As LVL 50 in all DOH/DOL - stop now it's a waste of time

[Gamemako]

My understanding was that the HQ Ilvl 70 Stuff melded was decently better than DL.

No, they have identical def/mdef and identical primary stats (always capped innately). They are also weaker in terms of total secondary stats at base -- they have to be overmelded to be better in general, and it's only by a tiny amount as secondary stats are fairly insignificant compared to primary stats. Neither is really going to make a huge difference at ilvl70, and both are undeniably bested by ilvl90 equipment. The reason ilvl70 crafts are so damn stupid is that they cost a ton more dungeon tokens to make despite the requirement for high-level materia and other materials and offer an extremely meager boost in the best of cases.

I always forget ?. Sorry about that lol. That is impressive. With armorsmith it just takes forever to make the pre materials then the actual item for the three turnins. I normally stick to Ingots.

Generally, this is the way to go. Spammed the hell out of Ingot We Trust, etc to level mine. At the very end, mythril alembics are the best by a fair margin, but for most of the way, the time required to craft materials means that you only bother if you are short on leve allowances. In the case of LTW, the primary material leves (leathers) often give out skins and can be turned in 3 times per allowance, meaning you will blast the hell out of those and never even consider the others. Really depends on the class. Some crafters in my linkshells have reported that CUL is monster-easy to level later, and many other posters have noted the same here. I can say that I made 10-50 LTW in about 6 days, and I gathered all my own skins through fighting them and gathering (the Black Alumen excepted). Farming up 1000 alumen took a minute, of course. Regardless, it was much easier than ARM.

//EDIT: Mishaela, refer to this guy claiming that Vanya is comparable to AF+1:

It's like arguing with a brick wall. Nothing you are saying means Vanya is bad, or that nobody should ever use it.

In comparison with AF2/Allagan, Vanya can have:
-9 MND
-9 VIT
-2 Spell Speed
+20 Determination
+24 Critical Hit Rate

Not exactly unequivocally better, but no where near "useless", "senseless", or a "bad choice". You don't seem to understand that you aren't locked in a single type of gear... I'd love to give you a some examples where obtaining HQ Vanya would not only be the right choice, but it would be the BEST choice but I'm afraid the sentiment will bounce right off of your ignorance.