[Harm]

Gear inflation isn't nearly the problem that level inflation is. Because to get the new gear you have to get the previous gear. Its a natural progression that keeps old dungeons and raids in use. Leveling doesn't have that requirement as long as there's a blue mob you can kill.

Now its somewhat diluted of course by non-raid gear from the new expansion eclipsing low-level raid gear from the old expansion even without increasing levels. But that is far better and more natural than non-raid gear from five levels higher.

The "But Kunark increased the level cap by 10" argument only proves my point. Vox and Naggy were completely trivialized after the level cap increase, and well before everyone even hit 60. The only reason people went there was for easy haste and 100% bags for minimal effort, the rest of the gear was throwaway. Verant then cludged in some viability and challenge with the level 53 cap to engage those two dragons and the epic quest drops.

So 1) Even Verant realized at the time they needed to act to keep the old raids viable, and 2) It very convincingly illustrates what happens to old raid encounters when the level cap increases. If there's any loot that's still good they get farmed as soon as the content respawns without any challenge at all, if there's no loot worth having it will be completely ignored by everyone. If a classic + PoP zones server increases the level cap to 65, there will be no one doing anything but those PoP zones, and the best zones in the game will be going to waste.