I have always been a bit of a meta-gamer, even back with muds. (for those of you too young think, WoW with words instead of pictures cause the www wasnt invented yet) I like to analyze the decisions that the designers make to accomplish their goals.

Many of the design decisions made in WoW have very definite purpose towards balance. A good example would be 'soul-binding' items. The most basic value of that to a designer is to reduce inflation in the game system. The second something is soul-bound it is effectively taken out of the economy.

Another good example is the 'rested' exp system. A way to balance casual and hardcore gamers. Sure they could have phrase it 'if you gain more than a level a week we will cut your exp in half'. It would amount to the same thing, but would be a much harder sell.

Which brings me to my fear for the future. Item level growth relative to character levels with each expansion. Up till about 60 the items you had were balanced roughly around you character level, with the ability to equip an item that was max about 10% higher than your actual level. This is what all the skills were based around.

Then as sixty rolled around and raiding became the end-game, each raid needed better equipment, so the ilevels slowly increased. You will notice that naxx level items were on average ilevel 72. A 20% increase from the characters who held them.

Then the expansion came out, and in an effort to balance the playing field the developers gave us 'outland equipment'. You will notice the ilevels of quest items in outland average just over 80. This is to put the players new in outland on par with the players who had been raiding. It also lets the developers put in content that is still a challenge for the hardcore player, while not completely obliterating more casual types. Note that at this time, stam started being weighted at 1.5 per item point instead of 1. You have to scale the players as you scale the gear or pvp wont work.

Now we are back to the 'end game' with raiding and new tiers coming out. Item levels are up over 140. A full 100% increase over the character levels that go with them. To repeat what the devs did with BC, if WoTLK came out tomorrow, all of the first quests in northrend would be giving out ilevel 150 weapons. What do the devs do next, change stam to 2.5 per item point?

I assume the devs have a plan, but we know what it is to assume. Any thoughts on the future blizz types?

TLDR: Gear is scaling much faster than levels. At the current rate we are going, the next exp-pac after WoTLK when you start questing at level 80 you are going to be using level 300 items.

-C

I can’t comment on an internal system for item levels, but what would the problem be with item levels growing faster than experience levels?

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Q u o t e:


There's one issue... the gear gap.

The greater percentage of your overall power comes from gear, the greater of an effect your overall quality of gear will have. This will make it more difficult for those who lack quality gear to enjoy end game content.

Though Blizzard has offered many different avenues for progression, I personally don't think its enough yet to counter this trend...

A perfect example is my friend and I... We went at a pretty casual pace to get to 70, just hanging out and questing together at our own pace... A break a few times a week from our main characters, basically. Now that we are at 70, we are PvP'ing a lot. We had almost entirely green gear... BGs are doable, but we get slaughtered in Arenas, simply because we can't compete against those who started PvP months ago and have a lot of PvP epics.

Its a legitimate concern; if things aren't kept on a reasonable scale, only the more hardcore players - who don't have trouble getting better gear - will be able to enjoy content after the maximum level.

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In this case you are comparing a gear gap of players who have put in a lot of time versus those who haven't which is a separate issue really.

While items could be following a certain trend in levels, there are ways to prevent any drastic issues with items being more powerful compared to monsters and other items. I don't see this as becoming a big problem right now.