not going to happen. sets provide a defined goal for players when thinking about item progression, as well as being the best place for armor artists to show their stuff.

Personally I think that Naxx may be the last we see of 8-piece or 9-piece full-body sets that fill all major armor slots. It's been something of a necessity with a perfectly linear raid progression and one zone at a time, separated by months, in the pre-expansion world. But with multiple raid zones at the same time? I wouldn't be surprised to see something more along the lines of a ZG or AQ20 set model, or AQ40 with its 5 pieces, where it becomes more realistic to mix-and-match sets from different zones, and to gear up in multiple zones simultaneously rather than having a single zone that can deck you out from head to toe. I think it's definitely limiting, currently. At least in the BWL/AQ40 era, for example, tanks actually had some real variety in their equipment choices. Naxx is great for upgrades, but it takes that away. The best tank will wear full Dreadnaught, a Cryptfiend Silk Cloak, Mark of C'Thun, etc. There are no credible alternatives to these pieces, and while it does present a goal to which to aspire, it also is more than a little dull.

Sets may make people "clones", but it is a nice goal. There is pictures of Tier 4, so it seems Blizzard wants to make more sets. Also, you get neat little bonuses if you collect them all!

I can't say I'd miss 8(-9) piece sets if they went away forever and ever. I never completed a full set on my Rogue through the time I had playing this game hardcore. Well, I did finish Nightslayer but that was months after I stopped wearing a single piece ordinarily, wore it once to take fall dmg in Org and heal it up with the imba 8/8 bonus. Min/maxing (not least because of dkp systems) items through one piece from here and another from there has always been more appealing to me. Take the big upgrades, 4-5 pieces, and run with miscellaneous items in the rest. Get a weapon early for the dkp you save, or something. ;)

Right now the setup is so clear it hurts. 8 Bonescythe, BoN-EA, Unnatural Forces, Slayer's Crest, DFT(/KotS). Neck is a bit of a toss-up, Barbed/Prestor's/KT's. Much like Gurg's list on tank gear.

I like sets better than assorted pieces. There will always be pieces that are the best for a particular purpose, and having six of those pieces be part of an eight piece set and two of them being bright green shoulders and gloves doesn't really interest me.

I think best tanks will prefer the Gluth neck over C'thun, to be honest.

I like the sets and it seems there's at the very least a Tier 4 set coming out. Maybe it is spread over the Raid Dungeons tho, so Gruul drops Helms, half the set drops in Tempest Keep and the other half in the Black Temple, for example. As someone said above, it allows for better and matching artwork. I'm sure everyone recalls the clown look-a-like avatars when you were level 40 :)

And yet the Tier 4 sets that have been leaked all look to be 8-peice, so I wouldn't bet on this. I do agree with the OP though, I would much prefer smaller sets. To the point of the artists being able to show off their stuff, that is possible without explicit sets. It would allow them to focus more on themes for a particular raid dungeon, and particular peices. I mean come on, all that artwork done on Tier 3, meant I get a crappy pallete change on a Level 40ish robe for my Crystal Webbed Robe... I still shudder whenever I log on and see my Warlock wearing that thing....

I want more sets. IMO only having -one- Tier set, or PvP set at a time is boring.

I hate bringing up diablo, but at least the game had a few diff sets that (at various points in leveling) were worth collecting/wearing. Even if they're sets you get for only a couple fights, but the bonus makes it damn worthwhile...

Well, like you said there is a little varity over necks and trinkets, and I think the best setup would be 8 BS with the ring and using the belt from C'thun and Unnatural forces.
Weapons would depend on spec (with daggers a little stronger).

However, every class has ideal gear that is nearly the same no matter the spec. The expansion will change that with gems/new talents, which is good.

I don't ever think sets will go away; it is human nature to want to collect things.

I would be thrilled with that. The whole "socket" dynamic provides a sort of "mini-set" thing, but other than that I would love to see more things along the lines of the ZG ring sets, the Eskandar's set, etc. Having individual 2-4 piece sets that one can mix and match, or having set bonuses going, say, only to a max of 3/8, would provide for much more interesting gear-choice dynamics, as in the case of the Zul'Gurub ring sets, in particular. The Jin set provides a key example of this. It kills any other choices pre-Epic (and to a certain extent pre-Nefarian, though the Don Julio's Band is close to MDR).

Still, with differing set bonuses for the small set bonuses, or multiple synergistic effects, you would ensure diversity.

I like this idea too, although I don't know how feasible it really is. But again, it becomes much more feasible when the sets are smaller, which means loot tables are not overloaded with like 16-32 different 8-peice sets.

One thing I'd especially like to see, and am baffled why we havn't yet, is a Sword'n'Board set. We have dual-wield sets and the like, but there is no main-hand/shield set in the game.

I like lots of small sets, like the ZG rings or the AQ40 armor. I don't like big sets, because if their bonus is "too good" people don't want to break them and end up collecting gear for weeks before they can actually wear it and feel more effective (8/8 Trans, Giantstalker, etc).

This has been one of my personal largest complaints with WoW, the majority of raiding characters all look alike, and this is a result of gear being so set centric for raiders. Nothing like looking at your raid and seeing your entire mage corp in full netherwind, your entire warrior core in full full wrath etc. Moving away from 8 (or 9!) peice sets to perhaps a wider variety of 3 or 5 peice sets could help this somewhat.

A portion of the "Everyone looks alike" issue is because so much of a set's identity is tied up in the helm and shoulders. Honestly, without looking closely, no one can tell whether I'm wearing NS, BF, DD, or BS on my chest and legs. But on my shoulders or head? It's readily apparent which set I've got sitting there.

I'm honestly expecting to get focus-fired even more than I already do in PvP when I swap from my NS shoulders to BS this week.

Personally I like seeing all the mages in full Netherwind, they looked quite sexy. =o

What about unofficial sets like the BWL DPS Warrior clown suit? You used to see that all the time before AQ40 came out (to be supplanted by mostly Conq loadouts) enough to the point where it might as well have been a set and actually had a uniform look and maybe even set bonuses.

I'm a big fan of mixing and matching the first 1 or 2 set bonuses for various sets. I use 2/8 General's, 3/8 Nemesis and 3/5 Doomcaller for PvP. The combination gives me a buttload of +damage and stamina over my normal PvE gear (5/5 DC and various other crap).

I wouldn't put money on those being tier 4. People are referring to them as "tier 4" simply because they don't have a name. Watch them actually end up being level 70 blue sets (ala. dreadmist, shadowcraft, valor, etc.) lol.

Well, the Teir 4 pictures that are floating around do appear to be at least 8 piece sets, probably 9 piece so they are full upgrades from Naxx gear. The question becomes where do they come from? With at least two Onyxia style raids(Gruul's Lair and Hellfire Citadel), three full 25 man raids(Caverns of Time, Tempest Keep and The Black Citadel) and more then likely multiple 10 mans(Kharazon and Zul'Aman), and perhaps more I can't remember, it wouldn't surprise me terribly if they went back to a Dungeon Set style of pieces spread out across Outland, and further Perhaps the level 70 equivalent of Teir 0 is in Tempest Keep/CoT/Gruul's Lair and Magtheradon while The Black Citadel holds the level 70 equivalent of Teir 1. Who knows though, not much you can speculate on at this point.

I like sets because the art team reuses artwork for the majority of non-set gear.

It was a lot of fun going around with my Mooncloth Robe and Black Mageweave Shoulders. :(

If anyone here played FFXi one thing i really really enjoyed about that game, albeit was a pain in the ass was the fact that there were quests for artifact armor, which was essentially a set armor like in wow. I would like to see something like to be obatined. I would like to see set armor get a little more difficult to get, like you had to quest to get it, and make the quests very tedious and hard, with certain dungeon objectives in line.. like killing a whole dungeon in set amount of time. Kinda like the .5 quests were, but less $$$$ dump and more like the 45 minute baron. Can you imagine if you were trying to do a 45 min baron in blues and greens? It would be really fun, challenging and frustrating, but at the same time difficult. I think the loot system in the game is good, but i think the way you acquire loot is tedious, where as you can farm a dungeon for ever and ever and not get your peices to drop, or you can go and get most of a set in one night. It's rediculous in some of those aspects. Meh.

I think if blizzard wants to make the tiers for specific things, thats fine, but what about making another tier. Like for dps warriors, make a 8 piece tier, attainable through raiding and questing like the quests from ffxi and eq. Same with say feral drood gear, dps shaman gear, dps paladin gear, etc. I mean they did do this to a point with some of the zg and cc gear, sure, but make it more difficult than, go here get these items, and oh yeah grind rep to this point to get it.

They have so many possiblities and ideas i'm sure i'm just scratching the surface. I'm very intrigued with what the expansion will bring us all.

Yeah. Because tedium is fun!