My guess would be that they removed outright impossible to trigger/use sets, like a battle axe that gives a buff to destruction magic or such, while leaveing everything that is theoretically useful in some universe in.
So the kind of nonsense like the Senche's Ice Staff from the OP should not be happening anymore. Either that or they botched up the patch notes.Sets that grant a bonus to melee damage will now drop more intelligently (i.e. a set with melee damage will no longer drop with a bow or stave).

Bryanonymous wrote: »Not only are they still there, 90% of the weapons I get are exactly this. I think it is done on purpose.
TheDarkRuler wrote: »@Lalaeith
Tell me a way to utilize a Senches Bite Restoration staff?
Trying to dodge roll into your allies and healing them with Vigor?

This one is using his trump card, this one beats all oponents in "unlucky pulls" game
Also this one thinks that prospherous&training traits are not really all that big problems like some players think it is.
Not with drops like this
Get ready for monster sets like this:
My guess would be that they removed outright impossible to trigger/use sets, like a battle axe that gives a buff to destruction magic or such, while leaveing everything that is theoretically useful in some universe in.
I actually thought the same - and thus was not all that surprised to see all the utterly pointless weapons dropping - like say an Inferno staff of Senche's Bite - who would ever use that for anything? Theoretically you could though... i mean slot three Agility jewelry, wear three pieces of armor and 2 1h weapons from something like the Sword Dancer set for an example, and 4 pieces of armor from the Senche's Bite and the staff on your back bar. Thus as long as you do your roll dodges with the staff active, you can reap it's benefits while attacking with the dual wield bar. And you get to add destruction staff abilities to your build! How cool is that? - Your right by they way, it's not. It's rubbish and only a moron would even contemplate to do something like that in actual play.
But it's still possible and theoretically at least, a plausible build. And this is the reason why I was not surprised to see utter crap keep dropping. This is ZOS after all who we are talking about. They are the ones that added the Prosperous trait to loot drops, and are refusing to accept the fact that it's rubbish and that no-one wants it. There are plenty of other such examples from the game, where it is blatantly obvious that the design is utter crap, and that it should never have even been implemented, but such mere trifles have never deterred ZOS from doing stupid things.
However... After re-reading the pertinent part in the patch notes, it does clearly state that this kind of crap should be gone:So the kind of nonsense like the Senche's Ice Staff from the OP should not be happening anymore. Either that or they botched up the patch notes.Sets that grant a bonus to melee damage will now drop more intelligently (i.e. a set with melee damage will no longer drop with a bow or stave).
EDIT - Ah the power of words, and the possibilities for miss-communication. I fell myself to that trap. They are not talking about weapon or spell damage, but melee damage. So yeah, things are totally working as intended. The patch notes only refer to removing things that are impossible. Like a set that procs on melee attacks and stuff no longer dropping with ranged weapons. Not about removing stuff that is stupid!
Everything else that is stupid and nonsensical still gets to stay in the game, 'cause ZOS!