Is anyone else worried SE has backed themselves into a corner?

[Cabalabob]

So in the live letter they talked about how with the first expansion they are gonna raise the level cap. Now the problem I see with this is, we're already at i90 gear... So either everything they add in the way of content that comes with the level cap will just drop gear level 60 stuff which will just be vanity junk like CT gear, making all that content instantly redundant stat wise. Or it will be i100 gear, at which point you have to wonder what the point of raising the level cap was in the first place beyond getting new abilities. I'm just concerned that when they raise the level cap, there will be no new content that anyone will need cause our gear now is already better. Sure new players will be able to go for it and skip Basically half the current endgame content. But there's gonna be nothing but vanity stuff for current players at i90 to go for.

[Genesis88]

Raising the lv cap would, make all your high lv 50+ gear sync lower doing 50- content.

[jomoru]

You do know SE can make stuff like Item Level 9000 that requires level 99 to equip or something right?

[Cabalabob]

You do know SE can make stuff like Item Level 9000 that requires level 99 to equip or something right?

That's kind of my point. Either all gear from now on is gonna be Ilvl 100+ or it's gonna be useless to currently capped players. They came out with ilvl gear too early and it's backed them into a corner of release useless content or make it drop ilvl gear.

[Genesis88]

That's kind of my point. Either all gear from now on is gonna be Ilvl 100+ or it's gonna be useless to currently capped players. They came out with ilvl gear too early and it's backed them into a corner of release useless content or make it drop ilvl gear.

They going to keep adding gear the next set most likely 100+, its just item lvl. So people get the feel how much stats are on it.

[Axidrain]

they can always make smaller ilevel increments later on.

[Ferth]

You do know SE can make stuff like Item Level 9000 that requires level 99 to equip or something right?

This is a phenomenon called Power Creep. WoW first became aware of it as a developer during their third expansion and now they are in kind of a rocky spot because of their lack of foresight in regards to it.

Of course, SE can do whatever they want, but that argument is a paper tiger at best. They need to consider the best interest of the game when they make changes, and grossly inflated ilvl is not in anyone's best interest. The OP has a pretty valid concern. Given the current time frames involved, 2.2 will come out in March, leaving 2.3 to come out in May or June. 2.4 will be right around the 1 year mark from launch at that rate. They could have an actual expansion by then. That would mean the highest tier grade would still be ilvl 100.

The problem is how do they deal with a level increase? Do they just add more to the current Ilvl? 51-60 starts at ilvl 100 and just goes up? Do they down grade immediate upgrades in the lower ranges? 52-54 being ilvl70-80, 55-59 is ilvl 90-100 and then level 60 starts at ilvl 100 and just goes up from there?

The good news is they have a lot of time. They are early in the games life-cycle. They can still correct problems like this before they get too far out of hand. Provided they even recognize it as a problem. Otherwise, who knows where the game could be in a few years time... level 75 with ilvl 370? Hopefully they can see that isn't the best way to go.

[LioJen]

I don't understand the point of item levels, this is the first time I've ever heard the term.

What happened to gear with special effects or niched abilities? Hidden items? They could have secret gear where the requirements to get it change randomly every day so that nobody could really farm it (and that might encourage players to try other content besides raids to try and find it)

I'd rather they release gear that encourages experimentation in playstyles and character builds rather than arbitrarily making all the numbers in the game higher. A boss with 100hp while I'm doing 1 damage is the exact same thing as a boss with 1 billion hp if the new gear lets me do 10 million damage. I don't want the game to become a retread of the same content over and over with just higher numbers.

[Roris]

It's more bad planning and foresight, next item tier will very likely see WARs breaking 9999 without even needing Thrill of Battle for example, the power creep is already taking place and will only get worse. Please look forward to the whoops we screwed up our numbers we could have prevented it and lots of players told us really early about it but we're just now doing something about it patch.

[saber_alter]

i think i saw a thread with an identical name....when 2.1 hit.

It's more bad planning and foresight, next item tier will very likely see WARs breaking 9999 without even needing Thrill of Battle

and expect coil mechanics to hit even harder. despite the big number PLD and WAR have similar EHP.