My 2 cents on the level cap debate between the people here…
Having a level cap is a bad system to begin with let alone a low number like 40… Just right out of the gate the many reasons why having a literal levelcap are as follows:
1. Repeat items mean virtually nothing unless gotten at level cap
2. Level caps are realistically a base level they can design content around, which sounds like a plus! But in every case so far it usually adds up to a shallow experience until you reach that “base game”
3. Tied into the #2 point, levels (like in d2 or PoE) should contribute to your character, not be the start of your “real” character.
To extrapolate on each point now so i can hopefully give some weight to my explaination.
Point 1. I personally think repeat items are garbage design… The d2 in me recognizes how well the system of having uniques to offer stats and styles that rares cant make them useful regardless of level is so much more engaging and useful than the current ‘oh a level 14 x-item! Its so cool… then again a level 31 x-item… yay its stats are a bit higher so i’ll wear that… Ahh finally a level 40 x-item… Bah it has garbo stats, try again’. The same thing goes for multiple classes. But thats a problem with itemization and the ‘mainstat’ dilemma.
Point 2. The first playthrough that you do, levels matter. You get the excitement of trying new skills, finding stronger items and learning just what the game has to offer. The reason I see it as a downside is: the level cap is essentially the games way of saying ‘this is all i can teach you, now apply it to the rest of the game’. Sure, there will be nuances and metas to discover, maybe some secrets and lore that we missed, maybe fill out achievements but ultimately that segment of the game is 1 and done… and yet we are forced to redo it over and over for every character we make, every season we replay… we’re forced to redo the ‘tutorial’ side of the game every. single. time.
Point 3. in d2, levels meant: unlocking possible drops (item classes, uniques buried in treasure classes, gambling was tied to ilvls/clvls), unlocking skill points and reaching skill level requirements, alleviating hitting/dodging mechanics of monsters, added to your statpool for meeting gear requirements or just buffering your hp, damage or accuracy. In PoE levels translate roughly the same way. Ultimately all levels were a benefit to get and yet not a requirement to get. (eg. low level dueling)
In d3… levels are merely a step towards the start of the game… each class has maybe 4-5 legendary items that can be gotten pre-70 as well as around 5-10 items for any class… of those items something like 1-2 per class can be cubed as they offer something actually valuable in the orange text. Ultimately levels were only stats to make each level feel meaningful. stats automatically boosted for leveling and stats on the new higher level items… but they aren’t useful they are required in order to survive and/or deal enough damage to get the next level… unless that level is 60 for vanilla or 70 for RoS then you’d be done “stepping” finally lol.
Its more a knock on the choice of itemization, but its still directly tied to leveling
I have a thread already on my take of the Itemization (and leveling) that i’d love it if you could either weigh in on or better yet, add to! add your own perspective and wishes.
Cheers! Thanks for reading my rant.
Edit1: didn’t address why ‘as low a level cap as 40’ was a bad idea…
The purpose of the level cap is to even the playing field and bring balance to the leveling system as a whole… As was already mentioned, having a level 20 character take a decade to level to, or a 440 character take as long as d3 doesn’t change the problem, its a seperate debate on what feels better from blizzard for its userbase. Tempo is very important to any first time users.
No the problem with it is, blizzard is madly in love with a new level cap to bridge the gap between content and expansions. If they make a system where playing for a decade to hit 40 is in play… even if somehow they make that feel amazing to do… the next grind of 40 to… say… 50? well that’d probably require another decade to achieve… If the expansion is what is inspiring you to buy the game for the first time, grats, you now have 2 dacades of play ahead of you… obviously that wouldn’t happen, they’d drastically ramp up the exp earned for new content, or merely lower the required amount to better fit in line… these changes spell out the fact that the system was actually broken to begin with.
again, i always go back to d2 as the example… vanilla… lvl 99 max level, LoD… level 99 max level, the pacing didn’t need to change at all because the system carried itself very well.