Please no more levels.

[CidHeiral]

I wouldn't be surprised if a level squish happens with 8.0.

[Astrus]

I wouldn't be surprised if a level squish happens with 8.0.

I fully expect this to happen eventually and was mildly surprised we even went to triple digits instead of stopping at 99.

Implementing it looks like a mixed bag.
Just looking at what levels do for a combat Job it's not even going to be too hard on them to cut levels by half as every uneven level past the Job Quest range is mostly empty anyway, with traits and skills coming in at the even levels. The obvious rebalancing of encounters aside the meat of going from a level cap of 100 to a cap of 50 would be rebalancing at what levels you get new toys and Job Quests so things until Shadowbringers flow correctly, from there on out we'd just go to one skill/trait per level as far as combat goes (with all the level sync implications that entails).

The real challenge then becomes fitting content unlocks of an expansion into the new level range, do we go from 10 levels per expansion to 5 with a new duty unlocking every level?
How are they going to preserve the speed of progression without making things feel like they drag (levels taking twice as long to increment is going to see pushback even if the overall time to cap an expansion stays the same)? Is one level per duty enough to keep them populated outside of roulettes?

Would a level squish be accompanied by another stat squish while we're rebalancing things already? What about ilevels, are we fine with letting those approach the ilevel 1.000 range in the not too distant future or should those get squished too?

[Lusarae]

I wouldn't be surprised if a level squish happens with 8.0.

I would despise this. It devalues all the work you put into getting 100. It also doesn't FIX the problem, it just resets the problem.

The problem being hey you got to level up 10 arbitrary levels all over again every expansion pack because... tradition I guess? Lets do the chore all over again on every possible job you have an interest in playing.

No. How a bout instead we just keep the cap at 100, and just increase in power with gear. Then occasionally have an ilvl squish once in awhile. The effects of having my item being ilvl 2500 back to ilvl 250 aren't as noticeable. For starters I can take a break from the game, and get the newest set of tomestone gear to catch up. Compared to if you take a break from the expansions and now have 10-30 levels to catch up on.

If we absolutely have to have some sort of "story progression experience" then just make it a new type of thing. Paragon levels. Where you get one level up, get some unlocks from it, and it applies to all our jobs. That'll keep us busy for at least two decades.

[Evergrey]

-snip-

No. How a bout instead we just keep the cap at 100, and just increase in power with gear. Then occasionally have an ilvl squish once in awhile. The effects of having my item being ilvl 2500 back to ilvl 250 aren't as noticeable. For starters I can take a break from the game, and get the newest set of tomestone gear to catch up. Compared to if you take a break from the expansions and now have 10-30 levels to catch up on.

-snip-

Wouldn't the progression of higher and higher ilvl mean there would be content with more and more difficult monsters?
Or are you simply thinking that in the end players will get more and more OP and in the end simply squish whatever we're facing?
But lets imagine that there would be more difficult monsters and content to go along with said higher ilvl stages.
Once that ilvl squish comes along, that content would be "out of reach" since the monsters in them would hit too hard and you too little with your newly reset ilvl.
I guess that means we won't need any more expansions, since we can just repeat the "endgame" over and over again.