Considering the issue with under performing sets has been coming up again, I’ld figure I would throw in my thoughts as well…
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Core issue:
As far as I’ve seen, the main reasons people aren’t using the sets are 1) lack of scaling in endgame and 2) build flexibility becomes limited due to fixed slots being required. -
Solution / Idea
New dungeon / crafting mechanic: Similar to Temporal Sanctum, you smash 2 items together. Except this time, you smash a Unique into a Set Item. The resulting item would take the Base item of the Unique, with its implicits, and slap on the Set affixes & bonus. -
Benefits:
Being able to upgrade set pieces would increase their longevity without impacting their design. This allows for ‘early level’ sets to continue to be used for longer. If the minimum level of the item also goes up, that also means you have reason to hunt for multiple good roles of a set item. Build flexibility would still be relatively strict due to how sets work, but still grow as Uniques get added to the game. -
Future Pitfalls:
The pitfall here would be the Unique design becoming slightly more difficult, but as a lot of them have specific base items, power could be shifted in their design from implicit to affix or visa versa. As a bonus, ‘bad’ unique drops that have low LP or affix rolls, but good implicits could become more valuable. -
Optional:
For flexibility, I think one of the main issues is that sets are only as large as their bonus. While this works for some, mostly the 2-piece sets, the 3-piece sets, especially with chest & 2H weapon slots used, could do with a 4th item, allowing a player to pick 3/4 for maximum set bonus.
I tried to keep it concise as it’s up to EHG to flesh it out, but hope it conveys the idea enough.