When I first heard of the scaling system in GW2 I thought “Amazing!!” Then I actually played the game, and realized that the scaling only works for scaling you down. No options, no choice, just you must be lowered to this level so at no point in time is the game “easy”. But honestly sometimes easy is just you are looking for in a game. You don’t want to work to level 80 to get killed by a level 5 scale outside Divinity’s reach when you were just trying to finish the map. (Trust me it blows)
Conversly, sometimes the scale isn’t challenging enough for you. Some players are seriously looking for some intense gaming and want every foe to be super tough.
My proposed solution this is as follows:
Make scaling adjustable and set by the player to either raise or lower your level by say, 5-10 levels —>relative to the maps standard level scale<-- in order to adjust the difficulty of your gaming experience. This should be sufficient to give each player the gaming experience he/she is looking for.
Obviously there would have to be a system to balance this out or people would just abuse the lowering to gain easy gold and items, and hardly anyone would use the more difficult option. I have a proposal for solving this problem as well.
Adjust the rewards you can receive based on the level that is currently set. I shall explain:
-Only allow this feature to be used at cities such as Lions Arch, Rata Sum, Black Citadel, etc by talking to an NPC that will allow you to do this. This will prevent abuse of this feature in the middle of the map/quest.
-Formed groups will be required to be on the same scaling adjustment to co-operate.
-In order to receive a reward players must participate a certain amount in a creatures death, say 60-70% of damage dealt. (Similar to the event system intended to measure participation but more stringent to prevent abuse).
Starting for the most casual gamer to the most intense.
-Raising your level by 10 would yield: No exp, karma, and up to uncommon drops from enemies is received. This would only allow you to work on completion/exploration of maps or continuation of storyline. (I shy away from saying adjusted item rewards for said activities to be done, as that seems like a programming nightmare but if you can find a way more power to you)
-Raising your level by 5 would yield: 50% exp, karma, and up to uncommon drops from enemies will be received. This provides a lowered difficulty for areas/events that just seem too hard to do, but still allows for rewards and a slight challenge.
-No adjustment: Is how the game currently works
-Lowering your level by 5 would yield: 150% exp, karma, and no less than uncommon drops from enemies will be received. This provides a slightly higher difficulty for those who are willing to take the risks for better rewards.
-Lowering your level by 10 would yield: 200% exp, karma, and no less than rare drops from enemies will be received. This provides a significantly higher gaming experience for intense gaming seekers, and provides rewards to make it worth their while.
Remember —>This scaling adjustment is relative to the maps standard scale<--
That is my suggestion for a more enjoyable gaming experience.