How to make everyone happy with lab enchants

I already made a post on reddit but i'm putting it here too for visibility.

The issue with uberlab enchants is that the pool is huge and getting bigger league after league. You'd have to be really lucky to get the one you want, you can't really grind toward it and each league it gets worse. However, allowing players to get easy access to the enchant they want would spoil them, screw up the economy built around it and would just destroy the felling you get when you get a lucky/valuable enchant.

In a game like Path of Exhile there's multiple ways to bring happiness to the player. Through RNG, making him feel lucky. Or by overcoming difficulty through dedication, skill and investment ; giving him a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Currently, Lab enchant is mostly the first one so if there is a way to get the second as well without damaging the first one then we'd be stupid to not share the happiness among the players.

Here's the suggestion I came up with after reading multiple posts regarding the subject :
Through the lab, the player needs to find the darkshrine that allows him to use the divine font for two lab enchants.
He needs to buff Izaro during the first and second encounter.
He then get the choice to either use the two enchant at the divine font or to have only one enchant but to lock the pool around only one skill.
To do so, he needs to place a lvl 20 uncorrupted skill gem into the divine font (Altar of sacrifice like).
If he does so, upon utilization on a helmet, there is
25% chance that nothing happens (he gets the helmet and the gem back)
25% chance that the helmet is destroyed
25% chance that the gem is destroyed
25% chance that he gets one of the enchant related to the skill he inserted (equally weighted ?), gem is consumed

It's a big grind to get the enchant you want and I find it GGG like.
You need a bit of skill to do the lab and buff Izaro.
There's multiple layers of RNG (find the needed darkshrine, 25% to enchant, then get the one you want from the pool).
You need to invest time to lvl gems to 20, find the darkshrine in the lab, do multiple labs until you get what you want.
You need to sacrifice currency to buy lvl 20 gems and helmets because you're gonna destroy a few of them.

It offers an alternative, will shape the economy but will not destroy it.
Here's why:
This would "push up the price of meta helmets and push down the price of meta enchants. People willing to grind would see their meta enchantments a lot faster, but in exchange popular individual helmets like stark or devoto's would see huge upspikes in price." Meta enchants on meta helmets would still be priced roughly the same. You can't afford to do it on rare/expensive bases because you risk to destroy them.

This would otherwise make for a good T3 incursion room but I think lab enchants should be gated behind doing the lab.

Edit: Gem used needs to be uncorrupted for economical and RP reasons ; it's a divine font after all.
Edit: Addressing recurring concerns in the post:
Players like RNG, players dislike RNG walls. People trade to avoid those walls and to profit from them. If your needs don't fit the market then you're left with them.
What I suggest doesn't break the market but allow you to break through walls with time and investment, by yourself.

Common concerns:
This doesn't give an easy enough access to enchants
Well, I'm sorry but those enchants are powerful. You won't get your 12 ex enchant for free and a headhunter on the side. You have to play to make your character more powerful. If you could have everything you want without a cost there'd be no point in playing.

This would give a too easy access to lab enchants
Well, I appreciate your concern ; I spent a lot of time to think about a way for it to not be the case, please give me some of your trust. Here's why it's not the case (warning math ahead) :

Most skills have 3 different uber lab enchants available. ->If my suggestion was implemented with equal weights<-, you'd need on average 3 successful attempts to end with the enchant you want. Since you have 25% chance to enchant the helm, you need to make 12 attempts, with darkshrines availability, we're talking ~30 uber lab runs.
That means that on average, you need to have 4 bases because 3 end up destroyed and 6 level 20 uncorrupted gems.
Since there is a new sink for lvl 20 uncorrupted gems bigger than the use of vaal orbs, their price would go up (especially meta ones). We're talking 10~20 chaos per gems. In total, that's roughly 1~1.4 ex worth of gems. That's exactly the price of meta enchants on random bases. Therefor you don't make any profit by using this method on random bases.
If we're talking about meta helmets then there's an even bigger sink. People would be destroying them with the divine font from the beginning to the end of the league for a lot of different skills. Price of enchants wouldn't decrease but price of bases would go up by a lot. We're talking around 2 ex for a starkonja. The total cost would end up being 9~10 ex. A bit less than the price currently on the market but those are good rolled starkonja. You'd end up with a little to no profit and i think that's fine. Price could decrease to around 10 ex for a meta enchant on a meta helmet if I over-estimate the price increase of bases, but it would definitely not go lower.
There would still be players buying them to save time or because you'd need a lot of currency in your tab to be sure that you won't get screwed by bad luck.


I won't use this method on my mirror worthy item
Well yeah, I wouldn't either but maybe we shouldn't give away godhood for a low investment. You might want to enchant your item before you craft it.
Don't use it on your alt art Alpha's Howl either.

There would be no point in using the random chance from the divine font
If you didn't find the darkshrine then you use your random chance.
You cannot or failed empower Izaro during the two first encounter ? Random enchant for you.
Navali gave you a prophecy ? Enjoy your extra random enchant.
You don't want to risk to break you valuable item ? Random enchant.
You can't afford to buy/find multiple bases ? Random enchant.
You want to maximize profit ? You might want to use two random enchant instead of an empowered one.

Common counter proposition :
Make lab enchants a tradable currency, you use it on items to get a random enchant
This would just decrease the variance of profit between runs of an uber lab runner, if he choose to sell this enchant currency. Thus giving the gambling part to the buyer.
You'd end up with exactly the same thing on the market. What's then the purpose of such a change ?
You're not addressing any concerns around lab enchants.

Not sure i like your suggestion. 3 out of 4 options are punishing the player. Is it really needed?

Like with altar of sacrifice, only 2 punish the player and here, one is a lesser evil.
It is needed. Otherwise it wouldn't be balanced ; there needs to be a trade-off.
This gives you the choice to either do it or not, otherwise it would be a no-brainer.

I generally dislike any idea focused on punishing player for playing the game. Of course some players like random punishments, so I can't say if PoE community actually likes the idea of item being randomly destroyed.

No head enchant for top tier builds is like 50-100 % more DPS they should be hard to get.

Head enchants give you A LOT of power and I do mean a lot I think they should remain rare. I really personally don't think they need any changing.

"

vmt80 wrote:

I generally dislike any idea focused on punishing player for playing the game. Of course some players like random punishments, so I can't say if PoE community actually likes the idea of item being randomly destroyed.

How can that be punishing ? The player is the one making the choice. It's gambling. Is it punishing when you spend an exalt and you don't get the roll you hoped for ? No, it's gambling.
It's all about creating risk and reward. There can't be great rewards without great risk. If you stick to it you'll be rewarded. If it's cheaper to buy the enchant than finding it yourself it's perfectly fine.

"

I_NO wrote:

Head enchants give you A LOT of power and I do mean a lot I think they should remain rare. I really personally don't think they need any changing.

Since good bases would increase in price, I think that while making enchants more accessible to individuals, the cost of them on the market would stay the same. Enchants especially on good rolled uniques could actually increase in price.
I concede that they give you a lot of power, that's why it may still be needed to keep them weighted with such an addition to the lab. However, even on bad bases, the cost to get them and the time needed to get them is such that, with current price, you'd better off buying them on the market.

Disagree. It's unfair for yellow helmets users. Most of my char use yellow helmets. This opinion didn't give any benefits to me.

My suggestion is simple. Just let enchanting orbs can be traded. And adjust chances for all enchantments.

Powerful enchantments have lower chances to be acquired.