The Elder Scrolls XIV: Good? Bad? I'm the one with the Thu'um!

[Rynjin]

Well, there's no right answer to whether the best quest items should be better than the best crafted items. If you can't make anything top tier from crafting, why bother? I'll agree that the crafted gear shouldn't be so far and away better than items you get in the world. Ideally, you'd want crafting to be able to improve, and scale up, dropped rewards. That way there's a reason to do it, and a way to keep dropped items being cool. Give them some effects and combinations which can't be duplicated from crafting, and you're golden.

Well, there's the right answer: Give unique effects for unique items, instead of just "Enchantment that already exists, but maybe slightly better, but you can't Dual Enchant it".

The Dragon Priest masks are laaaame, and so are most of the other unique items. The Bloodskal Blade and Crown of Aetherium are the only two I can think of off the top of my head.