I probably just have crappy luck; but I've managed to break more things then enhance. What I do sometimes is "Enchant" it to a +whatever so it doesn't fail, and then when it hits what I want it to (usually +4 to +5) I go to vulcanus and try my hand at enhancing it to the next level. I never chain enhance, because one time I tried and it backfired on me horribly - then again, like I said I might have bad luck. Also, the same thing that applies for enchanting applies to enhancing - you can get an unexpected result. My friends have enhanced to a +3 before with a normal item and boy was I jealous
But, with enhancing comes the thought of not needing an exact copy of "quality" and type of item to enhance. This is why people love Vulcanus, because he allows you to try it with only one item. It's a really pick your poison type thing; spend a little more cash and be positive, or risk it all to hit it big without dropping dough on more items
I've had a lot of my mentees ask me to write a guide here so they can check it out, so by popular demand I decided to a small write-up.
Here's the skinny:
* In the current game (Open Beta), there is a more significant jump between Spirit and Sea items than for many of the other levels; the rate of increase for Spirit is also fairly weak. It is probably more effective to hold off heavy enchanting until you are past Spirit.
* On average in the mid-range at least, a level X item from normal boxes at +Y tends to be *very roughly* equivalent to a Level X+10 item from normal boxes at +Y-1. For example, the average damage output from a Level 15 Deep Sea Bow +2, a Level 25 Ogre Bow +1, and a Level 35 Assassin's Bow +0 are about the same. I recommend looking up exact stats, but as a rough guide it is useful to plan your purchases and enchanting. If you keep good notes, you will realize that the increases do follow a series of formula, and you can predict quite accurately the stats for items you haven't seen yet.
* Once you get past the Beginner Enchant stones (and boxes), the cost for the stones becomes important. Currently, a (Beg) box seems to be running around 800, while an (Int) box seems to be running around 8,000; this is a pretty harsh factor of 10 increase. Consider that a +10 item not only requires 1,024 base +0 items, but 2,036 stones. I expect the cost of the higher boxes / stones may go down some as the game matures, but how much is an open question. In combination with the above, this leads to it generally being more effective to keep enchanting the items just before the break. A +4 Ogre Bow is more effective in every way than a +2 Assassin's Bow, but usually cheaper to buy or make, and you can start using it ten levels sooner.
