Item Set

Diablo II Items [e]
Weapons
Axes • Bows • Crossbows • Daggers • Javelins • Maces • Polearms • Scepters • Spears • Staves • Swords • Throwing • Wands
Armor
Belts • Body Armor • Boots • Circlets • Gloves • Helms • Shields
Class-specific
Assassin Items • Amazon Items • Barbarian Items • Druid Items • Necromancer Items • Paladin Items • Sorceress Items
Other
Charms • Class Items • Crafted • Horadric Cube • Runes • Set Items • Uniques • Jewels • Sockets
Guides and Stats
Calculations • Gambling • Item Generation • Modifiers • Runewords • Quest Items • Potions • Ethereal • Gems • Base Item Levels • Misc

Item sets are collections of items in distinct, named groups. Set items have green names and preset stats, and receive bonuses from other items in the set when they are worn together. While some individual set items are tremendously powerful, most are not much better than good magical or rare items. The trick to using Item Sets well is to wear the best pieces from them, or to selectively combine two or more items from the same set to benefit from the partial set bonus.

See the Set Items category for a full listing. More information can be found on the item quality page. The magical quality levels are Normal, Magical, Rare, Set and Unique.

D2 Expansion, Elite Set Item

Item sets are hugely improved in the Diablo II Expansion. In D2 Classic, item sets were all comprised of normal items, none of which were especially worth wearing. There were no partial set bonuses, and even the full set bonuses weren't very good, and certainly weren't good enough to be worth tying up 3 or 4 or 6 of your inventory slots.

In the expansion all the original 16 item sets are much improved by the addition of substantial partial set bonuses. The item types are still all regular and none of those old sets will serve a combat character into nightmare or hell, but they can be useful for a spellcaster.

The expansion pack also added 16 new item sets, and those are much more viable long term. See the individual item set pages for full details, stats, and equipment recommendations.

Expansion Item Set Improvement

Item Sets were meant to be one of the coolest features of Diablo II. There were going to be noticeable effects when the whole set was equipped, including different graphics on your character in the game, and of course huge secret bonuses.

Unfortunately, as Blizzard has admitted, this very cool concept isn't implemented all that well in Diablo II. Set items aren't good enough to wear on their own in 95% of the cases, and the set bonuses aren't that good either. But there are improvements in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.

More Set Items Information

You can see all the sets available in the full list of item sets.
In the classic version (no Expansion) of Diablo II, the set items were less useful and the item generation system quite buggy. Take a stroll down memory lane if you have the expansion, or read up on the system if you don't: Set item generation (Diablo II).