I see, I didn't initially get how the armor upgrades work but that seems to be a good implementation for the newer players to get orange gear while they head towards the awakened set. Also, apologies but yeah, this same to be the main thread and it's in game discussions that I've heard regarding the number of materials needed.
If I understand this correctly, although the new patch has been out for only past a month, the number issue seems to have been acknowledged and will be addressed later on? If that's the situation right now, I don't see it as unreasonable but if you delay the changes to later on, the number of people who benefit from that future change would be little to none of the current player base.
And to your point regarding the not-so-large difference between the gold and awakened sets, I see how the gap in stats isn't meant to separate the active and semi-active players but, in my eyes that means that the time it would take to awaken the sets shouldn't take months to do. Idk, it's hard to fully articulate my point and get it across but looking at the old lv70 awakened sets for example vs. the current sets, the old sets seemed to better represent "awakening" the sets through boss drops and npc interactions vs. flat out grinding for materials through chests you get from the dungeons. Although people did get annoyed as that single drop usually doesn't get to them as quickly as they want, it just made it more genuine and not appear "grindy".
Thank you though Jordan, I appreciate the response.