It seems as though Blizzard is steadily moving away from mixing bonuses from different sets too overly much. As much as it sucks, its also a good thing imo.
As far as I see it, sets should go something like this -
6 piece set - Main damage set. You absolutely have to have this set in order to play at end game.
3 piece set - Blackthorne is currently a perfect example - A 3 piece set that offers a decent bonus that does not really compete for slots from the 6 piece set. Imo, Blizz should move ALL of the current 3 piece sets (Sages, Blackthornes, Cains, ect) into this format - Amulet, Belt, Bracer, with the various 3 piece sets supporting the character in different ways (Cains is a power loss for a xp/gold find boost, Sages is for farming DB, ect). Essentially, you can downgrade yourself to this level whenever you need to farm keys, breathes, bounty mats, ect, but when you are progressing higher GRs, you utilize your max damage off-pieces (, Hellfire/Immunity amulets, supporting belt/bracer, ect.
2 piece - Rings. Blizzard is currently introducing 2 new ring sets - Reworked Legacy of Nightmares (Essentially allowing you to "build your own build", as there are a few legendaries out there that have good synergistic effects with each other, but no supporting 6 set, so its good for allowing mini-builds to exist until blizzard can introduce 6 piece sets supporting said build), and that new ring set (up to 50% reduced damage taken/100% damage done depending on level of movement, which is a decent alternative to the currently popular ring builds). Imo, blizzard should continue to expand on the 2 piece ring builds to promote certain playstyles (Which the 3 ring sets do), while also expanding on standalone rings themselves (Such as the upcoming rings that are an alternative to Unity for defensive value)
2 piece - Weapons - Here is where I'm iffy at. Currently, of the 5 2-piece weapon builds in the game, 4 of them have high synergistic effects with a 6 piece build - Bul-Kathos and Wastes for WW build, Manajuma and Arachyr for a huge buff to Chicken (2400% damage boost to Chicken explosion, plus huge speed increase), Chantodo's and Vyr's for Archon, and Shenlongs/Storm for massive boost to generators/Dashing Strike. Danette's is being modified next patch to also be highly synergistic with Nat's, with high likelyhood of replacing strafe-Nats for Nat builds. Finally, the upcoming Crusader 2 piece will boost the reworked Thorns build, as there is that changed rune that makes Steed deal 500% of your thorns damage to enemies per second.
Imo, the 2 piece weapons more or less scream "You use THIS set of weapons with THIS build". Danettes, for instance, can't be used with M6, UE, or Shadow, ONLY Nats. Manajuma can't be used with Helltooth, JH, or Zuni, ONLY Arachyr. Chantado's, can't be used with Delsere, Tel'Rasha, or Firebird, only Vyrs. Shenlong's Spirit, while it can be used, a little bit, with Inna's/Uliannas (Increased spirit generation damage, and you get double damage from your spenders when you go to dump), has the highest effect when used with Storm (Monkey King is currently a odd set that has high synergy with Innas, which is changing next patch. Still, new Monkey King doesn't look like it'll go too well with Shenlong, although Inna's changes looks good for synergizing with Shenlong). The new crusader 2 piece also won't go good with Rolands, Light, or Akkhans.
Currently, the ONLY weapon set that goes good with 2 different 6 pieces is Bul-Kathos, which goes well with Wastes (It's basically 100% needed), and also with IK (It can be used alternatively compared to HOTA IK, and still preform reasonably well, especially if you use the WW ring.)
I do have to say that I like the focus of the 2 piece weapon sets on one particular skill, which then synergizes with an existing set. Its not too big a deal as the other sets already have existing weapons that synergize very well with them (UE with Recurve/DMLegacy, combined with a Kunai's Krider/Spine, M6 with a combo of Recurve/Bombadiers/Krider/Spines, Helltooth with Scrimshaw, ect), but it feels kinda iffy, as in "You have to have 2 complete sets to do anything with this playstyle".
A bit off-topic, as we were talking about Transmog, (Having to die shoulders to match my IK feels kinda meh). This isn't really a problem except with a very few sets - Mainly, IK (Missing Shoulders), Nats (Also missing Shoulders), Tal'Rasha (Missing Boots AND shoulders), Zuni's (Missing Shoulders/Pants), and Inna's (Missing Shoulders). I'm not sure how this would be rectified, but making those sets into 8/9 pieces is NOT the way to go imo (Del'Rasha is bad enough, we don't need all the classes using a 4/6 piece). Perhaps by swapping around the slots? IK gets shoulder, looses belt, belt gains the Ancients generate fury rune power? IK becomes a non-set weapon, gains a power to boost Ancients so you can use a pet-focused Barb?
On this vien, I would like to suggest something - A Kunai's recipe that allows you to keep a 2 piece bonus from a set once we get, say, 2x the amount of sets we have now, allowing for more builds going around. Of course, a few 2 pieces would need to swap places with various 4/6 pieces, but it would be good imo.
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It seems as though Blizzard is steadily moving away from mixing bonuses from different sets too overly much. As much as it sucks, its also a good thing imo.
As far as I see it, sets should go something like this -
6 piece set - Main damage set. You absolutely have to have this set in order to play at end game.
3 piece set - Blackthorne is currently a perfect example - A 3 piece set that offers a decent bonus that does not really compete for slots from the 6 piece set. Imo, Blizz should move ALL of the current 3 piece sets (Sages, Blackthornes, Cains, ect) into this format - Amulet, Belt, Bracer, with the various 3 piece sets supporting the character in different ways (Cains is a power loss for a xp/gold find boost, Sages is for farming DB, ect). Essentially, you can downgrade yourself to this level whenever you need to farm keys, breathes, bounty mats, ect, but when you are progressing higher GRs, you utilize your max damage off-pieces (, Hellfire/Immunity amulets, supporting belt/bracer, ect.
2 piece - Rings. Blizzard is currently introducing 2 new ring sets - Reworked Legacy of Nightmares (Essentially allowing you to "build your own build", as there are a few legendaries out there that have good synergistic effects with each other, but no supporting 6 set, so its good for allowing mini-builds to exist until blizzard can introduce 6 piece sets supporting said build), and that new ring set (up to 50% reduced damage taken/100% damage done depending on level of movement, which is a decent alternative to the currently popular ring builds). Imo, blizzard should continue to expand on the 2 piece ring builds to promote certain playstyles (Which the 3 ring sets do), while also expanding on standalone rings themselves (Such as the upcoming rings that are an alternative to Unity for defensive value)
2 piece - Weapons - Here is where I'm iffy at. Currently, of the 5 2-piece weapon builds in the game, 4 of them have high synergistic effects with a 6 piece build - Bul-Kathos and Wastes for WW build, Manajuma and Arachyr for a huge buff to Chicken (2400% damage boost to Chicken explosion, plus huge speed increase), Chantodo's and Vyr's for Archon, and Shenlongs/Storm for massive boost to generators/Dashing Strike. Danette's is being modified next patch to also be highly synergistic with Nat's, with high likelyhood of replacing strafe-Nats for Nat builds. Finally, the upcoming Crusader 2 piece will boost the reworked Thorns build, as there is that changed rune that makes Steed deal 500% of your thorns damage to enemies per second.
Imo, the 2 piece weapons more or less scream "You use THIS set of weapons with THIS build". Danettes, for instance, can't be used with M6, UE, or Shadow, ONLY Nats. Manajuma can't be used with Helltooth, JH, or Zuni, ONLY Arachyr. Chantado's, can't be used with Delsere, Tel'Rasha, or Firebird, only Vyrs. Shenlong's Spirit, while it can be used, a little bit, with Inna's/Uliannas (Increased spirit generation damage, and you get double damage from your spenders when you go to dump), has the highest effect when used with Storm (Monkey King is currently a odd set that has high synergy with Innas, which is changing next patch. Still, new Monkey King doesn't look like it'll go too well with Shenlong, although Inna's changes looks good for synergizing with Shenlong). The new crusader 2 piece also won't go good with Rolands, Light, or Akkhans.
Currently, the ONLY weapon set that goes good with 2 different 6 pieces is Bul-Kathos, which goes well with Wastes (It's basically 100% needed), and also with IK (It can be used alternatively compared to HOTA IK, and still preform reasonably well, especially if you use the WW ring.)
I do have to say that I like the focus of the 2 piece weapon sets on one particular skill, which then synergizes with an existing set. Its not too big a deal as the other sets already have existing weapons that synergize very well with them (UE with Recurve/DMLegacy, combined with a Kunai's Krider/Spine, M6 with a combo of Recurve/Bombadiers/Krider/Spines, Helltooth with Scrimshaw, ect), but it feels kinda iffy, as in "You have to have 2 complete sets to do anything with this playstyle".
A bit off-topic, as we were talking about Transmog, (Having to die shoulders to match my IK feels kinda meh). This isn't really a problem except with a very few sets - Mainly, IK (Missing Shoulders), Nats (Also missing Shoulders), Tal'Rasha (Missing Boots AND shoulders), Zuni's (Missing Shoulders/Pants), and Inna's (Missing Shoulders). I'm not sure how this would be rectified, but making those sets into 8/9 pieces is NOT the way to go imo (Del'Rasha is bad enough, we don't need all the classes using a 4/6 piece). Perhaps by swapping around the slots? IK gets shoulder, looses belt, belt gains the Ancients generate fury rune power? IK becomes a non-set weapon, gains a power to boost Ancients so you can use a pet-focused Barb?
On this vien, I would like to suggest something - A Kunai's recipe that allows you to keep a 2 piece bonus from a set once we get, say, 2x the amount of sets we have now, allowing for more builds going around. Of course, a few 2 pieces would need to swap places with various 4/6 pieces, but it would be good imo.