Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
Is the goal here to simply make it so that raiders will always retain an ilvl advantage over non-raiders, rather than only for the first 10+ weeks? Would crafted gear likewise be nerfed, in your ideal here?

@Tint, DSPguy: Is there anything that you think might make a positive difference outside of slowing power acquisition or widening the gap between those who do all content and those who do not?
The idea is to give non raiders a goal they can reach. Instead of adding savage raid gear and then just gift gear of the same strenght to everyone else a few months later - in this idea midocre players can actually do content and aquire stronger gear.

Right now there is the savage raid for hardcore players. And everyone else just gets tomestone gear. And because tomestone gear is so strong there is no room for any content between savage raids and expert roulette.
Why should anyone bother with the weapon from Eureka Orthos for example? The tomestone weapon will have your back. Or actually this joke of a relic quest this time around... But why bother grinding a relic weapon when there is a just as strong tomestone weapon available anyway?

The whole gear progression is catered towards savage raids. You get the entry gear basically for free and when you came late there is the catch up patch and now you can enter savage faster.

But a lot of people don't want to do savage. They will never enter it, regardless of "catch up" mechanics. But these players need a goal too. Content with a worthwile reward.

To increase the perceived amount of content people need reasons to do more than just expert roulette five times a week and 24 man raid once a week.

But of course when the easier midcore content provides gear as strong as savage raids then savage will die out. Some people will still do it of course, like some people are getting the weapon from Eureka Orthos, but thats not sustainable for the raid scene. So the savage raid gear has to be stronger. And the tomestone gear has to be weaker. Otherwise there is no room for midcore content with gear as a reward. And content without gear? Well we are back to tomestone gear, expert roulette and the failure which Criterion was.