Why is gear still "unique"?

With every gear set we can obtain from raids or tomestones, all of the items are unique, meaning we can't have more than one copy in our inventory.

This always leads to the same issue - fully gearing up in a set leaves us one ring short.

Is it supposed to be immersive, like this is the only set of this gear in existence? Barring the obvious "a hundred characters standing next to you all have the same thing on" argument, this gets thrown out the window when right before each expansion, the trait of being unique gets removed from the rings.

So what exactly is the harm in allowing people multiple copies of this gear to begin with? Why is it still being done this way?

I suppose you could make "rings" like "earrings" and condense them into one category, but I don't know how popular that would be with people. Thoughts?

I assume the point of making them Unique is so you don't roll Need on items you already have, allowing other players a chance at getting them.

Condensing the rings into one would be a possible fix, but I never thought it was a big issue honestly.

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Originally Posted by Kaecilius

I assume the point of making them Unique is so you don't roll Need on items you already have, allowing other players a chance at getting them.

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That makes sense for raid gear at least, but not tomestone gear which is purchased.

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Originally Posted by Andevom

With every gear set we can obtain from raids or tomestones, all of the items are unique, meaning we can't have more than one copy in our inventory.

This always leads to the same issue - fully gearing up in a set leaves us one ring short.

Is it supposed to be immersive, like this is the only set of this gear in existence? Barring the obvious "a hundred characters standing next to you all have the same thing on" argument, this gets thrown out the window when right before each expansion, the trait of being unique gets removed from the rings.

So what exactly is the harm in allowing people multiple copies of this gear to begin with? Why is it still being done this way?

I suppose you could make "rings" like "earrings" and condense them into one category, but I don't know how popular that would be with people. Thoughts?

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This has always bugged me too. If overcoming it is some massive coding problem, switch one of the rings to an ankle bracelet.

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Originally Posted by Andevom

That makes sense for raid gear at least, but not tomestone gear which is purchased.

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Yeah, that's a good point. They could always add a new rarity tier for tomestone gear if they wanted to address it, at this point it just seems they share the Blue rarity tier properties.

Under the current system, there are multiple problems with gear being unique. It's needlessly inconvenient to get a second ring. If they want to keep the Unique system, all they need to do is make rings Unique(2), meaning that you cannot have more than 2 of a single ring. Problem solved.

But honestly, Unique is also painful from a glamour perspective. If I have 4 max-level casters, they can't easily share the same gear without also sharing the same glams. If I want each of them to have a custom glam and I also want to be able to switch between classes anywhere, I need each class to have its own set of gear. Which is hard to do with Unique. Not saying Unique is the thing that needs to go away to solve this (changes to Glam would be more ideal, but seem less likely), but it is exacerbating the issue.

The only reason I can think of is they want to give people a reason to get the raid jewelry which is a small bump, but quickly quickly overshadowed. Or if you had two rings when they came out you would be too uber for the way they design fights. Either way that's the only reason I have ever come up with in 8 years.

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

This has always bugged me too. If overcoming it is some massive coding problem, switch one of the rings to an ankle bracelet.

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It's something they do with the rings on purpose because they think it's awesome
The tomestone ones for example, while unique on release, they remove the unique flag later so you can buy two idental cryptlurker rings or whatever and equip them both where you couldn't before

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

This has always bugged me too. If overcoming it is some massive coding problem, switch one of the rings to an ankle bracelet.

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Not a problem at all, this is just a database flag.
Crafted rings are not unique and you can wear 2 of the same item.

This is a conscious design decision, not a system limitation.

Probably with the intention to make the player look for other sources.

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Originally Posted by LilimoLimomo

changes to Glam would be more ideal

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They need to update their x86 servers / fix their shitty coding. It's fudgin ridiculous that we can't apply glam plates outside of sanctuaries w/o them fearing server crashes.

W T F.

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Originally Posted by Kaecilius

I assume the point of making them Unique is so you don't roll Need on items you already have, allowing other players a chance at getting them.

Condensing the rings into one would be a possible fix, but I never thought it was a big issue honestly.

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But most gear from higher end content is coffers which you can win even if you already have that piece.
It's actually something I think people have talked about on here which is how it's not hard to go long stretches without winning a single gear piece if you're unlucky and the same people keep winning need on raid drops.
I think the only part where this affects the rolls is dungeon and alliance drops. Then of course tome rings for not being able to wear 2.

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Originally Posted by Granyala

Not a problem at all, this is just a database flag.
Crafted rings are not unique and you can wear 2 of the same item.

This is a conscious design decision, not a system limitation.

Probably with the intention to make the player look for other sources.

They need to update their x86 servers / fix their shitty coding. It's fudgin ridiculous that we can't apply glam plates outside of sanctuaries w/o them fearing server crashes.

W T F.

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Thanks, that makes sense. Since I don't engage in content where an extra 0.08% of crit is relevant, to me it's just a nuisance.

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

Thanks, that makes sense. Since I don't engage in content where an extra 0.08% of crit is relevant, to me it's just a nuisance.

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Pretty sure it's precisely targeting the casual crowd, so they either do normal mode raid or grab a ring from a crafter.
Raid folks don't care, one ring from savage + one ring from tomes, case closed.

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Originally Posted by Andevom

This always leads to the same issue - fully gearing up in a set leaves us one ring short.

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I've always interpreted this as the Devs wanting players to use a combination of both raiding and tomes to get every slot max ilvl. It doesn't really bother me personally. I just fill the second ring slot with a HQ crafted ring, pentameld it and go about my activities. As for the "unique" factor of it. Other than rings and glamour it isn't much of an issue. If someone truly wanted multiple copies of unique items for whatever reason throw them on your retainers. As for the glamour, glamour plates sort of get around the issue but glamour as a whole is a clunky mess in this game.

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Originally Posted by Granyala

Pretty sure it's precisely targeting the casual crowd, so they either do normal mode raid or grab a ring from a crafter.
Raid folks don't care, one ring from savage + one ring from tomes, case closed.

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Good point, although I'm not sure why the devs feel there's a benefit to the game if I craft the second ring.

Rings are unique to encourage you to actually do content and not just cap tomes each week.