Best end game armor set?

[Hogman, The Intruder]

Doing a run of Ng 8+ and for a long time I have used a combination of the drowned and obsidian set. Drowned to 100 to get the str bonus and then obsidian to 50 for vit. Are there any better sets or builds you all use?

[Derpykat5]

I've been using a cross between the drowned and Kin sets, in the hopes that eventually I'll be able to have the strength from Drowned and the revive from Kin, but my equipment level isn't quite high enough for that yet.

[Tetsuya_Kurogane]

Does armor pieces max out at +4 or it can go higher?

[AtheistPreacher]

First, I mentioned this in another thread, but if we're talking about true end game armor, then we're talking about all +9 equipment, which you can unlock by buying the Soul Shop upgrades that let you find those blueprints. At that point you're looking to get three +100 unity bonuses.

My setup uses Kin, Warden, and Ammonite:

Ammonite Fossil
Kin Cape
Warden Chest
Warden Helm
Kin Weapon

The Kin equipment has the highest stats generally, which makes it attractive independent of the unity bonus. Meanwhile, the +100 unity bonus is a free revive that also counts as a relic for War Drum (I think?). I'll take it.

Ammonite +100 unity bonus will get you +40% armor, which is huge (consider that Obsidian gives only a 20% vitality bonus). The caveat is that if you don't have enough Folded Runes to increase your armor's max block cap, then it could be going to waste. But assuming that you're also using the maximum number of Folded Runes, Ammonite seems like a no-brainer. Taking less damage from attacks is always good.

As for Warden, the +100 unity bonus is +20% random weapon crit, which will take you from the nominal max of 50% to 70%. Honestly, this isn't ideal for all classes and situations. If you're doing a lot of skill crits then it might be wasted (practically useless for the Barbarian, for instance). But e.g. my favorite class is Valkyrie, and doing a lot of skill crits against bosses isn't that practical since it requires dashing, you're better off just spamming normal attacks a lot of the time, so the bonus crit does help there. But honestly you could replace this with a lot of things depending on class and situation. Sanguine is good for the extra lifesteal runes and return damage, or Obsidian for vitality, or Drowned for strength, etc.

[phadin]

question regarding unity bonuses... does the unity bonuses from lvl 20 and 50 stack alongside lvl 100, or do you ONLY get the lvl 100 bonus?

[AtheistPreacher]

Originally posted by phadin:

question regarding unity bonuses... does the unity bonuses from lvl 20 and 50 stack alongside lvl 100, or do you ONLY get the lvl 100 bonus?

You get them all. :-)

[Ryukan]

It stacks. I personally like to use levithan/crescent/drowned for max INT/STR and mana regen.

[Omegatherion]

Drowned/Obsidian/Ammonite for me on NG+58. The damage is absolutely necessary and random crit chance is meaningless when i get guaranteed skill crits anyways. Sure, a higher chance for super crits would be nice, but for me it's enough as it is.

HP and armor are a must have anyways when enemies hit you for 8k and more. The revive from the Kin set doesn't get my anywhere. Sure, a little bonus should i come across a War Drum, but so far i never felt like a revive would have made the difference.
Before they added the full heal before Cain it could have been worth it, but not anymore. I usually find enough HP ups throughout a run anyways and if i go into the last fight with 20k+ HP that's enough to face tank my way to an EZ win.

[Hogman, The Intruder]

Originally posted by Omegatherion:

Drowned/Obsidian/Ammonite for me on NG+58. The damage is absolutely necessary and random crit chance is meaningless when i get guaranteed skill crits anyways. Sure, a higher chance for super crits would be nice, but for me it's enough as it is.

HP and armor are a must have anyways when enemies hit you for 8k and more. The revive from the Kin set doesn't get my anywhere. Sure, a little bonus should i come across a War Drum, but so far i never felt like a revive would have made the difference.
Before they added the full heal before Cain it could have been worth it, but not anymore. I usually find enough HP ups throughout a run anyways and if i go into the last fight with 20k+ HP that's enough to face tank my way to an EZ win.

What pieces do you wear for each set?

[Omegatherion]

Originally posted by Hogman, The Intruder:

Originally posted by Omegatherion:

Drowned/Obsidian/Ammonite for me on NG+58. The damage is absolutely necessary and random crit chance is meaningless when i get guaranteed skill crits anyways. Sure, a higher chance for super crits would be nice, but for me it's enough as it is.

HP and armor are a must have anyways when enemies hit you for 8k and more. The revive from the Kin set doesn't get my anywhere. Sure, a little bonus should i come across a War Drum, but so far i never felt like a revive would have made the difference.
Before they added the full heal before Cain it could have been worth it, but not anymore. I usually find enough HP ups throughout a run anyways and if i go into the last fight with 20k+ HP that's enough to face tank my way to an EZ win.

What pieces do you wear for each set?

Drowned weapon and armor, Obsidian helmet and greaves, Ammonite cape

[fuchsohnehalstuch]

I think there can be multiple good options, they are quite well balanced so it is not quite clear what is best. Kin has great stats and the 100 unity bonus is great when you are a bit underleveled. When you die in 2 hits, being revived is great for a boss fight, basically you can take 50% more hits.
Obsidian is also great. The advantage over damage sets is that 20% more vit means you can take 20% more hits in a boss fight. But since damage is shared additively between 4 stats (str/int/dex/foc) 20% more str doesn't mean 20% more damage.
Ammonite combined with the armor runes is great, too, especially when you are a bit overleveled. Up to 75% damage reduction is amazing.
Leather unity can be nice, too. But additionally you will need a lot of health and armor for 30% max health to be enough. Very late game it can be hard to keep your health high enough and that option slowly is dying out.

Damage sets are still ok for castle clearing though, it makes not getting hit easier. Whether you use drowned or warden can be quite complicated. The more you skill crit, the more likely drowned would be the better option. Very late game with lots of crit damage and when the raw stats of sets get insignificant compared to unity bonuses warden can still be a good choice when you skill crit quite often though.
For magic damage setups I would use Leviathan over scholar/crescent.
(Btw. if you have kin on damage setups use kin cape for physical damage and kin chest for magic setups, as late game foc/dex are the strongest damage stats)
(The 20% str bonus is additive with the mastery bonus. EndEnd game you have 100% strength bonus from mastery. Effectively that makes your 20% str bonus only a 10% str bonus. As endend game most of your damage will come from dex, the 20% str bonus is only about a 3% damage bonus)

I think the safest setup is a defensive one. Go for Kin cape and helmet (both have lots of vitality), obsidian sword and chest and ammonite necklace. (The set with the lowest stats should usually take the necklace spot, as those in general have low stats anyways) Damage won't be amazing with that but you can survive a lot with that, maybe you will find good damage relics with it to compensate for the lack of damage equipment. (That's with every equipment being +9 though, just reread your post and I see you are NG+8, that is not quite endgame enough for that)