Agree that we are getting to powerful even without savage gear. And I see how it is happening. We're virtually level 106 in 770 gear.

In ShB you'd finish the MSQ, get job gear, and quickly replace it with lv 80 gear. Patch 5.1 would give you gear that simulated being lv 82 with lv 80 skills. 5.3? Level 84. And then you end the expansion kind of around level 86 or 87. This would be the "augmented poetics gear" that everyone uses as catch up gear until the Endwalker job quest!

Repeat. We're level 90 in EW. Then 92, 94, 96, 97. And we all start Dawntrail with blue equipment that is so good (97) that we keep it until the MSQ gives us lv 99 DT job gear. Repeat.

The problem is that the numbers are getting bigger and the gaps are getting wider. Lv 82 vs lv 80 is nothing. It's not too bad for 86 vs 80. Then 94 or 96 against 90 is a bit overpowered, but we can deal with it. (Sorry Nald'thal.) 102 vs 100 is noticeable. But 106 vs 100 is a clobbering. Level 106 vs 100 feels like level 90 vs level 80. Like doing a ShB trial unsync while EW was current. (4.5 minutes sounds about right!) I don't know how they're going to fix this without another stat squish.