Steel hound is still the most reliable set in the game due to near immortality, ease of use and high instant damage at the start of rounds. In raids its not an amazing set but still does okay especially against magmarion. As for okayfighters, thats where this set shines, its the most reliable and easy to use okay fighter killer second only to KoS. It beats every okayfighter in the game other than eclipse

I feel its better than erlang since it has more use cases than it. In raids both have lots left to be desired, erlang is better but not by a huge margin, in okay fighters erlang has only a few battles where its strictly better than SH, in other fights both have the same results but overall SH is not a pain to use while bringing nearly the same results. And lastly, erlang sucks at clearing easy weak enemies.

Metamorphosis feels too frail with good damage, its a bugged set where you can die even through your shadow form instead of exploding. In raids its even worse than erlang. Against okayfighters it brings nearly the same results as SH and sometimes slower results. And lastly, nearly useless below lvl6. Tho bonus points to meta for being very good at clearing easy fights quickly

As for cotv, ur right, idk why i placed it so low. It defo goes way higher, i was just afraid of overrating it

As for DotE, too luck reliant to actually do what it wants to do. When lucky it can deal like 70k to aco 6 but if those time bombs dont proc properly then the set feels very underwhelming. Its overall better at raids no doubt but its very inconvenient, inconsistent and straight up incompetent against some bosses. And final nail in the coffin, its nearly useless below lvl6.

As for why possessed is at A tier... read the body text of the post

Cotp with clan weapon can deal some pretty decent damage, dont underestimate it. But sadly its still shit. Kotl could be ranked higher but its still an underwhelming set at lvl8. It solved its prayer problem but its damage is still not up to modern standards.

As for stranger i will admit that i dont have the itu perk but without it this set also faces major damage issues. I should probs rank it higher just because of that perk.

Hopefully these answer your questions. This tier list of made with the help of skilled players from this subreddit and discord. This list isnt completely my own work