How i designed my unique - Skyforth Sorcerer Boots

That's really my thing, Charan.

The design-a-unique opportunity is no longer available, and it likely never will be given the bad blood on both sides of the divide. Like Scrotie said, the fundamental goals of developers and players come into conflict too often in this process, with the Skyforth boots being the absolutely perfect example.

I love building things. I'm a writer and a roleplayer myself, I deeply enjoy writing stories, building systems, developing characters and items. It's one of the reasons I love the Goddess swords (and may dig up that book, now that I know it exists. Opportunity for link/shameless plug: granted) - while they're never going to be Top Clearspeed Mjolnuke Amazeballs, you can nevertheless sense the amazing story behind them.

Skyforth didn't even give his boots a name. He just slapped his own name on them, for whatever reason. Ego, indifference, doesn't matter. The boots are blind-idiot obvious best in slot for any and every CI/low-life build, to the point where a CI/low-life build which would not use these as BiS is likely so convoluted and nonoptimal as to likely be too difficult to play in late-game content.

He got exactly what he wanted and that's fantastic. I do appreciate the folks who put their time, effort, and large piles of dollars into trying to enrich the game. If I got a pair of Skyforth-the-boots I'd tip my hat to him and clean up on exalts, as I don't really dig CI/low-life builds.

But I can't help but look at these boots and sense a wasted opportunity. Players don't get to commission uniques anymore. They don't really get to commission divination cards anymore, for that matter, and frankly DivCards are incredibly boring in the first place. As a general rule, the playerbase has been shut out of the design process, for good or ill, and only those players who've already purchased a chance to work with GGG will get their in. The rest of us get to just watch from the outside and dream.

I'd love to hash out a plan for my Storm Chaser or Huntress of the Rising Dawn with GGG. Heh, frankly I tooled around earlier today with an interesting concept for unique armor to complement the Goddess Unleashed (though obviously I would never presume to try and implement such a thing without clearing it with you first). I'd like to experiment with a sword designed for spellcasting builds. Obviously not all of this, I'd have to pick something and go, but in this day? I don't get to pick any-damn-thing, regardless of how much money I wave under GGG's nose.

One of the elite, privileged few that earned that opportunity put together boots he didn't even name, and then flaunted his outrageously powerful new item in the faces of all those other designers who didn't get to build something that redefines an entire build type.

I can respect the effort a man puts into working with GGG, the patience he exhibits with a very buggy, glitchy, and drawn-out process. I do not choose to respect the actof paying a thousand dollars for a bunch of raw power, then proceeding to taunt those who did not or could not.

Does Skyforth care that I think he's an ass? No, of course not. He designed what is arguably the single most potent player-created unique in all of Path of Exile and may have single-handedly brought CI/low-life back to the forefront of high-potential builds. He's laughing all the way to the bank, and I'm some chump he's never met who said mean-ish words in a forum post. I'm never going to see Storm Chaser, or Huntress, or that Goddess armor, or that spell-damage sword. I'm likely never even going to see those boots; they're way too amazeballs for a scrub like me to snag.

Doesn't mean I can't lament that fact in a forum thread, eh?

Actually if you watch the video Carl suggested the name.

And here's a quote directly from Carl, "There is some balancing for rarity with top end very rare unique items being potentially better and more general than others. That is not however related to the very high drop level."

And as shown here, https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1539532 there are potentially some of the rarest items in the game.

I do not understand why people keep believing ilvl that i placed had any effect on the power of the item that was released.

I want a strong end game unique. GGG delivered on that part. GGG balanced the unique (3 rounds of checks and balance) and put a rarity on it.

Because of the 4x increased T1 rarity i decided to slap on ilvl 84 restriction after the balance and rarity was done.

If dreamfeather really was a T1 unique, it would be stronger and rarer. But the fact that it is not a T1 unique it isn't. I don't know what the designer choose, but they wanted Soul Taker DPS when it's supposed to be weaker and more common than a soul taker.

How can you compare Shavs or Kaom's Heart to Foxshade?

Because everyone is comparing Skyforth to Nomic's Storm.

Senseynomakey?

boots name is cool.

"

CharanJaydemyr schrieb:

No one will forget my sword.

It will survive all meta changes because it's utterly beyond any concern for the game itself.

It is without doubt the most underpowered Tier 1 drop in PoE.

I stress aesthetics over function, which is seriously love it or hate it territory.

All three break a rule that forced GGG to create a downside.

Most importantly, I cheated. The sword already had a huge back story, and GGG didn't have to worry about copyright because it's mine. Hell, I abused the exposure to sell my otherwise very niche book. (link added quietly per request)

But so what? I will never change the game or threaten the balance. Skyforth does. This is a much more meaningful addition to the game overall than a harmless fluff piece. And those of you attacking his ego, please. At least he made the effort to design something useful for his demographic and not some trolljnish PoS or just leaving it up to GGG as siffin did with Soul Taker.

Yeah, I deeply pity Myrmi and dlrr and Kaysee to a degree and my good friend Clive. And throwing that in their faces sucks. But Skyforth is an achievement and I think it's okay for the designer to feel proud of that.

With one obvious exception, I think every single unique designer, anyone who thrashes with GGG and their confusing design philosophies, deserves all the credit in the world.

you are a hero

Firstly; I think nobody would have a problem with the name if it wasn't also your name here. So, asides from using it for cheap digs, I don't think it's an issue at all. It's not like the name makes zero sense, it's a perfectly fine name for the boots.

Secondly; I don't think it's a bad thing you got to make an OP item, but I do think GGG should be more careful releasing items they're probably going to make legacy shortly anyway. I also do think people are allowed to be upset that you ended up with something super strong that you seem very happy with, and a lot of supporters basically got almost bullied into making Uniques they weren't happy with just so it would be done. Even so, that's not really your fault and if it is then you've somehow staged an incredibly elaborate series of events so you can make a Unique that is better than most, if not all, other Supporter Uniques and you'd earn yourself a good old fashioned hat tip.

Thirdly; Do I think you're being a bit of an ass about it? Little bit, yeah. I'm fairly sure that's at least partially driven by the fact people are borderline attacking you for your boots, but it's still the tone I'm getting now.


tl;dr: Why are so many people blaming Skyforth for getting what he wanted? Most Supporters wanted an incredibly powerful Unique, it's hardly his fault they didn't get them and he did.

The unique does have a concept -a rather interesting one- and it does enable niche builds(overpowred, ultra expensive niche builds). So that's very good design so far. The downside is serious as well. It's not for skyforth's build, but it is for other CI zealot's oath builds that otherwise would find this unique very very usefull.

The problem is mostly the reduced reservation and the PCoC mods on the boots. These 2 mods had absolutely no reason at all to be there, and they just provide what HIS build needed to become 100% complete. I really do not understand why GGG provided these mods, while at the same time they are trashing other people's uniques, and no rarity is not the answer. I am sure at least half of the designers would be completely OK to balance their unique by rarity, if they were to get what they wanted.

But save for these 2 mods, the item does have an interesting concept.

"

Poutsos schrieb:

The unique does have a concept -a rather interesting one- and it does enable niche builds(overpowred, ultra expensive niche builds). So that's very good design so far. The downside is serious as well. It's not for skyforth's build, but it is for other CI zealot's oath builds that otherwise would find this unique very very usefull.

The problem is mostly the reduced reservation and the PCoC mods on the boots. These 2 mods had absolutely no reason at all to be there, and they just provide what HIS build needed to become 100% complete. I really do not understand why GGG provided these mods, while at the same time they are trashing other people's uniques, and no rarity is not the answer. I am sure at least half of the designers would be completely OK to balance their unique by rarity, if they were to get what they wanted.

But save for these 2 mods, the item does have an interesting concept.

Well, getting power charges is what makes these boots good.
As for 6% reduced reservation - agreed, absolutely out of place.

"

1453R schrieb:

That's really my thing, Charan.

The design-a-unique opportunity is no longer available, and it likely never will be given the bad blood on both sides of the divide. Like Scrotie said, the fundamental goals of developers and players come into conflict too often in this process, with the Skyforth boots being the absolutely perfect example.

Just to clarify, if you ask nicely and give GGG a thousand dollars, you can still design a unique. I know this because despite missing out on the initial packs, I still managed to design ventor's gamble as a tribute to our guild leader and the guild members. The downside is that you don't get points.

I have seen the whole video, and I want to say that Kaiserin can throw all the ideas at GGG, at the end of the day, GGG has to make decision on the balance. As seen in the video, GGG has the power to make the item legacy without Kaiserin having any input into that matter, as a last controlling power.

The only issue I have with Skyforth being introduced is that GGG thought necessary to nerf Blood Dance same patch. I'll never understand that.

I think people are also forgetting these exist and these.

"

ScrotieMcB schrieb:

So the only difference between Skyforth and a regular joe is that Skyforth has a spine. Nothing bad there.

This is blatantly insulting all of the supporters that backed down on their initial concept because they respect GGG far more then getting their own OP modifiers introduced on an item.

Peace,

-Boem-