Well if you have to play the raid to buy raid gear, then there's still a point for a raid. You have to do the raid to get raid marks, and if you only get so many raid marks per challenge completed (let's say 2 on normal and 3 on hard) and each 'check point' is considered a 'challenge' to earn such marks<idk how many check points there is, let's say 5>, thats 10 per character on normal, 15 on hard. That's 30 a week or 45 a week. This would mean, aside from leveling up(which is time consuming itself) it would take a long time before you could buy a full set of raid gear. This mans idea is a good one. Maybe weapons should come in after rank 3 but other than that, it's a great idea.