The whole point of uniques having a downside is to compensate for having a large upside. It is up to the player to figure out a way to mitigate the downside. That is part of the fun in building around unique items.
The vast majority of Uniques have no downsides. It’s at most 10-15% that do, just browsing the item database.
What are the downsides of Omnis? Undisputed? Omnividence? Wings? There are some really powerful uniques, the ones that are really powerful with no downsides are usually those which can be utilized only by certain builds. Those boots having a downside is an okay idea, problem is that the design is pretty flawed, downside should be changed or whole buff idea heavily changed (like someone said buffing basic spriggan attack while also encouraging you to not stay in spriggan form is weird design)
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The downsides of most of those is their rarity.
I think we’re talking about literal “you get a mechanical penalty by equipping it”, not just something “bummer” about the item … 
And yet rarity is also one of the things that the devs use to balance an item’s power in addition to mechanical maluses.
So why not make this boots a rare drop that would be a chase item for spriggan build? Currently it supports a clunky gameplay with some power boost but because of this clunkiness item is losing a lot of potential. I’m up for some harsh penalties if it won’t make my build clunky and unfun to play
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There is also the Silvafrond ring that allows you to teleport to a Vine by summoning it.
I’d rather the boots just be removed from the game and deleted from everyones inventory. The spriggan “basic attack” is already crazy strong when built right. I am getting real tired of everyone wanting a zero difficulty game. Go mod some other game and steamroll that.
A lot of the drawbacks to those uniques you mentioned are what’s not on the item.
Complaining about players wanting to get more power in aRPG that is all about gaining power and dealing with end game that scale indefinitely is rather a weird thing to do.
It’s not about zero difficulty game, it is about unique that promote unfun gameplay. You can think about a ton of drawbacks to this boots that would be hard to deal with without making spriggan build a clunky mess
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Or you could just not use them if you don’t like them. Find a way to build around the drawback or don’t use them. Seems pretty simple.
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If only there were some other unique that would let you teleport as a Spriggan, for example.
Silvafound adds 7 seconds cooldown to vines cast so with those boots you could move with vines once per 7 sec… Not really viable in any content
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I don’t really understand how someone can find an excuse for such a poor unique design, just dropped them on my paladin, and yeah, they look amazing until you read the “you cannot move” line. I mean…ok we have silvafrond, but how can you even think to stand still for 6/7 seconds on a boss fight? Take orobis for example, 1 second is even too much
Shapeshifting from swarm/bear to spriggan? Ok, but when you do it, you cannot move. If you want to cast any spell it takes what? 3/4 seconds? Then shift back to swarm/bear, that’s a lot of time. I dare you to survive for so much without moving on a boss, in spriggan form. Even with 50% armor you get instantkilled easily.
Sorry, but i find it really nonsense.
Alright I rarely post on forums but I feel the need to comment here> As someone who spent way too much time on spriggan form. I really need to clarify why this is bad item PERIOD. I rarely do absolutes but on this unique in particular I can point out a lot of theory and flaws to the item in comparison to how the game is being designed. For one im not apposed to drawbacks I really like them> But the clear reason why this is in fact bad is because it goes against the very concept of a basic mechanic REQUIRED to progress throughout the game. Movement. Now before people come at me and say “teleport ring! (which is a different rant entirely) or Form swap.” I need to emphasis the very much over look designed of the game is becoming heavily designed around reacting with movement. Not just mediocre 32% movement more like 50% (unless you have a dash skill!) Which spriggan already lacks baseline. (not talking about giving up a ring slot for the worst movement skill in the game) But I’m pure baseline problem. Which every other skill in the game has access to without issue. Bosses recently have been getting more mechanically intensive. Mob design is about proper kiting and In/out gameplay style reaction. IE. scarabs, matrons, gorgons ect ect. Which means the pure concept of being able to not move is a huge problem regardless of any alterative ways out so to speak.
Now on form swap argument. Now it requires 2 button presses to swap into another other form or 1 to go back to human form. Now a good player can do either of these within 1 second reaction time. But for someone who can’t do this is in the 1 second reaction time you will most likely be cleave by boss mechanic. swarmed by mobs creating the “body blocking problem” I brought up in spriggan reveal. Thus forcing a dash skill get out of bad spot where your trying to recover. Mike even says the game is designed around the premise the players can move and attack as the 2 assumptions. These boots offset one of the core assumption the devs have to try create interesting mechanics. By taking away one of our core features You straight up gimping already rough mobility spot for spriggan.
Now channeling skill argument Warpath channels and move. we will remove this among other like it! However rebuke is perfect example as a comparator. you channel get alot of tankiness stuck in place. Why is this acceptable because when you stop pressing it you can freely move and react. This is not the same case for the Root boots. You have to press 1 button wait for animation delays then be able to move. sometimes 2 button if you want werebear or swarmblade. So its not a far argument in this case to bring out channel skills. Cause you don’t need to press other buttons to “cancel them”
Conclusion IMO
These boots actively goes against core design of a game with too much to work around a drawback with the game heading towards more mobile aspect they hinder too much to be used in a way I deem “fair or FUN” So I will personally NEVER use them again.
thanks for reading. (I’m a bit passionate about the topic of lack of mobility for spriggan. Always have always will be!)
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While I agree with you in principle, and I also chose not to use these as implemented, I think everyone’s idea of “fun” is different. I think the implementation is either bugged or flawed, I’m not sure. But I suspect the intent is you run and draw a ton of mobs to you, shapeshift to spriggan, and then proceed to absolutely annhilate everything in a second. Then shift back and run to the next spot. I can imagine that could be an interesting/different style of play that some people might like. But… it hinges on the boots (and perhaps combined with the buffs you can get from shapeshifting in the passive tree) really giving you a huge enough power boost to kill everything around you. So maybe it just needs some additional testing/balancing…
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While I know this is the intent for design in basic monolith maps. this does not work on bossing however. plus that concept only works so far because once you get higher corruption you will just die because you are unable to dodge out of huge Rare one shots with stacked affixes. The timing to get in out of the root is ultimately which makes this item not works. If they added it as “while your casting spirit thorns your are rooted” would be better because then once you stop casting you would be able to move have more timely reaction and choice into your gameplay more like a channel skill and less of a clunky mechanic which would still keep the original idea in tact
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I think you all just want to use the boots because of the power it adds, but don’t want the drawback that comes with it. The boots aren’t for your build if you don’t want to play the turret style. Not every item is for your builds.
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