Separates for sure. 8" Chef's knife that feels comfortable in your hand. Paring knife. Boning knife. Bread knife. and/or 12" slicer. Honing steel. Kitchen shears. Something to keep the knives sharp.
Good, thick, wooden cutting board is nice add on. No glass or bamboo.
To that, if want to mix things up, you can add things like a nice, heavy, inexpensive cleaver, Asian, high carbon Chef's knife, a peeler, and a microplane. But the above should do you. It's 90% chef's knife, really.
They have some blocks with the magents in them (and more space for the knives). We have a wedding gift knife block set that is for family and guests, which I try to keep reasonably sharp and may use if it's just a quick task. I have my own roll of decent knives, which I use, but is kept in a cabinet. It beats having to bird dog my family or anyone else who wants to beat up on the available kitchen knives.
I've tried to make something like this work on paper, but no luck size-wise.