About gear progression: I don’t agree on the new ascended gear style of progression.
It should be something like this. Exotics for the general game content with the an upgrade slot. Then, for every new content, there should be an upgrade component that matches that content. So players coming out of that new content will still feel satisfied about their previous investment (spending karma on exotics etc.) and happier because of the new upgrades.
For example, the Fractals where there are agony debuff, upgrade items should be designed to help players progress through that content. The drops should be upgrade components, or the upgrade gems, upgrade recipes etc. with higher stats that matches the difficulty of the said dungeon. I am saying that the content should be the one to adjust and not the players. This way, people trying to progress in the general content (original content without the Fractals etc.) will still be able to acquire their gear without too much loss, thinking their exotics are obsolete already. (Because spending a significant amount of karma/gold to get certain gear takes quite a bit of time. A lot for some).
So for every new content, there should be NO new gear but new upgrade items to accommodate the dungeon difficulty. It would be more amazing if we can keep that upgrade item without being destroyed if we choose to replace it with another upgrade from a different content or new dungeon. This way, every new content will have it’s own unique player experience.
So in short: No new gear. Keep having exotics as the best type of armor in game BUT add new upgrade components with increased stats to accommodate whatever new contents there will be. Give players options about the changes. (Be able to replace the upgrade without being destroyed etc.) If there are players with more than one set of exotics, then they can use one set for this content with upgrades for that certain content and another set for the other etc etc. Keep the current exotics as the norm so that new players will have reason to acquire it and old players will not hate because they spent too much time already acquiring exotics. I know this will require a lot of bank space but that means more money anyways. Or better yet, make players able to add more upgrade slots etc.
Plus, one more thing, please add dual spec or tri-spec so we don’t have to pay for respeccing. Just please, no new gear, just better upgrades, add more upgrade slots, new skins instead per new content, and please don’t make the original content obsolete per new content update. It has a negative impact. People will be discouraged to try the original content. Add a new dungeon with similar difficulty or strategy but just for the skins and player experience not because of for a better gear.