If you could up uniques to compete with runewords, what would they be ?

Hypothetical Dream, once again: let's imagine that Blizzard would like to make some Unique / top Set items more competitive with the Runewords that we see everyone whatever they were designed for : Enigma, Hoto, Grief, Spirit shield... (they could be nerfed but that's not the topic here), what should they do?

Not better, as runewords are usually harder to get, but at least not ridiculous.

The rule of the thread is:
- you can only up 1 item for each "classical" d2 build.
- It must be a unique or a set piece or set bonus.
- it must not make something OP, just slightly better.

Will start with my class: Necromancer.

- Bonemancer:

Will want to up

Boneshade. It's a fair

Wand but stock between White, which is meant to be mid-level, and Hoto that we see everywhere.
It also have very variable stats so good Boneshades are not very common.

Proposed up: +10% fcr, from 25 to 35.

Necros without Spirit shield struggle to reach the 125 breakpoint, that could allow not needing a 2/20 amulet, using 2 fcr rings... more flexibility. Hoto still has res and great stats, but

Boneshade is socketable and is better for Bone spells.

- Summoner :

Summoner is cool, have good weapons (Leoric / Beast) that are not super common. Definitely needs Enigma to shine, but at least here it really makes sense.


Therefore would pick

Marrowwalk for up, as since the bug removal these "standard" summoner

Boots are... not great. Low utility, strength requirement is so high that the strength boost only serves to get... another Spirit

Monarch ^^

I would do two changes:
- either +10% frw for a total of 30, as many uniques have
- or 10% fhr as this is not easy to get as a necro

You can compensate a bit of fhr/frw with charms but they are both on the same affix slot, making that filling your inventory.

- and second change -15% requirements (still need about 100 strength but way better than 118!)

Necrarch wrote: 2 years ago

Will start with my class: Necromancer.

- Bonemancer:

Will want to up

Boneshade. It's a fair

Wand but stock between White, which is meant to be mid-level, and Hoto that we see everywhere.
It also have very variable stats so good Boneshades are not very common.

Proposed up: +10% fcr, from 25 to 35.

Necros without Spirit shield struggle to reach the 125 breakpoint, that could allow not needing a 2/20 amulet, using 2 fcr rings... more flexibility. Hoto still has res and great stats, but

Boneshade is socketable and is better for Bone spells.

don't forget that you can have a +3

Bone Spear on a White base with 2 sockets and it gives you a solid boost of +5 to

Bone Spear in White (which then is +8 to

Bone Spear vs. +5 to

Bone Spear with a

Boneshade)
I have a

Wand like this, haven't tried it yet. should be nice.
also have a max rolled

Boneshade on all variables and have to test that too
maybe next season

- Poisonmancer:

Death's Web is already BiS, so we can see elsewhere. Often goes with 3 pieces of Trang set: Wing +

Claws + Girth for the Poison effect.

What about putting a slight up on that ?

Suggested change:

Trang-Oul's Wing now comes with 2 open sockets. The set overall gets a boost, this can be used for many stuff (Pdiamond for Res,

Eld for blocking, facets for poisoners...).

Additional change for the set: align Guise and Girth to required level 60 to ease full Trang use earlier.

That's all for my suggestions ! What about yours ? For which class and build ? Give us (reasonable) ideas ! ^^

Crispin wrote: 2 years ago

Necrarch wrote: 2 years ago

Will start with my class: Necromancer.

- Bonemancer:

Will want to up

Boneshade. It's a fair

Wand but stock between White, which is meant to be mid-level, and Hoto that we see everywhere.
It also have very variable stats so good Boneshades are not very common.

Proposed up: +10% fcr, from 25 to 35.

Necros without Spirit shield struggle to reach the 125 breakpoint, that could allow not needing a 2/20 amulet, using 2 fcr rings... more flexibility. Hoto still has res and great stats, but

Boneshade is socketable and is better for Bone spells.

don't forget that you can have a +3

Bone Spear on a White base with 2 sockets and it gives you a solid boost of +5 to

Bone Spear in White.
I have a

Wand like this, haven't tried it yet. should be nice.
also have a max rolled

Boneshade on all variables and have to test that too
maybe next season

Absolutely, a White can be offensively better, but will miss FCR in the long run so will need... another Spirit

Monarch. The idea is to make other builds better to play !

1)

Plague Bearer sword - atm is useless. But if it had -poison res, or +poison ed% (instead of that flat +poison dmg, ruining it's very idea)...

2) Eschuta, ofc. Change it's fire/light +%dmg, to equal -fire/light

Pierce I wonder why it hasn't been done yet, after all these years.

3) Poor Mavina bow... nuff said. It must be better than that. Add some -cold

Pierce to it, for example.

To be continued later, perhaps.

Black Hades and

Head Hunter's Glory-

Black Hades should have +1 skills, 50 mf, and 40 ar. That would make it compete with Enigma for elemental builds(can shove 3 facets in).

Head Hunter's Glory- should have

Lower Resist on striking, That would change some builds for sure. Maybe reduce sockets to 1-2 this way.

Aldur's set- +1 to

Fire Mastery, +1

Cold Mastery oskills. That would be really cool.

Stormspire is utterly pathetic for being a tc87 unique. both the physical and elemental damage on it are unimpressive, it's lacking cb/ds/ow, and it can't even roll ethereal to somewhat offset the low damage. the only semi-interesting stat on it is the chance to cast level 20

Charged Bolt when struck, but that's still pretty weak without any synergies to boost it.

here's what i would do to make it suck a bit less:

150-250% Enhanced Damage -> increase to 300% max
Adds 1-237 Lightning Damage -> increase damage to 1-1000
2% Chance To Cast Level 20

Charged Bolt When Struck -> increase level to 40, proc chance to 10%
5% Chance To Cast Level 5

Chain Lightning When Struck -> increase level to 25, proc chance to 10%
30% Increased Attack Speed
Lightning Resist +50%
+10 To Strength
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 27 -> increase damage to 200
Indestructible

add -60% to enemy lightning resistance
add 2 open sockets

It's something I've been thinking for years.

My answer: Put "+1 to

Teleport" in

Tyrael's Might.

IntSomnium wrote: 2 years ago

It's something I've been thinking for years.

My answer: Put "+1 to

Teleport" in

Tyrael's Might.

Love it ! Have to say I had thought about it too. ^^

Or Angel Flight, a better version of

Dragon Flight

And guys try to link your changes to actual (or new) builds !

Mostly just dreaming here, but how about a new item class of SUPER rare/powerful legendary items which can't be traded? I'd love a dark red colored loot txt and have it be insanely small drop chance, making

Jah runes seem common in comparison.

Would give players who have reached the end of endgame something to keep looking for, and wouldn't be able to just JSP it. Maybe an average of 2-3 would drop by the time one reaches level 99. Only potential problem is PvP might become unbalanced (but I don't PvP, so not really sure).

I can see it now.. A legendary PhaseBlade named "Dragonfury, Blessed

Blade of the Demonslayer"

Gonna go in with an item that I think would have a great idea, but in execution just lacks:

Corpsemourn:

Spoiler

Think you'd find plenty Characters that would love the increased clear-speed from this one! Certainly think it would become an option.

IntSomnium wrote: 2 years ago

It's something I've been thinking for years.

My answer: Put "+1 to

Teleport" in

Tyrael's Might.

YESSSSSSS

Angel_Witch wrote: 2 years ago

Gonna go in with an item that I think would have a great idea, but in execution just lacks:

Corpsemourn:

Spoiler

Corpsemourn.png

Think you'd find plenty Characters that would love the increased clear-speed from this one! Certainly think it would become an option.

At first, your work is great. And this is also a perfect idea. CE is powerful skill and by this way, it can be used by other classes as for Necro with just one CE creates a chain of CEs. Ona

Frenzy Barb with the chance of AD, I'd love to see it!

Angel_Witch wrote: 2 years ago

Gonna go in with an item that I think would have a great idea, but in execution just lacks:

Corpsemourn:

Spoiler

Corpsemourn.png

Think you'd find plenty Characters that would love the increased clear-speed from this one! Certainly think it would become an option.

this would be real fun on a

Lightning Fury zon.

Angel_Witch wrote: 2 years ago

Gonna go in with an item that I think would have a great idea, but in execution just lacks:

Corpsemourn:

Spoiler

Corpsemourn.png

Think you'd find plenty Characters that would love the increased clear-speed from this one! Certainly think it would become an option.

I always thought that

Corpsemourn was really neat, but never used it or found a reason to (other than fashion style points ).
With changes like this, It would be an amazing alternative for elemental users having a hard time with immunities! or anyone, really. Would be my new goto unique armor <3
Would be really fun on my

Hurricane druid while i wait for an Enigma ^^

Peaceful_Leaf wrote: 2 years ago

Angel_Witch wrote: 2 years ago

Gonna go in with an item that I think would have a great idea, but in execution just lacks:

Corpsemourn:

Spoiler

Corpsemourn.png

Think you'd find plenty Characters that would love the increased clear-speed from this one! Certainly think it would become an option.

I always thought that

Corpsemourn was really neat, but never used it or found a reason to (other than fashion style points ).
With changes like this, It would be an amazing alternative for elemental users having a hard time with immunities! or anyone, really. Would be my new goto unique armor <3
Would be really fun on my

Hurricane druid while i wait for an Enigma ^^

I will always have fond memories of

Corpsemourn - back in the old days, when I only played SP or TCP/IP with friends and didn't have a lot of stuff (hardly any HRs), me and a friend were trying to play through the game organically on an Amazon & Barbarian. Hell got really tough for us early on, and we were having a lot of trouble, so I picked up

Corpsemourn for my Amazon (a Bowazon Freezing+Immolation/

Exploding Arrow build), and started making full use of the

Corpse Explosion charges. That carried us through Hell basically. We still died a fair bit, but it was fun.

So - these suggested changes to

Corpsemourn would be awesome, would really make it even more unique as well than it already is.

Peaceful_Leaf wrote: 2 years ago

I always thought that

Corpsemourn was really neat, but never used it or found a reason to (other than fashion style points ).
With changes like this, It would be an amazing alternative for elemental users having a hard time with immunities! or anyone, really. Would be my new goto unique armor <3
Would be really fun on my

Hurricane druid while i wait for an Enigma ^^

cougar wrote: 2 years ago

this would be real fun on a

Lightning Fury zon.

Thanks for the feedback, but I am pretty sure that this effect would only trigger on physical attacks that kill the target and not spells - Breath of the Dying has this effect wtih

Poison Nova already and it doesn't work on any Spell and on some special cases also not on attacks (for example:

Whirlwind). So wouldn't work with

Hurricane at all and for

Lightning Fury it probably would only work on the targets that do die from the main projectile.

As the goal is to make nice stuff but not OP, that is not bad news !

Other ideas, guys ? If possible linked to builds ?