Diablo 4, the popular action role-playing game developed by Blizzard Entertainment, is about to launch its second season on October 17, 2023. The new season will introduce new events, content, and quality of life improvements for the game. However, one of the most anticipated features of the new season is the overhaul of the Unique items, which are the rarest and most powerful gear in the game.
What are Unique items in Diablo 4?
Unique items are a type of Legendary gear that have fixed attributes and special effects that cannot be found on any other item. They are designed to enhance specific builds and playstyles, and often have a distinctive appearance and name. For example, the Flickerstep Boots allow the player to evade through enemies and reduce their Ultimate cooldown, while the Shako helmet increases all stats and provides extra gold and magic find.
Unique items are very rare and hard to obtain, as they can only drop from certain enemies or events. They also have a low chance of being upgraded to Uber Uniques, which are even more powerful versions of the same item with higher stats and effects.
What are the changes to Unique items in Season 2?
In the latest Campfire Chat, a developer update video series, the Diablo 4 team revealed that they have made some major changes to Unique items in Season 2. They admitted that the current Unique items are “generally not exciting enough” and do not provide enough impact or diversity for the game’s itemization. Therefore, they have done a “giant pass” over all the existing Unique items and updated “nearly every one of them”.
Some of the changes include:
- Larger existing stat ranges: Some stats on Unique items will have higher values than normal, such as bonus fire damage or critical hit chance.
- Overriding slot rules: Some Unique items will have stats that normally cannot roll on that slot, such as cooldown reduction on a weapon or attack speed on a chest armor.
- Simplified Unique effects: Some Unique items will have simpler and more powerful effects that do not require complex conditions to trigger, such as hitting enemies from behind or having a certain buff active.
- Skill-based stat slots: Some Unique items will have stats that specifically complement the skills that they are intended for, such as increased Tornado duration on a Nature Magic Druid item or increased Bone Spear damage on a Necromancer item.
The developers also revealed some new Unique items that will be added in Season 2, such as:
- Flickerstep Boots (All Classes): Each enemy you evade through reduces your active Ultimate cooldown by (2.0 – 4.0) seconds, up to 10 seconds.
- Shako (All Classes): +1 to All Skills. +(50-100) to All Attributes. +(25-50)% Magic Find. +(25-50)% Gold Find.
- The Furnace (Barbarian): Your attacks ignite enemies for (200-300)% weapon damage as Fire over 3 seconds. Enemies ignited by you take (25-50)% more damage from all sources.
How to target farm Unique items in Season 2?
One of the biggest complaints from players in Season 1 was the lack of control over the loot drops and the difficulty of obtaining specific Unique items. To address this issue, the developers have introduced a new feature called target farming in Season 2.
Target farming allows players to increase their chances of getting certain Unique items by defeating specific bosses or completing specific events. Each boss or event will have a loot table that contains a subset of Unique items that can drop from them. For example, if a player wants to get the Shako helmet, they can try to defeat Diablo, who has a higher chance of dropping it than other bosses.
The developers hope that this feature will reduce the frustration and randomness of the loot system and give players more agency and choice over their gear progression.
