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25 Crafted Sets That Need an Overhaul for ESO Summerset

This article started out as one covering the different intriguing Set combinations that will be made possible in Elder Scrolls Online by the addition of Jewelry Crafting in ESO Summerset. However, as I looked over the list of Crafted Sets, I soon realized that there were less than a handful of good ones, because the majority of Crafted Sets are bad or antiquated, and it wasn’t really worth doing. Zenimax has shown that it can make large overhauls to this aspect of the game to improve the quality, and I’m hopeful that they will do so again for ESO Summerset.

25 Crafted Sets That Need an Overhaul

There are currently 41 Crafted Sets present in Elder Scrolls Online, spanning the breadth of Tamriel. However, only a fraction are used in Veteran Dungeons, Trials and PvP. This list extends to Sets like Hunding’s Rage, Law of Julianos, Eternal Hunt, Morkuldin, Twice-Born Star, Kagrenac’s Hope, Clever Alchemist, Shacklebreaker, Tava’s Favor, Kvatch Gladiator, Armor of the Seducer and a couple other. Roughly 2/3s of the Crafted Sets are never used in any sort of serious setting, which is higher than average, if Sets were broken down by category. In this article I want to take a look at many of the Crafted Sets that need enhancing, and make suggestions as to how I would improve them. And before you ask, yes I plan on doing this for other Sets as well. First up on the list is Death’s Wind.

Crafted Sets

1. Death’s Wind

At first glance there is nothing glaringly “wrong” with this Set, however, the 5 piece bonus is one that makes many appearances throughout the game (Draugr’s Heritage, Dreamer’s Mantle), and is frankly not very useful. This is primarily because situations where your tank falls below 35% health and lives are few, and also a 30 second cooldown means that you won’t be using it more than once per encounter. Since Bosses can’t be stunned in most cases, this means you’ll really only use this effectively as is on trash or in PvP.

I think either the 5 piece bonus of Death’s Wind needs to be changed, or the other 2 Sets mentioned above should be changed, so that we don’t have repeats of the same thing. If we’re talking Death’s Wind here, I would make it deal damage in an AoE around the player for 3000 Physical Damage when they fall below 75% Health once every 15 seconds. If you make this number any lower it won’t be useful in PvP and if you don’t have a high enough Health threshold then it would only trigger when you or all enemies around you were about to die anyway. This is a similar effect to Defending Warrior, but deals Physical Damage and lower total damage because it’s easier to get.

Note: Current Bonuses are on the left and changes I would make are on the right in ALL cases.

Death's Wind

2. Ashen Grip

Ashen Grip is a Set that hasn’t been good in a very very long time (if ever). It drastically needs an overhaul so that it is actually viable in some form or another, because a 10% chance on direct melee damage once every 4 seconds is not. The only thing it really has going for it is that it is a Stamina-based Set that a player could learn to Craft quickly.

In order to make this set more viable I would reduce the cooldown to 1 second and increase the damage to 3000 ish. This makes this Set somewhat similar to the Way of Fire Set, only it does less damage and it does it in an AoE. It still wouldn’t be the greatest Set in the world, but it only takes 2 traits to Craft…

3. Torug’s Pace

There really isn’t anything wrong with this Set, and in fact I think it’s one of the more unique Sets in the game. The only changes I would make would be to change the 2 piece bonus to Spell Resistance and the 4 piece bonus I would make Spell and Weapon Damage, to make it more inline with current “hybrid” Sets. This would make this one viable for Stamina Builds as well as Magicka Builds.

4. Trial by Fire

Trial by Fire is an interesting Set because of the high elemental Resistance the Set provides. Unfortunately tanks don’t usually have a problem with Resistances so it makes this Set less effective than it could be, particularly because it already adds some Spell Resistance.

I would change the 3 and 4 piece bonuses on this Set to be Max Stamina and Max Magicka. This would allow for tanks who opt to have a lower Spell Resistance in general to get more use out of this Set, as well as allow players who might utilize it in PvP to get some bonuses that aren’t only for tanks. 7700 Fire resistance would be huge against Eye of the Storm trains for example.

5. Twilight’s Embrace

This is a Set that was once used more often than it is now, mostly due to the arrival of more powerful combinations. 10% Healing Received isn’t a terrible bonus, but it isn’t that great either. Add on top of that the terrible bonuses of Spell Damage and Spell Critical and you wonder who would really use this Set. Ideally it would be the tank, but not with those bonuses…

I would change this Set’s 3 and 4 piece bonuses to be Max Health and Healing Taken to make this a tank set, and I would increase the Healing Received to 15%. This would give the Set an overall amount of 19% additional healing, which is good enough to be used in Vet Dungeons at least. PvPers could opt to use this Set as well, to become tankier at the expense of damage.

6. Magnus’ Gift

Another practically redundant Set here, because of Armor of the Seducer, and one that doesn’t hardly see any use. 8% chance to negate cost is much riskier than just a flat cost reduction, and many players only use this set for it’s 2, 3 and 4 piece bonuses.

Probably the most extreme change I would make to any of the Crafted Sets would be here. I would actually like to see this made into a hybrid Set that reduces the cost of your Class Skills by 10%, with a 2 piece bonus of Max Magicka, 3 piece of Max Stamina and 4 piece of Spell and Weapon Damage. This would be something new and refreshing and could make Heavy Armor Great Again…

7. Whitestrake’s Retribution

This Set is one that I used a very long time ago, as did many players, but has since fallen out of favor do to the reduction to Damage Shields in Cyrodiil and by the addition of more powerful Sets.

To improve this Set I would change the 3 and 4 piece bonuses to Maximum Health. This would allow players to trigger the Damage Shield without being quite so low on Health, making it more viable. Also, we all know Blazplar’s need more Damage Shields…kidding…

8. Vampire’s Kiss

Once upon a time people actually used this Set because it granted +50% Health Recovery for 8 seconds after killing an enemy. Now it gives 5000 ish health over 6 seconds, and gives tank-like bonuses. As tanks don’t generally kill a lot of targets, this isn’t the most effective Set unless you are soloing.

Because the Set is named Vampire’s Kiss, and Vampirism in ESO is very heavily Magicka-based, I would like to see this Set changed to something similar, but with Magicka. I would like the 2, 3 and 4 piece bonuses to be Max Health, Max Magicka, Spell Damage and the 5 piece bonus should give 3000 Magicka over 6 seconds. This would make for another unique Set, and one that is more inline with current Vampires.

9. Song of Lamae

Song of Lamae is another weird Set. It used to be used a lot more than it is now, again because of the evolution of the game. Right now it has no place in the meta because it’s effect is not only too rare, but not overly useful either. It could be good in some situations with the right changes.

This is another Set that I would overhaul by a good amount. I would change this Set to have Max Health, Max Magicka and Max Stamina and then make the 5 piece bonus trigger when the target you are attacking falls below 50% Health. This would be in and AoE and would not heal you. I would also reduce the cooldown from 30 seconds to 15 seconds.

10. Alessia’s Bulwark

Alessia’s Bulwark has never been a particularly good set and the bonus has stayed relatively the same through out the course of the game’s evolution. Getting hit with a 15% chance to reduce Weapon Damage by 10% is nearly useless, and I don’t know a single tank that would use this Set.

I would like to change the 4 piece bonus to Spell Resistance and the 5 piece bonus of this Set to be “When you Block an attack, 33% chance to apply Minor Maim to the target, reducing the damage they deal by 15%”. This makes more sense because Bulwark means “defense”, and Blocking is a good way to do that. This change would not only make this Set viable in Dungeons, but also PvP.

11. Noble’s Conquest

Noble’s Conquest has a very good 5 piece bonus, unfortunately you just don’t get it very often. This is the downside of the Set and frankly, one that needs to be rectified if it’s to become mainstream at all. I would like to see the healing removed from the 5 piece bonus, and have Minor Vulnerability applied for 10 seconds on a Bash attack, once every 10 seconds. This would be a great set for tanks to increase the DPS of their group, as well as useful for tanky PvP players debuffing a target their group is focus firing.

12. Tava’s Favor

This Set has seen a lot of use, particularly when it was first released, by Stamina users in Cyrodiil. Building Ultimate quickly, players used Dawnbreaker with impunity, and this style of play reigned for some time. Now a days, fewer players use it, but it is still has its uses in Cyrodiil.

I don’t know any Magicka users who actually use this Set, so I think it would be a fair move to change the 4 piece bonus to Max Stamina. This makes it a “Stamina” set, which it basically already is, and makes it more viable for Stamina Builds. To balance this out, I would change the 5 piece bonus to be on Dodge Rolls only, and to not work with Evasion.

13. Kvatch Gladiator

This is a really unique Set in ESO and one that I wouldn’t really want to change much. My only suggestion here would be to balance the first 3 bonuses to make it a hybrid Set, so that Magicka users could also make use of it. Something like Weapon Critical, Spell Critical, Weapon/Spell Damage for the 2, 3 and 4 piece bonuses.

14. Willow’s Path

This is another niche Set that really doesn’t see much use. Having tons of recovery but no Max Stats really hurts a player’s performance, and unfortunately all this Set gives is recovery. I would like to see this Set changed so that the 2,3 and 4 piece bonuses actually give Health, Magicka and Stamina and the 5 piece bonus give a flat increase to Recovery of these 3. As it stands now players will have to have really high Recovery to get any use out of the 5 piece bonus, and if they have really high Recovery, they have no need for that bonus.

15. Redistributor

Redistributor is a bizarre set because it essentially has no identity. What role would use this Set? A tank? A healer? A DPS? Because of the bonuses all of them could technically use it, but they would all be less effective in the role that they are supposed to be playing. This Set needs a role in order to be viable.

My suggestion for this Set would be to make it for a “healer” by changing the bonuses to Max Magicka, Magicka Recovery and Spell Critical and making the 5 piece bonus say “when you heal yourself or an ally”.

16. Varen’s Legacy

I really like this Set, but it is extremely niche. One of the reasons it isn’t more mainstream is because the range of Skills that work with it are more limited than you would think. For example Spear Shards and Magicka Detonation do not work with it, further limiting the Builds that can use it to mostly Dragonknights and Nightblades. If the Skills that worked with it were changed then it would be more use.

This one simply needs to work with more Skills.

17. Daedric Trickery

The concept of this Set was actually quite great when it was first introduced, but players quickly learned that in practicality it wasn’t the case. The 50% uptime or less for a somewhat random bonus isn’t reliable and one many players won’t risk the modest 2, 3 and 4 piece bonuses for.

To make this Set useable I would cycle through these bonuses every 5 seconds, not randomly but in a fixed order. This would allow for you to have 100% uptime, but not for very long on each bonus. If that is too powerful, I think Zenimax should consider at least having the Minor versions of these buffs with 100% uptime at 10 seconds.

18. Orgnum’s Scales

The problem with this Set is that it doesn’t really heal you unless you are in a bad situation, and it stops before you get out of it. A simple fix would be to make your Health Recovery increase by 50% when you drop below 60% Health once every 15 seconds. This ensures your Recovery will carry you through to a safe point and not just quit, when you’re not really out of trouble.

19. Eyes of Mara

This Set used to reduce the cost of Magicka Abilities while using a Restoration Staff and has since been changed to reduce the cost of Resto Abilities by 12%. The main issue with this Set, besides the fact is requires 8 Traits to craft, is that resource management usually isn’t a problem for the healer. On top of that, almost no healers ONLY use Resto Abilities. I would love to see this Set reduce the cost of Healing Abilities by enough Magicka that the Set is viable. Something like 10-15% would be good.

20. Shalidor’s Curse

This Set suffers from the same issue that Orgnum’s Scales does, in that players only get the benefit while under 50%. I don’t know about you, but when I fall below 50% my first thought isn’t to spam Light Attacks, and if they only took me to 50% Health and stopped I’d be even less inclined to do so.

Changes I would make to this Set would be making the 3 and 4 piece bonuses Magicka and Stamina to make this set viable for PvP as well, and then change the 5 piece to “20% chance on damage with a Light Attack apply Shalidor’s Curse, healing the player by 600 Health for each Light Attack that lands for 15 second duration once every 20 seconds.”

 

21. Oblivion’s Foe

Might be the most trash Set in the entire game. Not only are the 2,3 and 4 piece bonuses weak because of the overall lack of Max Stats, but the 5 piece bonus only applies to one Skill that isn’t very effective unless you crank your Magicka and Spell Damage through the roof, which is extremely hard to do with the bonuses listed here…

This Set could actually be very good if you made the 2,3 and 4 piece bonuses something like Max Magicka, Magicka Recovery and Spell Damage. This would put Soul Trap at something like 14000 ish damage over 10 seconds on 3 targets, which is not bad by any means. The Skill also has a 28m range….

22. Spectre’s Eye

Spectre’s Eye is almost a good Set. Really only because the 2 and 4 piece bonuses make it impossible to play in the DPS role of group without nerfing your DPS horribly. The only changes I would make here would be to make the 2 piece Max Magicka, and the 4 piece Spell Damage.

23. Way of the Arena

This Set has a very good 5 piece bonus for PvP, with 40% reduced Break Free cost. Unfortunately the only players who really need this bonus are Magicka ones, since Stamina Builds have no problem with Stamina management, and I don’t see them sacrificing that much damage in order to use it. If the 2 and 4 piece bonuses were Magicka Recovery and Spell Damage I think they might though.

24. Armor Master

This intriguing Set has the flaw of adding too much Resistance and not enough Stats. If you’re a tank and you use Immovable for example you would gain something like 10000 Resistance. That would give you more than enough, so the 3 and 4 piece bonuses should probably be something else. Max Magicka and Stamina are probably good choices because again, this makes it viable for PvP. By making these changes it also becomes different than Fortified Brass, which just gives you a permanent 5000 ish Resistances and has exactly the same 2,3 and 4 piece bonuses.

25. Pelinal’s Aptitude

Last but not least we come to Pelinals Aptitude. I can’t think of a good reason to use this Set ever, which is simply a travesty for a 9 Trait Set. It used to be somewhat viable for Werewolves, but they are in general hard to play and there are much better Sets for them now anyhow. The problem with this Set is that you cannot get your Spell or Weapon Damage up high enough with your other equipment to make it worth using, and even if you could, you’d have so little resources it wouldn’t be viable.

What I would like to see this Set do instead is change the 3 and 4 piece bonuses to Max Stamina and Max Magicka and make the 5 piece bonus average your Max Stamina and Max Magicka or possibly average your Max Health, Stamina and Magicka. This would make this the “Hybrid of Hybrids” and would allow players to use 1 set that is high in Stamina, Magicka or Health and still have good resources.

So there you have it. Those are the changes I would make to the Crafted Sets to make many of them more viable in a variety of scenarios. I think if I spend more time, I could probably even find better ways to improve them or refine them, especially in an environment where I could test them out (like PTS). I really hope we see some changes to these Sets with ESO Summerset, because many of these Sets have been terrible for a long time, and it wouldn’t take much to fix them.


What are your thoughts on Crafted Sets? Did I get it wrong? I plan on doing a few more articles like this for Light, Medium and Heavy Armor as well as Jewerly Sets, so if you liked this article stay tuned for those!

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1 response to “25 Crafted Sets That Need an Overhaul for ESO Summerset”


  1. loves most of your suggestions, especially with Magnus’ Gift, Tava’s Favor, and Orgnum’s Scales.

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