Here's the new Azurewrath:


Azurewrath was Izual's sword, so this one will be more fitting than that puny normal-level one ;) . The level-requirement on this is quite high, but its stats rather make up for that. The sanctuary aura is a very nice touch, and opens the door to a lot more possibilities, though it also makes Paladins that much more obsolete. Why play Paladin if you can just have the aura of your choice on a merc or get it from the weapon? I suppose that there's already the possibility of having other classes' skills either as attack/striking/struck effect or as charge, so allowing Paladin auras as well isn't that huge a change, except that these are always on and don't cost anything to repair. If sanctuary will work the same as it does now, this will be a superb weapon against PI undead. With that cold and magic damage, it's good against other PIs, too :) . The +7 all stats is also new, but I find it quite unremarkable. It's just +28 total. If it's possible to get +10 or so to all stats on rare items, this will be quite significant, though. The physical damage on this isn't very high, but it has a nice attack speed and it does also have +1 skills.

Note that the aura is gone now, and that the equipment is the same, except that this is on the alternate weapon slot. This does reinforce the idea that the valkyrie glow was the full-set bonus, though it doesn't confirm it.

It's not completely clear if Lightsabre (i.e. unique phase blade) will be in 1.10 in the same form as it is now. In 1.08, it was a unique elegant blade instead. If there are several uniques of one type, it'll be random (possibly weighted) which will be picked, just like with rings and amulets. I can't say I like this idea, as it's already so rare to find a phase blade that passes the unique roll, and it could still fail the Lightsabre/Azurewrath roll (depending on which you want ;) ). OTOH, if there are items without a unique version, you can pass the unique roll and just end up with a rare with more durability. Maybe they'll boost rares for 1.10, but it'd most likely still be junk.

I think that, ideally, there'd be a unique version of every type of base item, and multiple ones of the more common types. This would be a lot, though, and it'd be hard to balance them all and keep enough originality ;) . For example, there are 15 types of sorceress orbs and only one has a unique version. I know I'd have a hard time making 14 more that would all be balanced and individually useful.