It does seem like there should be enchanting service available. Sergius says that they do lots of enchantments for people outside the college, but he just wont do it for you.

It's all in the documentation.

"Theres no school like the old school!"

Ok, so here's my take on the OP's question of why she can't pay someone to recharge her weapons for her: In Skyrim (and Oblivion for that matter), recharging a weapon takes no skill. All you need is a filled soul gem (which you can buy or find, you don't have to fill it yourself), and you just use it to recharge the item. So, buying a filled soul gem from a sorceror is exactly the same thing as paying them to recharge your item for you. They are perfectly equivalent.

No they aren't.

It's like in Oblivion where you could pay a blacksmith merchant to repair your gear or you could buy the repair hammer and do it yourself.

While it has the same outcome, it's not the same thing. He wants to pay someone else to do it for him, that's the whole point.

Your anology is flawed because with smithing in OB, you had a chance of failure - your hammer would often break at low levels of skill, and when it did work, it might only repair 5 or 10 percent of the items "health". Using a filled soul gem never fails, and I believe always recharges the same amount for a given "size" soul. Using a soul gem is more like drinking a potion than using a hammer. I don't hear anyone complaining that they don't want to drink potions because "my character isn't an alchemist". I suppose it's your right to play the game however you want, but it's silly to complain that you don't want to use a consumable item that requires no skills to successfully use.

And yet in Oblivion players could have NPCs re~charge their enchanted items for them.

Perhaps players want to simply walk up to a merchant and be re~filled rather than having to buy the soul gems and re~fill their gear themselves. A one step solution was present in the past, along with the two step solution. Now all we have is the two step for some reason.

But how much emphasis needs to be placed on what sort of obstacles for how long?

At a certain point, the need for repetition in light of better options ceases to be a challenge, and instead seems more like annoyance or obsession.

It is much the same as how the perk system works. At certain levels of proficiency in a skill, soul trapping for example (or perhaps standing in the Mages College?), you will qualify for additional services like “disenchanting” (removing an enchant) or paid recharging. Simple.

Just press the bloody recharge button for christs sake, stop being bloody weird. I've never heard a bigger load of nonsense that oh my characters wouldn't ever do something like that, GET A GRIP!.

I really can't believe you had to create a whole new thread in here because they've changed such a trivial element of the game. Why would anyone want to pay someone to do something you can do yourself in a few button presses?, I'm sure it would be great fun running out of charges at a tough spot half way through a dungeon and then realising the only way you can get the weapon charged up would be to backtrap through the dungeon then travel to wherever the enchanter is then travel back then go all the way back through the dungeon because that sounds like so much of an improvement to the current system.

The question I ask is why are there so many enchanted weapons/armor in the game to begin with? Nothing about enchanting seems special.

I think that Enchants should be a little more special than Fortify X. It makes it a no-brainer which Enchants to put on your gear. Muffle, Waterbreathing, etc. are cool Enchants.

You have to find an Arcane Enchanter, take an enchanted item and disenchant it to learn the way it is made. You will need a supply of soul gems in order to fill the weapon back up with power. What I did was get the Soul trap spell, cats it on a person you are fighting, kill them, and then if all is successful voila, you will have a soul gem filled with a just captured soul.

My wood elf character is a serious enchanter. I have made Daedric weapons with enchantments, Forsworn, Empire, whatever. And I might mention, they sell for quite a price with local fences and stuff. I made and still make quite a bit of money selling enchanted weapons, armor, clothing, jewelery, etc. I enchanted some shoes I found and called them the "Sneaky Loafers" and they give like a 30 something percent enhancement to sneak abilities; sold them to a fence for a nice sum. Give enchanting a try, it is so worth it...

Sorry, I meant to say why are there so many enchanted items generally and easily available. I think there should be lots of enchantments to use, but they should be harder to come across or take more to learn etc. How special is enchanting when everyone has something enchanted for sale or to take.

Well, I like to eat pork, but I sure don't want to go kill and cut up a pig. It would be pretty easy for the devs to allow enchanters to recharge magical weapons, and a bit more difficult to allow them to enchant items for you.

Are you sure that you have any filled soul gems in your inventory?

Recharging a weapon is exactly the same as changing a battery. If that takes you off your character, maybe you shouldn't be using magical weapons in the first place.

Well, due to the homogenization and consolidation of the game, outside of Perks this is the only way to raise your effectiveness and progress. That alone is the issue. That is why stuff is so readily abundant. The removal of attributes was really a migration to the Perks system as well as the Enchanting system. The 3 attribute system we have now is a skeleton and had the rest of the attribute effectiveness plopped in there.

I just wish the damned "T" key worked so i COULD recharge! I'm lugging enough filled soul gems to feed a dragon as it is

I reset the keymap and now it works fine

Now this guy gets it.

I pity all the others who don`t seem to understand the point I`m trying to make no matter how well I explain the ethos of my character.

I have no problems at all with the usage of the "T" key in the game. You have to press T, then scroll down to whatever soul gem you want to use and then press enter. Make certain that you are on the weapon you wish to recharge and that is it.

Maybe he doesnt want skillups in enchanting.