3/5 of the Ares pieces are used in optimal (not second-choice) sets for WAR, which is like, you know man, a relevant job. How is that underwhelming?
So that's the challenge, you get more reward by doing the event with less ppl(thus harder). Meeble is exactly the opposite, you bring more ppl for better reward, but I find it's kinda lame to bring 6 ppl for the sake of more points and most pt members don't do much contribution when pt size way bigger than necessary.
Ppl got spoiled with NNI/Abyssea gears for easy progress and game breaking stats, now if new gears don't have game breaking stat on it you will see complains.
I still don't understand why everyone and their mother said legion gears sucked when HQ abj are some of the most elite gears in this game atm.
60% of HQ Hexed comes from VW, not Legion.
Of the Legion-specific pieces:
Huginn Gambieras: Elite upgrade for almost all jobs that can wear them
Huginn Coronet: I don't think this is good for anything, or if it is it's not good for anything anyone cares about
Iaso Mitra: Upgrade, but people have difficulty getting excited about gear for healers
Iaso Feet: See above
Khepri Bonnet: Situational upgrade for TP sets, best WS hat for some WS
Khepri Feet: ?_?
Spurrina Coif: More idle refresh! For jobs that really don't care about more refresh.
Spurrina Nails: If these are good for anything it's not anything anyone cares about.
Tenryu Somen +1: I don't think this is used for anything on any of the jobs that can wear it. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Tenryu Sune Ate +1: See above.
Legion also has Duplus / Wrathwing which are pretty minor upgrades (if Wrathwing is relevant anymore, I don't know) and a bunch of min-max stuff for your mages, which tends to fall pretty low on the priority list.
Obviously the augment item is legion specific but those are really common.
Salvage 2 is something you, your friend, and a mule can 2-box with average gear once a day for 60 minutes, take home 50 alexandrite a piece, and each finish a piece of gear every 10 runs with visible progress on the way. Legion requires a lot of people with above above average gear, specific setups, an entry fee, solid strategy, and has low drop rates with no visible progress on anything except for the point items which aren't anything to write home about for the most part.
Oh, and to further skew the effort-reward ratio out of Legion's favor, there's the immense rarity and price tag attached to most hexed -1 pieces.
Ares pieces are very good when used with the right gear in other slots. Also on top of the normal stats seen on each piece, you get the double attack+ set bonus which is very good to have. All it takes is some research and understanding to make them stand out and work very well.
How about the other jobs on it?
1/5 DRK (for certain builds)
0/5 DRG (maybe 1/5 for certain builds)
0/5 PLD (honestly not sure here as all PLD does atm is hold mobs or kite them in my experiences)
Similar comparisons can be made for the other sets with the exception of Usukane which is almost always 3/5 good for the jobs on it.
Sorry but 2/5 DRG* at least depending on what other gear you use, same would go for DRK. Also PLD can use a few of the new set pieces.
Edit - You also seem to be forgetting Ares Cuirass +1 has hp and mp +5% str+16 vit+16 refresh and regen 2/tic, and to add to that att+6%. That's at least 1 piece thats great for pld depending on whats used with it.
I'm almost 100% sure DRK and DRG can use at least one of the pieces, possibly 2.
Let's look at the other sets:
Skadi+1:
4/5 DNC (Possibly 5 with new embrava, I'm not sure)
BST: at least 2/5, possibly more, but I'm not familiar enough with BST's options to evaluate on the floor
THF: 4/5 (They can use Fajin, but Skadi+1 is better because storable)
RNG: Dunno, but they Sigyn is used in some LS stuff.
COR: 3/5* (*Melee builds only) + Sigyn
Marduk +1:
WHM: At least 2 pieces are definitely "useful," others are provisionally useful. Head is close second-best option if you don't have access to Iaso Mitra.
BRD: 5/5
SMN: At least 2 pieces are definitely useful, the others look useful but I'm really not too keen on SMN to evaluate the others versus available options.
Morrigan +1:
BLU: Unsure/5, but BLU didn't really expect to get much out of Morrigan in the first place. Probably 2/5.
RDM: Unsure on # of pieces, but some combination of Morrigan+1 is optimal for nuking.
BLM: See RDM.
SCH: See RDM.
Yeah not seeing the uselessness of this gear. Every job will not make use of every piece of armor released for it. This is how things have always been.
Sorry I don't see many DRGs and the few I do aren't looking at ares' besides the legs for certain builds. Which is why I edited it to "maybe 1/5".
As to DRK the only serious builds I've seen using anything other than Ares' Flanchard +1 was a Liberator AM3 set with hands which I'm not even sure they beat Phorcys Mitts.
You mean as an idle piece when you're not getting hit or nuked? Only applications for a PLD that I see or use is for holding monster (PDT here) or kiting (PDT/MDT depending on the monster)