I support as well the advice so far here. Sets suck. Knives are highly personal and you dont wanna shell out for something youre not sure what your preference is.

Basically you need a chef's knife, pairing knife, and serrated knife. Me personally, I like using a chinese chef knife or a chucka bocho. but that because i dont mind the extra weight and the ability to use it to gather my veggies after cutting.

Also should take into account what youll be cutting. I dont really break down chickens or cut into hard things like squash so I didnt see the need to get a hefty european chef knife outside my chinese chef knife. so for a euro style chef knife i just grabbed an 8" chef knife from KIWI brand on amazon for less than $13.

like others said, id say buy cheap first to get an idea of your preference then work from there. A budget knife that im always reaching for seems to he KIWI knives. you can get them from amazon for less than 12 or even less than 10 dollars. they have flex on the blade and can go dull pretty easily but can just as easily be sharpened with just a honing knife or even the bottom of a ceramic bowl. so i dont mind using Kiwi Knives.