shouldn’t even be removed in the first place. All it says is that the developers failed in their mission with loot 2.0 (epic loot my ass).
For myself, it doesn’t have a big impact because as mentioned in my leveling with patch 2.0 post, I intend to re-roll my mains from scratch anyway in order to take advantage of the loot system (can’t ignore the amount of main stat plus vitality; the issue I have is with the acquisition and quality rate of items at end game). OPUD (over promise, under deliver) is what is defining the Diablo III development team.
