I have noticed that across 11 characters all level 120, as a semi casual player, no mythics and only just recently into raiding normal and heroic, I have a ton of 340 gear but very little better.
Whereas it is was so easy to hit 320 by doing non stop heroics, and then join the LFR with plenty of 340s, to go from 340 to 350 appears way harder in that it takes much, much longer, in my experience.
And I think this is done purposely. I have seen very few Warforged/Titanforged compared to Legion. The 2 guaranteed pieces of 370+ are great but only once in about 10 days. There is the weekly epic boss with 355 which is great.
Then there are the assaults/invasions which seem to be twice daily, and this would be fantastic, except I have noticed that:
Look at the last line: I am 345 and they are giving me a 340. And this is an Azerite cache, and my helmet is 360, Shoulders 345 and chest 360. Totally useless and it appears the system wants to hold you down to 340, judging from all the above.
If at 349-351 they are giving me a 355, why then at 345 they are giving me a 340?
Are you doing Warfronts? 370 from the Arathi WF quest, and 385 from the Darkshore. And, of course, you can run them as many times as you want without the quest, to get a 340 each time, except rings and trinks.
Also World Bosses. And Invasions. Invasions keep scaling with you, and so do Emissaries.
My hypothesis based on what I’ve seen about rewards that scale in 15s is that the probability you will get a higher or lower one depends on your current ilevel. Something like, if you’re 350, there’s a 2/3 chance of getting a 355 and a 1/3 chance of a 340. I can’t remember how exactly I came to suspect that, but I think it was when I turned in two emissaries when I was same ilevel and got two different ilevel rewards.
Yes I have already mentioned that, you get 2 pieces of 370+, but this is once every 10 days or so, and you have the usual 20% chance to loot something. This will not gear you fast.
Yes, already factored in, world bosses are one each week, 355 item, but again at 20% chance to get something.
This is the interesting part which I am thinking about. It seems that you need to break through 345+ in order to get a 350+ item. If you are below 345 you will only get 340.
What is my main thesis is that the TIME required to go from 340 to 350 is disproportional to the time it takes to go from 0 --> 340. And crafted items are 340, so you can become 340 in a jiffy, then do a few Heroics to get 320+ Azerites, and an LFR and you are 340 already.
But then it is a (deliberate) grind until you hit 350, and then you “unlock” the 350+ from emissaries and invasions.
From my experience of the game I don’t recognise this at all, though not saying this isn’t true for you (RNG and all that) . I’ve got 7 120’s my main is 388 in bags (7/8H,2/8M) but my alts are all 350+ with two being 370+ none of these have done a M+ or raided in Uldir (other than 1 LFR at the beginning to get from 320-340).
Warfronts, PVP brawl cache (do the weekly unrated/queue-able brawl for the reward) all give over 340 gear. Not to mention WQ caches and the World Boss. Timewalking is also worth a shot (the cache is 355 and the dropped gear can WF/TF)