Why does every unique in this game suck?

Agreed, 90% of them are total grabage.

A lot of them could be usable if they padded them out with some generic useful stats like life, resists, damage etc at least then you could slap them in until you find a better rare

Most of the uniques in this game is for leveling or just pure meme. T0 uniqs is still good, but u will never see them.

There should be clear build designs behind every unique otherwise they’re just wasting space. You should generally be excited when one drops.

They should at least scale to your level so the stats are actually decent, then maybe the drawbacks might not be as lame?

The TLDR

They made the low level ones first

Uniques in poe generally add build enabling mechanics but are otherwise stat bad

The slightly longer version Uniques are partially designed based on the zone/lore/item base, since only the first 3 zones are in the game we really only have those in the pool besides things like headhunter sacred flame that they purposely added the to the game.

The intended design for items in poe is that rares are BIS unless the unique provides a build enabling mechanics or it's a T0 unique aka ingenuity

I assume you have never played poe1 much. Uniques in poe arent some slap on get +20 damage item. Poe has always been about solving problems when it comes to character/build creation. Most uniques outside a handful do just that, they offer a solution to some problem that might exist be it a source or way to scale or get something, neglect something etc.

Uniques can look "trash" when you just look at them as simple stat sticks but they can offer great power if you can find some way to use them/create an interaction. For the same reason you will almost never see any kind of build that uses only uniques, because thats not what they are made for. They arent just simple stat sticks but rather puzzlepieces you can use to solve problems you might have.

As for downsides, they dont always have to be a downside either, thats also something that could be changed if you find some interaction or a way to leverage said downside.

I think in the 50+ Uniques I've picked up (not counting variants of the same one) I think I've found 1 that was useful til the endgame. I don't know whether to sell em for a couple Ex or just scrap em for chance pieces.

Considering there’s 1337 uniques in the game and players use about 6-10 of them… it’s like they were competing in the dev office as to who could make the most worthless item

True. I haven't come across a single unique which would be build defining. Also have fewer affixed than a unique. WTAF would I use it.

Each patch a set of uniwues is hyper meta and then most srr junk outside twink leveling. Then as the season extends people find a 10 to 30 more uniques that are amazing for super specific builds once everyone runs 2nd toons off the east seasonal meta.

GGG don't necessarily design uniques with specific builds in mind. They come up with ideas for a unique and launch it into the game. See if it sticks. Every season as the game balance is modified, various uniques come in and out of the meta. Last season it was that staff. This season it's that tangle spear. A few are staples such as astramentis, HH and ingenuity but that's becahde their stats are especially powerful across any build and they're non specific. Most uniwues are hyper situationally specific meaning they're junk to your class and build. But they're gold to someone else's class and niche build.

The off meta unique mace for a class and build you and most od the public aren't playing is obviously junk to you, but some hero who actually creates builds from scratch and doesn't follow the crowd might find that a build critical unique. Lucky for them it's only 1e because everyone else followed streamer build.

They definitely need work, but it’s also really hard to balance. If they are too good then nothing else matters, if they are too weak then they are pointless. If they are too rare then they are frustrating to get, if they are too common they make the economy pointless.

I don’t envy them and their efforts to design unique items. It seems really difficult to do right.

Diablo 2 had the perfect unique system where more than half were actually useful. Poe should strive to be like diablo in terms of balance

Try out diablo 3. That game focuses on unique items instead of rares like diablo 2 did which in turn made the meta and gearing up so fucking boring, in the endgame you badically have an all unique item gear.

I'd rather 99% of uniques being trash than that gearing design.

imo, the poe way of having 1-3 niche uniques to give qol to your build is perfectly fine

Because they don't want the game to just be slap on these 10x uniques and go. Rares being superior in most cases make the game more diverse

Uniques aren't supposed to be the best in slot gear, it leads to boring itemization. They were never designed that way either in POE1, people remember Mageblood but they don't remember all the super niche uniques or uniques you only use for leveling.

Let's see, ignoring leveling uniques and only mentioning endgame uniques (There are more viable uniques but I will mention the uniques that have very good builds capable of clearing pinnacles with ease):

Cloak of flame, queen of the forest, temporalis, gloamglown, pragmatism, doryanyi's prototype, coming calamity, fallen formation, sacrosanctum, zerphi's serape, black sun crest, radiant grief, black insignia, alpha's howl, atziri disdain, mask of the stitched demon, scold's bridle, crown of eyes, indigon, crown of the victor, veil of the night, deepest tower, three dragons, atziri's acuity, hateforge, snakebite, maligaro's virtuosity, painter's servant, demon stitcher, kitoko's current, valako's vice, death articulated, bluefalme, plaguefinger, howa, essentia sanguis, trampletoe, wake of destruction, lycosidae, the surrender, svallin, chernobog, feathered fortress, deathrattle, sunsplinter, apep's supremacy, tabula rasa, morior invictus, rathpith globe, threaded light, trenchtimbre, mjolner, hammer of faith, splinter of loratta, skysliver, tangletongue, saitha's spear, potg, enezun's charge, sacred flame, all unique jewels (besides maybe adorned after the jewel nerfs), idol of uldurn, ligurium talisman, defiance of destiny, astramentis, strugglescream, fireflower, beacon of azis, serpent's egg, seed of cataclysm, cracklecreep (tho due to a bug), polcirkeln, call/whispers of the brotherhood, blackflame, original sin, death rush, evergrasping ring, thief's torment, snakepit, gifts from above, andvarius, ventor's gamble, midnight braid, bursting decay, gnashing sash, soul tether, infernoclasp, ryslatha's coil, coward's legacy has some use on infernalist, bijouborne, headhunter, ingenuity, olroth's resolve, melting maelstrom, kalandra's touch and all unique charms

You can argue some of them are boring but they don't suck and all of them have good builds around them

They are mostly terrible but I dropped two Ventors Gamble in the past 2 days in regular maps.

It's all about RNG !

Actual answer: it's because they made all of the low-level unique items first and ran out of time to make endgame unique items when EA launched.

They will be adding more endgame-viable uniques over time, in addition to the batch that was added in patch 0.2.

They don't.

Also, CMIIW only the good ones have cool names.

I want to be able to look at and item and just be like ok this is better than what I have.

The other side of this then is "the item I have is better" from then on... I'm curious to know where the line is before we get into "item progression is so stagnant and loot is so boring because I haven't needed to replace my unique."

Well... I would say the problem is in their roots. I understand the GGG wants a lot of build diversity, but, they could've being doing this much better, and unique itens are one great way to do that. I'd say few uniques are really inviting to create a build around, but several more have potential, if reworked, to do an amazing job helping the build diversity.

I got a headhunter a few days ago with a chance orb, that's a pretty good unique. I'm also working up a chaos bow lich with voltaxic.

What if there were uniques based on your level. Would it break the game?

My problem with all the trash Uniques, which the grand majority are, is that equals wasted time. Art for the Unique had to be made, stats devised (that are normally laughably bad) and someone had to code that in. I realize each one may have not taken much time but as a whole it does add up. Considering how far behind they are in their stated goal of a 1 year EA I would think that wasting time is the last thing they would want to choose but here we are

I absolutely HATE the uniques in this game. Even tho they are so hard to find, we’re not allowed to feel good when we id them, there’s always a drawback to make you wonder if it’s worth replacing your shitty rare with 10% fire res 13% cold res and 43 max life.

Yes, they are uniquely shit

because the developers were selling "Make a unique for 60-150$" and the game got filled with hundreds of unusable items while they got a small bonus check

They serve roles

Uniques in PoE has always been the opposite of Uniques on D3 XD

"Balance."

It sucks cuz there’s no dopamine hit drops Ih this game except divs or other currency. I want a sick weapon to drop 

Yep the drawbacks are often not a minor hindrance but a fatal flaw untenable especially in HC

I like the uniques as they are as a specific piece of equipment to get a certain result or benefit, I do wish they could be boosted somehow.

Because they cannot be mandatory. That is, in some sense, the design philosophy. They are different and interesting items, sometimes extremely exciting, sometimes quirky and intriguing.

They are designed as tools to play the game differently, sometimes that requires effort and imagination to realise in a literal gameplay sense.

They clearly want them not to be too bad as they've already done a balance pass on one's they thought were too bad. I think your feedback may still be valuable to them.

Its more so frustrating that they are just the worse items you can get.

I got a unique that boost spell damage, great! ....25% decreased cast speed.

Why even bother? It's a literal straight downgrade in damage.

It is true and it should not be that way. Either they suck ass or they're a difficult chase item that prob requires a bunch of trading to get a hold of.

Very few uniques are lasting multiple levels. They are meant to be used and then gotten rid of when you find new useful gear. To me that’s the best part of the game because there are items that are more powerful than the uniques.

Of course there are many useful ones but overall I agree that the ratio is very skewed. A unique drop is not an exciting moment which is too bad. Many of them have interesting abilities as well so it would be nice if they could make them more usable in lategame.

Is there a single meta build that does not use at least 1 unique? I just do not get this mindset that they are not good, yet in everyones build.

Because they copied them from previous game T_T and they sucked there

Then why does nearly every meta build involve mechanics made possible only through the use of uniques?

The only thing that makes most of them garbage is the actual stats. Defense or offense. Most of them have great affixes.

Idea: Max equippable uniques = 1 Passive tree node to increase max equippable uniques by 1 Ascendency node to increase max equippable uniques by 1 Less shit uniques

I'd say around 90% of the uniques are pretty much useless when getting to endgame especially weapons. There are some that are prolly bad because lack of weapon types and ascendancy classes so I'd give them a try in the future when they do release but the most part they all kinda just suck.

Because if you got a good random unique there would be less incentive for you to go for a better one that requires a fuck ton of currency and a shitload of time to farm for.. why does the game need to have d2 levels of grindiness.. who tf has time reach a mirror tier build

You should look at the unique Belly of the Beast in poe1, and then compare it to poe2. Poe2 is completely useless. Which is hilarious since life defense is terrible in poe2. Why the nerf? 

Most of them are terrible now, and then some new build gets discovered, or new ability/ascendancy/passive is added, then they're valuable. There are very few things in POE you can look at and just know they're good, that number increases the more you know about the game and the builds people are playing.

Thats kindof the way poe1 always was with uniques.If it did not pigeon hole you into an ascendancy or another not so great unique with its downside then it was either pretty bad or ultra rare or leveling only. Poe1 was all about rare items beign the best in slot, but that was why there is 100 different ways to craft items in poe1. Poe2 lacks the crafting and by nature of other games, unique items are assumed to be the best items, and in some cases they are better than anything you will ever craft in this games limited crafting. Games just undercooked at the moment, I think they tried to dumb it down a bit from poe1 to be more approachable but the end result isnt better for anyone playing.

In before someone goes UM ACKSUALLY THESE 20 ARE REALLY GOOD.

Yeah the vast majority are terrible. Most are just meant to be used for leveling new characters. I dislike the whole unique system. I'd rather there be far fewer of them but have each one actually be impactful and able to build around instead of 90% of them being things you just collect to collect them.