Quote Originally Posted by Ultimatecalibur View Post
By dungeon gear I was referring to the fixed stat gear acquired from dungeons, raids, and purchased with currency such at Tomestones/Wolfmarks.

Consider the stats of a HQ pentamelded i110 crafted piece now compare it to the stats of the 3 other i110 pieces available for that slot. The HQ pentamelded crafted piece is obviously superior considering it has 2 capped Secondaries and a third at 2/3 cap. If i130 crafted gear had been introduced in 2.4 there would be very little mechanical reason to go after the Augmented Ironworks or Dreadwyrm gear.
The problem that this game has had for a long, long time is that Yoshi likes to introduce new level 50 gear drops that are weaker than what's already in the game, which leaves players who've been even remotely keeping up with no real reason to do the content that drops the new stuff. HQ crafted gear has always been something of a subversion with him, where melded gear is frequently more powerful than end-game dungeon/trial/raid gear for certain classes. The only reason you don't see more people using crafted gear at endgame is because it's expensive as all hell. Well, that, and it's a bit counter intuitive that it should be stronger.