If you continue to cater to the few and not throw a decent bone to the masses, then the amount of active players will continue to dwindle... :roll:
I "love" this attitude - not.
New buffs for EOC (and future proofing) should have happened eons ago (long before there were 150+ players at or above L1600). If the cows don't bring in new stuff for them, where is the incentive for them to keep coming back ?
It's simple really - if you want access to the new buffs, either level up for them, or buy them. There's nothing written down saying that you absolutely MUST have them all to be able to level (or do any other activity).
I'm sure there'll be plenty of potions coming out with new buffs too - ones that will accessible for all (I just hope that they're not cave ones, because scavenging is getting beyond a joke now).
I think it's important to have the skills at the higher levels to have something to aim for. If all the skills didn't have any level requirement, I think it would be kinda boring.
We'll definitely be looking at adding 1,800+ skill to give players something further to aim for in addition to the potion only skills we'll be adding.