Ok so.. DoH AF gear

[cearka]

I have the current HQ set melded (not fully to caps but close).
I have 404 cp, 732 craftmanship, and 696 control, meaning I exceed the minimums for craft/control on any recipes by ALOT.
The AF gear will likely be somewhere between the adept and the crafted HQ set. Historically, thats how SE has done it. Rarely is the best
piece from turn ins, with exception to that the artisan headpiece. There is a good possibility though, that BiS hand/main hand may come from turn ins and/or trading in lucis.

if they introduce a full set of gear however, I can see it getting the player to stats that are around 380 cp, 690 craft, and 600 control, basically just over the current
minimum requirements. this is how alot of turn in gear has been in the past.

the other possibility is that it will be equaivalent or just barely better then the currently best crafted gear with melds, so somwhere equal or above 358cp, 606 control, 652


basically if your waiting for red scrip gear, but can afford to go chimerical, then do chimerical. At best, your chimerical will still be better after melding. At worse, it will give you a huge edge on crafting whatever retardedly hard to HQ turn in item they'll ask for to get the new gear.

this is all purely speculation, but there are several patterns to be found in all the previous patches. never expect the gear thats handed to you to be the best. either its a ton of work to get and the best, or its easy to get, and its ok.