Heroics were introduced in the spring of 2014. The level cap at the time was 100. They've rode those Heroics for 7+ years. To me, any bump in new Heroic characters would absolutely have to be greater than 5 levels. Should be 100 at a minimum, with 105 being ideal.
It's possible at this time to expect ToL-2 next year with still lvl 120 cap. And at the current rate lvl125 bump in the year 2023 and possibly 2024. For New Heroics to group with those levels they'd need to be lvl 95, unless DPG wants to redo heroics again in 3-4 years from today. If you plan for heroics to run for another 7 years they need to be lvl 105 to group with lvl 135 expected in 2028. And when they make new lvl 105 heroics they need to come up with the whole heroic environment to support those - New Heroic lvl 105 gear, special perks like Heroic questline and augs or something to that extent. Considering that ToL-2 is supposed to be easier to release than ToL in terms of man-hours involved, and that 64-bit work is close to release unrelated to new Heroics, then I'd expect New lvl 105 Heroics to be introduced within 12-18 months or so. In my opinion - lvl 90 Heroics is a waste of effort. Just typing out what my crystal ball shows.
They need to just code heroics like Beta character. A heroic character no longer goes to 85. It is simply flagged as heroic. When you talk to the Legion of Heroes, you can beta buff to the character. Simply hail, say Planes of Power and poof Level 65. Say Empires of Kunark and poof, L105. The beta buffed characters already come with armor, augs, spell book and AA, at least for the last numerous betas. Then they just have to cap heroics to an expansion, which makes sense to be the same as the autogrant expansion. That is currently EOK and about to be RoS. So when ToL launches, a heroic character can hail and get beta buffed to the RoS beta armor, AA and spells. The beauty of a change to that system is that heroic would be a flag. If you stop playing and come back, you can simply hail with your heroic character and jump to the current heroic status. A heroic character would always be a member of the legion of heroes. They would always help their old ally. Yadda yadda insert lore here. Problem permanently solved. Heck, if you really wanted to oversimplify this, don't even give the armor to the player. Just level bump them, which will automatically give them the AA. Put vendors there so they can buy free armor, create a heroic instance and put the vendors there, or just make the armor and augs free to purchase at the original vendors inside each expansion.
I like the concept, but I think something like that should just give a level boost with the appropriate auto-granted AAs; the buffed characters shouldn't magically get armor and spells. They should still have to work for something.
Quakedragon is a bumbling, ranting lunatic that complains about EVERYTHING that is not a participation trophy. ToL is not designed to be a low/mid end expansion. Its designed for those done with current content and need a new challenge. If you want to experience the other zones of Luclin, go do it at the appropriate levels. There is nothing for new or returning players? Well, there is, its call the other 20 some expansions before it. And a Returning player can just as easily be 115 as they could be level 50. That argument is beat to death, give it up. New players shouldnt get something shiny from the most current expansion, they have literal DECADES of content to explore to feel the perks of the new expansion. This is nothing designed of Greed. Its designed of the need for current players to continue to have something to do. Why waste the resources of the limited devs making new content for low end... when 90+ percent of it is already skipped?
The PC level base is not the reason. Its business politics. And TSoL had a new PC race so they decided to add zones for the whole level range. You could play just on Luclin without the need to visit other continents and expansions. It was the same with TRoK. There are now more than enough zones until lvl 70. After that its just no longer necessary to add low and mid level zones. They could add variable scaling instance zones like they did with LDoN but it had not happened all the years after this. Of course new expansions are very boring now because of this and for other reasons imo but its each player's decision to buy them or not. The Darkpaw team would have to change its expansion strategy if players do not buy new expansions anymore or much less. As long as enough players do buy them they won't be motivated to change anything with their simple strategy. Think twice its magic.
You make the joke about my post like scaling heroics somehow changes the impact heroics had when they launched. They always should have come with a virtual certificate of participation. Permanently solving the depreciating value of heroics has nothing to do with the P2W impact they have on gameplay. Yes, they have to work for the 4 most recent expansions worth of armor and spells. TBL, TOV, CoV and TOL. Heroics come with armor and spells. They have depreciated because of level inflation. If they made new L100 heroics, they would come with spells. Permanently solving the depreciating value of heroics by implementing an expansion launch scaling process has no meaningful impact on the gameplay or the heroic design, only that heroics maintain a consistent value (5 expansions behind the current). A L85 heroic could still buy a L100 upgrade if they made a new heroic. Making it so the future upgrades are included in the purchase maintains value to the player. The only way this matters is if someone buys a heroic and then doesn't play it, retires for several years, etc. They get the autogrants anyway, and they could buy all the spells and armor for a single krono purchase anyway. So it's really just levels and skipping a krono purchase ONLY IF they don't play after they buy it... So I really don't see your point, despite fully understanding your position.
