Okay, I'm gonna be THAT guy (re: HQ quest rewards)...

[Waliel]

Granted this time you do get an automatic drop at the end of leveling dungeon but its not the end of the world if you dont farm dungeon for better loot or buy HQ stuff. Now if you had worse gear that the 270 poetic set to begin with thats another story...

I've leveled all of my jobs so far without buying anything from the MB with 260 Poe gear. Weapon would probably be the only one I'd consider buying, as no weapon drops for my AST between 61-70 was kinda sad.

[LineageRazor]

Tl;dr: Leveling gear should be a luxury.

News flash: It isn't, and shouldn't be.

Leveling gear shouldn't be a luxury - but LUXURIOUS leveling gear SHOULD be a luxury. NQ gear is perfectly fine for general purposes, and THAT is what quests should award. If you want that extra edge, you should be ready to either pay up, or become a crafter yourself.

[Thandronen]

You shouldn't get HQ versions of gear through MSQ, period... this is coming from someone who has all crafts to 60 but has not started leveling them to 70 yet. Part of the reason for that is I remembered HW giving out a ton of HQ and I figured it wasn't really worth the time or effort to level crafts quickly as there likely wouldn't be much profit there to be made except from the highest of star level synths. I'll get them all there eventually, after my retainers have gathered up all of the materials I need to quickly breeze through them!

Instead, I focused on getting all of my gathering jobs up to 70 first, which has made me piles of gil.

[Driavna]

Everyone benefits from people having gear appropriate for their LvL (NQ is gear with lower stats for their ILvL), so no, HQ gear is a good idea.

For example: ILvL 285 NQ gear have worst stats than 270 Shire. So, in that case, people will still don't buy gear from the MB but go for Augmented Shire.

[TankHunter678]

I do not bother with crafted gear except for the 1-50 range because of the availability of tomestone and the auto-drop mechanic at 51-70.

1-50 is more annoying because there is not really much in the way of defined sets outside of a couple of the dungeons. Most of it is aetherial gear with random sub stats, and the lack of auto-drop means that you may not get something useful for you on any given dungeon run.

So HQ crafted gear is a waste in my eyes as quest rewards, now the materia though that was useful.

[ErryK]

Leveling gear shouldn't be a luxury - but LUXURIOUS leveling gear SHOULD be a luxury. NQ gear is perfectly fine for general purposes, and THAT is what quests should award. If you want that extra edge, you should be ready to either pay up, or become a crafter yourself.

When is leveling gear ever luxurious? The notion that HQ is luxurious in leveling gear sense is inane and selfish. It's a good point to make with endgame gear as it lets you jump "the grind", but leveling IS the grind, the gear shouldn't be.

[Sacred_Nym]

NQ leveling gear, especially post-50, is glamour and shouldn't seriously be used. Yeah the i130/i270 tome stuff is usable but I think you should be expected to be better equipped since especially if you're a tank or a healer you're making things harder on the rest of your group by being undergeared. DPS too but to a lesser extent.

Really there isn't any excuse in my eyes for being undergeared in leveling content especially at L40+. Anything to make gearing up during leveling easier is a plus.