I feel the same way about it. Once I heard that it would have a easy story mode I feared that it would mean less dedicated people to actually attempt the hard content.

And that fear was realized my static has only gotten past the first part in AS1 and that's because we keep losing people. Now mostly every one is either on AS2 progression and AS3 ,4. The story was one of the things in coil that got most motivated to even attempt it me included I love the hard fights and struggle to get better. Maybe more people would be motivated to attempt savage if they never put the upgrade items in the new 24 man raid. I'll get flamed for saying this yes.

But unless your doing the hard content there's really no reason to be getting the upgrades for il 210 gear.