They’d have to literally redesign the S2 set to get it to be competitive with the S3 one.
And there’s no way theyll buff HoW by enough for it to matter. It would create weird degen playstyles like overlapping HP in execute because HoW would do giga damage.
Easy solution for this would be just enable season 3 set when doing pve and enable season 2 set when doing pvp with the same gear.
S1 Tier would be my first option for pvp S3 Tier second and S2 you can just throw that in the bin
Yes on a mechanical level interesting …
Not gonna happen S2 sucks
Unfortunately the same is true for PVE. On a mechanical level S3 is just way more versatile even if tuned the same, if there is no redesigns involved, like they have said tuning will happen, not redesign. If you tune S2 to be the same on ST, than still S3 is waaaay better in cleave and aoe, not even close and the gap widens with every new mob added. If you tune S2 to be the same on aoe as S3, it will be multiple times stronger in ST. Not to mention S3 flows better with the PVE roration, you can comfortably hit all 4set procs with spenders, while you helplessly overcap on the debuff with the S2 one all the time, and same for HoW if that is too strong it overtakes even FV in prio, and also it hinders gear scaling, it does not benefit from crit stat so the bigger it is in our breakdown, the weaker we scale with crit.
While S3 actually is making Mastery stat to be better for us, so it actively helps gear scaling a little, while S2 hinders it no matter the tuning.
AAAnd S3 injects a tiny bit of skill expression too in an otherwise very easy spec, as if you can fit 1 judgement between every DT proc than spend it, and can use Judgement on CD without overcapping is quite significant, while with S2 making a builder hit almost as hard, or if buffed harder than a spender, it would just mean you either can press whatever, or you actively want to press HoW over FV.
But also on the cosmetic level, Wrathful sancion is the coolest thing happened for pala since the rework, I’m pointing on the enemy with my golden sword very very judgementaly? Such ret pala, much fun. I’d urge blizzard to put that into the talent tree instead of one of the many dead talents.
maybe in pvp, who cares
in pve its the same rotation, people prioritizing hammer in aoe are just playing wrong
according to your own arguments its not…if the sets are all buffed to be equal…which they are said to be…again if they came out today with what each set will look like after buffs and S2 was equal, you would be done crying me a river and just accept S2.
its the same rotation
and they wont buff them to be equal, because they would need to rework the 4 piece of season 2 for that
removing the -% modifier on the season 3 set for pvp is the way to go and requires the least amount of work for them
does not make this set better than S2 in pvp, idk how many times ive tried to explain this. its not about numbers, you cant just tune S3 into being better than S2 in pvp situations, its a mechanical difference REGARDLESS of tuning. where as you 100% can just tune the difference out of S2 vs S3 in pve, you cant do that the other way around.
you cant tune the difference of s2 v s3 because one is hard capped and one is not…
where as you could just remove the -% modifier for s3 in pvp, making it stronger than the s2 bonus
(yes i get that its harder to keep expurgation up in pvp, but the debuff lasts longer than boj’s cd, so just use it again?)
No, because its not a numbers issue, the mechanical benefit of S2 creates a better kill window, point, blank, period. expurgation could do 30% more dmg overall and it wouldnt change the fact that its a paded number that isnt adding pressure on your kill window, increases the amount of globals needed on your go lengthening the time to kill, and only doing equal dmg in an ENTIRE wings duration, when you want more dmg in a 5 second window.
Pve can 100% tune out of difference and make ret great at 5- target cleave, you would do amazing in raids with S2 tuned and easily better than S3.
its not about the expurgation damage, its about the bonus the tier set grants while expurgation is up
in your short kill window it enables your judgment to deal extra damage via the 2 piece proc + causes your final verdict to deal 25% of its damage a second time
where as season 2 grants you … 15% extra to your final verdict if judgment is up? and whatever the 2 piece did
and yes they could tune out the difference by reworking the 4 piece or buffing it by so much for aoe that it would just be broken in single target, but that wont happen 
S2: Wings>ES>divine toll>hammer>FV>wake>FV>hammer>hammer>FV
S3: Wings>ES>blade>divine toll>FV>wake>FV>hammer>blade>judgement>FV
i added a global pressed the same amount of FV’s, but was forced to press 3 weaker buttons than hammer so less total dmg for the same outcome in this window. base hammer auto crits hits 100k, that blade i have to replace that global with for expurg hit 35-40k and that happened twice…and im even being generous with the S3 rotation cause the distance between when u divine toll is shorter so in theory you would need to judge after wake of ashes for the debuff if u wanted to FV right after wake.
S3=longer kill time, even with the 4set unnerfed, has you pressing LESS DMG on ur go.
No they cant tune out that difference.
edit: i also ignored that at ANY POINT, expurg could have just been cleansed.
turn that -% modifier into a +x% modifier, now that weak button turns your strong button into a small nuke and its balanced 
which is the same problem we have with s2 in aoe, they would need to rework it or buff it enough to be useful, which wont happen
sadly one side loses regardless
i said what i said.
and dont get me wrong, if i could i would enable s2 set for pvp and s3 for pve, but if i have to choose one its the set that works for the content i do, pve.
honestly just bad balancing on blizzards part that its that divisive for ret
Season 3 Set has won no arguements to be had anymore what i would like blizzard to do is stop the shadownerfs they do with secondary stats and make them mirror the piece you put in to convert for instance if you put a vers mastery piece in it should still have vers mastery
S2 winning NA as it should.
Yes but eu votes put s3 comfortably ahead. As started before in eu the second place tier is s1 which makes you think
psure me and you already went over why that might be, which is why i specified NA just now.