Guild Wars 2

Previously, characters that entered lower-level zones were able to view their effective “down-scaled” level in addition to their actual level. This is no longer the case with level 80 characters that have progressed into their mastery levels.

While it’s still possible to find out what your effective level is (via the “Hero: Equipment” tab), it was nice to simply have it always view-able in the main GUI. From what I remember, it was pretty unobtrusive too (:

I was wondering if anyone could direct me to sources where ANet explained why they removed this feature? If there are none to be found, would it be unreasonable to suggest that this feature be re-implemented?

I was wondering about it too. While I suppose I do not need it most of the time it is always perplexing to see things removed from the gui.

It’s because mastery flat out replaces your level in any place it was previously shown.
before, you could not see your own level (on the left side of the screen) and couldn’t see other players levels at all; only the level they were scaled to. now, if a player has any masteries, those are shown instead.

You can also, I believe, find out your effective level by mousing over the area it used to be. At least, that’s what showed up for me when I was looking at my Mastery XP levels.

Good luck.