I will admit I have my reservations on that gear is slightly trivial, but I'm holding judgement until I get hands on or view someone else. Skills seem to be the 'gear' of this game, the problem with that is there usually ends up being a meta which everyone then spams, I find that very annoying personally. But again, there hasnt been any hands on so all this is just me speculating.
It will definitely look different visually as there will be plots of land and buildings thrown around areas that originally had none. Whether there will be combat all around, I could only imagine so. Once people figure out the best resource nodes and area, mats and so on guilds will most likely fight for those sections.