The Most Controversial Enchantment In Minecraft

Corrections: - Axes can't be enchanted with Fire Aspect and Looting. - Sharpness does (0.5/0.75/1/1.25/1.5) hearts, it actually adds a quarter heart per level. With that said, I hope you all enjoy this new series where I cover the controversial stuff about Minecraft!

The problem isn't with Mending itself but the Anvil. You CAN repair weapons and armor with resources...but it takes exp and it costs more and more to repair the same weapon over and over again. If it was a flat rate depending on the resource, the Anvil would be the go too to repair your items. It wouldn't feel like you had no choice to get mending since it wouldn't have to exist in the world.

I never seriously invested in tools before mending. Now that it is in the game, I love naming my items, and actually maxing them out. Makes the game a lot more fun and personal when you can keep the same items around indefinitely.

With the new armor trims and netherite upgrades, along with the cost of books and experience, you're actually very invested in your tools and armor. To lose them is kind of devastating. You can still lose things to the void, and it's happened to me on multiple occasions with a shulker full of full enchanted netherite tools. It's literally days of work to replace. Mending is a vital key to long-term gameplay, and i couldn't imagine the game without it at this point.

I sometimes play with tinker's construct and I feel like it does "enchanting" better than vanilla: 1. Different materials give different properties, so you don't just do diamond for everything in life 2. Each enhancement takes a slot, even different levels of the same enchantment, so to make your tool really overpowered you need to grind for them slots for things like notch apples and nether stars 3. No random. You need speed - you grind that redstone, you need fortune - go look for some lapis. You don't need to build xp farms to re-roll enchantments. 3. Repair is also free. No, it takes a resource of your tool to repair, but you don't need an increasing amount of xp to repair tool on the anvil, how is that even makes sense in vanilla? 4. Mending is cheap and obtainable early game. But it is slow and only works in certain condition, you have to be in the sunlight, so you can't live in that cave forever. 5. Everything is elytra - it can't be permanently broken, you can fix your tool if you accidentally broke it.

One additional point I'd like to add is that you can only repair items a limited number of times with an anvil. Using a ton of exp levels to make a god pickaxe and to know that all of that work and levels you used will go to waste eventually cause you can't repair it anymore make you not use it unless you need to, which isn't the point. Mending fixes that and makes it so you don't have to worry about losing the best pickaxe you've ever made.

The main issue I have with the durability system is that you can't repair infinitely. If repairing on an anvil didn't increase enchant costs, there would be no issue, and mending wouldn't be so vital.

The thing I find with Mending is, even if you have an op exp farm to repair your tools and such, you're still not immune to dying, and your tools are not invincible. You can have all the enchants you want, slap on mending, and still die to simple things like a zombie or fall damage. or lose it to a cactus, void, lava or breaking.

My thoughts: In reality, the anti-mending crowd are not nearly as affected by mending as the pro-mending crowd, because whether or not you use it is up to you

Mending is the only permanent way of maintaining equipment. Repairing them in an anvil costs levels and that cost increases fast and eventually to a point that the game stops letting your repair. The only answer to this prior to Mending was to simply make a new tool, which sucks. Mending may be bad to some but honestly it has been so long since people have been without Mending that they've forgotten what the alternative was, which would be suffering

I think the real problem actually lies in the mechanics of the anvil above all else. It’s as if Mending serves as a “temporary fix” to the anvil’s repair cost catastrophe, except they never bothered to go back and fix it for real. In order for mending to work, anvil repairs need to be reworked

the best fix to mending would be making it harder to obtain and buffing the anvil, making it so repairs are cheaper and they don't count towards price increases as well as removing the level cap and making it so order doesn't matter

if you hate mending, dont use it. Let the rest of us have fun while you sit there and mine more netherite 58 hours into your playthrough.

Mending definitely made the game better. The ability to upgrade a weapon you really care about, with it never breaking on you is invaluable. It’s a small change, but it changed the game for me.

The problem with mending to me is that there's no good alternative. If repairing tools with their raw materials (what I mean is like using diamonds to repair diamond tools, though netherite I feel should use something like gold or diamonds instead of needing a netherite ingot to repair) didn't get more expensive every time, I wouldn't have an issue with mending. But as it is now it basically railroads you into getting a villager breeder as soon as possible with no good alternative.

I think the fact repairing tools keeps getting more expensive is also part of it. And the 40 exp cap. Its easier to just not worry about it

Alpha 1.10 player here! I really relate to how you explained that diamonds once held a "legendary status". Back then, the player was much weaker to everything in the game like mobs and lava. I remember being so excited whenever I found diamonds, and how powerful they felt. The game was so different back then.

When playing modded worlds, I find mending especially useful; when you have enemies halving your armor durability each fight, knowing you wont need to spend decades attaining that armor again is really really nice.

Anvils punish you for repairing by adding to the repair cost, making your tools and armor less enchantable due to the anvil’s level cap. So if they fix that, then mending might have some competition if it’s means of obtaining is altered.

The best part of Minecraft is that you can do nearly anything and can set your own rules, go on a journey with your own objectives. The good thing about this kind of game is that you are free to use every single features it offers or on the opposite side restrain yourself to make the game harder or different. And so I think mending is a good thing to the game since players will have the choice to weather use it or not, as well as any feature they don't like ! (sorry if I made English mistakes, im French).