Hello,

I'm sorry to hear people are picking on you or bugging you because you do not possess the 'latest and super douper gear' out there. I think a lot of people are after super-douper-gear because it makes them feel better about themselves, rather than it being a true necessity in the world.

Will super-douper-gear help you? Yes. Will it help you a LOT? Not really. Is it absolutely needed. Not really (with the exception of perhaps a few very isolated things).

For example. I can do Iffy now (as CNJ) with mostly useless equipment or cheap equipment and have no problems. For that matter I can do iffy without even using sentinel (and am shocked at how anyone with sentinel dies to be honest).

I can solo most 1st/2nd chest coffer mobs as THM with cheap-market-ward equipment.
(If I had better gear I would be able to solo them FASTER or EASIER however!)

Moogy I just die to.. this has nothing to do with my gear, just me not being good at it ^.^;;

So far I do not even have single-melded gear (have not run into any situation where I needed even that), let alone double melded.

So I think in reality:
Having super-douper-gear will make things easier or faster, but is not needed.
Being able to understand the strategy and being good with how you approach it is far far more important.

If you have a choice between:
Spend 10 hours farming up money to get a piece of equipment so you can do battle easier, OR, spend 10 hours practicing the battle. I would suggest spend 10 hours practicing the battle.

However, if you ARE going for SPEED, then yes, every little bit helps ^.^;

I hope this helps...