I am not sure if this has already been brought up, but I think I have a great idea for crafting precursors and legendary weapons.
In order to craft a precursor you must complete the map and story mode. We get the Gift of Exploration and maybe we can get a Gift of Lore for the personal story or just pick the weapon from the end of the personal story. (I think the Gift of Lore should be for the crafting of the legendary) You also must complete each of the Temples and you can get an ascension from each temple or craft one, such as the one for Acolyte of Dwayna title. Then you could combine them in the mystic forge or add them to the weapon later. Now we have 3 things that must happen in order to get the precursor. Now you must craft an ascended weapon. If you want a great sword then craft an ascended greatsword. Now you can put these in the mystic forge or maybe make a new boss encounter where he guards a forge and you can combine the Gift of Exploration, The Gifts of ascension from the temples and both weapons or the weapon and Gift of Lore. Once you have the Precursor you can work on crafting the legendary. As well you can only craft a precursor for your class. so warriors can only craft a precursor for warriors and so on.
I think the legendary should be crafted from defeating all world bosses and getting ascensions from them and adding them to your weapons. (Maybe you cannot kill the next world boss without certain ascensions)Once beating all world bosses you must beat the story mode of every dungeon and get an ascension from each and add them to the precursor. Once all of that is complete you must add the Gift of Battle, Gift of Lore, and 100 Icy Rune Stones and the ascended precursor into the mystic forge to make the legendary. Once you have completed your legendary you can get an option to reset the map and story so that you can make another legendary on that character if you want, or you can just make another character.
I believe this will put an end to the crazy grind for t6 and precursors. This will also allow players to play the game and award them for it. Everything else will have its perks such as gear and if Anet decides to add other legendary items they can use the same system because it would be easy to incorporate, I think. You can also have the precursor change in looks as you add ascensions so that new skins can be added and it is another incentive for players to play the game. After all that is what Anet wants right? I know I want to be rewarded for playing the game and not grinding. The Karma, Gold and t6 grind get boring and I think that is why people are leaving the game.