So whats up with the new gear ratings? it was usually 6 item levels between golds of different tiers (236/242/248) before and only 2 of the purple/ golds in the same tier. If im not mistaken that means 1 of several things: 252 is the new 230 and 258 is bottom of another grind for "golds" fest , 258 should have been 254 instead , 252 should have 256 (i.e 246/248) , or more than likely BW has failed to properly plan things out. Latter being the most likely.

If youre upset bc of a numbering system and color scheme...you need to find a new hobbie:D

I conclude that the only reason for the original post was to insert as many smilies as possible for no discernible reason.

Stressing over the numbers aside, I have this really, really bad feeling that this grind will just simply be a stopgap for another grind. I think they will bump it to 260 or something. They have yet to show where this is all going, and hopefully have more Ossus content coming. however, right now people are doing dailies, and are starting to get tired of them...and this new OP isnt going to get solo players or small guilds into the game. I hope they have more content coming, but it seems they have this idea that grinding gear is real content or something.

All of the emojis confused me. What was the point of this thread again?

If a 6.0 really ever does come out, the level cap will increase and all this gear won't matter. There will be a new grind, new class balancing and likely new content balancing as they will likely again nerf all the current character performance because it will be over-performing for the new cap (which needs to now perform at the level of the old cap.)

I'm pretty sure the next grind iteration will have 252 as the base tier. Whether that's 6.0 or another time waster 5.xx.x update is anyone's guess.

Stressing over the numbers aside, I have this really, really bad feeling that this grind will just simply be a stopgap for another grind. I think they will bump it to 260 or something. They have yet to show where this is all going, and hopefully have more Ossus content coming. however, right now people are doing dailies, and are starting to get tired of them...and this new OP isnt going to get solo players or small guilds into the game. I hope they have more content coming, but it seems they have this idea that grinding gear is real content or something.

 

I think you are probably right. These two ratings fit nicely into a two tier expansion of GC. With new tier legendaries being 254 (up 6 rating points from 248) and 260 (up 6 rating points from 254). It would fit right into what typically happens with gear and a level increase. A new BIS rating is released (in this case probably gold 260s) for the "new" operation. What I see happening is current Tier 1 gear goes away and Tier 2--> Tier 1, Tier 3-->Tier 2, Tier 4--> Tier 3, and 254 becomes Tier 4 (including the current 252s) and Tier 5 is the new 260s (including 258s). That way you keep GC for those who are happy with it and give raiders and ranked PVPers accelerated access to it through their content. A win for everybody.

 

It also then creates 3 tiers of gear for any "new operation" that might be in the works. Story Mode = Tier 3, Hard Mode = Tier 4, and Nightmare = Tier 5. They spent a lot of time fixing GC to the point where most people find it at least tolerable (There are a few hardcore raiders - a tiny minority of the raider population - that begrudge anyone having access to BIS gear besides them and a few that feel gearing can't go fast enough that still hate GC with a passion).

 

Expansion 6.0 is likely a long ways off and if released would likely coincide with the release of the final movie of the latest trilogy to "take advantage" of the increased visibility. These new gear ratings are likely something they pulled out of the proposed content to give everyone something to do while they work on the expansion. Could you imagine the outcry if nothing new was released until the very end of 2019.

 

It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out