Artifact Armor 4 idea

[MarkovChain]

why not just have awesome stats and make the process Static? .

Because good gear should not be available to anyone. Why ? Game balance.

If it's not random or doesn't require 18 people or more then it's not earned. If it's gear you get from a questline (including non-empyrean magian) or points/tokens or lowmanable NMs, then it's just free gear and required no work whatsoever. That's the vibe I'm getting from some folks in this thread.

Correct, because it means anyone can get anything w/o implying themselves, as in, build parties, makes friends, build linkshell, and such. If every good gear in the game becomes available without "effort" like teamwork and randomness the game implodes. AH becomes worthless, food worthless, crafting worthless etc.