The fundamental problem that has yet to be answered for what you do once you reach "end game" in BDO. Become stronger for what exactly? There is no chance to be the best geared, PEN fallengod has been crafted maybe 0 times because it's pretty much impossible in terms of RNG. Try the simulator, it takes like 500 attempts with a 250FS.

There is no end-game, there's nothing to play. Grind in circles all the time, ok that's fun for a bit but then what do you do? PvP? Is that it? For now it is and this part of the game is missing. I hope they figure it out how to fill that void soon. I would love to say ocean content but yeah, about that....

Yeah that's a big feeling I have too and heard many people talk about recently.  I think these things contribute to that feeling of "aimlessness" after reaching a certain point in gear lately.

- New player spots making close to as much silver as high-end makes grinding high-end spots less relevant - decreasing motivation to gear up.  Don't need gear to make tons of silver.

- PvP - especially in open world - feels dead.  Arsha has the most OWPVP, but it's not like before.  It feels like there are less and less GVG's as of late, least in my experience.  This contributes to decreased motivation in gearing up too.

- Uncapped node wars are still fun, but I only node war on Sunday due to work / life schedule, so IDK how it is Monday - Friday.

- AoS is pretty fun and doesn't require gear at all.

It's like, after a certain point, that big question of "Why should I gear up?" starts to play in your head.  Some reasons I can think of to gear up, for myself, are:

- Personal satisfaction / personal goal accomplishment.  Purely subjective, but I do want to see full PEN everything on my character.  Two PEN Disto is all I'm missing for that goal, the grind for them is monumental, but it's something to go for, I guess.

- More edge in PVP (even though open world feels pretty dead, AoS invalidates gear progression, RBF isn't really a serious mode, uncapped node war would be my biggest reason, personally)

- That's pretty much it.  Make a smidgin more mil more an hour, I guess, too?

Suggestions to make gearing up past 710/720 GS more tangibly beneficial:

- Battle of Thornwood Castle (the PvEvP content) would be a great addition if it's done well and is rewarding enough to actually play.

- Create end-game grind spots that give a significant amout of silver more than early game - mid game spots to motivate gearing up to grind those areas efficiently.  The difference between the top earning high end spot and the top earning mid-game spot is about 100mil an hour in difference - insignificant difference in earnings.  However, the difference in the amount of time / effort needed to get gear for the top earning high-end spot and the top earning mid-game spot is significant.

- Make uncapped PvP content more rewarding to motivate players with tangible benefit to gear higher gear.

- I'm sure others can think of other things too.

For now, I'm just grinding Hexe and saving silver.  Play AoS on spare time with friends, for fun.  Got back into horse training, catching horses in the wild.  It's relaxing, but gets boring to me after a while lol (rather grind, which can get boring after a while too).  I'd like to explore other lifeskills as well, like Bartering, but IDK if I'm willing to invest time into it to make it worth it when I could just grind Hexe (personal conundrum).  Aside from that, I play LoL ARAM with friends.  Epic Games had Shadow of the Tomb Raider for free earlier this month, will start playing it soon.  Street Fighter 6 is on the horizon, really hyped for that.  There's ways to fill the video-game void, whether it be in BDO or not.

Saunil is ok, rest still sucks they are just bad in compare to Gyfins, Jade Starlit, Elvia Orc Camp. Murrowak Lab. still bad .. its hard you can die easily if u dont pay enough attention... dead spot in next week.

After testing Rhutum with those amazing changes i can give you my feedback - fire those who making those changes, its not to late, just fire those people and hire someone who can at least read players feedback.

Rhutum just needs a massive despair drop rate. The trash will always be bad. The mobs spawn too slow.

Just buff it again and make it a place you can get despair easy while sacraficing trash money. 

Or you can simple double  mobs around box and suddenly its gonna fix all Rhutum problems.  Same for Giants,  very low density of mobs.

Is it possible that you're evaluating the Giants from a 710+ GS point of view? I mean, I went there when I was a few AP below the recommended and it was pretty hard to properly clear 4 clusters. Dropping the gearscore to recommended stats and testing the spawn rate would be better, 'cause you see, if you go there while slightly below the suggested gearscore (as one would in the process of gearing up) and the spot is fine-tuned for 310+ AP people, then... it may feel overwhelming.

On the other hand, if the mobs' density is adjusted properly for the recommended or slighly lower AP, then that makes the loot probably worse.

lets not shit on the devs for trying. if they stop adjusting after this change then its a free for all.