A lot of gear available from L84 and above introduces really interesting conversions, skill modifiers and item skills which aren’t available at lower levels. This sucks for two main reasons:
You see an awesome item/set in the database which inspires a build, but then have to play a (sometimes very) different build for most of the leveling process (some of us enjoy that bit the most!). Personally, at lot of the builds I have to play to get there are boring and I give up before being even close to realising the idea.
End-game leveling is fairly short - it doesn’t take all that long to go 84->100, or particularly 94-100, which means unless you like end-game in particular, you don’t get much value out of your build idea and you can’t even look forward to finding higher level versions of the cool build-enabling items. Without already having the blueprints/gear, you pretty much end up already in end-game just looking for the enabling pieces - which completely skips the enjoyment of leveling with it.
I would love to see as much of the (at the least) conversion items as possible receive lower level versions (do it right from < L20 or so) to allow playing unique builds right through story mode. Particularly as gear alignment and stats aren’t as important as end-game to enable such builds.
I’m happy for the builds to stop performing well towards end-game if I’ve been able to enjoy them thoroughly throughout story mode.
Leveling is fun experience and with the change to blue/green items in last major patch you have even more diversity. And with potion of clarity, Lokarr set and tokens you can level one character faster and then level another one.
Level 94 items or “end game gear” are not really meant for leveling, their name hint that are used to tackle the biggest end game challenges in campaign, SR, Crucible.
I agree the Blue/Green changes are a great help (thanks!), but those L94 items aren’t just ‘end-game’ gear, they’re build diversity gear. They’re not just more powerful lower tier items or enhancements to skills, they open up entirely new playstyle/skill options, but basically at the point of end-game. If they’re specifically for tackling end-game challenges, they shouldn’t do unique things like converting Sigil of Consumption from Chaos to Cold. I’d love to play through a cold Sigil-based build, but it’s locked at L94. And I don’t necessarily want to level faster, leveling can be the most enjoyable part, especially with an off-meta build…
Where it does work is on some greens, like this. I played my Saboteur from L45 to 100 with Fire Ring of Steel and it was fun and unique! Going back to Vilgazor at higher levels to drop a new version was rewarding and I was happy to work around having the amulet slot locked to enable it. It felt like a nice power bump each time even if the build isn’t ‘min-max’ compatible.
Perhaps easier changes would be where if a set is only available from L82->94, remove unique conversions and focus them around strengthening existing builds, moving the conversions and new skills to greens/epics/legendaries that drop at earlier/multiple levels.