why are uniques weaker than rares?

What's the reasoning behind uniques being less powerful than rares? shouldn't they be more?

It seems counter intuitive because they are the "prize" of that item slot; the thing you are elated to get.

That's part of the point of item hunting right?

Perhaps I'm confused about how to enjoy the game.

Uniques are all intended to be "special" in some way. They typically, but not always, will do something that a rare won't do, often with some kind of big trade off.

An excellent example of this is Kaom's: +1000 life, no sockets.

Perhaps not all uniques really seem persuasive, however I suspect you'll always have some grist for your fodder.

--C

The best uniques will always be worse than the best possible rares, this is to allow you to item hunt after you already use the best uniques. Gettin the best possible rare items requires perfect stats and perfect rolls so as you could imagine the hunt is virtually endless

Most of the unique items in the this game are meant to have a particular build planned around them.

Basically what Courageous said. Most Uniques are really only useful niche builds and the reason for that is that they don't want to reduce the item variety.

D3 buffed their legendaries, look what happened. Everyone and their grandma is using the same set/legendary combination with perhaps a different ring/amulet.

ahh that makes sense; ty. i'm clumsy figuring out the item system, the simple hints help.

Also, if uniques were better than rares in every way, then there will be no gear diversity because everyone will want to wear the same uniques in end-game.

With something like Kaom's there is a big advantage, but not everyone will want to wear it because the disadvantage is quite severe.

Yeah even thought it sounds counter intuitive uniques are weaker then best rares becouse their simply much more common.

Many uniques are great leveling items too, and aren't meant to be endgame at all. Tabula Rasa is a great example. Any 6-link with the colors you want is a better item. Of course, getting a 6-link with the colors you want can be extremely difficult.

I think uniques are not suppose to completely replace rare. complement them more than replace. I think you'll find yourself wanting 1 or 2 uniques at most for any of your builds, with some exceptions maybe, I don't really see any advantage of wearing all unique gear