For a Mage Tailor: Mooncloth armor?Follow

Okay, I put this in the Mage class section, but since class forums move slow as snails, I'll post here in hope of a quicker response :-D

My question is about the Mooncloth clothing. My Tailoring is sitting right now at 280, and I have three pieces of Mooncloth. At level 300 there are patterns to make Mooncloth clothing; very good blue items consisting primarily of Int, Spi, and Sta. The articles are level 54+, I believe. They all require at least 2 mooncloth; the largest amount for one piece of armor I think is 6 pieces (which takes 24 days to make).

I looked at the Magister's item set yesterday and noticed that it is very similar to Mooncloth except for:

slightly better stats (1-3 points more, usually)
slightly more stats (some add agility, I think)
Set bonuses
No cost to make (drops in end-game instances)

My question is this: do I spend the time, money, and effort to make Mooncloth items for myself, or should I hold off for my item set? I know it can take a loooong time to get the item set pieces, and once I get the blue set, there are also epic sets to get. Mooncloth can hold me over from level 57 until level 60 and beyond, when I begin to get item set pieces.

If I don't make Mooncloth clothing, I have other options: possibly creating a Bottomless (18-slot) Bag, or at least a bunch of 16-slot bags. I also could save up for the Epic clothing patterns: Belt and Robe of the Archmage. However, these are eclipsed by epic item sets... and cost a few hundred gold for the patterns alone (if they are available at all).

What do you all think? Mooncloth, or no?

Given that the mooncloth to make mooncloth bags is usually greater than the cost of a travellers pack (at least 2x on my server) I would advise against not using it for bags. If you really need a bag sell half the mooncloth need for one on the AH and get a travellers pack.

Most of the Mooncloth gear is junk for the levels you can wear it (except for a few of the rarer pieces) and especially at 60. You can typically find better or equal gear for the same or lower price of mooncloth on the AH as well.

For me I was tempted to get MC shoulders since I had a rough time getting my dreadmist ones (people like to skip jaundice in scholo and she has a low drop rate to boot). But I waited and got them, now complete with my +5 to all resists enchant :)

Specialty? You mean like how blacksmithing can be weapon/armorship, with axe/mace/sword-mastery? Or the three LW routes?

There is no specialty system for Tailoring; the closest we get are end-game epic robes that are unique to mage, priest, and warlock (and are BoP, so once you make them, you keep them). The Belt of the Archmage I described is actually BoE and can be traded, so I keep my eyes peeled for it (not like I have the money to buy it...)

As for enchanting versus skinning, if this is your first character, it might have been a mistake. Enchanting requires a lot of items to disenchant; if you have a good guild that gives you worthless items (or sometimes even worthwhile items) to disenchant, you might be fine. I personally did not like the 150ish levels of enchanting I did; but it pays off many times over when you get to 300.