https://strawpoll.com/polls/kogjvol0vg6
What do you think of the Unique item states of diablo 2?
What proportion of the do you find trash/bad/useless/lacklustre?
Informations: there are 385 uniques in D2
To answer this question I have personally went through all of them and determined those viable and subtracted them from 385
My list contains 42 uniques total
Just a hunch, but I’d think a good 40% of Uniques, especially the lower level ones, are not interesting in a world where they have to compete with the much more reliable early rune words.
On the other hand, I got a Rixot’s Keen in the Stony Fields on this Necro and it was nice up to Andariel, but as soon as I got a +Skills wand it went back in the stash. I’ll always keep it because it was my first Unique in D2R. So there’s positive to be said about the “low level lucky drop” Unique experience… but only on the very low chance when it happens, once in a blue moon.
Uniques are one feature I think D3 did better. Almost every one has some place in a build. Not necessarily the “meta” build, but at least there’s a build that fits almost every Unique.
To add to the pile of decent uniques:
-Ginther’s Rift (Great sword through Nightmare)
-Butcher’s Pupil (Will take a Zealer through Hell upped)
-Lightsabre (Decent dmg, fast, ITD, Light Sorb)
-Azurewrath (Great in undead zones, great for zerging through dolls)
-Atmas’s Scarab (Proc Amp, tons of poison res, AR bump)
-String of Ears (DR%, LL)
-Dungos (DR%, FHR, Life)
-HoZ (Can’t believe you left this off)
-Arm of King Leoric (Great stats, but like Occy, has an annoying downside)
-Goldskin (Great budget resist armor, drains stamina like a hog)
-Ravenfrost (CBF, AR, Dex)
-Dwarf Star (Uber sorb)
-Nature’s Peace (DKey running)
-Cat’s Eye (A slept on amulet great for faster walk builds for max def)
-Lycander’s Aim (With 2.4 changes, an upped version viable for Hell)
-Witchwild String (Upped WW is a safe Hell viable build)
-Tiamat’s Revenge (A great shield with elemental dmg and resists)
-Windforce (Still probably the go-to bow combined with Faith Merc)
-Bartucs (MA Sin)
-Homunculous
-Jalal’s Mane
-Gull Dagger
-Blade of Ali Baba (MF characters)
-Glimmers
-Lacerator
-Warshriek (Throw Barbs)
-Kiras (great for trav merc)
-Stealskull (IAS, MF, Dual Leech)
-Rockstopper (DR%, Resists)
-Vamp Gaze (DR%, Dual Leech)
Just off the top of my head. While many options don’t compare to the high end rune words, there are quite a bit of the unique items that are viable. With the 2.4 changes, many have been given a new lifeline just on the balance changes alone. I wouldn’t be against a slight retune though of some.
You list is way too small and many items deserve to be there as they are not bad at all.
Tldr
It depends on how far along ladder is. Day 1, most uniques are good.
If Enigma’s teleport option is nerfed
All items will have value.
back in 1.08 .109 most unique use to be very good , today i will say maybe 15 to 20 unique max for all the class are good , in the 15 to 20 few are bis most are helmet
how is this seriously a discussion topic for you?
Yeah, no. Even with enigma removed, most uniques are worthless. Hell, most were worthless pre 1.10
This also shows that LoD was rushed. They scaled up monster difficulty, that is fine, and added RW’s again no problem. The problem is they did not scaled the previous uniques affix values, did not add more affixes to it, so the majority of power shifted over to RW’s.
I hope in 2.5 these “forgoten” items will get a rework.
That’s not how I determine if something is good
Otherwise one could say that the starting weapon is good because on the first 5min it’s the best thing you have
Yes and no
This event you talk about is not LOd… it’s 1.10
There were plenty of good uniques before 1.10
For example: Arkaine valour was pretty much the same, so one would say it was bad…
but no, why?
Because it was the only armor that could grant +2 skills
Then 1.10 added coh and Nigma that also granted +2 alongside insanely OP affixes
Then 1.11 with class armors
Nothing is as good as runes. It’s a great design because does it not make sense that end game gear should replace prioritizing mf with things like +skills and ias? Bases are more valuable than uniques even. All that mf people stack ruins their chances of finding good bases lol
Yes exactly what i’m talking about, but no matter.
I have to agree that with the years I grew to hate MF as a stat
If it exists it should be rare
Increase to Item rarity and quantity should come from a sacrifice, like harder content
You don’t sacrifice much having a gheed, you don’t sacrifice much using chancies or travs
In an ideal world, Mf should be greatly reduced and Unique items reworked to be better
They would drop less frequently but be good
That would be an enjoyable gameplay