I hear everything you are saying. It is a style of play that determines the type of gear needed. Until the assassin enhancement came out SOD only built core gear. Nothing wrong with core gear at all. When the assassin enhancement came out we switched philosophies and built class gear for all levels. I have found times that core gear is needed to get the stats needed to be able to solo an elite. And if a faction or individual is going to build sets then they need to be able to solo the elite. Otherwise get a squad, kill the guy and move on.After now having spent 6K+ energy to build a set here at lvl 300, I am sticking by my vote that "It is horrible to make the set and I stick with Core items." The time and effort to build it was more than I really wanted to spend in the first place. Now that I have built the set, the style of play I have been using with the core items, does not go with the set-up of the elite set, so I kind of wasted my time in building it. Yes, I could have been real anal in calculating the stats of the set before making it, but all the sets I saw were FE'ed and I was not planning on doing that as there are other upgrades I would rather spend on. The way I have built my character at this point does not work with the set and don't plan on redoing that portion of it, just to use the set.
Yes, it has far more damage than what I usually use, but does not provide me with enough protection in Defense or Armor, so I'll be throwing it to the side for now, but will probably just end up selling it. Maybe it will be for just hunting elites for the damage portion, but idk.
Based on that, I doubt I'll craft any more as any equipment I make will be for myself, only.
Gear and evolve pts settings is a personal matter. It is more cost effective to use the core stuff but if one wants the extra XP that the assassin enhancement gives then class gear is the way to go.
I did not mind being at EOC and farming elites to build sets. I took a few months off from the game and now EOC is way beyond my reach so building sets is going to be a real pain. I don’t look forward to spending weeks at 320 building sets.