I’d like to remind people in this thread that the issue isn’t as simple as “Dungeon Sets 0.5 are in the game sooner”.
Two important things happen with the release of these sets.
- Bosses needed for the quest chain are implemented, and their loot table has extremely strong items
- With the implementation of Dungeon Sets 0.5 came a massive itemization update for dungeon drops that made a lot of items much stronger
The sets alone aren’t a massive game changer. They’re BiS only for rogues (because of the energy proc) and some pieces are decent for other classes (warlock/warrior as an example). Some sets are outright complete garbage (cough hunters cough).
Like I said above though, it isn’t the sets alone that come with the change OP suggested. There are pre-raids BiS melee necks, caster weapons, caster rings, hpal weapon and a few other pieces that would come from the bosses in the questline.
There are also a lot of buffed items from the dungeon itemization update. An example would be the Savage Gladiator Chain, which goes from a wonky mail chestpiece with 2% crit and Defense rating to an amazing warrior/hunter DPS piece with tons of strength/agility on top of keeping its 2% crit.
That being said, if Blizzard has no intention of doing progressive itemization and would rather have item stats be completely static during Classic, the whole point of the itemization differences becomes moot if items are stuck in their buffed iteration from the get-go.