AF gear already "obsolte"

[Zantetsuken]

Not in one slot, but if you 3x meld all your gear you can beat it, lets say you get lucky (or spend alot of gil) highest att power+ materia is +30, 3x meld that to hands and you have +90 att power, highest str is +20, 3x that to your weapon is +60, crit att power+ triple meld that on body (+50 each) is +150.

Thats:
att power+90
STR+60
crit att power+ 150

and PUG, GLA and ARC can put 3x INT or PIE on their head, making +60 to those.

Beats darklight hands down.
ACC and DEX isnt really needed because we hardly miss anyway.

Well, I'm going to take the weapon out of your equation for obvious reasons...

So that leaves us with hands, body and head (Ill use PGL for this example)

Crafted

Felt Bliaud +1 (DEF 111, INT+5, MND+5, Magic Acc+6)+ 3x Savage Might IV [+50]
Fingerless Raptorskin Gloves of Slaying +1 (DEF 43, Mag Eva +10, Atk Pow +5) + 3x Heaven's Fist IV [+30]
Raptorskin Pot Helm +1 (DEF 69, Acc+6, Int+2, Fire res+10) + 3x Intelligence IV [+20]

Total:

DEF 223
Atk Pow +95
Crit Atk Pow +150
Acc +6
Magic Acc +6
Magic Eva +10
Fire Resist +10
INT +67
MND +5


Total Success Rate to achieve triple meld: ~3%
Cost of materials per failed triple meld: Head - 400k, Body - 2.8mil, Hands, 1.3 mil
Statistical Gil cost of obtaining all three items: ~150 Mil

Darklight - Bracers, Corselet, and Eyepatch

DEF 243
ATK +55
Crit Atk Power +60
Crit Rate +40
Store TP +40
ACC +53
STR +20
INT +20
EVA -24
HP -100

Drop Rate: ~10% per run - need 3/13 all Darklight items
Failure Cost: variable time spent per run
Statistical cost for obtaining all 3 items: 130 runs (if party members pass those 3 items to you)

Summary:
Crafted gear does beat out in the main 3 categories, but loses out on special Crit Rate and Store TP bonuses. Darklight obviously wins out in style points and the cost of obtaining the Darklight could be considered far lower than the Crafted gear - assuming that most players can't consistently earn ~ 1mil per hour.