Pre AF armor question

Today i was looking into my next set of armor and i started to wonder if i even need to look at the individual items like head/body and legs/feet if i could instead use heavy armor. Should i slot my current lv25 stuff with more hp/det/str/hp etc and keep it until 35? or keep it for another 2 and a half levels until heavy is usable?

Stat run down:
Lv32 Steel set - 217 def/mdef, 19str, 17vit, 6 parry, 4 det, 7 acc, 4 speed
Lv35 Heavy steel set - 240 def/mdef 22 str, 20 vit, 13 crit, 9 det

The only draw back from the heavy stuff seems to be the amount of things converted after their use.

Run Brayflox. Much better armor in their. Trust me.