To start off, it’s common knowledge at this point that no other T6 rings other than UBHP are used (other than perhaps Wisdom for wismod but even that one is completely beaten by an ST ring). There is just so much more option in UT rings that no one can find any use in Tiered rings (other than UBHP).
The issue that leads to tiered rings being considered garbage is how vastly underwhelming they are compared to rings of the same league but UT.
The core selling point of Tiered rings is having a ring purely focused on 1 stat, so it should grant a VERY big boost, to explain its lack of other stats to it.
For comparison, we have T6 rings that drop in the shatters and then we have 3 UT rings that drop in the same dungeon. If we compare them: the T6 rings either give 180 HP/MP or 10 of the other stats. Now who’s gonna use a ring that only offers, say, 10 DEX, when you can have a ring that offers more DPS than a purely offensive ring (UBATT/UBDEX) while also offering more than half the amount of a ring purely focused on HP?
Want more examples?
- Ring of Pure Wishes: offers 2 less DEF but grants +45 MP/HP on top of it, it’s almost a UBDEF with HP and MP on top of it. Who would choose UBDEF when there’s such a close contender to it in the pure stat but still offers additional bonuses on top of that? Not to mention cland is a pretty easy dungeon compared to places where T6 drop, so it’s basically a direct upgrade from a Para/Exa DEF, which just defeats the purpose of tiered rings.
- Imperial Keepsake: a pretty decent boost to HP while only sacrificing 2 SPD which is rarely noticeable.
- Revenant Ring: Offering only 1 less VIT while granting 50 HP, 3 ATT on top.
- Crystallized Mist: offers 2 less speed for +60 HP, +6 DEF (over halfway to UBDEF) and a reactive proc as a bonus giving better invisibility than a cloak every 45 seconds on any class.
and the list goes on.
Every single UB ring aside from UBHP/UBMP is beaten completely by other rings, either ST or UT and theres no reason to use the pure rings other than for achieving the max stats a character can possibly get to, wearing the correct gear, which has little utility in most scenarios.
My suggestion to this would be to bump up the value given by each +10 ring to double the value, +20.
Now I know this might sound crazy at first but think about it.
A ring offering +20 Defense would actually rival an Unbound HP ring in a lot more scenarios, making it worth using, all the while providing a sturdy boost to combat trigger to squishier classes and making it an actually viable choice.
A +20 Vitality ring, would reduce IC by a whole 1 second, contributing to more pet assistance and VIT/WIS natural regen.
+20 Wisdom would no longer be outclassed by an ST ring and would provide a very useful boost to wismod abilities, making it highly sought after for those wanting a stronger ability.
+20 Attack / Dexterity would actually out-dps other UT rings which is entirely the point, given that they are focused on 1 stat and 1 stat alone, no HP, no other mixed stats in the middle, just raw damage.
+20 Speed would give a very noticeable speed change, being a decent choice if one wants to have their speed on almost same tier as a dagger class, on any other slower class.
Of course, this would require that all rings created after this had in mind that they couldn’t go over 10 of any stat, to prevent this problem from repeating.
Example: Since rings would have their stat raised to +20, then perhaps it wouldnt be such a bad idea to start making rings with, perhaps, +11 ATT, +70 HP, +10 SPD, but this would slowly just lead to the same problem all over again, of UT/ST outclassing them so it would be important to keep in mind a limit.
Personally, the way I use to measure general stats of rings is by adding all the stat points together or if they are HP/MP, divide by 10 first and then add then to the total, since I find the utility of +10 HP/MP to be about the same as +1 of any other stat (which is also the reason why I suggested that HP/MP exaltations were bumped up to double their current value, in another thread). Likewise, negative numbers reduce the total by the amount, or divided by 10 if HP/MP.
This means a ring like crown provides +11 on HP, +6 * 2 (+12) which in total is +23, so already 3 points above any tiered ring in terms of total stats, which is understandable, given its rarity. This way, most more endgame Untiered rings stay at around 20-25 total stats, not going a lot further than that with a few exceptions such as Omnipotence Ring, boasting a huge +40 in total stats (but since that’s only 1 ring and is arguably very rare, it doesn’t hurt to have that exception).
Of course, with this rebalance to tiered rings, all other tiers would have to be rebalanced as well.
The way they increment right now makes little sense progression-wise. t1 hp gives +40, t2 gives +40 on top of the last tier (+80) then t3 gives +20? (+100) then t4 gives another +20 (+120) t5 gives yet another +20 (+140) and suddenly the last tier gives +40?? (+180)
What I have in mind is the following:
(I’m only adding the T0 for consistency)
T0 HP/MP - +?? -> +10
T0 Other - +1 -> +1
T1 HP/MP - +40 -> +20 (+10 increment)
T1 Other - +3 -> +2 (+1 increment)
T2 HP/MP - +80 -> +40 (+20 increment)
T2 Other - +5 -> +4 (+2 increment)
T3 HP/MP - +100 -> +70 (+30 increment)
T3 Other - +6 -> +7 (+3 increment)
T4 HP/MP - +120 -> +110 (+40 increment)
T4 Other - +7 -> +11 (+4 increment)
T5 HP/MP - +140 -> +150 (+40 increment)
T5 Other - +8 -> +15 (+4 increment)
T6 HP/MP - +180 -> +200 (+50 increment)
T6 Other - +10 -> +20 (+5 increment)
T7 HP/MP - +??? -> +250 (+50 increment)
T7 Other - +?? -> +25 (+5 increment)
Not only does this solve the inconsistent progression problem, it also follows the natural stats progression of the game.
The jumps from each tier to the next gets bigger as to reflect the game’s difficulty as well, correspondant to where they drop. In early game, a ring giving +20 HP is actually pretty nice, each hitpoint matters. Same for +2 defense or any other stat. Your early game stats are pretty mediocre so any boost to them makes a worthwhile impact as far as early game goes. As you progress tho, you’ll see that by always incrementing the same value, it won’t be long until stats are underwhelming considering whatever you’re facing and what was once useful is just a drop in comparison to your maxed stats paired with the difficulty of whatever dungeon you’re in. You’ll rarely find a use in a ring that only offers +1 stat than the previous tier (or +2 in Unbound Rings’ case).
Extra: This rebalance would put Ring of Decades in a weird spot. Currently it’s a direct upgrade to Unbound HP but with UBHP being buffed to +200 (to make all the stats more consistent and in line with each other), it would leave it between a T5 and a T6… so maybe adding a special proc to the ring of decades would do the work? Like an explosion of shards, similar to when you break the crystals in Fungal/Crystal Cavern, with each dealing a certain amount of damage. This one I leave up to the readers to fantazise about what it could do.