Uniques need to focus on Late/Endgame

Uniques in this game need to focus on late/endgame. They don't all have to be endgame base items, but they should all have some utility in late/endgame (here defined as Merciless, particularly A3 Merciless onwards). Uniques that don't usually end up as vendor trash, with useful effects essentially completely wasted on gear next to nobody will ever even try to use.

The reason is twofold.

1. We already have twink uniques. We have a lot of twink uniques. And really, we only need a handful. Once you have Sadima's Touch, there's no point to Hrimsorrow or Ondar's Clasp; once you have Silverbranch, there's no point to Redbeak or Last Resort (there's never a point to last resort). The fact is that quite often, you just end up breezing through the first few acts, and a lot of builds don't really come into their own until the middle of cruel.

2. The vast majority of time for most players is spent in act three merciless and maps. So maybe you balance, say, Zandetheus's Cassock for around level 40. How long will most players actually stay at a level where it's sensible to continue using it? Not very long - sooner or later, they'll need a chestpiece with better defenses, and the effect isn't potent enough on its own, and doesn't scale well enough into endgame to make it sensible to continue wearing.

And what happens then? After you take off that unique that was so well balanced to help you through act two cruel?

You take it off and never use it again. Probably vendor it - there's not much of a market for that kind of thing, and the next char may or may not ever want to use it. The cool effects? Nobody cares - they don't make the char more likely to survive in wraeclast than a chestpiece with good resists and life.

This is why uniques have to be balanced for endgame. Because otherwise, their effects towards improving build variability are lost completely. Because otherwise, they pretty much might as well not be in the game, unless they're very specific twink uniques. We need more Crest of Peranduses, or Searing Touches. Not more Deidbells and Zandetheus's Cassocks.

(The exception, of course, being PvP uniques like the Carnival Mask. But most don't fall into that category.)

We also need less auxiums, shavronnes (although if it didnt function with RF it wouls be fine, and less soul takers.

I'm all for less twink uniques and more finsihed build uniques.

Crest of Perandus for example makes all other low lvl shields pretty pointless IMO. It just feels weird to have so many barely used uniques dropping everywhere and being vendored. Although I am not totally against twink uniques being in the game.


HOWEVER IF WE ARE GOING TO FOCUS ON END GAME UNIQUES PLEASE MAKE THEM BALANCED, I FEEL EMBARRESSED FOR THE GAME EVERYTIME I SEE ANOTHER BADLY BALANCED BASICALLY BEST IN SLOT UNIQUE ADDED.

i think most of the uniques are just not elegant

they have too much fucking shit going on. a million properties, some incredibly specific. some even have no drawbacks while enabling whole builds that give you astronomical advantages.

for every broken positive mechanic you add to a unique, you need to balance it out with broken drawbacks.

it's ok to have positives without drawbacks as long as they aren't completely fucking broken. an item is, after all, designed to help you. astramentis is a good example of an elegant unique. it's strong, but it's not overloaded with crap. instead it just makes itself useful by giving you a shitload of something that everybody needs, and nothing else.

however, you would expect that a modifier like "chaos damage cannot bypass energy shield" would come with a rather severe drawback.

look at Thief's Torment. imagine if you could wear that in a single ring slot? it still wouldn't be as broken as Shavronne, but it would be pretty fucking broken. good thing they put that drawback there, isn't it?

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Budget_player_cadet wrote:

1. We already have twink uniques. We have a lot of twink uniques. And really, we only need a handful. Once you have Sadima's Touch, there's no point to Hrimsorrow or Ondar's Clasp; once you have Silverbranch, there's no point to Redbeak or Last Resort (there's never a point to last resort).

Hrimsorrow does have late-game applications. If you can't see them, think harder.

Ondars Clasp gives 20% aspd on gloves. There's no way to get that much attack speed on gloves otherwise. It certainly has a potential late-game niche.

Silverbranch and redbeak are completely different items, what are you even on about with that? Also, 100% increased damage on low life is really good.

Last resort also has late-game applications for low-life melee builds; you can wear it in your off hand, and use a main-hand-only skill with your other hand. (eg: leap slam with soul taker, Double-strike with essential sanduis, etc...) 100% increased accuracy and 25% increased aspd might be worth not having a sheild or using a dual-wield skill for some low-life melee builds; not to mention the 100% increased claw damage. With a claw in your off-hand, you can also use viper strike too if you want too.
(If the increased aspd is local, though, then I agree, Last resort is mostly useless)

I love low level uniques that can be used in late game. I love finding something truely unique rather than another useless araku tiki or al dhih.

But lets be honest, unless there's a unique to give every keystone in the game, you're not gonna have many low level uniques that are late game useable when there's potentially going to be 300+. And I'm kind of tired of how many new uniques lately are level 60+ only.

I say let uniques be uniques. If there are ones no one ever wants to use (araku tiki) or ones that everyone wants to use (shavronnes) then there can be changes. But creativity is its own bag of salt. Whatever that means.

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Wooser69 wrote:

I love low level uniques that can be used in late game. I love finding something truely unique rather than another useless araku tiki or al dhih.

But lets be honest, unless there's a unique to give every keystone in the game, you're not gonna have many low level uniques that are late game useable when there's potentially going to be 300+. And I'm kind of tired of how many new uniques lately are level 60+ only.

I say let uniques be uniques. If there are ones no one ever wants to use (araku tiki) or ones that everyone wants to use (shavronnes) then there can be changes. But creativity is its own bag of salt. Whatever that means.

Araku Tiki gives a huge HP boost for a level 1 character.
Also, while in late game 1% regen usually isn't good enough to sacrifice the amulet slot for, I bet it does still get used on some builds.

Al dinh gives 15% life leech. That's insane with Vaal Pact. Pop it in your off hand with a high phys weapon in your main hand and you will be the king of life leech with a main-hand-only skill.
(Also, without Al dinh, the max chance to flee you can get is 89%. With a gem slotted in al dinh, it's 99%. That might be useful for some niche application.)

There are very few uniques that genuinely don't have a late game use, and those are all ones which are clearly designed just for early-game levelling (The Ignomon, Silverbranch), along with some weak 2-hand weapons like Limbsplit.

While I agree that I can't imagine wearing Araku Tiki in late game, I usually put it on every character I start, simply because the life is not to be sneezed at and the fire resist is also nice when encountering Fire Fury.
Sure, end game needs uniques, but so does early and mid-game. The main problem is, that often when you find a "crap" unique it seems crap because you find it with a character that cannot make use of it at a level where it is just not good anymore.
It's like D2's Isenhart's Case. I was so pissed off whenever a Hell monster dropped it. Yet, actually it isn't that bad for a new character (although, the sheer amount of Isenhart'ss was really annoying).

Uniques aren't meant to be best in slot items, and there are already far too many that fit that definition. Uniques should either be build-enabling or other such niche items with special drawbacks (besides twinking uniques of course). We can't let another Diablo 3 style situation occur where legendaries became must-have items.

"

Acrosis wrote:

Uniques aren't meant to be best in slot items, and there are already far too many that fit that definition. Uniques should either be build-enabling or other such niche items with special drawbacks (besides twinking uniques of course). We can't let another Diablo 3 style situation occur where legendaries became must-have items.

I'm not asking for BiS uniques. I'm just asking for less useless uniques.

"

CharanJaydemyr wrote:

It's easy to say this.

I dare you to come up with a clean, clear proposal how.

Level 7 twink sword, lasts 20 levels? No worries. No one cares if it's over or underpowered. That's a lark.

level 28 'twink' sword with Mapping potential? Now you're in trouble. Now you need to think about all the possible builds that might exploit it, all the other item interaction (including uniques that haven't even been revealed/released yet), and all the interactions with things like map attributes.

And that's just at level 28.

Then don't make it. I can't think of a solution for some of these uniques, because they're designed as lowbie gear. At which point, the answer is: remove them from the game. Or not delete, but rather just phase out their drop rate. Or boost them to a higher item level and give them a few non-terrible stats (what I'd do to some of the crappier mid-level items).

"

So no, I think you're completely oversimplifying the situation if you feel 'all' uniques can be made end-game viable.

I wasn't asking for that. I meant the majority. We just have too many crappy uniques that have no utility for anything beyond the very start of the game.

"

No ARPG in history has been able to pull this off and quite frankly no ARPG in history has tried. You will always have your Torn Flesh of Souls, your Rixot's Keen, your Silverbranch and so on.

And there's nothing wrong with that. But there is something wrong with making yet another twink unique that nobody will use, and that will inexplicably drop about once every 5-10 maps. There's something seriously questionable about creating awesome, unique effects, then putting them on gear that nobody will use past level 50.

@dudiobugtron: okay, which builds do you see actually using that? Who uses Hrimsorrow, rather than just opting for a decent pair of gloves with attack speed and Hatred? Who uses Ondar's in endgame, when for virtually every CI build, Maligaro's is better, and even then, you can get something like 13% ASP on gloves, plus a meaty ES roll and resists? Those ideas are nice in theory, but in practice, nobody ever uses them. And at that point, it begs the question - why not actually make these uniques designed for endgame, rather than just as shitty twink pieces? Why isn't Al Dihn made a little meatier? You get my point, right?