Turning the game into a gear grind seems counter intuitive. I remember the trailers for GW2 and how developers touted they “knew” gamers didn’t want the same old boring grind. Well a gear grind at level cap in a dungeon where you can only proceed with certain gear is the same and boring. Already I run dungeon paths repeatedly for exotic gear sets and it is already boring. At least this is armor and weapons I see and want to attain due to aesthetics (not stats necessarily) Now if I want to see everything I have to have ascended gear that is also infused in order to survive a condition at the lowest levels of the new dungeon?
It is true that “Tyria will be changed forever”. There will probably be a lot less people playing after this.