Quote Originally Posted by Faeon View Post
Always try to HQ as much as possible, it really does help allot all you need when starting to gather is make sure you are able to reach the perception needed to get HQ, you can crafter and gather same time, so you can craft your HQ gather gear. That is what I did and always craft more than one set, 3 sets maybe one set you use and sb and the other you sell on MB, that way you are making Gil as you level.

I am sure Caimie Tsukino's wonderfull guide will help you out with most of your questions.
It's not about the gear itself but the penta-melding. I already spent a lot of gil on melding my crafter set and you can't hit the new perception without a lot of melding into the gathering set as well which is why I was wondering how much of the components we can get away with being NQ for 2.5** and 3*** crafts since it's a lot easier to just hit the base NQ for the new nodes as opposed to penta-melding to hit the perception number.