Mixing/Fusion System

[just1question]

I've been told by people on other forums that this is similar to the "mixing system" in "A Blurred Line," which I've heard is really great, but now I'm having doubts about this.....
For my game, "The Phoenix Effect," I'm planning to have a system where you can find "fusion gems" where you can fuse them to your weapons to add attributes to it, etc.  You know the drill.  Well, I must have set it up kinda weird or something, because as it stands, I'll end up having around 1500 or so total modified weapons, all from scratch.  Now, do you have any suggestions on how to reduce this number?
I had an idea while I was just milling around at my miserable work that maybe I could reduce the number of gems (I have 3 per element, each one represents a different strength of element).  In the items section of the database, would it matter much if instead of having it be "Invoke skill when used: Fire 1," etc, just make the weapon just have fire attributes?  Would that work just as well in your opinion?  That way, I would only have to make about 500 weapons or so.  Any input?
BTW, this is the second forum I've asked this in, so I'll be combining inputs.

[Ace of Spades]

You know, for your name being just1question, you sure have a lot of questions. But anyway, go to gamingworld or some other site that has tutorials. If it exists, then you'll probably find it there.

[just1question]

Originally posted by Ace of Spades
You know, for your name being just1question, you sure have a lot of questions. But anyway, go to gamingworld or some other site that has tutorials. If it exists, then you'll probably find it there.

No, I know how to do it, it's just that the way I was shown seemed to be a bit long and tedious for how many I plan to do, and I was just asking for input.
And BTW, I ask so many questions because I'm not the best coder or programmer in the world, and I have some good ideas I'd like to use, but I need help coding them, that's all.  I figured that this board was partly FOR getting questions like that answered in order to make it better.  Or maybe I'm just too used to the kamain.com forums.

[xJericho]

sounds a little FF7-ish

[X-F3R]

=\ that would be the only solution.. 1500+ items..