This weekend, I had Occulus drop. After some testing and three of four NMD, this wand joined the dust-heap in my Stash. The problem isnt the random teleport issue. It’s just a gimpy wand - it doesnt offer enough compensation for its horrific lack of offensive capability.
RoI sits in my vault - not enough defense.
So far, the boots are the only thing I can actually work in my build, and that’s because the actual boot slot doesnt have mandatory affixes I cant do without. All the rest of the uniques give up too much to equip.
So now, you see a unique drop and your first thought is “darn, no chance for a good drop there.” They’re like Sacred drops.
When an Oculus dropped in D2, we’d party serious - and every single Sorc would fight to equip it. They were worth some excitement.
This game doesnt have ANY drops that generate excitement for my sorc. The BEST thing I can get at this point is a 1% better item in an armor slot.
That is a common take and also quite incorrect. The Oculus wand is actually very good and super under rated. There are other outliers though, like the fireball staff, that appear to be strictly worse than other options though - so I concede on the main point.
It could be that the devs introduce something to see “how it plays out” in the near term while having other ideas to work with a previous item in tandem – sort of how sets would work – but in aspect form.
Its my favorite sorc weapon by far and i was skeptical at first. But coupled with esu’s heirloom you can push 80%+ crit chance with the Aspect of the Bounding Conduit. I ran it with CL for a while and switched to blizzard for more defensive and can facetank NM70 carrying a full party… when the druids and necros are dead im still rolling lol… its absolutely amazing. I think the issue is lack of good build guides…and it does suck with single target structures but that’s the case with most sorc builds, but i always play with a team so its a non issue… i don’t think id ever go back to using a basic wand or staff again after using occy… its just too much fun.
You are correct, It should gimp your output. Oculus isn’t compatible with any builds as an Endgame item. It is at best decent at PvP. For PvE Oculus wand is nothing but a good transmog. It is not a BiS item in any of the current builds.
The wand suffers from its unique power. If it doesn’t have random teleports it would be at least useable for speedrunning.
Yeah I have some dusty uniques in my closet as well my friend lmao. I like the boots too and I also like the temerity pants…you just have to be in the position to always be activating them for the barrier which is tricky but doable… I spend 90% of my time or more barriered and have my build tweeked accordingly to cause that and also to benefit from it. But to your point…OMGwtfbbq sauce.
I’m sure that most of the uniques could be used with a build absolutely designed for them. But that’s my point - my build isnt, and therefore a unique drop is just a lost opportunity for a good item. Because there’s effectively NO chance of it being something exciting. Which was not the case in D2. I am wondering why the Developers simply dont see this point and designed a terrible itemization system where the entire point of playing is nullified. An ARPG without a drop that makes you fist-pump once in while is a game with no point in playing.
If the evade charges were replaced with +20% Vulnerable Damage and the Lucky Hit proc’d, say, “+15% crit chance for 5 seconds” the thing would be totally a good item and worth equipping.
The Oculus wants you to teleport in this game. That wasn’t the case in the original D2, that option was a chance if you get hit. The original Oculus was mainly a item that helped you farm.
It was never suppose to be an End-Game item. That is from design perspective.
If we wanna continue that narrative, the item is near useless on drop here. Apart from the visuals. It’s original option is not helping you do anything better or faster. Just a random teleport.
Unless you decide to not use the evade charges. I that case if you do, just don’t use Oculus at all. The whole concept of this item was made by someone that barely played Diablo 2. And just put this item ingame for a transmog.
Well in D2 you already had the ability to infinitely teleport so you didn’t really need more teleports as it were.
Your second paragraph really hits the nail on the head for the bigger uniquely ‘Unique’ problem. Almost no unique are designed for ‘End Game’. You could even make the case that TR is useless against Uber Lilith End game content (with capital E as final thing to do).
It’s interesting people find the Occy useful in this game. It’s quite literally not. It makes your chest useless, slows you down considerably and the damage output really isn’t there compared to a great rare that you threw an aspect on.
I play HC so this wand wouldn’t be used even for memes, but even in softcore I can’t see this being useful. Perhaps PvP? Seems unlikely even then. You lose your evade, may as well unbind it for what? To have like a level 20 teleport? Lol tf.
Clearly whoever designed it didn’t care to keep the heart of Occy by being a 25% chance. The reason occy was even decent at a early-mid game point was because of the MF and skill points. No one (and I mean no one) uses it once they get a good rune word (hoto, infinity), or in this game… Ever. You would use a subpar rare with a nice aspect before this item.
This is the fundamental point. You see a Unique Ancestral Wand drop - and your reaction is “sigh… Another piece of vendor trash.”
If the OCCULUS creates that feeling, the game’s loot system is fundamentally broken. There’s literally NOTHING that could drop that would be interesting (OK, possibly a unique helm, but what are the odds?). So I farm and farm and farm and then go vendor everything. My gear is still not especially good. But upgrades are very rare, and most important, you find out in town at the vendor, not in the dungeon. It just doesnt work.
Bingo - I basically hoard uniques to sell all at once at this point to see how many mill I can get a turn in.
I feel that way about most uniques though for sorc. Piercing charged bolt? LOL. Come on.
IDK, I love sorc and always will, but it makes me wonder why I play it sometimes and why I did it pre-season buggy asf) and S1 (still same bugs they refuse to even acknowledge). I guess I like pain… explains why I play HC too. shrug
I just hope they revisit a lot of stuff for S3, I assume S2 is going to still have these uniques and they will still be underwhelming. Sure we will get another one or two, but meh. Even if they’re amazing, still doesn’t save the fact majority of uniques for Sorc in general blow.
Yes - every bit as much when I pick up a uniqe Staff of Endless Rage. Or the wonderful Fists of Fate trash gloves. Seriously, who ever thought the idea of making your gloves RNJeesus was a good idea?
