Quote Originally Posted by Teryaani View Post
This is a vertical progression MMO. The current progression strategy is locked in until the end of 2.x. Once 3.0 drops, you may see more set bonus sort of things (I'd like that for sure), but even then it's likely to still be largely vertical gear progression.

Gear you aren't interested in = Worthless. Got it.

Raids that only 10-15% of the players would ever see? No thank you.
Teryaani,

Just because it is currently a purely Vertical Progression MMO doesn't mean people can't leave feedback to the developers as to what they'd like changed. I'm glad you like the game just the way it is. For me and many in this thread, the Gear Treadmill is getting pretty awful and repetitive.

And my comment about Lost City's gear is pretty much true for all players after they reach Level 50 and start doing any activities for Tomestones (of the month) or Coil (or future End Game). Even if you skip End Game, and just turn in current Tomestones for gear it is better than the gear in any of the Trash Mob Dungeons being released. It's a fact.

I know plenty of players who don't do much End Game, but they Gather and Craft, and even they turned in their Tomestones to get the latest gear back then, which was statistically better than what Lost City dropped.

What I was referring to was that when a player reaches Level 50, they can for all intents and purposes jump straight over and through --> ALL of the "Hard Mode" and other Trash Mob Dungeons and get iLevel gear that eclipses all of that without going to End Game (just with the current Tomestone (flavor) of the month).

I'm saying for all that extra effort the Dev Team put in, they could've adjusted it to be something far more useful for Horizontal Progression or Side Grades. Yes, that involves an inherent change to his philosophy, but he's acknowledged the possibility in his last Fan Fest talk.

So, sure for the small percentage of people who just happen to be item level 60 and only wanted to follow the treadmill exactly and get i70 next, OK, Lost City was "useful" to them. But when it was released people were already gearing i90, which was then quickly eclipsed again. Now Snowcloak (brand-new dungeon) drops Antique gear which is traded in for i90. The current gear cap is i130(!).

Even my super casual friends who play sparingly can go into Syrcus Tower and gear i100 and get Sands of Time to convert their Tomestone gear to i110 with no issues. So "yes" for all intents and purposes the Trash Mob Dungeons Yoshi P releases each patch are always behind for relevant gear.

I'm not saying all dungeons have to be "end game," but he seems to be trying to "retrofit" a gear path into a game that most players don't need.