I really think gear should drop based on account prestige. It's fine to drop for one character at rank 3. Lets make it drop for all after about rank 10 or 15 on your account. Maybe even let blues drop for all after 10 but we need something to level new characters! 4v4 without gear is brutal once your MMR is high and everyone has gear.

Also, it would boost your income from steel purchases. You'd have so many people buying steel just to play a new character and it doesn't hurt people who have it on one character. The ones who choose not to buy it will be 108 by rank 10 without purchasing.