What was the intent with the GC gear? Each piece seems to have semi random pieces, an almost FFXI AF approach to armor to make everyone well rounded. With stats like Mind ACC and Evasion on the Uldah bodypiece, and 40 less defense than Cobalt gear that offers straight up fat stats that are all put toward a single purpose, where do pieces like this fit in?

Serpent Sergeant's Tunic
Defense: 141
Strength: +10
Mind: +10
Attack Power: +7

Another piece almost viable for Marauder, Lancer or Pugilist, the random Mind stat hits out of left field to provide a pretty useless piece of gear compared to Cobalt. The only classes this might benefit from this piece would be a DD GLD, and considering they're making GLD a straight up tank, what's the point?

If gear like this is Materia meldable, it might have a chance at being incredibly viable. But if not, there is absolutely no point in using this gear over the gear we've been using since 1.19.

It's a different story for mages, with

Storm Sergeant's Bliaud
Defense: 117
Intelligence: +8
Mind: +6
Magic Accuracy: +10

Beating out

Felt Bliaud (Brown)
Defense: 111
Intelligence +5
Mind +5
Magic Accuracy +5

Even with Materia, unless you were willing to take the risk of 2 Materia(which I believe is the perfect balance, risk=reward.)

So why is it like this for mages, yet still so in favor of Cobalt for DDs? Where exactly is the dev team going with this balance? A lot of AF in XI was ignored for a reason, that being random stats.