So most of my teams end up taking advantage of various combinations of Aughelds, Asheara's, and Captain's sets (with ring of requirement to reduce the set requirements). So after hurting my brain awhile, I made the following table to help me play with the various combinations. Effects are included for reference to the right.

Slot
Set Head Shoulders Chest Wrist Hand Waist Legs Feet Pri Off R1 R2 Amy Effects
A Aughild 1 1 1 1 (2) Set: Reduces damage from ranged attacks by 7.0% Reduces damage from melee attacks by 7.0%
(3) Set: Reduces damage from elites by 15.0% Increases damage against elites by 15%
B Born 1 1 1 (2) Set: +15% Life
(3) Set: Reduces cooldown of all skills by 10.0%. Increases Bonus Experience by 20%
C Captain 1 1 1 (2) Set: Regenerates 2000 Life per Second Reduces cooldown of all skills by 10.0%.
(3) Set: +50 Resistance to All Elements Reduces all resource costs by 10%.
V Asheara 1 1 1 1 (2) Set: +100 Resistance to All Elements
(3) Set: +20% Life
(4) Set: Attacks cause your followers to occasionally come to your aid.
D Demons 1 1 1 1 1 (2) Set: Ranged and melee attackers take 6000 Fire damage per hit.
(3) Set: Chance to Deal 25% Area Damage on Hit.
(4) Set: +15% Damage to Demons Chance to reflect projectiles when you are hit by enemies.
S Sages 1 1 1 (2) Set: +250 Strength +250 Dexterity +250 Intelligence +250 Vitality
(3) Set: Whenever a Death's Breath drops, a second one will also drop.
C Cains 1 1 1 (2) Set: Attack Speed Increased by 8.0%
(3) Set: 50% Better Chance of Finding Magical Items Increases Bonus Experience by 50%
G Guardians 1 1 1 (2) Set: +250 Vitality Regenerates 2000 Life per Second
(3) Set: +15% Movement Speed
H Hallowed 1 1 (2) Set: +100 Resistance to All Elements Attack Speed Increased by 10.0%

Obviously, the first 3->4 are probably the most interesting. I certainly don't have any interest in making the others. But its a bit hard to combine them satisfactorily; it seems to come down to Borns or Aughild's unless you are willing to use Born's 1hander or not use reapers wraps. It sort of seems like Aug's is better unless you really need cooldown reduction (e.g. to round robin something).

Some potential combinations:

Slot
Combo Head Shoulders Chest Wrist Hand Waist Legs Feet Pri Off R1 R2 Amy
ABC A B A C C B
ABC A B B A C C
ABCV A B A2 A A2 C C A2 B
ABCv A B B A A2 C C A2
BCV B B A2 C C A2
ACV A A A2 A2 C C A2

Right now I'm thinking ACV, or BCV are the most attractive. And of course, throw in other legs for seasoning (e.g. elemental damage, useful effects, what have you).

The 20% life is certainly not equivalent to the 15% damage reduction / bonus damage to elites, but the 10% CDR might make it worth it.

The only reason to put this much brainpower into this is that it's not that hard to make these once you have the plans; and the benefits are pretty generic.

Thoughts?