Quote Originally Posted by Thunda_Cat_SMASH View Post
The issue with horizontal progression is that it feels precisely like stagnation, at least to me. You aren't getting stronger. You aren't getting tougher. You're just kinda hanging around power level x with nearly imperceptible movement northward or southward, at least in my opinion.
That's a good point and maybe purely horizontal progression isn't what the game needs, but I would argue that the vertical progression that we have now also results in stagnation. We are getting tougher, but not in any meaningful way. A patch roles out that gives us gear with 20 more strength on it, but that same patch's content has monsters with 20 more defense and 2000 more health. The numbers are getting larger, but nothing about us really changes. While a more horizontal system wouldn't increase the numbers it would give us gear that adjusts our abilities or gives new abilities, grants passive traits, or even just has more interesting and complex stats. That to me would seem like less stagnation than what we have now.