The retirement system is definitely a controversial topic, some like it and some don't, and that is fine. Though I think the one thing everyone can agree on is armor shouldn't be included. If the major reason for the retirement system is to keep the game balanced and fresh, why include armor? No one goes into the crucible and runs rampant with a piece of armor like you can with a weapon. For those of you that are going to bring up exotic armor, it doesn't matter because they arent including exotics in the retirement system.
Not only is armor not truly unbalanced but getting a god roll set of armor is 100x harder than getting a god roll weapon. The thing about armor is you need to get 5 pieces with good stats that all sync up together, compared to a weapon where you are just grinding for one piece. Getting a perfect set of armor can take months simply because high stat roll armor isn't common and getting 5 to sync up is a challenge.
A better solution would to simply make seasonal mods more interesting. If you make the new mods for each season more interesting and fun to use people will want to grind for new sets of armor rather than being forced to leave behind the set they worked hard for like you are doing now.
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I do agree that unless Bungie is adding a shit ton of new weapons and armor this overall is just a terrible idea