The smaller numbers involved make many items functionally worthless thou.Here is an example. Currently we have +healing on 6 potential slots. +healing we do not want going higher than a certain %, let's say that's 60% for simplicity's sake here (actual is higher). That means each slot we need to restrict to 10% +healing max. We cannot add more slots with +healing, we cannot exceed +10 healing, even if players cannot find the items or the quests are too hard to complete, it would exceed our targets and be bad generally to balance.
We could instead of doing it this way, have a cap of 60% healing, and give you items with 10, 15, 20 +healing or add healing to every slot and let you decide which piece is best based on their other stats and your available gear. The overall power, the amount of that +healing is determined by level and presence of other stats on the item, so it's not so much "power" increase, but shifting numbers around to allow for more targeted itemization. Like comparing an item with +10healing/+10stam regen vs +15 healing vs +20 stam regen. Their relative power and value could be similar depending on your spec and what you value. Ideally there is increased flexibility in the items that we can offer without "breaking the bank".
Yes we purposely keep the numbers low and don't go into exponential scaling. Content remains dangerous especially group content. This does shrink our dynamic range, but this is what we are aiming for in terms of relative power across the level ranges. Damage isn't exponentially increasing, but people definitely feel those bumps and players hitting for 100-200+ at higher levels and that feels good.
What do I mean.
When you start looking at percentages or percentages of percentages when the sum of those numbers are less than a whole integer you run into a place where many items simply are lost to rounding down.
Walk into a Sonic and order a drink..... Your design option: you have a 4oz drink or 60oz Big Gulp.... By increasing scaling you can offer a smoother delivery of options. you can order small, med, large, extra large, jumbo, big gulp.
Take a skill like the warlord stamina song for instance. Level 10 or something when you first get it the skill hits for +1 stamina, fast forward to something like level 25 or something and it starts to tick for +2. Those are very sharp steps in power and a ton of dead spots in-between. Yes that may make the skill feel more impactful when upgraded but it also feels pretty dang bad while you struggle in those dead spaces. You all added 25, 33, 36, etc gear for the same reason because every 10 levels was too much of a step. You remove many options for itemization and progression when a level 1 character has 100hp and the highest tank on the server has 350hp or something similar.
Lack of scaling also affects the derivatives of the potential outcome of damage and attack rolls. What do i mean?
When completing the function of an attack roll that has to fit between 100 and 350 say you have only so many options. You give the rolls multiple variables yet the sum must stay between a certain range. That becomes much smaller given that you can't design mobs that are going to one shot tanks and have to consider how quickly you can heal as well. This by the nature of the variables involved normalizes the potential outcome of the derivative with very little variation. This essentially trivializes gear progression almost all together and makes resists and con to level most important.
Tulach Smertnik