It depends - like everything else.
my first "pro" plugins were the Waves Native Power Pack volumes 1 & 2, complete with parallel port dongle, and honestly I can't even remember which plugins were included. I know I used the C1 compressor and Q10 equalizer a lot, as well as all their effects.
If you need a comprehensive collection of plugins, and you are just getting started it is really difficult to go wrong with a Waves Bundle. Depending on your experience and needs the Silver or Gold bundles make an excellent starting point.
I still use quite a few of the Waves Plugins - at some point I upgraded to the Diamond bundle, it was less expensive than buying the few plugins I wanted to add. They are a little screwy like that.
Anyway, plugins I still use include:
C1 & C4 compressors - these are not meant to be emulations of anything, they are very flexible compressors, and sometimes that is exactly what I need. Probably not all that often for sampled instruments, but for live tracks they can be very handy.
Q10 - another aging (?) plugin. I have other "surgical" equalizers now, but I still return to this one sometimes. It really is a matter of the right tool for the job.
MV2 - this was a very happy surprise. This works really well on sample libraries, and especially mixes of sample libraries. I still don't need a compressor on most sample library projects, but I do try this one when I do.
Trans-X - a transient shaper, I prefer the SPL, but this has some neat tricks that the SPL can't do.
Renaissance Channel - another nice surprise. Not my favorite channel strip, but it can be just the thing, especially for live tracks.
All the effects are excellent, and probably the reason Waves is still installed.
Doppler, Doubler, Enigma, Hybrid Delay, MetaFlanger, MondoMod, Morphoder, S1 Stereo Imager, SoundShifter, SuperTap, TrueVerb, and UltraPitch
- of the bunch TruVerb is probably the weakest, and it still has some neat tricks up its sleeve. These are not my first call effects, but I do use them, and they can add some real spice to a mix. Some of them can do some really strange, twisted things to a track!
Q-Clone is a trip! Definitely worth checking out. I have yet to find a real application for it, but it is fascinating.
In addition to the stuff in Diamond I have a couple others that I really like:
MetaFilter is a great effect, as is Brauer Motion. And the F6 Dynamic EQ is amazing - another take on a multi-band compressor, but sometimes thinking about it this way helps.
And the winner, by far, is the Durrough meters - I used these as a broadcaster and recording engineer, and I know how the behave, so they are perfect - for me!
That's the good.
The bad and the ugly needs to be addressed.
Waves Upgrade Program (WUP) is outdated at this point - it was their attempt at a support subscription back when that was common place, and back when even the Silver bundle was out of the reach of many of us. I wish they would do away with it, but if you like their plugins you will be handing over money every couple years. I try to think of it as an annual, or bi-annual upgrade fee<G>!
Speaking of upgrades, the shift from major versions has not always been smooth. I can't recall which one was a complete disaster, 3 to 4 maybe, they overhauled their copy protection and pretty much held people hostage, charging them for an upgrade that did little more than improve copy protection. It was ugly.
9 to 10 hasn't gone all that smoothly either. I'm still not sure what went wrong, but it causes all sorts of problems on my system because I still have a mix of the two versions. UGH! I will probably, eventually, cave and pay the WUP.
There is no security for pricing either. You can pay $100 for a plugin only to have it go on sale for $29 the next day. I wish they'd pick a pricing model and stick with it. Of course I did pick up Brauer Motion and the Durrough meters while they were on sale<G>!
Even with all of that I think Waves offers some of the best non-emulation plugins on the market, the reason they haven't updated C1 or Q10 is because they were so far ahead of the pack back then. They don't need to. As such the bundles do represent a good investment if you are ready to explore plugins beyond what came with your DAW.
As others have said, don't ignore those, there are some real gems with almost ever DAW.