I don't think the forge rates are any better or worse than they were before I left. I understand they boosted the rates on the core servers since I've been gone. So it's probably an "unfair" comparison. Although, I don't think anyone's ever really thought the old rates were reasonable to begin with for how expensive preserve stones were.

The biggest issue I have right now pertaining to gear progression is the crone cost. Prior, you'd just keep throwing mats at it (which weren't super expensive) until you got something acceptable. In Origins, it's just not feasible to gear yourself well unless you gamble what's on your back AND get really lucky. It's close to 1m/try on the 6x unique just to make the thing. I went broke just trying to make the 4x rare.