at low levels, i'm finding a great benefit to leveling Armorer alongside Gladiator. The game throws materials at you. If you know what you want to make, and it's within 10 levels of your craft's, it's very easy to make it.

As for repairing, all my low level repairs at the NPC shop were 100g apiece. So like 700-1000 for a full body repair to 99%. And the rate of decay is a lot lower than I expected. Must've died 5 times, and not even my jewelry was below 50% yet.

So no, unless you're having trouble finding gear, I don't think it's as necessary to grab a DoH/L as it used to be.