Jep, totally agree. I really like the moon approach to give white items more gem options so whites cannot be totally ignored like in other games, but atm these gems are to unimpactful.
I would love to tinker a long time on one item, working out a real personalty and uniqueness, but this dream is far away right now i guess.
Thanks for your efford to work on this 
Very well put! 100% agree.
Different gem rarities/tiers as you proposed are totally needed i think.
Currently it is too flat and uninteresting to use them.
But i dont understand why do we need both: Enchantments and Gems?
For me an item is only a core shell with some attributes and these attributes we now call “gems”.
A blue item would be an item with maybe at least one stronger gem
A cursed item would be an item with at least one cursed gem maybe
A legendary item would be an item with at least one legendary gem
Then you would be really flexible and got full control about the item.
Enchanting would only mean to get random gems slotted in your item with one blue or plagued one.
For example a blue random rolled item drops during your adventure and u like the most about the items but some attribute sucks. If this item got rolled gems which are removable it would be possible to tinker the item in the right way. This must be expensive and not so easy to do for sure
Ideas for the enchanter:
i think the system is ok in principle
but rn the gems are just not worth it because you can’t stack them so you always just go for blue/purple and use the gem you want anyway.
The issue with your idea of basically making all enchantment gems is that the player will arrive to his most optimal item very quickly and will remove a lot of the joy of hunting for them. You effectively shorten the playtime for the player which would be quite detrimental to the End game.
Your idea will simply not happen if the devs know it will kill their end game.
I think we need both enchantments and gems. Enchantments give us that randomness and the thrill of the hunt for drops, and gems give us some control over some aspects of the item. Also you would essentially be killing white items as well in the process.
It needs to be done right, and gems need to give us affixes that enchantments cannot. In my opinion they need to have separate affix pools.
a lot of people on this forum don’t seem to dig the concept of ARPG items RNG which is…odd
My idea was based on exalted items in last epoch where the tier of the attributes describes the rarity or the possible affix count on it which works very well for the end game.
You can customize, yes! But you need the gems to do it. If you find a prerolled item with some gems in it you cannot improve it without the right gems and the ingredients to do it. You need very rare high tier gems to get big improvements.
So its designed specifically for the end game where you want to fine tune or highly customize an item which is unique to u. You will always get random rolled items like in the current early game with low level gems to put in.
Last epoch got very much rng in the crafting process so it fails very often to get really what you want.
I’m going to be honest, I don’t see Last Epoch’s crafting system working for this game. Especially since Moon wants every rarity to be worthwhile, where Last Epoch is in the end at least all Exalted items.
This would make whites and blues obsolete I feel.
I kind of agree with @DankMemeGod , in Last Epoch you get showered with tons and tons of gems and there are lots of affixes with tons interposing combinations of stats. Plus you have the forge power stat that allows you to change the item up to a certain amount of times.
I think Wicked is going for a different approach, but I do think that their current approach is a bit bland at the moment. I do believe that having more and rarer gems is the way to go but I feel like there needs to be a separation between enchantments and gems that aren’t the one and the same thing.
Again in your example, you would make whites and blues pretty obsolete as it is in Last Epoch. Yes, the Exalted gear is End Game gear, but let me tell you I got pretty bored late game in LE, mostly due to the combat becoming repetitive admittedly though. Gems should be rare precious drops in my opinion that you get by exploring the world, which is a different approach to Last Epoch has a long list of affixes that combines with your skill trees and so on, which is not the state where Wicked is at the moment, in fact it’s on the complete opposite side. I’m hoping not only more enchantments but also better enchantment system and a further development of the gems system can make Gear engaging and theory crafting builds a lot more interesting.
I’m like 99% sure we’ll get additional gem tiers in future content. There’s a reason most of the gems are classified as “chipped” right now.
What about slicing out some of their “best” ideas?
I never suggested copying the last epoch approach completely and i also was pretty bored in the end. Too much affix drops … i agree with that. All the repetitivity of LE … would be horrible if this gets copied 1:1.
But let me think about what you said … maybe i am missing something
Wicked wants all rarities to matter, which i like a lot and this must be the way to go. Means:
Do we agree on that?
So atm in wicked if we find a white item it got 4 gem slots all the time (correct me if i am wrong) - Maybe this could also be randomized (1-4) because one slot is very valuable and it must need some efford to hunt for the perfect base.
If a blue item is found 3 slots are potentially filled with “gems” and you only got one slot left to customize by yourself. Atm these new filled slots are hard printed on the item. Unchangable at the blacksmith.
The identity of a blue item is only that i have 3 slots unchangable filled correct?
Now it want to break that up and i do not want a blue item to be a blue item anymore. I just want to interact with the prerollt static unchangable affixes and adjust the color or rarity of the item based on the gem tiers applied.
I can now do the following:
The point here is that removing or adding must be expensive or risky. Its such a powerful mechanic that you cannot allow that so early in the game. Means white items and blue items does not lose there value, because finding a blue item with some random gems applied to it is not very easy to craft at the blacksmith. Higher tier gems would be even more harder to print on a weapon so finding a blue one with the correct gems applied would be very valuable.
What you get in the end is a highly flexible system which scales a lot.
What you lose maybe is the simplicity of the actual approach.
Its a hard topic and not easy to predict what that leads to.
And as much as i like to think about all this i guess its really hard to implement. Its a very deep operation and i need to be more realistic about what is possible at the current state of the game. Moon got a hell of a todo-list atm. So its more about little little steps than deep interferences. Your approch is more doable.
Like the discussion, thanks for your feedback.
Same here, thank you for your discussion; this is what the forums are all about!
I personally wouldn’t do it the way you suggest, especially with the cursed items because as it is right now they seem to have specific affixes that only cursed items can have and then a negative one. It wouldn’t translate to your system; however I do like the idea of cursed gems. I personally don’t like what cursed items are like right now, in fact I don’t like the gear system overall.
Would love to see changes.
Ultimately It’s not up to us and the developers will decide what to do, but we can suggest things anyway. Hopefully they listen to some input and take it into account.
I agree with you on blue items not being interesting. Their affixes tend to be too random, which makes them lose value. This is partially due to them coming with up to 4 affixes. The chances of all 4 of those affixes mattering is very small.
White gear to me however, is interesting. From a visual perspective, I can the armor that I like the most. When it comes to enchanting though… Enchantments are too random and white gear is too scarce. So you end up playing the Blacksmith Lottery, Gear Gacha w/e you wanna call it.
Yeah, enchantments can be soooo much more. I mean it’s EA, and they probably wanted to test the system to an extent. I think we can all see the dormant potential with the affix system and want right now 
For me it’s more finding a piece of white gear and turning it into what you described. The visuals of my character matter most to me. I want to clear the game in my favorite armor.
Other than that, I agree with you that gear that drops needs to matter more.
I like the idea of affixes becoming ‘‘skills’’ in a way. They allow for more playstyle expression and customization. I really think affixes should become deeper rather than broader. Link gems to attributes or systems like, focus, heat damage and health. And then allow for different affix types. I think it is important that there are ‘‘stronger’’ affixes, that shape your build more. And ‘‘weaker’’ affixes that simply provide a static bonus.
I think this is the goal though. Make the whites visually appealing so you want to upgrade them. They are a blank slate waiting to be upgraded. Again, white item scarcity and enchanting randomization become an issue. Furthermore, like you rightfully mentioned:
Players will 100% default to the strongest custom affixes. I think this should build upon on what you mentioned earlier. Primary and Secondary affixes, in my posts I refer to them as having different rarities. So we head in the same direction but, in a different way. If each piece of equipment has different ‘‘primary’’ affixes. And they influence playstyle. People will look for different primary affixes.
Hey @RomoloHero
About the White items, I think we all want White items to be the most customizable gear in the game, we don’t disagree on that.
However, as it is the Gems are very much leaning towards certain bonuses and don’t really allow any kind of actual customization on Armor.
On weapons it’s a bit of a different story, but armor will almost always have the same gems no matter what build; because there are not only very few options but also there are gems that are pretty much always better than others.
As I explained before, because you can’t stack the same gem 4 times, and there’s very little variation to playstyle in general in the game. White armor will always feel and play the same.
I get that for you the aesthetics is a very important part of how you play the game, but my solution does not change or involve that at all.
Overal, I think Gems need to change and be more interesting but also have bonuses that enchantments cannot provide. In fact, you will even be happier with white items because you’ll be able to wear the armor you want and have even more interesting effects that enchanted items cannot have.
Ill give you an example, that perhaps is not balanced but just for the sake of making a point.
Imagine Enchantments have 1 Primary affix which gives you a kind of passive ability, or effect (like the AOE fire) and some secondary affixes that usually give bonuses to stamina, focus, hp, xp, etc…
Now for gems; It could be interesting to play with Elements more than general stats.
Some stats are reserved for gems only and so enchantments do not give Cold Resistance for example, you can only get that from sapphire gems and only when allotted to a specific piece of gear such as the Chest Piece.
That same sapphire slotted into your weapon gives you cold damage; while on your gloves it gives you poise damage while charge attacking.
This way gems can be the customizable part of the gear and are very targeted to certain things and playstyles.
Anyhow, I hope this explains a bit further and sorry for the long reply.
It may be taking White items in a different direction too drastically but maybe there’s some potential for having some unique interactions with what gems are paired?
Oh no, I understood you here.
However, for me it was more about customizing a white piece of equipment rather than finding that final piece like in an ARPG. Like finally getting the last piece of the Theban Set in Titan Quest
I feel the opposite here though, I think enchantments should provide things that gems don’t. Overall, randomization should yield ‘‘better’’ rewards than customization. This is probably due to us envisioning the system differently.
I think gems should various affixes tied to them in different rarities. Only through random enchanting can you get the higher rarities. But, with basic enchants you get the lowest, since the barrier to entry is lower sorta speak.
We are actually on the same page, I do thin enchantments should overall be a bit better than whites, but the customization of white gear should be more meaningful.
Right now, whites are not really customizable is my take. The vary very little on what gems you put on them and the gems that you do put on them do not change the playstyle at all. That’s zero customizability other than Aesthetic.
I think this is the best solution:
Gems are limited in what they can bring to the table compared to the available enchantments so making them really strong in their niches could work.
Yeah no I don’t think they should be really strong, but they should be specialized into things that enchantments don’t do.
To me the most obvious thing is that Gems should provide the elemental resistances and elemental damage for weapons. Also the type of buff you get depends on the gear type, which is similar to what we already have.
Blue and cursed items have slots for 1 gem, so it fits quite well.
I thought about the whole gem thing a little bit more now and i have to admit that its maybe not too bad that these gems are so flat and uninteresting.
Sounds stupid right?
There might be an intended reason behind this but i am not sure.
I played a lot of classic arpgs … more than soulslikes … and i, and we all i think, love to theorycraft with those cool item affixes.
Now with wicked there is like nothing really to theorycraft. But we want it so badly and we dont want to accept thats its all in your head and based on your skill, reflexes etc…
We want numbers, systems … thinking about what synergizes with another. Calculating stuff etc.
But the more toys moon gives us the more it gets detached from the soulslike approach where such effects are very rarly spreaded.
This extra effect layer draws so much attention away from “you have to study your enemies and then you will succeed”.
What if your gear gets more and more effects like:
“Proccing a holy shield when below 30%”,
“Move speed is increased by 30% for 5s after opening a chest”,
running around with a unique weapon “The Wealthmaker” → “1 copper on hit” 
Thats maybe why moon are so cautious about these effects. Or maybe i am talking sht.
What brings me to the final question:
Can we really have both in this game → Skillful down to earth real feeling fights paired with a huge variety of gem effects?