just a thought, a way to keep older content somewhat "relevant" and in hopes of making it easier for people to form parties, groups and alliances and what not to do such content, have quest/synthesis recipes that require older armor to upgrade newer armor for new stats and bonuses. Kind of like the limbus and limbus 2.0, but better and more involved. I had always wanted a body armor that combined the stats of my homam corrozza with a adaberk back when the cap was 75.
I think a method like this could allow for some variation in armors and not have everybody going down the same cookie cutter line. Something like "new body armor A has base def xxx, attack +50 and 2 blank "slots" Get a quest from a npc or have armor "A" used in a synthesis recipe, require upgrades to consist of two lower level armors(in this case lets use 75.) Player then goes and uses in synth/quest an adaberk for the +DEX+STR stats, and a homam body for the + triple attack. Tada new armor created. Maybe they would rather have "refresh" or "increase % crit" instead of triple attack. Turn in Ares armor or that one body armor from the WotG sandworm.
In theory you have tons and tones of options to mix and match what you want. Obviously keep heavy armors with heavy, light with etc, maybe depending on what is used to make new armor the color scheme of the new armor could change. All just a thought, not thought out in great detail, so please don't bash or criticize for that.