After 4+ months of trying to find a viable 100% unique item build...

I've finally achieved it on my L85 Mara, that I created about a week ago.


After getting back into PoE about 5 months ago, I've been on a quest to build a character that uses 100% unique items only. Not a single rare. "Why?" you may ask. Well to be absolutely honest: I absolutely hate finding/crafting/trading for rares. The whole process of scoping out the exact affixes on a particular base item feels very off-putting and tedious to me. Lastly, I know that if I don't outfit my character with mirror-worthy rares (6 T1), the OCD in me will constantly remind me that there's something "better in slot". Uniques are plentiful, and they are replicable. That was my motivation.

Anyway, the 100% unique item challenge has proved tough in a number of ways; the bigger ones being a lack of +HP and +resists on gear. I've spent upwards of 300+ Regret Orbs respecing and min/maxing close to 15-20 different builds, trying hundreds of different unique item combinations, ranging from Shadow/Ranger/Witch to Templar, Duelist, and now Marauder. The builds I've tried include different variations of CoC, self-cast, trapper, summoner, MoM/EB, dual-totem, blender, spectral-throw, Righteous Fire, Detonate Dead, Split/Explosive/Poison Arrow and none have been viable with 100% unique gear.

The ultimate test for all of these builds was to: comfortably run the toughest of maps (76-78), and of course beat Atziri. Some of you may say "oh, the gear's worth like 100ex+. It should automatically be end-game capable", which couldn't be further from the truth. Unless you've tried it first-hand, there's a lot more to making a build "gel" together than the cost associated with acquiring the items. This may not be the cheapest build that has killed Atziri, nor does it have the fastest clear speed, but for the price in gear, I'd say it ranks as one of the funnest and most unique end-game builds. Pun intended.

All things considered, after 4 months of trial & error, I'm just satisfied to have finally completed this self-challenge.

/inb4standardscrub
/inb4legacyitem
/inb4mjolner

gz,
can u link ur skill tree?

CoE, Shav, Prism, Bino's, 2x Taming, Acuity, Lioneyes, Auxium, Marylenes Fallacy

Moltenstrike or Flicker...

GG

Next one is only having unique flasks, too. :P

Fun idea, definitely looks like a fun thing to try. The build I'm running right now is theoretically capable of the same thing. Not as effective as your build, and likely won't be killing Atziri(But it can at least do 78 maps, so close enough in my books), but it is a whole lot cheaper. I'll link my gear.

It's basically a low-life version of Fox's Arc build, that uses Solaris Lorica. The downside of uniques is that they rarely have any resists, but being low-life allows the use of all purity auras, so that main problem is solved, and the rest just sort of came together at level 82 when I was able to sustain RF.

Note: I haven't linked any rings/amulets for no other reason than because my actual build uses rare rings and amulets. That being said it could be pretty easily coverted to an all unique build by using Eye of Chayula, and two random Unique rings that sort of fit the build.

Note 2: For anyone wondering, I manage approximately 5100 ES when using Solaris, and RoTP and no snapshotting what so ever, which definitely surprised me, I expected to have way less.


EDIT: Saw the Perandus Signet's you're using, and realized that those are probably the perfect rings for the set-up, due to how reliant on ES it is, I might actually try that in the build proper when I get home. Thanks for the idea.

"

Nightmare90 wrote:

GG

Next one is only having unique flasks, too. :P

Yeah dude where the Divination Distillates and shit?

If Flasks add to the Int increase from Perandus Signet, you might even be able to fidget around your passives somewhat, depending on how hard it was to meet the int requirement for Mjolner

"

Ceratoidei wrote:

CoE, Shav, Prism, Bino's, 2x Taming, Acuity, Lioneyes, Auxium, Marylenes Fallacy

Moltenstrike or Flicker...

Would it actually work? Sounds powerful, but a lot of things sound good no paper until you actually get out in the field.

"

Nightmare90 wrote:

GG

Next one is only having unique flasks, too. :P

I completely forgot about the flasks actually. Guess my build isn't 100% unique after all :(

"

Shotgun_Surgeon wrote:

Fun idea, definitely looks like a fun thing to try. The build I'm running right now is theoretically capable of the same thing. Not as effective as your build, and likely won't be killing Atziri(But it can at least do 78 maps, so close enough in my books), but it is a whole lot cheaper. I'll link my gear.

It's basically a low-life version of Fox's Arc build, that uses Solaris Lorica. The downside of uniques is that they rarely have any resists, but being low-life allows the use of all purity auras, so that main problem is solved, and the rest just sort of came together at level 82 when I was able to sustain RF.

Note: I haven't linked any rings/amulets for no other reason than because my actual build uses rare rings and amulets. That being said it could be pretty easily coverted to an all unique build by using Eye of Chayula, and two random Unique rings that sort of fit the build.

Note 2: For anyone wondering, I manage approximately 5100 ES when using Solaris, and RoTP and no snapshotting what so ever, which definitely surprised me, I expected to have way less.

Spoiler

Sounds like a really nice build :) That Vaal mask really changed the game on self-casting, or else mana would hardly be sustainable. And yeah, the resists are definitely a limiting factor in creating these builds. It's either you fill in the gaps with passive nodes or auras. Anyway, you should update us with a video or something when you get it up and running. I'd love to start experimenting with other 100% unique builds.

"

Shotgun_Surgeon wrote:

EDIT: Saw the Perandus Signet's you're using, and realized that those are probably the perfect rings for the set-up, due to how reliant on ES it is, I might actually try that in the build proper when I get home. Thanks for the idea.

Yeah, I specifically used the Signet to cover my intelligence requirement for Mjolner. It gives me roughly +75 intelligence just from wearing 10 uniques. Could work well for anyone who needs an extra boost in ES too.

"

ragebringer11 wrote:

gz,
can u link ur skill tree?

Thanks, I'm actually thinking of respeccing a large portion of the tree to save some skill points. I first started off as a standard RF Mjolner build, so some things are still not properly optimized.

"

rrtson wrote:

Sounds like a really nice build :) That Vaal mask really changed the game on self-casting, or else mana would hardly be sustainable. And yeah, the resists are definitely a limiting factor in creating these builds. It's either you fill in the gaps with passive nodes or auras. Anyway, you should update us with a video or something when you get it up and running. I'd love to start experimenting with other 100% unique builds.

Yeah, the build's turning out to be way more viable than I was expecting. When I was first planning it out, I was thinking that I'd try going low-life Solaris, and see if I can get RF running while still having around 3.5K ES. Which isn't really good, but seemed like a fun idea, with 5K ES though it can actually work as a build.

Need to go up a few more levels so that I can do a few passive optimizations, but after that I'll probably make a thread in the Witch section of the forum detailing the build. Doubt I'll be able to get a video up though, Canadian Internet providers tend to like charging you $1.50-$2.00 per GB of bandwidth for no other reason than because they're evil. So screenshots will have to do.