Dreugh King Slayer Set VR14: helmet, cuirass, sabatons, gauntlets, girdle, pendant, two-handed sword
You should use another example.

You can do all endgame content only with crafted stuff. Sucks for jewelry though. It´s not good from a minmaxiing point of view but doable.

The useless traits on dropsets are there to prevent them from being op, imo.

Don't forget all the useless "hybrid" sets. Stygian is a great case in point. It was the cornerstone of my hybrid NB build before 1.6. Now it just sits in my foot locker collecting dust. Change it to light armor or add a necklace. Right now you can't use it and get the 5 piece light armor passives to activate.

Regarding VR levels of some sets, I agree their lack on high levels bit daft.

Soulshine is the best example for any Templar (and Dragon Knight). Even the V10 set (3 green jewels, 2 gold heavy) gives a whooping big bonus to healing and most of our MA abilities they require casting time. Even the ultimates.

And is the only Khajiit style of the sets
(@ZOS maybe allow us to change style on drop sets to our racial is a good idea as you allow us to convert to imperial?)

maryriv wrote: »

Percentage Chance to Process (PCP or Proc Rate) - Most 5 pc set bonuses have a ridiculously low chance to proc especially when considering how many opportunities are presented for the proc to occur. It seems that not much consideration is given to the amount of opportunities per second are potential but that instead a random number is picked.

Sorry, can't agree with you there. Proc chance can't be so high that the effect will be proccing all the time. It's a random, lowish-chance bonus, not an active effect. I have nothing against tweaking the proc chance, but would you give actual examples of too low chances?

maryriv wrote: »

Cooldown Timer - Most great 5 pc set bonuses are totally destroyed by long cool down timers.

Again, I have nothing against cooldown mechanics. These bonuses are NOT supposed to be up all the time.

maryriv wrote: »

These are the two main reasons most 5 pc set bonuses are very undesirable, here are a few more:

Crazy/Situational Conditional Procs - Spawn of Mephala has an okay chance to proc but only on a fully charged heavy attack which makes it quite useless especially where the proc is most desirable in AvA. Most of the time it's hard to land a heavy attack in the heat of battle where you are getting interupted and people are immune to CC's a lot of the time.

I thought you were discussing 5-piece sets. The Spawn of Mephala is a 2-piece set. It's supposed to have weird proc conditions, so that if you want the huge boost to dps/healing/whatever you get from only 2 pieces of gear (as opposed to most other bonuses, which require 5 pieces) you have to play around those conditions, not simply have them happen with whatever rotation you choose. In fact, there are several Undaunted sets geared towards different rotations. Valkin favours DoTs. Others favour different playing styles. I can't really see a problem here.

maryriv wrote: »

The Proc Itself - Sometimes the proc itself is not even worth procing as is the case with Wise Mage set it's not a very wise mage that uses this set!.

Here is where I start to agree with you. Many many sets simply don't seem to make any sense for any useful build. It could be that theorycrafters simply haven't been able to take advantage of these sets, but I suspect they're just not very good.

maryriv wrote: »

Awkward 2,3 and 4 Bonuses - Other sets just have terrible 2, 3 and 4 bonuses which takes away from the 5 set making a potentially good or great bonus just meh. This is one of the reasons why items like Morag Ton are sought after because at least all the bonuses go towards the Stamina/Weapon Power theme, even though the trait on armor is still terrible, it doesn't take away from the 5 piece as other sets do.

Again, I agree 100% with this point. Lots of sets are ruined by uninteresting bonuses. Most end-game players are min/maxers to some degree, and require their gear to boost specific attributes or stats. Many sets simply don't cater to this playing style. It wouldn't be a problem for lower-level sets, but end-game sets with weird bonuses are simply lazy development.

maryriv wrote: »

Availability of Set Pieces - Some sets only have exactly 5 pieces available 2 rings and 3 armor pieces or worse 1 Pendant and 4 other pieces like the Dreugh King Slayer set.

I'm not sure I agree with you. If all sets had all pieces in them, you would simply make your gear sets as they become available to you. By having some sets not come with all the pieces, you have to think really hard which pieces from which set you're going to run with. I think this adds to the complexity of finding a good build (in a good way).

maryriv wrote: »

Limited Level of Set Pieces - Many sets are not available in V14 versions at all, rarity is one thing but not at all available is kinda a big downer especially when they go up to V12 and V13 so close but so awkward. This is the case of most of the 2pc sets helmets from dungeons. I know vet ranks will be phased out soon so not sure how this could be addressed or if it should, I guess it depends on what you decide to do with itemization at that time.

100% agree. End-game sets should NEVER max out at VR12 or VR13. I know the difference isn't enormous, but as a VR14 character I kind of want to run ALL of my gear at VR14.

maryriv wrote: »

Crafted Sets - Lets face it, at end game, all crafted sets are terrible compared to other PvP found sets. Perhaps have some rare component that can be added during crafting to make them all much more powerful and thus viable end game.

Many crafted sets are just terrible. Others are simply wonderful. I'm not going to speak about PvP since I no longer do it and haven't even tried to make a post-1.6 PvP build (although my previous Sorc PvP build used the Arena set, a crafted set).

In PvE, the problem I see is that the most desirable crafted sets are usually the lower-tiered ones (3-6 traits required). I'm levelling a DK as a tank and I'm running exclusively with crafted VR5 gear, while the character is VR10. I have 26k health and rarely run out of stamina. I've run countless veteran dungeons at VR12 with no issues since I crafted this gear, i.e. since the character was VR5. So for PvE, some crafted gear is actually pretty darned good.

Howeer, as a crafter, I feel that the time and resources I've put into researching all possible traits should come with a reward in the form of being able to craft gear that people actually want to wear. Very few people ever use 8 and 9 trait sets for PvE, because these sets are simply underwhelming in their bonuses. This is a huge problem, has been discussed ad nauseam in the forums, and ZOS still hasn't revealed any plans to address it.

maryriv wrote: »

Bind on Pickup - Some sets require ridiculously long farms to get all 5 of the pieces because they are bound when you pick them up instead of when you equip them this causes them to be less than useful bank hogs.

Agreed. However, I don't know if BoE is the answer. Being able to simply buy the gear from a guild store removes some of the challenge, and I'm sure ZOS would have to decrease the drop rate even further to prevent these sets from becoming ubiquitous. Maybe a better solution would be to increase the drop chance to begin with?

maryriv wrote: »

Sometimes a combination of several of the above points are the issue as in the case of Magicka Furnace First we have the traot, Reinforced on Light armor is terrible! Especially since the armor was reduced on light (which is good but it stealth nerfed sets like this) the 2 pc of Physical Reistance, again on light armor, not so much, then we have the bonus itself, recovered magicka is good but the condition is ONLY on Melee attack THEN it has a 30 second CD on top of that. There are better examples but this one has the potential to be so much better if even one of the 3 problems with it were addressed. I would love to see the trait changed and the timer reduced to 15 seconds or on any damage not just melee.

You hadn't mentioned the traits before, and I actually think it's one of the major issues with some dropped sets. Especially since 1.6 and the removal of soft caps, most end-game PvE builds are based on maxing Stamina or Magicka. Reinforced, Sturdy, etc. don't do anything useful for most builds. I would love to see the traits on some sets reviewed or maybe even randomized, as the Undaunted Sets, possibly excluding some traits from the list.

maryriv wrote: »

Also there are abused sets such as the Valkyn Skoria where people stack aoe DoT abilities to get tons of chances to get the 4% proc and lagging out the whole world with meteors.

That is not an abuse. That is, as I said previously, playing around your gear's bonus proc conditions. I used to light attack-weave as a Sorc. Now I'm moving to heavy-attack weave as I farm the Spawn of Mephala set, so that I will be able to proc it with my standard rotation. This is to be expected. If meteor procs are really becoming too frequent, which is a balancing issue, then devs can play with proc % chance and cooldown, but that's a whole other argument.

maryriv wrote: »

Finally there are absolutely ideal and perfect sets like the Arch-Mage which are super rare which is awesome. I think this type was done right, perfect but super rare.

Meh. I think you stopped your sorc theory-crafting with 1.5. Arch-mage does little for my current build. I get magicka recovery and magicka cost reduction from Champion Points and jewelry glyphs, I don't need any on my sets. Now, the Martial Knowledge set? THAT is a perfect set. Even if you don't go with all the set pieces, you get +magicka and +spell damage, which is perfect for min/maxing. Also, some pieces come with infused and divines traits, which also helps with min/maxing.

maryriv wrote: »

I understand that every set can't be perfect but could we at least have them reworked so there are more than a hand full of desirable sets out of to many that are already out there. It's so bad that in almost all cases it's better to go maximum of 4 pc for the best spell/weapon damage rather than go for a bonus and sacrifice those stats. Plus you are talking about making more when most of the ones we already have need serious tweeking.

I'm not asking for all sets to be equal but just that most of them to not be completely useless

If you have some good examples that I can fill in the ones I'm missing or in addition to the ones I have please say below. Also if you don't agree with all or some of the points please elaborate with specific examples. Thanks.

Thanks for your post. I think you make some good points, though I can't agree with everything you say. In short, I think the devs have a lot of work ahead of them to rebalance the current gear, especially high-tier crafted gear.

maryriv wrote: »

There's no helmet or girdle and the sabatons must not have been added to wiki yet. So that still leaves out Rings, One-Handed, Helmet, Belt and Shield. Albeit shield wouldn't be a high priority it would be nice to have at least one one-handed weapon available in this set.

I got all the parts I mentioned in my very own bank, the parts in the wiki are the low vet parts, don´t know about them.

100% existing VR14 parts, as I own them:

necklace
two handed sword
helmet
cuirass
gauntles
girdle
sabatons

This is actually an excellent post, and one I'm very surprised isn't written more often.

The vast majority of sets are useless in this game, with players relegating themselves into only taking 2 or 3 parts of a set bonus, because it's simply better then the alternative.

Which is sad. We have a wealth of sets in the game, and yet they actually offer very little variety.

I think a serious overhaul of set items should definitely be released when the VR levels are removed (ie: released in the same patch).

I don't mind set bonuses like the current popular ones (I'm sure we all know them), but I would like to see more options leading to a deeper connection between them and our choices when selecting our loadouts. I think this would be an extremely easy way to help build diversity within the games population in regards to how people build their characters.

I agree with you completely, the itemization on this game needs reworking especially after 1.6.

The sets that I would like highlighted are the undaunted sets. Undaunted Unweaver is a light armor set with increased stamina set bonuses and then a 5 piece set that only procs on ability's that use stamina. Now this would be useful before 1.6 but now I cant find a use for it at all.

The same thing for Undaunted Infiltrator, its only the exact opposite of the Undaunted Unweaver. IMO it would be better to just switch the Unweaver to Medium armor and the Infiltrator to light armor.

maryriv wrote: »

Finally there are absolutely ideal and perfect sets like the Arch-Mage which are super rare which is awesome. I think this type was done right, perfect but super rare.

This armor set is essentially the same as the Seducer Crafted Set. Swap out a magic damage boost for more regen and its the same set. You can make a necklace that gives you back the spell damage.

Yeah when the game first came out, with the soft caps, hybrid builds were viable. I also think with the soft caps you could potentially see use for a wider variety of the set pieces too.

I know this won't help much with the viability of sets, but perhaps there can be slight cosmetic differences to their looks? A broken horn off a Nord style, or added flair on the Altmer...different patterns for Argonian... maybe a plume on Breton heavy armor.

The OP forgot the most important factor of all when choosing item sets.

"Hmm, I can either wear this set and gain a 5% bonus to my DPS, or I can wear this other set and not look like an idiot."

If they allows crafters to chance the trait on a set, or even the looks (combine two armor pieces, and get keeps its stats but gets the lock of the other set) that would fix some issues.

Proc chance and limits to the number of procs is required or some sets would be far too powerful.

So many players are using the exact same sets theses days.
Most Magic\Healers are using 4 Martial Knowledge which is why this set is so costly now.

Emma_Eunjung wrote: »

There are also some sets that have been crippled my the new combat metas introduced by update 1.6.

For example the Desert Rose set used to have AWESOME synergy with my Sorcerer's AOE Destro build. Critical Surge heals coming from all over the place would keep her alive, while Magicka return from the Desert Rose would let her cast Destruction spells continuously. Those were the days!

Now the Desert Rose is wilted :'( Critical Surge got nerfed, and Sorcs have to stack Wards now to stay alive, especially when wearing paper thin Light Armor. You know how much Magicka gets returned from Desert Rose when you get hit while your Ward is up? NONE. ZILCH. ZERO. NADA. Over 100K gold spent... down the drain.



.

They did you a favor straight up spell power and magicka stacking + shields is MUCH better

Some sets just plain dont have the available pieces for utility either

Akaviri Dragonguard set is a perfect example missing boots or rings or the very rare drop of the sword at vr12, its extremely offputting.

yup, that's why I use Shadow Walker and Night's Silence. Guaranteed to work.

ViciousWayz wrote: »

You would also think that Hawk's Eye actually had a Bow, since that's the 5th trait and all. Instead if you want that 5th trait bonus (which only applies to bows) and you use different weapons on each bar (like most but not all do), you need to waste another spot. Sure Master's Bow is great, however it would make sense to have the bow option as part of something that has a 5th trait bonus specifically and exclusively for bows!

Also I agree with many posts here. The traits, level availability, bonus choices, etc.. are sometimes a major let down with all but very few sets. The fact of the matter is, there are more useless sets than useful. This should never be the case! We are on the brink of having some amazing options in this game, however sets need a lot of love & attention. ESPECIALLY crafted sets.

Yes, I used the 9 trait set....it's....ok. It's a pretty good solo set but you'd think with all the effort that goes into being able to craft that set it would be at least as good if not better than anything in dungeons, trials, or pvp... but nope. Also right now Cyrodiil has the best gear sets. Luckily I found Morag, etc.. for my NB without having to go through ridiculous AP like most do (hi5 rng, hi5). I also am lucky enough to have VR12 Warlock for my other VR14s since before it became one of the rarest sets in the entire game.

However ZOS, you need a major overhaul to many sets, drop rates, drop locations/frequency, and some serious attention to crafted sets. The amount of useless crafted sets are ridiculous. The best you have to offer require 2-6 traits researched. I highly doubt this is working as intended. I do wish that your push for Hybrid builds (as seen by Undaunted sets, Undaunted passives, 8 + 9 trait sets) was successful. Don't get me wrong, it's very fun to play hybrid. But playing hybrid is not good for PVP nor end-game content where maximum DPS, etc.. are required (To get great trial times, etc..). I have even tried some of the undaunted sets and yes they have their moments -- but mostly as a hybrid. I'm happy Stam is finally viable, however Hybrid is not (for your more intense content anyway).

Wow this is really insightful and very relevant coming from someone who has all 4 classes at VR14. You are exactly right about the Bow option (and weapons in general) Morag has daggers for it's theme yet Hawk's has no Bow?? I was just thinking that yesterday as I was looking up the available pieces for each set.

Good comment!