Been playing D3 for awhile and haven’t really been concentrating on putting “sets” of equipment together. I just use the best of all the equipment that was dropped/bought and that was it. I have gotten deeper into D3 and have some questions.
Is a set composed of all blue (magical), all yellow (rare), or all orange (legendary) items OR do you somehow group them by the name of the weapon/armor/jewelry, OR a combo of both?
Typically I will hold onto an item until I get something new that supersedes its strongest abilities. As a result I have a “garage sale” type of equipping going on that works good but I keep reading of formalized sets.
Any help is appreciated as I would like to start putting together sets as soon as I know the parameters that apply.
Sets are Green. There are several different types, 2pc, Crafted by Smith, and class sets plus Blackthorne. They give special bonuses when 2 (or more) of the same set are equipped.
As mentioned, sets are green items. Each set is composed of a certain number of individual items, which can range from 2 up to 7 items. Their power comes from their set bonuses rather than the items themselves.
When you equip set items, the set bonuses can boost certain skills or provide increased toughness, but it is important to use those skills that are boosted. Simply wearing the set items without paying attention to their set bonuses will do nothing for your character.
Seasonal characters can get a full set armour easily by completing the first four chapters of the season journey, After completing the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chapters, you will get a Haedrig’s Gift in the in-game mail (one per chapter). Opening the Gift will grant you 2 pieces of a set. The set you receive depends on the character that opens it and the season. This season, for example, the free set for Crusader is the Roland set.
Other sets can be set rings, or jewelry, and weapons. Certain sets are also crafted, such as the Captain Crimson or Sage sets.
The bonuses of a set are determined by the number of set pieces you equip.
Take Unhallowed Essence set as an example:
Click to enlarge.
I'm wearing 5 pieces, so I get Set(2) and Set(4) bonuses which require at least 2 pieces and 4 pieces respectively.
The Set(6) bonus is dimmed because I miss the boots.
Looking at your profile on your seasonal Crusader, it looks like you have two passive skills you still can still select and you have not unlocked Kanai’s Cube. Adding those as well as obtaining Set items will go a long way to adding power to your hero.
Thanks all for some great advice and info! Just by happen-stance I was taking my seasonal Crusader thru chapter two and did a nephalem rift on EXPERT and the Rift Guardian dropped a set (green) ring! I was pretty stoked after having the info given by ya’ll under my belt.
Snubnose, I will take a look at those passive skills you mentioned ! Thanks much!
Since you are running a Crusader for the Season, you might find some good information over in this thread:
At your current level, you are doing well. Exchanging equipped items for better items that you pick up. The Crusader guide might give you some ideas of skills to start using and equipment to be keeping your eye out for.
Appreciate the comments all ! As an update, I was doing the tasks to complete chapter 2 and got a set (green) ring. Then, as a gift from the blacksmith I got a set helm and gloves as well (very happy Crusader yesterday!).
Nefertiri - I do have Kanai’s Cube but have not used it yet.
Varadia - Thanks for the link to the Crusader’s Guide.
Looking at your profile, it looks like you are making a few rookie mistakes.
Elective Mode. Looks like you haven’t enabled it. Open your options by pressing [Esc], select Options, then in the Gameplay tab, check the box for Elective Mode. While you’re there, also select Advanced Tooltips.
Elective mode gives you greater freedom in selecting skills; you will be able to select more than one skill in a category, for example.
Not paying attention to item descriptions. You have the 2-set bonus of the Roland set, yet you aren’t taking advantage of it. You also have a shield that buffs Blessed Hammer, yet you aren’t using that skill.
You still have two passive skill slots empty.
Gems. You should use legendary gems in your jewelry. The best gem for weapons is almost always an emerald for crit damage. For helm, especially for a cooldown-heavy class such as Crusader, it is usually a diamond, but topaz for RCR is also useful. Unless you are seriously depleted of gold, an emerald is not a good choice.
You need to learn how to enchant items. That is a useful skill. Also, using the cube can help a lot.
Hey TimberWolf,
You got the rookie part right! I’m just now wading off into the deep-end of D3.
Elective mode is checked under Gameplay.
Guilty. Will reexamine what I have closely.
I believe I took care of the two open skill slots just now.
Gems. Good info!
Just learning how to enchant via the Season tasks. I’m currently stuck on the Chapter IV task of enchanting a socket into a weapon (doing some researching on it). Update: Completed the Enchant portion.
Now you have 4 pieces of Rolands active, yet aren’t using Sweep Attack or Shield Bash. Make sure you pay attention to your set bonuses and take advantage of them. Using those skills with the set modifiers will allow you to increase the difficulty of the game making better items drop for you. Also, I’d highly recommend replacing Wrathful passive with Finery. It adds strength based on how many gems you have socketed which not only increases your damage, but your armor as well, therefore increasing your toughness.
Thank you and everyone else who contributed here. This rookie has found the advice very useful. I too have pretty much been using the garage sale approach to upgrades.
Now paying more attention to abilities and skills. Failed with enchantments as i screwed up a couple nice armor pieces. LOL.
One question about gems in weapons. The ruby gems can give a huge boost to base damage that “seems” to make them a better option than emeralds. I think i read that base crit damage is 5%. To me that indicates that characters with a slower attack rate might be better off going with base damage. Am i wrong in that assessment?
Go to icy-veins - every build (I’m sure it is every one) recommends emeralds. Followers, however, their crit damage tops out (I forget the %), so go with rubies for them on weapons.
The problem with rubies is that they don’t scale with weapons. So early on (say, below level 60 weapons), the rubies do give a significant boost in damage, far more than an emerald. But on a level 70 weapon that can already do over 2500 points of damage, an extra 270 points that a flawless royal ruby adds isn’t that much of an increase. The 130% Crit damage from an emerald gives a much higher overall damage output.
Of course, that depends on actually landing a critical hit, so your crit chance also needs to be high enough so that you can land critical hits with some regularity. If your crit chance is really low, then maybe a ruby in your weapon might provide better overall damage. However, once you reach about 30% crit chance or higher, the emerald will outpower a ruby in your weapon. That is another reason to use a ruby over an emerald when you are levelling up a new character, since it is difficult to get enough crit chance on low level items to make an emerald worthwhile.
I did notice the impact of rubies decreases greatly as base weapon damage increases. I didn’t have a character over L60 until a few days ago. I was leveling all 7 classes equally till i finally pushed the Neco to finish the story so i can level the rest in adventure mode.
The Haedrig Gift … Does that require story mode to get and does difficulty level matter as to the power of the items? I kinda wanna see if i can get that on my L51 Demon Hunter before season ends.
