I did enjoy how item tier were set in EQ2 however. There were:
-common dropped items (roughly as easy to obtain as items now on THF).
-crafted items (slightly better that commonly dropped, but took effort in collecting raw materials and actual crafting, and you could craft items with stats more to your likening than what was dropping normally).
-uncommon drops from Named (note that its named themselves that were long duration timed spawns, but they always would drop something) and Crafted Armor from Rare materials.
And raid items were a whole different beast all together.
This is how see a foundation of a economy.
ANother note that mobs on EQ2 were actually EASIER than on THF
But time it took from 1 to 50 was substantially LONGER, which also created a need to uprgade your gear every 10 levels or so, rather than to skip for 20-35 levels like you can on THF cause you know you can get better in next tier anyway (I am talking pre-raid)
So on top of all the item system which needs to be set up, the Xp modifier would need to be lowered 3 times, so accommodate such setting, so it would actually take people 2-3 MONTH to get to 50, and I know THF players would not accept that
(and of course a lot more low level content so people do not have to spend 2-3 weeks just in Guk breaking through a single tier. Basically changing a zone every 7-10 level is the optional approach, and more than 1 zone per tier - then people would not be bored by slow XP when they actually have A LOT to choose from and see)Economy at raid level IMHO simply cannot exist, unless you say you make augments tradeable and class specific, so player can trade those.
Can all of above be done? Yes, but to achieve that you need to remake server from scratch
