At 65 is any of the PoP player made armor worth a hoot? Is any of it better than my Elysian Tunic?

Look up Stonehide armor in lucy/magelo/eqtraders. Windskin and Trilounhide armor is pretty nice too, and while I personally don't care for it, if you're one of those wierd mana addicts you might like Firehide armor too.

Looking at trilounhide vs. firehide, I don't know why I wouldn't pick firehide in every case.

It has both more hp (STA boost) and more mana. Unless SvC is something you need more of (not usually my problem as a druid, for some reason) I call the firehide better.

Edit: I like the firehide better than stonehide, too =) Not that I'll ever wear any of it (pfft leather graphics!)

Firehide doesn't have enough hp. Stonehide all the way.

...is that in order to have access to the components needed to make an item, you are extremely likely to have vastly better gear for every slot already.

It leaves PoP tradeskill recipes as a money making or twink gearing exercise.

I am not yet in elementals but there are no elemental pieces I would wear over what I currently have or will soon have. Yes, some of those pants are overall better than my current pants as an example, but I wouldn't pay big plat to get any of them when I can pick up say Nightcallers for almost nothing.

It is a side effect of trying to make tradeskills relevant so late in the game's life cycle.

Sad truth though is that smithing doesn't seem to ahve the same problem. Those smithed armor options are very popular with melee. The tailored stuff just isn't.

The main reason that the tailored stuff is not very popular is that the tempers are ridiculously difficult to get ahold of. Theoretically, any 65 Tier 2 druid should be able to get ahold of some fire mephit skin from the bazaar (fairly common drop) and some of the other components that are needed for the Firehide Tunic; however, the way they have made the tempers work, it is almost impossible to find magma crystals and metallic substance as the drops are remarkably rare and highly contested for the much preferred smithed drops. The same was the case for Stormrider Leather armor until drops of pure rain became much more commonly available drops. The smiths just grabbed them first because they could either equip their guild or sell off the smithed goods at remarkable prices.

Tailoring in POP was very much an afterthought. The items created are not preferable to most Luclin armor (i.e. Elysian), there are no focus effects on the tailored items, and we have to compete with smiths for rare components to even make the stuff....

I am hopeful that LDON will improve the situation slightly, but as it now stands, even as a GM tailor, it is unlikely that I would go out of my way to craft POP leathers.

The only tailoring successes I have had are selling the Storm Rider Pants to BLs and a monk or two. Its not really preferable to the Elysian I wear. Its really silly for the scarcity of the drops and the difficulty of GMing tailoring, that SOE does not allow this skill to keep pace with the droppable gear. Its infuriating.

Yeah, PoP tailoring is definitely an after thought. All the stuff on guild raids goes towards chain and plate BPs and pants, and they require a insane amount of tempers for the rarity involved. As PoE is single group friendly, you might actually find some Earth silk/leather for sale in bazaar, albiet silk is much more common to find than leather. Now if I was working to try to get a piece myself, it would be the Firehide BP - good BPs are rare and 120 mana is great and 50 hp isnt that bad. Otherwise, you might as well be trying for an Ornate BP mold from Bastion or Tactics as it's easier to get and better stats than water/air BP and alot more mana than earth BP. To balance out resists/hp, you could complement a firehide tunic (50 hp/120 mana 25 cold resist) with Stonehide leggings (100 hp/40 mana 12 poison/disease resist). As for the rest of the armor, I wouldnt bother cause of the rarity involved and it wouldnt be too difficult to find alternatives for those slots.