They are area levels, not character levels, though the chest after a monolith takes it’s area level as the user level (since the echo of a world is scaled to your level). So a lvl 90+ character could get tier 7 gear by running lvl 55 monoliths & opening the chest.
I think @McFluffin’s idea is good, have the drop rates for t6/7 affixes increase significantly with the empowered monoliths, but also make them significantly harder than they are at the moment.
Hmm. I see this as a bug. Not a feature.
It was discussed with the devs (from memory) & I don’t think they’re going to change it (like the Maehlin’s gloves not setting your bleed chance on your character screen to zero).
Compared to their actually strength they are definitely too rare.
Now the question is, do we want to make them stronger and stay as rare, or make them drop more often?
Because both would probably not be a good idea.
As i already said, i think we can still improve itemization and affixes in general, but i think the actual drop rate and frequency of exalted items is fine.
I don’t mind them being theoretically be able to drop, those kind of items should jsut never be expected, but if some crazy items drops, it can be really cool, especially when economy is in palce at some point.
I would not call it an illusion, it’s all down to player expectation and i personally did get the intent and know that it should never be expected to have multiple exalted affix items.
I really don’t know what exactly you are talking about.
I was purely speaking about reaching certain lvl milestones and how easy/hard it should be. I want those last few levels to be a “goal” that needs to be reached by playing the game very well, but don’t lock anything behind it, except some passive points and the health/mana you gain from those levels.
Itemization and level of your character are not directly linked.
This was a really big misinformation from you, which got clarified by Llama below.
I am not sure why people would thing item drops are linked to character level? That makes no sense.
Don’t get me wrong, i think very very high levle content should definitely reward certain gear (like exalted) much more frequently, but content that already CAN drop those items should be relatively easy accessable. (Like lvl 90 and 100 MoF Timelines).
Even higher/more empowered versions of those timeliens would defintiely be appreciated though.
I’m not sure that “if X is improbable to achieve why bother implementing it” is a particularly good argument. Why does PoE have chase items like Headhunter? Why did the devs add in the Fractured Crown? Why have anything in the game that can’t be achieved just by rolling your face over the keyboard?
I agree that (IMO) they should be easier to attain, but I don’t think the devs do.
Well considering before tier 6 and 7 were added and the mew monolith of fate. Having tier 5 drop was by character level being 81 or higher
The way it was worded in the patch notes logic lead me to believe it was still by character level. Should have asked for clarification before assuming.
i was fairly sure the restriction for t7 items was area level and not player level related, and i’ve been telling people that for as long as they’ve been in the game, so i hope that’s the correct info. some confirmation from the devs would be appreciated! 
as for the fabled t28 items, i don’t think there’s anything wrong with them being exceptionally rare. they’re like a mirror of kalandra in poe (see note below)*. iirc their expected drop rate is 1 in 10,000 hours. finding one can theoretically set a player up for the entire league, or at least deck out a single character in the best possible gear. having those extremely rare items will feel a lot better once we have trade.
*(note): at least they could be… the exalted item drop table should probably be improved significantly and if the devs can devote the time to it, maybe a system like poe has been playing with where items that dropped in the most recent league content were “rolled” several times by the algorithm before dropping and then the best outcome of those would be the item to drop. obviously, it took years for poe to implement that system and it’s still in the development stage for them. fully understandable if something like that is outside the scope of getting LE to 1.0. i think we need either some system like that or a more generous drop rate if they remain as likely as they are currently to be disappointing. this is another thing that might improve significantly once trade is available without any changes to the way it currently works.
I think items like 2xT7 or 1xT7 + 1xT6 with perfect synergistic affixes are “Mirror Tier Items”
4xT7 is probably astronomical low from what devs said. They will probalby not evne drop once per a league/cycles (when that is up)
I am jsut wondering if there are even player “expecting” to get such items realisticlly.
As i said earlier, it’s alot about the expectations from players.
I personally would never plan or expect such items, but in case they drop it’s just a pleasent surprise. And if the item is not for my character, it will still feel good, if we have an economy and you are playing in a mode that has trade enabled.
yeah, i would consider an item with 2 exalted affixes that had synergy or relevance to my build (or any build) to be mirror-tier as well.
i can see where boardman is coming from though. i’ve put about 5% as much time as him into the game, so if i had 7k hours invested, i’d probably start to wonder if it was even possible to find these items too. i don’t feel too strongly about whether those should exist or not, but i understand the frustration.
imagine finding an item with 4 t7 affixes and it’s like a pair of refuge boots with minion dodge rating, chance to find potions, stun avoidance, and % health regen. to have gotten so astronomically lucky and still to have an item that no one would conceivably use… it would be hilarious and feel terrible.
I’m assuming by this you mean changing both (drop frequency and item power) at the same time, not one or the other. So if I’m understanding you correctly, you believe increasing the power of the exalteds while keeping them at the same drop frequency is the way to go. I would also be on board (hah) with this. It’s my position that exalteds need to become worth chasing for before they’re in a good spot, and right now they’re just something that, for most players, if they happen to get a good one while working towards other things then that’s a bonus. To resolve this problem, Boardman provides one option here, which is to increase the frequency of multi exalted affix items. Another option would be to increase the power of tier 6 and tier 7 affixes. I think either would help accomplish the goal.
It’s 100% tied to area level, with the aforementioned exception of the end of echo loot chest. I have several tier 7s from this patch and I haven’t played a single character that was level 90+
Devs have already said the want the difference between 90 and 100 to be marginal the that is a philosophy I think they will keep in mind when designing a lot of aspects of the game.
Oh yeah, typos can make a big difference 
You assumed my position correctly^^
I would much rather have exalted affixes be more powerful individually and keep their frequency as they are currently, because i think T6 drops often enough to get some, even for more casual player, while T7 are really really rare, which i like.
I am not a fan of increasing multiple exalted affix frequency. It should be still possible, but a item with 1 desired exalted affix should be the most realistic expectation player can have, everything over that is pure “god-tier item”
A game of this type must:
If you make content that most of the player base can’t negotiate, you run the risk of ending it a “proof of concept” project rather than a viable commercial venture. Players will appreciate risk/reward and effort/reward rations that make the game fun and enjoyable to play.
90% of players will not finish the Atlas in PoE every league. It’s actually really important in a seasonal game to have aspirational content in order to keep the number of players sticking around high. There’s a balance between accessibility and challenge, and right now LE is arguably skewing much more so on the accessibility side.
Which can also arguably be because were missing 3 endgame systems.
But back to the op. Seems a win win with everybody having increased drop rates for t6 t7 in empowered timelines and increasing empowered difficulty.
Id be happy with that.
Hey Boardman, I think the observations here are spot on, however your conclusion that they should lock more things behind more grind I disagree with completely.
I want to suggest that you have some investment bias here. You are one of the few people who has invested the (In my opinion, ridiculously high) amount of time to get a character to level 90+. Investment bias would mean that you sort of don’t want that investment of time to be ‘wasted’, so you would resist them making a change in the other direction (say halving the amount of XP needed to reach level 100). Yet this seems to be exactly what your observations suggest.
This, to me shows they have clearly already stretched the character progression too far!
There is absolutely nothing wrong with ‘finishing’ a character in half the time, then using your time to try a new build or play a different game.
This is me! but I can tell you: more powerful items at the cost of more grind, more gating, more hoops to jump through will not make me play the game or support it for longer, it will make me play it less… a lot less. What will make me play it longer? The same thing that makes it good now - the variety and the thoughtful interactions between items, skills, passives, and fight mechanics. Clearer communication of skills and interactions so time spent planning builds is not so frustrating. Balancing existing skills that are useless or so OP that you cannot bring yourself to choose anything else.
TLDR : The ‘tier 28’ or level 90+ journey is already a philosophy of ‘you must work to play our game’ and it doesn’t have to be.
This is the oppisite of what i was trying to suggest. I do not want more locked behind “Grind” I want the excitement of what you experience in the first 33% (first 2 hours) of game to be how the entirety of the game feels until you hit 90+. I want there to constantly be something more to look forward to. In example i would want a skill tree to have 40 levels instead of 20 so that there is more exciting things to try with it for longer to keep people interested.
Again i dont want unfun grinding with locked items. I wanted the exalted drop rate at end game to be buffed so it is more exciting and needs less “Grind for hours and hope” and more "omgawd another exciting item, omgawd another one, omgward another one.
1 of these keeps players longer because its exciting and you dont want to put it down.
Obviously we cant keep the entire playerbase for ever but i think its defintely possible even with so much endgame content missing to slightly tweak what we do have and make it a much more interesting/attention keeping game than it is atm.
Atm it just feels grindy and repeatative.
This sounds great! My bad, I misinterpreted you originally.
This isn’t the first time @boardman21 suggests to extend the character progression. And I’m with him.
The grind to level 100 is something that doesn’t seem that rewarding currently. That’s because there’s nothing to really get in reward that feels like being worth the time spent.
People may argue that this is “gating content”. But the other way round it’s creating an incentive to play. Give people something worthy to chase for.
The character progression stagnates too early currently.
/signed
I’d also like to see some high level base items like 90+. Even if it’s hard to reach it would give people the incentive to go for it. It would be just time investment. A base at this level doesn’t need to be a perfect roll to be an improvement. While currently gear improvement at this level is largely based on luck to get better affixes/rolls.
I’m curious what legendaries will look like. Will they be gated behind level or high level content?
I hope so. In my opinion level 80+ needs some more content to go for.