Character Levels in 1.0 and 2.0... It's Basically the Same. (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Friday, August 28, 2015, 06:44 (3158 days ago) @ Ragashingo

If nothing much has changed then it's actually a huge win for everyone. If the level system still works where being under level gives you big penalties to damage dealt and taken but being equal or overleveled gives you no added benefits then being able to simply play our way to the maximum of 40 means nobody gets left far behind as could happen where level was dependent on armor. Sure your Attack, Defense and Light values may be lower than someone else's and you'll deal a little less damage or be killed a little easier, but you'll never be stuck at two levels under hiding in a corner because everything one shots you.

Basically, as long as Level is the biggest deciding factor in your damage output and toughness then being able to simply play your way to max level, instead of getting stuck because you don't have some boots, means things have changed for the better.

This is the opposite of what I was saying, actually. A level 40 character with 0 light in TTK is the equivalent of a level 20 character now. And a level 40 character with 168 light in TTK is the equivalent of a level 20 character with 168 light now (assuming the amount of light gives identical bonuses regardless of player level). In the current version of Destiny, a level 20 character with 168 light displays as "level 34" in order to give the players a sense of the relative strength of that character, and to show how much more powerful they've become as a result of the light on their gear. It's the same in TTK, afaik, except that instead of converting light level to character level, and only giving characters power bonuses in big chunks, the light level will give you power bonuses scaled directly with how much light you have. This means that if you're missing that one pair of boots, instead of being just as weak as someone missing all of the raid tier armor, you'll be 75% as strong as someone who is fully geared.

Caveat: Everything in TTK has light on it, including weapons and ghost shells, so you'll have much more gradual power increases than currently.