I am not sure what you are referring to here - we have had lots of new dueling gear implemented from past events.
What I am suggesting here are separate sets for just adventurers to wear, sperate sets for just builders, separate sets for just soldiers, and separate sets for duelers that take in consideration the different class bonuses. You can balance by making up for some of the down sides of the class bonuses in these type of class sets. Example: You can make soldier sets that would make a soldier better at building. Or a set that gives an adventurer some of the stats they are lacking for dueling. So that no matter what class you pick all can get to benefit in the same areas in the game.
That's balance. The real difference in characters in this game should be is a range or melee in duels. In fort fights a tank, damage, or Hybrid build.
That's where the balance already exist. The unbalance is in the current characters class bonuses. So by making the gear to be class specific can fix this. You can take this and merge it with my other suggestion about the old gear. It would cut down time in development of gear while fixing the unbalance of duels we currently have. Two birds one stone.
Seriously though character class changes, craft class changes, character changes, name changes are in higher demand than you think. I hear people talk about it all the time. We are human we change our minds sometimes and it doesn't always happen in our first 10-20 levels.
Thanks for hearing me out, I know it's outside the box.