Diablo IV has six Uber Uniques that are the rarest and some of the most powerful items in the game. Players have spent hundreds of hours without ever coming across them—until now. A trick for easily earning them was recently discovered and Blizzard has now removed the items from the game entirely to try and stop the madness.
Previously only farmable in Nightmare dungeons, Uber Uniques were added to the game’s Helltide event in the latest patch, an in-game event where a particular zone on the map turns blood red and fills up with extra tough enemies. Players quickly found out that there was a way to significantly increase their chances of getting the Harlequin Crest, better known as Shako, one of, if not the, most powerful item in Diablo IV. That’s because characters like Barbarians don’t have many Unique helmets, meaning Helltide chests that only give out helmets are much more likely to grant those players Shakos instead.
Yeah, that’s pretty much how I feel about most of the uniques. I don’t think I have a single character actually wearing any. They’re cool, yes, but I tend to look at them and go “cool” and then stick them in my stash and keep my better boots on.
It might seem counter-intuitive, but I think what you’re describing is a better system. If unique items are too strong, when you find one you’re basically done with that entire gear slot, which limits your upgrade paths. Conversely, if a strong rare with perfect stats is better than every unique for that slot, that leaves the door open for a hypothetical future upgrade that could reshape your build, even if it’s incredibly rare to hit those BiS stats. Path of Exile does this well, in that there are only a couple unique items that are so strong they’re useful for every build (HH, Mageblood). Most unique items fall on the ‘weird/cool’ side, where they enable certain builds or skill combinations that otherwise wouldn’t have any chance of success, but they’re almost always significantly weaker than a perfect rare item.