I see a lot of posts about, if combat skills are shifted to 120, that there would be this sudden gap hole to fill; however, that presumes that combat wouldn't be rebalanced, or that the levels above 99 would have to be linear.
Imagine for a second that weapons and armour were rebalanced: so that a tier-50 becomes a tier 60, a tier-70 becomes a tier-80, or a tier-95 becomes a tier-110. That would allow for more variance in weapon and armour types, and give Jagex room to rebalance some of the current armour and weapons (because lets face it, there are a ton of weapons and armour between t-70 and t-90), and provide more room to grow in the future (tiers 110-120). That wouldn't change the fact that the current endgame weapons would still be end-game weapons. This fact could be extended to support skills (like fletching, crafting, smithing, etc) so that rather than creating new content from 99-120, the existing content would be would be re-calibrated instead. So level-70 arrows would now require level 80 fletching, etc (and with the way runecrafting works, it would just mean crafting multiples of higher tier runes).
The one downside to this is this: if, for example, someone with 99 in all combat skills currently had a t-95 weapon, and the combat skills were moved to level 120, alongside a corresponding increase in the tier, that would likely mean that you would now need level 110 of those same combat skills to now use that high-end weapon. Imagine needing level 110 ranged to use a t-95 bow, rather than level 99 (or lower). I think that wouldn't be such a big deal, tbh. Most people using that high-end gear already have those virtual levels.
Increasing the combat skills to level 120 would also allow for new combat abilities to be unlocked, which could be the crux of the change from 99-120. Because, lets face it, combat has become as much about the new or upgraded abilities, as it is about gear or stats. Grico does more for DPS than a ranged level or two...
17-Oct-2021 19:09:41
