What happens to our iLevels?

[Zohar_Lahar]

The Keeper of the Lake requires average item level of 90, and rewards item level 100 gear. So I imagine gear rewards in the expansion areas will continue based off that and work their way up.

[Dhex]

I'd rather the Physical Lv. 60 gear have higher base stats than Lv.50 iLv.135 gear and start at iLv1 and build up from there rather than continuing with the item level bloat. I also hope they don't insist on straight item level jumps every patch - they could afford to spread options out and give gear more intriguing stats and benefits and only push the item level up when they feel they hit a critical point when developing more content that requires them to make the jump.

The game feels very hollow when it's just a rehashed treadmill.

[Intaki]

I'm personally expecting the level 60 gear at launch to be somewhere in the area of ilvl 140-160. This means that the well-geared players from 2.0 can coast through leveling with the gear they earned and still have something to work for at the end.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

With the current dungeons dropping item lvl 100 gear, i wouldnt expect 130 to be good for very long. Ultimately the new Job specific gear is going to be the new baseline level 60 gear, with better stuff earned other ways.

[Kotemon]

In theory, one could say all gear will be iLevel from lv 50 on up. So and piece for lv 51 ~ 60 would read like lv50 (equip) iLev 55, same as normal. The difference would be the players base stats for the job/class and abilities/traits available. Currently the ilevel stats across a set should put player stats to that range. If anything were getting a bump for content, but it also means we may not see much in stats in ilevel gear in the future. Unless new gear picks it up at i145 being i135 is about the max now before the extra 10 levels.

[Nutz]

Since Yoshi said that our current gear won't be immediately obsolete (and it wouldn't make much sense logistically) I'd expect i130 to be at least good enough all the way to 60, though probably outperformed by options in the 55-57 range. I mean, when you get gear form quests/ dungeons it's not like you get a whole set at a time, and dungeons usually require gear a bit less powerful than what they drop. So if the first dungeon is dropping i130 stuff, that would mean that you'd probably need to be about i130 to complete the next one.

This is probably not much of a problem for people playing right now, but for new players that aren't going to grind a full poetics/ WoD set when they hit 50, but rather continue leveling, the gear requirements would skyrocket and require that they stop leveling to grind out a full set of up to date gear. Because of this I'd expect that there will be ample opportunities through quests and dungeons to gear up in a totally new set before the requirements shoot up above i100 or so.

[Ultimatecalibur]

The Chrysalis has an i90 requirement this implies that the minimum expected ilevel for a 50 heading into the Heavensward areas will be around i100. The current high level and expert dungeons as well as CT and Coil should end up being good sources of XP and gear when leveling from 50 to 60.

The Post-50/Pre-60 dungeons will likely drop i110 and i120 green gear and have ilevel requirements of i100 and i110 and the AF2 sets will likely be i130.

i130/i135 will likely be entry level endgame gear for Heavensward with Alexander's first stage giving out i140 in NM and i150 in HM once it is released with the new token gear giving the same.

Do not expect a repeat of what happened with WoW and Burning Crusade. What happened there is commonly agreed to have been one of the worst mistakes in MMO developement.

[Nutz]

The Post-50/Pre-60 dungeons will likely drop i110 and i120 green gear and have ilevel requirements of i100 and i110 and the AF2 sets will likely be i130.

I think this is a bit off. I don't see them releasing new tome gear (which it sounds like the new AF will be) that's the same ilvl as current gear (Poetics and Dreadwyrm). Even if there weren't an expansion, just a 2.6 patch we'd be getting i140 gear upgradeable to i150, going by the current pattern (and i150 raid gear if there were more Coil). I'd say at a minimum the new AF/ Alexander gear will be i150 (possibly after upgrade), but probably higher to fit in some gear progression between 50 and 60.

I would expect that, assuming previous trends continue in some respect, there will be a set of unlimited tomes and capped tomes probably with entirely new gear and the unlimited tomes gear will be an upgrade for everyone (ie. bested only by the gear form capped tomes and either version of Alexander). Probably a 'darklight 2' set purchased with the uncapped tomes at ~ilvl 150 and the new AF purchased with capped tomes at ~ilvl 170.

There could be a greater disparity though, as Yoshida has commented about wanting a wider range of gear available at varying item levels including competitive crafted gear, dungeon drops, tome gear, both versions of Alexander (unclear if there will be a difference in gear rewards but seems likely), and the new 24-man raid. It sounded to me a bit like he doesn't want any sets to share the same ilvl as any other set, but hopefully he was actually talking about diversifying itemization instead (one could hope).

[Ultimatecalibur]

I think this is a bit off. I don't see them releasing new tome gear (which it sounds like the new AF will be) that's the same ilvl as current gear (Poetics and Dreadwyrm). Even if there weren't an expansion, just a 2.6 patch we'd be getting i140 gear upgradeable to i150, going by the current pattern (and i150 raid gear if there were more Coil). I'd say at a minimum the new AF/ Alexander gear will be i150 (possibly after upgrade), but probably higher to fit in some gear progression between 50 and 60.

My point is that we should not expect growth higher than i130 before level 60 endgame. The required ilevel for Heavensward will be starting from i100 (i.e. Keeper of the Lake's rewards) meaning that there are still 2 ilevel sets before i130 gear is required.
I'm expecting the AF2 sets to be Job quest rewards or a dungeon token trade in similar to how AF1.5 is now and not tome gear (though the new tome gear with ilevel equal to Alexander's rewards may be dyeable enhanced versions, but I doubt that) because they are already being advertised.

I would expect that, assuming previous trends continue in some respect, there will be a set of unlimited tomes and capped tomes probably with entirely new gear and the unlimited tomes gear will be an upgrade for everyone (ie. bested only by the gear form capped tomes and either version of Alexander). Probably a 'darklight 2' set purchased with the uncapped tomes at ~ilvl 150 and the new AF purchased with capped tomes at ~ilvl 170.

I doubt that. Poetics will likely be made unlimited and a new tomestone/tomestone like will be introduced to purchase the Alexander NM equivalent ilevel gear from (which can then be upgraded with a token gained from Alexander HM).

I always thought it was weird that iLvs suddenly start going up by 5's at lvl 50. It seems so arbitrary.

They could just change it to go up by 1's (so i100 would be i60 and i135 would be i67 but still have the same stats as now) and it would take a lot longer for iLvs to outpace real Lvs and get up to ridiculous numbers.

Ilevel is a factor in the gear stat formula.

[Intaki]

My point is that we should not expect growth higher than i130 before level 60 endgame. The required ilevel for Heavensward will be starting from i100 (i.e. Keeper of the Lake's rewards) meaning that there are still 2 ilevel sets before i130 gear is required.

If anything the standard ilevel for 50+ content will be i90+, since that is all you need to do Keeper of the Lake.

I have a feeling we will see the ilevel 90 AF+ gear be placed into the MSQ as quest rewards to the make the transition easier for new players.