Runes of Magic US / AU

I would disagree with the T8 suggested in the guide, mainly due to the audience that it would be intended for. The new players that would find this guide most useful (and would follow it most faithfully given their lack of understanding of the game) would have a difficult time with T8, and would more likely be put off easily by the amount of resources needed for it. The difference would probably be 3000 atk/300 crit or so in total at most for the pieces you've suggested, which isn't an astronomical amount of difference in DPS, so from a cost vs result standpoint, it isn't a very good investment unless you have a large amount of resources.

The guide has mainly focused on maximizing speed in gearing, but I think how smoothly that transition can be made should also be taken account into, since that's what actually determines whether a player will actually stay in the game, as Jada pointed out.