Maybe just add something like a blacksmith button where you can loom your items at a risk where it could be destroyed like, 75% chance of the item looming to succeed from +0 to +1, 50% chance from +1 to +2 and 25% chance from +2 to +3, that way ppl can loom, but with a risk, making items more expensive in shop, + gold requirement to loom items, could become a hard thing, maybe add some like, materials required to loom items, and have the materials drop at random while playing, that way ppl will trade different materials, or grind em, so they can loom the item that they want.
This way after wipe,veterans will still get plenty of chances to get their gear to +3 fast, maybe they will get their items destroyed, but there is still a chance
I think overall, items should be harder to aquire, and looms easier to get. Another idea would be completely removing the item shop and adding in Crafting, that has to be skilled by crafting lower tier items using materials ( like most MMO games crafting )gold would be used to buy materials from the marketplace from other players, or items that are being sold by crafters/other players, that way guilds would have crafters, and they would gather materials from everyone and create gear for the guild, new players could join guilds, have the crafter give them some stuff etc ( this feature would catch alot of ppls attention that are into crafting, guilds etc such as many PW players )