The Enchantment system is a solid base for itemization. Currently it’s flawed in everything revolves around three cornerstones: Stamina, Health, and Focus. Builds will involve any combination of these three which is fine but it can be so much more.
There are facets to our character that aren’t involved in Enchantments yet and that is a shame. For example, Wicked leverages weight classes the most out of any game and that should only be further enforced with itemization. I’m going to propose some Enchantments as well as justifications with them.
Frozen enemies take more damage X% more damage from weapons.
My Thoughts: I’d like to see status effects impact our choices more, as well as find ways to emphasize Rune gameplay or weapon gameplay.
Chained light combos do x% increased stagger on the final hit.
My Thoughts: I want to give more weight to the full combos of weapons that we have. Runes are really powerful right now and this may not even be needed after some balance passes.
The plagued status effect deals increased damage based off your [X] attribute.
My Thoughts: There’s a lot of talk around making attributes define our character/builds more. There’s not a perfect solution yet but mayhaps there is potential in creating affixes that work with specific attributes instead of baking it in baseline.
Enemies recently hit by a Rune attack take increased Poise damage by a weapon attack.
My Thoughts: I like synergistic incentives. I don’t want another damage enchantment so this might be nice to soften them up with a Rune and knock them down fully with a charged attack.
Attacking an undamaged enemy heals you for X% health.
My Thoughts: Healing should be reigned in a little. I think this could replace the current “lifesteal” enchantment we have.
Charged attacks increase the damage of Plagued and Burning by a percentage of damage dealt.
My Thoughts: I’m stretching here. I’m struggling to think of a way to incorporate the elements better into our kits.
Runes deal increased Poise damage. Only applies to the first hit of a Rune attack.
My Thoughts: Again, less focus on damage and limiting it to the first hit because there are many multi-hit Runes abusing Poise damage right now…
Increased Health Regeneration based off your Faith and Strength attributes.
My Thoughts: Same idea as the Plague enchant above. This may just be the same result as baking in bonuses to the attributes themselves but I really want to hear thoughts on enchantments like these.
Let me know if anything is too much, powerful, etc. Thomas Mahler asked for suggestions on enchantments, as well as class identity and freedom. I think this is the perfect time to see if we can kill two birds with one stone.
I loved some of your suggestions, particularly the one that promotes completing combos.
I know I’ve seen on twitter from the devs that they intend to really flesh out enchantments in the future, and I’d love to see them play around with the mechanics.
Perhaps an enchantment that creates an elemental explosion if you release the charge heavy attack right at the moment it fully charges?
That honestly is a great idea. They’re really trying emphasize player skill in this with an ARPG twist. I don’t mind forgoing typical simple number crunching in ARPGs for enchantments like this.
I think it’s important that gear rolls do something situational which may or may not be useful depending on what you’re trying to do right now, rather than having rolls which are simply better than other options for everybody all of the time. If you want to give people choices then you need wildly different options which aren’t directly comparable so that there is no correct answer.
Some of these suggestions are great because they are only strong in limited scenarios. Eg. Healing with your first hit against an undamaged enemy is a useful sustain bonus when fighting through regular trash enemies during exploration, but is obviously useless in a boss fight (But this is functionally similar to Heal on Kill). Dealing extra stagger damage on the final hit of basic melee combos is not going to be useful if you’re mashing Focus attacks, bowing things to death or casting spells but is something you might change your playstyle to take advantage of if the bonus is significant. These would act as real choices while some of the current rolls like Focus% regain on damage dealt are just correct answers.
Ideas in the same vein:
Increased damage/Focus regain/Stagger on Charged Attacks
Charged attacks are something you may choose to use but are not necessarily a good idea, their value varies a lot with the type of weapon you want to use, so this kind of bonus is situational as well as impacting your playstyle.
Increased damage (large amount) for 1 second after taking damage
The 1 second is important, because this would specifically boost hyperarmoured moves being used to poise through enemy attacks on purpose. Situational and useful only for certain big weapon builds which can access hyperarmour, but could also encourage a frantic Bloodborne style attempt to take advantage of the bonus immediately after being hit which could lead to people dying for getting greedy. Needs to not trigger on self-damage effects.
Damage bonus and reduced Stamina cost for 5 seconds after eating
Make eating repeatedly in combat a playstyle
Increased damage the lower your stamina meter drops
A situational playstyle altering bonus which makes people take risks on low stamina and also encourages the use of basic attacks because Focus attack spam doesn’t spend Stamina
Increased stagger on running attacks
Running attacks typically are not mashable and vary in use depending on the weapon moveset making this a situational bonus which would help certain weapon classes which don’t naturally stagger overworld trash to get an opening.
Dealing damage with light and charged attacks reduces Focus cost of your next Focus ability for 3 seconds (Stackable/Charged attack gives more stacks/Stacks reset on use)
Rather than just recovering infinite Focus on any damage dealt, give people a way of reducing the resource cost as long as they’re using the rest of their moveset. The amount of Focus regeneration needs to be gutted anyway.
I like these a lot. Varying how we use the enchants like you’ve done here also incentivizes different weapon choices since some do better than others. For example:
This will greatly incentivize attacks that are heavy hitters, like greatswords.
Normally, ARPGs are pretty straightforward in their affixes but the systems we have in Wicked can lend to more involved enchants like these. My only worry now would be making Commons still a competitive choice.
I think this is one of the more important things to take into consideration with designing enchantment affixes.
A lot of enchants seem to favor fast hitting builds with many procs since the effect triggers on hit.
An example:
Option 1: gain X% of stamina when dealing damage.
Option 2: gain X% of damage dealt as stamina.
Option 1 favors fast hitting builds since it scales of procs. There is not much value in it for slower builds unless the ‘‘X%’’ is high enough for it to matter. This could then be balanced by letting the enchant depend on the item that is enchanted. Meaning faster hitting weapons gain a lower percentage but slower hitting weapons gain a higher percentage.
Option 2 would be more balanced innately, but would become an issue when damage numbers become too high as you would be able to create a fatigue neutral build leading to unending swings of weapons that have high stagger. (The Spalled Axe, I stunlocked The Riven Twins with it’s normal attacks )
Therefore, I believe it is important to consider letting enchants depend on weapon type.
Oh 100%. It’s why I’m trying to stay away from enchants favoring one side too much since that can cascade really fast. The weapon system is also why I think we can stray a little from the typical straightforward affixes ARPGs have and make them more involved, or Legendary-lite essentially. Straightforward Enchants will still have their place but we don’t need only those kinds.
I’m really excited for the creativeness we can see with enchantments, that’s why I’m trying to suggest ones that don’t just give stat bonuses. But instead encourage you to engage with specific mechanics in a new way, like timing etc.
After playing Diablo 4 and seeing most affixes boil down to “X number going up X%” I am starved for enchantments that allow you to actually change the function of certain abilities and mechanics.
Of course, if not careful this can turn to a balancing /overpowering nightmare. But that’s why we’re lucky to have a studio like Moon heading the wheel haha
Yep, couldn’t agree more. Sadly, ARPGs in general follow a similar formula to Diablo IV’s affixes but they aren’t as uninspired. Which is why this is the perfect chance to really push the limits.
What I like about your initial suggestions is that some of them are conditional and thus push you into a certain direction. Which in turn becomes more and more build defining and unique.
You start to use your brain more and think about what type of playstyle you have and how you can further facilitate this. Or maybe give a new twist or an additional option. Rather than what gives the biggest increase in damage.
I want some enchants to be thematic to my build/roleplay fantasy.
Yes! This exactly. I know Moon wants to make their mark in ARPGs and this is definitely the way. If we let affixes be our playstyle, or even class fantasy, that alone will be huge for standing out.
My only concern is Common items would require a balance pass on gems so they don’t get left in the dust.
This is where I am at as well. Affixes don’t limit players but instead create more expressive freedom.
Also, I think a dismantle gear option to unlock the recipe for a piece of equipment would be some needed QOL.
Especially if enchanting and affixes are the way to go. Too much randomness if you want to use a specific piece of equipment.
Something else related to enchanting. I noticed some days ago the gems read: Chipped Ruby, Chipped Sapphire etc. I think this implies that some refinement system is coming. Like how we create planks out of wood, and bars out of ore. We create refined gems out of chipped gems. Or combine different gems to influence what affix we get.
I really like a ton of the ideas here, so I’ll add a couple more observations. Currently, as the original poster said, everything revolves around health, focus, or stamina on hit effects, which naturally means that fast weapons reign supreme simply because they hit the most, and there’s little to no reason to incorporate slower weapons, charge attacks, or any other combo chain that isn’t the fastest.
Accordingly, I’d like to see more enchantments that reward other playstyles, like charge attacks or sprint attacks. Stuff like:
increased focus gain of charged attacks
increased elemental effect of charged attacks
gain (insert buff here) for X seconds after completing a charged attack
more situational %health on hit effects, like only on the last hit of a combo, only on a sprint attack, etc. too easy to just mindlessly mash the attack button currently
gain rune damage DOWN but regular damage UP for X seconds after executing a rune attack. This is to reward players who don’t spam rune attacks and is probably my favorite idea.
Essentially, I love how straightforward most bonuses in Wicked are in theory, but they could be just as straightforward to understand while also being more contextual. This would help incentivize players who alternate attacks and use every tool in their kit.
@RomoloHero Hey, are you saying that an elemental explosion on elemental attacks already exists as an enchantment??? That was my idea, would be crazy if I suggested something that’s already in the game haha
What I meant was that the favorite one that I had seen suggested was elemental explosions on charged attacks. I should have worded it better, apologies.
My favorite suggestion that I have seen, was actually your suggestion
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