Guild Wars 2

Previously a down scaled level 80 would always be overall more powerful than a real low level character.

With the patch Anet said it was reducing the power of a down scaled character and increasing the power of an upscaled character.

So far so good.

But after reading others people testing and doing some testing of my own, a low level character can actually hit harder than a down scaled character.

For example a level 2 necromancer wielding a staff and wearing the best blue armor a level 2 can have with power runes can have 114 power. A level 80 down scaled to level 6 necromancer with berserker gear with runes of strength has 97 power.

Against a level 2 plains wurm hatchling that means the level 2 necromancer is hitting for 100 damage while the level 6 (80) necromancer hits between 80-91 damage.

A blogger has a more detailed investigation.

https://whyigame.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/gw2-i-think-downscaling-is-borked/

https://whyigame.wordpress.com/2015/06/28/gw2-further-experi-adventures-in-downscaling/

I didn’t see a topic on this subject in a quick survey around this forum and the bug forums and that is why I started this one.

I don’t think that is bad. You have less power but more of all other stats + a full set of specialization + all your skills. So at the end, you would still beat the actual lvl 2. Going to lvl 2 zones with your lvl 80 characters in the past was not easy, it was trivial, basically one shot everything. I haven’t tried myself but I guess now it is somewhat fun.

plus u should have more experience in game w/ ur character than the low lvl player, so your skill should be > than theirs, giving you another edge in the fights.

There is no reason why my decked out level 80 should be weaker than a low level character. Completely ridiculous.

not really fair that we loose the benefit of our expensive ascended gear is it.
i actually felt like they ripped me off when i tested it.The whole point of an mmo is character progression .dont look like you make much progress in this game.

Silverkey.2078:

I don’t think that is bad. You have less power but more of all other stats + a full set of specialization + all your skills. So at the end, you would still beat the actual lvl 2. Going to lvl 2 zones with your lvl 80 characters in the past was not easy, it was trivial, basically one shot everything. I haven’t tried myself but I guess now it is somewhat fun.

Full agree with this, haven’t tested it myself,. but sounds like a good thing to me, have always been ridiculously easy in the lowest zones before, to the point that my condi specced(rabid) mesmer could 1-2 shot mobs… which is just stupid

A lot of people agree with the new downscaling. For them it added a challenge. Now you kill things in 3 secs instead of 2 with your downscaled lvl 80. However your lowbie toon in masterwork still kill things in 2 secs.

No wonder PUGing low level dunegons is insane dumb right now.

Also for those in favor of the change so far keep in mind they are still further nerfing our damage (condis)…

Jaxom.7310:

plus u should have more experience in game w/ ur character than the low lvl player, so your skill should be > than theirs, giving you another edge in the fights.

I have the same experience with a low level character than with a max level character but until level 70 or so, my lower level character is more powerful.

Silverkey.2078:

I don’t think that is bad. You have less power but more of all other stats + a full set of specialization + all your skills. So at the end, you would still beat the actual lvl 2. Going to lvl 2 zones with your lvl 80 characters in the past was not easy, it was trivial, basically one shot everything. I haven’t tried myself but I guess now it is somewhat fun.

But it is a level 6 vs a level 2. If you follow the links you will notice at same level 6, the real 6 is better than the downed 6.

Yes, it was trivial with both a twinked and a level 80. Now it is faster with a twinked than a level 80…

Should at least be on par, and I have no problem if they decide to increase difficulty, just low level > down scaled char.

The reduced damage isn’t really an issue in the open world, more of a buff to large events since you will actually get to hit stuff. :P

On the other hand, this is a serious issue for low level dungeons like AC. This is simply just another big, global damage nerf. We have had too many of those already (I haven’t forgotten the power cap ‘rework’).

Arenanet has to realise that making easy dungeons more tedious by lowering dps of all classes is NOT the same as adding a challenge.

I have no problems with maxed gear lowbies having some extra of the stat/s they build for. At 80, gear comes with 3+ stats, at low level it comes with 1. Do this same test at level 60 and we’ll see. I feel very strong at 80, stronger than I did while leveling. You know why? No one spends 5-10 minutes at each level to fully regear their character. The diffrence is small, and while its nice to buy a few upgrades while leveling, the idea that an 80 downscalled is competing with a level 2 in maxed gear, like the weirdest situation ever, is ridiculous. Downscalling may not equalize every stat perfectly, but it does a good job of making the content enjoyable regardless of the level. I’d say its not broken. Again, do this with any level where stats start dividing into 3, and we’ll see how it works out. Going 100% power at level 2, compared to an 80 that doesn’t even have that option is silly. The 80 has precision and ferocity, as well as any defensive stats. 80s are stronger than lowbies, and quite close when lowbies spend way more time than needed to gear up. You can be as strong as an 80, level and have to replace every piece to reach that same point. (this is also without traits, and possibly all your skills unlocked)

Seriously, if guild wars pve is too hard for you at 80, get a friend who plays games to come and help you kill your enemies. Instead of two shoting your enemies alone, you can one shot them with the help of a friend. I mean the only deaths I’ve had at 80 in open world are from fall damage, afk and a handful of times dying to group content. I had one npc put 62 stacks of bleeding on me with one ability since the update, was shocked and I just died in a few seconds cause I forgot to bring cleansing I should’ve brought a maxed out level 2 with me for some assistance. Oh wait….

For me it balances, even when downscaled you still have all your traits and skills to play with, while an actual low lv character is still working towards those.

And the difference in power doesn’t matter, dungeons and open world are still a breeze to go through.

Loboling.5293:

I have no problems with maxed gear lowbies having some extra of the stat/s they build for. At 80, gear comes with 3+ stats, at low level it comes with 1. Do this same test at level 60 and we’ll see. I feel very strong at 80, stronger than I did while leveling. You know why? No one spends 5-10 minutes at each level to fully regear their character. The diffrence is small, and while its nice to buy a few upgrades while leveling, the idea that an 80 downscalled is competing with a level 2 in maxed gear, like the weirdest situation ever, is ridiculous. Downscalling may not equalize every stat perfectly, but it does a good job of making the content enjoyable regardless of the level. I’d say its not broken. Again, do this with any level where stats start dividing into 3, and we’ll see how it works out. Going 100% power at level 2, compared to an 80 that doesn’t even have that option is silly. The 80 has precision and ferocity, as well as any defensive stats. 80s are stronger than lowbies, and quite close when lowbies spend way more time than needed to gear up. You can be as strong as an 80, level and have to replace every piece to reach that same point. (this is also without traits, and possibly all your skills unlocked)

Seriously, if guild wars pve is too hard for you at 80, get a friend who plays games to come and help you kill your enemies. Instead of two shoting your enemies alone, you can one shot them with the help of a friend. I mean the only deaths I’ve had at 80 in open world are from fall damage, afk and a handful of times dying to group content. I had one npc put 62 stacks of bleeding on me with one ability since the update, was shocked and I just died in a few seconds cause I forgot to bring cleansing I should’ve brought a maxed out level 2 with me for some assistance. Oh wait….

Let me talk about the second paragraph first.
I’m not complaining about the difficulty of the game.
I’m complaining that it is easier with a true low level character than with a decked out down scaled max level.
It is fine if the low level and the downscaled are as equally powerful but it is just down right silly when better gear and higher real level translate into worse.

About your first paragraph, if you follow the links you will see examples at several levels.

But I’ll leave you with (example from the links) a true level 54 with green gear on the left and a mix of level 53 rare gearvs an ascended level 80 character downscaled to 54.

Personally I think this new downscaling sucks and is exaggarated for higher levels. It was ok before June 23rd revamp of things, and I could feel the benefit of my better gear/runes/traits in low level zone, and why shouldn’t I ?? Otherwise the purpose of leveling is forfit.

I have 5 characters level 80, all 5 with World Completion so I recon I’ve done my bit fighting desperately in low level maps.

Now all of a sudden I’m struggling bad against mobs especially in 15-25 maps and take more than double damage from them so somewhere the armor-rating/mitigation is seriously nerfed within the scaling. The other day my Engineer got killed by an Elite Spider in Gendarran Fields still deploying all I had in turrets/healing/skills etc. This is supposed to enhance my gaming experience? Nope, it’s just lame…

It seems to me this goes against the whole point of an mmo you lvl up to get stronger, but in this you go back to were you start and have made no progress. And to do this and at the same time double teqs hp is beyond stupid.Im starting to get a really bad tast in my mouth about anet and the future of this game.

I think its a good thing. Playing with your friends that just started playing is MUCH more fun now. I think that is all that matters, a better new player experience.
We old players can handle the change while new players might not stay if the new-player experience isn’t fun.

So a new player joins this game levelling up in a starter zone and spends hours and hours maybe months levelling up and crafting expensive ascended gear and maybe legendry’s only to come back to that starting zone to find himself weaker than when he started. Are anet taking the kitten or what.

The thing that I find troubling is the implication that “AC P1 80s only exp” is the preferred mode instead of just “AC P1 exp” for so many people. But I digress.

We’re not looking at the whole picture here. We’re looking at just power. What also should be included is versatility and defense. But first, a little history lesson: What you’re seeing in lowbie dungeons now is closer to how it originally was in the first place. The utter faceroll that 80s could pump out in sub CoF dungeons was the product of the scaling changes that occurred awhile ago. It was roughly the same time the ferocity change if I remember correctly. Yes, this scaling change made it so high levels utterly plowed through everything at lower level, so much so that there are videos of Ele’s soloing Ascalon Catacombs in 8 minutes.

So, lets take a look at a more direct comparison. I’m going to be using the two necromancers, since that set of images actually has similar classes.

Power: 17% lower
Precision: 75% higher
Vitality: 60% higher
Toughness 60% higher
Ferocity: Some vs. none
Malice: some vs. none
Healing power: some vs. none

Armor: 33% higher
Health: 75% higher
Crit Chance: 73% higher
Crit damage: 4% higher

Effective Power: 102.5 (level 80) vs. 116 (level 2) = 12% loss
Effective Health: 140,732 (level 80) vs. 60,003 (level 2) 135% gain.

Now, this is limited, but there’s another thing to consider: At higher levels, the necromancer gains access to all of their traits and utilities. A lower level necromancer doesn’t have those things. So, no fury in DS, no 20% increase against half dead enemies, no self might stacking against half dead enemies, no piercing life blast, etc.

The end result is that toons at their appropriate level have, on face value, more power at the sacrifice of everything else in substantial quantities.

Now personally, I wouldn’t mind if lowbies were as strong or stronger than scaled down 80s. Leveling up to curb stomp lower level competition is an antiquated model that Arenanet purposefully built away from in the first place. At higher levels you still get more gear choices, more build choices, more utilities, more access to the game, and more skins. Downscaling exists solely to make it so higher level players can play alongside of lower level players without being overpowered.

eldrin.6471:

So a new player joins this game levelling up in a starter zone and spends hours and hours maybe months levelling up and crafting expensive ascended gear and maybe legendry’s only to come back to that starting zone to find himself weaker than when he started. Are anet taking the kitten or what.

But the thing is, they won’t find themselves weaker, because they have experience now and will be much more efficient. This is nothing more than numbers, raw stats. But it’s how you apply them that matters.

Do not know of another mmo that works this way.its a gamble and if it fails the game might go down the toilet. I wouldn’t start playing a game that worked like this.I have put a lot of time and real money into this game that I now regret.

It works because it’s temporary. You won’t be low level forever so once you gain levels (inevitable) you must improve your gear.

I see no problem with how this works. Those saying it’s unfair or illogical is irrelevant since the intent isn’t to explain downscaling but to regulate the difficulty of content. Low level content is still trivial to downscaled players so at the very least it helps upscaled events so on-level players have a better chance of participating.

If anything, you should be thankful. Now you’ve got a split second more to tag foes to get your PvE dailies.

I don’t see what the bug deal is. Being able to obliterate every single mob that isn’t located in one or two specific zones is what makes a lot of MMO endgames incredibly stale and makes the whole over world feel like just a big running simulator.

eldrin.6471:

Do not know of another mmo that works this way.its a gamble and if it fails the game might go down the toilet. I wouldn’t start playing a game that worked like this.I have put a lot of time and real money into this game that I now regret.

Draaaaamaaaaaa!

Seriously, low level zones are not hard by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing this does is make sure that when you are at the appropriate level for the zone, the whole area doesn’t get spoiled by high level one-shotting everything around you.

But hey, if this is a deal breaker, maybe it’s simply not the game for you.

Evans.6347:

eldrin.6471:

Do not know of another mmo that works this way.its a gamble and if it fails the game might go down the toilet. I wouldn’t start playing a game that worked like this.I have put a lot of time and real money into this game that I now regret.

Draaaaamaaaaaa!

Seriously, low level zones are not hard by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing this does is make sure that when you are at the appropriate level for the zone, the whole area doesn’t get spoiled by high level one-shotting everything around you.

But hey, if this is a deal breaker, maybe it’s simply not the game for you.

They change the product and your saying I should maybe just leave and just forget the £2000+ I spent. lol

People might think this is good, so why not just remove leveling alltogether, make all zones open for every level.
But that wouldn’t happen since “Arenanet understands there is and must be some form of progression”.

There is one company out there, that only releases progression type games, you only need one guess, and these guys know how to entangle people, how to make them addictive. I understand Anet don’t want to follow that very special path, and nor should they, but to make a decked out level 80 less powerful than a low level is and will always be seen as a big NO-NO for number of reasons, reasons i’m sure you are well aware.

But is this final? You don’t think they will change it later on so that a level 80 will be more powerful again, as it should be, the reason people level is quiet obvious isn’kitten

If not, why level up so you can become less powerful in lower level zones? It should be the other way around, or we can start from level 80 and work our way to level 1.. uhm..

I don’t see this change lasting very long, they still have the upper hand in that when you reach 80 you open up an already open game more, but keep on removing small bits and pieces and you will soon find yourself not wanting, or needing to level up at all. And that’s when it gets dangerous.

Mmorpg without the proper progression doesn’t last long. Nope, not talking about instances etc, but i am talking about hard encounters that you face when reaching level 80, and no, not talking about low level zones.

I do hope they change it.

eldrin.6471:

Evans.6347:

eldrin.6471:

Do not know of another mmo that works this way.its a gamble and if it fails the game might go down the toilet. I wouldn’t start playing a game that worked like this.I have put a lot of time and real money into this game that I now regret.

Draaaaamaaaaaa!

Seriously, low level zones are not hard by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing this does is make sure that when you are at the appropriate level for the zone, the whole area doesn’t get spoiled by high level one-shotting everything around you.

But hey, if this is a deal breaker, maybe it’s simply not the game for you.

They change the product and your saying I should maybe just leave and just forget the £2000+ I spent. lol

They changed the product due to excessive complaints, I’d assume.

I doubt anyone’s crying they can’t one-shot everything (although I bet they still can get close). People were complaining about content difficulty and scaling.

Evans.6347:

eldrin.6471:

Do not know of another mmo that works this way.its a gamble and if it fails the game might go down the toilet. I wouldn’t start playing a game that worked like this.I have put a lot of time and real money into this game that I now regret.

Draaaaamaaaaaa!

Seriously, low level zones are not hard by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing this does is make sure that when you are at the appropriate level for the zone, the whole area doesn’t get spoiled by high level one-shotting everything around you.

But hey, if this is a deal breaker, maybe it’s simply not the game for you.

I’d much rather see people insta kill mobs (Which doesn’t even happen) than no one at all. Even tho most zones are alive and well, i never have a hard time nor does anyone else with the fact that high levels comes and kills every mob in the zone just to kitten noobs off..

But please, if you have any proof of this, then maybe this change is good. But proof first fix later.

eldrin.6471:

Evans.6347:

eldrin.6471:

Do not know of another mmo that works this way.its a gamble and if it fails the game might go down the toilet. I wouldn’t start playing a game that worked like this.I have put a lot of time and real money into this game that I now regret.

Draaaaamaaaaaa!

Seriously, low level zones are not hard by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing this does is make sure that when you are at the appropriate level for the zone, the whole area doesn’t get spoiled by high level one-shotting everything around you.

But hey, if this is a deal breaker, maybe it’s simply not the game for you.

They change the product and your saying I should maybe just leave and just forget the £2000+ I spent. lol

What product did they change? There has always been downscaling.

So what if they tweaked it a little? There never was a point where you were overpowered in downscaled areas. Obviously this is arguing for the sake of arguing, because the impact is so neglectable it makes the whole argument asinine.

Tirien.1326:

I’d much rather see people insta kill mobs (Which doesn’t even happen) than no one at all. Even tho most zones are alive and well, i never have a hard time nor does anyone else with the fact that high levels comes and kills every mob in the zone just to kitten noobs off..

But please, if you have any proof of this, then maybe this change is good. But proof first fix later.

What kind of contradiction is this? I’m sorry but I don’t know how to reply to this. The whole point of the system is to make sure that everyone is at reasonably equal ground (which they’re not because high level characters with traits and runes are always at an advantage). It’s because they aren’t overpowered, that no one has any trouble. Everyone gets to contribute.

You are entitled to your views as I am mine. Putting down others opinions does not make yours more important.

Tirien.1326:

People might think this is good, so why not just remove leveling alltogether, make all zones open for every level.

Already done. Levels simply mean when things unlock. Your spec tracks, gear, ability slots, content, etc. That’s the intent of the game. You don’t start off with the ability to equip all gear or all gear slots or all utility slots or all weapons. It’s not like levels have zero impact, just not “how close you can 1-shot stuff”.

Or perhaps there’s a different reason people are scared? You don’t want to be unjustified in kicking on-level players in dungeons or something? To me, it just means players can level up by completing dungeons rather than getting to 80 and sucking at the dungeons and need to be carried. If you start playing dungeons when they open, by the 50s, dungeon content (and by extension, some of the more involved open-world content) will seem less like herding kittened sheep through vague hoops better seen through a wiki page.

eldrin.6471:

not really fair that we loose the benefit of our expensive ascended gear is it.
i actually felt like they ripped me off when i tested it.The whole point of an mmo is character progression .dont look like you make much progress in this game.

GW2 is not a tipical MMO.Anet were more than clear on that point.Actually GW2 was made with the idea to not have gear progression and that up/down scaling will remove the OPness that other MMOs have.For instance in WoW my lvl 100 will destroy everything in a level 10 zone.Anet don’t want that in their game.3 years ago they said that.

eldrin.6471:

You are entitled to your views as I am mine. Putting down others opinions does not make yours more important.

Of course you’re entitled to your views, even if they are based on misinformation.

Dinks.2478:

There is no reason why my decked out level 80 should be weaker than a low level character. Completely ridiculous.

Good thing that isn’t the case.

Sure the lowbie has a bit more power, but considerably less crit, health, healing, toughness and critdmg. Not to mention the traits that multiply damage, apply extra effects or boost skills. Skills that lowbie also does not have.

That downscaled lv80 would still completely blow the lowbie out of the water.

Go look at some of the test results. the normal low lvls are doing more dmg that the down scale lvl 80.

Downscaling simply means your lvl 80 char won’t be able to 1-shot things in low level zones. The whole purpose of levelling is to have access to higer level content and to gear up your char for that content.

If a lower level char has a bit more ‘power’, so what ? You don’t see a lvl 2 in SW or killing Jormag/Teq either. There is no ‘upscaling’ in pve.

The Op posted 2 screenshots that aren’t even comparable. One is a lvl 2 char, the other is a downscaled lvl 80 to lvl 6. Even the later screenshots prove nothing : different rings, diff earrings, backpack…

If you want a real comparison : make em both nude, no gear or ornaments, then compare. The difference might be there, but at that level it makes hardly any difference.

Those saying it’s unfair or illogical is irrelevant since the intent isn’t to explain downscaling but to regulate the difficulty of content. Low level content is still trivial to downscaled players so at the very least it helps upscaled events so on-level players have a better chance of participating.

a +1 to that.

But some will always find things to complain about.
“Ooh, i’m a lvl 80, i must have a bigger D. then yours, otherwise it isn’t fair”, well boohooo… that lvl 2 or whatever will find him/herself in the same situation after levelling.

Low level zones are for low levels, but when a high lvl comes along they get downscaled to avoid em to smack everything in sight. Simple and effective. Really…wo gives a F. that lower lvls have that ieni bit of ‘power’ more.

Oh, and btw, did you even LOOK at the skillbar ? I hardly doubt anyone with 2 skills can overpower a downscaled char with it’s full skillset…..

How rediculous can one get, seriously.

Go look at some of the test results.

And that’s all it is : a test about dmg output, because you know, dmg is everything in this game….no skills or traits or anything else is needed. Hell, why not delete everything and give chars just one F. stat : power.

That way you don’t have to worry about calculations and stare yourself blind on damage output.

/sarcasm.

I don’t need test results to see that there’s a bunch of whiny B. posting comparisons and damage calculations instead of playing in the higher lvl zones. No, now they’re having a smack at the little guy who’s just starting his/her journey.

The REAL downside to the the new downscaling isn’t getting much mention in this thread. I, and some number of others I’m assuming, have always leveled my alts by doing map completion, and I usually do so by clearing all areas of the map in order by level. I really enjoy it, because I flip between the different map sets as I’m leveling, get done with a jungle zone, jump over to one of the mountain zones of the same level, etc. It always worked fine, but now it doesn’t. Or rather, it does, but only if you are constantly buying new gear to match your characters level. The downscaling shows it’s really atrocious nature when you are say, a level 54 character wearing various found and story gear ranging from near your level to 20 or so levels below it. It gets real ugly, real fast when your already underleveled gear is being downscaled by the same ratio as your on level equipment. I’ve died more in the last few days leveling one of my alts than I think I ever have in this game. The only way I’ve found to combat it is to either move on to higher level zones as soon as I hit the level requirements(which is bad, because the higher you go the less different scenery choices), or hit the TP constantly every few levels to replace all of my gear. My level 80s by comparison are at least all wearing decent level 80 gear.

I just think this really needs mentioned, I see lots of complaints about downscaling being off for level 80s, but I don’t think it’s even noticable compared to how bad it is for mid level characters, especially if you want to play one without heavy twinking.

imsoenthused.1634:

The REAL downside to the the new downscaling isn’t getting much mention in this thread. I, and some number of others I’m assuming, have always leveled my alts by doing map completion, and I usually do so by clearing all areas of the map in order by level. I really enjoy it, because I flip between the different map sets as I’m leveling, get done with a jungle zone, jump over to one of the mountain zones of the same level, etc. It always worked fine, but now it doesn’t. Or rather, it does, but only if you are constantly buying new gear to match your characters level. The downscaling shows it’s really atrocious nature when you are say, a level 54 character wearing various found and story gear ranging from near your level to 20 or so levels below it. It gets real ugly, real fast when your already underleveled gear is being downscaled by the same ratio as your on level equipment. I’ve died more in the last few days leveling one of my alts than I think I ever have in this game. The only way I’ve found to combat it is to either move on to higher level zones as soon as I hit the level requirements(which is bad, because the higher you go the less different scenery choices), or hit the TP constantly every few levels to replace all of my gear. My level 80s by comparison are at least all wearing decent level 80 gear.

I just think this really needs mentioned, I see lots of complaints about downscaling being off for level 80s, but I don’t think it’s even noticable compared to how bad it is for mid level characters, especially if you want to play one without heavy twinking.

This is an issue I brought up in the past and I think it’s valid. Another aspect is, you don’t get the level of difficulty you want if you chase after content slightly higher level than yourself (if you choose to seek that challenge) while playing because it’s simply too easy to level past content. You might want to just enjoy a specific level of content with the current gear you have but once you gain a level or two, the gear becomes outdated.

In the past, I suggested a kind of “exp bar freeze” where you can simply choose to stop gaining experience so you won’t out level the content. I might now suggest an “exp bar buffer” where you can choose to gain a highly reduced amount of experience and the rest of the experience is sort of collected in a buffer that you can later consume to gain your levels. Basically, just put the power to proceed to progress in the hands of the player rather than making them feel forced to progress thus collect more gear and/or move to different areas.

eldrin.6471:

Go look at some of the test results. the normal low lvls are doing more dmg that the down scale lvl 80.

So let me get this straight.

Subject A
17% more power (17stat points)
No condition damage
No ferocity
Only two weapon skills
No weaponswap
No utility skills
No elite
No Traits
No Profession mechanic (Deathshroud)

Subject B
75% Greater critchance (8.4 vs 4.8)
14 condition damage
156% crit dmg (vs baseline 150%)
Weaponswap
Two fully unlocked weaponsets
3 utility skills
1 Elite
3 full traitlines
Deathshround completely unlocked

And you’re telling me Subject A does more damage?

All that suggests is that either the test was complete bogus, based entirely on just autoattacking at best instead of actually using your skills.
Or power scaling is utterly broken and needs to be nerfhammered into the ground if so little can outperform so much.

I’m not having any problems with down scaling. My level 80 warrior in a mix of exotic and rare gear, some of it level 35 stuff as I didn’t bother changing it out as I was leveling(I always forget ring and such when gearing as I level) I’m just building up to claw island, and not had any problems in story instances or open world. I really don’t see what all the fuss is about.

And if a level 2 can do more DPS than you, L2P your class.

So this in combination with the HP buffed world bosses is why my map barely managed Shadow Behemoth the other night. Granted off-hours but still laughable, and with the same non-existing rewards of course.
Either it’s to slow down old 80’s hunting Hero points or ANETs solution for challenging content, with no thoughts on side effects it would bring. Complete and utter tossing. As usual.

This gets really tricky in AC explorable now, people are so used to blowing bosses up fast, now when it takes longer, parties die more often. While I like seeing high crits, I think it’s a good thing that people are required to use their skills, but then if I want to help some lowbies, I can’t carry as easily as before.

So far I got blamed several times for using defensive gear in zerker party cos my ele with ice bow should melt everything ^ ^

eldrin.6471:

not really fair that we loose the benefit of our expensive ascended gear is it.
i actually felt like they ripped me off when i tested it.The whole point of an mmo is character progression .dont look like you make much progress in this game.

Who in the world is crafting ascended gear so they can be OP in level 1-15 zones? That stuffs for max content, not so you can 1-shot level 0 rabbits.

Sounds like they messed up.

Newbies are ALSO DOWNSCALED PEOPLE. You do not immediately move to a zone your exact level, every single time you level…

Let me add that the change has been refreshing for me. My Gf is leveling a new toon on a new account. usually i had to trait everything in defense and vitality to not one shot kill everything so she can get xp. After the patch it is more interactive as i cant just stand and get mobbed to gain lots of xp as that can kill me now. So im for this tbh. Im not sure why entire threads must be made why your low level character isn’t doing enough dmg in a lvl 10 zone

That’s is not what this discussion is about.read the title.
Low level more powerful than down scaled

Terrahero.9358:

eldrin.6471:

Go look at some of the test results. the normal low lvls are doing more dmg that the down scale lvl 80.

So let me get this straight.

Subject A
17% more power (17stat points)
No condition damage
No ferocity
Only two weapon skills
No weaponswap
No utility skills
No elite
No Traits
No Profession mechanic (Deathshroud)

Subject B
75% Greater critchance (8.4 vs 4.8)
14 condition damage
156% crit dmg (vs baseline 150%)
Weaponswap
Two fully unlocked weaponsets
3 utility skills
1 Elite
3 full traitlines
Deathshround completely unlocked

And you’re telling me Subject A does more damage?

All that suggests is that either the test was complete bogus, based entirely on just autoattacking at best instead of actually using your skills.
Or power scaling is utterly broken and needs to be nerfhammered into the ground if so little can outperform so much.

Subject A is level 2.
Subject B is level 6.

Attributes now increase +7 per level up til level 10.

That means that subject A will have +28 to all stats at level 6, making it pretty much equal in all other stats and have +45 power.

I’ll level it up to 6 in a bit and post screens.

That still should not put a lowbie ahead of someone downscaled. But i’m curious to see the numbers nonetheless. I’m not ruling out that there might be certain points in between 1 to 80 where this system could go awry. It has happend before.

Good analysis OP. Hopefully this will finally get ANET’s attention and they roll back the change just like they did the last time. Strangely, they didn’t comment on it at all back then.