Struggling to understand how loot works

[Freeman]

I have tried to gain an understanding from the in game guide but I still have no idea. How do I know what is potentially an upgrade? Everything has the same dps value no matter if its level 1 or level 50. It feels like loot isnt exciting in any way, yet people say the loot system in this is one of the best so I must be missing something.

Am I looking for high forging potential and then making the item into whatever I want? I couldnt find a way to remove stats that I dont use so I'm at a bit of a loss. Seems like loot is almost pointless if all I need to do is upgrade to what I need?

[yee zee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Tz9dbTx_8

hope this helps

[Tenosyn]

You want to loot good bases and craft up from there. Set up your filter to highlight anything that's like "2 mods you want at least t4 and 1 is exalted". From there you can try to go for a seal or just fill out the rest with what you want.