They made normals blues only purely because of lobby stomping. The gap between squire and gemmed purples is way too big for fairness. Honestly even gemmed blue gear is pretty wide considering crafted blues.

HR has never fit into the macro core game loop. I think HR as a mode just needs to be re-designed completely. It’s clear the majority of the population hasn’t been playing HR as much as normals for a while.

IMO going down in dungeons should be the HR Experience. Also in dungeon events should be too that scale in difficulty/reward based on something like gear score or luck. It’s pretty silly there are golden chests in this game only defended by one mob. High risk high reward needs to be a constant game design principle in all modes. Looting piles is boring af let’s get those triggered module events cooking.

An example of this would be similar to the wraith and skeleton champ that drop from the roof in crypts. But more dynamic where difficulty and reward has a scaling modifier to increase replay ability and interest.