No more levels, just item levels

Community General Discussion
1

Disclaimer: I’m not saying this is a perfect idea, I just think there’s something to be learnt from it.

To stop having old content from being too irrelevant, what if we eliminate leveling, and only have item levels? It would avoid content from being worthless every new 10 levels and would make us need to go through all the content to progress.

For example here is how I would proportion the item levels you can acquire across all the content.

Old world dungeons/questing 1-60
Old world Raids 45-70
TBC/Wrath dungeons/questing 30-65
TBC/Wrath Raids 50-75
Cata/Mop/Wod dungeons/questing 40-75
Cata/Mop/Wod Raids 55-80
Legion/BFA/SL dungeons/questing 40-75
Legion/BFA/SL raids 60-85
DF dungeons/questing 50-80
DF raids 65-90

-item levels required for the content your doing scales in the bracket of the continents your leveling in. Ex: if your item level 35 in the Barrens the monster scales up to you and you can obtain item levels 36 item level and up.
-abilities/talents are unlocked as your item level increases.
-item level 1 to 60 is the learning phase you earn talents and abilities in this period. You stop gaining abilities and talents after.
-the item levels doesn’t have to be as small as 1-90, but it’s just the scale in which the item levels are proportioned to each other compared to all the contents. Like if Old world dungeons/questing (1-60) was 1-120 then Cata/Mop/Wod would be like 80 to 150, or in even bigger numbers proportioned that way, etc.

-Without levels making everyone more overpowered, players who have a higher item level won’t just plow through and solo old content. They would perform better but not severely overpowered.

-Also old content could be relevant to them if there was something like player housing and old content have home decorations or something like that that people can get. Or they are just there to support friends or maybe even Role playing or something like that.

-By always being relevant I don’t mean that it’s the highest content always. But that there’s always a place for the content in the progression of the player.

-I have balanced the item levels you can gain so there are less power gap between contents so people don’t over power old content and make it remain relevant when doing things like world quest or public events spread throughout the world.

-Even with a low item level dispersion, There are more epics in the raids than in questing. The item rarity is enough of an upgrade, but not too much.

-Maybe there could be a compromise and have some levels. But only for the sake unlocking of abilities and talents. There won’t be stat increase as you level. Then after level 60 it’s all item level. There’s item levels before 60, it’s there’s just also levels.

-Unrated BG/Arena brackets are 1-25, 26-50, 51-80 (with less epic loots)
Rated BG/Arena are 40-60, 61-80, 81- 90 (with all epic loots)

1 Like
2

No thanks. This sounds terrible.

8 Likes
3

I like this, if only to trigger Ulduar 4th boss that is a pain at max level. Otherwise, no. I’d rather they just give me a way to whack the bot so that I trigger the heart.

4

So literally the same process as leveling up

5

I would only agree, if done correctly, but this is Blizzard. Hard pass, they’ll screw this one up big time.

1 Like
6

Yes but I think there’s less gap of power between contents mashing them up like this.

7

No New Levels or RPG Elements in a Video Game of any kind is terrible.

8

No thanks I like going back to content that used to beat my cucumber into the dirt and get revenge on it for transmog and other stuff.

1 Like
9

I stopped reading right here. Removing leveling would cement this game into being nothing but a lobby for queues and remove a huge portion of what makes it fun. No thanks.

2 Likes
10

Gear should be incremental increases and based on level.

How would you unlock new powers and talents and skills?

With gear ?

11

What if we compliment it with a system like this(taken from my post in mmo-champion):

"What if players can make their own quest(for themselves) and be rewarded for it?

-Here are some types of self quest people could make:

Kill Quest- Killing as much of a type of npc as you can. Ex. Guards, Ogres, Raptors, Orcs, Dwarves, Pirates, Naga.

Scouting- Explore different routes and taking notes. Ex. Road from Tarren mill to hammer fell, Road from Sentinel hill to Lakeshire, Road from Blackfathom deep to Warsong Lumbercamp.

Collection- collecting as much of an item as possible. Ex. Elf ears, troll tusk, elemental bracers.

Miscellaneous- Things like giving people buffs, Band Aiding injured players, dancing with people who are dancing, drinking as much booze as you can.

-Reward: Players are given adventure points for doing as much of the objectives as they can. They can trade in their points for gear, profession mats, enchants, gold and transmogs. Some transmogs are unlocked when you’ve done a certain self objective enough, like a wolf head helmet for killing 100 wolves.

-Extra detail: Point rewards vary depending on how hard some task is. Killing elites gives more reward than killing critters or dancing with other players.

People can only have around 3 to 5 self quest objective at a time so they can focus on a few specific activity at a time.

There is a daily threshold on how much you can earn from self questing so its not too overpowered.

Also I think this idea would help put the Role-playing more in a role playing game."

12

Whats the point in leveling? When you get to 120 again they will just do another level squish.

“120 is too big a number.”

We were 120 if squish didn’t happen we would be 140 right now.

13

Yes, that’s my original idea. But, there could be a compromise and have some levels. But only for the sake unlocking of abilities and talents. There won’t be stat increase as you level. Then after level 60 it’s all item level. There’s item levels before 60, it’s there’s just also levels.

14

I think leveling is fun. In fact, it can be too fun, lol. I think it’s in a good place.

1 Like
15

I’d have nothing to do.

1 Like
16

Like the idea, and also,

1 Like
17

You can do all the content progressively without them getting outdated too fast as you level. You have to increase your item level by doing content after content, so you’ll get to see a lot of the content in the bid to get stronger.

Even if you become stronger than a content you’re no over powered enough to just plow through them. You can go back and get player housing stuff if there was l
Player housing. Transmogs, or just helping your friends.

I do see a problem with questing though that constantly give loot which may sway you away from doing stuff like raids and dungeons. I would decrease the amount of equipment you get from questing or trim the quest to essential ones. Or keep the equipment there in green quality.

18

What content on The Wandering Isle? The leveling is the entire content. :rofl:

19

The questing I guess

20

No quests left to do, level cap doesn’t go up, I basically sit an expansion out there. :sunglasses: