Guild Wars 2

It seems the community believes that a level 30 in AC will do significantly less damage than a level 80, not saying groups are not taking a level 30, just indicating a perception and asking is the perception accurate?

A level 80 has access to better gear and traits, so yes a level 80 can do more damage than a level 30. However I much prefer a skilled and cooperative level 30 in my party, than a self-centered level 80.

I don’t think it’s a heckuva lot lower damage but not having all traits and skills available does make a difference.

However, if you know how to play the dungeon, lvl30 or lvl80, you’re going to get through it.

I think the underlying perception is that lvl30s are dungeon noobs who will cause a lot of wipes. Have seen this from lvl80s enough times to debunk that perception, but there it is.

Well, a level 80 does have access to better gear and traits. Although honestly, I’d rather take a low level player who’s experienced in dungeons than a level 80 player who acts like a total kitten.

I believe you are referring to AC explorable. Story mode is level 30 requirement, Exploreable is 35. meaning that if you took a 30 in there, alot of your skills would either hit very poorly, or get glanced and not hit at all.

If you mean lvl 35, then yes, you will do less than a level 80.

However. If you take the time to put full rares on your level 35, rune it and sigil it, and invest all your trait points available, you can still consider yourself a good asset to your team at that level imo.

I just got done a run on my 43 alt, I realized I was doing far more than the 80 Warrior who was full signets, only using a rifle and died every single encounter… don’t even get me started on the amount of racial skills I saw used by others in the party.

I am pretty sure the lower levels get compensated, or, in other words, the higher levels get nerfed more. I have read somewhere that a level 30 with (rare?) max armor will have higher stats than a downleveled level 80 with full exotic gear, though the level 80 will have the advantage of traits.

To be honest, it does not matter much at all. The only problem is when a level 30 does often only have level 20 fine or masterwork gear, it is weak, and level 80’s usually have maxed out rare or exotic gear.

At level 80, you have access to gear with 3 stats. although it’s scaled down to level 30 equivalent, still, 15 power and 15 precision, should be better than 15 power.
Traits go without saying.

However, a level 30 alt of someone who isn’t new to dungeons, and makes good choices of the gear, traits and skills they use is better than a no team player 80, as people said.

Also, keep in mind that lots of people start doing dungeons at level 80, so they lack a lot of experience, while the dungeons designers probably assumed that by the time you make it to level 80, you are at least familiar with how groups are managed and fight togather.
This also affects (psychologically) new players who see a level 80 in their party and think it’s gonna be a faceroll since that guy already seen it all, when this may be his first instance run in the game.

Also – as a quick aside/related note. If you are looking to make future friends or recruit new players to a guild, there is no better way than having a reputation for giving lower leveled characters (alts or mains) the benefit of the doubt in Ascalonian Catacombs or Cadedecus Manor.

And skill definitely trumps gear in this game. My guild took a group of sub-level 25 players into fractals just before Christmas – some fights were definitely more challenging, but we had a blast.

The first time myself and three of my guildies did WC, we were all level 80. We needed a pug so we got one from lfg site, turned out he was level 40. We thought about booting him and getting a level 80. But we kept him and it was a good decision. He had run AC many times before on his other character, so he knew how things worked. He died some, definitely didn’t have the dps and utility we had. But he played well and knew the land and turned out to be very helpful. So never judge a book by it’s cover.

Yeah, your damage and utility will definitely suck compared to a well geared 80, but that doesn’t really matter if you at least know the dungeon and act like a team player. I’ve been running a terribly underleveled D/D ele through AC for levels, and yeah it’s slower than if I’m running my warrior with infinite might stacks, but I know what utilities to use (hello ice bow) and how the monsters work so I don’t spend half a fight on my face like an idiot. Fun part is when you outperform lazy 80’s too just by staying alive and rezzing when someone inevitably goes down to Kohler or Rumblus rocks/breath. My first run I had 2 80 guardians and a necro go down to breath, so I swapped to earth and popped glyph of renewal to get em all up at once, feeling like a rockstar, only to get one hit downed by a knockdown leap ¯\(°_o)/¯

Running AC all I want is 80’s they deal more damage and most of the time know what to do. Running with lower levels would just be a waste of time. I’ve ran it several times with some lvl 50’s and they just kept dieing – they deal less dmg anyway and 0 damage when dead obviously. I’ve pug’d AC nearly every day all paths and that’s what I’ve noticed.
Also AC doesn’t need anything but pure damage, no teamwork or anything is really required, same for a lot of other dungeons – exception is FoTM and probably Arah.

Cempa.5619:

It seems the community believes that a level 30 in AC will do significantly less damage than a level 80, not saying groups are not taking a level 30, just indicating a perception and asking is the perception accurate?

Suppose you are level 39 and you do not have access to master traits; a trait such as -20% Well cooldown for necromancers. You’re technically doing less damage than a guy who does have that trait, because he can use that skill that benefit from that trait much more frequently.

The fact of the matter is that yes, you will be doing less damage. That’s not really debatable.

Does that mean you shouldn’t run the dungeon, or that your spot should be filled by a level 80? Absolutely not.

I’ve done this before. A guildie asked me to do TA exp with him and I was only level 51-52 on my elementalist and it is recommended that you are level 55 for TA exp (IIRC you are not prevented from entering the exp mode of the dungeon if you are below the recommended level for exp mode). The non-guildie party members even commented that I was doing better than the level 80 warrior (or thief, I forget which one) for an underleveled ele. I simply hung back and concentrated on spamming my staff’s healing skills when I could.

I noticed that with my warrior (in AC exp) I more than doubled my damage output from lvl 35 to lvl 80 fully exotic geared. Each 5 lvl i would buy the best equipment available, but the difference exotic gears, traits and lvl 80 nourischment & food made is simply huge.

That being said, it is also true that a competent lower lvl player may very well be better then a bad lvl 80 (tough at equal skill, it’s not debatable). The problem is, that often low lvl is associated to low skill – wich is not the case.

Marna Nindar.8120:

The problem is, that often low lvl is associated to low skill – wich is not the case.

^ this

which seems to stem from people sticking to one character and not running alts (ive been kicked from dungeon parties ive joined on my alts -like CM on my sub20 engi- before i could even say that its an alt and ill switch -as i have 5 80s)
- more than that; even if they are a dungeon newbie; simply explaining stuff to them and useful utilities helps greatly

Robert Hrouda.1327:

In my experience running dungeons with low level characters, it’s less about damage numbers and more about knowledge and utility of the character. At level 30 you have fewer unlocked traits, fewer utility skills (potentially), and you don’t have the experience of build tweaking/optimization that you get with a level 80 character whose been around the block a few times.
Gear is a factor, but I’m always an advocate of utility over brute force.

Tell that to the graveling mounds in the Lover’s Crypt.

That is a savagely over-built DPS check for on-level characters. Comicly, hilariously over done.

Nike.2631:

Tell that to the graveling mounds in the Lover’s Crypt.

That is a savagely over-built DPS check for on-level characters. Comicly, hilariously over done.

Get some Eles with Ice Bow and Laugh at how fast the mounds die.

Learn where and when the spawn, they are on a set path with some mounds always having a breeder spawn, this can help a ton.

There’s one thing I don’t about people with alts. Why not just go through the dungeon on your 80 and then bring your alt back in for the boss/bonus? It irritates me when people ask can they play on their alt and their alt is usually a serker that dies in a few smacks.

Seriously, something that is even worse than that is getting kicked because you are not a warrior or a guardian.

David.4821:

There’s one thing I don’t about people with alts. Why not just go through the dungeon on your 80 and then bring your alt back in for the boss/bonus? It irritates me when people ask can they play on their alt and their alt is usually a serker that dies in a few smacks.

because then you aren’t playing your alt you’re playing your main. I don’t level alts just to have another 80, I level them because I enjoy playing the game in different ways.