Season model without full wipes: keep MMO persistence, reset seasonal/competitive content

Full wipes every season are discouraging, especially now that Eldegarde also attracts a PvE audience. I’m proposing a structured alternative that keeps seasonal freshness and competitive resets without deleting long-term progression.

What should stay

-Lodge / Research progression

-Chronicle + current/main Campaigns

-Cosmetics (including purchased stash tabs)

-Utility progression (vendors, etc.)

What can reset (seasonal)

-Seasonal campaign: free while the season is active, still playable later, but paid after the season (cosmetics as the main rewards). All past campaigns remain obtainable; only the current one is free.

-Seasonal vendor: exclusive seasonal gear/items, with season-limited gear removed from inventories at season end.

-Campaigns: new objectives each season

-Arena ladder + seasonal rewards

-PvP meta: seasonal balance/adjustments

Catch-up (mid-season)

-1 character per season per account

-Capped bonus, not an infinite boost

-Bonus mainly for XP, not BiS farming equip

Anti-abuse exceptions

-Bind-on-pickup / bind-on-extract for high-tier gear (Rare/Epic/Legendary)

-Limit gifting: loot can only be swapped within the same run / same group, or certain key items become => drop = non-extractable

Replaying the exact same progression every season is already wearing the community down. PvE players in particular are not used to losing everything and will feel discouraged even if they like the game. Keeping some persistence would improve long-term retention, while still allowing seasons to stay fresh through campaigns and competitive content.

It would also help maintain a healthier PvE population, and gently encourage some of those players to occasionally dip into PvP, which would naturally keep Arena and PvP extraction more active. That said, PvP participation is heavily tied to how punishing the rules feel. Right now it seems like there’s a missing “bridge” between pure PvE and full-loot PvP.

A less punishing intermediate mode (reduced gear loss, but still attractive rewards) could solve that.
for example: reward currency toward a vendor, or a weekly participation progression with reward tiers.