Whatever the case is, I'm actually NOT looking forward to another gear treadmill. I really hope that they look at the expansion as an opportunity to expand sideways instead of merely upwards. With each new item almost indistinguishable from anything else of the same level, there's very little variety beyond 'getting a higher tier'. A far removal from many other games which have a distinct amount of variety in each tier.

And no, I don't merely mean fashion. I'm talking statistics. Whether you choose spell speed over crit or accuracy over skill speed, what real difference does it make at the end of the day? A few points of DPS here, a few points of healing there. We need real differences. FFXI had the right idea with its equipment, and they need to take a leaf out of its book.