Level Cap Increase

[Gralna]

And as for DAOC...Trials of Atlantis?

ToA didn't raise the lvl cap, it introduced Master Levels, which weren't really levels, they were basically just a way to measure how far along you were in doing the 10 raids they introduced, with new skills learned after each raid. You were still lvl 50 before and after all the raids, and gear from previous expansions and vanilla were still relevant for endgame.


Closest they came to adding more levels was Champion Levels which SLIGHTLY increased your max hp/mp and allowed you to learn weaker versions of skills from other classes (roughly lvl 10 equivilant).

I also understand that for this game and many others, not raising the lvl cap would be horrible idea since in order for that kind of system to work, you basically have to design the game from the ground up with that in mind. Trying to do what EQ1 did, will almost never work since there are so many of facets of the game that would require rebalancing you'd basically end up recreating the entire game.

I do however wish there would be some middle ground, where our gear doesn't become entirely irrelevant every 3-4 months.

[aerialrave]

While I don't see there being a quest to actually unlock a level cap increase, I actually wouldn't be surprised if they locked non-expansion accounts out from leveling past 50 and made them keep their cap there. I would assume it's just an automatic account-wide unlock once the game key is registered to your Square Enix account.

[Snugglebutt]

I am certain you will not be able to skip levels. There will probably be plenty of quests, dungeons, trials and raids to help level you to the new cap. There is no reason why they should have a quest that lets you skip 5 levels. The main story quests prior to the expansion might be tweaked to give EXP but I would not count on that since those quests give Gil and items, some of which are worth a lot of Gil. That is reason enough to do those along side seeing the story on that character. Crafters will be more of the same most likely, level your DoL/DoH to 60 while unlocking leve NPC's in certain locations then level your crafter/gatherer on those plus nodes like before.

[Niwashi]

I am certain you will not be able to skip levels. There will probably be plenty of quests, dungeons, trials and raids to help level you to the new cap. There is no reason why they should have a quest that lets you skip 5 levels.

Nobody's talking about a quest that would let you skip those levels. It's a question of whether there would be a quest to unlock the level cap before we can start earning the XP for those levels (maintaining the current level 50 level cap until that quest is done). Having such a quest unlock would allow players who still have all the current level 50 content to do to have some time where they can do it while staying at the appropriate level for it. Then once you're finished with the 2.x content and ready to move on into Ishgard, you could do the quest to unlock the level cap increase and start leveling again as you head into the new regions.

Without such an unlock, people are going to end up already being level 60 before they complete even a tenth of the 2.x content that was designed for 50, and then all the Ishgard content intended for leveling up 50 to 60 is wasted because you're already 60 before even reaching the beginning of it.

[Alberel]

Nobody's talking about a quest that would let you skip those levels. It's a question of whether there would be a quest to unlock the level cap before we can start earning the XP for those levels (maintaining the current level 50 level cap until that quest is done). Having such a quest unlock would allow players who still have all the current level 50 content to do to have some time where they can do it while staying at the appropriate level for it. Then once you're finished with the 2.x content and ready to move on into Ishgard, you could do the quest to unlock the level cap increase and start leveling again as you head into the new regions.

Without such an unlock, people are going to end up already being level 60 before they complete even a tenth of the 2.x content that was designed for 50, and then all the Ishgard content intended for leveling up 50 to 60 is wasted because you're already 60 before even reaching the beginning of it.

This is actually a very good point. All of the quests from 2.1 to 2.5 require you to be level 50 and are required in order to access Ishgard... Even if the quests reward no xp, the content itself will cause you to be well on your way to 60 before you even have access to the expansion. With this in mind it suddenly does seem likely to me that there will be a quest within Ishgard to unlock the ability to make the 50-60 level progression. I didn't think it likely before but I see no other way to handle this now...

[kyuven]

This is actually a very good point. All of the quests from 2.1 to 2.5 require you to be level 50 and are required in order to access Ishgard... Even if the quests reward no xp, the content itself will cause you to be well on your way to 60 before you even have access to the expansion. With this in mind it suddenly does seem likely to me that there will be a quest within Ishgard to unlock the ability to make the 50-60 level progression. I didn't think it likely before but I see no other way to handle this now...

Other than, y'know, having the quests themselves continue to not offer EXP.
They also said the road from 50-60 is going to be as long as the road from 1-50, so make of that what you will.

[Purrfectstorm]

Other than, y'know, having the quests themselves continue to not offer EXP.
They also said the road from 50-60 is going to be as long as the road from 1-50, so make of that what you will.

As a player who actually loves leveling, I think this would be great and I really hope it's the case.

[Alberel]

Other than, y'know, having the quests themselves continue to not offer EXP.
They also said the road from 50-60 is going to be as long as the road from 1-50, so make of that what you will.

Did you even bother to read my post? I already pointed out that even if the quests themselves offer no xp the content itself (killing stuff, dungeons, trials) will reward enough xp to have you well on your way to 60.

As for the leveling curve I wasn't aware that they'd made any statements at all yet. I find it very hard to believe they'd make it so steep after 50 given the more casual audience of this game. Care to give a source for that? I recall them saying the story content covering 50-60 would be as long as the 1-50 story stuff but that is not the same thing as the leveling speed.

[CYoung187]

Must have Kirin mount to level up past 50