Before this fugly ass mess of AOS + ML coloration things were quite dull and normal.
The rarest you'd look is with some pure black clothing and maybe some sigil items. Sigil was the hue to have, masks, shields, weapons, armor etc. I suppose it'd sorta be like how a full glacial ice set would be now as far as standing out.
on that same note, event items used to be alot rarer and more coveted because it was the only place to get uniquely hued armor and weaponry. Ever since the debacle with ML and the tokuno dyes, event items lost most of their desire unless they were uber modded. Things like the Enervate, Life's ruination, Dark orc helm all became alot less jaw dropping.
Soon EA will get worse and give everyone a glacial dye tub and maybe some ethy/blaze item dye tubs. Then the game will fully reach the peak of a free emulated shard with the only difference being you have to pay to play.