The economy team has made terrible decisions since the first game. They simply cannot balance currencies around the different kinds of players in this game, and constantly try to pull hardcore or engaged players back to the start with the casuals and new players. This completely ignores the fact that the hardcore and experienced will put the effort into overcoming whatever new roadblocks are in the way, while the casual and new players won't and are often left even more broke than before because of the "protections" put in place because of players who will always play more/better than they do. The fact that they aren't giving us any kind of exchange is laughable. Shards have been the primary reward for most of us for ages now, so all of that is getting flushed away. Ridiculous. Also, I could be wrong because I don't usually focus gear, but didn't they just massively increase the cost of the gear, now requiring multiple engrams to focus a single piece?