I can't really agree that you should stop buying armor. There is some very good player made armor out there. The best armor you will get, however, is boss drops. Quested armor is also very nice, but for quick and decent upgrades player made armor is a very viable means to keep up.
The majority of my armor was player-made through my early 20s. I have since gotten a few non-player made, dropped armor pieces, but I will soon switch off to player made again with feysteel, already have a few feysteel armor parts.
I've not once had a problem tanking.
Make sure you are getting the player crafted and not the store bought armor, mostly noticed by the players name listed on the armor stats, but also noticed by having actual stats and not just AC.