Current seasonal gear should be affordable and easy to level up, with minimum restraints.
Older gear should cost more resources to level up, and require a specific currency that enables players to push their gear level caps up higher.
This is fair for everyone.
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But if people have been playing for so long they have all the resources anyway. Also if grinding for something as good as recluse is less enjoyable and more tedious than upgrading an old recluse, the whole system falls apart.