I assure you the armor gets more interesting as you level in terms of stats and modifiers.
My gear at level 80 boosts, in addition to stats and saves, Combat Art damage, power regen, health regen, has +defense, +deflection, +parry, +hate gain, +healing, reactive proc mesmerization, reactive proc damage ward, permanent water breathing, +crushing skill, +slashing skill, + critical hit chance, + double attack chance, +attack speed/haste... And some others I forget.
That, and I have a hammer that has a 50% chance to teleport me to Kunark everytime I hit something with it. Just need to get better about remembering to un-equip that once I'm there....