Is it too early for us to raise our base stats?

..50?
Warriors lose 147 AP. And I lose 161 AP from MW alone.

Because CHTPs, capes and earrings don't exist (belts also, to a lesser extent). You only lose about 50 because the equip set itself gives you over 120 str clean; so majority of the str you gave up is refunded through the equips themselves. All the while providing you with other bonuses like 45 att, and 30% boss damage.

You're making it seem like these equips aren't good - which numbers prove otherwise. However, I do agree that it's not worth preparing chars for them until we know exactly how to get this gear; no point screwing our chars over for no good reason.