Speculating on the Level Cap Raise

During this year’s E3, BioWare revealed some interesting additions headed our way in the next year of SWTOR. Among those additions, we heard about the news of an upcoming raised level cap. Now, all things considered, we probably won’t be seeing this increased level cap until 2013, but it’s still pretty fun to speculate and hope that BioWare begins delving out little hints soon.

The trouble is, there are simply so many unknowns at this point. Some players think it’s too soon for an increased level cap and are against one that would make green items better than current raid gear, and thus create a content chasm in the game. Others argue that if done right in SWTOR, level cap adjustments won’t be as much of a content wipe as in other popular MMORPGs, so the impact won’t be as negative– rather, we’ll just see new story, new content, and probably have a few new alternatives when it comes to running the endgame gear treadmill.

Here is one player’s opinion, found in this forum discussion, where some of the speculation is happening:

“Bioware/EA is releasing a new level cap, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be releasing new super high tiers of gear.

As it stands a level 50 can get up to level 61 gear. If just a new tier of gear is released, let’s say 64, then they could possibly make level 64 gear attainable only if you have the new level cap (it could be 52 or 55). Either way, are there any lvl 61 greens? No. are there any lvl 58 greens? No. 56? No. 51, even? No. So if you follow that logic, then yes it’s possible for there to be either lvl 52 or 55 greens, but not much higher.”

Excellent point. As I said, there are many unknown factors right now. We don’t even know how many levels we’ll be gaining. Most players speculate either 5 or 2. 5 seems like the most logical, rounded number, but for a smaller planet full of content and a new flashpoint and operation, I could see 2 levels also working well. With a smaller amount of levels, the gear gap doesn’t necessarily need to be huge. The new items can be minor upgrades, and new green gear doesn’t have to be better than our current gear.

This would also mean that our current endgame content doesn’t necessarily become obsolete. And that might just be the direction BioWare is headed, which would make many players happy, I think. We shall see.