From blue posts
The way enchanting works right now (which, bear in mind, may change as we continue internal testing and receive feedback) is that you'd get to choose which affix you re-roll. So the process would be something like:
visit Mystic --> select affix to re-roll --> get randomly-generated list of new affixes --> chose single affix from list --> pay material cost --> old affix replaced with new affix --> profit. The plan, at the moment at least, is to make an item account-bound if it's enchanted.
One small correction to what Lylirra said earlier. You pay the costs before you see the randomly generated enchanting options.
We're still tinkering with the actual costs and mechanics, as well as some remaining niggly details (like can you re-roll the same affix over and over? should the costs scale with each affix you re-roll? if yes, how much? etc) which is why we haven't done a grand reveal of the Mystic just yet.
Hey that's cool, instead of just a direct reroll of some crap affix then stuck with a worse item like 'why did I ever do this..' you'll be selecting your own fate? Sweet, now the devs are using their thinking caps when it comes to items!
We'll see how everything pans out, but that's just the current thinking. As with all features in game development, it's very likely enchanting will undergo some changes before it ships (for various reasons: feedback, technical issues, balance issues, etc). I just wanted to share an idea of how this particular service of the Mystic might feel and maybe even generate some discussion on the topic.
i'd like to learn more about the "randomly generated list of new affixes". What will they include?
No details to share right now! I'm totally going to be "that guy" and encourage you to stay tuned. (I know, I know. At least I didn't drop a "soon," right? )
Does anyone know if you can upgrade your item levels with the Mystic?
Reason I ask is because I'm sure that some people (myself included) have legendaries that they are very happy with the effects on but that we don't particularly want to have to re-hunt for new versions at level 70 (specifically skill cost reduction gear, cause -19 Meteor cost is hard to get).
This is a great question, and I have an answer that might make some of you happy. Right now, we're currently looking at having it so that when you re-roll an affix through Enchanting, the new roll is based on your character level. So, you could re-roll a core stat (as an example) on a lower-level item, and make that item a lot more appealing to a higher level character. This will allow you to continue to use gear that you're otherwise outgrowing, and help extend the life on some of those awesome items.
Enchanting is still a work in progress, though, so some of these details might change.
I understand that you can re-roll an affix. But can base armor and base weapon damage be re-rolled as well?
A lot of the details regarding Enchanting are still being finalized, and we'll be sure to share more information about it as time goes on. We know there are a lot of questions (like this) to be discussed, and we look forward to talking more about it when we can
There still needs to be an element of "random" involved as well as limitations for this system to work. Otherwise literally every single person would be running around with godly gear in no time.
Random element: the list of replacement stats.
Limitation: The cost and/or amount of re-rolls we can perform.
The Mystic should and will be a supplementary factor of itemization, not something that replaces the actual hunt for loot aka the whole name of the game.
This is spot on.
We are still iterating heavily on the system, so the exact details may vary from what we talk about today, so let's talk about our values. By focusing on our design values, even if the exact implementation changes, you''ll be able to see our intent and what's important to us. Here are some of our design values for enchanting:
Value: It's important for the actual hunt for the loot to still matter
How enchanting supports this: As currently designed, you are only allowed to reroll ONE property on an item. In this way, each item can only be changed so much from it's original state. This allows enchanting to feel meaningful, while still allowing lots of room for players to resume hunting for an even better "base item" to enchant into an even better item.
Value: We want this to be a meaningful end-game sink
How enchanting supports this:
1. As previously mentioned, all items that are enchanted will be bound to account
2. Even though you are allowed to reroll only ONE property, you can reroll that property over and over. For example, suppose an item has 200 str, 200 vit, 80 res all, +1200 Life on Kill and +400 Life on Hit. You might choose to reroll the +1200 Life on Kill and get +87 Hitpoints per second. You can then reroll the +87 Hitpoints per second and get +4 gold pickup radius. You can reroll the "mutable" stat as many times as you want, but the other 4 stats (200 str, 200 vit, 80 res all and +400 Life on Hit) are now "locked in" and cannot be rerolled.
3. We want to ensure enchanting is meaningful on Legendary items. We are working hard to make sure Legendary items are awesome. If we want enchanting to be a meaningful end-game sink, it needs to work on the best items in the game. It has not yet been determined whether this means you can enchant the "guaranteed" properties of a Legendary, or if you can only reroll the "random" properties of a Legendary. This aspect of the design is still under iteration but at the end of the day we want enchanting Legendary items to be worthwhile.
Value: We want to avoid "Buyer's Remorse"
How enchanting supports this: Have you ever played an RPG with an enchanting system that sometimes randomly made the item worse? Since we're allowing the result to be random, it's possible that your choices for enchanting are worse than the property you're replacing. Oftentimes this can lead to a feeling of dread when you begin the enchanting process. Or maybe you re-enchant the item over and over hoping to at least get something better than what you started but you get unlucky and run out of money or reagents before you get a good roll! To mitigate this, when we present you the list of options one of the options is ALWAYS the original property. So if you don't like the new options you can always choose to keep the old one. Now you can enchant with peace-of-mind.
Standard disclaimer. Enchanting is a work-in-progress.