Love it or hate it, a crafting system exists in POE.  I'm starting this poll mainly to find out how everyone (those that still cruise the polls anyway) feels about it going forward into POE2.  Granted, POE2 hasn't been announced, but eventually it will based on the success of POE.

 

Having wandered these forums the past couple months, it seems that several of you, or at least the most vocal, seem to dislike the crafting system in POE.  That's fine.  We all have our playing styles and preferences, so all I ask is, that regardless of your opinion, we keep this poll/discussion civil.  I'd really like to know why you love it, or why you hate it, or if you don't care one way or another.  I've tried to include as many options as I could think of.

 

 

My opinions:

 

I love crafting in rpgs.  I've probably spent hundreds of hours in Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, and Dragon Age Inquisition just crafting.  I understand that these are different types of rpgs, especially Skyrim and FONV, where crafting is almost essential to a characters success.  I also like it in POE, though I can't say that I actually love it.  I will support/buy/play POE2 whether it has crafting or not.

 

Why don't I love it in POE?  If I've gathered plants, creature parts, and rocks/gems, I shouldn't have to spend gold to modify weapons/armor, or to create a scroll or potion.  Scrolls and potions I've found have limited use, and I didn't find them nearly as critical as I did in say BG1 & 2, so I very seldom waste my resources on creating them.  Food creating I found useful in my early levels, but less so later on.  Modifying weapons/armor I liked, but since certain resources are rare, I found myself hording those resources to only modify unique weapons armor.  After my first few levels I never bothered modifying mundane or even fine items.  I liked being able to tweak a unique piece to be more useful my character or someone in my party.  Then again, should a unique be truly unique and therefore unchangeable?  I'm still on the fence about that question.

 

So I'd like to see crafting exist in POE2, but I feel the current system needs modified.  But that takes developer time, time that could be spent on other areas, like party AI.  So if I had a choice between crafting and more interaction within my party, such as further fleshed out companion quests, I would take the latter.  But I'd really like both, greedy bastard that I am.

 

I've put this in the spoilers section because your comments or mine may eventually include a spoiler.  But I'm really interested on how players really feel about crafting going forward.

I'd like more enchantments to apply at the very least. Variety isn't exactly a strong point currently.

^ But that would make unique items a lot more mundane. A weapon with the Speed enchantment wouldn't be half as special if I could bestow Speed on any weapon I found (for example.)

Personally hate crafting most of the time, and pretty much in all those games you mentioned. Stuff like DA:I and NWN 2, crafting completely removes the concept of loot as a reward mechanism for fights/quests/exploration/money. I mean, sure, you can still have a crafting system on the level of those games and not ruin those aspects of the game, I've just not seen one implemented yet that does so.

 

Not that I hate a crafting system, always nice to have more facets to a game. It just seems hard for devs to balance it between A. useless and easily ignored  and B. completely takes over the game, sucking the life out of other facets.

 

So, I like crafting, but want it implemented in a way that doesn't kill over other aspects of the game. As for the crafting in this game, it's alright, but so little choice it hardly feels like 'crafting'. Basically just choose what color you want a weapon to glow, and lets you upgrade old weapons to hang with new ones, if the old one had a decent enchantment on it, that is.

Crafting is awesome in most RPGs!

I tend to like the ability to craft everything as well. (Such as finding sinew and leather strips and other magickal components and crafting a new set of armor)

My most recent experience with a crafting system I liked was in Divinity Original Sin (I used a crafting extension mod however)

It still lacked a lot of options even though it still had a great many.  (I could craft lockpicks from nails)

 

In PoE the crafting system feels gutted and it shows.  It is more or less like certain things just commented out or the code removed to make it less robust.

As I understand it early on the crafting system allowed for all or almost all abilities to be added to weapons/armor and that made it to good so they gutted it.

Now I feel we have a system that just feels gutted instead of a refinement.  The fact we can not overwrite enchantments is ridiculous.  And the obvious forced block of the gold sink when crafting is also blah.  Who am I paying to craft?  Does my magic weapon now have gold smelted into it? It is an obvious design obstruction but that could of been done by refining drop rates and availability of items.  As it is the drop rate on PoTD is so obscene its like I am the largest walking curio and alchemist shop in the world.

 

How could it be fixed?

 

Food:

Make food useful.  I know it is somewhat useful in getting dialog options but that is about it.  Eating should be part of the game and its skill counterpart should be actually useful beyond a few scripted interactions and dialogs.  There should be a food slot and food should buff continuously and if the character does not have food they run out of endurance faster and gain penalties.  In addition survival enhances these buffs and how long food lasts.  There is no urgency to the current system or necessity.  It is more of a novelty than a integrated system.

 

Scrolls/Potions:

No more gold costs.  Necessary usage of either crafting kits or visiting crafting stations.  Standing in the middle of a dungeon throwing gold in the air while smashing a few components together to all of a sudden have a scroll in hand is just so immersion breaking and illogical.  In addition reduce drop rates by a huge amount and in this case I seriously mean a huge amount.  I do not want 200 xaurip tongues.  Or if they are going to keep the drop rate add in a refinement or distillation process that could fail or succeed.  Adding multiple steps and adding a fail/succeed mechanic would also alleviate the need to put in this arbitrary gold aspect that as far as I can tell is simply a method to somewhat balance the tons of drops.  Scrolls and potion crafting should take time and effort as well as be more rare.  As it is now on PoTD entering Twin Elms I could make all my characters nonstop high end potions and scrolls with my 200k gold and they could perma stun maelstorm and godmode all battles.  It feels like cheating and it makes me ignore the entire system.

 

Weapon/Armor upgrades

This is where the most complaining occurs.  Some say being able to even enchant as we do now breaks the feeling of being rewarding for finding magickal items.  I do not agree myself.  If your going to have enchant system than do it right.  Again we should visit an anvil or a forge.  There should be a distillation/refinement process with a fail/succeed mechanic. In addition all properties should be available for enchanting.  For the rare and higher end recipes well they could be found or quested for.  With the amount of drops as they are I see absolutely no reason to not allow all enchant properties to be accessible.  If I want my Stiletto to have certain properties because it fits my character I want to be able to enchant it that way.  Perhaps another way of gaining recipes is by cannibalizing the weapon or armor.  We all have our favorite armor for cosmetic reasons but I end up trading out an awesome Star Robe for a crap leather look because it has more functional properties.  Again the gold aspect need be removed.  And as for those who do not want enchanting because they feel it trivializes their finding items if the system itself is robust enough it balances out just fine.  If I have to go to a forge put multiple items together and distill/refine them and potentially fail at that and then apply it to a weapon/armor than both systems of finding ready made uniques and crafting them can stand strong on their own and do not have the problems we have now.

 

All in all if they are going to do a crafting system than at least make it robust.  The current system feels like a console hack where I just type addattribute or addproperty to the item because it has absolutely no time sink involved and no risk and components are absurdly abundant.

 

Food should be made globally useful and in so doing survival becomes a real skill choice.  All recipes should be found learned or quested for.  Having a list simply appear to me with all recipes is lame and trivializes the system.  Crafting stations or mobile cooking stations are needed.  Gold usage removed.

 

Potions and Scrolls need to be more rare and difficult to craft.  Item drops reduced or refinement/distilling process added.  Again stations are needed or mobile alchemy or scribe kits.  Gold usage removed.

 

Enchantments need all properties accessible.  Recipes found or quested for.  Gold removed.  Forge and Anvil needed (all static no mobile for this)  Refinement/distilling process.  Cannibalizing armor/weapons for ingredients or recipes.

^ But that would make unique items a lot more mundane. A weapon with the Speed enchantment wouldn't be half as special if I could bestow Speed on any weapon I found (for example.)

 

Not necessarily, if you can't add Speed enchantment manually. Unique weapons will get unique built-in enchantments, just as it is now. Or, say, some unique weapon can be enchanted with Speed, but most others and all non-uniques cannot.

 

There could be enchantments that are exclusive to player enchantment too.

More enchantment options would be nice. Also implementing more "artifacts"(that's what they try to do with soulbound) would be nice as well. I believe mostly the potions and food crafting need an overhaul since most potions apart from alacrity are lets face it... useless and while food bonuses are ok, keeping your entire party fed is a tedious and grindy task and last time I checked this game was not about grinding. What I mean by that is simple you have to drag 5x 6 = 30 times every 200-400 seconds food from inventory to the heroes portraits... seriously can't there be some kind of a special ui slot where you plan ahead what food you'll eat and then press just the button and voila... party eating 1 click every 200-400 sec? Personally I only use food vs the dragons and Theos.

The durgan enchantment they introduced is on the good direction with regards to weapons/armor. Come part 2 of the expansion and I hope we'll see even more new enchantments. Also(this is a bit of a rip off from good old dnd but) I really miss crafting wondrous items, staves, rods, wands, etc... common guys...

^ But that would make unique items a lot more mundane. A weapon with the Speed enchantment wouldn't be half as special if I could bestow Speed on any weapon I found (for example.)

 

I'd contend that things like a generic "speed" enchantment should not define unique items. Unique items should have genuinely unique abilities.

I usually hate crafting and find it meaningless in most games. Then I think about that statement, and realize this is mostly true in AAA games.

Overall, there are plenty of example of bad and good systems.

I think PoE did it quite perfectly. I wouldn't want it to be larger or more cumbersome than it is in PoE.

Just leave it as it is.

 

Or even better - make it the same as in BG2.

Edited October 20, 201510 yr by Messier-31

I like crafting systems, but it's definitely not a priority for me. Some games have great crafting (the Witcher franchise) others not so much.

I liked the BG2 system where you had to find pieces of epic weapons and bring them to a skilled blacksmith to craft those epic weapons.

 

In PoE, being able to craft certain enchantments on any weapon at any time, kinda devalues the "epic" named weapons which you can loot or buy.

Some named weapons already have the same kinds of enchantments which you could craft on them yourself, which makes them not epic at all.

Other named weapons have enchantments which are worse than the craftable one, which due to the strict enchantment limit actually makes them less epic than a plain unenchanted weapon of the same type.

Not an ideal situation IMO.

I liked the BG2 system where you had to find pieces of epic weapons and bring them to a skilled blacksmith to craft those epic weapons.

 

In PoE, being able to craft certain enchantments on any weapon at any time, kinda devalues the "epic" named weapons which you can loot or buy.

Some named weapons already have the same kinds of enchantments which you could craft on them yourself, which makes them not epic at all.

Other named weapons have enchantments which are worse than the craftable one, which due to the strict enchantment limit actually makes them less epic than a plain unenchanted weapon of the same type.

Not an ideal situation IMO.

 

I also liked the BG2 system.  That could have worked well instead of this kind of crafting system they have.  Of course in BG2 you did not have literally like 100+ weapons or some such thing.  I have so many weapons that have +speed or can stun or can knock prone that they are trivial now.  And this is outside the crafting system.  I think there is just too much stuff in general.  I like the lore of weaponry but with the restriction system we have and the enchant system the weapons just become a cosmetic dress up character thing.  I definitely am not feeling like I am carrying an awesome sword when I find another weapon in like every 5th chest or in almost every boos fight.  Crafting everything with limited resources and seriously limiting drops altogether could bring some epicness back imo.  Enchants or no enchants the feeling of epic finds is gone by act 2 if than.

I like crafting - though in WoW in the past and currently in Rift HAVING to craft to have quasi-decent gear is kind of a deal breaker for me:  my lag is so bad that gearing "normally" - through grouping for instances/dungeons - was never an option (not to mention that I just don't LIKE messing with groups of people I don't know....)  While crafting in games like those started out as fun, by level 90 in WoW I was sick of it, ditto level 65 in Rift - and at that point I quit crafting and just buy stuff others make (because by those levels I have GAZOOLAS of gold or plat, so *shrug*).

 

I don't craft much in PoE - there's not much real need to do so until you get Durgan steel.  The gear you "find" is certainly usable as is though I do throw some enchants on it - might as well use up all those mats after all!  At least in this game you don't have to make the gear itself....

 

I would feel pretty odd in a game without crafting....

Edited October 20, 201510 yr by Oralaina

Personally hate crafting most of the time, and pretty much in all those games you mentioned. Stuff like DA:I and NWN 2, crafting completely removes the concept of loot as a reward mechanism for fights/quests/exploration/money. I mean, sure, you can still have a crafting system on the level of those games and not ruin those aspects of the game, I've just not seen one implemented yet that does so.

 

Not that I hate a crafting system, always nice to have more facets to a game. It just seems hard for devs to balance it between A. useless and easily ignored  and B. completely takes over the game, sucking the life out of other facets.

 

So, I like crafting, but want it implemented in a way that doesn't kill over other aspects of the game. As for the crafting in this game, it's alright, but so little choice it hardly feels like 'crafting'. Basically just choose what color you want a weapon to glow, and lets you upgrade old weapons to hang with new ones, if the old one had a decent enchantment on it, that is.

I agree 100% that it is hard for developers to balance a crafting system with the rest of the game.  If it's useless (or nearly so), why spend the time on it, other than to say, "hey, we've got crafting in our game".  And if it becomes so dominant that it takes you out of the story and/or flow of the game, then it's gone too far (that was a problem I had with the crafting system in DA:I, I found myself trying to create the "perfect" armor or weapon, and 2 hours later I would have to check my journal as to what quest I was actually working on.  While I enjoyed the crafting itself, it just left me feeling that the balance of gameplay to crafting wasn't all it could be).

Crafting is awesome in most RPGs!

I tend to like the ability to craft everything as well. (Such as finding sinew and leather strips and other magickal components and crafting a new set of armor)

My most recent experience with a crafting system I liked was in Divinity Original Sin (I used a crafting extension mod however)

It still lacked a lot of options even though it still had a great many.  (I could craft lockpicks from nails)

 

In PoE the crafting system feels gutted and it shows.  It is more or less like certain things just commented out or the code removed to make it less robust.

As I understand it early on the crafting system allowed for all or almost all abilities to be added to weapons/armor and that made it to good so they gutted it.

Now I feel we have a system that just feels gutted instead of a refinement.  The fact we can not overwrite enchantments is ridiculous.  And the obvious forced block of the gold sink when crafting is also blah.  Who am I paying to craft?  Does my magic weapon now have gold smelted into it? It is an obvious design obstruction but that could of been done by refining drop rates and availability of items.  As it is the drop rate on PoTD is so obscene its like I am the largest walking curio and alchemist shop in the world.

 

How could it be fixed?

 

Food:

Make food useful.  I know it is somewhat useful in getting dialog options but that is about it.  Eating should be part of the game and its skill counterpart should be actually useful beyond a few scripted interactions and dialogs.  There should be a food slot and food should buff continuously and if the character does not have food they run out of endurance faster and gain penalties.  In addition survival enhances these buffs and how long food lasts.  There is no urgency to the current system or necessity.  It is more of a novelty than a integrated system.

 

Scrolls/Potions:

No more gold costs.  Necessary usage of either crafting kits or visiting crafting stations.  Standing in the middle of a dungeon throwing gold in the air while smashing a few components together to all of a sudden have a scroll in hand is just so immersion breaking and illogical.  In addition reduce drop rates by a huge amount and in this case I seriously mean a huge amount.  I do not want 200 xaurip tongues.  Or if they are going to keep the drop rate add in a refinement or distillation process that could fail or succeed.  Adding multiple steps and adding a fail/succeed mechanic would also alleviate the need to put in this arbitrary gold aspect that as far as I can tell is simply a method to somewhat balance the tons of drops.  Scrolls and potion crafting should take time and effort as well as be more rare.  As it is now on PoTD entering Twin Elms I could make all my characters nonstop high end potions and scrolls with my 200k gold and they could perma stun maelstorm and godmode all battles.  It feels like cheating and it makes me ignore the entire system.

 

Weapon/Armor upgrades

This is where the most complaining occurs.  Some say being able to even enchant as we do now breaks the feeling of being rewarding for finding magickal items.  I do not agree myself.  If your going to have enchant system than do it right.  Again we should visit an anvil or a forge.  There should be a distillation/refinement process with a fail/succeed mechanic. In addition all properties should be available for enchanting.  For the rare and higher end recipes well they could be found or quested for.  With the amount of drops as they are I see absolutely no reason to not allow all enchant properties to be accessible.  If I want my Stiletto to have certain properties because it fits my character I want to be able to enchant it that way.  Perhaps another way of gaining recipes is by cannibalizing the weapon or armor.  We all have our favorite armor for cosmetic reasons but I end up trading out an awesome Star Robe for a crap leather look because it has more functional properties.  Again the gold aspect need be removed.  And as for those who do not want enchanting because they feel it trivializes their finding items if the system itself is robust enough it balances out just fine.  If I have to go to a forge put multiple items together and distill/refine them and potentially fail at that and then apply it to a weapon/armor than both systems of finding ready made uniques and crafting them can stand strong on their own and do not have the problems we have now.

 

All in all if they are going to do a crafting system than at least make it robust.  The current system feels like a console hack where I just type addattribute or addproperty to the item because it has absolutely no time sink involved and no risk and components are absurdly abundant.

 

Food should be made globally useful and in so doing survival becomes a real skill choice.  All recipes should be found learned or quested for.  Having a list simply appear to me with all recipes is lame and trivializes the system.  Crafting stations or mobile cooking stations are needed.  Gold usage removed.

 

Potions and Scrolls need to be more rare and difficult to craft.  Item drops reduced or refinement/distilling process added.  Again stations are needed or mobile alchemy or scribe kits.  Gold usage removed.

 

Enchantments need all properties accessible.  Recipes found or quested for.  Gold removed.  Forge and Anvil needed (all static no mobile for this)  Refinement/distilling process.  Cannibalizing armor/weapons for ingredients or recipes.

I'd forgotten about the crafting system in Divinity:OS, that was awesome in it's own right.  All those items and you were left on your own to figure out how to combine them.  No hand holding in this game.  I remember finding out by accident that I could create lockpicks from nails, that was a great moment for me (I'm easily amused).

 

In POE's crafting, I agree about the gold part.  That is my biggest beef with the current system.  You're right, who are we paying?  We're the ones doing the crafting.  Is gold in that scroll I just made?  Nope, don't think so.  So why does it cost gold?  I've collected the plants/creature parts/gems, I should be able to craft without paying.

 

Weapons/Armor:  My favorite systems require the character to find/use a forge/work bench to create(Skyrim/FONV).  In POE, you're not really creating from scratch, but modifying existing weapons/armor, and you can do it "on the fly", where ever you happen to be.  I'm kind of torn on this one, because of the type of rpg POE is, having to traverse several maps to a forge would really unbalance the story and flow of the game (I think).  Creating items from raw materials (which I love), is probably too much for this game.  As far as the modifications go, I think they should be expanded for more options.  Modifying unique weapons/armor is a toss-up for me.  Personally, I love the chance to modify a unique to fit my character, but I understand the concerns of those who the unique should be a reward that is greater than anything that is modified.  I've also had to sell uniques that I'd modified, and are no longer useful.  Having the chance to "unmodify" or re-modify" would be nice.  But since I can't, I just take it as another challenge to choose what and when I do upgrade an item.

 

Food/Potions/Scrolls:  should be more useful or just eliminated.  I like that you cannot consume it during a battle, but maybe the creating of food should only be available when you camp or rest at an inn (or some other restriction).  I liked the buffs on some food items, and found it useful if I didn't have access to rest at an inn.  And you're right about recipes, they should be found, quested for, given, ect.  The player shouldn't just start the game knowing how to make every thing.  And, no gold cost.

 

BTW, thanks for responding.  Crafting is near & dear to me in rpgs.

I just finished the game, and I think the way I approached the game should indicate that a change to the system, or the way it is presented to players would be an improvement to the overall game.

 

I have played many of these old school isometric RPGs, but still went with Normal Diff for my first play through. I'm a completionist, definitely a "min-maxer"... so I generally win games via preparation, finding all the goodies and having everything synchronized just right, rather than relying upon luck of completing a battle and/or losing my mind micro-managing each battle with retries for several hours (user preference).

 

How odd I found it as I won last night, that I never really enchanted anything! I beat the game with 150K gold left over, but the combination of the underwhelming loot I found, plus the underwhelming enchantments kept me holding onto my limited enchanting supplies thinking that I should CERTAINLY wait to use these until I find something REALLY good.

 

Now, I've not seen what the real answer is yet, but it indicates my second point: presentation. I added the base buffs to an item or two in the game, but never did I add what I think may have been the best enchantments... the two groups at the bottom. To me, seeing "IMMUNE" appear over the heads of things all throughout the game made it seem like adding a fire enchantment to a sword might mean some creatures would be immune to Eder's main weapon. Plus, the loot was underwhelming enough as it was... would I risk ruining the best I had found so far? Surely not.

 

And lastly, there was the enchantment section to add damage based upon the TYPE of creature. I remember reading through a few a going... well... guess I'll have to wait and see what creature type I start running into or having trouble with at the end of the game... Don't want to be wrong there since I can't override that decision once made, don't want to be wasteful and again since loot was rare & underwhelming, you don't want to do the WRONG thing. (Even after playing the whole game, I bet I'd be unsure as to what all creatures WENT in each category anyway).

 

So there you go. Definitely one of the top things that went through my mind on my mental checklist after beating the game was the crafting system. My takeaway was that maybe that's why I found so many gold weapons (which I never sold, always saved in stash to be safe) -- perhaps I was meant to make a fire sword, electrical sword, sword for a dragon, sword for humans, etc. and switch them in and out? This is why there are multiple weapon slots, perks to increase the quantity of them, and perks to improve switch times?

 

In closing I agree with the sentiment I've seen a few times in this thread that crafting needs to be "tightened up". But so does loot, and so do the spells. Less quantity, more quality would be a good start. For me none of the three systems really felt like they had any "oomph". Good story, enjoyable game and will play again to learn to make better use of things, especially as I bump up difficulty -- But was certainly hoping for some more "oomph" overall, than what I got.

I just finished the game, and I think the way I approached the game should indicate that a change to the system, or the way it is presented to players would be an improvement to the overall game.

 

I have played many of these old school isometric RPGs, but still went with Normal Diff for my first play through. I'm a completionist, definitely a "min-maxer"... so I generally win games via preparation, finding all the goodies and having everything synchronized just right, rather than relying upon luck of completing a battle and/or losing my mind micro-managing each battle with retries for several hours (user preference).

 

How odd I found it as I won last night, that I never really enchanted anything! I beat the game with 150K gold left over, but the combination of the underwhelming loot I found, plus the underwhelming enchantments kept me holding onto my limited enchanting supplies thinking that I should CERTAINLY wait to use these until I find something REALLY good.

 

Now, I've not seen what the real answer is yet, but it indicates my second point: presentation. I added the base buffs to an item or two in the game, but never did I add what I think may have been the best enchantments... the two groups at the bottom. To me, seeing "IMMUNE" appear over the heads of things all throughout the game made it seem like adding a fire enchantment to a sword might mean some creatures would be immune to Eder's main weapon. Plus, the loot was underwhelming enough as it was... would I risk ruining the best I had found so far? Surely not.

 

And lastly, there was the enchantment section to add damage based upon the TYPE of creature. I remember reading through a few a going... well... guess I'll have to wait and see what creature type I start running into or having trouble with at the end of the game... Don't want to be wrong there since I can't override that decision once made, don't want to be wasteful and again since loot was rare & underwhelming, you don't want to do the WRONG thing. (Even after playing the whole game, I bet I'd be unsure as to what all creatures WENT in each category anyway).

 

So there you go. Definitely one of the top things that went through my mind on my mental checklist after beating the game was the crafting system. My takeaway was that maybe that's why I found so many gold weapons (which I never sold, always saved in stash to be safe) -- perhaps I was meant to make a fire sword, electrical sword, sword for a dragon, sword for humans, etc. and switch them in and out? This is why there are multiple weapon slots, perks to increase the quantity of them, and perks to improve switch times?

 

In closing I agree with the sentiment I've seen a few times in this thread that crafting needs to be "tightened up". But so does loot, and so do the spells. Less quantity, more quality would be a good start. For me none of the three systems really felt like they had any "oomph". Good story, enjoyable game and will play again to learn to make better use of things, especially as I bump up difficulty -- But was certainly hoping for some more "oomph" overall, than what I got.

I have some of these same problems with the current crafting system, namely, when do I modify a weapon/armor, and with what benefits. I also find myself hording crafting supplies and unique weapons/armor to give them just the right enhancement. I find myself modifying on the fly, depending upon the nature of the enemy. But that has drawbacks, as later on, my modifications may not be as helpful when the enemy type changes.

 

Fire & Vessel damage might be great now, but then I face different Spirt types that the Vessel damage is useless, and the Fire damage may be resisted or the enemy completely immune. I find that true across the board for all creature specific & elemental specific damages.

 

Same with armors. I add +2 might to Edars amor, only to find gauntlets/capes ect that add +2 or +3 might, and a better armor.

 

So when do I modify/craft these enhancements? I know I put way to much thought into it, I'm just always trying to find that perfect combination.

For the Slaying/Lash question, I don't think there's a good answer. For lashes, it's not a big enough change to be worth worrying about. Gameplay wise, stacking Flame Lash with Chanter Lash song is the only large difference. Otherwise, it evens itself out enough to just go with what you like.

 

The creature types are pretty decently distributed through the game with annoying mobs you can't go super wrong. I guess if forced to claim the best I'd go with Vessel or Spirit, as some of the really tough fights will involve those two, and a number of dungeons are populated largely by those. The only one I'd avoid is Beast, as those are the most tame of the monster types.

 

And often a weapon won't allow both a Lash and a Slaying enchantment, so you don't have to worry about the enchantment.

 

As for what stat to put into armor...that's more annoying. You can't really answer that unless you've pre-planned out what gear you want everyone to wear.

The only one I'd avoid is Beast, as those are the most tame of the monster types.

 

And dragons.

I liked the BG2 system where you had to find pieces of epic weapons and bring them to a skilled blacksmith to craft those epic weapons.

 

In PoE, being able to craft certain enchantments on any weapon at any time, kinda devalues the "epic" named weapons which you can loot or buy.

Some named weapons already have the same kinds of enchantments which you could craft on them yourself, which makes them not epic at all.

Other named weapons have enchantments which are worse than the craftable one, which due to the strict enchantment limit actually makes them less epic than a plain unenchanted weapon of the same type.

Not an ideal situation IMO.

 

I agree with the sentiment.  I would like to see weapon quality be inherent to the weapon (no more making superb weapons), and then use crafting to add effects.