No longer in the faction but let me say this. In no way shape or form is a majourity of Vardo items good. Any decent rogue knows that half of the outfits are trash except in -very- unique ways. Eg, we still use shadowed armour, or enchanted armour, we still use Wary Treads, we still use a cloak of silence, we use everything you guys use. Anyone who thinks the Vardo is about gear.. is full of it. Anyone that joins purely for the gear, pretty much gets their stuff taken from them and kicked, if they don't hand it over and leave.. we contact a lot of people about getting our property back/actually engaging in RP to remove their funds from them (eg, Alexi contacting the Port-A-Lucine bank about the Port RVT getting their money from the PoA bank, 2+ mill).
A lot of people need to realize that the RVT has also been a disadvantaged faction to be in until Vinc and Sera started looking after it somewhat, 0% Dm attention, which means every other faction kicks it in the nuts, whilst they can't do anything. Also note that RVT rules are pretty harsh if a character has their 'own plans', and anyone caught to be doing anything else will be spied on, if it crosses a line then they'll most likely get fired. I'd also like to mention why everyone has a stigma against the RVT Icly. People are potatoes that talk about things in /whisper out in the open. If you want to be secretive, buy 4-5 items, a candle and an amplify scroll, go in to a room with a locked door. If you detect someone in the room listening in to you, kill them. It's not too hard. Imo, RVT items aren't too OP, and I had a chance to look at the majority of them without having a need for them at all. If you can't break DC 35 locks at level 5 as a rogue, something is wrong.