A Review of Sets in D3 as of 2.7.1
Dear Devs,
I would like to start by saying that we appreciate your continued work on this game. It is long past its expiration date, and every addition you make to it is a gift, frankly.
I also must say that as of the last 3 patches (and arguably the 3 before that, where the 5th set for each class was introduced), the team has focused a lot less on updating class sets across the board, and more on pinpoint changes. I think a great deal of excitement comes from set rebuilds or number increases.
My goal today is to focus on which sets need only a numerical increase to their damage/mitigation bonuses (or to their supporting legendaries), and which sets need conceptual reworks from the ground-up. I will also end this somewhat-long post by giving an idea for one set per class that could be easily upgraded in 2.7.2 without a massive overhaul and the effort it entails.
Barbarian: Rich and flavorful potential, and not far off from where all the sets would be awesome. Currently, one set is 5 patches ahead of the rest.
Immortal King: Numerical buff only. The set is one of the coolest and one of the simplest in the game. Perhaps its only flaw is that it currently only support Hammer of the Ancients as a build. I would love to see this also be the go-to for a Seismic Slam build, as the spell works so well with the 4-piece.
Raekor’s: Full rework. The six-piece is not competitive, and turns Furious Charge into a support skill for the playstyle instead of its focus. The 4-piece bonus is useless, and makes a Charge-based damage build need IK.
Wrath of the Wastes: Good as-is. Last in line for changes.
Might of the Earth: Semi-rework. The fundamental problem with the set is that it auto-casts Earthquake instead of lowering the cooldown on your Earthquake on your bar. But as I understand, PDPP (“Procs Don’t Proc Procs”) applies and these auto-cast Quakes do not trigger area damage. The idea of the set can survive, but the mechanics must lower your cooldown somehow instead of casting the spell itself.
90 Savages: Mostly numbers. The only thing missing is that this set has no cooldown mechanic for Wrath of the Berserker, and cannot use Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, making it the only Barbarian build with no access to full WOTB. Perhaps a reverse-OROTZ is need?
Crusader: The same exact situation as Barbarian: massive potential that is so close to realization, and yet so far, combined with an oppressive set ruling the roost. The class is very close to being very well rounded.
Akkhan: Number only. My favorite set in the game, with a rich history and gameplay based around the class’s best skill. I think a massive damage buff combined with removing damage from Invoker 2-piece will open the set up for Blessed Shield and Condemn play. I would recommend lowering the buffs on Condemn legendaries, and perhaps adding more buffs to Phalanx. Every damage skill not associated with another set specifically belongs here. The natural combo with Captain Crimson’s also helps. Maybe buff the 4-piece to be all cooldowns, to work well with Crimson as a damage boost.
Invoker: Numbers only. Please move the 2-piece into the 6-piece bonus, or else any buffs to Akkhan will instead result in an overpowered A6I2 Thorns build instead.
Seeker of the Light: Numbers only. A very cool playstyle that involves jumping into a throng of enemies rather than attacking enemies in front of you. I think the numbers are fine on the set, but the Flail and the Shield have low bonuses that were normal 3 years ago, and the Bracer only provides resource. If damage of these 3 is buffed (Faithful Memory and Hammer Jammers are fine as-is), the set can be fun again.
Roland’s: Numbers only. Increase to damage from the set, and provide a Bracer and Belt that works with Sweep Attack.
Aegis of Valor: Fine as is. Both a push set (Heaven’s Fury) and a speed set (Fist of the Heavens). Last thing needing an upgrade.
Demon Hunter: Conceptually, this is the best-designed class. We have a melee set, a long-range set, a sentry-setting set, a primary skills/movement set, and an all-purpose buff set.
Shadow’s: Numbers only. Perhaps one more Impale legendary, especially one that buffs area damage, would be cool. The 4-piece is a bit underwhelming, but still a very cool set.
Unhallowed Essence: Numbers only. Buffing the Yang’s Recurve and Dead Man’s Legacy (both of which have 3-year-old bonuses) and maybe adding a Belt or Bracer is all we need. The concern that this set will be too good at speeds is less a worry since Gears of Dreadlands, which is always the best at speeds due to moving while dealing damage.
Marauder’s: I believe numbers-only. I wonder whether there is a mechanical block of area damage working on Sentry casts, which means the Sentries only are effective at buffing your own damage, but that is just the nature of the effect area damage has on rift pushing.
Natalya’s: Numbers only. It is a cool skill-agnostic set.
Gears of Dreadlands: Only fix is adding a “the” before Dreadlands for grammatical reasons
Monk: Monk has several playable builds, and does not need work any time soon.
Inna’s: Perfect as-is.
Monkey King: Full rework. Every element of this set is used better elsewhere. LoD uses Wave of Light better, Patterns of Justice uses Tempest Rush better, and it also uses Sweeping Wind as an enabler better. The stacks of Sweeping Wind, which are cumbersome to upkeep and also do nothing on their own, create a clunky and unrewarding playstyle. If this is the Sweeping Wind set, it needs a fresh reboot.
Uliana’s: Numbers only. I know very little about this set, but I believe it suffers merely from insufficient numbers. The playstyle of building up large stacks and detonating the Exploding Palm damage over time is a bit unwieldy, but that is just how the ability works to begin with.
Raiment of A Thousand Storms: Full rework. This set is one of the very worst in the game. Dashing Strike has even less support than Furious Charge, and is not close to being a damaging ability. Monk in turn lacks support for a primary skills build (compare to DH, which has Hunter’s Wrath and several generator quivers.
Patterns of Justice: No need to rework. This is the least fun of the “spin to win” sets, but it is what it is. Both Sweeping Wind and Tempest Rush are, in my opinion, undynamic skills to begin with.
Necromancer: Necro is in the second-worst state insofar as set play goes, saved only by its LoD options.
Rathma’s: Full rework. Rathma’s sits in our hearts as a minion/pet set. The current set uses the word minions several times, but at the end, they do nothing but set you up for Army of the Dead. AOTD is cool, and should have its own place, but this set neither has the right flavor or power.
Inarius: Full rework. The only way present Inarius can be useful is to buff its numbers, which would simply mean it would replace LoD Poison Scythe. I think there are no other applications for the melee Necro set. What about making this the AOTD set? Bone Armor, close combat, and an apocalyptic quantity of zombies, count me in!
Tragoul’s: Full rework. Oh my. A set with no real damage mitigation, extremely low damage numbers (from 2017) and a buff to skills that are under-developed and largely certain self-damaging runes of other skills. This is not the skill-agnostic akin to Akkhan or IK. Perhaps this could be a set based around turning into a vampire with unique skills?
Pestilence: Full rework. A set with a clunky 4-piece and a confusing set of damage bonuses. This is not a true Corpse Lance set, nor is it a Bone Spear set, nor is it even an effective corpse-based set (LoD Explosion does this far better). I think either corpses or poison suits the design well, but I truly cannot say.
Masquerade: Numbers only. A brutal nerf to a sometimes-frustrating set was largely unwarranted. A return of a large chunk of the old damage, and a method to litigate the waller issue and lack of Essence production would be super.
Witch Doctor: Easily the worst, and likely least-played class. The sets are low powered and often step on each other’s design space. Several sets require legendaries to make them quite interesting, though. It is sad seeing every build use Sacred Harvester and Lakumba’s just for lack of better options.
Zunimassa’s: Numbers only. I have not played WD except for one season of Mundu, so I cannot say for certain, but the message of this set seems pretty clear and cool. Maybe clarify the “pets” language to just say “fetishes” and let another set do Zombie Dogs and Gargantua? Cool! Maybe it needs better legendaries, as 15,000% is not so far below market.
Jade Harvester’s: Numbers only. Jade has a cool damage over time theme. But the only legendary that seems to even support this is the mathematically-confusing Quetzalcoatl.
Helltooth: Total Rework. Witch Doctor’s attempt at the skill-agnostic set, Helltooth combines a disparate combination of pet skills, channeling skills, and direct-damage skills, and then require Wall of Death to make them deal damage. Surely there is a better way to make Zombie Bears good?
Arachyr: Total Rework. A very confused set benefiting “creature spells” that again involves a random array of abilities. Perhaps this can be a channeling set…or perhaps we can go full Spider! Throw a Spider King summon in there, and turn into a spider yourself with the 6-piece. I cannot say, but this set feels awful.
Mundunugu’s: Numbers only. A series of brutal nerfs made this set (which I always found mechanically unsatisfying due to its damage buildup and the fact that spamming might not actually be wise at all) crippled this build. Basically same thing as MoBC for Necro.
Wizard: The Wizard has one fantastic (if slightly frustrating) build. The rest of her sets are extremely clunky mechanically, and require a playstyle that this speed-driven game disfavors for no advantage or payoff.
Firebird’s: No changes. This set is perfect.
Tal Rasha’s: Total Rework. This set requires tremendous mental constraint and skill allocation to keep up the 4 different stacks, and is seemingly the only set in D3 to actually care what element your weapon deals. It is also not strong enough to be worth playing, and the 4-piece seems strange compared to other sets (since it buffs resistances rather than simple damage mitigation). Reworking this set to be a total Meteor set would be awesome.
Delsere’s Magnum Opus: Total Rework. The set is cool in theory, but utterly clunky in practice. Frozen Orb wants to be played like Multishot, spamming from range and ducking out when anything survives to get close. Instead, the Slow Time bubbles cause massive starts and stops in play, and for little payoff. If the bubble followed you like it does in Archon form, you can make this a close-range set with Explosive Blast support, but as it presently is, it plays poorly and buffs too random an assortment of spells.
Vyr’s: Numbers Only. Vyr’s has a very cool concept. Its biggest issue is that Chantodo’s controls the damage of the Archon playstyle, and it currently (besides being nerfed) puts all the damage on the wave pulses rather than Archon’s actual attacks. I would love to see Archon deal damage the way it used to: the Beam, the Punch, and the Wave!
Typhon’s: Partial Rework. Much like Marauder’s, sets that require setting a turret to operate suffer in a speed-based game like D3. Perhaps the Hydra can…follow you? A part of me wonders if Hydra really deserves its own set when pets are already the chief was to play Firebird’s?
Closing Thoughts and Quick Fix Ideas: I think that D3 is a beautiful game. There are a few structural changes I would make, but not to the underlying set issue. Below is what I would say could be awesome quick-fixes that the skeleton crew running the game can implement easily for each class.
Barbarian: Immortal King, whose six-piece should read that “Seismic Slam and Hammer of the Ancients deal 18,000% increased damage.”
Crusader: Akkhan, whose six0piece should read that “So long as Akarat’s Champion is active, Blessed Shield and Phalanx deal 15,000% increased damage, and Condemn deals 7,500% increased damage.”
Demon Hunter: Shadow, which will get a new bracer that reads “Impale attacks have double the chance to trigger area damage, and deal 200-300% increased damage.”
Monk: Nothing, Monk is good for now.
Necromancer: Either make the Rathma six-piece increase minion damage, or just return most of the MoBC damage.
Witch Doctor: One or two legendaries that add to Dagger of Darts or Fetish damage.
Wizard: Vyr’s, by making Chantodo’s buff Archon skill damage rather than the Wave of Force stuff.