Will player level be > ilvl?

[Seif]

What I mean is that when heavensward lands/ takes off the player lvl will raise.

Will for example lvl 60 player be able to ignore all the item level progression at 50 and just skip along to gear where lvl 60 is the requirement?

How do you think that will work?

[kyuven]

I get the distinct impression they're going to either:
1) rework the way current iLevels work.
2) Just keep adding onto it, so that level 60 endgame gear is about iLevel 200 or so.

Yes, ideally a lvl 60 will be able to skip lvl 50 progression in theory, though they'll still likely have to actual do the HM content to get the 3.0 story stuff. the EX and Coil content will be optional.
But this is mostly conjecture based on past experience with how MMO developers handle expanding level caps.

[BlaiseArath]

I imagine the current gear will remain as it is (Level 50 to equip, up to I.lv 130/135 or whatever), and all the new Item level gear will only be equable by level 60 players, but follow the same general progression of +5/+10 we're doing now.

[Warlyx]

What I mean is that when heavensward lands/ takes off the player lvl will raise.

Will for example lvl 60 player be able to ignore all the item level progression at 50 and just skip along to gear where lvl 60 is the requirement?

How do you think that will work?

same as 1-49 now....but 1-59 , or do u run low lvl instances until u get max ilvl sets , then keep leveling?

the only dungeons u are going to be "forced" are primals in hard mode because main story ask for it (same as normal primals while leveling)

[Zumi]

They will do something like this. Making these numbers up but it will prob be similar.

Item level 130-135 will be the last lv50 gear.
As you level through job levels 51-60 there will be some throw away leveling gear that are like item level 136-160.
When you get to level 60, you will grind new max level dungeons for the un-limited tome gear which will be ilvl 180, with a capped tome that lets you buy ilvl 190 gear.
Once you in full ilvl 180 you will be good to start the next raid that drops ilvl 200.

This is what most post wow mmos do when they come out with an expansion.

[kyuven]

This is what most post wow mmos do when they come out with an expansion.

Conversely they could make the gear we get outside dungeons from 51-60 be iLevel 51-65, like it is now, but suddenly have the gear at 60 spike up in iLevel, rewarding players who actually got the stronger gear before the expansion by making their lives from 51-60 a bit more tolerable. We don't really know the real power disparity between a 50 and 60 character at this time, so it's anyone's guess.

[Teslo]

I'm hoping they gate the level caps with (people are gonna hate me for saying this... lmao) Maat (I would love to see him come back, and I think I'm the only one!) questlines to raise your level cap. Making the quest lines difficult to do in current endgame gear would ensure that people going through the game for the first time still have to do the older endgame content to gear up to break past that barrier, thus making the older content never actually become obsolete (Which happens in WoW every expansion).

I'm hoping they rework iLevel so that it doesn't just keep expanding exponentially WoW-style. They just had an iLevel crunch in WoW, scaling the iLevel of all items to a new curve, which brought everyone's damage/hitpoints/stats back to where they were, roughly, during Icecrown days. And in another couple of expansions they'll have to do this again, because they didn't change the system. Just crunched it. So I'm hoping FFXIV does something different.

[Lemuria]

Expect a 'boss' fight to unlock level 60, with ilvl 120 as the minimum requirement...

[Antanias]

Assuming 2.5 dungeons give i100 gear, I imagine 3.0 dungeons will drop stuff from ilvls i110 to i130. Those farming final coil will be ready, those not quite through with second coil will be able to participate still, and those with just i90 stuff will need to do some work to meet the requirements for 3.0 dungeons.

Also, I thought YoshiP had said something in a prior interview that an example of existing gear with a level cap of 60 would work something like "gear level is 50 = character level 60 = -i10 from said piece of gear". So our i130 shinies will seem like i120 at level 60 and so forth.

[Sylve]

This is what most post wow mmos do when they come out with an expansion.

A better way to work it would be for the Main Story to award some i80 loot, the initial 3.0 quests to also give i80 stuff, and end with the lowest ilvl being just barely ahead of FCoB loot.
Such a method would bypass the WoW syndrome where the very first quest reward you get is such a blatant upgrade to the highest possible gear from the previous game that you feel cheated.

Hell, in WoD, they scaled it back so much that SoO loot will be worth using over quest/dungeon rewards all the way to 95~96 (of the new 100 cap) when stuff starts inching higher in ilvl, but the stat spread wont be as optimal as your existing gear

The idea of replacing your hard won raiding gear with quest whites is kind f abhorrent.