Guild Wars 2

OZEL.4872:

It seems like this thread is rather dead, but . . .

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1. Bandits and krait are harder than centaurs because their conditions are more effective. Having condition removal helps enormously. So does avoiding the most dangerous attacks with dodge, block, etc. However, that last requires being able to recognize those attacks. Having difficulty with these mobs is not attributable solely to down-scaling giving them a chance. There are just harder and easier mobs. Another issue might be your gear. I was having difficulty on a level 70 fighting level 72 mobs, until I noticed my gear was 12 levels below mine, 14 below the mobs. A change of gear, and suddenly no problem.

2. The higher level down-scaled does have an advantage to a character on level, often a significant one. My observation has been that the down-scaled character kills faster than the on-level one by x2 or more. Again, check your gear, make sure its at or close to your level. Also, make sure you have trinkets, their stat boosts are not insignificant.

3. Dungeons are meant to be 5-person content. The blog you linked talks about trying to solo 5-man content in a level 40 dungeon on a level 41 character. This was ill-advised. If you wanted to group for such content and could not find one in guild, zone or in Lions Arch, there’s always gw2lfg.com, a third party site — although there are fewer groups for story mode than for explorable. I;ve seen forum posts indicating that ANet is working on an in-game lfg tool, but it’s not here yet.

4. Finally, it’s been my observation that most of the people who have trouble in GW2 are playing it like it was some other MMO, where movement is counter-productive. Back in the beta, when open world mobs were more difficult, it became apparent to me that GW2 was about move intelligently or die. Now that the open world is easier, this is less true as a general rule, but there are still plenty of combats where trying to face tank the mobs is not a good idea.

yes idd, but why cant i help my low lvl friends do the harts?

i mean, this is a contradiction in design right there. downscaling + inability to help…

PetricaKerempuh.7958:

yes idd, but why cant i help my low lvl friends do the harts?

i mean, this is a contradiction in design right there. downscaling + inability to help…

I help low level friends do hearts all the time. I help them kill stuff faster. Some things you interact with spawns things they can also kill. You save about a third of their time helping them and you still have a chance for at level drops. In fact, you kill stuff so fast, over a long enough sample time, I haven’t gotten significantly less high level drops in low level areas than high level ones, when playing with friends.

If this is really an issue … I mean if you really, really can’t handle this … do what I did for an experiment: go to the nearest class trainer, pay to have your traits unspent and then just don’t use them for awhile. Then, pick up the lower level armor and weapon drops in the lower area and use those instead of your normal loadout. Ka-bang! Suddenly yer not so powerful it isn’t fun anymore.

OZEL.4872:

It seems like this thread is rather dead, but . . .

I seem to be having the opposite problem from a lot of people when it comes to the level scaling; that is, certain content is actually harder at a higher-level-scaled-down than at the proper level.

That is so weird, I’ve never had this problem. I notice around level 8 the challenge starts setting back in when you downlevel even from 80, but my 80th level Thief smacks her way through low level areas just like she does Orr. In fact, the Island in the Living World is the hardest thing I’ve done in a long, long time. (not complaining, I don’t like dying alot, just sayin’)

Champions in lower levels were buffed so you can’t solo some of them anymore, I know that; but not all of them, seeing as I soloed a small DE chain what ended in killing an Orgre Champ (in Kessex Hills iirc) the other day.

Some of the monsters lately have got some new powers – like that danged pull what knocks you down flat – but that’s a new thing and ya just have to get used to it.

I’d check my gear and make sure it’s up to snuff … look at your trait layout – skills – all that. I do know I’ve a friend what complains his warrior has the same time killing 1 guy as 4 because of the aoe swings and such with his 2 handed sword. Get yourself a bow to use against melee guys and then close fast on ranged monsters.

Sometimes an area will get swarmed because you accidentally pull in mobs from more than one event – I’ve seen that happen. Or, in wave events, sometimes the wave timer sends in the next group before the first one is killed off – you can get in quite a mess if that happens. Never any shame in runnin’ away and regrouping. Tag a couple people as support and heal to get your big damagers back on their feet if they fall down – small groups (ten or less, say) forget that this is important sometimes, because it’s not a world boss.

Don’t try to run in at attack large groups by yourself, of course. Always remember to not let yourself get mobbed if you can. But that’s basic stuff.

But I don’t know what else ta tell ya … tactics, equipment, build … and I’m only average at all of those, so if I can do it I know you can.

(and before someone says it, I don’t play a heartseeker spam thief or other stupid one button gimmick)

Diva.4706:

Some people are having a real hard time getting away from the “I need shinnies to have fun” mentality. For years now people have been playing games that they actually don’t enjoy, simply because it “rewards” them with pixels.

Like it or not – and I don’t, believe me – the “I need shinnies to have fun” mentality is here to stay. Worse still, developers pander to this line of thinking CONSTANTLY.

Inflated level caps so players can constantly “ding” new levels, everything being locked behind an unlock system so players can “earn” the unlocks, achievement points and leaderboards, “got to catch ’em all” collectibles, etc. are all examples of the pandering to players who can’t or won’t play for the sake of fun or engaging game play.

Here’s a perfect example from another tread…

“Hi,
So I just completed Hidden Garden for the first time. First, let me say that Arenanet should put more of these…mini dungeons in the game. I also have enjoyed the dwarven one.

However, slightly challenging at times it can be, nice puzzle jumping and scenery. I got all four cantles…and I should have known…the Sylvan chest rewarded greens. Intrinsically it was very fun and enjoyable, only to be halfway deflated by greens in that chest. I spent about 30-40 minutes, for greens.

Thanks for the fun, no thanks for the reward…"

To me, the fun they claimed to have had should be reward enough. But no…that’s not good enough. In addition to having fun, the thread creator also wants a shinny for the trouble of having fun.

Here’s the thing: Beating something ONCE (maybe a FEW times) is fun. Doing something repeatedly so that you are capable of doing something else is not. I enjoy JPs just enough to not actively avoid them, but I rarely want to do one more than once. In fact, I do them solely so I can check them off my list of things I have done in the game. When in a game you have these typical large, absurdly tedious overarching goal like a Legendary all of the sudden you become very conscious of how much time you put in vs the reward on something. So really, it isn’t that person’s fault that the fun they claimed they had wasn’t enough. When the prize you get is only worth at most a hundredth of a percent of what your ultimate goal is, it will dampen your spirits.

I just wished level scaling worked properly. Being level80 and 1-3 shotting any mob below level ~50 is very unfun. No challenge, just killing in 2-3 autoatacks. When you’re that actual level the game is much more challenging, you shouldn’t be scaled so high that everythings a joke, I’d rather be equal to the mobs I’m fighitng. if I was leveling an alt and someone was level80 I would have 0 fun leveling with them because they’d 2 shot everything and I wouldn’t even be able to tag stuff.

OZEL.4872:

It seems like this thread is rather dead, but . . .

I seem to be having the opposite problem from a lot of people when it comes to the level scaling; that is, certain content is actually harder at a higher-level-scaled-down than at the proper level. In Kessex Hills, for instance, my level 55 Norn warrior has trouble facing more than one or two level 20-25 bandits or Krait (but, for some reason, I can kill centaurs all day long and survive — how is it that a puny human is more powerful speedy than a giant horse-person?). Earlier in the game, between levels 1 and 15, my warrior was able to use its “crowd-pleaser” combat moves to take out a lot of enemies, no sweat.

Well I applaud you for searching before posting, even if the thread is months old

One thing that I’ve found causes level scaling issues is if your gear is low relative to your real level. For example, if you are level 70 and you’ve forgotten to upgrade your water weapons for 20 levels, you will have a lot of trouble underwater in Metrica, where you might not have too much trouble in higher level areas. It seems like a small difference between your real level and the level of your gear can result in a big difference when you get down-levelled by a lot.

I levelled my main up to 80 without ever stepping foot in a zone higher than Sparkfly, and my experience was that the lower level zones got easier as I levelled up and got more tools, as long as I kept most of my gear within 5 or so levels of my real level.

Centaurs are all around not very dangerous, where Krait and Bandits have some skills that make them a bit harder. The Krait kidnapping the villagers event is one of the more difficult ones I’ve run across – I don’t think your issues there had much to with with level scaling.