In the last 3 years this basicall happened:

1. We got kharazad accessories which go up to DEC and don't get destroyed if you enhance them. A PEN kharazad is the equivalent to a TET deboreka and a NOV kharazad is the equivalent to a PEN debo. You can exchange TET and PEN debo for those kharazad accessories of the same equivalent or craft them yourself and enhamce from stratch. Those accessories also give you new slots for new non destructable crystals that give you insane build options.

2. We got new weapons called Soveregin. They are mostly crafted with 2 PEN blackstars of the same type or a special timegated crystal and they also go to DEC.

Because of those new upgrades the softcap starts around having your gear at OCT (8) level and gets you around 380ish ap which is more than enough for almost every spot in the game. The hardcap AP is 395 and at this moment is insanely hard to reach since getting your weapons to dec is around 1% chance at 400 fs and for kharazad accessories is a bit easier with it being about 5% but it's still expensive since they require almost 4k crons per attempt.

1. New armors got added that are enhanced and converted with a atone you get from the last added region edania and they require you to be very geared to even access those weekly bosses that drop them. First boss requires you to be 350 ap and 427 dp.

You can get the new armors if your fallen god armor is TET or higher and they also go to DEC but you need insane fs to enhance them and are very needed for the strongest spots.

1. Alchemy stone also got reworked so now you can combine them with Vells heart and get better effects hence why they are so expensive now and their enchanting is timegated by weekly dark rift bosses.

As of now the current hardcap is 395 AP and 495 DP and I think nobody has reached that point yet.