Board Thread:Online Discussion/@comment-17714862-20131007235156/@comment-3076045-20140512114453

That one I actually CAN answer.

The reason for that is because if you could buy armor from vendors for that cheap, then it would be extremely pointless for ANYONE to put ANY points into crafting (at all).

They want to make crafting possible to be useful, so, thus, other armour costs a lot. (Whereas... you find and make it yourself ... free)

p.s. Ashen Grip is kinda cool.