Unique items that could use some love
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I am a lootwhore. I love loot and I love unique items. It saddens me greatly that there are some unique items that just suck and there's no way out of it. However, many of these unique items that suck currently, don't have to suck.
A minor buff to some value(s) or adding something little would often raise these items to be viable*.
*What does viable mean?
I consider item to be viable if it fulfills the role it is/was inteded to do/be. It doesn't have to be endgame viable nor have something truly unique affixes or something that makes it powerful.
For example I consider Rigvald's Charge to be viable even though it's not ("endgame enough") powerful nor has any affixes that make truly unique. It also doesn't provide anything a rare can't provide. However, I believe its role is to be a midgame/leveling 2H and it fulfills that role very good. You slap it on early 40s and it can carry you to early maps. Perfect. Same goes for many leveling uniques such as Shiversting, Geofri's Baptism and Hrimnor's Hymn. Their role is to be leveling uniques and that's what they are. Here's a list of some items I consider not-viable. If you have something in mind, feel free to post it aswell, I'm sure I missed quite a few. ***** Hrimnor's Resolve
Stats
Armour: (336 to 384)
Requires Level 55, 114 Str (10 to 30)% increased Fire Damage (40 to 60)% increased Armour +30% to Cold Resistance 50% chance to Avoid being Chilled 50% chance to Avoid being Frozen 10% increased Block and Stun Recovery Role: ??? This unique helmet has something unique in it, which are the chance to avoid chill and frozen and the extra fire damage. However, the fire damage isn't enough to make a difference in fire builds to choose this over any decent rare helmet and the 50% chance to avoid freeze doesn't make a noticeable difference either (compare to Alpha's Howl, for example). Chill mainly occurs from things such as freezing ground or Arctic Armor and this doesn't save you from that either (unlike Icetomb does). The item level requirement on it also doesn't make it to fall into "leveling fire build helmet"-category (which would be very, very niche even if it did) so that doesn't save it either. It could be viable option if this was on am evasion base item, then you could pick Crystal Skin and the previous nodes leading to it from passive tree (on the evasion side of the tree) to achieve a 100% chance to avoid freeze and chill. Also, adding some more fire damage or even better, some % chance to ignite and/or ignite duration would make it perfectly viable option for some builds. Essentia's Sanguis
Stats
Claw
Physical Damage: (47–122 to 57–150) Elemental Damage: 1–50 Critical Strike Chance: 6.68% Attacks per Second: (1.62 to 1.76) Requires Level 64, 113 Dex, 113 Int 3% of Physical Damage Leeched as Life 10% additional Chance to Block while Dual Wielding Claws (80 to 120)% increased Physical Damage Adds 1–50 Lightning Damage (20 to 30)% increased Attack Speed +(30 to 40) to maximum Energy Shield Ghost Reaver Role: ??? Again, this item has something unique in it, being the Keystone Ghost Reaver built into it. However, Ghost Reaver is already in a very accessible position for claw builds. Essentia Sanguis has really bad damage output so the keystone doesn't justify choosing this item over any other decent item. One might argue that it could be used as an off-hand for a CI or ES based doublestriker or so but a shield or using some other item (such as Ungil's Claw providing 20% block, crit etc.) and then going for Ghost Reaver in the passive tree is just way, way more superior. I know this supporter unique was planned when Ghost Reaver didn't exist (Ghost Reaver was added the same patch this unique was), but right now it has nothing to justify its existence. Adding more block chance or +es would make it viable in previously mentioned Double Strike builds, or just buffing its damage itself (there's no decent pdps unique claw in the game). Lightbane Raiment
Stats
Armour: (407 to 444) Energy Shield: (119 to 130) Requires Level 47, 69 Str, 69 Int (120 to 140)% increased Armour and Energy Shield 10% of Physical Damage Converted to Chaos Damage Reflects 30 Chaos Damage to Melee Attackers 25% reduced Light Radius 50% chance on Block to create Desecrated Ground Role: ??? Yet again a unique that has something unique. This time 10% of Physical Damage Converted to Chaos Damage, Reflects 30 Chaos Damage to Melee Attackers and a 50% chance to proc (level 10 or so) Desecrate on block. None of these affixes is enough to do any real difference in your damage output even if you specialize in chaos damage. Also, it doesn't have life, resistances or enough armor and energy shield to be a viable mid-game unique. Before Desecrate (spell) was implemented, this unique used to provide a truly unique affix being Desecrated ground which was a chaos damage over time debuff when enemies stood in the area. With the changes they made to it, it is now a not-viable unique. Buffing the % of conversion to chaos damage and chaos damage reflected or bringing back the old Desecrated ground would be enough to make it viable for builds that want to specialize in chaos damage. Hyrri's Ire
Stats
Evasion Rating: (1462 to 1949)
Requires Level 65, 197 Dex +(20 to 30) to Dexterity Adds 13–24 Cold Damage (140 to 220)% increased Evasion Rating 25% increased Chill Duration on enemies Acrobatics Role: ??? (A nice skin though...) Description by sidtherat: This item is a Catch 22 item: you take it to get something that you already have because you took the same thing. One does not take Acro without Phase Acro. It does not make any sense whatsoever. And this item Provides Acro - when one has Phase Acro one has Acro.. Just add '+10% dodge' like CoD or something. This item was buffed by giving it an extra 1000EV (roughly) but that change addressed absolutely nothing. It isnt a leveling unique that one drops after 10 levels. it is a damn top tier EV chest piece. and it is an insta vendor Immortal Flesh
Stats
+(25 to 40) to Maximum Life
+(75 to 100) to maximum Life (66.6 to 75.0) Life Regenerated per second (8.0 to 10.0) Mana Regenerated per second −40% to all Elemental Resistances −10% to all maximum Resistances −(50 to 40) Physical Damage taken from Attacks 40% increased Armour while not Ignited, Frozen or Shocked Description by RagnarokChu: A belt that sounds good in theory with extremely crippling drawbacks while neither being extremely good for life, ES/life builds or CI builds themselves although it has 140+ life on the belt itself. It needs something else other then a "massive" regen belt such as the regen cannot be reduced (so half regen/no regen maps don't make the belt extremely useless) or to lower the -10% resist to -5%. For immortal flesh it makes you extremely squishy for very very meh benefits. It is helpful if you never bring it to maps though. Some extra thoughts by me: Another really cool unique design that just falls short. Overcoming both -max resistance and -resistance is simply too much for the regen it provides. As stated, elemental damage becomes extremely dangerous in higher level maps and the belt offers no real benefits for the huge drawbacks. With req. level being 50, definately not a leveling item either. Should provide less -max resistance or more something else to be viable. Right now you're just cripling yourself if choosing to use the belt (getting 2% life regen from tree or running clarity isn't nearly as bad as overcoming the downsides of this). Rebuke of the Vaal
Stats
One Handed Sword
Physical Damage: (54–95 to 63–104) Elemental Damage: (19–31 to 28–40), (19–31 to 28–40), (1–50 to 1–70) Chaos Damage: (19–31 to 28–40) Critical Strike Chance: 5% Attacks per Second: (1.43 to 1.56) Requires Level 64, 113 Str, 113 Dex 18% Increased Accuracy Rating Adds (19–31 to 28–40) Physical Damage Adds (19–31 to 28–40) Fire Damage Adds (19–31 to 28–40) Cold Damage Adds (1–50 to 1–70) Lightning Damage Adds (19–31 to 28–40) Chaos Damage (10 to 20)% increased Attack Speed Role: ??? Description by sidtherat: Cool Idea. Level too high. This might be good at lvl 50. not 60+. This has 'nice' 300+ mixed dps. but.. elemental builds are scaled with attack speed. 1.5 base? who would use this instead of blue 2.10+ foil with auras/heralds? Elemental builds in general are badly designed but nonetheless this item is simply to weak for its level. Suggested change: change implicit to 'leeches chaos damage'. there are not so many ways of scaling it and even if maxed that would not mean much but would at least create some identity Additional suggested changes by others: Drop the base item to something that's level 30-40. Add more attack speed and reduce elemental damage, this way buzzsaws would have a nice cool leveling midgame sword that could work till maps before getting a really good foil. The Magnate
Stats
Requires Level 16
(20 to 30)% increased Stun Duration on enemies (25 to 40)% increased Physical Damage +(40 to 50) to Strength 50% increased Flask Charges gained Role: Physical "glass cannon" -belt Still the "ultimate" physical damage belt. But, it could use a little something something. I see The Magnate being the victim of powercreep as well. Decent rustic sash will give you less phys damage but lots of other stats too (resistances, ES, life) and now with Forsaken Masters adding decent WED to almost even out the damage output is very easy. I don't think the str, stun duration and flask charges make up for it with their current values. Increasing the physical damage % up to 50 would already do something, also it should not roll below 30% ever. Chalice of Horrors
Stats
Chance to Block: 35%
Evasion Rating: (191 to 220) Requires Level 29, 74 Dex +1 to Level of Curse Gems in this item (30 to 50)% increased Evasion Rating 100% increased Curse Duration 5% additional Block Chance 10% Chance to Cause Monster to Flee on Block Role: Weird ass curse shield? Definately not a leveling shield as we already have Perandus and even Titucus Span. It has a weird role of being like a curse shield, but with the current state of curses, it's not going to do anything significant, nothing you would notice in gameplay. It also has a block theme going on with the chance to flee on block coupled with a really good block chance. It should definately offer +1 curses or an affix that makes curses in its sockets to "pierce" the cannot be cursed affix on rares. In it's current state, I can't see any use for it. Darkscorn
Stats
Bow
Physical Damage: (50–152 to 57–171) Critical Strike Chance: 5% Attacks per Second: 1.38 Requires Level 62, 212 Dex (6 to 12)% increased Elemental Damage with Weapons (100 to 125)% increased Physical Damage Adds (6-10 to 10-14) Physical Damage 10% increased Attack Speed 25% of Physical Damage Converted to Chaos Damage (15 to 30)% increased Accuracy Rating 25% of Physical Damage taken as Chaos Damage Role: Chaos damage bow with physical scaling? Stale 5% crit chance, subpar physical damage per second, chaos damage being almost impossible to scale effectively equals an unviable bow. 25% physical damage taken as chaos damage provides an interesting defensive option but it's not enough to drag this bow out from the swamps of unviableness. Marylene's Fallacy
Stats
Requires Level 40
+(20 to 30) to Intelligence +(80 to 120) to Accuracy Rating (140 to 160)% increased Global Critical Strike Multiplier +(80 to 100) to Evasion Rating (10 to 15)% increased Light Radius Non-critical strikes deal 25% Damage 60% less Critical Strike Chance Your Critical Strikes have Culling Strike Role: ??? Truly a weird bird. Seems too specific to be just a design failure. However, no one has made (and shared) a build utilizing this amulet so far. The less modifier on critcial strike chance seems too big of an objective to overcome combined with the hefty 75% reduction on non-critical strikes. Ambu's Charge
Stats
Armour: (406 to 473)
Energy Shield: (120 to 140) Requires Level 43, 64 Str, 64 Int (140 to 180)% increased Armour and Energy Shield +10% to all Elemental Resistances Gain an Endurance Charge when an enemy Scores a Critical Strike on You 2.0% of Life Regenerated per Second while on Low Life Share Endurance Charges with nearby party members Role: Lowlife chest for party play / Niche chest for non-shavs/lorica lowlifers? With the implementation of Shavronne's Wrappings and later on Solaris Lorica, Ambu's Charge is now next to useless. It doesn't provide enough benefits to be used over Solaris Lorica in lowlife builds and provides next to nothing for life or CI builds. Could use a significant energy shield buff in form of adding flat es as an affix so it would be attractive choice for pre-Shavronne's lowlifers (alongside with Lorica) or for those lowlifers who want to play it without Shavronne's.
(Dis)Honourable mentions (with brief explanations)
Items that can be made work but that could seriously use a little changes to make them better and truly viable.
Oro's Sacrifice - Long story (read pages 1-5 for long story) short : The problems of pure elemental damage and two-handed weapon combined (mana sustainability, life leech, no shield means no ES for EB and no block) with added harsh drawbacks in a very high level sword with a cool theme is just too much. It's an "endgame only" sword that hardly manages to clear endgame of its own level requirement even when built around with 100% commitment. Blackgleam - Blackgleam has its use (niche or not) so I would call this unique somewhat viable. It is not a leveling unique. The change it really needs to have is to always roll 50% conversion, seriously. No other item with conversion rolls for the actual conversion and there is simply no reason anyone would ever want to convert 30% of his damage to fire but not 50%. Maybe add a little life there too since it has no resistances and conversion isn't that strong damage boost to unjustify life on it. Dyadus - Facing the same problems as Oro's Sacrifice but at least it's one-handed. It provides lack luster damage due to its slow attack speed and elemental damage scaling on attack speed. However, Dyadus' original purpose was to open prolif attack builds in which it still somewhat succeeds in. Could seriously use a little higher base elemental damage or some other form of indirect damage buff, for example to its burning ability (significantly increase the 40% burning on chilled enemies?). Bronn's Lithe - Has some nice stats (Increased attack speed, movement speed) on it which are unique to chest pieces. However these stats don't allow a new style of playing nor provide a significant, noticeable boost. Currently no reason to ever use this nice chestpiece over other very available unique chestpieces or a decent rare. Cherrubim's Maleficence - It's a decent chest, providing a whopping ~2k of armor and evasion combined alongside with good +life value. But the 2 unique affixes on this chest don't really make any difference on gameplay (the chaos damage and life leech -ratio increases are barely noticeable). That combined with the fact that there are a handful of very powerful and "gamechanging" unique chestpieces (and even really good rare chestpieces are very accessible) and we're left with a pretty "meh" chestpiece. It lacks something. Jaws of Agony - This unique is an awesome design, providing some nice regular stats such as Physical and Trap damage and even Life. The "unique" mods being -phys damage taken and 15% chance to gain a Power Charge on Throwing a Trap. Also grants you a level 20 Bear Trap. Awesome! However, it fails to do properly what it is supposed to do (grant Power Charges for trappers) and for most builds is overshadowed by okayish rare spell damage shields. Significantly boosting the chance to proc Power Charges on throwing a trap would make this shield so much better, while maintaining the uniqueness. ***** Again, feel free to post any uniques you feel not-viable or disagree with the ones already mentioned. I'd love to hear the opinion of you all on this. Last edited by Grughal#6448 on Dec 3, 2014, 1:28:35 PM
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Oro's Sacrifice requires a decent amount of effort to make viable enough in maps, but of course it is not optimal enough as it is, so it cannot tackle anything. Still, this build is very fun since I am taking advantage of Kaom's Heart, Doryani's Invitation (fire ver.) belt, and Mokou's Embrace to bring out the best of Oro's Sacrifice. Since I am using the sword, I am prone to taking more damage from fire and physical, but for the most part, fire is covered with me having 81 max fire res. Physical dmg mobs are still an issue to an extent, but since I am purely dealing fire damage, I am getting the full benefit out of the leech from the belt. I went into BMK, so I can opt out of the BM gem, and replace it with the LL gem. Now I can deal a lot of damage while leeching back life. I chose Molten Strike because it has a high base damage, and is one of the few gems that can let you be melee and range at the same time. I have a high change of igniting mobs because of the projectiles from the skill + having like more than 1/4 chance of igniting on default. When I completely annihilate a mob, Herald of Ash steps deal a massive amount of burning damage (though, it is still nothing compare to RF lol), but seeing the area become a light show is breath-taking thanks to elemental proliferation. Infernal Blow is another option, but I felt that requires a lot more investment to make just as worthwhile as with Molten Strike. Oro's Sacrifice can be viable, it just requires certain tools, and some effort to build around. Not something you can simply slap onto a character, and call it a day. Sometimes you can take the game out of the garage but you can't take the garage out of the game. - raics, 06.08.2016 Last edited by JohnNamikaze#6516 on Nov 20, 2014, 1:13:28 AM
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Item that needs attention really, really urgently is
Hyrri's Ire This item is a Catch 22 item: you take it to get something that you already have because you took the same thing. One does not take Acro without Phase Acro. It does not make any sense whatsoever. And this item Provides Acro - when one has Phase Acro one has Acro.. Just add '+10% dodge' like CoD or something. This item was buffed by giving it an extra 1000EV (roughly) but that change addressed absolutely nothing. It isnt a leveling unique that one drops after 10 levels. it is a damn top tier EV chest piece. and it is an insta vendor Darkscorn Non crit bow. Enough said. Sadly current 'crit or GTFO' meta made any non-crit bow a garbage choice. Darkscorn had been buffed twice already and each time these changes missed the point. Chaos damage scaling is bad so the 'damage conversion' is meh, base dmg is meh (<200) and 'ele dmg %' implicit is as good as no implicit whatsoever. and it even vendors cheaply.. |
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really like cloak of flame looks but needs 30% phys over to fire and 300 es. no one uses it and has much potential
Git R Dun! Last edited by Aim_Deep#3474 on Nov 20, 2014, 2:13:50 AM
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" I see your point but I'd still like to disagree. You could use a blue sword and acquire acceptable amount of dps and survivability by compensating with other gear. It still wouldn't mean the blue sword is "viable". You're compensating the suckage of Oro's Sacrifise with Kaom's Heart and generally good rares and yet, Oro's could and should be replaced with some other weapon in your build. If the role of Oro's Sacrifise is to be and endgame elemental sword, it fails. However, I could see someone build a Flicker or something else that requires Frenzy charges to be generated without Bloodrage or Frenzy skill itself so it could serve a role of Frenzy generator. This build wouldn't function without Oro's and could possibly perform okayish beyond the level requirement of the sword itself so I'll drop it off the list. |
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" Most definately agree with Hyrri's Ire. EDIT : Darkscorn didn't pass the shit test. It was bad. :P Last edited by Grughal#6448 on Nov 23, 2014, 7:25:22 PM
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Immortal Flesh
Stats
Spoiler
+(25 to 40) to Maximum Life
+(75 to 100) to maximum Life (66.6 to 75.0) Life Regenerated per second (8.0 to 10.0) Mana Regenerated per second −40% to all Elemental Resistances −10% to all maximum Resistances −(50 to 40) Physical Damage taken from Attacks 40% increased Armour while not Ignited, Frozen or Shocked A belt that sounds good in theory with extremely crippling drawbacks while neither being extremely good for life, ES/life builds or CI builds themselves although it has 140+ life on the belt itself. It needs something else other then a "massive" regen belt such as the regen cannot be reduced (so half regen/no regen maps don't make the belt extremely useless) or to lower the -10% resist to -5%. For immortal flesh it makes you extremely squishy for very very meh benefits. It is helpful if you never bring it to maps though. |
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" I disagree. 20% from phys to fire is a strong defense (with AA it's basically 20% flat for most cases) for early and mid-game (hell, even for high level). Also gives nice ignite duration and chance to ignite alongside with decent fire resistance. The conversion also allows you to proc off the new ring with physical damage. Most definately it is a usable unique that provides significant boosts to some builds. Not BiS (unless extrememly niche) but uniques shouldn't be that. |
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Hyrri's Ire:
Where's the IRE? Flat range cold damage? Chill duration? These things (while still off slot) are not too impressive anymore. [??] Evasion +[40 to 60] life 20% of physical damage taken as cold damage Gain 20% of physical damage as added cold damage for 2 seconds after dodging a spell Phase Acrobatics ~Grants a genuine benefit (phase acro) without the drawback (50% less AR and ES gated by acro). This in itself is also a built in drawback, as it means you'll be lacking a significant amount of attack dodge. ~Competes with other uniques (that offer WAY more mitigation by comparison) by offering something unique--protection against EV's primary weakness, physical spells. Phase acro, some phys conversion, and no 50% less AR means greater mitigation against phys spells; less beneficial versus attacks (since you'll be evading anyways) but still provides ~15% phys mitigation for the occasional hit. ~All ?potentially? at the cost of some of its former EV rating. ~Casting spells pisses Hyrri off (might be making that up), so you get a little bit of boom boom pow when you make dodgey the spell enemy. If you want, ignore any of the other changes I proposed, and just replace Acro with Phase Acro. Just phase acro, though, won't compete with Lightning Coil, Cloak of Defiance, etc.. which is about the range of quality that Hyrri's Ire should be (imo). Devolving Wilds Land “T, Sacrifice Devolving Wilds: Search your library for a basic land card and reveal it. Then shuffle your library.” Last edited by CanHasPants#3515 on Nov 20, 2014, 1:32:51 PM
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" I think you are confusing viability with optimization. Both are completely different matter. By me being able to finish maps up to lvl 70-71 without too much trouble is already enough to be viable. Now to make this build even stronger that is being optimized, and that is another matter. It is really difficult to make this sword optimal for map, but it is certainly viable. If this topic is about viability, then this sword fits in, otherwise you are misinterpreting what the term viable is. I mean sure, I can get a better sword to be more optimized, but my build loses that identity. As long I map without dying from a sneeze, then the build is fine. The only reason why I got Kaom's heart is because I wanted to spec into Blood Magic Keystone, not because of making up to Oro's Sacrifice dps/defense, but because the amount of life I need to sacrifice to auras. You may think my build failed, but on the contrary, my build is fine. Edit: At the end of the day, this will come to down to we agree to disagree. Sometimes you can take the game out of the garage but you can't take the garage out of the game. - raics, 06.08.2016 Last edited by JohnNamikaze#6516 on Nov 20, 2014, 3:11:17 PM
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