Yupp these are all good points.
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when it comes to end game, pretty much all sets are garbage, except maybe tal rasha for high mf
I disagree so much with this statement that I have to comment. Yes Tal Rasha is solid, especially for its MF but the other class sets aren’t garbage, particularly since now you can upgrade them to Elite bases(if applicable).
IK: Godly set, enough said. Hardcore Barbs love them for the defense and yet strong power it provides.
Natalya: Easiest 50% Physical resistance to achieve. With the changes to MA skills, this set will definitely see more use.
M’avina: Freezing Arrow Bowzon… enough said
Trang-Oul: Poison Necro but the FCR bug does hurt it. I do wish it had a unique perk of walking as fast as you run to boost its defensive nature if you opt to go for max block 
Griswold: Tailored towards melee but with all those sockets definitely allows for a pure Lightning FoHdin.
Only set I’ll agree with you that needs work is Aldur’s. If they’d simply give it 200% Enhanced Damage, it’d be on par with Griswold’s Weapon and actually be viable from a SS perspective. Otherwise, its merely an Elemental set, if anything.
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i was talking about end game ! for this they are all garbage, even IK, because there is better options with highest runewords.
Other than end game i agree with you, alot of them are viable on the way up
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Outpowered by razortail / wisdom and lycanders / buriza. No pierce on any magezone is a huge drawback. Not even starting with CoH, Ice, nightwings…
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Sets will always be outclassed by Uniques/Runewords due to +Skills and other perks. Even so, M’avina set isn’t garbage and is a viable alternative that can be made stronger with 5/5 facets. Yet perhaps Elite class sets could get a modest buff to make them more viable? Say the following for M’avina:
M'avina
Partial Set Bonus: +20% Faster Run/Walk (4 Items)
M’avina’s Caster: +40% Pierce
40% Pierce, combined with Pierce Skill should allow for 100% Piercing attack.
M’avina’s Icy Clutches: Adds 131-252 Cold Damage, 4 sec. Duration (Normal) (3 Items) -20% Enemy Cold Resistance (4 Items)
+20% To Cold Skill Damage (Complete Set)
Cold Damage is currently a 4-piece bonus. Slotting it down to 3-piece shouldn’t change things all that much. Adding in Enemy Cold Resistance as a 4-piece bonus would greatly enhance Cold skills and finally the +Cold Skill on complete set remains unchanged.
M’avina’s Tenet: Add 5% Life Leech (3 Items)
Knockback (Complete Set)
This set surprisingly lacks any sort of Life Leech so figure I’d give the Belt a modest 5% to go with its Mana Leech perk. Finally it wouldn’t be a Bowzon without Knockback to keep enemies at bay.
M’avina’s Embrace: +30% Faster Hit Recovery (2 Items)
+25 All Resistance (3 Items)
+1 All Skills (4 Items)
For the Chest Armor, I moved the FHR buff from 3-piece to 2-piece, added a new 3-piece of 25 All Resistance and a bonus skill point with 4-pieces.
M’avina True Sight: Unchanged
Helm doesn’t really need a buff. All told, I added +1 Skills, Knockback, 5% Life Leech, -20% Enemy Cold Resistance and 20% Faster Run/Walk.
Those changes are more like personal taste, but that doesn’t put it on par with tal rashas. Part of what makes tal rashas so great is the variety of builds that can be played with, Mavinas only working with one single build, and even that is meh with no pierce.
Frostmaidens (and every other mage variant) are only really missing 33% pierce like Razor / Wisdom.
Strafe Hybrids are missing a small physical bonus damage on the weapon.
Immo’s and Magezones obviously missing the 20% spell damage bonus for fire.
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the assassin’s set is under-appreciated. i always start out on ladder making a sorc, but sin is my second choice. it’s a great set to start and leaves you free to choose better ring/ammy/belt while you farm or trade up to better runewords or uniques
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Honestly a lot of the sets are “okay” but the issue is all the ones with a chest piece or weapon kind of kill them. They can’t complete with Enigma/Fort, or Grief.
Then you have things like Trang’s which if it didn’t have the cast penalty to lich form, and you could still tele with it wouldn’t be half bad. I kind of just wish the sets had more MF on this so at least they’d be useful for MF’ing.
Always been by buggest gripe with Enigma… it’s not the TP that makes it OP… it’s the fact that it’s still one of the best MF chest slots WHILE having TP, Str, FRW, DR, ect. Just removing the MF from Enigma opens up more options. Excluding Tal Set what do we actually have in competition with Enigma for MF? 4 Topaz socketed armors, Wealth, and an Ist/PTopaz socketed Skuldur’s? All of which have garbage combat stats.
You also have to understand that Tancred’s Set is part of the Normal Sets of the original D2(non-LoD). Here is the list of original D2 sets.
Normal Sets
Angelic Raiment
Arcanna’s Tricks - Sorceress Set
Arctic Gear - Amazon Set
Berserker’s Arsenal - Barbarian Set
Cathan’s Traps - Sorceress Set
Civerb’s Vestments
Cleglaw’s Brace
Death’s Disguise
Hsarus’ Defense
Infernal Tools - Necromancer Set
Iratha’s Finery
Isenhart’s Armory
Milabrega’s Regalia - Paladin Set
Sigon’s Complete Steel
Tancred’s Battlegear
Vidala’s Rig - Amazon Set
Here is the list of LoD D2 sets.
LOD: Normal/Exceptional/Elite Sets
Aldur’s Watchtower - Druid Set
Bul-Kathos’ Children - Barbarian Set
Cow King’s Leathers
The Disciple
Griswold’s Legacy - Paladin Set
Heaven’s Brethren
Hwanin’s Majesty
Immortal King - Barbarian Set
M’avina’s Battle Hymn - Amazon Set
Natalya’s Odium - Assassin Set
Naj’s Ancient Vestige - Sorceress Set
Orphan’s Call
Sander’s Folly
Sazabi’s Grand Tribute
Tal Rasha’s Wrappings - Sorceress Set
Trang-Oul’s Avatar - Necromancer Set
Site reference: http: //classic .battle .net/diablo2exp/items/sets/ (remove spaces)
With that said most of the LoD sets of course are better than the original D2 sets, but some of them original D2 sets come in handy especially early on and when playing the original D2(non-LoD). I’ve been playing D2 since 2001/2002, and up until about 2010-2012 I had mainly played Expansion Softcore Ladder. From 2012 onward I mainly played Classic Hardcore Ladder. Some of the sets like full Iratha’s can be used for end game setups before you find all gg rare Items to equip on certain class builds.
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Like the other guy said…it gives 78% mf for just the ammy and boots. Amazing.
Yeah it might not be quite as good as Tals but it’s pretty good I think and a bit under rated.
Tons of built in resistance, some nice DR and FHR, 40% CB, 2 OS and good elemental on the maul that can reach last WW BP (with 30 ias in the sockets), dual 10% leach.
Could definitely use a bit of a buff and I wouldn’t go uber hunting with it but you can do all other areas of Hell pretty well with it including Dclone, at least in lower P games. I have a ton of fun playing IK barb.
Progression is fun with Bonesnap and then up’d Bonesnap until you can use the maul too. Some other decent options too.
That statement doesn’t really make sense though. There are tiers. If anything that isn’t BiS = garbage then by definition everything but a hand full of items will be garbage because there always will be a best.
I’m not saying the sets shouldn’t get a buff to close the gap with GG rw and unique, but some are quite viable for all Hell difficulty areas, which the running of over and over is considered end game (for pvm at least) for many.
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If I should set up a ranking I would be:
- Tal’s
- IK
- Griswold’s
- Trang’s
- M’avina’s
- Nat’s
- Aldur’s
IMO! It can be argued for shure, this how I(!) would set it up. There’s some personal preference in it.
Aldur’s boot by themselves are completely underrated, as well as Ik Belt + Boot combo. Very nice in the mid game.
I mean if you actually look at Aldur’s boots…
Indestructible
40% Faster Run/Walk
+180 Maximum Stamina
10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
Heal Stamina Plus +32%
+50 To Life
Fire Resist +40-50%
They are actually some of the strongest boots in the game, but so few use them.
I prefer them to the more meta Waterwalks on a lot of characters.
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Yeah I used them until I got gores on my frenzy barb! They were perfect 50 fire res so I actually was able to sell for something decent after too heh.
I like the IK belt/boots/gloves combo since the gloves give pretty nice stats and the partial bonuses are nice. IMO IK helm is a bit lack luster for melee, ironically with the leach and resists and life bonuses Tals is questionably better for barbs (but nice mf, sockets and warcry skills are nice) but the other pieces are pretty solid.
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Yes Aldur’s boots are awsome, but I was refering to sets as a whole, not just pieces.
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True enough. I’m actually fine with set’s being a bit meh tbh. D3 taught me to hate sets. 
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They don’t need to be OP as Hell like in D3, just more viable options. And mainly low lvl sets could get some love. Elite sets just need minor tweaks.
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It really depends. I just don’t think it’s really worth the effort for the low level sets.
- You’ll never have the full set for leveling first characters.
- Second characters tend to get rushed.
I personally just see all lowbie gear as a single use and toss sort of deal, other than a couple like sigs.
If they just change some attribute and lvl requierments, maybe tune some stat values, and now they are more desireable. You can use/hold on to them a bit longer, if you need to.
Yeah I like to actually play the game and not get rushed. For me, leveling up and building the character, is the best part of the game.
Well then we run into the other issue…
What set bonus on a lowbie set is going to outdo a leaf staff + stealth? Or a Spirit Sword. Or a Black for boss killing. Or ancients pledge for resists, or a White for necro, or Harmory for Zon.
Most sets would only be moderately useful for what level 12-39 on the extreme end? I do that in a few hours.
Not to mention there is almost always some unique that you REALLY want to use that kills the full set.