What I Think - Set Items

[Darker Realm]

What I Think - Set Items

I think Diablo II is a great game and has a complete item system.

The only weakness is the inability of the player to upgrade Set Items. Sets have many functions and features, and all they lack is a little more defense and a little more damage (and perhaps a different color than glowing bright Green; Dark Green would work). If Blizzard implemented a Horadric Cube recipe to upgrade Set items then the game would overall be more balanced.

All the Low Sets would be much more useful in Hell Difficulty, and the nicer Sets would become very practical to use in 1.12.

I am sure many players will have similar sympathies with this and I hope for all of you to retain your optimism and your open-mindedness.

 

[zionhuyga]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

I disagree. Upgrading doesn't really help the vast majority of set items (especially armors since def is not that useful) since most of them just don't have very good mods compared to uniques and runewords. And with the abundance of said uniques and runewords, very few people use sets (with the exception of a few good ones, like Tal's)

A lot of the mods in certain sets just make no sense. Why does Cathan's set, meant for sorceresses, give so much attack rating, life leech, and fire damage? Why does Isenhart's set, meant for melee characters, not have any enhanced damage on weapon? If I'm a necromancer using a wand, would I care about the +ar, poison damage, and mana leech that Inferno set gives me? Sander's set is just weird and what the hell is up with Tal Rasha's mask?

Also, a lot of the set items just aren't very good compared to uniques and runewords that are just as easy to get. Aldur's helm pales in comparison to Jalal's which almost singlehandedly beat the full set bonus. Bul Kathos swords are nice but dual grandfathers or Azurewraths are way better. Naj's set is so much worse than Shako+Viper+Occy it's not even funny. Most of the items in Heaven's, Hwanin's, and Sabazi's, and Orphan's sets (except Guillame's) just suck.

So, basically, if set items are to be of any use, they should be made better. In my opinion, the best way to do that without unbalancing the game would be to give them a few random affixes kinda like crafted items. The really good ones are too rare to be used by everyone but some of them can be good enough to be worth using.

 

[dryzalizer]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

I would be happy if you could just upgrade Aldur's Rhythm, it would create better options for full set builds.

 

[zionhuyga]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

I would be happy if you could just upgrade Aldur's Rhythm, it would create better options for full set builds.

You can still easily beat it with Baranar's Star/Spirit wep, Jalal's, Vipermagi/Duriels, Infernostrides/Silkweave/Aldur boots all of which costs barely more than the full Aldurs set.

 

[dryzalizer]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

Yeah, but you don't get that cool glow!...you're right, build options would still be severely limited even if you could upgrade the weapon.

 

[lumpor]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

Yeah, Aldurs mace is an exceptional weapon with no ed% at all (vs undead or demons is treated as off-wepaon ed%, even if it's on the weapon). S Aldurs mace quite much sucks

Upgrading set items wouldn't solve anything. More def doesn't help much, and the non-caster weapons are either fully upgraded (ik, nats, griswold or mavs) or will still suck even if you do upgrade it (aldurs)

Orphans set is kinda nice though. Guillames is awesome in many ways. Whitsans is the shield with the highest blocking of all. Is there a dual leech belt other than wilhelms pride? Even though Magnus skin sucks compared to other 20% ias gloves, it's still a 20% ias glove.

So I'd rate it higher than for example Naj.

Zion: The reason cathans and inferno give melee mods is because Blizzard think that casters should melee on the side, to save mana. In the beginning you DO melee on the side. Although by the time you get full cathan, most players don't melee on the side anymore.

Same thing with Najs. It gives some good melee mods, and a sorc could synergize that chain lightning (although it still wouldn't do much).

 

[Borje]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

A fun thing is that if you could up whistans it would give these Chance To Block: Pal: 105% Ama/Asn/Bar: 100% Dru/Nec/Sor: 95%. That would be kinda cool - however probably unbalanced or something =)

 

[NASE]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

First I would like to points out that Orphan's shield really isn't that bad. It has huge block. And if you want max block - and you don't want/need resistances - that shield is one of the best option in the game. Fine ss is probably better though it's much heavier and much more expensive.
That shield really isn't all crap - sadly the gloves and belt are.

Second thing I like to say is that one can't forget something like a ladder reset. Getting your hand on orphans set in combination with a good build almost means that you can get through hell.
It's not because there are better items, that set are completely useless. Some people are poor or just want to play legit, for them, set are golden.

 

[0blique]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

Upgrading wouldn't make most set items any better, but I think they should allow it because it gives players the option. And some items would really benefit from it a lot. Imagine how much defense you'd get if you could upgrade an arctic furs to a dusk shroud, or how much better death's belt would be with 4 slots.

 

[Kennoth]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

Like I said before, Set items are very, very useless. Unless they make bigger, better mods for them, they'll keep being useless. I hope this changes in D3

 

[MakeLoveNotDupe]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

Hi! I don't think they are very useless... ^^;

Was able to solo with...
Aldur's Watchtower (Fire Claws + Shock Wave / Hurricane + Tornado)
Griswold's Legacy (Blessed Hammer / Smite + Zeal)
Immortal King (Concentrate + Whirlwind)
M'avina's Battle Hymn (Freezing Arrow + Multiple + Shot Strafe)
Natalya's Odium (Lightning Sentry)
Tal Rasha's Wrappings <3
Trang-Oul's Avatar (Corpse Explosion + Raise Skeleton + Skeletal Mage)

Some are must have for me ^^;
Start from scratch... Even after some wealth...
Cow King's Hooves
Laying of Hands
Credendum
Hwanin's Blessing
Naj's Puzzler / Naj's Light Plate
Guillaume's Face / Whitstan's Guard
Sander's Taboo / Sander's Riprap

Angelic Wings + Angelic Halo <3
Cleglaw's Tooth / Cleglaw's Pincers
Death's Guard + Death's Hand
Hsarus' Iron Stay + Hsarus' Iron Heel
Iratha's Finery
Isenhart's Armory
Milabrega's Orb
Sigon's Complete Steel

 

[lumpor]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

Well, of course it's doable, but mstof them are outshined by common uniques and runewords.

Ik is good, I'll give you that.

Tals is only beaten by really expensive stuff

3 piece trangs is end-game for poisonmancers. Full set is ok for any necro, and it can also maintin max block at running speed

Griswolds set has overall fantastic mods, but they're not that specialized. Griswolds caduceus is great for lupus majors and bearsorcs, and the whole set is good for abbots, but it doesn't really shine (well, it does literally when you equip the whole set, but...)

Nats is quite good too. Weapon damage is a bit low though

Mavs is cheap. And the whole set is decent except when you look at the very low damage of the bow

Aldurs, just sucks

You can complete hell with almost anything (especially hammedins and summoners), but they're often outshined by very cheap items

 

[jiansonz]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

The belts would gain the most, especially for some tournaments we´ve had in the Single Player Forum, like the Set/Unique Worshippers, Green with Envy and similar. Death´s belt has CBF, and is amazing along with the gloves. Arctic Binding + Mitts/Horn has great MF potential and would be a much better combo if the belt had more slots. Hwanin´s Blessing has off-weapon PMH, a very rare and valuable ability for underpowered characters, and Hsaru´s belt is OK for the early game (and could sure benefit from an upgrade).

I for sure would like set upgrade recipes, and also recipes for upgrading magical items.

 

[Antonio]

Re: What I Think - Set Items

Upgraded Deaths Sash would be just gravy, ecpecialy combined with the gloves. Ah, wishful thoughts...