I wanna start by saying that I think this game could have the best itemization in the genre…
apart from the normal, magic, rare and unique rarities this game adds: exalted items, set items, LP mechanic, weaver’s will mechanic, 4 to 5 quantity of affixes is perfect, the affix pool is huge and engaging. personally I love the itemization in this game…the only thing that feels a bit off is that lately a lot of unique items are too specific, for example talon’s valor and this is great, it’s easy for you to know what to do, its a good item for certain builds, that players could chase, some alter the way the skill works which im all for it, etc…but Im seeing too much of this instead of the less specific unique items…for example mad alchemist…which i think are super amazing because: 1) they are not specific which could work with a variety of builds and playstyles, 2) because it engages you to experiment with it and/or start a new character…anyways a good variety and mix of these types of items could be better in the long term instead of just getting specific items which is why other arpgs itemization is failing.
I know a lot of people is not a fan of set items, probably because they have a d3 set item trauma (which imo is the worst thing invented in the genre) but I love the concept of different items having synergy and giving bonuses together for me finding a set item and later another of the same set…also I love to see my inventory full with different colours and stuff but as far as i can tell, they are not a thing in this game, most of them are shadowed by exalted and uniques so I was thinking about a way to make sets better
my suggestion is: to add a mechanic (like LP) I would call it; fusion potential the idea is that it would work like the ring of royal grandeur in d3, for people who dont know how that works ring of royal grandeur has the effect of reducing the quantity of items needed to get set bonuses so if a set has 4 items, to get the max bonuses you would need 3 instead and if you have 2 items you would have 2 out of 3 bonuses…but instead of making an item for it, add this mechanic to make set items become one when you “fuse” them, for example zerrick’s set has 3 total items, lets say I have the gloves and the belt my belt has 3 fusing and the gloves 2 if I fuse them the belt absorbs the gloves and the belt is considered as if you have 2 set items getting the first set bonus with only one item (gloves affixes are lost in the process).
well idk what EHG has in mind for set items or not, im not an expert but that was my 2 cents, I would love to see more uses for set items though