They don't actually need to change a thing. All they need to do is set the next ilvl range of gear at the new cap. So the ilvl 120 or whatever would be equippable at level 60 and so forth. It would make a lot more sense to do things this way too. That way you don't render everyone's hard work obsolete with the patch, and you can still have requirements to unlock the new tier of equipment similar to the old ones.