What is the best designed unique in the game?
Seeing as there's a lot of warranted talk about how bad uniques are, what do you believe are the best designed uniques.
I don't necessarily mean strongest. Ingenuity is so good it invalidates all other belts which arguably makes it a badly designed unique.
Curious to see what people come up with?
Comments
First I completely agree that the uniques that makes all other items in that slot not even an option (when you can afford it ofc) is actually bad design.
I love the gloves with decimating strike. It is completely scaling: + x% attackspeed is actually even better late game than early, and the decimating strike taking x% of health on first hit obviously also scales from early to late game. It is also a very heavy dmg on rares and bosses. But it's not so strong that other options can't be as good or even better (even without looking at HoWA). It's a loss in average DPS compared to rare gloves with high plusses to dmg, but especially for non-glass-canon builds I think they are nice and balanced and if it wasn't for HoWA that for half the builds are the gloves version of Ingenuity, they would actually be worthwhile for many.
Generally speaking there's a lot of fun designs in gloves. But then they also made HoWA....
Best is kinda subjective, for me here it would be interesting, build defining, with an effect you don't see somewhere else, so i'd pick Olrovasara.
It gets stronger as you face stronger enemies, which i really like design wise.
And you needing to actively hit the enemy makes it viable only in a specific archetype, attack builds, so it can't be abused for other stuff.
https://poe2db.tw/us/Splinter_of_Loratta
Its a stick.
I really like corpsewade that grants Decompose. I've played over 300 hours on a purely corpsewade build. It's a nice plus to clear speed for poison builds or in my case it's the entire build. It's so damn strong I was able to spec into Move Speed to offset the 10% MS (I've got 40%). Also, because your weapons don't matter anymore, it adds a lot of build variety. Wand + focus for pure DMG, Sceptre + focus, Sceptre + Shield, wand + Sceptre. All viable!
lifespring and the crossbow that makes you fire extra bolts after reloading are really nice in my opinion and there should be high level versions of them with higher damage and or more modifiers on them
I like the grand regalia from arbiter boss. I use 2, for my titan with life/element res and for my gemling life/stats.
Also great drip
A homebrew build of mine uses Threaded Light to great effect.
Choir of the storm. Even if you don’t use it together with Trampletoes, etc it can be such a huge buff for someone who just got to end game.
If you’re talking about what the item enables you to do? My best call is Temporalis (the -3.5 cooldown is huge for some warrior skills/conc builds for example)
Yet I think some uniques have their specific use and there’s probably just a few bad designed uniques where we still haven’t found a use for
In PoE1 it was Mjolnir. Hoping we get that in PoE2 soon!
In PoE2 maybe for me it's Choir of the Storm, that was fun.
More than an affirmation this is a question. Astramentis seems to be great for stacking attributes but -4 reduced damage from seems almost nothing on endgame.
Doesn't exist, but it would have been cool if Tabula Rasa made a return. Could have been something like no stats and a single slot for skill gems that gives the gem max sockets.
I've been using https://pathofexile2.wiki.fextralife.com/Radiant+Grief+Lace+Hood the Radiant Grief Lace Hood since I found it early during the campaign. Then as we're playing couch co-op, build our 'strategy' around that.
Since every mob in range automatically ignites, we focused on increased dmg etc vs monsters afflicted with ailments and adding other ailments (freeze and shock) on top. It also makes the mobs nicely visible in Delirium fog.
However the lack of useful stats has become a hindrance. Fun to use uniques, yet with only a couple of key pieces for equipment, you end up losing a lot of other badly needed stats. My resistances are too low for example to get further beyond T8 maps.
I would say Doryani's Prototype, it allows to bypass the traditional "cap all res" build standard and makes you build funnily around this unique interaction.
Anything that doesnt suck and not a stat stick. Ex : temporalis, corpsewade, maelstrom flask.
I enjoyed Twin Dragon helm and it allowing me to freeze with lightning that was fun.
Then i got the gloves that electrocute on all lightning damage and that replaced the helm for a bit.
Those were fun i didn't feel they were overpowered compared to 1 shotting things in end game with good rares in those slots.
The Ghost-weave robe also was really nice and i changed up my build a lot when one dropped. I played to level 90 before trading anything and was still wearing it then.
those were the ones that stood out to me.
When it comes to end game, Ingenuity felt mandatory as did dream fragments. i attempted King in the mists 10 times and didnt get the belt so saved up to buy a 73% corrupted one... that wasn't a fun time... feeling like my progression was gate kept by not having this ONE belt... then after i got that... Next is grinding to save up for Dream Fragments because that would stop me dying to Freeze and that on its own would give me more suvivability than any piece of gear in the game (playing CI )
So ye the ones that felt mandatory... not sure i like that design. I prefer the ones that enable / change builds.
Original sin now that it doesn’t set your chaos resistance to zero.
The ones that convert one element into another are all super interesting designs for how simple of a change they are. They make you rethink a lot of things and get creative.
Picked up a Titanrot early on with a monk and said what the hell and rolled a Titan.
Slapped it on at level 20 and cleared the campaign yesterday. I've managed a base t5 with it, but holy hell, my total lack of resistance is starting to show.
That said, it was great for leveling/campaign, which is good because my luck with chest pieces had been utterly trash.
Im aware that at this point, I could trade to get something better for probably a few exalts, but I kinda wanted to see how far it could take me, and I just kept not struggling.
I liked the helmet that set things on fire when I was using gas grenades. It was strong but it had really bad stats to balance it out. It literally defined the build, like a good unique should do, but it also sucked in slot compared to anything close to my level by end game.
Kitoko's Current
I got these while leveling and it was fun building an electrocution monk around it. Once I got to maps and endgame it was better to ditch them and just blow everything up instead of electrocuting them, but during the campaign it was fun. There are some bosses that for some reason have a huge resist for electrocution through, like Zarokh The Temporal, which ultimately made me decide to ditch the build all together
Three Dragon's Helmet. It makes a really interesting set of build opportunities come to life. It may not be omg amazing stats kind of well designed, but things like this that allow indirect build variety is a S-tier.
I like the helm that increases party members’ dmg by 50%
Now I just gotta build a support char but don’t know where to start honestly
I actually like a lot of the boots, but the movespeed problem just plagues 90% of them.
Painters gloves I really like and can see builds being made out of them.
The gloves that give titansgrip also have some potential.
The obvious op ones are a bit boring, but I actually like trampletoe because the animation looks sick.
The things is…. Uniques in this game don’t actually do anything unique, the majority just give stat bumps.
How many uniques actually do something unique? ie: give you an ability or anything that cannot be found anywhere else in the game?
Corpsewade , best QOL for mapping
I think the Vertex is absolutely slept on. https://www.poe2wiki.net/wiki/The_Vertex
Want to dual wield two two handed maces as caster, pop Vertex on, pop giants blood gloves on and you're set.
Want to run crazy expensive skills but lack requirements, pop Vertex on and cut requirements by 50%
It's wild the stuff I've done with this helmet on.
Personally, I've had a lot of fun with gamblesprint on a deadeye ranger (in campaign tbf, only just made it to maps with that char last night). Intentionally get hit until that movespeed hits 35%+, then so long as you can keep killing quickly (easier in early campaign for sure), and keep tailwind up, you just zoom through the game.
The boots with the lightning trail (blanking on the name) were nice to have an additional avenue for adding damage into a build, again, while leveling, and I did also like using them with siphoning strike to generate power charges on my monk.
As far as "this is definitely designed well as a leveling unique" goes, the brimmed helm that gives a big stat bump, but reduces it per level gained is a neat design imo.
In endgame, the only one I've really enjoyed building around so far has been cracklecreep on my AoF Titan. But it's certainly a hard hit to lose everything that ring slot would offer otherwise.
I like the crest shield from chaos trails, the one with 666% modifiers to ES and socketed soul cores.
Corpsewade
I love uniques like Trampletoe or Solus Ipse, they don't give strong or rare stats but instead something actually unique you can build around.
I really like the Choir Amulet that triggers a greater lightning rod when you crit. You're sacrificing a lot of power that the rare amulets give you for the skill to trigger on crits but the trade off can still be worth it for your build.
Wake of Destruction Secured Leggings are my current favorite. Dropping shocked ground is actually OP as hell.
I used these with Herald of Thunder and Leap Slam to power level thru cruel in just a few hours. You leap slam and enemies get shocked on your way in, they explode and then those around them chain explode. I also used the Topaz Brotherhood ring to make my electric damage cold, and herald of ice with it.
Absolutely devastated groups. I’ve moved to an end game build but holy smokes was this powerful in the campaign.
For me it's Seed of Cataclysm ring. Sacrifice all other stats on rings for full spell crit and crit damage investment. Though I guess ingenuity takes them to another level. I'm using two of them and get over 200% crit rate and 200% crit damage from my rings.
Big fan of Bones of Ullr or whatever the fuck it's called. The negative can be circumvented with blink, and the bonus is super strong for minion builds.
Weighing in here to say, Dark Defiler is a really fun scepter. It juices you when running minion heavy builds.
Collapsing Horizon quarterstaff is slept on. Lots of base crit to proc trigger skills, some extra levels to spells, and boost elemental damage. Very nice design imo, all the stats synergize.
Painter’s gloves and Three Dragons enable a lot of options for builds. If you use the brotherhood rings you can mix any damage with any ailment other than making fire freeze (though there’s the other gloves that convert fire to cold).
Doryani’s Prototype is a cool mechanic for increasing damage and mixing defenses. I do think it should have a mechanic to switch the element it works on, for example socketing a rune switches its element. That would give it some more flair.
Enfolding Dawn - I got this from act 1 rust king in my first playthrough as an infernalist summoner, and didn't take it off until I got to around t10 maps. +100 spirit is so good that you can look past the nonexistent defense stats.
Ventors Gamble - I think this is one of the best thematic items. Could be awful, could be freaking amazing... It's a gamble.
Widowhail and ingenuity
Design I like the most is ingenuity and the copy ring.
They are the best because every single build can use them. It's a great investment and makes gearing another character a littke easier
i'm weird and really like erian's cobble. it's nothing special, but it's really exciting twink gear to drop early in a league. i'd like to see more lvling uniques like that
Worst: Temporalis.
It's the source of many game-breaking builds, and completely invalidates every other body piece and build in terms of map clear speed by allowing for the blink spam bullshit.
Terrible game design.
Morior invictus is the most interesting and coolest unique item in the game.
Corpsewade, my beloved.
Queen of the forest