Let's have a conversation about boss exclusive drops, namely HOWA.

Howdy, I was having an interesting discussion in global chat the other day and thought I'd extend the thought here:

How do y'all feel about HOWA (Hand of Wisdom and Action) in its current state?

The reason I ask this is two-fold, and also my personal opinion.

- First, I think they're still overtuned. Hot take, I know. But in my humble (and worthless) opinion, GGG has painted themselves an interesting corner to be stuck in. Boss-exclusive, non-chance-able uniques need to be decidedly powerful to drop from endgame content, but I don't think they should massively overshadow every other potential piece of gear in that slot, which is what I believe HOWA is currently doing. For the longest (and much to the anger of my buddies,) I avoided getting HOWA unless it dropped to me organically. Being the vaal addict that I am, once I finished my first Breachstone and somehow got a pair, I immediately qual'ed, socketed, and prayed to the Vaal. They bricked. I've bricked two pairs now.

All of that said, even a bricked pair is still a SIXTEEN THOUSAND DPS IMPROVEMENT over my previous gloves, a very nicely stat-lined pair of Kitoko's Current, being supported by an absolutely ridiculous amount of electrocute buildup. What it lacked in damage it made up for in being able to functionally stun-lock bosses, and was my own little corner of non-meta fun. I've since converted to my bricked HOWA, and will eventually vaal one to more success than I've currently seen, may the Breachlord grace me.

- Secondly, given my first opinion, we're at a crossroads: should HOWA (and Ingenuity, and co.) maintain about their current power level? Should these items be automatically considered Best in Slot, regardless of what class, ascendancy, or skill tree ideas one plans on running? Should other, mid-to-early lategame uniques get another balance buff pass, to maybe incentivize build variety? Or am I ranting into the wind like an old man that sees clouds and yells "WHY, META, WHY!?"

For the record, while I think HOWA is individually overtuned, I don't have any answers for how it could potentially be tweaked. You either make it more corner case, massively dropping its appeal, or adjust its numbers, but at what point in those adjustments does it stop being such an epic drop from ol' Handy McHandFace?

Hm, I don't mind HOWA or Ingenuity. They are powerful, but with more uniques added there will be enough to choose.

They are powerful, sure. But I don't even think they need a nerf, I would just nerf the rarity even harder, putting both in T0 territory.

Take "Nimis" for example, is super strong but the rarity fits the power, so no issue there.

See to a point I agree. And you bring up a good counterpoint, I think there's currently 25% of the target amount of uniques they want in the game? (Someone correct me on this, am hermit that doesn't watch the roadmap videos)

I agree they should nerf the rarity. They might've just not realized when they first launched EA how powerful HOWAs are, but the fact I got them from a t1 and t2 breachstone...I think they should only drop from t4 breachstone to make them more fitting their BiS status. Like as it currently stands, you can just refund all your Breach Atlas Tree points and target farm them.

Also as the hermit joke may have alluded to, I have no idea what Nimis is. Enlighten me? (Yea I could probably google this)

Howa costs like 1 divine, and 5 divine for a good corrupt, which I do find stupid, knowing it is BIS item for almost half of the builds in game.

It should cost 20-25+ divines, and maybe slightly reworked on scaling.

Ingenuinity is in a good spot, I think that belt is like mageblood in poe1, except it is farmable, but if you want ingenuinity with good corruption (93%+) it will cost you a fortune, 300-400divines+, so again it is alright. You go through 30-50 belts, and they are not that cheap before you get one with good corruption.

Also I am not sure if yopu play with HOWA what you are complaining about, that you can get BIS item for your build for 1 divine? That is easy to farm?


On a sorc to craft decent pair of rare gloves to use, you need to spent at the BARE MINIMUM - 500 divines. And you can still fail, because most of the mods on int gloves for some reason are accuracy, attack speed and some worthless mana gain on kill... you need to have 500 divines and have god luck.

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Fluffy017#3208 wrote:

See to a point I agree. And you bring up a good counterpoint, I think there's currently 25% of the target amount of uniques they want in the game? (Someone correct me on this, am hermit that doesn't watch the roadmap videos)

I agree they should nerf the rarity. They might've just not realized when they first launched EA how powerful HOWAs are, but the fact I got them from a t1 and t2 breachstone...I think they should only drop from t4 breachstone to make them more fitting their BiS status. Like as it currently stands, you can just refund all your Breach Atlas Tree points and target farm them.

Also as the hermit joke may have alluded to, I have no idea what Nimis is. Enlighten me? (Yea I could probably google this)

Nimis is a really, REALLY good unique made by the player "Jungroan" probably even newer ppl know by now.

Here the item: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Nimis

The item drops from the "Uber" version of an endgame boss (Eater of Worlds) and they changed the rarity to somewhere between 100-200 attempts or something really high. So it's not only hard to get (Uber version) you need many kills or luck to get it to drop.

I do not mind Boss Exclusive Drops.

But I also believe that it is FAR TOO EASY to get Howa and Ingenuity.

Ingenuity is more powerful than headhunter was in PoE1..... and it is FAR EASIER to get.

I hate that some unique items have that much power and nearly every build wants it. Feels like the item is required. Feels bad. I don't have a reason to ever try to craft gloves.

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I hate that some unique items have that much power and nearly every build wants it. Feels like the item is required. Feels bad. I don't have a reason to ever try to craft gloves.

See this is my issue, since getting on the HOWA train and knowing their strength, I have completely stopped picking up glove bases altogether (besides pure ES since I don't think caster classes really use HOWA.)

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Also I am not sure if yopu play with HOWA what you are complaining about, that you can get BIS item for your build for 1 divine? That is easy to farm?

My complaint is that the existence of HOWA, at its current power level, and its current farmability, obstructs build variety for half the classes in the game. Lack of build variety is boring* (TO ME), I wanna see people do wacky shit and succeed with it, and if 80% of those "wacky builds" end with "oh and HOWA because you'd be dumb not to"...well, that's where we're at now.

Such uniques work good for SSF though. In the trade league, every unique will be quite available anyway, it's another reason to separate balance in these 2 leagues.