Tera: Enchanting

Well folks, it looks like the developers of Tera have a scorched earth policy regarding uninstalling their game, as it looks like the uninstall took the screenshots along with it. At least the lack of pictures means that these posts will take up less space.

To describe enchanting in Tera in a few words would be: "Unrewarding and Frustrating"

But first, an explanation of what you get when you enchant an item.

Not all items are enchantable, but most if not all can be used as a ingredient for enchanting. Those that can be enchanted will have three different bonuses, which are randomly generated, that are unlocked as you enchant the item up every three levels. For each level, the item's attack and impact increase (but not its other bonuses such as mana and healing power).

To enchant an item you need: the item you are enchanting, an item of the same type (chest piece for a chest piece, gloves for gloves, weapon for a weapon, the items do not need to share a name and the weapons do not have to be the same (bow for a staff works) and nor do the items need to be the same quality) and some enchanting powder depending on what the enchant level of the item is. Once you have everything you simply begin your enchanting and CROSS YOUR FINGERS AND CROSS THEM GOOD, why?

Because here comes those two words "Unrewarding and Frustrating".

Unrewarding: whats so unrewarding about getting a bonus such as extra attack, faster run speed on your boots, or reducing your aggro from boss monsters? Taking only into consideration the rewards you receive and not what it took to get them, it does seem very rewarding. However, it takes absurd amounts of time, money, and resources to enchant an item the higher you get its enchanting level up. Every time you fail to enchant you only get back the items you were trying to enchant, the item and the powder you were using are lost to the void. the second tier of powder is nearly twenty gold, of which you need an amount matching the tier of the item. Tier 12 items would then take 240 gold EACH ATTEMPT PLUS a item to be sacrificed. this may not seem much but as a person who has sat down to waste two thousand gold to the RNG in one sitting just to get an item up from +6 to +7 (without success) I can tell you that one soon looks upon the enchanting system as something you want to avoid putting much hope in. For those who do not play Tera, two thousand gold is not normally acquired in a day much less two or three depending on what level you are.

I think with those words I also covered "Frustrating" if I do say so my self though I will say a few more on the subject. The success rate for enchantment decreases dramatically as you increase an item's enchant level. Having to sacrifice such a huge amount of time and money is a real letdown knowing that there is no guarantee that you will get anything out of it. I for one would much rather pay a high cost with a guaranteed chance of getting something in return rather than sacrifice a lamb to the RNG.

Next week: combat in Tera and maybe dungeon crawling with party mechanics.

See ya!