any way to get item sets to work?

Use the legacy client to set them.

Alternatively: http://lol.item-set.com/

You can. Note. Steps 3 and 4 are to make a global item set carry over to the other champions. Steps 1 and 2 for champion specific itemsets will be enough.

1. Set it up in legacy client
2. Load up in a custom game on a champion (remember whcih one)
3. copy RIOT_ItemSet_##.json from C:\Riot Games\League of Legends\Config\Champions<champion from #2)\Recommended to C:\Riot Games\League of Legends\Config\
4. Run this in a .bat file:

FOR /D %%F in ("Champions*") DO copy Riot_ItemSet_1.json "%%F\Recommended\Riot_ItemSet_1.json" FOR /D %%F in ("Champions*") DO copy Riot_ItemSet_2.json "%%F\Recommended\Riot_ItemSet_2.json" FOR /D %%F in ("Champions*") DO copy Riot_ItemSet_3.json "%%F\Recommended\Riot_ItemSet_3.json" FOR /D %%F in ("Champions*") DO copy Riot_ItemSet_4.json "%%F\Recommended\Riot_ItemSet_4.json" FOR /D %%F in ("Champions*") DO copy Riot_ItemSet_5.json "%%F\Recommended\Riot_ItemSet_5.json"

pause