Yeah something like the PvP Prestige system but one you unlock after hitting max level on a character. Every max level character would automatically get access to it.
That would probably work but then there’s still the issue of a power increase or rather gameplay differences of new expansions.
“Why” would a player want to go do the new content when all items in the game give the same stats?"
This is why you need to have the vanilla-tbc-Wrath-style Itemization back.
They “designed themselves in to a dead-end”, so to speak. There’s no way to go but backwards now because all the things that would actually solve their issue of “We can’t keep increasing the level cap forever” are systems and designs that were used in Classic-tbc-Wrath and have already proven themselves to work succesfully.
I am now going to bring up the biggest, most ironic thing ever: The solution to the biggest problems that WoW faces today lies in Classic WoW and in Classic/Tbc/Wrath WoW’s itemization.
Hear me out on that before you laugh me out of the room.
Remember, Ghostcrawler, At the time the Lead System Designer for World of Warcraft stated "One of the important philosophies of game design is that interesting choices are fun. The word ‘interesting’ is key."
Back in the day a player would design a character specifically to do what they wanted the character to do.
Rogues are an incredible example of this.
Back when set effects still worked at low-level you would see Rogues with a lot of interesting builds.
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Tier 1 would reduce the cooldown of Vanish, healed you on-vanish and increased baseline Energy.
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Tier 2 would increase poison application chance and damage.
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Tier 2.5 increased the damage of Eviscerate (Yes, that ability only) and reduced the cd of Evasion.
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Tier 3 increased your energy regen and had a chance to give 100% Crit Chance for your next Backstab, Sinister Strike or Hemorrhage.
What rogues would do back then was pick a specific set effect that they liked and then proceeded to use the old Talent System and other items to specifically tailor their character to do a specific thing that they enjoyed doing.
Tier 2.5 for example worked incredibly well with the talents that increased the Crit chance / Damage of your finishing moves and increased your combo point generation and Eviscerate damage.
With this build your point builders would be weaker in damage but your burst would lie in your finishing move: Eviscerate.
So where am I going with this?
Rather than implementing something that is purely a power increase (Level cap increase, Item level increase, etc…) … They could make level 120 the permanent level cap from here on out but still introduce new content that brings us new Gear sets and other items.
This would mean that with every new content patch and expansion they implement a “new playstyle” for each class that people could choose to play, rather than a level cap increase that would only increase your power.
You could experiment around with these Set Effects, too. You could make them thematic for example! Make a gearset with effects relating to the Void, or Old Gods or Dragons.
As long as their effects are interesting, cool and changes up a playstyle then they can work.
It would still give people a reason to do the content and It would still give people a reason to use that gear if they want to go with those set bonuses.
This is currently the only way in where I can see a world where there are no new level cap increases work.
Will every single build and set effect be high-endgame competitive worthy? No. Probably not. But that’s okay!
There is an old comment that I found on the thread that Hepius linked me.
Just make sure to mentally include the term “Viability” with the term “Balanced” used in this comment.
Maranza - Jun 19, 2012 - lv72 Human Warrior - RavenFlight - MOONRUNNER.
“In all honesty, I feel that the game should be unbalanced, and that the races and classes should all have intrinsic strengths and exploitable weaknesses.”
"Unbalance. It’s natural. It’s fun. It’s what WoW has lost. Until you guys realize that and unbalance the game again, you’ll never “fix” it.
But then again…“fix” denotes balance. We don’t want balance. We also don’t want superfulous unnecessary talents. We want the ability to choose a spec, but not be shoehorned into it."
- Pom Pyro specced Arcane/Fire mages.
- Sword Specialization Arms Warriors.
- 2-Handed Windfury Enhancement Shamans.
- Stunlocking Rogues.
They were not always fully balanced and/or even remotely viable in high-endgame gameplay, but they were Iconic, Fun, Interesting and Immersive.
…Interesting Choices – One of the important philosophies of Game Development.
Exactly this. Thank you so much for understanding, it’s frustrating to converse with people that just won’t get it.