It simply isn't an RPG if you aren't doing the good old gear shuffle every few hours, but some of the unique gear in Avowed makes the old song and dance a lot easier. Equipping unique weapons and armor and then upgrading them is pretty much always going to be a better call than blowing your cash on a higher quality non-unique piece, from what we've found while playing.
You really don't need to hang onto your loser starting gear for too long because there are quite a few unique weapons and armor that are easy to grab early on in Avowed if you know where to look. Does it sometimes involve cheesing your way into a place and running away with loot instead of staying to finish a fight? Yes. Are we too proud to do that? No we are not.
