Ok, to the rancor equipment and its bonus question:
Prior to the Estoc Trials, kaw released PvP gear attainable from the alchemist by paying it with mithril: the red paladin set. This set still is available, btw.
When the Estoc Trial Season 1 got launched, kaw decided to award some gear to its participants, depending on their Rancor level at the end of the season. Season 1 made it possible to get up to 6 pieces of equipment as reward. Each individual piece was in fact a 10-15% upgrade in stats to its Red Paladin set counterpart.
Season 2 allowed you to gather the missing 6 pieces of equipment, depending on how successfully you warred. Those pieces of equipment were once again an upgrade of the corresponding red paladin set pieces (roughly a 10% increase in stats).
You would have to consider the gear from season 1 and 2 as a complete set, an upgraded set of the red paladin set.