Diablo 4 is currently enjoying a bit of a redemption arc in the wake of season 4's big loot rework, and in a timely PSA regarding the new Tempering system, one player has rather sensibly urged everyone to always Temper items first and then Enchant them.
In a Reddit thread titled 'PSA: Temper your item first, THEN enchant it', TryBeingCool wisely warns that Tempering items after Enchanting them can leave you with a permanent affix that you don't want on an item you just spent all of your resources Enchanting.
For some context, Tempering is a new system added in Diablo 4 Season 4 that lets you customize items with specific affixes found in Tempering Manuals. The caveat is you can only re-roll individual items so many times, and once you hit that limit you're stuck with the most recent affix(es). Meanwhile, Enchanting is a feature that's been around since launch (and in older Diablo games) that lets you tinker with the stats and bonuses on your gear without limit, so long as you have the resources to spend.
So in other words, if you spend all of your resources Enchanting the heck out of an item in order to get the stats you want, but then you Temper that item and max out your re-rolls on an affix that isn't applicable to your build, then the item is essentially bricked and you just wasted a whole lot of time and resources. It's better to try your luck Tempering something and then, only if you got the affixes you wanted, Enchant away. If not, "trash it and look for another item. You can always keep enchanting, tempers run out."
It's a genuinely sensible tip that'll undoubtedly save folks a lot of hassle when navigating the new Tempering system. It doesn't take the sting off of finding an awesome item and then losing to the RNG gods in Tempering, but it's undoubtedly better than also losing a bunch of Enchanting resources in the process.
