To quest or not to quest?

[Rokal]

Hail and well met, all.

So, it's my understanding that quests do not give you XP... so what is the point in doing them?

Lore?

Items/gear? <-- If so are those things worth the time that could otherwise be spent leveling/harvesting/crafting? Can I get equal/better gear from drops? Can I get equal/better gear from my own crafting or trading with, buying from, others?

Is anything gated behind quests?

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy lore to a point, but I'm just trying to figure out how best I want to spend any particular gaming session.

Some days I may want to quest, even if just for lore, and some gear, other days I may just want to strictly level. The balance between the two will depend on answers I get here

Thank you for your time and thoughts.

Take care.

 

[Shimizu]

Many of the quest regards offer better gear than you can get at the same level and are for "in between" crafting thresholds (ie, the lvl 12 quest weapons are notably better than lvl 10 crafted). You also usually get quite a few choices so you can pick your favorite weapon/armor type.

I just think its a shame almost every quest in the game is based around having a group - some are quite long and have a lot of running around and its hard to keep a group focused for that long, not to mention forming a group and everyone's on different steps - its logistically problematic. It would make more sense if these sorts of epic journey questlines were more solo oriented and would give you something to work on while you're unable to find a team.

The quests do offer interesting lore/narrative but because of their groupy nature I've missed out on most of them admittedly.

 

[Korraz]

Gear progression goes Vendor trash drops > Crafted > Quested > Uncommon enemy drops > Named enemy drops > Rare Named enemy drops.

That being said there are gaps in the progression and some quested items are BiS/better then anything else available. Quests are done for gear and lore/flavor and some offer coins as well. Questing is a great way to get a garunteed reward for your efforts instead of relying on pure RNG from drops or crafting alone.