First of all: I love the idea of downscaling. It opens up the world and makes it more believable. While there is a special kind of satisfaction in revisiting old arch enemies and descending upon them as an angry god, scaling allows for motivation on a long-term basis. It allows you to play with friends of vastly different levels and enjoy lower content that you missed. Some of the most fun and interesting areas in the game are in starting zones, that would be missed otherwise. Never ever would I suggest to abandon it! Whoever came up with the idea: consider yourself hugged =)
However, right now the scaling system needs a little tweaking here and there. I’ll give you my personal opinion on the different parts of scaling. I’d love to hear input from other people and their impressions during leveling.
1. Character level
Allows for maximum of about 2 levels above current enemies. I like it, it keeps combat interesting.
2. gear level
The elephant in the room. Very frustrating at the moment. Gear is downscaled in proportion to you instead of the local max. As an effect, you get weaker with every level that you gain, while downscaled. And pretty noticeable too, as you can end up weaker than characters at the actual level. Not only does that defeat the purpose of leveling, it is weird in the game context. Did the kill that gave me the levelup hit me on the head so that I became dumber? Questions to lvl80 players: Can you actually get negative stats with low enough gear? =D
Easy fix: scale the equip independently to the area level. Meaning: A lvl80 with lvl40 gear in a lvl30 zone should come out as a lvl30 with lvl30 gear, not as practically naked. He still has equip superior in the area, that should count for something. I found it also quite unsettling to watch my char loose 1000 hitpoints on lvlup, I thought I found a bug until I read about the system in the forum.
3. Exp
Doesn’t scale, sadly. When I had finished the whole 1-15 starting zone with about lvl 30, I only had 2 lvls more. I didn’t expect 15, but 2 is a bit weak. 5 would be nice already? Again: some of the most engaging zones are starting areas, but the extremely low output discourages a bit from playing there (Only a bit, feeding baby bears and petting kittens for quests is a reward in itself). Want to try the Asura starter soon with my lvl 50. I don’t expect more than 1 lvl =/
4. waypoints
Scales with lvl…why? That was a bit of a shock to me. I ported around quite often as low lvl, but that gets very expensive very soon. I like the waypoint system much more than mounts. I also like the goldsink aspect. But at the moment I find myself running needlessly for ages through botany because waypoints are so expensive. I’ve heard that before from others, so I guess I can’t be the only one to avoid porting.
5. repair costs
Doesn’t scale down, makes sense. It avoids people going to lower areas to repair as exploit. I understand completely. However, may I humbly suggest downscaling of costs during dungeons? I’m not leaving the dungeon to exploit repair costs. Right now, if I am the highest character in the group, I have the highest repair costs and the highest travel costs. Thanks to gear scaling I am funnily enough often the weakest in the group because I refuse to buy complete sets every 3 levels. It feels a bit unfair, so atm I refuse to go to dungeons while leveling as to not sabotage my guild. Was that intended?
Did I forget something? If someone has scaling numbers, please share. Do you have different opinions, experiences?