actually the armor will give some benefit just with decreased stats, it would give more def then nothing and add some of its stats but not all, yes wearing rank appropiate gear is better, but a lot of people dont do that due to storage space, once gear requirements come storage is going to get limited. what i think they should do is add some gear with rank requirements but not all, but of course the best gear will have a rank req on it and for economy purposes untradeable