While GGG adds cool new endgame uniques, there's still a category of leveling uniques lacking...

I get it. No one gets excited for leveling uniques, so they don't make for much of a showcase. Apart from a few exceptions like Seven League Step, they don't typically have much sale value, and you'll drop them as soon as you reach maps. But they DO serve an important function - they allow those of us who prefer leveling to endgame as the build we intend to play (or at least something somewhat comparable), or just leveling with a certain favorite skill, to do so rather than being forced to only do it the 'meta' way. And for newer players who may not know the best ways to level, or are unsure how fun this game might be in the long term, it allows them to have a more pleasant introduction to the game (provided someone advised them on which cheap unique would facilitate their chosen skill).

PoE already has loads of leveling uniques to cater to different preferred playstyles. Melee and archer builds typically have a bunch of uniques that, whatever their unique mechanics, effectively serve as direct upgrades of each other and so allow you to keep up with the content by upgrading every 10-20 levels or so. Spellcasters have it even easier - they can just slap on an Axiom Perpetuum or Lifesprig and it'll take them all the way to maps. But even after all these years, there is a build type that still lacks enough endgame uniques to help make the journey through the story bearable -

Wanders. Standard advice for aspiring wanders is to level with something else and then transition to wanding only once you can use Imbued Wands. And no, crafting a good rare leveling weapon is pretty much never worth the currency investment - and none of the other builds have to deal with that. Why is that? Well, look at the list of leveling uniques wanders have to rely on -

- Storm Prison (lvl 12)
- Twyzel (lvl 30)
- ......Moonsorrow, I guess? It comes in just 6 levels shy of Piscator's Vigil, which is an endgame wand.

Attack builds rely on their weapons for damage (unless you've got really good damage from other sources, most likely obtained from the endgame on other characters and so not suitable for league starters), so leveling with the same setup throughout like spellcasters isn't recommended. And yet there's such a paucity of good options for wanders to keep up with the content as they level.

I write this because it looks to me like GGG is under the impression that the game is already saturated with leveling uniques and so there's no need to add any more. This may be true for the other build types, but not for wanders. And also cos 3.10 is a great time to fix this, since we're getting a cool new wand skill that's also apparently available to play with early on. So how about also adding a couple of new leveling wands to go with it so that players can actually have fun with that skill right from the outset? Please GGG!

can't disagree but sadly posts like these won't make a difference. i tried to level with a wand once and i just gave up after a few levels. it's just so much better if you level a wander with bows or whatever else till you can equip your endgame setup

leveling unique items is all about raw power, isn't it?
in the end, it's just powerful low-level items, not that unique.

if that the case, you can just ask them to buff low-level mods on rare items.

for the longest time people were basically petitioning to stop having leveling uniques because they are "useless" and you just spend so much more time in end game compared to leveling that nobody wanted them.

now we don't get them.

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xMustard написал:

for the longest time people were basically petitioning to stop having leveling uniques because they are "useless" and you just spend so much more time in end game compared to leveling that nobody wanted them.

now we don't get them.

I'd argue we already have enough for the most common builds. The problem isn't that there's too few of them, but that they were added in so unequally. Some weapon types have so many that some of them are just never used cos there's other options that're better, while for other categories there's barely enough to form even one continuous string of progression items.

the only leveling unique anyone ever wants to see is tabula.

because as Ozxell said, levelling is all about power. get that 6link and none of your other gear would matter at all.

You can level easily as a wander using those two wands though you just have to scale added cold/chaos/lightning whichever you want.

I agree with your point though, I actually like leveling uniques the better ones are more interesting to me than yet another dumpster tier full level unique at least lol

The idea is perhaps that the first time you play through, you need leveling uniques because you're spending a while in acts.

The second character you steer to level 70 will spend half or a third or less of that time, perhaps a tiny fraction if you follow a speed leveling guide. And so on.

SSF slows you down, but you're still growing a lot faster the second time you do it.

GGG's probably like, "If our target market are clearing acts in 3-6 hours, what's the use of devoting coding time to rework and rebalance trash uniques like Twyzel and Storm Prison when they're just going to find and use Lifesprig for 4 hours and then buy or craft a big deeps +3 all spell skills wand?"

Leveling items that don't scale (i.e. can't be viably used in endgame) should provide some well-rounded sampling of essentials: life, resistances, evasion, accuracy, mana and life recovery, attributes. Pick 2 from column A and 2 from column B sort of thing. Add-ons like Spell Echo Support are cute, but not sufficient to make up for a total lack of meat-and-potatoes.

That said, sustainability can go too far. Raise your hand if you've gotten stuck on a character because you're well into maps but still using Heup of All, Carnage Heart, Thief's Torment, or Atziri's Foible. These uniques still fly off the shelves well into late game, but they become a crutch and you outgrow them before you can replace them.

It takes quite a few lucky rolls and some decent multicrafting to get a shaper/elder ring set that gives you gains on hit enough to replace Thief's Torment, but also life and added damage. You'll need to upgrade your bench to get the mana management Foible or Praxis grants onto something with some life/res/damage. Amulets that roll damage, all-resists and attributes in the Carnage Heart range, but also have life or es/percent es, typically start at 20 exa with no ceiling in sight.

This is something to avoid if you're designing uniques for strictly leveling purposes.

Karui Ward is a great example. Scales with its prophecy upgrade, but isn't a slam dunk going into endgame. Kaom's Sign/Way is another good starter, you outgrow it, but certain builds can go upgrade it via prophecy and enjoy it for a little longer. Daresso's Passion is ubiquitous but you dont end up stuck with it forever, it's pretty good for its level range but you'll need an actual foil set before you hit 70. Most leveling claws are decent but have a narrow window of use - you're done with Last Resort long before you start finding Mortem Morsu or Wasps Nests.

Unless you're a physical wander you can level without uniques. Poison wanders are particularity easy while elemental wanders rely on their heralds and aura(s). In fact I find it more interesting levelling without any uniques at all. In Delirious I will starting as an Elementalist (golems really help with levelling) Kinetic Bolt (terrible name) wander.

If I was running things I would rework leveling uniques and throw away all the ones that are marginal which is most of them. I would also have all uniques only drop in maps or 100+ delve. I would feel differently if the story mode wasn't just a race to the real game.

GGG realized that having the new masters spread out during leveling is a good idea. They also realized that breeches and abyss fissures should be pushed away from nubie zones. Really the only unique that is a chase unique while leveling is Tabula and it would perhaps be a reasonable exception to my idea.

Or, for those of you who play D3, the vast majority of the leveling uniques are crap. But, every once in a while you get an item that you can cube into a legendary power (regardless of ilevel) so they are not a complete waste of time. If GGG implemented something similar that would be a reason to keep 90% of the leveling uniques.

I mention all of this because leveling uniques have become a nuisance rather than a valuable drop.