Records of Eminence Armor vs Reforged Artifact Armor

[Elemental]

Hi everyone. I'm recently back from a bit of a hiatus and am trying to decide on the best way to upgrade to current armor. My main job is PLD and most of my current pieces are Empyrean armor +1 with a Sanus Ensis sword and Weathering Shield. So, a bit out-dated... My ultimate goal is completing the new storyline content of Seekers of Adoulin.

Basically my questions are:
1. Does it take long to reforge all the AF armor?
2. Would it be quicker and just as good to obtain other "standard" Records of Eminence armor?
3. Would it be a waste to spend repeat login campaign credits on Card of Vision, Stone of Ardor, etc. items for upgrading my Empyrean armor?

Currently I have about 3200 points left to spend from the most recent repeat long campaign (already picked up Lion). I'm trying to decide if I would be better off buying a 2k item to upgrade my AF and look at continuing to do those quests, however, they look like they might take a good long time to complete. Would I be better off just collecting some standard Records of Eminence gear (I have spent no time doing ROE so far)? I was wondering if I should maybe just use my repeat login campaign for Card of Vision and equivalent items to upgrade to +2 Empy armor since it appears reforging options will be coming for that as well. Or would this just be a waste at the moment?

Your thoughts would be much appreciated!

[bungiefanNA]

Records of Eminence is way better than what you have now, and will allow you to survive the fights for items needed to reforge.

http://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:Reforged_Armor_%2B1

The Rem pages and the crafting materials you need are dropped by new SKCNM fights (Sacred kindred crest) and the high level boss fight remakes (which cost 20 merit points per fight), so you want something to wear while you are building the merit points and farming drops from the fights. RoE armor and weapons are like the new Teal/Perle/Aurore armor set, a good cheap baseline that every player has no excuse for not having, which lets you participate in current events. The reforged and Delve equipment are now like the Empyrean+2 and Voidwatch gear were when Abyssea was current, use the baseline to do the fights to get up to that gear.

[Elemental]

Thank you very much for your help.

Can the AF reforging quests be done in any order or is there a specific sequence?

[Lithera]

You can do any part of your AF you want as long as you have the items you need and meet the other requirements.