Unique High-Level Rings

[Bikkusu]

Why are the latest tomestone and raid item exchange rings unique? Is it just to keep ilevel down for people who do not raid so that there's some air of superiority in having that final ilevel or are the stats on them deemed to be too strong by having two of the same so they need to be mixed? Older content rings no longer have the Unique tag so you can easily purchase and boost other classes you're leveling, or even BLU.

[Moomba33]

IIRC they removed the unique tag on older rings at the same time that they made old augmented gear the only version of the gear that is able to be purchased, phasing out the ability to buy an unaugmented ring for your second slot. I supposed they feel one unaugmented ring is good enough for current content.

I appreciated back in HW when they let you get the accessories from the proto ultima weekly that matched the ilevel of the best tome and raid gear. It was nice not being stuck with a lower ring.

[Jojoya]

Why are the latest tomestone and raid item exchange rings unique? Is it just to keep ilevel down for people who do not raid so that there's some air of superiority in having that final ilevel or are the stats on them deemed to be too strong by having two of the same so they need to be mixed? Older content rings no longer have the Unique tag so you can easily purchase and boost other classes you're leveling, or even BLU.

All Tomestone rings were unique up until patch 5.3. That's when the base tomestone gear from prior expansions was removed from vendors so only the augmented versions could be purchased. Since that would have left players with only 1 ring from a set, the Unique designation was removed from the rings in those sets.

We still have the base version of the Deepshadow, Crystarium and Cryptlurker gear available for purchase so SE is leaving the rings in those sets as Unique for now. Once the base versions are removed from vendors in Endwalker and only the augmented versions are left for purchase, the rings will no longer be unique.

Why the decision to make the rings unique in the first place? Have no idea. That 10 ilvl gap between base and augmented isn't enough to disrupt game balance by allowed double augmented. But it's also not enough that any player should feel they're at a disadvantage not having double augmented rings.

I will admit it's very annoying juggling the base ring in inventory when I'm ready to purchase the augmented ring. Either I move it from my character/armoury chest to my saddlebags so I can buy a second base ring and augment/meld that then retrieve the original base ring, or I have to retrieve (and possibly lose) materia from the base ring before I augment it then buy a second base ring and then have to meld both rings. The augment system is awkward at best. It would be nice if it worked similar to how WoW players could upgrade item level on gear in MoP but I would imagine that's not possible since base items can't be dyed while left side augmented items can.

[Bikkusu]

All Tomestone rings were unique up until patch 5.3. That's when the base tomestone gear from prior expansions was removed from vendors so only the augmented versions could be purchased. Since that would have left players with only 1 ring from a set, the Unique designation was removed from the rings in those sets.

Not quite. Raid rings are still available for those levels. Given this same argument, why not allow for the newest rings to be non-unique, or at least the augmented version no longer be unique? What exactly is the purpose of forcing someone into a savage raid in order to eke out those last few points?

[Jojoya]

Not quite. Raid rings are still available for those levels. Given this same argument, why not allow for the newest rings to be non-unique, or at least the augmented version no longer be unique? What exactly is the purpose of forcing someone into a savage raid in order to eke out those last few points?

I did specifically state Tomestone rings and I also stated I don't know why SE chose to do it that way.

You also don't need those last few points. You're not going to fail at content just because you have a 520 and a 530 ring instead of two 530 rings.