WoW! Well, one thing you can count on is Trion not sticking to same-old same-old.
Dropping the 2-sides faction (which never made sense to me except that other games did it). Big change, great idea, hopefully comes in time to save our defiant side.
Potentially removing gear from pvp? Sounds great, except that Rift is a gear-treadmill-style game. How to keep the people who grinded that gear from feeling robbed?
For me, I was closing in on my Criterion synergy and weapons. Then I saw youtube of people getting sargeant and leiutenant in the same conquest. The whole thing's so messed up, I quit.
I've been watching Drakhor do low-level warfronts on a couple of characters lately (cept they did away with level-locking). There gear differences are tiny, so it's all about strategy.
Looks like it could be a lot more fun without gear than what we've been doing. Hope it works out!