M19 Enchantments
Enchantments are a very big investment for only a couple of thousands of stat points each. Rank 8-9 enchantments are cheap and usually good enough. Upgrading these is not a priority. You should focus on everything else first (especially bonding runestones).
You can have (with a total of 18 enchantments in Offense, Defense, and Utility) :
- 5-9 Offense enchantments
- 4-8 Defense enchantments
- 5-6 Utility enchantments
- 2 Overload enchantments
- 1 Weapon enchantment
- 1 Armor enchantment
Also look at : How to upgrade enchantments (also works for Runestones) ?
Offense Enchantments
Here is the list of all the enchantments you can put into Offense slots, and their effect at rank 9 / 15.
Single stat :
- Radiant : 1080 / 2400 Power
- Dark : 1080 / 2400 Armor Penetration
- Azure : 1080 / 2400 Critical Strike
- Silvery : 1080 / 2400 Accuracy
- Tactical : 1080 / 2400 Combat Advantage
Double stats :
- Vicious : 600 / 1320 Power and Armor Penetration
- Brutal : 600 / 1320 Power and Critical Strike
- Cruel : 600 / 1320 Power and Accuracy
- Savage : 600 / 1320 Critical Strike and Armor Penetration
- Ruthless : 600 / 1320 Critical Strike and Accuracy
- Wicked : 600 / 1320 Armor Penetration and Accuracy
Triple stats :
- Black Ice : 640 / 1440 Power + 320 / 720 Critical Strike and Accuracy
- Draconic : 640 / 1440 Armor Penetration + 320 / 720 Power and Accuracy
- Demonic : 640 / 1440 Armor Penetration + 320 / 720 Power and Critical Strike
- Gigantic : 640 / 1440 Critical Strike + 320 / 720 Armor Penetration and Accuracy
- Assassin's : 640 / 1440 Combat Advantage + 320 / 720 Critical Strike and Accuracy
Damage :
- Tenebrous : 2% / 8% chance to deal 2% / 8% of your current Hit Points as damage, up to a maximum of 12k / 24k (at 600k / 300k HP), more enchantments improve the chance, not the damage (which depends on your highest Tenebrous enchantment)
Triple stats enchantments actually give more points than double stats or single stat enchantments (enchantments are the best way, with boons, to balance your stats once you've reached very end game, because of this... though the most expensive). While it is crucial to cap your offensive stats, eventually everyone wants Power. Radiants are the only enchantments that really matter for a Healer. Tanks and Damage Dealers will mostly use Radiants too, once they have their stats capped. Damage Dealers who have a high attack speed (Barbarians, Rogues...) can deal good damage with a single high level Tenebrous enchantment.
Defense Enchantments
Here is the list of all the enchantments you can put into Defense slots, and their effect at rank 9 / 15.
Single stat :
- Radiant : 4320 / 9600 HP
- Azure : 1080 / 2400 Defense
- Dark : 1080 / 2400 Critical Avoidance
- Silvery : 1080 / 2400 Deflection
- Tactical : 1080 / 2400 Awareness
Double stats :
- Brutal : 2400 / 5280 HP and 1320 Defense
- Savage : 2400 / 5280 HP and 1320 Critical Avoidance
- Wicked : 2400 / 5280 HP and 1320 Deflection
- Ruthless : 600 / 1320 Defense and Critical Avoidance
- Cruel : 600 / 1320 Defense and Deflection
- Vicious : 600 / 1320 Deflection and Critical Avoidance
Triple stats :
- Draconic : 2560 / 5760 HP + 320 / 720 Defense and Critical Avoidance
- Demonic : 2560 / 5760 HP + 320 / 720 Deflection and Critical Avoidance
- Black Ice : 640 / 1440 Defense + 320 / 720 Deflection and Critical Avoidance
- Gigantic : 640 / 1440 Deflection + 1280 / 2880 HP + 320 / 720 Defense
- Assassin's : 640 / 1440 Awareness + 320 / 720 Deflection and Critical Avoidance
Capping Defense is very important for everyone. Then, more HP means you can survive bigger hits. Healers and Damage Dealers may need one or two Azure or Brutal Enchantments to cap their Defense, but everything else should be Radiants, for the HP. Healers need their Critical Avoidance capped for ToMM, but this can easily be done with a 12k companion gear piece. Tanks can make good use of any enchantment (except Assassins' and Tacticals), as long as they help cap their stats.
Utility Enchantments
Here is the list of all the enchantments you can put into Utility slots, and their effect at rank 9 / 15.
Single stat :
- Tactical : 0.9% / 2% Incoming Healing
- Dark : 2.7% / 6% Companion Influence
- Azure : 36% / 118% XP Bonus
- Radiant : 27% / 60% Gold Bonus
- Silvery : 27% / 60% Glory Bonus
Double stats :
- Wicked : 0.5% / 1.1% Incoming Healing and 15% / 33% Gold Bonus
- Cruel : 0.5% / 1.1% Incoming Healing and 15% / 33% Glory Bonus
- Brutal : 20% / 65% XP Bonus and 1.5% / 3.3% Companion Influence
- Savage : 20% / 65% XP Bonus and 15% / 33% Gold Bonus
- Vicious : 20% / 65% XP Bonus and 15% / 33% Glory Bonus
- Ruthless : 15% / 33% Glory Bonus and 15% / 33% Gold Bonus
Refinement :
- Quartermaster's : 2% / 5% chance after killing a foe to find a bag of goods (refinement, campaign currency, enchantments up to rank 7)
- Dragon's Hoard : 4.5% / 7.5% chance after killing a foe to find a gemstone (refinement)
- Fey Blessing : 4.5% / 7.5% chance after killing a foe to spawn a Will o' the Wisp to find an enchantment
- Tymora's Lucky Coin : 4.5% / 7.5% chance after killing a foe to find a hidden pouch (gold, potions, refinement, items)
If you are going to dungeons, there are 2 options : Tacticals (especially if you are a Tank, but useful for anyone), or Dark enchantments. Dark enchantments provide about 375 points to all stats + 1350 HP, if you have a legendary augment companion and 3 rank 15 bonding runestones (about 500 to all stats but no HP with a non augment companion). They are good to cap your stats. If you manage to perfectly balance your stats with them, they can be a non negligeable source of Power... But that's not easy to manage and if the result is you only overcap your stats, then they are only useful to your companion (if you use a non augment one). I prefer the Tactical enchantments, as they are always useful and also work with self healing powers / insignia bonuses.
If you are playing solo, refinement enchantments are great ! The chance stacks up when you have multiple enchantments. People say the best one to get is the Quatermaster's one. The bags stack up to 999, and you'll get double refinement items from them if you open them during a Double Refinement event ! Make sure you equip enough Quartermaster enchantments, when you open the bags, for your chance to be at 10.5% or more (11% if you use 6 utility slots for your Quatermasters. You can get a 6th slot from Makos Signet, a ring obtained in the Storm King Thunder campaign), so that the enchantments you get are at least rank 6. Dragon's Hoard and Fey Blessing are also very nice to have to get some refinement points. Apparently, there's a limit to how many items you can get from refinement enchantments every day, so having different ones can yield better results than having only Quatermasters enchantments. Getting some of them at rank 9 early on is a very good idea to be able to upgrade your weapons and artifacts. Upgrading them to higher ranks may not be very worth it though.
Overload Enchantments
Overload enchantments have an expiration date. You can only use them for 1 to 10 hours of combat (depending on the enchantment). Two of the same overload enchantments do not stack, so use different ones. The fact they are pretty small boosts and they don’t last long doesn’t make them good investments in my opinion (of course, for end game trials, any little thing helps).
Dragon Glyphs Enchantments (obtained in dungeons and events related to the Tyranny of Dragons campaign), Lesser ones last for 1H of combat, while Greater ones last for 2H :
- Lesser / Greater White Dragon Glyph : when dealing damage or healing your allies, 25% chance to gain 400 / 800 Power and 7% / 10% Outgoing Healing for 20s. Can only trigger once every 60s.
- Lesser / Greater Blue Dragon Glyph : when dealing or taking damage, 25% chance to gain 400 / 800 Defense and dealing 400 / 600 damage to targets who hit you for 20s. Can only trigger once every 60s.
- Lesser / Greater Red Dragon Glyph : when dealing damage, 25% chance to gain 400 / 800 Armor Penetration and dealing additionnal 400 / 600 damage for 20s. Can only trigger once every 60s.
- Lesser / Greater Green Dragon Glyph : when dealing or taking damage, 25% chance to gain 400 / 800 Deflect and dealing 200 / 300 damage to targets around you (30' range) every 2s, for 20s, + 2000 / 3000 damage when the effect ends. Can only trigger once every 60s.
- Lesser / Greater Black Dragon Glyph : when dealing damage, 25% chance to gain 400 / 800 Critical Strike and dealing additionnal 600 / 900 damage over 6s (stacks 3 times) for 20s. Can only trigger once every 60s.
Black Ice Enchantments (from the Caer-Konig forge in Icewind Dale). These last for 8H of combat :
- Lesser / Greater Purified Black Ice : when taking damage, 25% chance to gain 300 / 800 Defense and 2000 / 5500 HP for 8s. Can only trigger once every 70s.
- Lesser / Greater Purified Restoration : when taking damage, 25% chance to gain 300 / 800 Critical Avoidance and 2000 / 5500 HP for 8s. Can only trigger once every 70s.
- Lesser / Greater Purified Tempered : when taking damage, 25% chance to gain 300 / 800 Deflect and 2000 / 5500 HP for 8s. Can only trigger once every 70s.
- Lesser / Greater Corrup Black Ice : when dealing damage, 25% chance to gain 300 / 800 Power and 0.5% / 1.25% AP per second for 8s. Can only trigger once every 70s.
- Lesser / Greater Corrupt Piercing : when dealing damage, 25% chance to gain 300 / 800 Armor Penetration and 0.5% / 1.25% AP per second for 8s. Can only trigger once every 70s.
- Lesser / Greater Corrup Lethal : when dealing damage, 25% chance to gain 300 / 800 Critical Strike and 0.5% / 1.25% AP per second for 8s. Can only trigger once every 70s.
Stronghold Enchantments (from the Gemmonger in the Stronghold). These last for 2H of combat :
- Mark of the Giant / Troll / Dragon / Demon / Elemental / Fey / Lycanthrope / Orc / Thayan / Undead Slayer, rank 1 / 2 : powers deal 5% / 10% more damage against the specific type of ennemies.
- Mark of the Giant / Troll / Dragon / Demon / Elemental / Fey / Lycanthrope / Orc / Thayan / Undead Ward, rank 1 / 2 : ennemies of the specific type who hit you deal 5% / 10% less damage for 10s. Allies healed by your spells can also trigger the effect for 10s on monsters when the monsters hit them.
- Companion's Mark of the Giant / Troll / Dragon / Demon / Elemental / Fey / Lycanthrope / Orc / Thayan / Undead Slayer, rank 1 / 2 : companions deal 25% / 50% more damage against the specific type of ennemies.
- Companion's Mark of the Giant / Troll / Dragon / Demon / Elemental / Fey / Lycanthrope / Orc / Thayan / Undead Ward, rank 1 / 2 : ennemies of the specific type who hit your companion deal 5% / 10% less damage for 10s. Allies healed by your companion can also trigger the effect for 10s on monsters when the monsters hit them.
PvP Enchantments (also from the Gemmonger in the Stronghold). These last for 2H of combat :
- Mark of the Cleric / Fighter / Guardian / Paladin / Ranger / Rogue / Warlock / Wizard Slayer, rank 1 / 2 : powers deal 5% / 10% more damage against the specific class of ennemies.
- Mark of AP Drain, rank 1 / 2 : your daily powers drain 10% / 20% of an ennemy player's Action Points.
- Mark of Stamina Drain, rank 1 / 2 : your powers drain 2% / 4% of an ennemy player's Stamina.
- Mark of the Cleric / Fighter / Guardian / Paladin / Ranger / Rogue / Warlock / Wizard Ward, rank 1 / 2 : ennemies of the specific type who hit you deal 5% / 10% less damage for 10s. Allies healed by your spells can also trigger the effect for 10s on monsters when the monsters hit them.
- Mark of AP Ward, rank 1 / 2 : protects you against the Mark of AP Drain (half the effect if you use a rank 1 and your opponent has a rank 2).
- Mark of Stamina Ward, rank 1 / 2 : protects you against the Mark of Stamina Drain (half the effect if you use a rank 1 and your opponent has a rank 2).
- Companion's Mark of the Cleric / Fighter / Guardian / Paladin / Ranger / Rogue / Warlock / Wizard Slayer, rank 1 / 2 : companions deal 25% / 50% more damage against the specific class of ennemy players.
- Companion's Mark of the Cleric / Fighter / Guardian / Paladin / Ranger / Rogue / Warlock / Wizard Ward, rank 1 / 2 : ennemy players of the specific class who hit your companion deal 5% / 10% less damage for 10s. Allies healed by your companion can also trigger the effect for 10s on players when the players hit them.
Event Enchantments (can be bought during specific events, but pretty expensive for temporary items). These last for 10H :
- Rage of Flames : +5% Physical Damage.
- Devil's Precision : +5% Critical Strike and Accuracy.
- Resiliency of the Depths : +5% Physical Damage Reduction.
- Demonic Empowerment : +5% Action Points gain.
- Bulwark of Brimstone : +5% Maximum Hit Points.
- Unholy Protection : +5% Critical Avoidance and Deflection.
The best overload enchantments for a Tank are the Greater Purified Black Ice and Greater Corrup Black Ice enchantments. Marks of the "Type" Ward are also very potent, but too specific and do not work on the current high end trial bosses. If you are going to buy event enchantments, the Resiliency of the Depths one is the best.
The best overload enchantments for a Healer are the Lesser and Greater White Dragon Glyphs. Nothing else is half as good.
The best overload enchantments for a Damage Dealer are the Greater Red Dragon Glyph and Greater Corrup Black Ice enchantments. Marks of the "Type" Slayer are also very potent, but too specific and do not work on the current high end trial bosses. If you are going to buy event enchantments, the Rage of Flames one is the best for physical damage dealers.
Armor Enchantments
Survivability :
- Soulforged : when your hit points reach 0, you resurrect, get 7500 HP + 2500 every second for 3s, you are immune to controls for 3s, and deal 40% weapon damage to foes around you. This can only happen once every 75s.
- Barkshield : every 6 seconds you gain a charge, up to 4 charges. Every time you get hit and you have charges, the damage is reduced by 12k/24k/36k/48k, depending on how many charges you have, and you lose a charge.
- Elven Battle : slows, immobilizes, disables, and stuns, have their duration reduced by 85% on you. Your stamina regeneration is also improved by 40%.
- Bloodtheft : 10% chance, upon dealing damage, to heal yourself for 50% of the damage, can only heal once every 3s.
- Negation : once per second, when you receive damage, get 1.6% damage reduction for 3s (stacks 10 times, time is refreshed with each new stack, up to 16% damage reduction). When you reach 10 stacks, after 3s, the stacks are removed and you are healed for 5% of your maximum HP.
- Shadowclad : when you receive damage, improves your Deflection rating by 18%, and your damage resistance by 4%, for 8s. Can stack 8 times, but stacks are removed when you deflect. When you deflect an attack with 8 stacks, foes around you ared dazed for 2s, and you become stealthed for 4s. This can only occur once every 30s.
- Eclipse : increases Deflection by 3000. When your stamine drops below 20%, it is refiled ans no longer depletes for 3s. This can only occur once every minute.
Damage :
- Briartwine : you reflect 5% of the damage dealt to you and have a 9% chance, when struck, to root your attacker for 2s. This can only occur once every 10s.
- Fireburst : when you receive damage, once every 15s, releases a fireball to your attacker and up to 5 foes around them (15' range), for 100 magnitude damage. When you receive a critical hit, your damage resistance is increased by 5% for 5s, and once every 10s, when you get hit during this time, releases a second fireball that deal 75 magnitude damage to up to 6 targets (20' range) around your attacker.
- Loamweave : 10% chance to deal magnitude 75 damage to your attacker, and root them for 3s (1s for players), when you receive damage. Can only occur once every 5s.
- Thunderhead : 10% chance to deal 150 magnitude damage to enemies around you, when you receive damage. This can only occur once every 10s.
Control :
- Frostburn : 10.5% chance, when you receive damage, to slow your attacker by 30% and to reduce their critical strike by 3000, for 5s. Can only occur once every 5s.
For real, there’s no better enchantment than a low level Soulforged enchantment to start with. It will save you very often, from very bad situations. Bigby’s hand, permafrost… Your team didn’t help you, or you were somewhere you shouldn’t have been ? You resurrect. No need for a scroll. And rank 7 is as good as rank 14, no need to upgrade it. I absolutely love this enchantment. The only drawback is that sometimes you suffer from multiple stacks of Resurrection Disease and you cannot choose when you will get revived. So, it's fantastic everywhere, except in high end trials.
Tanks are best with the Elven Battle enchantment, for stamina regeneration equals damage you can block, or extra HP as a Barbarian. Damage Dealers and Healers are best with the Barkshield enchantment to block damage if they are hit less often than once every 6 seconds (usually what happens in very end game content if you're playing well enough). If they are hit more often than once every 8 seconds, the Shadowclad enchantment is pretty good. Alternatively, the Bloodtheft enchantment is great on Damage Dealers for self healing. And the Soulforged enchantment is still awesome in most content.
Damage enchantments are only good for solo (or small monsters in dungeons). If you can survive well enough, it can be an option to farm stuff faster, but it's not a necessity.
Weapon Enchantments
Debuffs :
- Bronzewood : you powers deal 5% more damage and targets are marked and take 10% more damage and lose 3000 Deflection for the next 10s. Targets can only be marked every 20s.
- Feytouched : your powers deal 5% more damage and daily powers decrease target damage dealt by 10% and reduce their Deflection by 3000 for 10s. This can only happen every 30s.
Healing :
- Prominence : your powers deal 5% more damage and generate a 20 magnitude shield which stacks 20 times and lasts 10s. When it reaches the maximum, stacks are converted to Prominent. Then, you deal 30 magnitude damage to enemies around you every 3s, for 12s (40' range), but you cannot gain new stacks until the effect ends.
- Holy Avenger : your powers deal 5% more damage and have a 10% change to improve your allies' Defense by 15k and heal them for 50 magnitude every second for 10s. This effect can only occur once every 15s.
- Lifedrinker : your powers deal 5% more damage and give you a 5% chance to steal life from your targets. Furthermore, there's a 5% chance to double your lifesteal chance for 10s. This can only happen once every 20s.
Damage :
- Vorpal : your powers deal 5% more damage and their Critical Severity is increased by 20% (not written on character sheet). When you use a Daily Power, your Critical Strike is improved by 3000 for 10s.
- Bilethorn : your powers deal 5% more damage and enemies take 40 magnitude damage after 4s. Furthermore, enemies have their movement speed reduced by 7%, stackable 3 times (up to 21%, lasts for 3s).
- Lightning : your powers deal 5% more damage and there's a 50% chance that up to 3 foes around the target take 50 magnitude damage.
- Dread : your powers deal 5% more damage and targets take 10 magnitude damage every second for 4s, and have their defense reduced by 3000.
- Plague Fire : your powers deal 5% more damage and targets are affected by a damage over time which deals 2.5 magnitude damage every 1s for 3s, and they have their Critical Avoidance reduced by 1000, both effects stack 3 times. If a target is affected by 3 stacks, an explosion occurs, which deals 150 magnitude damage around the target. The explosion can only occur once every 20s.
- Flaming : your powers deal 5% more damage and targets are affected by a damage over time which deals 2.5 magnitude damage every 1s for 3s, and they have their Critical Avoidance reduced by 1000, both effects stack 3 times. If a target is affected by 3 stacks, an explosion occurs, which deals 75 magnitude damage around the target. The explosion can only occur once every 20s.
Control :
- Frost : your powers deal 5% more damage and targets receive a 30% slow and a 15% recharge speed reduction for 7.5s. Targets can only be affected once every 7.5s.
- Terror : your powers deal 5% more damage and your Daily Powers reduce your foes Awareness by 3000, and have a 12% chance to root your target for 3s. This effect can only occur once every 20s.
Tanks are best with a Bronzewood enchantment (it doesn't stack, so no need to have many of them in the group). Healers are best with the Vorpal enchantment, as critical severity also improves healing (though not as well as it did pre-mod 19). Another alternative is the Holy Avenger enchantment, only drawback being the cooldown. Damage Dealers are best either with the Vorpal enchantment (if their damage mostly comes from encounter powers, like Clerics or Wizards), or Bilethorn enchantment (if they hit fast with their at-wills, like Barbarians or Rogues). The Dread enchantment is an alternative to start with if your Armor Penetration is not fully capped, or most of your damage comes from a non augment companion (like the Chicken or Xuna, which are the only ones that really deal damage). The Lifedrinker or Prominence enchantments are good if you lack survivability in solo content.
How to upgrade enchantments ?
Wards
There are many ways to get wards :
- Free wards during events like the Summer or Winter Festival
- Free coalescent wards from Coffer of the Celestial Artifacts (invocation rewards, about 1 chance out of 30, so about 1 a year per character if you only invoke your god once a day on each of them)
- 100 Zen / 10 wards (never buy them at full price, wait for a sale or a 25% coupon from invoking your god)
- 1000 Zen / Coalescent ward (not worth it, unless there's a 50% sale on them, usually only for VIPs, : on average you need 77 regular wards to upgrade something with a 1% chance of success)
I advise buying character slots and invoking your god once a day on each of your characters for free Coalescent wards. These will be useful for upgrading your bonding runestones to rank 15, then your weapon enchantment and all of your enchantments.
Never use a coalescent ward for anything but a 1% chance of success. And never buy Coalescent wards, even for a 1% chance of success : regular wards are more cost efficient on the long run. There’s a 36% chance you will use more than 100 wards on a single upgrade, 9% chance you will use more than 1000 wards on 10 upgrades, 1% chance you will use more than 3000 wards on 30 upgrades (maths there). Unless you are very unlucky, buying regular wards will save you about 23% of the cost on the long run. Of course, if you have a Coalescent Ward, use it. Here is the table for the details and average number of wards required for any upgrade.
You can also have plenty of wards from events like the Summer / Winter Festivals, get the rewards with all of your characters !
Always use a ward when upgrading anything that requires rank 4 or higher marks of potency, or rank 5 or higher enchanting stones. Wards are cheaper than the materials you would lose if you failed (you never lose the item, only the materials to upgrade it).
Enchanting Stones
You can get plenty of enchanting stones from the Dread Ring campaign. Farm the campaign and exchange currency to get keys for the lairs. When a Double Refinement event comes, farm the Phantasmal Fortress (eastern lair) on a Thurday, Saturday, or Sunday (you only get enchanting stones on these days in this lair, and it’s the fastest lair to run. Other lairs loot enchanting stones on other days). Make sure to start after the time the events start, not at the daily reset (event reset is about 8h after daily reset). Dread Ring days are reset at the same time events are, so if you come on Saturday before the time events reset, you won’t get enchanting stones. You can get enchanting stones up to rank 5 with this method.
Enchanting stones rank 6 are found in higher end dungeons (T9G, CR, LoMM, CoDG, ToMM…). You can get them in both chests, and they are doubled during Double Refinement events. Cradle of the Death God (CoDG) is often run during this event : it can be done in less than 15 minutes with a proper group, but the mechanics are a bit hard to get. Just run whatever dungeon you like the most that drop them. You will eventually get plenty. Reroll tokens from VIP are great to use in these dungeons to get more of them.
You can also get them from time to time from lootboxes (you get a daily key with VIP).
Marks of Potency
Marks of Potency can be bought in the Wondrous Bazaar with Astral Diamonds. They are pretty expensive but VIP 12 reduces their price by 25%. Their price is reduced by 15% more (for a total 40% reduction) during Wondrous Bazaar sale events.
You can also get them from Sybella in Protector’s Enclave by completing her quests (and advancing Legacy Campaigns faster).
You can also get up to rank 5 Marks of Potency from the Gauntlet in the Dread Ring campaign.
And you can get them from time to time from lootboxes (you get a daily key with VIP).
DO NOT sell and buy the next upgrade !
You are only getting 90% of whatever you sell in the auction house. 10% go to fees. If you want to buy from the auction house, buy the highest rank you can afford, then upgrade them to the maximum rank yourself. You can sell rank 9 enchantments, but higher ranks cost a lot of auction house fees.