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For DoH, HQ AF gear should be sufficient. I've leveled my crp to 53 and downgraded my gear to simulate the conditions that a new crafter might be subjected to.
Item: Level 54 Dark Chestnut Lumber using all HQ materials
CRP Level: 53
Gear: HQ I55 gear except for the main hand, which was the level 52 saw.
Craftmanship: 367
Control: 341
CP: 367 with food (However, I used CZ, a level 50 ability, several times to compensate for low CP. Some melds can also be used to increase CP)
With these stats, you can reduce progress down to 26 using rapid synthesis twice. From my test, I built up 8 stacks of IQ and then finished with great strides and advanced touch, yielding 83% HQ. I did not land any touches on good or excellent.
With byregot's blessing, you shouldn't have a problem getting 100%.
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I certainly agree with you OP. even doing the quests the cheap way (i bought the HQ stuff), you really only get a few pieces off the quests. thats about 2 total. the rest of the time the gear is horribly deficient, and people just coming into gathering in the new areas should not be forced to farm for ages in the old areas. But...you can do what I did, and in all honesty, its faster and more efficient then farming the old way and using the quests to get gear.
Here's what I did on my Miner. nothing special for gear, a few HQ class specific items (one star stuff, nothing amazing) and NQ jewelry. did leves until i was 51, then headed over to coerthas western highlands and grabbed the copper collectible every time it hit 12 on the eorza clock. did that for a full weekend, and hit 55. ran over to the churning mists (i had a DoW that level by that time....most people should), and buy a full set of lvl 55 NW gear from the moogle vendor in the center of the map. you should be fine at that point, the NQ lvl 55 gear surpasses the 4 start stuff by a mile. from there you can catch up on DoL quests, practice your newfound collectible farming...whatever.
So yeah, the gap is there, but a studious person can push past it with the collectibles and eventually catch up on the gathering gear at 55.
For crafting....that ones a bit odd. i can craft allot of the 51-55 stuff just fine, with some small exceptions. I can't really do any HQ stuff yet, but I don't care much, i just want to be able to turn in the levequests and level up with that. found an issue though....some of the materials for the lvl 51-52 gear is 2 start stuff (like the Crystal glass for the goldmisth to make goggles), it's funny...my new alchemist can craft up to the lvl 55 stuff being smart with skills, but i can't craft the lvl 5 2 star, because my gear doesn't give me enough stats!
They obviously missed that small but important fact when moving past the star ratings...they need to drop the stat requirements from the lvl 50 stuff. I now have a levequest that i can't turn in until i improve my gear, and there's no way in heck im going to spend that kind of time/money to get my stats high enough when i can just level up to 53 and get gear that has those stats already.
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Do not underestimate the XP you can get from Collectables. Think of it as a leve in which you don't need to spend an allowance and can do as many times as you can before the daily reset, and the best part of it is that you don't need to hit full HQ, you only need a very doable amount of quality even for the best reward.