Quote Originally Posted by Sandpark View Post
No disrespect because some of those things you listed sound cool. But
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Lol it's fine. I understand your concern, I think for the issues you presented the feelings of course are real like having your progress wiped out. I would suggest that a merit system would be a lot scarier if done non-cosmetically though :P. Longer lasting gear (where the next tier of gear doesn't just invalidate the previous tier, so less stat growing per ilvl maybe) might be good. But I don't think looking for long term stat progression through a merit system would be good, because if it's too in depth the pool is so deep that new players are looking at like 100 hours of grinding to catch up to the power of others.

Besides with a cosmetic merit system they could add things normally impossible, such that it doesn't go over other work. You're not going to be able to unlock a smokey dark knight effect any other way, this is it - there is no invalidation its just an option to pick if you had wanted it (and you get to keep it even if you decided later to turn it off).