Haha no perception isn't backwards. Perception is to do with people, which was why i using that way. My point wasn't saying the set gear was actually worse, just why it seems that the 214/240 looks worse. Our currently equipped 182 typically has better armour.
You're correct, I'm not explaining it well at all, and chose a poor choice of words to stand alone. I will attempt to correct that now.
Your perception is violently skewed by a lack of information and a lack of experience with the subject at hand. It may still be
your perception of how the events unfold, but what you're seeing and accepting as normal isn't. No one that's seen as many 240s as they have 182s is complaining about stats lacking on 240s, nor would they EVER choose 182s over 240 pieces. The odd 204 pops up in some players builds, but even using those is a loss...the talents simply can't compete with gear set bonuses, and the possible stat ranges aren't even comparable. None of that is an opinion, it's mathematical fact.
Your gear likely could have more base armor than most 240's you're seeing...you've seen more of it, less combinations existed, and you've had far longer to acquire higher rolled pieces. Once you get to the same point with 240s, you'll understand what's being said. The base point here is that the stat ranges on 240's FAR exceed the stat ranges on 182s (all of them, including native armor: 182 native armor range on chest pieces = 706-864, 240 native armor range on chest pieces = 830-1018, and every other slot/piece/stat follows suit), but they do have slight overlaps. Yourself and a large group of people are seeing low rolled drops from 240s, and that sucks, I get it, but it's not the norm, or even the average. Whether you want to believe that or not;
- there are 6 slots available for 240s to drop into
- there are 8 types per slot
- there are 3 main stats per type
- there are 19 major attributes, 11 minor attributes, and 34 skill attributes available per type
- it's absolutely possible for the exact same piece to drop multiple times.
What this means is that there are literally hundreds of thousands of pieces available that could potentially be the 240 drop you receive. If we factor in the percentages available to each major/minor/armor/main stat/attribute, now we're in the hundreds of millions.
If we instead look at 182s, everything but types matches up. There were 5 types for chest, backpack, and mask, 4 types for gloves and holsters, and 3 types for knees. Those small differences equate to there being hundreds of thousands less unique 182 pieces than 240s...however, you had since the games launch to farm for the best versions of each, as most pieces players kept rolled into the 182 gs/tier.
As for 240 pieces, most players didn't have the ability to access or complete the previous versions of high end content that dropped them. As a result, most have had literally two weeks since 1.2 dropped to lightly farm for 240 upgrades in a sea of options so vast a human mind can barely comprehend them as unique and individual pieces. That's far from enough time for most to see any significant gains. You've absolutely found pieces of 240 so far that exceeded a main/minor/armor/major/skill stat you have on it's 182 comparison you're currently using, but likely dismissed it as junk for having two or more stats you wanted to re-roll or just flat out didn't want on your "perfect" version of the piece
You can now certainly complain about there being an overabundance of gear to sort through to find the pieces you want, but bear this in mind before you do; the same players that complained about max level gear being locked behind content they couldn't accomplish, and that they were stalemated on advancement because of it, are the same group that brought about this influx.
