Faction NM Rewards - Why are they so lackluster?

Considering the amount of time you need to accumulate enough points to do these, and then the 50/50 chance you even get a runestone, why are most of these armor pieces so terrible in comparison to their crafted counterparts? Was there a missing component to allow crafters to upgrade these that was scrapped?

For example the Templar's Haub vs. the Vintage Haub the stats are near identical, with the Vintage Haub's being slightly better (due to the 1 level difference). The difference is the Vintage Haub can potentially be better because you have a chance to HQ it. Not to mention this piece is terrible from a tanking standpoint.

Except that the Buc's and Harle's gear is by far better than any other pieces of their respective class IIRC

I think essentially, the reward is the item's uniqueness.

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Originally Posted by JayvirDeforte

Except that the Buc's and Harle's gear is by far better than any other pieces of their respective class IIRC

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That was true with some Harlequinn's until the recent update with 35 NM gear (Seer's Cowl is superior due to how stats are broken). Buccaneers...not so much. If you want to look at it from a pure dps standpoint, Bowman's (a level 39 tunic) is superior. Templar's is essentially a carbon copy of Cavalry gear. Aside from aesthetics, alot of this gear is pretty much a NQ crafted counterpart.

Just seems like the gear was supposed to be upgraded via crafting similar to ripped haubs/torn robes etc and never got to that point (ie why are only a few pieces rank 50?)

I only wear NM faction gear because of aesthetics. I have a bucc shirt and eternal shade for my archer, and any archer worth their salt will tell you how much better eternal shade is from a dps stand point.

Already sold my templar's stuff while its still hot, looks like shit and has average stats. Id say the only good thing about these faction gears is profiting off them while people still think its rare enough to be novelty gear.

Yep, the vast majority of the faction NM gear is terrible. I have no idea what they were thinking with that.