Quote Originally Posted by Niwashi View Post
Besides that, even in individual items, the Item Levels don't always compare correctly. In crafted gear, for instance, High Quality crafted gear is in most cases far better than its Normal Quality version (typically more on par with the next 5-level tier up, or in some cases better than that), but doesn't get any indication of that in its Item Level, which will be the same as if it were NQ.
As a general rule of thumb:
NQ < HQ = Pink = Green = Blue = Purple when ilevel is equal