Anyone using the higher tier equipment sets?

Winterpsy

I noticed the crafted sets that has a higher research trait requirement are lagging behing in effectiveness compared to the basic ones (at least how I percieve this).
Or simply I cant imagine where they can be effective.

Most of the popular sets are available with 2-4 traits researched, like Hist, Whitestrakes, Ashen Grip, Seducer, etc.
At the moment I see no point researching further.

What's your take on this? Anyone's using these sets and how good they are actually?
Song of Lamae, Alesia's bulwark, Night mother's gaze, Willow's path, and more importantly, Kagrenac, Orgrums, Eyes of Mara, Shalidor's (C'me on, you get some HP back, but with Whitestrakes you get simply even more damage bubble), Oblivion's foe, Specter's, Way of the Arena, Twice born.

Sharee

I have been using arena for a long time on my stamina NB (before the removal of softcaps), and Orgnum's on my heavy orc DK built around health regen(with oblivion's foe as a filler) - that guy could solo group dungeons while levelling.

But yes, the higher trait sets are not particularly more powerful, and i think that is intended to be so - they should provide more varied options, not obsolete the previous sets.

Maphusail

I personally research 8-9 traits to use the Arena and Twice Born Star sets. Or better to say to be able to use it :-) because I haven't had an occasion yet. But I think these 2 sets are worth to use in some specific situations: Arena - in pvp and TBS e.g. as an alternative to Seducer for the healer. The reason they cost so much time to learn is to somehow justify the new content introduced at the time they were added (Craglorn I mean).

Leandor

I use Eyes of Mara on my sorc healer together with Healer's Habit, but intend to switch over to a more defensive set once IC hits. Both 5-piece are very useful for a non templar healer, imho.

Pyro117

The higher trait sets allow you to slot in different sets. Sometimes you can get the benefit on a higher trait set with less pieces allowing you to mix your gear more effectively.

I do agree that the higher trait sets should have slightly better stats over the lower trait required sets but at this time, I have not found any differences in the values.

failkiwib16_ESO

The lower area sets are usually the most popular and best, however learning more traits will only benefit you in the future. Also, the higher trait sets are also useful for certain things.

Cuyler

Hunding's 6 trait

Winterpsy

Yep, I did not listed that because hunding seems to be the only higher tier useful crafted set.

Allyhoo811

I have used the Alesia's Bulwark set in the past when solo questing on my more squishy characters (because of the added armor rating it gives/gave), but I can't remember if that was before or after a lot of the sets got reworked.

Nestor

Winterpsy wrote: »

Most of the popular sets are available with 2-4 traits researched, like Hist, Whitestrakes, Ashen Grip, Seducer, etc.
At the moment I see no point researching further.

What's your take on this? Anyone's using these sets and how good they are actually?
Song of Lamae, Alesia's bulwark, Night mother's gaze, Willow's path,

6 Trait sets are some of the most powerful. Hundings Rage for instance. Wonderful combo to Nightmother or Willows Patch on an assassin type.

8 and 9 Traits sets? Made a 2 piece Mara set once just because I had learned the 8th trait and have never made one since. I think I made a Way of the Arena piece for someone who needed it.

However, going past 6 traits is academic in my mind as there are no sets out there that really are worth the time and effort to research those last 3 traits. That being said, I am 5 items from knowing all 9 traits on all gear, but that is because I am completionist, not because I would ever use a 8 or 9 piece set.