For some reason they thought no level cap increase was a good idea. Which IMO is not gonna work well if they structure questing like they did in the launch game as the only thing that gave zones proper structure and a line of progression was leveling. Without I foresee it becoming a jumbled mess.
I doubt masteries will fill the gap either since they will probably only be from group content thus making solo play a pain. Not to mention if they don't want a power creep the combat masteries will probably be water down and barely give anything of substantial benefit. The only exception I see is the weapons masteries which might flat out make the default weapons the 'wrong' choice so that people will want to use the new ones.