I can't be the only one predicting a permanent level 60 cap

[Synstir]

So in this system, where we would level each pac 50-60, what would happen with someone who decides to stop now, at level 50 and come back 3xpacs later?
The char would still be 50 and the player would level from there in the new xpac?
Would the content of the missed pacs just be obsolete?
No need to buy the missed xpacs?

[Revamp Man]

so they are going to instead of just expanding the leveling range on content and wrap SL into the 10-60 experience they are going to constantly push us back to 50....no

[KainneAbsolute]

I wonder if they will try a mastery system like gw2 or if we will level "virtual 10 levels" to expansion-specific abilities.

[Sevryn]

Level 60 Perma Elite Tauren Chieftains.... I approve this!

[OokOok]

You must be new, you actually think Blizzard would make it so you never have to level again? LAWL
Blizzard literally loves the idea of players levelling every expansion they say it's part of the MMO experience and they cherish that aspect, they LITERALLY have said that EVERY expansion

So the only way this works is if every expansion you get dlvl to 50, which is just fucking stupid

[GMZohar1]

Ive been saying this for a long time. Its going to be borrowed power we level up for now on

[RemasteredClassic]

You must be new, you actually think Blizzard would make it so you never have to level again? LAWL
Blizzard literally loves the idea of players levelling every expansion they say it's part of the MMO experience and they cherish that aspect, they LITERALLY have said that EVERY expansion

So the only way this works is if every expansion you get dlvl to 50, which is just fucking stupid

Yes and No (as comments to your two paragraphs. The No comment is exactly because it would work counter to what you're saying blizzard is saying, therefore there wont be any further level reductions as that would be contrary to the premise itself. Leveling does not HAVE to follow the traditional xp/player level, and can be provided in countless other ways and possibilities.

[Drusin]

Yeah so they can fuckup scaling every xpac, that'll be fun to look forward to

[tmamass]

We’re absolutely settling into a permanent 60 cap that squashes anyone over 50 back to 50 with every expansion prepatch.

I have been saying this since they announced the stupid level squish...

[Eurhetemec]

Yeah so they can fuckup scaling every xpac, that'll be fun to look forward to

Whilst I share your terror, historically Blizzard do get better at stuff with practice. If they did do this "push you back to 50 every time" thing, they'd probably actually get better and better at balancing the 1-50 content. It'd just be the expansion that most recently became 1-50 that would be dubiously balanced.

Still, I hope they don't. It happening for the first time after nearly 16 years seems inevitable and reasonable and even kind of fun. It happening every two years? Not so much fun, and gradually shading into "feels bad man". If they want to cap levels, there are better ways. If anyone can come up with a decent "Alternative Advancement" system it'd be Blizzard.

[erifwodahs]

There is no need to squish - just apply scaling. They are covered for another 10 years until they reach 100 again. I don't think they would be looking at something like perma cap and squishing it even further would erase the boundaries between the levels.
Giving us borrowed power is the problem as it's removed next expansion so the 3 expansions later that level gap feels "bare" and gives nothing. I guess they will work on that rather than crunching numbers all the time.
That being said we will probably have something like 200k HP at the end of expansion and next expansion we will be back to MoP/Legion numbers. That's another problem, but that's a tough one to deal with.

[vagnar]

I don't see how that would make sense. They've reset the level because "levels are growing too high". So why would they now stop at 60? Over 60 wouldn't be too high.

[SirBeef]

Revisiting this topic now that I’ve experienced the squish first hand. We’re absolutely settling into a permanent 60 cap that squashes anyone over 50 back to 50 with every expansion prepatch.

Why am I so sure now? I just leveled through legion. The core story got me into the late 30’s. Scouring the map for quests barely got me to 50, and that’s with a handful of dungeons thrown in. If my new level 50 is ever squished back down to “need to level again to access the latest expansion,” even for a bit, there is almost nothing in his chosen timeline but dungeons with which to do it. Furthermore the very finality of leveling via timewalking with the forced ejection at 50 reinforces that this is a phase you use to get you ready for the current expansion then it’s over. There’s no going back.

-The 60 cap is staying.
-Every pre-patch, anyone over 50 is reduced to 50.
-Any alt that gets to 50 (or was squashed from 120 to 50 with 9.0) and doesn’t get used that expansion, stays at 50 until they are dusted off for an expansion, after which they will be 50 again with the prepatch.

Repeat every two years (or every expansion, should they slow down). For as long as the game is developed. After which the servers basically stay up in maintenance mode until the sun explodes.

Calling it now. Again.

You easily change the experience gains so you level through 2 expansions before hitting the next expansion. Or they just keep it the same 1 expansion Chromie time and increase the rate of xp so that you make it to 60 then 10 in 10.0. Not really a hard concept to grasp

- - - Updated - - -

Whilst I share your terror, historically Blizzard do get better at stuff with practice. If they did do this "push you back to 50 every time" thing, they'd probably actually get better and better at balancing the 1-50 content. It'd just be the expansion that most recently became 1-50 that would be dubiously balanced.

Still, I hope they don't. It happening for the first time after nearly 16 years seems inevitable and reasonable and even kind of fun. It happening every two years? Not so much fun, and gradually shading into "feels bad man". If they want to cap levels, there are better ways. If anyone can come up with a decent "Alternative Advancement" system it'd be Blizzard.

This wouldn't be a problem if players didn't insist on seeing/feeling gains with each new tier. Blizzard had to make tier jumps too big. The problem was exacerbated with multiple raid difficulties with the same ilvl gap.

I've long been a proponent of making mythic gear cosmetic only and let skill dictate who can clear it and lowering ilvl gap between difficulties and tiers. As well as having 3 difficulties for raids. LFR, Normal, Heroic. LFR would be LFR, Normal would be between Normal and Heroic now, and current Mythic would become Heroic again but be tuned according to the max ilvl possible from the ew normal raiding.

This cuts back on stat over inflation as the game progresses, and knocks off a whole top level which really let things get out of hand and require 2 squishes already.

[Gorsameth]

So in this system, where we would level each pac 50-60, what would happen with someone who decides to stop now, at level 50 and come back 3xpacs later?
The char would still be 50 and the player would level from there in the new xpac?
Would the content of the missed pacs just be obsolete?
No need to buy the missed xpacs?

There is already no need to buy the missing expansions as every time a new expansion is released the previous one gets rolled into the base game.

If you buy WoW fresh now you get Vanilla through Legion with the base game and then need to buy BfA separately.
Soon(tm) you will get Vanilla through BfA with the base game and need to buy SL separately.

[Drusin]

Whilst I share your terror, historically Blizzard do get better at stuff with practice.

That's true, I wasn't being fair, just mad about the current scaling problems.

[Wramp]

i could go into the 100s of reasons this wont happen, but most of what I would say has been covered here already. I will just leave all of you with this thought: I originally thought that the end-cap of this game would be level 100, and I think Blizz did too, then things happened...so now, with this Squish, we can once again venture toward 100, and when we get there this time, that is the end of WoW 1, and the "we will never do" WoW 2 will start.

[Cæli]

if they stop releasing expansions, sure
there will be a point where producing new expansions will be less lucrative than just running classic realms for all games

[Eurhetemec]

This wouldn't be a problem if players didn't insist on seeing/feeling gains with each new tier. Blizzard had to make tier jumps too big. The problem was exacerbated with multiple raid difficulties with the same ilvl gap.

I've long been a proponent of making mythic gear cosmetic only and let skill dictate who can clear it and lowering ilvl gap between difficulties and tiers. As well as having 3 difficulties for raids. LFR, Normal, Heroic. LFR would be LFR, Normal would be between Normal and Heroic now, and current Mythic would become Heroic again but be tuned according to the max ilvl possible from the ew normal raiding.

This cuts back on stat over inflation as the game progresses, and knocks off a whole top level which really let things get out of hand and require 2 squishes already.

This is definitely true, but players really do seem to expect it. The times when it hasn't happened, there was a hell of a lot of whinging and quit-threats. I assume enough of the latter were carried out that Blizzard at keen to keep the treadmill going.

Re: Mythic being cosmetic, I also agree, but I think the shitstorm that would entail would be a real problem for Blizzard. I wouldn't drop to two tiers though. Normal is in pretty good place, and making it harder would not be a good idea. I'd probably rename Mythic to "Master Mode" or something to really let people show off. (Also LFR needs some work, right now it's pretty dysfunctional a lot of the time.)

There are a lot of issues you'd have to address with such a system though.

[Sting]

"100 is a logical cap to be permanent" - some guy years ago

Same shit, different day.

[vagnar]

I think getting pushed down to level 50 at pre-patch of every expansion makes the most sense. That way, the current leveling system can continue to provide new options for leveling with the addition of new expansions and we re-level from 50-60 every expansion. No need to ever do a massive squish ever again.

Then why even have levels?