Mob threat communication

Generally, the reason this is done is that you cannot visually tell how dangerous a creature is due to the way video games work. The same model and enemy type could appear in multiple locations at wildly different strength levels, so players can't learn how strong a 'standard-looking rock golem' should be. They also can't always know whether the 'standard looking rock golem' is at the higher or lower end of the threat range for a given area, even if they have fought other things nearby and are aware of what that general threat range is.

While "I want to be forced to risk death every time I see a new creature, or the same creature in a new area, even if I have a general idea of the area difficulty" is something that you may be into, I'm not so sure I agree, and it seems like a topic where there will be a reasonably broad spectrum of opinions. I want at least a relative strength indication of some form. The color shift used in Alpha 1 worked for this, as well as perhaps a name size shift for elite enemies. (While Alpha 1 also showed enemy levels outright, that's not the part I'm talking about.)

The other thing that I feel is important to consider is this: Only in a poorly-designed game, or one intended to be relatively easy or flat, is "this target's level vs my own" the only meaningful factor in determining challenge. In any decent game, you will find opponents that are more or less difficult for your specific class and build, based on that specific opponent's own design. In a good game, you should be able to understand, based on seeing an enemy, even if its a new subtype (or even sometimes, type), generally how it is likely to fight, and reason about what that means relative to your own combat style, but still have the possibility to be surprised by an unfamiliar creature type, or that the ones here have a new ability that changes the fight.

I feel that this is the more appropriate way to exercise players personal threat assessment skills. A game where you learn your strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of various enemies, identify your 'favored prey' and 'archnemesis' mob families, and, when walking into a new area, make decisions based on the situations, the positions and spread of enemies, and personal understanding of the world's ecology and your place in it, while having the ability to both learn, and be surprised sometimes, is far more engaging than one where the only thing that matters is "what level, exactly, is on any random enemy's nameplate". And in my opinion, having a general understanding of an enemy's relative (not exact) level, makes that more effective, not less.

Allegedly there could be super high lvl mobs close to low lvl mobs, due to how the Node system will work. So, by not having any threat indicators for mobs, you might be dooming most lowbies/newbies to constant dying against mobs (cause the mobs might be so strong that they one-shot the player). And now you're not only alienating your more casual playerbase with pvp, but with pve too. And as much as I agree with the "risk vs reward" in the open world, I'm not sure if completely obliviousness is the best way to go about it. Tell me the threat of a mob and then let me decide whether I wanna risk my life for that higher reward.

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That's just limited shitty design. I want strong small bugs and I want dumb weak big trolls. Just showing you whether a mob is way higher than you in lvl or lower (or same) gives a much wider design space to the devs.