The gearing system is awful and just hurts the game more than helps it.

Take a look at Nidhogg for example. il235 weapons. When you release the relic step in the same patch with it being il240 who cares about il235 weapons? Returning players and alts?
il240 weapons are nothing new either. They've been in the game for almost 4 months now via gobdip (which is earlier in the raiding tier nowadays). So Nidhogg was also dead upon arrival for raiders who have a cleared A7S.

So how do you actually make Nidhogg relevant?
You add more interesting stats to the game, so multiple il240 weapons can coexist with each other.
* Augmented Lore weapons can have a set bonus for wearing other Lore pieces.
* Nidhogg weapons can be il240.
* Relic can remain the casual option that takes several weeks to get. No longer feels like a necessity.

This doesn't even change itemization that drastically, I just added set bonus to the lore set (Which set bonuses have already been suggested before), and it made Nidhogg worth doing.
It makes the raiding option still ultimately superior but not enough to completely outshine the other 2 options. Without the lore set bonus, the relic and nidhogg weapons are alternatives to the augmented.
It would get more players interested in doing the ex fights, while those who CBF still have their weapon option via the relic. Everyone wins.

It just baffles me that they add in NEW content and the gear is not even good. I cleared Nidhogg once just to see it and have no intention on farming it.