Scaling Cost of Gear Upgrades
On the 12.1 PTR, we've datamined that the scaling costs of gear upgrades has returned. The current implementation on the 12.1 PTR is the same system that was datamined during the Midnight Beta, where each upgrade on a track requires more crests. The first upgrade from 1 -> 2 requires only 10 crests, scaling all the way to the last upgrade from 5 -> 6 requiring 50 crests.
In addition, the upgrade track has been expanded on the Myth track only, with the Myth 9/6 level being added at Item Level 337. Blizzard has not confirmed anything about crests costs in Season 2, and thus, this is subject to change. For example, the crest costs were changed to this exact system on the Midnight Beta but not actually pushed live.
End-Game Gearing Changes
Blizzard recently announced that end-game gearing was going to be getting some changes in Patch 12.1. Raid loot is getting buffed pretty significantly going into Patch 12.1.
As a quick summary of the raid changes:
Raid Rewards are buffed in the Vault.
LFR through Heroic Vaults will give one track higher than boss drops (i.e. Heroic will give Myth 1/6 loot)
Mythic Vault will drop Myth 6/6 loot.
Very Rare Items and Final 2 Bosses will drop Myth 9/6 loot.
Bonus Rolls are sticking around and raid Rolls will only cost 1 coin per roll.
Since Bonus Rolls drop Vault Item Level, this means you get Mythic End-Boss Loot if you roll on Heroic.
Impact of Gearing
It's unknown whether or not this is intended or not. In an interview with Wowhead before Season 1, Blizzard mentioned that they decided that the flat cost of crests would be a lot less mathy for players trying to figure out what to do every week with their crests, and dealing with incremental costs required too much calculation. This seems to lend itself to the fact that this may not be intended. However, the fact that the upgrade track was specifically updated with the Myth 9/6 line to account for the changes in end-game, may lead you to believe that this is intended as this has been looked at.
Let's assume this is intended for the time being. This change would be even better news for raid gearing, as the Mythic Raid Vault would now drop Myth 6/6 Loot, even off the first bosses. Mythic+ players have no way to get drops over Myth 1/6 from the weekly vault, and gearing with the previous gear system through a raid Vault would be equivalent to 100 Myth Mistcrest a week. But now if there's scaling Crest costs on upgrades, this would be equivalent to getting a bonus 150 instead! If Crest caps don't change, that's a week and a half of your weekly crest income.
This change is even better news for raiders, as they'll be saving even more crests by doing the Mythic raid.
