Possible gear cap increase coming our way. Yes, prediction.

SeaGtGruff

cyberjanet wrote: »

On the PTS, the gear binds at CP160 no matter what level you get it at (I tried a dungeon with my husband who had a level 32 character.) When you reconstruct it, it reconstructs at CP160 only, so you are not able to craft at any level.

I haven't been on the PTS to try the new system, but I'm wondering what level the character who did the reconstructing was at.

A character can't craft gear that's a higher level than their mats skill level, so I don't see how a L32 character could even craft CP160 gear unless that was the mat level they'd improved their crafting to.

Not being able to choose a lower level to reconstruct the gear at would definitely be a problem that would need addressing, but I suppose you meant "it reconstructs at the mats level of the character doing the reconstructing," not "at CP160 only"?

Not trying to be nitpicky here, just seeking clarification. Because if a character with, say, L1 mats skills could only reconstruct the gear at CP160, that would be bonkers.

idk

GrimTheReaper45 wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Of course, it is arbitrary just as it is arbitrary for any MMORPG to raise the level cap. However, it is less arbitrary than raising the level cap about two months after the game going live. I never said making such a change was logical or rational.

The newer buffs you mention are a great point that further demonstrates the bulk of power creep is not from CP but from direct actions Zos has made with the game. However, removing these newer buffs do not address the issue since Zos has scaled most of the newer instanced content to what we can do now while the older content is called to what we could do a few years ago.

While you make a good point it does not address the effects power creep has had on the development of the game and that is where a rescaling of the games would come into play.

Ok but why raise the level cap? I see why they might rebalance the content. But why rescale the content and raise the level cap?

@GrimTheReaper45

Because they want to and have said that as I noted in the second sentence of the OP. This is a far better excuse than adding a trial at a higher level and saying that is the reason but take your pick which one you prefer.

Edit: Again, Zos has already raised the level cap three times. The first a mere two months after the game went live and the last seemed to be so they could add a new level of crafting mats even though they never raised the crafting level itself.

Gorreck

redspecter23 wrote: »

The stickerbook is the key that makes this possible without ******* off nearly the entire playerbase. The part they have to still figure out is how to make it beneficial to players. With scaling, all it does is make our current gear useless and force us to remake it in a higher level. What would be the point with things set up the way they will be? Level cap goes to 180 and I just decon all my gear and immediately remake it at cp180. Yes, it's annoying, but not as annoying as refarming it all. Still pointless after that's done though.

Exactly since scaling was introduced all it would do is make people regrind just............ because

Conversely to make new gear caps mean anything they'd need to introduce new levels, which would instantly mean scaling was destroyed (ruining the thing that made ESO successful)

starkerealm

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

cyberjanet wrote: »

On the PTS, the gear binds at CP160 no matter what level you get it at (I tried a dungeon with my husband who had a level 32 character.) When you reconstruct it, it reconstructs at CP160 only, so you are not able to craft at any level.

I haven't been on the PTS to try the new system, but I'm wondering what level the character who did the reconstructing was at.

A character can't craft gear that's a higher level than their mats skill level, so I don't see how a L32 character could even craft CP160 gear unless that was the mat level they'd improved their crafting to.

Not being able to choose a lower level to reconstruct the gear at would definitely be a problem that would need addressing, but I suppose you meant "it reconstructs at the mats level of the character doing the reconstructing," not "at CP160 only"?

Not trying to be nitpicky here, just seeking clarification. Because if a character with, say, L1 mats skills could only reconstruct the gear at CP160, that would be bonkers.

So, I'm unsure if I've been spreading bad info, or if the last PTS patch tweaked things, however...

If you're on a 50/160+, you can reconstitute gear. You don't need points in any crafting passives, you can simply make the item if you have it unlocked (and have the gems.)

If you're below 50, you can see the item scalled to your level in the interface, but the option to reconstitute it is grayed out. So you can't actually recreate low level versions of dungeon and trial gear (or anything else, for that matter.)

zaria

idk wrote: »

GrimTheReaper45 wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Of course, it is arbitrary just as it is arbitrary for any MMORPG to raise the level cap. However, it is less arbitrary than raising the level cap about two months after the game going live. I never said making such a change was logical or rational.

The newer buffs you mention are a great point that further demonstrates the bulk of power creep is not from CP but from direct actions Zos has made with the game. However, removing these newer buffs do not address the issue since Zos has scaled most of the newer instanced content to what we can do now while the older content is called to what we could do a few years ago.

While you make a good point it does not address the effects power creep has had on the development of the game and that is where a rescaling of the games would come into play.

Ok but why raise the level cap? I see why they might rebalance the content. But why rescale the content and raise the level cap?

@GrimTheReaper45

Because they want to and have said that as I noted in the second sentence of the OP. This is a far better excuse than adding a trial at a higher level and saying that is the reason but take your pick which one you prefer.

Edit: Again, Zos has already raised the level cap three times. The first a mere two months after the game went live and the last seemed to be so they could add a new level of crafting mats even though they never raised the crafting level itself.

Yes they raised the level cap multiple times in the start but think last time was IC I think. After that they dropped veteran levels in favor of cp, then they did one tamriel making the world your level.
I left a bit before one year at VR 14 and came back just before homestead so not sure about the things in between.

Do not know get the new level of crafting mats as we have the cp 150-160 mats, but yes the level below is cp 90-140 so they did not add new mats with upper and lower craglorn.

Iccotak

I think raising the cap presents more problems and even exacerbates existing power creep as opposed to fixing the problem

Tranquilizer

Iccotak wrote: »

I think raising the cap presents more problems and even exacerbates existing power creep as opposed to fixing the problem

On the bright side, it will solve all problems with lag, desync, not firing skills etc. in Cyrodiil, because most people will just stop playing

SeaGtGruff

starkerealm wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

cyberjanet wrote: »

On the PTS, the gear binds at CP160 no matter what level you get it at (I tried a dungeon with my husband who had a level 32 character.) When you reconstruct it, it reconstructs at CP160 only, so you are not able to craft at any level.

I haven't been on the PTS to try the new system, but I'm wondering what level the character who did the reconstructing was at.

A character can't craft gear that's a higher level than their mats skill level, so I don't see how a L32 character could even craft CP160 gear unless that was the mat level they'd improved their crafting to.

Not being able to choose a lower level to reconstruct the gear at would definitely be a problem that would need addressing, but I suppose you meant "it reconstructs at the mats level of the character doing the reconstructing," not "at CP160 only"?

Not trying to be nitpicky here, just seeking clarification. Because if a character with, say, L1 mats skills could only reconstruct the gear at CP160, that would be bonkers.

So, I'm unsure if I've been spreading bad info, or if the last PTS patch tweaked things, however...

If you're on a 50/160+, you can reconstitute gear. You don't need points in any crafting passives, you can simply make the item if you have it unlocked (and have the gems.)

If you're below 50, you can see the item scalled to your level in the interface, but the option to reconstitute it is grayed out. So you can't actually recreate low level versions of dungeon and trial gear (or anything else, for that matter.)

Wow, that seems a bit strict. Unless the thinking is that players don't start grinding for gear in earnest until they hit CP160, so there's no legitimate reason to recreate the gear at any level but CP160?

Grandchamp1989

Spending 3 patches nerfing most things, only to make every piece of gear more powerful by raising its stats makes no sense to me.

zaria

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

cyberjanet wrote: »

On the PTS, the gear binds at CP160 no matter what level you get it at (I tried a dungeon with my husband who had a level 32 character.) When you reconstruct it, it reconstructs at CP160 only, so you are not able to craft at any level.

I haven't been on the PTS to try the new system, but I'm wondering what level the character who did the reconstructing was at.

A character can't craft gear that's a higher level than their mats skill level, so I don't see how a L32 character could even craft CP160 gear unless that was the mat level they'd improved their crafting to.

Not being able to choose a lower level to reconstruct the gear at would definitely be a problem that would need addressing, but I suppose you meant "it reconstructs at the mats level of the character doing the reconstructing," not "at CP160 only"?

Not trying to be nitpicky here, just seeking clarification. Because if a character with, say, L1 mats skills could only reconstruct the gear at CP160, that would be bonkers.

So, I'm unsure if I've been spreading bad info, or if the last PTS patch tweaked things, however...

If you're on a 50/160+, you can reconstitute gear. You don't need points in any crafting passives, you can simply make the item if you have it unlocked (and have the gems.)

If you're below 50, you can see the item scalled to your level in the interface, but the option to reconstitute it is grayed out. So you can't actually recreate low level versions of dungeon and trial gear (or anything else, for that matter.)

Wow, that seems a bit strict. Unless the thinking is that players don't start grinding for gear in earnest until they hit CP160, so there's no legitimate reason to recreate the gear at any level but CP160?

Earlier you could reconstruct on an <50 alt with some restrictions, no monster sets perfected gear or arena weapons.
You would need to know the trait but that is true for all.

If they have locked out <cp 160 its probably because an new player will have little use for the system until cp 160.
People leveling up alts will just craft gear for them, the only who spend minimum 275 transmute crystals to gear up an < 50 is people playing with twinks in Cyrodil or BG.

starkerealm

zaria wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

cyberjanet wrote: »

On the PTS, the gear binds at CP160 no matter what level you get it at (I tried a dungeon with my husband who had a level 32 character.) When you reconstruct it, it reconstructs at CP160 only, so you are not able to craft at any level.

I haven't been on the PTS to try the new system, but I'm wondering what level the character who did the reconstructing was at.

A character can't craft gear that's a higher level than their mats skill level, so I don't see how a L32 character could even craft CP160 gear unless that was the mat level they'd improved their crafting to.

Not being able to choose a lower level to reconstruct the gear at would definitely be a problem that would need addressing, but I suppose you meant "it reconstructs at the mats level of the character doing the reconstructing," not "at CP160 only"?

Not trying to be nitpicky here, just seeking clarification. Because if a character with, say, L1 mats skills could only reconstruct the gear at CP160, that would be bonkers.

So, I'm unsure if I've been spreading bad info, or if the last PTS patch tweaked things, however...

If you're on a 50/160+, you can reconstitute gear. You don't need points in any crafting passives, you can simply make the item if you have it unlocked (and have the gems.)

If you're below 50, you can see the item scalled to your level in the interface, but the option to reconstitute it is grayed out. So you can't actually recreate low level versions of dungeon and trial gear (or anything else, for that matter.)

Wow, that seems a bit strict. Unless the thinking is that players don't start grinding for gear in earnest until they hit CP160, so there's no legitimate reason to recreate the gear at any level but CP160?

Earlier you could reconstruct on an <50 alt with some restrictions, no monster sets perfected gear or arena weapons.
You would need to know the trait but that is true for all.

If they have locked out <cp 160 its probably because an new player will have little use for the system until cp 160.
People leveling up alts will just craft gear for them, the only who spend minimum 275 transmute crystals to gear up an < 50 is people playing with twinks in Cyrodil or BG.

Yeah, I think Cyrodiil and the BGs are the major consideration. Before this patch, certain items would always display as 50/160, such as monster sets, arena weapons, and mythics. Those will now display at your current level (except, maybe, Mythics), but you can't reconstruct them.

The major thing here, I think, is as a safeguard against something we've had to explain to the community for years; "if you're not at 160, don't farm for gear, you'll level out of it." With this system, that's no longer a consideration. So if you do get a rare drop at low levels, you're not screwed over because it's not 160. You can now recreate it at endgame.

To be honest, I kind of suspect the idea that people would reconstitute lower tier gear for PvP didn't occur to the team developing this. But, being able to create, "forever gear," is an excellent compromise. It solves the problem of, "I got a drop at low level," or, "I accidentally bought a low level item," without opening BGs to level 10 sorcs running endgame loadouts with monster sets.

xaraan

Even with the stickerbook system, any end game player trying to redo gear on a large number of characters for a gear cap increase would need tens of thousands of transmutes. Just looking at one of my 18 guys, it would take me almost 1k just to update their gear if I had everything at 25 stone cost. That doesn't account for the dozens of sets I also have in bank for swapping out for tanking or other builds. There comes a point where the game turns into a job and it's not worth it anymore. A gear cap increase, much like the VMA weapon changes would just be another lazy way to add busy work to the game and not improve anything.

starkerealm

xaraan wrote: »

Even with the stickerbook system, any end game player trying to redo gear on a large number of characters for a gear cap increase would need tens of thousands of transmutes. Just looking at one of my 18 guys, it would take me almost 1k just to update their gear if I had everything at 25 stone cost. That doesn't account for the dozens of sets I also have in bank for swapping out for tanking or other builds. There comes a point where the game turns into a job and it's not worth it anymore. A gear cap increase, much like the VMA weapon changes would just be another lazy way to add busy work to the game and not improve anything.

Somewhere between 14,040, and 5400, depending on how many pieces you had of each set. Yeah, that's not trivial.

Grianasteri

I absolutely, unequivocally do not want a gear cap increase.

All that means is more farming. Endless farming for my 18 characters to upgrade their gear, that I have not even finished upgrading to purple/gold, trait changing etc for them all as it stands.

As if the game isnt grindy enough with Zos constantly buffing and nerfing sets in an endless cycle every few months, forcing people to farm instead of just enjoying the game.

Absolutely no, do not implement this Zos.

karekiz

I dunno. I think it would actually lend towards more work in making a gear level cap increase. More work than I think they would want to invest into such a thing.

Every. Single. Set. Would have to increase. But thats a blanket change they could make across the database. +5 crit or some such nonsense. However with those errors might occur. That means a ton of chances for bugged sets. Even if the 160 set worked correct that doesn't meant 170 would etc. Each time they increase they would have to make sure those same sets worked. Even now in patches sets can sometimes break for whatever reason.

The other issue is how to deal with stats like Crit. Essentially if you keep increasing crit you would need to cap it at some point or else you would end up with Crit + 1000 on a 2 piece etc.

So they could in theory just increase weapon/spell damage. But even that might be worth nothing in the next 5 years Julianos would essentially be giving +1000 free spell damage.

So I don't think gear cap increase is worth the work involved for this game. Others? Sure it works quite well in EQ. Its proven itself too, but even EQ had to literally come out with Stats +2 <Heroic stats> at some point because stats literally didn't matter on gear anymore.

I don't think they want CP at all honestly. I think they want to remove the CP grind. Maybe increase level cap to 60 to simulate CP 810. Move the power back into simplified passives for global things like Armor or weapon skill lines. After all Skyshards sell. Also lets not forget how terrible PvP balancing must be for them: Cyro - BG's - Sewers - Cyro CP - Cyro No CP. Its a hot mess that needs to be merged for them.

starkerealm

karekiz wrote: »

I dunno. I think it would actually lend towards more work in making a gear level cap increase. More work than I think they would want to invest into such a thing.

Every. Single. Set. Would have to increase. But thats a blanket change they could make across the database. +5 crit or some such nonsense. However with those errors might occur. That means a ton of chances for bugged sets. Even if the 160 set worked correct that doesn't meant 170 would etc. Each time they increase they would have to make sure those same sets worked. Even now in patches sets can sometimes break for whatever reason.

So, worth knowing that under the hood, the game assigns an item's level dynamically. That is to say, a 150 and 160 version of the same item use the same database H1 entry, and the game simply generates the level and rarity in the moment. So, in some sense, if an item scales to 160 without issue it could scale higher. However, as you pointed out, balance would be another issue entirely.

Austinseph1

This will not happen without also increasing the difficulty of all current content or adding new difficulty modes to them all, and they aren't going to do that because its a lot of work and just won't make money. They have stated power creap is already a problem and this would just make it far worse. So for one of many reasons it's just not going to happen unless they will lock it behind a paywall. It's needless, and would require a ton of work. What probably WILL happen is replacing cp with a new leveling system and making all players re-level to insert a new grind, if any of this happens at all. They already have a lot on their plate and won't do this without a legitimate necessity to do so.

idk

zaria wrote: »

idk wrote: »

GrimTheReaper45 wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Of course, it is arbitrary just as it is arbitrary for any MMORPG to raise the level cap. However, it is less arbitrary than raising the level cap about two months after the game going live. I never said making such a change was logical or rational.

The newer buffs you mention are a great point that further demonstrates the bulk of power creep is not from CP but from direct actions Zos has made with the game. However, removing these newer buffs do not address the issue since Zos has scaled most of the newer instanced content to what we can do now while the older content is called to what we could do a few years ago.

While you make a good point it does not address the effects power creep has had on the development of the game and that is where a rescaling of the games would come into play.

Ok but why raise the level cap? I see why they might rebalance the content. But why rescale the content and raise the level cap?

@GrimTheReaper45

Because they want to and have said that as I noted in the second sentence of the OP. This is a far better excuse than adding a trial at a higher level and saying that is the reason but take your pick which one you prefer.

Edit: Again, Zos has already raised the level cap three times. The first a mere two months after the game went live and the last seemed to be so they could add a new level of crafting mats even though they never raised the crafting level itself.

Yes they raised the level cap multiple times in the start but think last time was IC I think. After that they dropped veteran levels in favor of cp, then they did one tamriel making the world your level.
I left a bit before one year at VR 14 and came back just before homestead so not sure about the things in between.

Do not know get the new level of crafting mats as we have the cp 150-160 mats, but yes the level below is cp 90-140 so they did not add new mats with upper and lower craglorn.

@zaria

You are correct that the last time Zos raised the level cap was IC, but we still had vet ranks then. I believe it was Dark Brotherhood that brought about the removal of vet ranks. All of this occurred during your absence.


Also, I never suggested Zos added new mats with craglorn. Well, Zos did add nirn, but that is not related to any level increase. When Zos added upper and lower Craglorn they did increase the vet ranks but the excuse was the new trial(s) required a higher level character. It was with IC that Zos added Ancestor silk, rubedite ore, and more materials required for CP150-160 gear.

This reply is just an FYI for clarification and not arguing.

idk

Austinseph1 wrote: »

This will not happen without also increasing the difficulty of all current content or adding new difficulty modes to them all, and they aren't going to do that because its a lot of work and just won't make money. They have stated power creap is already a problem and this would just make it far worse. So for one of many reasons it's just not going to happen unless they will lock it behind a paywall. It's needless, and would require a ton of work. What probably WILL happen is replacing cp with a new leveling system and making all players re-level to insert a new grind, if any of this happens at all. They already have a lot on their plate and won't do this without a legitimate necessity to do so.

@Austinseph1

You may be correct that Zos will never raise the level cap. However, the reasoning does not hold up because they have raised the level cap before. They raised it three times without adjusting the existing content which included trials. When we were v16 two trials were 4 levels below us and the third trial was 2 levels below us. That is the equivalent of 40 and 20 CP levels for comparison.

Also, if you read the reasons why I suggest this will happen sooner than later the main justification is Zos would use rebalancing the game to deal with the power creep. You have pointed out that Zos has acknowledged the power creep is an issue that supports my opening statement. I also noted that it would well with the new system that replaces the CP system.

Basically, what you have noted is much of what I have said in support of my guess. That and the fact that Zos has said they will raise the level cap again when they feel the time is right.

SgtNuttzmeg

Imagine ZOS coming back to players and saying remember how this summer we made all your arena weapons worthless and made you regrind them all despite having completed vet content? Well now we have increased the level cap so you have to do it again. Different content has different challenges when it comes to gear grinding. What might not seem like a huge deal to an casual gamer, can be for somebody that consistently golds out all their gear and grinds the perfected version of said gear.

barney2525

but the wheels are fuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnn

Moooooooooom ! I want one !

Mahabahabtha

Sarannah wrote: »

Never mess with a game's core, unless you want your players gone.

sticker this at the Gates of Cyrodiil!

starkerealm

@IDK, also Star Dew, if my memory serves. At launch, alchemy and provisioning stopped at V5. I think Crag also added the V10 food, but I can't remember if that was before or after they reworked provisioning to streamline the materials.

idk

@starkerealm

You are correct that the highest level of potions came up short of our max level. It would have made sense that Zos would have fixed that issue early on. However, it was not until the Imperial City update that Zos saw fit to add Star Dew so we could craft VR10 food but as the same time they increased our max rank to VR16 and added a second Lorkhan's Tears so we could finally make potions near our max level.

I still wonder why they added Star Dew when it's value was fairly diminished from the start.It should have been added during the time frame you have referred to.

witchdoctor

Yeah, I don't see how a gear level increase accomplishes anything in ESO.

Everything is CP 160. What possible purpose, besides pissing people off, does CP 180 gear serve?

We know ZOS is not going to start making CP 180 zones.

So, they are going to what, make the world CP 180? In which case, nothing has changed.

Banana

If it happens. I'm out

idk

witchdoctor wrote: »

Yeah, I don't see how a gear level increase accomplishes anything in ESO.

Everything is CP 160. What possible purpose, besides pissing people off, does CP 180 gear serve?

We know ZOS is not going to start making CP 180 zones.

So, they are going to what, make the world CP 180? In which case, nothing has changed.

@witchdoctor

To answer your question, what possible purpose has there been for raising the gear cap the three previous times?

I will tell you. The first two times were because Zos added trials and an arena that was set two levels higher than the previous level. The third time was because Zos just wanted to add some more crafting matts.

In reality, no game has any real justification for raising the gear cap. They just make an excuse to do it.

starkerealm

idk wrote: »

witchdoctor wrote: »

Yeah, I don't see how a gear level increase accomplishes anything in ESO.

Everything is CP 160. What possible purpose, besides pissing people off, does CP 180 gear serve?

We know ZOS is not going to start making CP 180 zones.

So, they are going to what, make the world CP 180? In which case, nothing has changed.

@witchdoctor

To answer your question, what possible purpose has there been for raising the gear cap the three previous times?

I will tell you. The first two times were because Zos added trials and an arena that was set two levels higher than the previous level. The third time was because Zos just wanted to add some more crafting matts.

In reality, no game has any real justification for raising the gear cap. They just make an excuse to do it.

So, there's a phrase that I've had multiple dev team members tell me, when talking the early years, "It's a different game now."

Back in 2014 and 2015, itemization was built around a more traditional gear treadmill. Rich (I think) actually called it, "gear chase," when they were announcing Imperial City.

So, the original goal (which we saw with Craglorn) was that ESO would raise the level cap with each new content drop, so players would always have something to level up to. It also meant there was always new, better, gear to be grinding towards.

With IC they showed their long term plan for that system, where odd Vet Rank gear would be easy to obtain, but even tier gear would be much more difficult. (IE: Getting V15 gear was trivial, but you had to grind a lot to get V16.)

There was even a new Boreal tier planned for Wrothgar, (which, probably, would have been v17 and v18) though that was scrapped fairly early on in the DLC's development.

The idea was that every three months, a new content drop would hit, the gear and vet rank cap would go up, and players could quickly leapfrog past the previous tier entirely, but would need to grind constantly to get to the current top gear, and it would be outdated in a few months anyway.

(I assume) this is part of why crafting 160 gear costs so many more materials than crafting 150. You were supposed to work very hard for that extra level of gear.

It wasn't until Thieves Guild that ZOS started walking that design back, and made 160 reliably drop. It wasn't until Dark Brotherhood that vet ranks went away entirely, shifting to Champion Points across the board. And, it wasn't until One Tamriel that you could get whatever you wanted in 160, (and could go wherever you wanted at endgame, instead of being restricted to DLC zones if you wanted endgame materials.)

In that sense, the rolling gear cap increases were part of a different era in the game. One where our gear was supposed to be something we'd constantly grind for.

In some ways, you could already see that plan fracturing as early as Wrothgar, because, while the IC sets weren't competitive for PvE content, the decision not to increase the level cap to V18 was the first sign that the gear treadmiill was being retired.

The thing is, IC was a bridge too far. The gear grind was punitive (in comparison to how easy it had been to obtain V14 gear), v16 gear only caught up to where v14 gear had been before the patch (when the cap went into effect, it just pushed everything down, instead of increasing player power. Something which had not been true with the V12 and V14 cap increases.) The new material tiers were effectively gated by PvP, and as the first new content in almost a year, many PvE players (on PC) felt abandoned by ZOS, and gated off from recovering their lost stats.

So, IC was a major stumble, and feedback from it set a lot of rules for the game going forward.

zaria

idk wrote: »

witchdoctor wrote: »

Yeah, I don't see how a gear level increase accomplishes anything in ESO.

Everything is CP 160. What possible purpose, besides pissing people off, does CP 180 gear serve?

We know ZOS is not going to start making CP 180 zones.

So, they are going to what, make the world CP 180? In which case, nothing has changed.

@witchdoctor

To answer your question, what possible purpose has there been for raising the gear cap the three previous times?

I will tell you. The first two times were because Zos added trials and an arena that was set two levels higher than the previous level. The third time was because Zos just wanted to add some more crafting matts.

In reality, no game has any real justification for raising the gear cap. They just make an excuse to do it.

Yes but game was radically different back then, they raised the VR level with Craglorn north and then south.
then an final time.

After this they changed vr to cp, later we got one tamriel.
I left eso at the vr14 stage and came back just before homestead.
Itemization in ESO is very different from in say WOW as back then I played WOW it was basically just a couple of sets for your class and role. Yes it was more but they was tired, once you reached max level you worked to increase your item level doing harder and harder content.
ESO has lots of sets who are relevant for various roles. Healing or tanking in trials can get a bit crazy as set has to fit with the others.

I see it more likely that we get an new upgrade level above legendary or new traits than gear level increases.

Nomadic_Atmoran

A gear cap was always inevitable in this sort of setting. Just not sold on the idea that a new increase is necessarily on the horizon. Whatever they implement will have to give players something in exchange for the current power they enjoy.