Talk:Unique item

Sigh. Every unique item links to Unique Item. --Fyren 21:18, 30 Sep 2005 (EST)

I can't find where that discussion went, but I did confirm it today. Unique Items cannot be upgraded. I tried an upgrade on my precious Brimstone staff and with a big GULP I pressed "yes" on the confirmation dialog. I was told that the upgrade does not apply to the item (it was a staff head). So, apparently, ArenaNet has coded their type as something OTHER than the basic weapon types to avoid people messing with them. --Karlos 00:43, 5 Oct 2005 (EST)

Drop Rate
In the article, it states "When you kill the boss, there is a certain chance that he will drop one (or more) of his unique items." Has anyone done any research into drop rates? Does every boss have the same drop rate, or does it vary by boss? The only Unique dropping boss I've killed more than once is the Scarab, where we had 2 drops in 4 kills. Anyone else have some numbers? (preferably a larger sample size than 4 :)) LordKestrel 06:16, 24 March 2006 (CST)


 * All unique bosses have the chance to drop more than one green at a time. I have seen that many times in SF, and in Tombs it is almost a guarantee, although I have seen one Darkness drop only one green before. Never done any studies as I'm too happy when one is reserved for me :D --Gares Redstorm 06:27, 24 March 2006 (CST)


 * Concernig Green drop rate in general I did a Green drop test on two bosses in Elona on the "Triple Drop" weekend (last). I can note the following about drop rates:
 * 1. I farmed both bosses "Direct" (i.e. didn't kill ANY other mobs, just the boss ONLY) 15 times each and got NO Green drops at all. (30 kills = 0 drops)
 * 2. I farmed both bosses "Group" (i.e. killing their immediate group only, 4 ish mobs, and then them) 10 times each and got no drop. (20 kills = 0 drops)
 * 3. I farmed both bosses "Sweep" (i.e. killing numerous mobs in surrounding area, 15ish mobs in both cases). 4 times each and got a drop from each one. (8 kills = 2 drops)
 * Interestingly I did it in the order stated. So farming wise my drops should have diminished. I did all this with myself + 2 heroes & 3 hench, everytime. From this I must conclude that there is a minimum "score" one must get before the bosses will drop their greens. This seems to be at least 6+ but may be anywhere up to 15+, i'd say get 10 if you want to be pretty sure of at least a chance of a drop. Raxous 07:39, 23 November 2006 (CST)
 * Actually dude. =/ Hate to burst yer bubble here, but I totally just ran into that boss that gives you Spoil Victor, and after I capped it, I realized he dropped the Sourbeak's Taint. It's a factions monster. So take that as you will. I was also with 6 henches (I like the challenge... hah) instead of 7 and I got it. I was *very* surprised indeed. Mightywayne 16:15, 4 January 2007 (CST)
 * It's well known that Arena Net wants us to not specifically farm bosses, but to take our time and kill other enemies, explore other areas. Raxous, you probably hit the anti farm, which is specifically directed against people who kill the same mobs over and over again ... (I have this feeling that if one were to rotate between a number of areas that have desired greens instead of farming one area over and over - even if one kills all the monsters on the way - one will probably get more greens, but have yet to test this sufficiently ...) Amarande 12:04, 26 January 2007 (CST)

merchant price
I noticed an anon took that out. What are the merchant prices for Factions uniques? - 12:50, 10 June 2006 (CDT)

Since the 15/06 update, there are now green items that drop from non-boss mobs.

Identifying whether a boss will drop a green
While farming Cultist Rajazan over the last two days, I made an observation: It took me somwhere between 30 and 40 kills till he finally dropped Rajazan's Fervor (didn't count from the beginning). Everytime I killed him, I saw him wielding a Wicked Blade, except for when he dropped his unique. At this time he was actually wielding a Broadsword skinned weapon, as his unique is (no, I don't have screenshots). Now that I think of it, I remember reading something like this somewhere in the guru forums, concerning Sskai, Dragon's Birth and his sword. I don't know whether this is common knowledge, or if it is already mentioned somewhere in the wiki. I also don't know whether it's a safe identifier. Bosses obviously can drop uniques without visibily wielding them (i.e. Mantids, etc.) but if a boss is seen wielding a unique, will he always drop it? --84-175 (talk) 19:17, 3 August 2006 (CDT)


 * Well I've seen Scarabs in Maguuma wield chakrams (non-unique), so I don't see why Mantids can't weild weapons. It's just not easy to notice d-: BTW, did you go with henchies or humans?  Did you also kill Chazek Plague Herder to see if he drop greesn? - 19:26, 3 August 2006 (CDT)


 * I went there solo (used variants of W/Mo Rajazan Farmer and R/N Touch Ranger). Didn't try Chazek Plague Herder, but I doubt the builds I used would be suitable for that. I know Scarabs and other monsters, too, like some elementals can wield off-hand items, but I've never seen one of those with a weapon. :) --84-175 (talk) 21:05, 3 August 2006 (CDT)


 * I have killed bosses (with no henchmen) while they have wielded their unique and not had it drop. As Pan mentioned, you can find various mobs wielding various equipment at times.  I don't think it really means anything except that there's a possibility the equipment you see might drop.  But there's a possibility something you don't see will drop.  Maybe the conditional probability is higher, but it's hard to get enough data to have a good analysis.  --68.142.14.106 19:53, 3 August 2006 (CDT)


 * That's about what I guessed. I know that the equipment of mobs differs and that they don't always drop what they can be seen wielding. I just found it extremely remarkable that in the one case I observed, where Rajazan visibily wielded his sword, he dropped it. But as you said, hard to get decent data on that.--84-175 (talk) 21:05, 3 August 2006 (CDT)

Unique items not unique?
I don't think that's true: "However, unique items are only "unique" in name or appearance. No unique item has statistics that could not potentially be matched by a non-unique item."

See Villnar's Claw for example.
 * S'true. Actually, the old quest-reward stuff, most of which you can still find in and around pre- and post-Searing Ascalon, are much more unique than the greens. It'd be nice to see something really wonky. A sword with a req in Blood Magic; an axe with a Dragonslaying-mod, a one-off fist-weapon with a Strength-req - and some mods you can't really get anywhere else. All Anet has to do is take a page from its old book - again, items such as the -50HP Grim Cesta and the +13 conditional energy-staff from Fires in the East would make better uniques than the run-in-the-mill "fixed 'perfect' weapon". They don't need to be earth-shatteringly powerful, they just need to be - well, unique. --Black Ark 03:43, 17 August 2006 (CDT)


 * The claw just has no collector counterpart with matching stats. You can potentially get a random drop with matching stats.  As Ark said, though, there are items to be found that are unique in the "undroppable" sense.  --68.142.14.61 04:25, 17 August 2006 (CDT)
 * i so want a zealous serpent axe of dragonslaying +20% while hexed. Glint's Demise! --Honorable Sarah [[image:Honorable_Icon.gif]] 10:30, 17 August 2006 (CDT)
 * Something really simple - and really appealing to me because it's not great, but at least unique - would be a weapon that would get stronger as you're nearing death. So simple. 10% added damage when health <50%, 10%<40%HP, 10%<30%HP, 10%<20%HP, 10%<10%HP (10+10+10+10+10=50% extra damage at the cost of being near-dead). Tack on a Vampiric prefix to up the ante and a +30 Fortitude suffix, and we're in business. Or perhaps something really unique - one single weapon in the game that has a "of Manslaughter"-suffix, 20% extra damage to humans. --Black Ark 10:51, 17 August 2006 (CDT)
 * i think the reason Anet is making everything more generic (boat load of greens, all max and similar, no special armors, absorption only physical, etc) is that they're getting feedback from the PvP comunity that the wierdness is making play harder. the only problem is that this kind of wierdness is exactly what entices the PvE player. i have a blankets bow, i still use a denravi sword, the lieutentant helm was great for certain PvE areas. i think they have the wrong end of the stick. make the weirdness available to everyone, rather then eliminating the wierdness. they should make a green Chimeric Prism.  --Honorable Sarah [[image:Honorable_Icon.gif]] 12:44, 17 August 2006 (CDT)


 * PVP-players need to stop complaining. They get 200 attribute-points, max-level armour and perfect weapons right off the bat; PVE-characters are entitled to a little something wonky as an extra for all the effort they (should) go through in order to get their character "done". And given that PVP-characters have access to the storage (cheap as free), they too can get their hands on the PVE-weapons, if they went and bought them or earned them theirselves. That takes a bit of effort though, maybe that's the problem. --Black Ark 16:55, 17 August 2006 (CDT)


 * PvPers get those things for PvP. A PvE character (or PvE assisted PvP character) potentially being superior to a pure PvP character for PvP is contrary to ANet's stated goals.  --68.142.14.61 18:09, 17 August 2006 (CDT)

why is icy dragon sword listed in this section?

Nightfall
This seems like the best place to make a general note on all greens. With Nightfall's release the old staves were updated to use the new HSR all spells 20% mod (at least that's what I've read on this site, and the greens I have were updated). The various pages, including the summary tables and individual weapons' pages, still reflect the old stats, which needs to be changed. Maybe a note on the change should be present too? Also, it might be a good idea to include a method of making replicas of greens using insignias, similar to the current tips on making green replicas. --Colonel Popcorn 14:40, 23 November 2006 (CST)