Where to begin... I suppose i'll start with gear. Dragon gear at one point in time, was the hardest gear to obtain. Those who obtained it felt a sense of accomplishment. That was until rank 8 recast came into existance. Now, dragon gear is almost worthless when compared to rank 8 recast. On top of that, rank 8 recast now recieves a stronger set complect than dragon. This makes rank 8 recast not only stronger in terms of defense levels, but also attack levels. Dragon gear's complect bonus (the set bonus when wearing multiple pieces) is 40 stat (depending on which type of gear you have), 8 attack level, 10 defense level. Sounds pretty nice... But when compared to rank 8 recast, it isnt even remotely strong. Rank 8 recast gains 25 attack and 25 defense levels. How is this remotely balanced? Rank 8 recast retains the same grade, same refines, same defense (except random mods) why should its complect be stronger? Both pieces of gear require quite a bit of farming (mind you, rank 8 requires more to farm, but the random stats and weapons alone make up for it).
That being said, why not use the same complects for both sets? Rank 8 recast gear would be stronger even with identacle complects, due to the fact that the weapons can gain up to 25 attack levels, whereas dragon weapons can not. Rank 8 recasted armor can obtain extra defense levels as mods, or even more stats, whereas dragon, is limited to the mods that you deemed them to have. Rank 8 recast is just redundantly stronger than dragon, almost making dragon obselete in every single way. What would be the purpose to farm dragon anymore, when rank 8 recast is so much stronger?
The answer to that would be: Dragon gear is not limited to classes like rank 8 recast. Meaning werefoxes, priests, mages etc, can wear gear outside of the normal robes and such. For us that choose to do so (for the sake of having more defense/hp) are basically wasting time, as rank 8 recast would be a far wiser choice, as it gives 25 defense levels + a chance to gain even more per piece of armor. Did i mention the weapon can also obtain defense levels?
If your going to make R8 recast gear that much more OP, i would suggest atleast upgrading, if not, make a new set to use our dragon gear on to atleast stand a chance against rank 8 recast gear.
MageTank