Guild Wars 2

So its been widely reported that ANET have shoe’d in ability to raise the level cap in the future and because of this I think we can safely assume it will happen eventually, possibly in a future expansion. I do see an issue with this however- the relative ease of leveling in GW2 will see any small cap increase rendered nigh on pointless. If, as in many MMOs, they decide to add a further 10 or 20 levels then I can see many completing this, along with the new maps in a few hours. What should be a massive update will effectively be an event at most.

So with this in mind ive been trying to think of ways to shoe in a ‘cap’ increase that wouldnt be completed in a matter of hours. Apart from the obvious increasing of the exp needed to level, what about an achievement based leveling system? Completing specific tasks in order to get a set amount of exp….but with enough different achievements for the player to choose what they take part in. The point is that you cannot get exp from an event more than once. These events/achievements could include new bosses, mini-stories, your personal story, dynamic events, renown hearts etc etc. The point is that this would slow exp gain but you would have to implement a system whereby exp cannot be gained outside of the new areas and that could be controversial.

A variation of the above, you could do away with the level increase and have an achievement based system for the new zones which awards titles (or similar). You would then be able to wear the new equipment based on what titles you hold.

So enough babbling, how would you lot like the level cap increase to be implemented?

It’s completely pointless because other than traits there is no sense of progression.

I guess more traits would help even more to 1hit kids in pvp. Yay for balance.

Please no. level 80 is high enough.

I have no objections over raising the level cap to 90 – 100 for PvE (players higher than this get downscaled back to 80 in WvW and sPvP), as long as the upper limit for equipment remains at 80. All such a level cap adjustment means is basically players get more trait points to play around with in PvE.

Personally I wouldnt mind having to go out and get new equipment. I see GW2 as a journey that ive not yet finished. I expect (and hope) that my current equipment doesnt last me until the game’s demise. But for those that do mind…what about adding in a way to upgrade your current equipment? If not then level specific skins, keeping all stats at 80?

As for trait points…a new tier may be needed. Skills….new level specific skills maybe?

Personally I’d rather not have ArenaNet increase the level cap as I can already see several problems if they do. Not only that I don’t see why they have to follow suit with other MMO’s when they’re perfectly fine doing their own thing.

I mean, they should really stick to the original games roots when it comes to expansions… which is to introduce an entire new continent for players to explore and level. New professions, races, weapons, traits and skills but further allowing players to customise their build by allowing them to choose what skills they want on their tool bar.So there’s still a sense of progression as people will be earning skill points to further unlock new abilities/builds for their characters.

No, please no. I hope they continue to add content, not a longer road to a finished character. This game is about having enjoyable content that you can enjoy with your character, not about constantly having an incomplete character and chasing a carrot on a stick.

they are just going to release gear that takes grinding to get.

I’d love it. Have new 80-90 level zones, and raise the cap to 90, or 80-85 zones and raise the cap to 85.

Why would people be against this?

Cheers.

No thanks. I like the level cap as it is. Plus if they raise the level cap it wouldnt take time to grind to it if they stick to their model as it is now (which i prefer) and getting a higher level would be pointless. All that’s needed is extra content for the levels already available.

You don’t need more trait points, and the level cap of 80 can stay in WvW, but the increase is sorely needed in PvE, as well as new gear. Without statistical improvements its almost impossible to keep people interested in PvE. Not increasing the level cap is just purposefully gimping yourself with the amount of options you have to create real progression(no, skins and titles are not a meaningful progression for many).

It’s like Spinal Tap…

Why not make 10 louder?

This one goes to 11!

We don’t need more levels. Just make more (preferably fun) stuff for levels 1-80.

I know they said they might raise the cap someday, but if they actually do raise it… heh, well, there goes GW2’s chance of ever knocking Windows solitaire out of my Top Five PC games of all time. I’m almost but not quite entirely not kidding.

With dynamic level scaling and such, there’s no point in raising the cap. All it would be is extending the finish line another 10 feet back for no reason.

This game was specifically marketed towards the horizontal progression crowd. We came here because we thought that this game would not force us to continuously chase a carrot on a stick.

To those who support an extended level cap: what do you gain from this other than an ego boost? You wouldn’t actually get any stronger. The same enemies and content that are hard now would still be hard due to level scaling. All you’d be doing is forcefully outdating all of your gear making everyone grind again for a new set. Why would you want that? Is your life so devoid of accomplishment that you need to have a bigger level number just to feel good about yourself?

Omega.1473:

To those who support an extended level cap: what do you gain from this other than an ego boost? You wouldn’t actually get any stronger. The same enemies and content that are hard now would still be hard due to level scaling. All you’d be doing is forcefully outdating all of your gear making everyone grind again for a new set. Why would you want that? Is your life so devoid of accomplishment that you need to have a bigger level number just to feel good about yourself?

It’s more content. More zones to explore. Better gear to get. Different gathering stuff to raise crafting to 500 (?). Isn’t that what people are always saying about this game, that the journey and leveling are the best parts? People are always saying there’s no end-game in GW2. Why not give them 80-85 or 80-90 content?

Cheers.

I seem to remember early on they said they might raise the level cap in GW1 as well, and part of the reason for setting it at 20 was to give themselves room to do so without having absurd numbers. I think it was after the first expansion they started saying they probably wouldn’t (and probably during it’s development that they made that decision). So the fact that it’s possible in this game doesn’t necessarily mean they will do it.

Personally I’m pretty indifferent to the idea. I’m not against a level cap increase, but I think since levels are pretty arbitrary and more a way of keeping track of progression than a form of progression in themselves there has got to be something else to go along with it – new skills/traits/whatever to unlock or new content to go alongside the levels, and personally I’d be happy with that being added without the extra levels.

Actually that might be a good way to do it because then it’d qualify as “end game progression”. You get to 80 and you start unlocking a new set of skills or something. It fits with the current system of unlocking new skills and skill sets (as well as mechanics like weapon swapping) as you progress, and it’d be something to do after hitting 80 for those who want to continue the progression, like the gear grind in other games. (But with the difference that these skills wouldn’t be hugely more powerful, you could still be competative in WvW without them for example.)

Of course some people will still fly through the content then complain there is nothing left to do. But IMO trying to keep those people occupied is a waste of time for Anet because it’s impossible to make (good) content in a video game that takes longer to complete than to create so they’ll always be lagging behind the demand and they may as well spend their time making something that’s actually fun instead.

Lankybrit.4598:

It’s more content. More zones to explore. Better gear to get. Different gathering stuff to raise crafting to 500 (?). Isn’t that what people are always saying about this game, that the journey and leveling are the best parts? People are always saying there’s no end-game in GW2. Why not give them 80-85 or 80-90 content?

Cheers.

Woah there! Those are all great things…But what about them requires a level bump? Why not have those things at level 80?

New zones? Why not keep them at lvl 80? Southsun Cove was a new zone…at lvl 80.

Better gear? There are a lot of people who don’t want that. Look at the back lash over Ascended gear. The longest thread to ever exist on these forums consisted of over 1k posts, well over 75% of them against the change in direction. We were promised that there wouldn’t be gear upgrades. If you want this, you came to the wrong game and you can kindly see yourself out.

More materials? Passiflora, Karka and Snowflake gear all say “Hello!” All of them are new level 80 recipes and materials. But, lets say you want more. How about new materials and recipes that take you to lvl 500 that give level 80 Ascended gear. We currently have no crafting method to obtain those, so why not? Give us Unobtanium ore, Vials of Titan Blood and Impenetrable Leather Sections but make them craft level 80 Ascended pieces. A crafting increase in no way needs to be tied to a level increase.

People say the journey is the best part. The exploring. Show me a single post on these forums that says the actual act of leveling up is the fun part. Most builds in this game are either gimped or play VERY different sub-60 to the point where certain classes really have rough spots during their leveling due to locked out Grandmaster Trait tiers.

The people who say there’s no endgame are the people looking for classic repeatable endgame content as they know it in other games. But tell me, how does pushing the endgame back HELP the current endgame? All you’d do is make the current endgame meaningless. All current dungeons will be outclassed. Orr and Frostgorge Sound will be just as empty as Lornar’s Pass and Harathi Hinterlands. Extending the level cap is COUNTER to breeding a lively endgame because you nullify the current endgame completely and you further spread the player base thinner across a larger level divide making the endgame even lonelier.

None of what you said argues for a level extension.

What i’d love instead of plain +10 to the level cap, is some kind of a “secondary profession” system, where an expansion introduces, say, 5 new secondary professions, with 10 levels in each. So they have their own skills, traits, a small amount of them, and when your character gets to 80, he picks a secondary and levels it, maybe acquires some specific new gear related to the secondary profession, and that’s it. Something to bring back some of the diversity from GW1.

More content and more reasons to play sure, but more levels, we’ve already danced on the corpse of Guildwars 1 to its death with gear treadmills etc, must we go the WoW type route even more…

Go back to how this game was loved and wanted…

No thanks. We don’t need more levels, just focus on content.