In this case, viability with an Unbound ring other than HP in endgame dungeons does mean viability everywhere else because endgame dungeons are just how few shots you can manage to get hit by. If a UBDEF manages to be successful in an endgame dungeon it means it will be most certainly useful everywhere else.
Besides, you taking 5 shots in earlier game with your powerless stats can be just as deadly as taking 5 shots in an endgame dungeon with your 8/8 so this would not just fit in endgame but it would complement mid and early game too. There are 6 tiers of rings afterall. Early game has the same problem where HP rings easily outclass all the others. Even in godlands UBDEF isnt useful if you dont purposefully facetank stuff (which in your scenario is explained, although rather niche).
Unsoulbound or not, doesn’t make much sense that a ring that drops from Endgame dungeons is considered “midgame” or useful in the midgame only. You can just as easily get an Acrop or T12 staff, none of which are outclassed by other semirare UT/ST stuff. Id even pick tradeable Tiered apparel over many endgame whites (except rings, ofc).
If something is useful in midgame or non-endgame scenarios only, then it shouldn’t drop from an endgame dungeon. Makes little sense design-wise that 6/8 rings that drop in an endgame dungeon serve no purpose at all because they are so useless they are outclassed by semirare UT/ST rings that drop in far easier stuff.
For endgame you should have rings that are endgame and useful in endgame (Unbound);
For midgame you should have rings that are midgame and useful in midgame (Superior-Exalted);
For earlygame you should have rings that are earlygame and useful in earlygame (Minor-Greater).
For a def ring to be useful in the godlands, then it should be a Paramount DEF ring that we should be talking about, not Unbound.
And as you can see:
…it would offer enough to be a viable ring for godlands, being a midgame ring as it is.
Nothing says that UT rings should outclass Tiered rings either. You don’t see it in Weapons, Armors or Abilities. It doesn’t make sense that this piece of tiered equipment is so heavily different from the others.
You saying that a spread will always tend to be better than a heavy focus is just product of being used to how rings are currently structured. If they were made to be a useful condensed focus of all the stats in UT rings, they would be a useful ring, while giving UT rings space to be special by being more spread out and specialized versions.
UT items were always referred to as specialized or “niche” items because of their usefulness in certain scenarios, while Tiered equipment has uses in a wide array of situations because they’re supposed to be more generally useful. It’s also the reason why Tiered Equipment has multiple drop locations while UTs don’t. But for Rings you see the inverse. Tiered are the “niche” or only useful here and there, while UT rings reign over them completely.
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