I, for one, hope they keep them. I'm sick of everyone crying about gear in PvP in games. The vast majority of modern MMOs have become casual fests where gear is removed from PvP so that things are more "fair". If you work hard for something, you should get to benefit from it. This is not a casual MMO. It never has been. Quests don't hold your hand till you reach max level in 2 days. Gear matters in PvP. Gear isn't handed to you just for playing 50 PvP matches (until battlegrounds comes about, (which was a terrible decision IMO).
I agree on two parts here :
1. you are Ro is not a casual MMO and never has been this is part of its charm
2. yes gear matters in PVP
and i will completly defend anyone everytime who says that he has earned the right to use his godlikes, his miniboss Cards and MVP Cards, in a blink of a second.
However its still not healthy in a long run, at some point smaller guilds wont bother with woe anymore, maybe they even come to terms that they simply cant effort to put up with the highest guild on the server, they just log out instead of figthing.
This is rather boring for both sides, or should be, i dont speak for everyone and i will never do that.
Anyway as you pointed out Equip matters in PVP/Woe ...a lot, really a lot. I would just state someone with high end MVP/Godlike equip would always beat someone without it, even when the otherone (without said equip) is overall the more (argueably) skilled player ... of course here is room for debate.
Nah, everyone has a fair chance to get miniboss/MVP cards, unlike godly items, where you have to be the guildmaster of a big guild, and even then your guild owns it, not you.
I would even argue it is a fair chance for everyone ,even for godlikes ,at least at the start but powerful items like that tend to lead to a snowball effect.
If a guild build megingjard they have it much more easy to attract high level players/roles the might miss and of course, conquer a castle, leading to a faster second godlike item etc.
Of course this is overstated i am fully aware of that.
In general : I will defend anyone that things ,MVP Card,Mini Boss and Godlikes should be in Woe period , i am ok with that. The only question i would always ask is : It is healthy for Woe/PVP and this Server in the long run.