Exceptional Sets and Set Items

Exceptional sets are any sets that were introduced in the expansion (like Sander's Folly), any set with an exceptional item as its highest piece (like the Cow King's Leathers), or any set item introduced in the expansion with a level requirement less than 51. There's only one exceptional set, when completed, that's of any interest to the assassin. One of the reasons behind this is the infinitely larger assortment of exceptional uniques that the player has been presented with, as well as rares, crafted items, rune words, and magical items. Another is that the assassin was a massive powerhouse when the expansion was introduced — there was really no need to give her so many sets when other classes (like the paladin) needed them even more than she did at the time.

For more information on sets, please refer to the Horadrim Library and the Set Items section of the Arreat Summit.

The Cow King's Leathers

The set bonuses of The Cow King's Leathers are: poison resist 25%, 25% chance to cast slvl-5 static field when struck, +100 maximum stamina, +20 strength, +30% increased attack speed, 100% better chance of getting magic items, 100% extra gold from monsters. This set can be worn by any class, but its pieces can only be found in the "secret" cow level. This set is primarily a well-balanced treasure hunter's set, with many many extras. The Cow King's Leathers leaves an assassin with an open bow, belt, glove, amulet and ring slots. The rlvl of this set is clvl-25.

• Cow King's Hide Studded Leather: 57 defense, +60% enhanced defense, 18% chance to cast slvl-5 chain lightning when struck, all resistances 18%, +30 life, rlvl-18. Prismatic armor with a low level requirement is always nice to have: when not using the Arctic set, I tend to give this to my assassin to use with Iratha's. Add the high chance to cast Chain Lightning when struck and this armor isn't half bad. It's also fun to give this to a melee merc.
• Cow King's Hooves Heavy Boots: 30-41 defense, +25-35 defense, 30% faster run/walk, adds 25-35 fire damage, +20 dexterity, 25% better chance of getting magic items, rlvl-13. With no wasted attributes and an all-time low level requirement of 13, these boots are almost too good to be true for a low-level character: they have the highest possible dexterity bonus, 30% faster run/walk, a relatively good bonus to fire damage and a relatively high %MF bonus. They easily outdo just about any normal unique boot and almost all of the set boots as well. Think of them as a poor man's War Traveler. If your character can get these boots twinked over, get them — you won't replace them for quite awhile.
• Cow King's Horns War Hat: 120-128 defense, +75 defense, half freeze duration, attacker takes damage of 10, 35% damage taken goes to mana, rlvl-25. Though Thawing/Warmth isn't usually found on helms, this is still the weakest part of the set. However, the addition of an Ith rune will give the highest "damage goes to mana" attribute you can find on headgear. If you've twinked the other pieces over, then your assassin has already gotten the most bang for her buck; the hat merely completes the set.

Orphan's Call

The set bonuses of Orphan's Call are: +85 life, attacker takes damage of 5, all resistances 15%, +100 defense, +10 dexterity, +20 strength, 80% better chance of getting magic items. An excellent exceptional set to play around with, this low-cost setup gives an assassin a plethora of non-elemental offensive options at the cost of resists.

• Guillaume's Face Winged Helm: 187-245 defense, +120% enhanced defense, 30% faster hit recovery, 15% deadly strike, 35% chance of crushing blow, +15 strength, rlvl-34. If you want to augment the direct-damage non-elemental effects of your assassin, this is an excellent helm to wear alongside Gore Rider war boots.
• Magnus' Skin Sharkskin Gloves: 49-60 defense, +50% enhanced defense, 20% increased attack speed, +100 attack rating, +3 light radius, fire resist 15%, rlvl-37. Though it has 20% IAS and light fire resist, Magnus' Skin's outstanding feature is the high AR bonus.
• Whitstan's Guard Round Shield: 154 defense, 92% chance to block, +175% enhanced defense, half freeze duration, 40% faster block rate, +55% increased chance of blocking, +5 light radius, rlvl-29. This is probably one of the fastest and most dependable non-paladin shields you can get your hands on.
• Wilhelm's Pride Battle Belt: 64-75 defense, +75% enhanced defense, 5% life stolen per hit, 5% mana stolen per hit, cold resist 10%, rlvl-42. This is the only dual leech belt in the game. Other than that, there's nothing really outstanding about this belt.

Partial Set Bonuses

Because there were only three exceptional sets introduced in LOD, it should come as no surprise that all of them are covered here.

Individual Set Items

Exceptional set items that are useful in and of themselves (that were not mentioned before) include:

• Sander's Riprap Heavy Boots: 5-6 defense, 40% faster run/walk, +100 attack rating, +10 dexterity, +5 strength, rlvl-20. The first available boots for the assassin with 40% faster run/walk, these have an excellent bonuses to attack rating and dexterity. Note that 40% faster run/walk (acceleration) is usually reserved for magic-only boots.
• Sander's Taboo Heavy Gloves: 25-31 defense, adds 9-11 poison damage over 3 seconds, +20-25 defense, +40 life, 20% increased attack speed, rlvl-28. Because magical gloves of alacrity are not available until clvl-30 or so and these have the lowest level requirements for ready-made gloves with 20% IAS, these are great to have until something better can be found.
• Sazabi's Mental Sheath Basinet: 175-184 defense, +1 skills, lightning resist 15-20%, fire resist 15-20%, +100 defense, rlvl-43.
• Aldur's Advance Battle Boots: 39-47 defense, indestructible, 40% faster run/walk, +180 maximum stamina, 10% damage taken goes to mana, heal stamina +32%, +50 life, fire resist 40-50%, rlvl-45. Another set of boots with 40% faster run/walk, these often-overlooked boots combine the best aspects of Vidala's and Treads by adding a flat 180 points of stamina and faster stamina regeneration, then slapping on a slight bonus to life and the vulpine property. Note that Aldur's Advance v1.10 has added fire resistance.
• Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest Death Mask: 99-131 defense, 10% life stolen per hit, 10% mana stolen per hit, all resistances 15%, +45 defense, +30 mana, +60 life, rlvl-66. This is one of the best ready-made helmets an assassin can get: it's prismatic, has a substantial bonus to life and its 10% dual leech is higher than any helmet in the game. However, with luck, you should be able to find a circlet that has better attributes; the leech might be less, but a circlet can have up to 20% prismatic, +skills and more. This is also an ideal hireling helm, as it has a relatively low trading value and is easy to equip.

You'll notice that some set items are in the same set, thus giving you set item bonuses. In most cases, they're not worth mentioning.