What to do with CP160 Overland / BoE Sets

RonaldRayGun79

Long story shorter: It had been a while since I played an Elder Scrolls title when I picked up ESO so I spent a ton of time learning mechanics early on and I hit CP 160 right when I started Cadwell’s Silver. As such, I've picked up a ton of the CP160 overland / Bind on Equip set items while completing zones in Silver and Gold to the point that my alt and bank slots are near capacity. Originally, I had planned to keep all of the overland dropped set items for my alts when they hit CP160 but I don’t know if that is the best route.

I’ve leveled and researched my crafting to where I’m nearly to 9-trait master crafter in all disciplines so I’ll be able to make any crafted set for my characters very soon and I just don’t know if the overland BoE sets stack up to crafted sets. Obviously, the BoP sets you pick up from Veteran Dungeons/Trials/Arenas are worth holding on to.

I know there is some great user content out there from esoacademy about all the different set bonuses but I can’t find anything to line up the numbers side by side from similar overland and crafted sets. Does that exist?
If, generally speaking, the best crafted sets outperform the overland / BoE sets, am I best to just deconstruct or sell these in guild store instead of using up valuable bank space? I’d love to hear your opinions.

davey1107

It's an issue...there are so many damn sets now, lol. I could have two alts hold nothing but my reward for the worthy gear. My philosophy:

- toons usually wear at least one drop set now. You can't make jewelry with crafted sets, so if you're going to do a 5/5/x config you need at least one drop set. Three agility/willpower still perform well, but a lot of times a 5th piece trait on a second set offers very fine-tuned power. Example: my pvp stamblade is a bow gank right now. His second set is hawk's eye. The 5th piece trait is "reduce cost and increase damage of bow abilities by 5%." For what I'm using him for, this way outperforms a 5/3/3 config with agility jewelry so I want the drop set.

- speaking specifically to craft sets, I'm not aware of specific guides that show side by side power. However, craft sets are generally perceived as a little weaker now, with a few exceptions. For example, dps toons usually start with Julianos or Hundings, both very good craft sets. Then if the player wants to max out, they replace with BiS gear, which tends to be drop or vet dungeon drop sets. But there are many more specialty builds now, and quite often craft sets come into play.

- a good build-maker for you to refer to is alcasthq.com. He always shows BiS gear for his builds, then has 1-2 addl configs with easier to obtain gear. This offers a general idea of how these sets perform. See for example his pve stamblade rampage build for Morrowind...he's got three setups. You'd perform very well in his beginner gear, then if you like the build and want to power up you can replace one of the sets...then the second...if you want to do the grind.

- half the drop sets are garbage. Decon stuff you're never going to use. If in doubt, take a quick look at guild stores. Higher prices mean a better set.

- make a note of which sets you want to try personally. I'm holding my spriggans right now because it's a good set...I'll hold more pieces than I will for okay sets I'm not going to use. Vicious death? Meh. I'm not going to wear it. Sure a divine belt has some value...I'm not freaking walmart...decon.

- Neither you nor anyone else is going to wear a piece with a garbage trait. Decon the prosperous crap. I only keep divines, impen and sometimes infused. On jewelry I'm ok with blue or undesirable traits only until I get a replacement...when a purple spriggans ring comes in, the blue goes in the trash. On weapons I keep sharpened, some defending, precise on very desirable sets I'm collecting.

disintegr8

I deconstruct everything I do not currently think I will use - even divines. These are especially useful for new alts to deconstruct for leveling up their craft skills. Since Homestead my Alts have been doing trait research and using the excess gear my other characters have been collecting for that.

Apart from keeping only a handful of sets I might try out, the only other pieces I keep are monster pieces in divines and impen - I may never use them but never is a long time.

Khenarthi

I deconstruct or sell anything that is not a perfect trait in a useful set, and still run out of space. On the other hand I have 14 characters to outfit, so they end up with at least 2 full sets each (set one for normal questing/dps, and set two for tanking).

Infused traits are only good for body/head/legs (large pieces benefit more from gear enchants), and for the small body pieces I keep only divines for adventuring, and sturdy for tanking.

As for weapons it really depends, for more damage I want to keep the sharpened ones (or precise, in the meantime) while for tanking I also keep the defending one-handers. If you play a healer, powered resto staves may be something to hold on to as well.