Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
To be exact, it's "real gear" (with stats and usable to a point) versus true cosmetic gear that is Lv1 and has no stats on it, but it's never the best gear available. From memory, some are decent as a "just got to Lv50 and need gear" purchase though - but always check the item level.
The crafted replica/primal gear has never been suitable for actual use. At the time that any of them were released, they were worse than whatever previous "basic" gear set was available. The gap for the level 60 HW crafted gear is especially egregious, since the Antiquated artifact gear back then was even i200 vs. i180 replicas. The level 50 replica armor is i50 and the weapons range from i50-110, which is on par with soldiery tome gear at best and completely outdated on their release.