Isn't Windripper Blatantly Overpowered?

Yeah, why not just up the base crit chance of Thicket bows (+others from the high aps bow family)?

Currently all bows have a base crit of 5% with only Death/Deci/Harb having a implicit that is upping the base... rhich is kind of strange in the first place, why don´t they just have a higher base crit like it is with all other weapons?

While you are at it, up the implicit of the Ele Damage Bows so maybe a non crit bow with it could deal some decent damage...

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qquno wrote:

Dunno, I think there could be strong/OP uniques, unmatched by any rare, but it should be something unique/special about it.

Compare unnerfed Soul Taker vs Mjolner. ST had quite good DPS and granted "unlimited" mana, that was bad since ST was simply BiS axe most of the time unless you had mirrored axe. Now look at Mjolner, it have shitty stats for mace, yet it grants unique mechanics, with proper build and gear it can be really OP in terms of DPS and surviability. Not a single mace can match Mjolner, since they simply does not grants such mechanics :) That does not mean Mjolner breaking "rares > uniques" rule.

But in case of Ripper, myeah its pretty lame unique since it basically just buffed to the sky crit chance and APS, its not really "unique" mechanic, and that makes rare bows saaad saad panda. Yet I am not the one who call for NURFS, I prefer new bow base which able to roll similar stats as Ripper.

I agree with this in principle. Uniques are interesting when they don't compete directly with rares. The more it forces the player to think, the better it is.

Mjolner may be too strong or too weak, but at least we can all agree it's not a drop-in replacement for a rare. The build has to be made with Mjolner in mind, and it also massively effects other gear requirements. Ignoring balance, it's got unique qualities and a bucket-load of theme and style to match.

Windripper is just a "mega-rare". It's unique qualities are... flat damage, aspd, crit chance, and fuck it, throw in some magic find as well. A crit bow build can drop it in without changing anything and just start doing better. It inspires no creativity, it has no theme, it's just numbers on a spreadsheet.

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As for "how to fix it", I haven't a fucking clue anymore with how GGG has been acting. If it were 2 years ago, I'd have a million ideas of how to allow for sidegrades, allow for people to be creative, and so on. GGG have gone down a dark path of item design and they've proven that they will not fix their item mistakes in a timely fashion, waiting instead for the end of an N-month league (or never) to fix things.

As for base items, god knows the game could use way better base itemization. They have already given one pass over the highest level bow implicits (crit chance on harbinger, WED on maraketh), but more could be done, and on virtually every item type as well. They did say somewhere recently that they were looking at implicits again, so hopefully 1.4 will breathe some new life into itemization.

I do like what you said xMustard in regards to converting physical to elemental. I hadn't thought of this. Maybe this is where the balance is supposed to come in? I wouldn't know.

Thanks for the thoughts everybody ^^. Extremely insightful and I agree with you pneuma. Items that give build options and aren't just stats are definitely the best (as long as they aren't absolutely garbage tier :D). And they are by design going to be the most unique since they will introduce new mechanics.

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pneuma wrote:

Seriously stop saying uniques need to be better than rares.

The OP is right. If your build relies on aspd and crit chance, the Windripper simply cannot be beaten by any other bow. The flat damage and magic find on the windripper is just icing on the cake.

There should be both, like it is now. Windripper allows to play one build (so even if it has no "new mechanic" has its role), otherwise ppl just would play a phys build with gg rare bow like already said in the topic. There will be always bis gear, and no it shouldn't be always a rare.

When Windripper was introduced, there was no Herald of Ice/Thunder. That synergy takes it into problematic territory, balance-wise. The main issue though is the strength of critical strikes in this game.

I have a lot of changing thoughts and feelings on the subject of rares>uniques.

When I look at this...

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Windripper is just a "mega-rare". It's unique qualities are... flat damage, aspd, crit chance, and fuck it, throw in some magic find as well. A crit bow build can drop it in without changing anything and just start doing better. It inspires no creativity, it has no theme, it's just numbers on a spreadsheet.

...I'm torn in two directions.

A part of me thinks that this is perfectly OK, because it essentially allows people to make generic "damage-builds" at a lower cost than a well-crafted rare. When a windripper drops, I'll know that I can make that kickass crit bow whatever build. The whatever is key.

Another part of me thinks that uniques should fill a more niche role. When a Mjolnir drops, I'm cornered into a pretty narrow selection of viable builds. It's still fucking great when I build for it, but I can't just pop it into the weapon slot of several already-made characters and know it'll work.

Apep's Rage has the same... problem?... as Windripper in that regard. It's an amazing wand, and I could comfortably slot it with many different builds and know it's going to work well. But, it's not just a rare on steroids like Windripper (and hell, Belly of the Beast) seems to be.

I think we do need items like that. It's OK to have mindless, strong uniques. It's also not OK to have scads of them, which at the moment we do not. For now, I'll be content to see where GGG goes with it.

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Kiri2k wrote:

You misread!

No, you miswrote. Read your post again. Grammatically, there is no other valid way to interpret that than you having said that windripper ("windflipper") is one of the "useless shit" uniques.

Post your uber video and I'll decide after watching it.

I wouldn't know because it's impossible to buy one on Standard as someone decided to corrupt them all and is now selling them for 500ex.