What *really* happens when they raise the level cap...

Usually a level raise in an MMORPG resets everything (all PvE and PvP gear) back to ZERO. And usually it comes along every 1.5 to 2.5 years, along with an expansion with a boat load of content.


Now SWTOR doesn't seem to be following this model, so who knows.

Level 53 players? Seems legit.

Really.. if you look at how gear quality goes up with levels in this game, even if they raise the cap to 60 the best gear in game now would not be obsolete at level cap.

If they just keep going the way they are and make gear have item levels equal to character level untill max level, you will be able to go into the first endgame stuff with your current endgame gear.

Just because WoW does complete reset at each expansion (which is not entirely true as you could do WotLK Naxxramas in Black Temple/Sunwell gear), doesn't mean each other game including this one will do it.

The problem if you don't reset is what happens to PvP gear?

Because eventually PvE gear over takes it for PvP even with the inclusion of a PvP stat.

Conversely if they add new PvP gear it can be much better than the PvE gear you're supposed to grind through first, thereby negating PvE.

It's not coincidence that the most used model IS the one I discribed above, it simply works with fewest problems.

So people's precious Campaign gear just gets flushed down the toilet and gear from quests becomes better.. haha.

I remember the first time I hit Outland back when BC released...all that 1337 gear I grinded so hard for became completely worthless like 3 quests into the game when they gave me gear more than triple the stats of my prior. At first sure, the loot whore in my rejoiced, but after awhile I realized how stale it made it

Then came all the other expansions which repeated the cycle, until even getting new loot was a boring chore that one could do in their sleep. The only thing that could make it worse is if they came out with sleepwalker Raid Jr encounters where they practically give you gear...

...oh wait.

GW2, lvl 80 out of th box, no plan to raise level. Chalk up another one for everyone's favorite unreleased MMO to hate!

weeeeird. then it'd be just like a. . . *gasp* MMO!

In playing City of Heroes and DC Universe Online, the level cap has never been increased.

I experienced several level cap increases throughout my time in Everquest and World of Warcraft, however, and having played both ways, I thoroughly believe 'no increase' has been the more enjoyable experience for me, though mileage does vary.

Level Cap Increase is, for good and bad, essentially a reset of gear. There are only 2 possible ways to handle the equipment. Either new gear scales based on the standard character progression (which means that all your grinding of teir gear gets thrown out the window as it gets replaced by Greens and Blues of a higher level. WoW typically employs this system. Or new gear scales progressive to old gear, in which case the old level cap becomes a hurdle for new players and alts (cannot realistically enter the new content or recieve new drops until they do all the raiding nessesary to attain the old 'endgame' gear from the previous level cap, just to immediately obsolete it once they can break into the new content). Earlier expansions of Everquest were famous for this, reaching a point with the release of Gates of Discord that any player who wasn't already in a top end raiding guild would literally never set foot in nearly any zone of the new expansion, and yet up-and-coming players found themselves cut off from those same Raiding guilds they needed to work with because those raiding guilds have no need for the old drops, no reason to run the old content, and less time to spend on matters that aren't the new endgame. The second method trends towards a segregated player base of the Haves and Have Nots, where new players joining the game have little if any hope of ever successfully catching up.

Increase of the level cap does add additional talent points to allot in the talent tree, as done by World of Warcraft's talent tree system at least, but generally there was an expansion to the talent trees making each one a bit deeper so players wishing to specialize in one tree still would have little left in the others, while a well rounded player who takes from all trees would not reach any of the end-teir abilites. Of itself, it's not a bad deal, but every time I've seen the talent trees expanded I've generally gotten a bad taste in my mouth. It appears (just my opinion) as though the Alpha/Beta testing and extensive work on the baseline game creates typically fairly balanced classes, but they are usually 'balanced to 50' meaning that you will see highs and lows during your character's leveling career. Certain levels a character will seem weaker than other classes (for example, low level Smugglers who struggle with the double-Tank companions and only weak entry level heals, as opposed to powerful DPS classes like Bounty Hunter who get augmented early on with a capable Healing companion). While most of the imbalances largely iron themselves out over the progression of a character, the amount of equality between the classes seems to be gauged by when they are at their peak. The new abiliites added are given substantially less than the years of development time that went into designing the class core, and seem to scale with class progression (meaning they want your level 60 thing to be significantly enough better than your level 50) but in doing so, we end up with a scale in which the characters progress at all differant values, then finally become roughly equal at 50, only to advance further at varying rates and end up with some fairly large class disparities. In WoW this became very apparent with Tanking after some talent additions as Warriors, Paladins, and Druids diverged and became more specialized until they were generally only sought after for a specific purpose (Raid, Small Group, PvP, etc) with a clear-cut, no-competition, superior class in each situation, rather than the variety of multiple classes being able to fulfill the role adequately.

The contrast is, of course, that the level cap raise eliminates a chunk of the grind in most cases. If previously you had to grind through three suits of teir gear to reach your best in slot, with a raised level cap you need only grind one: the one at the new higher level. Because a level cap increase is essentially a ground zero for most players, they can serve to assist new players join the ranks of raiders, as well as expand the available ranks of viable partners when the numbers start to drift too few as players achieve Elite status.

Some people like it. Some people don't. It's good for some, not for others.

The "WoW way" is not the ONLY way to raise a level cap. In fact its about the worst. In old school EQ the gear was worth getting but no where near good enough to ditch raid gear for random crap. 4 expansions into EQ you know what you started raiding once you hit max lvl? The first expansion. There was no choice, no dailies to grind or dungeons to farm for tokens. You wanted to raid one expansion you started on the first and actually progressed thru content till you had gear good enough to take on the next. WoW did it so wrong post BC that you'd think a horse had kicked them all in the head...for a couple of months straight. Anyone else remember Ulduar almost completely negating Naxx and then Tournament of Champions making both Ulduar and Naxx totally pointless? And those weren't even expansions, just patches with new content.

I don't know what they will do but, what I hope they do is take a page from the EQ handbook of common sense and not simply make all the old stuff useless and old raids a waste of space. Based on the fact that two new raids have come since launch and all are still worth doing (apart from those pushing the end of end game content) I would have to think they will take this same approach to their expansion as well. New stuff that doesn't negate the old.

Please for the love of all thats holy don't be another WoW raid hamster wheel SWTOR.

The level cap is probably going to be small. I would say 2-3 levels.
If Bioware does it right then any gear drops would not be better than what we have now. Maybe different looking (hopefully colors added).

Ideally a new mod slot would be better than throwing away gear. A reinforcement Mod that will add greater armor to the custom gear. So I don't see new greens dropping that are better than the gear you have at high level. But I would imagine that there would be new mods to put in your current gear. MK-7 anyone? Enhancements 23-25?