Item level inflation

[Imnick]

I have nothing against more casual players getting tier sets
I have nothing against the LFR system in general
I am perfectly happy for people to play the game however they want to

What confuses me is how Blizzard are handling the LFR gear
They changed from seperate 10/25 man loot not only because they wanted to add more choice but also because of the ridiculous item level inflation, yes?
You had 10 man, 25 man and then 25 man heroic loot (IIRC 10 man heroic was equivalent to 25 man normal), and now you only have normal and heroic.
This inflation meant that every time a tier was released the stats rocketed upwards because they had to introduce three new stages.
This was Blizzard's stated reason for some of the ridiculous stat inflation at the end of Wrath. I can't speak for anyone else but I know it was possible to get well over 50% crit as a fire mage, and other silly numbers.
If they make the loot LFR < Normal < Heroic surely they now have three tiers of item level again?

The only way I can see this working is if LFR gear is only as good as the normal (or possibly heroic) raid gear from the previous tier. This would also mean that any regularly raiding raiders wouldn't feel forced into running random raids all the time.
For both these reasons, I seriously hope that's the way they intend to take it!
Has Blizzard said anything about this that I have missed? Any other thoughts?

[kkborang]

Item level jumps between tiers and heroic/normals are too damn high! I apologize for meme

[Zzeke]

I don't think we're anywhere near a dangerous level of stat inflation yet.

By the time the next expansion comes, they could easily reevaluate the stat on gear, just as they did at the end of Wrath. If it's even needed.

[Imnick]

I'm not saying we're near one now, only that they have re-introduced the problem that caused it last time.

[Rivin]

If they do half-steps, then it won't affect anything. The 365 gear, for example, is a half-step up from 359 instead of a full tier up. If they do the same thing for the Raid Finder gear level, it won't affect the normal or heroic gear levels and thus inflation is unaffected.