Maybe I misunderstand but it all depends on who is doing the scripting. AoS doesn't have to be item-centric, it can rely on skills as well.
Well, Bayn, you would prolly know better than I - I know nothing about scripting, I admit. I was under the impression that items were central to AOS because the shards I've tried seem to be extremely big on buffed items - and when I say buffed, I don't mean "magery" OR "swordsmanship" - I mean each item can literally have a
long list of buffs on it. In fact, this is why my husband finally lost interest in OSI. As a person who enjoys pvp (and only plays occasionally), he just could no longer compete with the people who have super-uber gear. His skill means nothing since they introduced AOS.
So, since it wasn't just the player run shards, but OSI as well, that have made the game all about possessions instead of skill, I thought AOS was to blame. If that isn't true, then I retract my statement and will say instead: SO far, I have not found an AOS shard that I like, as the ones I've tried all seem to require extremely over-powered gear in order to hunt what we on WoD wouldn't even consider a challenge here.