A problem with many games that feature a "build" system is that late-game weapons and armor can be completely useless. You might get only a short time to play with your new toys, but New Game Plus modes can rectify that problem, and God of War Ragnarok is, thankfully, no exception.
NG+ in God of War Ragnarok will let you try out any build from the start of the game, meaning you will get plenty of mileage out of them. NG+ will also shower you with late-game resources, so you can change builds liberally.
10 Sparta Set
The Sparta set is the ultimate challenge build. In the first shop in NG+, you can purchase an armor set with absolutely zero stats and a set of handles for each weapon with similarly absent stat buffs. Unfortunately, you will have to equip a shield and rond with stats on them, but otherwise, you will be practically defenseless.
Games like this need a challenge mode for the unbelievably dedicated, and this functions as a level-one build with an attitude problem. Enemies in NG+ start at level seven, so you're not even starting off slow.
9 Full Runic: Giptumadr's Chest
Runic builds were nerfed from 2018 to Ragnarok, but they've realistically been reduced from "game-breaking" to make other builds shine. You can still build runic sets in various ways, but one of the most effective is with Giptumadr's chest, which grants a moderate luck chance to restore a runic attack's cooldown by 70 percent on use. Couple that with the spiritual set, adding a random chance to reduce cooldowns on any weapon attack.
Finally, for enchantments, you will want to equip the Seal of Runic Storm, which will activate a Bifrost storm if you use three different weapons' runic attacks in quick succession or roughly six seconds. This sounds like a short window, but you will frequently activate this storm without even trying.
8 Mani's Wisdom
The extinguishing flame and vaporizing frost abilities can be unlocked very early into the campaign and increase the elemental damage done by a weapon if the enemy is inflicted with the opposing status effect. So frost will do more damage to burning enemies, and vice-versa.
You can really capitalize on this with the Mani's Wisdom set, which increases the damage of these two effects. The waist and wrist bonus will increase the length of status effects, while the Vanaheim enchantment bonus will increase all damage done to status-afflicted enemies. It requires a bit of micromanaging, but this build can eat limbs when your buffs align.
7 Time Warp
There are a variety of items in the game which activate a realm shift based on different criteria. This build uses all of them to time-warp all over your enemies. The backbone, however, is the emblem of the nine realms' enchantment, which increases all damage done during a realm shift.
The radiance set bonus will grant you a realm shift on well-timed dodges. The rond of the nine realms grants one for parries. Every weapon has a hilt of the nine realms that grants a realm shift when you activate the weapon gauge ability, and finally, a relic, the hilt of Hofud, grants one on command. The chest piece is open, but the berserker or guiding light chest pieces work well.
6 Hilt Of Skofnung Spam
This is a very repetitive build, but a very, very fun one. Have you ever wanted to play as a wizard in God of War? This build revolves entirely around using the hilt of Skofnung to summon ghost swords to bully enemies and stacking as much cooldown as you can reasonably manage.
To aid in your spam parade of ghost swords, you will want to use Giptunadr's chest plate for a chance to restore 70 percent of the cooldown instantly. Then equip the berserker set bonus so that every attack, hit, and parry has a chance to reduce the cooldown as well. The swords will activate this chance and reduce their own cooldown.
5 Hunter's Set
The hunter's set is all about using your thrown weapons. This build may suffer against some bosses, but it will stun-lock most enemy encounters to death. The set grants you a ranged damage buff after aiming down sights for long enough, and the set bonus raises ranged damage overall.
To buff this further, equip the Midgard enchantment bonus for more ranged damage based on your cooldown and the Asgard enchantment bonus which increases the damage of all triangle abilities. Since triangle buffs axe throws and detonates thrown spears, you will often follow up your ranged spam with triangle abilities.
4 Black Bear Set
The black bear set is another build that's unique to NG+. It's the outfit Kratos starts the game in before miraculously losing it in the first cut scene, and fans have been dying to wear it.
Thankfully the set isn't just fashion fodder. It'd be fine if it were, but the chest piece also creates a Bifrost missile barrage on last-second dodges. The set bonus increases the next melee attack after dodging, so dodge attacks will become your bread and butter. Make sure to unlock the bonus abilities for your dodge attacks too.
3 Berserker Build
The berserker set creates an amazing risk-reward build that honestly rewards you far more often than it ever punishes you. The berserker chest piece grants you a huge damage buff after using a relic at the cost of taking increased damage, and the set bonus reduces relic cooldowns randomly upon weapon hits, taking damage and parrying.
The most common relics to run with this are the talisman of Meign, which itself grants a damage buff, or the hilt of Hofud for the realm shift. The realm shift, in particular, is a tad broken since it gives you a free window for damage while negating several seconds where you're supposedly more vulnerable.
2 Blessing Of The Nine Realms
The blessing of the nine realms build is centered around an Easter egg buff that you can get after landing nine attacks in a row without getting hit and while having one of each realm enchantment in your enchantment slots (e.g., one Midgard enchantment, one Vanaheim enchantment, etc.). The buff itself boosts melee damage done while permafrost, immolation, or maelstrom are active.
This is an incredibly specific and window-heavy build, but it puts out massive damage when done right. The hilts of the nine realms will grant you a free realm shift for when you're ready to activate your weapon ability. Additionally, the undying pyres set bonus increases their charge rate. For a final topping, use the berserker chest and hilt of Hofud to create an extra powerful realm shift after using your triangle ability.
1 Lunda's Set
This build relies on using bare-fist attacks to apply poison, which reduces enemy levels by one, making them much weaker. This alone can carry you through the highest difficulty with just a little effort.
To make it even stronger, the full set bonus will do extra damage to poisoned enemies, or you can swap to the dragon scale bonus for increased shield damage since half of all fist attacks are shield bashes. The icing on this swampy cake is that you can use the Vanaheim enchantment bonus to increase all damage done to status-afflicted enemies and the Svartleheim bonus to increase stun damage. Stink 'em up and slay 'em.