New gear

[giantslayer]

Comparing the crafted artisan's with the Mor Dhona set legs just as an example:

Artisan's Chausses, CP +2 Craftsmanship +4 Control +35

Artisan's Culottes, CP (+3) Craftsmanship +3 (+1) Control +29 (+6)

So its a tossup, use time or use gil. At least on the pants.

Those are the NQ stats you are comparing. HQ has +33 control.

[Yumi_umi]

I actually recommend the artisan turn in set u get in mor.
You can really save time and gil as they are almost up to par with a fully melded af set but are more than enough to get you to artisan and supra assuming ur right side is decently melded and have all doh to 50. Cuz ur just going to upgrade anyways to the crafted artisan set so u might as well save the frustration of failing melds on ur clothes. Also i'm pretty sure in 2.5 part 2 we will be able to desynth the turn in artisan set so there could be another source of MC demi.

[baopee]

Try to save up (sealant or gils) for all ilvl 60 shareable gears, that would save you from the dreadful overmeld failing for all your DOHs. My record was failing 17 times on 33% success rate meld.

[Zumi]

I would say get the artisan set from doing the hq turn in items in mor donha. You will definitely save a lot of time and gil. It is not worth it melding gear at this point with only like 3-4 months left at before 3.0 is out and the cap is 60 and all the crafting gear now will be outdated with 60 stuff.