Destroying Server Economies

[Lozza]

Three months back I was trying to buy armour for an alt I had made to play with a friend who was on Siren (because Siren had RT60 and my friend wanted a speedy catch up). I was playing PLD to get us both fast MSQ queues through the game. When it came time for Stone Vigil I went to the MB and tried to buy some lvl40 HQ crafted armour only to find not only was HQ unavailable, but that NQ cost 300k per piece, and as a newish character even if I had the funds for more that one piece, the brayflox armour had noticeably more defense than the lvl40 NQ set. So I wear the Brayflox into Stone Vigil and that caused a huge stink for a number of players - who wouldn't believe (even after I linked the two chests) that the lvl32 set had more defense than the lvl40 NQ crafted set, and then someone asks why I didn't buy the HQ stuff. They were astounded when I told them that the only HQ piece I'd seen in the last few days of looking was a belt that was listed for 800k, when they learned that the NQ stuff was listed for 300k they offered to craft me a HQ set for free but then realised we weren't on the same server.

As much as you might complain your high margins are being eaten into this change will make low lvl armours like the one I was trying to buy for the sanity of any group I was tanking for in DF easier for new characters to afford. I've moaned myself a number of times about undergeared tanks in various sub-50 instances but I'd never thought for a moment that maybe their gear was an issue because they did not have the funds to buy at the prices that some servers charged for gear. After my own experience I've been a bit more tolerant about it.

[Lersayil]

Three months back I was trying to buy armour for an alt I had made to play with a friend who was on Siren (because Siren had RT60 and my friend wanted a speedy catch up). I was playing PLD to get us both fast MSQ queues through the game. When it came time for Stone Vigil I went to the MB and tried to buy some lvl40 HQ crafted armour only to find not only was HQ unavailable, but that NQ cost 300k per piece, and as a newish character even if I had the funds for more that one piece, the brayflox armour had noticeably more defense than the lvl40 NQ set. So I wear the Brayflox into Stone Vigil and that caused a huge stink for a number of players - who wouldn't believe (even after I linked the two chests) that the lvl32 set had more defense than the lvl40 NQ crafted set, and then someone asks why I didn't buy the HQ stuff. They were astounded when I told them that the only HQ piece I'd seen in the last few days of looking was a belt that was listed for 800k, when they learned that the NQ stuff was listed for 300k they offered to craft me a HQ set for free but then realised we weren't on the same server.

As much as you might complain your high margins are being eaten into this change will make low lvl armours like the one I was trying to buy for the sanity of any group I was tanking for in DF easier for new characters to afford. I've moaned myself a number of times about undergeared tanks in various sub-50 instances but I'd never thought for a moment that maybe their gear was an issue because they did not have the funds to buy at the prices that some servers charged for gear. After my own experience I've been a bit more tolerant about it.

This one is a big nope to me. No one should be expected to have full HQ / dungeon armor pre 50. Even as a tank mostly in level appropriate NQ whites there shouldn't be any real issue assuming normal pulls and a half competent healer.

Also... I don't think anyone sells HQ crafts for that level range to be actually used by people. I think the intended market for that stuff are crafters doing turn-ins, thus the ridiculous price.

[Lozza]

This one is a big nope to me. No one should be expected to have full HQ / dungeon armor pre 50. Even as a tank mostly in level appropriate NQ whites there shouldn't be any real issue assuming normal pulls and a half competent healer.

Also... I don't think anyone makes HQ crafts for that level range to be actually used by people. I think the intended market for that stuff are crafters doing turn-ins, thus the ridiculous price.

Players were complaining about the Brayflox set in Stone Vigil. They'd have been happy with a NQ which I hadn't picked up from quests because I took one look at the defense values and and the fact that only one piece had a whole extra 1 vitality and quickly figured my current set was better than the quest rewards. But apparently even after linking the sets to show that Brayflox was better than NQ, groups were still bothered by my being in Brayflox. My solution to players throwing a fit about seeing a tank in Brayflox gear in SV was to lvl up ARM high enough to craft the lvl40 set (I already had ARM at 30 so it wasn't a hard task) and just glammed it over the Brayflox and the issue disappeared.

As I said, my experience completely changed the way I saw undergeared tanks in pre-50 content. If I couldn't afford a full set of crafted (NQ gear) then other new characters/players may have been in the same position.

[NessaWyvern]

They were astounded when I told them that the only HQ piece I'd seen in the last few days of looking was a belt that was listed for 800k, when they learned that the NQ stuff was listed for 300k they offered to craft me a HQ set for free but then realised we weren't on the same server.

iirc, there are vendors that sell NQ items for a few thousand gil, no need to spend 300k on a NQ item for tank leveling.
If you want gear that's a bit better than NQ, there's always the GC seals green items that can be good, depending on your level. I used the GC seal ones when ARR came out, since I didn't have any gil to rub together. The seals were easier to get, due to old gear from dungeons.

[Maneesha]

Three months back I was trying to buy armour for an alt I had made to play with a friend who was on Siren (because Siren had RT60 and my friend wanted a speedy catch up). I was playing PLD to get us both fast MSQ queues through the game. When it came time for Stone Vigil I went to the MB and tried to buy some lvl40 HQ crafted armour only to find not only was HQ unavailable, but that NQ cost 300k per piece, and as a newish character even if I had the funds for more that one piece, the brayflox armour had noticeably more defense than the lvl40 NQ set. So I wear the Brayflox into Stone Vigil and that caused a huge stink for a number of players - who wouldn't believe (even after I linked the two chests) that the lvl32 set had more defense than the lvl40 NQ crafted set, and then someone asks why I didn't buy the HQ stuff. They were astounded when I told them that the only HQ piece I'd seen in the last few days of looking was a belt that was listed for 800k, when they learned that the NQ stuff was listed for 300k they offered to craft me a HQ set for free but then realised we weren't on the same server.

As much as you might complain your high margins are being eaten into this change will make low lvl armours like the one I was trying to buy for the sanity of any group I was tanking for in DF easier for new characters to afford. I've moaned myself a number of times about undergeared tanks in various sub-50 instances but I'd never thought for a moment that maybe their gear was an issue because they did not have the funds to buy at the prices that some servers charged for gear. After my own experience I've been a bit more tolerant about it.

the ppl you played with had arbitrary standards and have no idea what they are talking about, lots of times dungeon gear has better stats then some crafted hq gear which might be higher in ilvl/lvl, as you could see yourself by comparing the items.
newbies shouldn't buy stuff of the mb, especially gear/weapon/acc's while they level, only if its cheaper then the npc prices, because they get everything they need during leveling/questing and the required dungeons (if a bit lucky with the drops ofc). crafted hq gear is, as someone already mentioned, mostly for crafters or for ppl leveling their "x"number of job ( ppl who played for a while,maybe reached max lvl). if they wish to buy pets/bardings or other misc stuff, its up to them, but not very advisable since they are newbies and don't have sources to get a good income(yet).

the real reason players are undergeared in dungeons is because there is not a "loose" ilvl requirement or they simply refuse to spend money on npc gear, not the mb prices. as mentioned before, npc gear is good enough for everything during leveling phase.