ZiggyD upcoming unique - Analysis and Suggestions

I saw a ZiggyD video on youtube in which he discusses an upcoming unique that he has been designing in collaboration with the developers. Here is the link to the video: http://youtu.be/2SNheDMNPs8

The item has the following -preliminary- stats:

Unset ring
1 socket
minus 50% all resists
plus 150% fire resist if socketed with a red gem
plus 150% cold resist if socketed with a green gem
plus 150% lightening resist if socketed with a blue gem
Socketed gem has elemental equilibrium
Theme: 'knowledge is power"

The idea behind this ring as ZiggD explains in the vid is that a player knowing in advance the type of Damage dealt by a certain boss in earlier difficulties, he gives the example of Merviel, would equip this ring and accordingly to mitigate the threat posed by that boss. In addition the socketed gem's elemental equilibrium basically gives you a 50 percent increase in elemental damage.

Analysis

Verdict changed: Read Edit first

I love the idea of an unset ring that gets different stats based on the gem that is socketed in it. Overall though, with its current stats, it seems like a really lousy unique.

Yes having 75 percent cold resistance on normal against Merveil makes the fight easier, but who on earth has a problem with normal or cruel Merveil? Besides elemental resists are not hard to come by. Goldrim for example, an item that can be acquired easily for 2 chaos orbs, provides 40 percent increase to ALL resists with no downside. There are plenty of other cheap uniques that provides a ton of resists like: Ashrend/cloak of flame/goldwyrm (fire) briskwrap/Hrimsorrow/kaltenhalt (cold) crest of perandus/peregrine/fairgraves tricorne (lightening) as well as all resist items like (honourhome, three dragons, aursieze, atziri's mirror)

Besides some Bosses are surrounded by minions that do a different kind of elemental damage while others like Dominus do two types of elemental Damage. The downside of this unique can be very detrimental in these cases.

When it comes to resists, The only place where this unique would be truly amazing is in RACES where you don't have the option to shop for cheap high resist uniques.

As for the elemental equilibrium for the socket gem, this roughly translates to a 50 percent increase in elemental damage (when procced). Rare and blue rings however can have up to 30 percent increase of elemental damage for element of choice without the need to proc that.

As it stands it seems like we are looking at another Incandescent Heart or Marylene's Fallacy, a unique which was based on a smart and cool premise but got so botched up in the design process.

Before the damage is made I suggest three alternatives to the current stats which remain true to its intended theme:

Alternative A
Unset ring
+ 50 life or + 50 ES (random)
plus 4% maximum fire resist if socketed with a red gem
plus 4% maximum cold resist if socketed with a green gem
plus 4% maximum lightening resist if socketed with a blue gem
Does not provide additional maximum resists against your own attacks and spells (i.e. Does not benefit Righteous Fire)
Socketed gem has elemental equilibrium

Alternative B
Unset ring
Your attacks and spells have a 7 percent chance to ignite if socketed with a red gem
Your attacks and spells have a 7 percent chance to freeze if socketed with a green gem
Your attacks and spells have a 7 percent chance to shock if socketed with a blue gem
The element associated with the socketed gem is not needed to apply its elemental status effect
Elemental status effect is based on the total damage done by your attacks and spells.
(Note: this alternative does not have Elemental Equilibrium as it would render the ring too overpowered)

Alternative C
Unset ring
+ 50 life or + 50 ES random
Your attacks and spells penetrate 20% fire resistance if socketed with a red gem
Your attacks and spells penetrate 20% cold resistance if socketed with a green gem
Your attacks and spells penetrate 20% lightening resistance if socketed with a blue gem
Minus 4% maximum fire resist if socketed with a red gem
Minus 4% maximum cold resist if socketed with a green gem
Minus 4% maximum lightening resist if socketed with a blue gem

Edit: I rechecked the phrasing of elemental equilibrium. I stand corrected. I previously thought EE gives 50 percent more elemental damage of a specific element but actually it gives -50 percent resistance which would be really potent against Bosses if the devs allow it to apply fully to bosses. So basically a boss with 75 percent elemental resist will have his resistance reduced to ZERO when EE on this ring is used in conjunction with a penetration gem on your attack/spell.

Still there are some serious downsides to this ring. It works only for 5 seconds before it needs to be procced again. Also, the resistance part is too gimmicky. No life or ES roll either. As it stands though, I change my verdict of this unique with its current stats, as pretty darn solid for builds that plan on making use of its Elemental Equilibrium ability

Ring seems fine, especially for cruel runs where mobs and bosses are a bit more dangerous but you may not want to spend a bunch of currency on resist items.

EE on socketed gem is interesting. Can't think of any cases where you would want that for endgame over a 4-5 socketed EE proc link, but again if you're an EE build in cruel and don't want to bother with getting two four-links, this checks those boxes nicely.

uniwue looks 'so cool' - that is it is so weird that it is difficult to balance and it shall end as a) OP b) marylenes fallacy

what was much more interesting then the unique itself were the comments about 'balance designers' comments. no wonder we got crown of f.. balance and several other broken items. they were 'ok with that'

Another thing I noticed about the ring: it's a really good solution to the common "strong aoe weak against bosses" problem many builds tend to have.

If your build is a single element-based build, chances are you need curses to push up damage against high-resist mobs. Problem is, bosses have a high curse resist. So what might be -80 to resists ends up being only -16.

Socketing something like flame totem would be a great way to push down boss resists (since they get the full -50%). Its not a complete wasted slot either, giving around 50%resists total.

Do we really need another bad low level unique? The -50% is far to much and EE only with the socketed gem is terrible. If he made it -25% and the actual EE keystone and then added a couple more useful stats like + dex, + max mana, + max life for the color of gem it might be kinda useful. As it is now a Kaom's Sign or Blackheart are more useful at low levels.

Good ring, would use.

"

The -50% is far to much and EE only with the socketed gem is terrible.

Why in the world would you think that? Are you trying to nerf what this ring does best?

Elemental Equilibrium only on the socketed gem is amazing. This means your 6 six link Arc, for example, can be spammed after using just one use of Ice Nova for example. You no longer need to keep reapplying EE.

Because of how awesome the ability is, this is probably an end game ring.

yes, quite powerfull ring :)

You can put Cold Snap in it and use Discharge or Arc for example :)
Insane boost of damage :)

OP has no clue about game mechanism. For a DPS oriented caster build, it's almost BiS as it is.

Just to give a direct comparision. The ring is like using doedre for an extra elemental curse except it can apply to two elements(assuming the first curse is elemental weakness).

Now it makes it sound less awesome until you realize bosses are highly resistant to curses(60-70% less effectiveness) and that the curse immune rare affix/map mod exists.

This means that the equilibrium is strictly better than doedre if you can apply it to enemies quick enough. It's also better than the keystone for most builds since your main skill won't activate it. Might be worse for some though like EE crit trap builds.

For those saying this ring is good for endgame... I call bullshit.

Some of the commentators apparently have not read the analysis or have limited understanding of game mechanics. The elemental equilibrium that some here are gushing about is equivalent to a 50 percents increase in elemental damage. Rare rings can provide up to 30 percent increase in elemental damage with no need to proc and with additional useful stats and none of the downsides of this ring.

As for dps spellcaster builds that one mentioned, they get their spell damage/elemental damage bonus from passive tree, wand/dagger, shield, amulet, and 2 rings and sometimes even helm and chest. The increase provided by this ring over a regular ring is negligible at the expense of survivability and the need to switch between skills.