Do you like to use crafted/overland sets in your best build?

Scaletho · September 2022

Just for personal research purpose, I wish to know the frequency of crafted/overland sets in "good", "very good", "endgame" builds for ESO players. Personally I wonder whether these "available to all" kind of sets are really valued in game or if they are just a waste of time and resources.

Some nice crafted/overland sets are considered very useful (Hunding's Rage, Julianos, etc.) but afaik most of them are not considered as essential options for the best quality builds.

So I wish to know you opinion. If you chose any "YES" option, please inform which crafted/overland set you find best.

P.S. I didn't included the Mythic in "Trial/Arena.." options. Sorry. Consider them part of it.

Amottica · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

First, I would have kept the poll simple without clouding it with other things. Since the question is about "our best builds," leveling a character is irrelevant. It is a simple yes or no question being asked.

Also, mythics do not fall into trial/arena/dungeon sets so some can consider them to be overland. Technically they are neither but they are more overland than trial/arena/dungeon. So I am going to suggest I do use overland.

To answer what you wonder, yes they do have value. Not everyone runs trials to get the best sets and you need something to wear while getting dungeon/arena/trial sets. Doing it with no armor is probably not a great idea.

Hope that helps.

AvalonRanger · September 2022

No. I find them useless for my best builds. I only use Trial/Arena/Dungeons sets.

Hexos' Ward set
Eternal vigor set
Briarheart set
Mother's sorrow set
Hrothgar's Chill set

Some of overland gear is very practical and useful, but 90% of overland gear
is not so useful.

Of course it is. Otherwise, no one try to run group dungeon. It's a game design issue.

Freelancer_ESO · September 2022

No. I find them useless for my best builds. I only use Trial/Arena/Dungeons sets.

I'd like to use them in my better builds and I've tried at times but, they are generally either boring, less effective than items from other areas, or they fail to be updated with changes.

For example, I was running Queen's Elegance on one of my characters until U35. But, the changes to Empower and the availability of it caused the set to lose value for me.

For the crafted builds, it's a massive expense to get the Jewelry for any set.

geonsocal · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

heavy julianos has been useful to me over the years...

FrancisCrawford · September 2022

I like the overland sets, but not the crafted ones.

I like to use one or two 5-piece sets that can be single-barred. For solo builds I prefer 2 (to run along with Ring of the Pale Order and a monster set).

Farming them in dungeons is a pain, because you need the weapons, which can be slow to drop.

So my magicka builds often include Mad Tinkerer. My stamina builds often include Briarheart, although I may get away from that after doing some arithmetic about crit. I've used other overland sets as well.

Indeed, the main dungeon sets I use are Spell Power Cure (for healing builds), Burning Spellweave, and various monster sets.

Well, I do have Jailbreaker town gear for all 18 characters. But that's an old choice, from before Ring of the Wild Hunt was introduced and Adept Rider was changed. I'll swap it out at some point.

Scaletho · September 2022

Amottica wrote: »

First, I would have kept the poll simple without clouding it with other things. Since the question is about "our best builds," leveling a character is irrelevant. It is a simple yes or no question being asked.

Also, mythics do not fall into trial/arena/dungeon sets so some can consider them to be overland. Technically they are neither but they are more overland than trial/arena/dungeon. So I am going to suggest I do use overland.

To answer what you wonder, yes they do have value. Not everyone runs trials to get the best sets and you need something to wear while getting dungeon/arena/trial sets. Doing it with no armor is probably not a great idea.

Hope that helps.

yea, sorry. I'm not used to make polls hence the mistakes.

markulrich1966 · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

mothers sorrow to increase crit chance
queen elegance to get empower for heavy staff attacks on sorcerers (combined with sergeants mail from wayrest sewers), as I don't like antiquities and so have no oakensoul.
torugs pact cmbined with sergeants mail on magDKs
orgnums scales with paria for my tanks
New Moon Accolye + Ancient Dragonguard on MagCros
New Moon Accolyte with Dreugh King Slayer (fungal grotto dungeon) on Stamplars

Purpose are daily worldboss quests to farm rare furnishing mats.

Some other builds still use combinations that I would not use from new after U35, but for the rare occasions I play those I will not upgrade.
E.G. Mad Tinkerer + Defiler + Maw fpr a 6 pet sorcerer
War Maiden with New Moon Accolyte or Dreugh King Slayer on magplars
Mothers Sorrow + Crafty Alfiq on Magplars

As long as you mainly play overland, and just a vet basegame dungeon now and then, such sets are quite good.
If you focus on vet DLC dungeons and trials, you would replace most with trial sets for the group buffs.

AzuraFan · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

Best will mean different things to different players. I use sets I find fun and that match the character I'm playing. For my main, one is Defiler and I've forgotten the name of the other one since I've been using it for a long time. The one that makes birds fly around you when you do damage. I play a warden that likes pets and animals, so this makes sense thematically for my main. Wearing those sets, I can do everything I want to do, i.e. overland, including public dungeons, and solo most base game dungeons. I have no interest in vet, trials, etc., so I have no need of those sets.

DreamyLu · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

I didn't know what to vote for because I don't have a "build". I just have skills I like. As for equipment, I use a mix of Stendarr/Mother's Sorrow pieces (all from drops or purchased). With that, for what I do, everything is easy to me so it's more than sufficient...

Side note: I'm a lazy player not touching end game activity apart from soloing some easy dungeon once in a blue moon (with the help of Bastian).

Kalik_Gold · September 2022

I like the crafted sets, but not overland ones.

Used crafted sets on most of my characters that were not in Trials.

Ezhh · September 2022

Since you talk about very good and endgame builds, while I know some people interpret endgame differently than others, it sounds like you mean in terms of performance the sets can reach, so I'd say it's not a matter of "like". It's a matter of what gives the best results regardless of where a set comes from.

Very few overland and crafted sets compete in terms of output with dungeon and trial sets.

For overland sets: I can think of two that currently see use in harder trials. Briarheart works very well in trash builds (builds for killing trash packs, not builds that are trash!) in trials, and Martial Knowledge is a good support set. Mother's Sorrow used to be commonly used but has fallen out of favour.

For crafted sets, not so long ago Diamond's Victory was a rare example of a crafted set that held up very well, and quite a while before that New Moon's Acolyte, but they are usually good for the patch they were released in at best and then get nerfed in some way, and abandoned for harder trials.

Things like Hundings and Julianos are mostly considered beginner sets - easy to get and overall quite good, but basically placeholders until you farm more long term equipment.

Hapexamendios · September 2022

Crafted - Order's Wrath
Overland - Mother's Sorrow

phaneub17_ESO · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

I don't do anything competitive or challenging content so the majority of my gear is crafted and overland, with some smattering of malestrom arena. All my hybrids are wearing Bahraha's Curse and Hist Whisperer, the majority of stamina chars are using Heartland Conqueror, and the majority of magicka chars are using Diamond's Victory; the secondary set is dependent on the character.

A general rundown... Stam templar has Shacklebreaker, stam sorcerer has the Hunt, stam dragon knight has Red Mountain, stam warden has Unfathomable Darkness, stam nightblade has Para Bellum, and stam necromancer has Syvarra's Scales. Magic templar has High Isles, magic sorcerer has Necropotence and Crafty Alfiq, magic dragon knight has Maelstrom staves and Willpower jewelry, magic warden has Frostbite and Winterborn, magic nightblade has Heartland Conqueror, and magic necromancer has Elemental Succession.

Danikat · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

I don't do trials (or vet dungeons) so I don't need my build to be the absolute best the game can possibly produce. I also don't want to spend any more time farming gear than absolutely necessary. So I go with what I can easily get, mostly crafted sets and some overland now the sticker book system exists. It's more than good enough for everything I play, and saves me a lot of time and hassle.

Also if I've understood correctly and what you're proposing is that ZOS could remove all set gear from the game except that dropped by dungeons, trials and arenas you need to bear in mind that will add (another) problem with communicating the games progression system to players. Most new players don't research the game via external resources and will spend at least some time in overland maps before starting on group areas. If they never see anything better drop (except maybe gear with enchantments) they won't know that's an option and won't have an incentive to seek out the best they can get. At least not until they try to start doing vet dungeons or trials and get kicked from groups for not having gear they can only get from...dungeons and trials.

fred4 · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

Order's Wrath (crafted) is amongst the best meta PvE sets. Julianos / Hunding's / Sorrow / Leviathan are not anymore. This info is from Skinny Cheeks (YouTube) who I trust on this matter. AFAIK the only reason anyone still makes Hunding's / Julianos is for nostalgic or not-having-caught-on reasons. If you want a fit and forget PvE DD set, Order's Wrath is the one to wear along with a trial set that has Minor Slayer.

I'll second Hexos Ward as one of the best compromises for increasing your tankiness just slightly as a DD and getting you through some content, such as unfamiliar (vet) dungeons, trials and (solo) arenas. When I need that tankiness, I switch my front bar damage set to this. To be a more consistently tanky DD for soloing or duoing, I also have a light armor Aetherial Ascension setup.

It's not like I use crafted / overland exclusively in my builds. There is usually (heck, always) some mythic, trial, or arena weapon component in them as well, or a dungeon set. But some crafted / overland sets are the best options in their slots. For example the Aetherial Ascension setup also includes Gaze of Sithis and is for a templar. Not something I'd recommend for every class, but it 100% makes sense on that class and for it's intended purpose - soloing or duoing dungeons, or carrying inexperienced groups. Since you can't block while using your main spammable or execute on templar anyway, we don't care much about the Sithis limitations, nor the cost increase from Ascension.

Steadfast's Mettle (High Isle overland) is my secret tanking set. I don't know if it's necessary in organised groups (probably not), but if your tank wants to carry trial pugs, reducing your block cost to a very low value and aggroing everything with the Tormentor set is one way of doing that. Better than Pearlescent, that's for sure.

I don't know whether you consider PvP sets "overland", but they are buyable in guild stores. Deadly Strikes is still one of the best templar DPS sets (PvE / PvP). Rallying Cry + Mara's Balm is arguably your one stop fits all tanky / brawler / 1vX PvP option, currently. Plaguebreak is both good in PvP and, situationally, for some insane PvE AOE nukes.

Wretched Vitality and Daedric Trickery, both crafted, are also good PvP options, with the former perhaps being especially good on stamsorc and the latter on DK. Both are back bar sets. Clever Alchemist is an evergreen PvP set, front bar or back bar. 2 pieces of Critical Riposte makes for a back bar option when you can't think of anything else (it occasionally happens, especially in the no proc campaign).

Mechanical Acuity is special purpose, but boy have I seen builds do feats with that set, such as nuking vMA bosses. Even in it's current state, I believe it's still meta for certain fights, if you are willing to switch it in for specific fights. Not a fit and forget set, though.

fred4 · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

For the crafted builds, it's a massive expense to get the Jewelry for any set.

I think that depends.

Yes, as a rule of thumb you want to farm jewelry or buy it in purple or gold (weekend trader), rather than upgrading or reconstructing in that quality. I am usually looking for 1x non-crafted set for this reason.

On the other hand this applies mainly for a min-maxed DD. Bloodthirsty, Infused, even Swift for PvP, yes, I would use at least purple jewelry. However, if you use Protective / Triune / Healthy / Arcane / Robust, such as for a tank or a (these days rare) magicka-stacking (PvP) build, then I think blue jewelry is sufficient. Yeah, you usually give away some 5-piece strength as well, but ... eh.

SammyKhajit · September 2022

I like the overland sets, but not the crafted ones.

This one used to craft stuff, but then realised that one can still kill dragons and save homelands with whatever blue or purple things scavenged around….

AcadianPaladin · September 2022

Sure, Julianos, Hundings, Mother's Sorrow, Seducer, Spriggan's are all effective proven sets.

Darkstorne · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

Hell yeah. The meta is irrelevant outside of vet trials. Overland and crafted sets are often very powerful, and frequently more fun to use than the meta.

fred4 · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

SammyKhajit wrote: »

This one used to craft stuff, but then realised that one can still kill dragons and save homelands with whatever blue or purple things scavenged around….

Builds work until they don't. Up until you fail, you won't notice the difference between a weak build and a powerful one. You won't even have an inkling, unfortunately. Even bare hands are overkill in overland content

. A Hexos Ward DD may be just the ticket for the vet solo arenas until you have the mechanics down and don't need it anymore. However it won't be the ticket for soloing some of the stuff that wasn't designed to be soloed. With a lot of knowledge you can probably kite everything, e.g. with a heavy attack build. On the other hand let's say you go tankier. Let's say you run a Brawler build, like I do. Such builds may seem overkill. They can do a lot of things. Until they don't.

A lot of content doesn't put you to the test.

Let's say guy A runs Brawler, a skill that constantly shields you, but he has little to no ongoing healing.
Let's say guy B also runs Brawler, but has ongoing heals such as Crit Surge, substantial health regen, and / or Pale Order.

Both builds will feel identical in some content. Invincible. Probably in Spellscar, in Skyreach, for many world bosses, and in normal dungeons. It's only when you try (to solo) harder stuff that guy A will falter and guy B will keep going. Try soloing some vet dungeons or vBRP.

Same goes for outright tanks. What's good in normal trials may not be good in vet.

Same goes for DDs. Low damage isn't a problem in normal content. In vet / trials / hard modes, even if you don't outright bypass mechanics, being fast reduces the risk of death. There are also some DPS checks here and there.

BasP · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

As a solo player that lacks Trial gear and doesn't have a lot of Dungeon sets, I mostly use an overland set (like Briarheart for my Stamina builds and Frostbite for my Magden) and a crafted set like Order's Wrath. Most of my characters do use Arena weapons, a Monster set and/or the Ring of the Pale Order however.

Androrix · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

I do use gryphon's ferocity. I believe I could get a slightly better impact with another set, but it works well for me. I also think the bow is the best looking in the game!

(Like BasP ^^, I mostly solo, so trial sets are out for me.)

TaSheen · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

I don't have "best builds". I have whatever works for my characters: what I play most is wardens - for lowbies, Druids Braid; for my CP 160s, a mix of Hexos' Ward, Hunding's Rage, Sellistrix shoulder, Oakensoul. The rest of them are in whatever they find while questing/exploring. I tried going to "more tanky" with heavy armor a while back, but it didn't seem to make life easier - that was when I decided Oakensoul would be the best option for me, considering how long it can take me to kill stuff (mega-ping just makes life really difficult in game).

I don't do group content, so don't have gear from any of that.

Edit for typos.

Jarl_Ironheart · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

I have used Hundings Rage as my primary set since 2016. I have swapped my 2nd set a few times over the years such as Spriggans Thorns, Nightmothers or Ancient Dragonguard. I don't use spriggan anymore but depending on the class I will use the other 2. Ancient Dragonguard for any class that has major breach and nightmother for those that don't. With my stamden, stam dk and stamplar in those sets I am able to get about 58k dps and that's without much practice(I'm a tank so I don't care about parsing really). Now when it comes to tanking sets I prefer dungeon or trial gear. They are so much better than craftable sets. I use turning tide with crimson rive or ebon armory or powerful assault.

Gaebriel0410 · September 2022

ESO has so many sets that you'll probably find a roughly equal amount of "good" and "bad" sets (as in depending on what people want to achieve with it) in each of those categories.
In fact, I think those categories are completely artificial. There's no hard and fast rule that dungeon gear is always better than crafted gear, it's a myth if you ask me. Just like how what is good for one player, might not necessarily work for another player depending on style and preference.

Eiregirl · September 2022

I mix and match depending on the character.

A couple are setup with all trial gear and others are all crafted gear or all dungeon, but most are a combination and may include mythic and/or arena gear.

Over the years I have used most of the crafted sets and there are many of them that are good to very good depending on the overall setup of your character and how the character is intended to be used.
Some of those sets are:

Order’s wrath
Druid’s braid
Death’s wind
Julianos
Seducer
Innate axiom
Ancient dragonguard
New moon
Heartland
Kagrenac’s
Acuity

All of the above and others are still good today.

Tesman85 · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

I use mainly crafted sets for all my characters. That is because I have only started to do dungeons in earnest. Also, I hate fussing with procs ("stand on your hands 7 times within exactly 10,2 seconds to build a stack of 15 baloney to release 2,5 gut gas attacks" - no thanks!). As most crafted sets give static and constant bonuses and I can make them anytime, they are preferable. Also, I like trying different things sometimes and crafted sets are easiest for that since they don't require acquiring transmute stones or grinding them. Stat-wise, some crafted sets are very good, so that the builds relying on them aren't numerically that much worse than something planned around dungeon sets. For instance, I have a decent Cyro/PvE solo character with only crafted sets. Julianos seems to be most used by me, since it's a good base set for most magicka builds.

I've began to collect overland and dungeon sets for my sticker book, however. One of my characters has Spriggan's Thorns already as one of the sets since he's a stamina build. In the future I intend to use about half crafted, half other sets to combine as much ease of acquiring and as much effectiveness as I can. Plus, seeing how epxensive jewelry tempers are, it's more sensible to use transmute stones to get golded jewelry and sell the tempers than to gold out crafted jewelry.

newtinmpls · September 2022

Yes. I use one or more of them in my best builds.

I would divide things into:

Overland (Base VS DLC)
Crafted (Base VS DLC)
Dungeons (Base VS DLC)
Trials (Base VS DLC)
Mythic/Antiquities

And that does end up being rather a lot of categories.

Raammzzaa · September 2022

I’m not sure I want to call it my “best build” so I didn’t select it, but I’ve used either Orders Wrath (crafted) or Mothers Sorrow (overland) many times as part of builds for arena leaderboard score pushing.

Kiralyn2000 · September 2022

I only have crafted & overland armor, so...

(not sure they count as "best builds", though)

Honestly, I don't really change the armor sets on my characters that much, if at all. (my original "main" is still using the Night's Silence/Night Mother's Embrace that she collected at 50/160 all those years ago. I keep meaning to go back and tweak it a bit, since that was made before two-handed weapons counted for 2 parts of a set, so she's got 6/5 of the one set. Plus a non-set piece with unique skin & no motif/style option. Encasement of Anguish.)

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Do you like to use crafted/overland sets in your best build?

Do you like to use crafted/overland sets in your best build? 124 votes