Why does Lioneye's Glare have no drawback?

I only today looked up the precise stats of Lioneye's Glare.

Dev Diary on Uniques:

"

Chris wrote:

...we won’t have Unique weapons that deals a lot more damage than Rares, unless there is some severe drawback.

In the end game, we ideally want to see Unique items only being used for very specific purposes and builds. This will create an interesting and diverse end game, with top players having to rely mainly on near-perfect Rares that are so statistically unlikely that they would take thousands of hours to find by chance.

(from http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/55170)

Stats of Lioneye's Glare:
(150-175)% increased Physical Damage
Adds (6-12)-(20-32) Physical Damage
(10-20)% increased Attack Speed
+(80-100) to maximum Mana
Hits can't be Evaded

For comparison:
Highest rare physical % damage roll (http://www.pathofexile.com/item-data/prefixmod):
Tyrannical 73 Local Physical Damage +% 150 to 169

Highest rare flat physical damage rolls:
Flaring 77 Local Minimum Added Physical Damage 19 to 25
Local Maximum Added Physical Damage 38 to 45

Highest rare attack speed % roll:
of Celebration 77 Local Attack Speed +% 26 to 27

Highest rare mana roll (can an ordinary bow even roll mana?):
Blue 75 Base Maximum Mana 65 to 68

Highest rare accuracy roll:
of the Assassin 76 Accuracy Rating 321 to 400

So, the flavor of Lioneye's Glare is that it gives infinite accuracy rating and more mana than even a piece of armor can roll, in exchange for the severe drawback of only having the highest range physical % roll, middling flat physical damage, middling attack speed, and no elemental damage?

Am I missing something? Do we have a "diverse end-game" with "top players" using some magical mystery bow with 170%+ physical damage bonus, 18-40+ flat physical damage bonus, 21%+ attack speed and/or a high elemental hit with high crit chance and high accuracy?

Similarly, is Lioneye's Glare only being used for "very specific purposes and builds?" I dunno, guys, maybe to you, "archer" is an incredibly specific type of build. Maybe I'm missing some kind of... low... accuracy... bow using build... that Lioneye's takes advantage of...

Seems to me that Lioneye's Glare is pretty much the ideal bow for any archer, but maybe I'm just not creative enough in my builds. If so, can anyone show me a bow that would more optimally use a realistically-obtainable rare bow than Lioneye's?

Or am I looking at this wrong? Should I just see Lioneye's Glare as a "fixed rare" that is unique among uniques, in that it's pretty much top of the line for any archer out there, and just happens to be a unique?

Also, inb4 "no light radius, it sucks, sell it for scroll fragment plz"

Yeah Lioneyes has basically no competition. Not to mention that "hits cannot evaded" mod is a god amongst kings.

Wow, a personal reply from Chris. I'm pretty honoured, although I feel a bit guilty now. A bit like the kid who slowly deconstructs their parents' claim that their kitten has gone to kitty heaven, one logical question at a time, and watches as the parents are frantically and nervously forced to out the harsh truth to the child. Except Chris was perfectly honest and genuine from the first sentence. Cheers for that, mate! Not sure what can be done about Lioneye's, really. At first I thought maybe just changing "Hits cannot be evaded" to "Resolute Technique" would work fine, but then all the crit bowyers using Lioneye's would raise such a hullabaloo.

"

Chris wrote:

I'm speaking personally here and this doesn't reflect what GGG may or may not do with future changes to this item or to the game.

I personally completely agree with you and think that it should have a drawback. When it was rebalanced in the past, the power level was set a little too high. I regret that it wasn't fixed before Open Beta because it's a bit rude to change items that a lot of bow users are using. I don't know if it's going to get changed, but it's a situation that I don't like being in.

I agree that unique items should not be BIS for a significant number of builds, but some drawbacks are too high. A drawback should make you hesitate, think about the consequences before you equip it. They should not make you run screaming the other way.
And on another note, I think reducing IIR or IIQ is a sucky drawback, the drawback should only be combat based.

I have a fun mod you can add to it to make it perfectly balanced :P

"This bow cannot cause status ailments except stun"
Everyone would love that lol. It would make it a pure physical bow though.

A simple idea for a fix just came to mind, though. It's an inelegant fix, to be sure, but I can't see any party being disappointed with it.

1. Announce nerf to LG
2. Allow a period where it can be traded in for a fixed amount of Exalted orbs (possibly more depending on 6L?)
3. Apply nerf - stats on existing LGs are rerolled

This way, the devs can make any adjustments necessary, while the only people who would whine are people who miss the current power of the bow - and to them, can we not be as harsh and unforgiving as Wraeclast and say - "find your own rares inland, exile!"?

A similar process could be applied to Kaom's Heart if the devs feel such an adjustment is necessary.

EDIT:
My own idea (or ideas if I come up with more, although I like the stun-is-the-only-status-effect idea as well) for adjusting LG: Scale back the %physical damage roll so that it is also middling. %Physical damage makes a huge difference in my experience, and middling range should allow certain top rares to be preferable over LG this way.

"

heyyous wrote:

I have a fun mod you can add to it to make it perfectly balanced :P

"This bow cannot cause status ailments except stun"
Everyone would hate that lol. It would kill half the ranged builds in the game

fixed :)

"

johnKeys wrote:

"

heyyous wrote:

I have a fun mod you can add to it to make it perfectly balanced :P

"This bow cannot cause status ailments except stun"
Everyone would hate that lol. It would kill half the ranged builds in the game

fixed :)

It sounds to me like you are saying that lioneyes is the only worthwhile bow to use in the game. At least my suggestion would make it niche for physical damage. It would still add in the fire damage and cold and lightning you just wouldn't benefit from those ailments, Similar to resolute technique except it would still be able to crit.

"

I have a fun mod you can add to it to make it perfectly balanced :P

"This bow cannot cause status ailments except stun"
Everyone would hate that lol. It would kill half the ranged builds in the game

nerf due is a nerf due. this is an open beta. you have to do such things. diablo 3 cannot do that because of RMAH so they have to go the power creep way (that inflated damage to milions..), here you can simply announce it like 3 weeks before and nothing will happen. people abusing broken mechanics in your game should be really your concern as in long term they only destroy it


just please add a drawback to it. this is one of the few items that have ZERO items in 'cons' category..


my ideas (pick one):

- deals no elemental damage (harsh.. :))
- 'resolute technique' - this is the obvious pick, should have been that from the start
- cut the attack speed by 2 or 3 (cant be evaded because you aim carefully), that would brin it en par with 'normal bows'
- deals no status aliments (this is a good one!)

but please do not add token cons like 'while equipped deals 20dmg/s as chaos' because this does nothing and is only rubbing salt into already incredibly painful wound