Is Power Creep Acceptable?

[mauried.5608]

The problem with power creep and a fixed maximum level, is that the power creep just becomes an alternative way of level raising without changing the number.Monsters have to be made stronger to compensate for the increased player damage, so all that happens is that the game becomes a WOW clone, with the pretence of a fixed level cap.New zones have to be made harder to compensate for the stronger players and casuals get left behind .

[Locce.8405]

A miniscule amount of power creep happens, but it really should be kept to a minimum for various reasons. One reason that affect me personally as an altoholic is player distribution. We have a variety of maps that are something between painful and impossible to complete without other people - in some cases heaps of them - around. If that does not happen, because too many players are drawn to the newer, power-creep-supporting (because of special mats, better loot etc.) maps that leaves players stranded on older maps, which is not enjoyable at all.

[Conncept.7638]

@mauried.5608 said:Power creep is inevitable in a game with a level cap, unless its replaced with some other kind of creep.

What? That is completely illogical, nonsensical even. What about all the single player RPGs with a fixed level cap and no powercreep whatsoever?

Powercreep is necessary, if anywhere at all, in a game without a level cap, or in a game where the level cap regularly increases. The only reason for a game to have powercreep that has a fixed level cap is because the developers are hamfisting in to the content.

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:However, RPG's sell power fantasies.

Games sell power fantasies, not just RPGs or even MMOs, not even just games really but lots of media. But power creep is not necessary for a power fantasy, fantasy operates as compared to real life, so unless someone leveled their swordplay or ability to throw fireballs IRL, then the game is still a power fantasy without powercreep.

[Astralporing.1957]

@Khisanth.2948 said:No, all it does is invalidate older content. The entire reason for having things like downscaling was to avoid that issue. Newer mobs will just become more powerful to match but older ones will be left in the dust.There's actually some content i'd really love to see "invalidated" (read: "made more accessible") in this way.

Still not a fan of power creep, though. Not because it "invalidates" content (on the GW2 scale it really doesn't), but because it obsoletes old builds and gearsets. I don't like to be told every now and then that my old build doesn't work anymore and i should farm for a new set of gear again. And/or buy a new expac, of course.

@otto.5684 said:To be fair, I think PoF power creep is minimual. In addition the devs seem to want to reduce the power creep caused by PoF as well.That's because they anticipated power creep and nerfed the pre-pof builds. Thus, the power creep made the new elite specs go back up to previous levels (well, not all of them, in some cases they failed). The same, by the way, happened before HoT launch, when they went on a nerf spree with the core traitlines.

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

@TwilightSoul.9048 said:To some extend at least.I don't mind getting stronger, I actually enjoy that in a game but at the same time I want to be able to grow on a mechanical level as well. I don't just want to do more damage by default. I want to work for it, I want to master difficult encounters that rely on individual skill and not just a group with enough dps and a healer and so on. I prefer content for smaller groups anyway.

As long as it's a class/build that's behind like Power Reaper, Power Warrior, or Herald.

[TexZero.7910]

I don't have a firm stance one way or the other.

I get why people don't like it (Trivialization of content), but at the same time you're all playing a power fantasy game (it should be expected).

[Wandering Mist.2973]

This video very nicely sums up why power creep is a bad thing, and some methods to fix it. For me personally, I see power creep as a lazy, low cost way of keeping a game going, and more often than not acts as nothing more than a bandaid rather than an actual solution.

[Daffan.8924]

@Lunateric.3708 said:It is necessary, a MMO with no powercreep over the course of 5 years is fictional. Mobs and encounters should scale accordingly of course.

EVE online has very little powercreep, so it's possible. Although a sandbox and not a themepark grinder.

[Wandering Mist.2973]

@TheGrimm.5624 said:The problem is that power creep introduced for PvE impacts other game modes which is an issue. Defensive stats gain less value as offensive ones move up. The old 'I don't have to take a hit if its dead' versus the 'dead deeps do no damage' argument. Course this a difference on how people might gear up depending on their game mode and there might be valid arguments on various sides and situations.

I still wonder if one of the main issues is the AI though. We don't use the tank/deeps/healer model but the AI in a lot of spots kinda does. Instead why doesn't the AI follow rules that a player in PvP or WvW would, drop the squishy one first and then move from there to get them in rez mode. Mind you this is not the same as an enrage timer. Especially since enrage timers only increase the call for power creep since you have to drop them faster versus you need to win and survive the encounter. These are not the same thing.

Course we are seeing more mob evolution as we move from Core to HoT to LS to PoF so, we might be getting there yet. When I see people dropped by new mobs, I admit its kinda nice since they can't just come in an wipe the floor and move on. Course getting back the daily reviver would be nice too. ;)

You know it's funny but the AI in gw1 was a lot smarter than the AI in gw2. In gw1 the AI would actively target characters with less max health and those wielding caster weapons (staffs, scepters, etc) instead of higher health targets wielding melee weapons. They would also specifically target healers over other casters, so if you were a monk for example you had to be very careful. Get too close to the mobs and they would instantly turn on you and kill you.

[tekfan.3179]

I kinda like a bit of power creep. Since GW2 downlevels us to the specific map, a bit of power creep gives the feeling that our character became more powerful since they started their journey.

What I don't like is that they close the dps-gaps between the professions. It feels like they ignore class mechanics, differing healthpools and armor ratings.Just take a look at the [qT] raid builds and compare the difficulty rating with the dps rating.If you take a look at the staff weaver and the power dragonhunter...I played both and the dragonhunter is remarkably easy in comparision to the weaver and the dps-gap is quite small compared to how much more forgiving the dragonhunter is.It's nice that they made both professions stronger and that the weaver is challenging to play, but if it's just mostly the same dps on all metabuilds and the only significant difference is the effort you have to put, that feels bland.

Then there's the necro. The profession finally got a meta build that's so good that people use it for raids...meta for one boss, good for another two and not recommended for all the other bosses.