Guild Wars 2

Agree with the OP. My 80 in unique+ gear doesn’t kill as fast in level 40 content as a 40.
I find it difficult to believe this is a design intention.

Also, thank you for this;
https://whyigame.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/gw2-i-think-downscaling-is-borked/

Totally illustrates why it feels off during play.

This broken leveling system reminds me of Final Fantasy 8. Back then, it truly didn’t matter if you leveled, as long as you had the right magic to use for your stats. In this game, it kind of feels the same, except zerker is the meta that you should use.

My character is made of paper, it doesn’t matter if I’m outside Hoelbrak or deep into Orr, I get oneshotted by a mob of mobs either way.

Ok, here’s the test:
Level 56 thief; Gear is something from 41? blue to 51 yellow, valk/zerker mix, no runes. Trinkets neglectable.
And level 80 thief, full ascended valk armor, rest zerker
Both are fighting without food/utility.
ETA: Both are using D/D.

Victim of choice: A level 23 Devourer in Diessa Plateau:
Level 56 thief: ~7 hits
Level 80 thief: 1 hit.

Level 52 Ember in Iron Marches:
Level 80 Thief: 3 hits
Level 56 Thief: ~8-10 hits

Yesterday I was doing map completion in Kessex Hills (lvl 40, gear from lvl 10 -35 green) and someone said in say chat:
x: “You level 80?”
I didn’t know I was meant, so I carried on with map completion – the person repeated their question via whisper.
me: “No, I’m level 40”
x: “That’s in this area basically as good as being 80”
So I was obviously not allowed to do map completion as my level was too high. And my gear was too good

Anyway, if it affects Dungeons that can be nasty, I haven’t really tried them after the patch and if that is the case anet should work on that but I can’t say that PvE is now too hard for me – and to be honest; I hardly feel any difference. I like it better a bit more challenging as I have more game by that. And as far as I can remember it has been a lot tougher than now before April 15th 2014.

So: I don’t know how you come to the conclusion that higher levels are worse in lower level areas than level appropriate characters – I doubt that.

Khristophoros.7194:

…The second issue is the root cause behind people wanting only level 80 characters in dungeons. Sub-80 characters are usually extremely weak because of how the downscaling system works….

I always viewed that as being due to lack of traits/skills because sub-80 character’s don’t have fully unlocked builds.