(edited by Liege Tai.8249)
New Down-scaling Since Patch
I tested the scaling on my ranger. I agree it takes longer to kill stuff. Sometimes an entire second or two.
If you upgrade to ascended armor to one shot stuff in Queensdale I’m not sure what to tell you, bit it’s not the fault of the game.
The game needed to make it take longer to kill stuff in early zones, so people that are actually in those zones could get credit for events.
It maybe is a bug, since it wasn’t announced, so wait for a while.
If it was a change however, I would be very happy. When advertising for GW2, Anet was proud to say that their downscaling system allowed the content of non-80 zones to be still interesting at lvl 80. And while I still like the dialogs, scenery and funny heart quests while exploring, the combat really feels silly. Where’s the fun in finishing a mob before the end of my Pistol Whip in every zone until lvl 40? I hope they leave it that way.
I tested the scaling on my ranger. I agree it takes longer to kill stuff. Sometimes an entire second or two.
If you upgrade to ascended armor to one shot stuff in Queensdale I’m not sure what to tell you, bit it’s not the fault of the game.
The game needed to make it take longer to kill stuff in early zones, so people that are actually in those zones could get credit for events.
That may be so, but the nerf was overly-drastic imo. We were indeed overpowered prior to the patch but we went from one extreme to another.
I don’t think it’d be unreasonable to claim that they should consider readjusting the formula.
I mean, seeing numbers like 40% crit chance in AC with full ascended berserker is pretty cringeworthy. It’s to the point where assassins might be optimal for lower leveled dungeons.
And given a new expansion is coming out with a lot of new characters ( although Revenant probably instantly levelled to 20, then tested, then to 80 via various stacked rewards); the newbie zones will be full of lower levels.
The further ¬15% could be there to give the mass influx of lower levels a sporting chance. Some of the world bosses now offer more of a challenge.
I have to agree my thief is getting his butt handed to him just facing 3 or 4 low levels mobs at once. My health drops by 70% within 5 seconds of facing 3 level 26 mobs and soloing vets requires a lot of kiting.
I tested the scaling on my ranger. I agree it takes longer to kill stuff. Sometimes an entire second or two.
If you upgrade to ascended armor to one shot stuff in Queensdale I’m not sure what to tell you, bit it’s not the fault of the game.
The game needed to make it take longer to kill stuff in early zones, so people that are actually in those zones could get credit for events.
First of all yes, it is the fault of the game.
Second of all, no it did not need to take longer to kill stuff in earlier zones.
Here’s why:
The game was not designed for the new dailies in mind which funnel high levels to low level zones (that’s why it is the games fault) because they did not release with dailies. If it had been, the events would probably have better scaling in them (most don’t even spawn vets, even when there’s 50 or more players around). The last ones worked because they were general enough in PvE it didn’t matter what you did. If you plugged along with map exploration you were likely to get them in an hour or two of playing, ten-twenty minutes if you actually focused on them.
Everything did not need to die slower, just the things in the events, there is a completely viable mechanic already in the game to address the insta-dying, low-level events. ELITES, no matter what gear they take more than kittens to kill (have you done the largely ignored toxic events that are still around recently? They’re largely ignored because the elites and vets require a group to complete for most people). Or, heaven forbid, CHAMPIONS without bags spawning in low level zones. Oh, the horror! Newbs can’t fight a champion with 35 level 80s near by! Oh the humanity! Instead of going through and fixing all- not even all would have been necessary, just SOME- of the old events by giving them vets, elites, and/or champions for scaling measures they went with a ‘lets adjust down scaling so 80s do less damage and effectively nerf every single player’. Why? Because it was quick and easy.
An alternative to this- and possibly just as quick and simple- would have been to FIX THE DAILY, instead of events in Queensdale, make it events in Kryta. Boom, problem solved and without getting out the nerf mallet because suddenly all the players have 5-9 zones (depending on the region and no I did not count how many zones each has so this is a ballpark figure) to muck about in instead of one like it used to be.
Downscaling affects ALOT more than just the daily event. Suddenly I’m killing things slower everwhere. Sure, 2-5 seconds doesn’t sound like a lot if you kill ONE thing. Last time I played however, I think I killed more than one thing. Did you? Multiply that by 1000 though and suddenly you have 0.5 hours to 1.4 hours of additional time spent just slogging through a zone. Me, I explore maps and tend to kill most things in my path so it takes 2-3 hours to clear a zone. Now I’m looking at 2.5-4.5 hours to clear a zone, assuming I only kill 1000 things in an entire zone.
What… a… bore.
Now people who don’t have that time decide to just run from one WP to the next as fast as possible (ignoring creatures unless they’re at a heart)… that means fewer goods going into the TP which in turn means TP prices go up. On top of that, it affects the farmers driving the markets, now Farmer X is spending Y more minutes per Z mat, suddenly the price of Z goes up to compensate otherwise they stop farming Z because it isn’t worth it to them which also results in Z going up because supply is down but demand stayed the same. Maybe it goes up enough X goes back to farming, but not all of the farmers will and the price will remain higher.
The decrease to stats when you down scale is a horrid choice given perfectly reasonable alternatives that wouldn’t impact other facets of the game in any way… at all. Unfortunately it reeks of Anet taking the easy way out. On top of that, suddenly my level 80 warrior (who has no issues mowing through things in a level 80 zone) is threatened by several level 5 creatures because my damage was not the only thing targeted by this nerf. My armor rating, my toughness, my vitality, my healing… well every single stat was.
(edited by Kentaine.4692)
The scaling had to be nerfed.
Even scaled level 80s could kill low level mobs in 1-2 basic attacks.
If thats the scaling used, you might as well not bother scaling at all.
The scaling had to be nerfed.
Even scaled level 80s could kill low level mobs in 1-2 basic attacks.
If thats the scaling used, you might as well not bother scaling at all.
This is only an issue with events, and that is only an issue because of the new dailies. Again there were other fixes, fix the events to scale with the influx of level 80s/multiple people (vets/elites/champions spawning) or fix the dailies (change them to region instead of zone). 80s killing in 1-2 hits wouldn’t matter if the events had 50 level appropriate characters running around trying for the same event (I remember the early days when everyone was level appropriate, a rarely got better than bronze) for the same reason. Too many people, not enough targets.
To be fair, though, what I’m most annoyed about this is the fact that Anet didn’t even bother mentioning it in the patch notes even though it affects every character in the game.
yeah… right… It was a MAJOR issue with low levels trying to do tasks with high levels around… you never got to land a blow before the mob you were on your way to died off… it took a low level triple the time to do the same tasks that the high levels was bursting over like a kitten… HOPEFULLY they made the scaling harsh enough for it to be the same…
Leave it to A-net to decide whether the suggestion is possible or not.
Maybe it’s an unintended bug, like the vendor limitations were. There were people defending that change too, but what do you know, it’s fixed (thankfully).
why not downscaling traits too if anet wants overgeared 80s to act like being lowlevel chars?
you can downscale power and conditions
you can downscale health
you can downscale toughness and even ferocity u can downscale to 100%
no problem with it at all (the massive damage on worldevents IS a mess tbh)
but if u start downscaling stats like crit (or maybe boon or condi time) THAT much and
affecting certain procs on sigils or runes or until affecting playstyles at all(if things run totally worth),
then theres no reason at all to not downscale traits.
even if that means thatyou have to play without traits at all in certain areas.
evrything else is half kitten d, to be honest.
(edited by hardloop von edgehoven.8512)
yeah… right… It was a MAJOR issue with low levels trying to do tasks with high levels around… you never got to land a blow before the mob you were on your way to died off… it took a low level triple the time to do the same tasks that the high levels was bursting over like a kitten… HOPEFULLY they made the scaling harsh enough for it to be the same…
I never had this issue, using exploration to level each profession- sometimes more than once when I remade them into a different race, until after the New Dailies. I must be in the bizarre minority since it was a major issue before that. Strange that leveling to eighty at ten times (I did elementalist and guardiant twice) didn’t give me enough opportunities for 80s to come by and kill groups I was attacking. In fact, I rarely even saw level 80s in Queensdale, Caledon Forest, Metrica Province, Plains of Ashford and Wayfarer Foothills unless a world boss was about to start (excluding the Queensdale train, but those were champions with enough health for even a level 2 to get hits in). Again, though, I must be the strange minority. Post New Dailies, however, is a completely different story.
And no, the scaling isn’t harsh enough still. You put 20-30 level 80s in a low level event and the low level player will still miss out on the event because they didn’t actually fix the underlying issue (hint, it isn’t the 80s but the events themselves having too few targets (example: Svanir Shaman pre that spawns 3-4 grawl at one time) for too many people or only spawning minions instead of vets/elites/champs (example: bandit raid of the farm just across the bridge in Queensdale)).
I didn’t even notice the downscaling, apart from that our zerg of 30 people wiped in gendarren fields at an event I used to solo the past 1,5 years. I was still able to solo the champ troll in sparkfly fen although it took a bit longer but I thought that was due to me lagging. I’m usually running around as a thief, btw.
Anyway – the downscaling was here before and as far as i can remember it was really good, but I can’t say if better or whatever since it’s been a year. On april 15th 2014 a lot of stuff had been changed and one of them was the proper scaling for low level areas. So, if I really noticed a difference I’d say that I’m glad they did it, but unfortunately I don’t and am still confused because of the wipe – so I guess something went wrong.
I think the latest build fixed it. I think.
If Anet hadn’t of nerfed the mobs in low level zones in April of 2014 they wouldn’t have had to nerf the downscaling now. I thought the low level zones were perfectly balanced back before they started screwing with things this past year.
I think the latest build fixed it. I think.
I can confirm this, I was at 88 power and 24% crit chance at level 9 downscale in queensdale yesterday and today i’m at 150 power and 46% crit chance.
I don’t think it is as high as it was before this patch, but mobs are now being one shotted again.
I am 100% on board with this whether it was on purpose or not, it has been absolutely ridiculous for years how difficult it was for a lowbie chararacter to participate in events of their own level when a downscaled 80 is nearby.
And the OPs alternative suggestion makes no sense. If they buffed mobs instead of changing downscaling, whether per mob or per event by spawning more difficult mobs, that would make them harder for people of the appropriate level to tag, which would bring us full circle back to the original problem and increase the overall difficulty of the lowbie areas.
(edited by Conncept.7638)
And given a new expansion is coming out with a lot of new characters ( although Revenant probably instantly levelled to 20, then tested, then to 80 via various stacked rewards); the newbie zones will be full of lower levels.
The further ¬15% could be there to give the mass influx of lower levels a sporting chance. Some of the world bosses now offer more of a challenge.
Just did Shadow Behemoth and Frozen Maw today, didn’t notice difference. I completely forgot about this change until reading this thread.
On the other hand the moas near the crafting stations in the middle of wayfarers did seem to take longer to kill.
yeah… right… It was a MAJOR issue with low levels trying to do tasks with high levels around… you never got to land a blow before the mob you were on your way to died off… it took a low level triple the time to do the same tasks that the high levels was bursting over like a kitten… HOPEFULLY they made the scaling harsh enough for it to be the same…
I am not too concerned about this change but on the other hand why bother having levels at all if a downscaled lv80 is going to be the same as a lv whatever?
I am 100% on board with this whether it was on purpose or not, it has been absolutely ridiculous for years how difficult it was for a lowbie chararacter to participate in events of their own level when a downscaled 80 is nearby.
And the OPs alternative suggestion makes no sense. If they buffed mobs instead of changing downscaling, whether per mob or per event by spawning more difficult mobs, that would make them harder for people of the appropriate level to tag, which would bring us full circle back to the original problem and increase the overall difficulty of the lowbie areas.
Maybe they shouldn’t be using damage as the sole determining factor in event participation.
I am not too concerned about this change but on the other hand why bother having levels at all if a downscaled lv80 is going to be the same as a lv whatever?
Because it makes no sense to be in a low level area as a level 80. Neither for you nor the low levels playing in that area. Only as a level 80 you have access to all traits and the best gear – used to be a bit different a year ago. So actually being level 80 changes quite a bit, no matter whether you’re up- or downscaled.
I am 100% on board with this whether it was on purpose or not, it has been absolutely ridiculous for years how difficult it was for a lowbie chararacter to participate in events of their own level when a downscaled 80 is nearby.
And the OPs alternative suggestion makes no sense. If they buffed mobs instead of changing downscaling, whether per mob or per event by spawning more difficult mobs, that would make them harder for people of the appropriate level to tag, which would bring us full circle back to the original problem and increase the overall difficulty of the lowbie areas.
Maybe they shouldn’t be using damage as the sole determining factor in event participation.
This I also agree with, very very much… especially in World Vs Spam, er Door, no wait… versus mindless lagblob? What was that game mode called again?
But really, what other measure could they have that would even be available to lowbies? Conditions? Don’t work in a group. Control? Doesn’t work in a group. Support? Depending on your class, doesn’t work in a group, or doesn’t even exist.
(edited by Conncept.7638)
This is only an issue with events, and that is only an issue because of the new dailies.
Because level 80s don’t go to under level 60 zones to farm champions. Or world bosses. Because killing ambient mobs that low levels don’t get credit for due to being killed too fast by the roaming single level 80 doesn’t count to hearts.
Because content was a kittening bore due to too simple when going anywhere but level 80 areas with simple exotic gear.
I have to disagree with your opinion that downscaling was only ever an issue with events and that in turn was only an issue due to the new dailies. The issue was there LONG before the new dailies. It was there before the world boss timer. It was there before champ bags were introduced. The issue was always there. It just became a bigger issue with champ bags, the world boss timer, and the new dailies.
Now there is the separate issue of most events in the game not scaling up properly, but this happens even in level 80 areas and it is unrelated to downscaling.
But in all honesty, I don’t feel much of a difference going through my half-exotic half-ascended necromancer. Or my full exotic ranger. Or my 75-25 exotic-ascended thief. I’m not seeing this nerf to downscaling.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
Am I the only one that actually likes the much stronger downscaling? I was running around in the plains of Ashford with my lvl 53 warrior and 2 friends that just started the game yesterday and I had real trouble fighting some oger veterans or bigger number of ascalonian ghosts, I even got downed several times, at one point even killed, something thats a rarity in tiself while leveling a warrior in PvE and I LOVED IT!!!
I missed having a challange while leveling twinks/alts for a long time now, and I am happy to actually think about what I am fighting against and having to concentrate, not just wait for everything to die while spamming weaponskills.
But when I went on the forum I just saw many QQ threads of people complaining about it beeing to hard(they kind of like replaced the QQ threads of things beeing to easy, how ironic), so I wondered, do people not want to be challanged anymore, because I most certainly do.
You are never the only one. Ever.
He’s the only Seishiro.7468 on this forum. Generalization crushed!
As to the actual question: once I figured out this wasn’t just another bug, I thought about it and consider it a good change. It was the plan all along to make all zones feel more or less like any zone while you’re at the appropriate “natural” level no matter what actual level you are. It also helps—a bit—to shunt the impact of inconsiderate self-centered L80s running around in low level zones during “event” dailies and murdering 100% of everything instantly while properly leveled characters are left swinging/shooting at corpses.
IMO, the QQers are weenies. There, I said it.
(edited by Kruhljak.2705)
Eh, I enjoy the challenge as well.
One thing I don’t like is, that the rewards are diminished. As in, you’re a level 50, you go to a starter zone that acts every bit as hard as level 50 zone to you, but gives level 1 xp etc rewards for hearts and whatnot.
People who can’t tend to call the opponent troll, scream something utterly incomprehensible
and finally result to personal insults.
challenge xD
I didnt check the drop or exp gained. Is it seriously acting like this in lower lvl areas? If yes, it points towards bug.
I don’t know why they don’t just create a hard mode version of each map that you can reach when level 80…
Upgrade all mobs by 1 tier. Normal become Vets, Vets become silvers, silvers become champs… grant a 50% bonus to Magic Find while in a hard mode area.
What this would create: Farming opportunity for solo players. Farming opportunity for groups (as scaling will still have an effect) a different dynamic for a while…
How hard would this be to implement, I am assuming not that difficult as the scaling already exists, set it to x5 and we have a hard mode No? 1 player would =5 5 would equal 25 etc etc.
I don’t know why they don’t just create a hard mode version of each map that you can reach when level 80…
Upgrade all mobs by 1 tier. Normal become Vets, Vets become silvers, silvers become champs… grant a 50% bonus to Magic Find while in a hard mode area.
What this would create: Farming opportunity for solo players. Farming opportunity for groups (as scaling will still have an effect) a different dynamic for a while…
How hard would this be to implement, I am assuming not that difficult as the scaling already exists, set it to x5 and we have a hard mode No? 1 player would =5 5 would equal 25 etc etc.
So you mean a new set of megaservers just for level 80s and level 80s can’t play with their lower level friends anymore? I don’t think that’s a good idea
I wish for a red post finally. If it’s a bug tell us. If it’s intented I want and answer why the hell it’s not mentioned in patch notes.
Why this company cant communicate with customers, making interviews and marketing conferences only?
My ranger can still pew pew 1 target down with 1 Rapid fire
The PVE content is still easy, just that the grinders don’t want to kill things slower. They like the feeling of being overpowered even though Anet originally want uplevels to have challenge in lower level areas too. That’s the point of down-scaling, However, the old system doesn’t down-scale enough to make lv80 to feel any challenge, that’s why they fix it. Maybe it’s time to get better.
(edited by Aomine.5012)
So because something was wrong for over a certain amount of time, it shouldn’t be “fixed”?
With priorities I meant, it probably didn’t have a high priority compared to other topics. I’m under the impression, they have tried to fix quite a few long time problems with the last patch(es). I’d rather welcome these than question the timing.
I had liked the idea of challenging low level/downscaled areas, when reading about GW2 before it went live.
Your post would be valid if not bajilion of posts in profession forums about bugs.
OK, my own 2p worth. And this is purely personal opinion; YMMV.
I don’t know whether it’s changed or not; if it has I don’t know whether it’s deliberate or not. But if it has, and it was, I welcome it – and not before time.
When I first met the GW2 scaling concept, I was near-blown away. The idea that you could go back to any area that you were at least high-enough level to enter, and be scaled back down to a level suitable for the content, was brilliant. At a stroke it seemed to make the entire game continuously accessible and replayable with even the highest-level character. And in particular I remember, when a friend was contemplating GW2 to join a couple of us who had already been playing for some time, enthusing to him about how we’d be able to come join him straight away with our existing characters – because the game would adjust us down something akin to his level and stop us dominating things.
Except, of course, that’s not what happened. Just like the old days and Another Game™, our level 80s joined his level 8 or so, and simply steamrollered everything in sight. Quite frequently he didn’t even get credit for kills. The first session lasted about 30 minutes before we realised that, down-levelled or not, we’d either have to roll new characters to play with him or wait for him to put levels on – just like that Other Game we’d come from.. Nice idea, ANet; shame it didn’t work.
And – yes, I can see down-sides to full or near-full down-levelling – but I don’t see them as game-breakers, merely things that would, if it were working properly, make GW2 a different game to others – which is, frankly, half its attraction. But, put simply – if it’s going to be there, it needs to work, to level the playing-field for all characters in a zone. And if it’s not going to deliver that, then what, in the end, is it there for? Write it off as a good idea that didn’t work, and take it out.
(edited by Doghouse.1562)
I never had problems completing zone events even with downscaled 80s beside me. Leveling here is extremely easy and you get xp for doing basicly anything.
They should focus on fixing the fps drop thing instead of something like this. I saw no change at all. It’s minor stuff or it’s been nerfed already due to a massive btching festival.
I never had problems completing zone events even with downscaled 80s beside me. Leveling here is extremely easy and you get xp for doing basicly anything.
They should focus on fixing the fps drop thing instead of something like this. I saw no change at all. It’s minor stuff or it’s been nerfed already due to a massive btching festival.
It’s not so bad later, but at the lowest the down-levelling simply doesn’t work. As an example, I have personal memories of trying to kill drakes in order to complete the “Fisher Travis” renown heart west of Shaemoor, when a group of high-level players came in and started killing them for their own purposes. Result? Between skills, traits, numbers and so on, they were moving around the area faster than I was – and whenever anyone got near a drake, they simply one-shotted it. I never got a look-in; I could start towards a drake when one spawned, but by the time I got in range, it was invariably dead. OK, there are other ways of completing that particular heart – there often are – but that’s neither here nor there, because a key component of any good game is allowing players to play the way they want to, not forcing them to work around problems. I’d decided what I wanted to do, and inadequate down-levelling stopped me. If they’d been performing at a level similar to mine, I’d have been able to join in; instead, I gave up and went to do something else for a while. Similarly in the levels 8/80 case I described above; my newbie friend wasn’t looking to power-level despite us, we were all hoping for a pleasant joint experience to which we would all feel we’d contributed. Down-levelling seemed to promise that – but it simply didn’t work in practice.
The problem with too much scaling is – why should I level my toon or gear it?
@OP
FYI the down-scaling has been reverted back to before the camera zoom patch with the latest build(46472).
I have no idea if it was intended or not since nothing was mentioned on the patch notes.
The problem with too much scaling is – why should I level my toon or gear it?
That’s a different issue. But – you level because most scaling only works one way, and levelling gives you access to new content** (and, frankly, simply because you want to, and you can). And you gear because it helps with all sorts of high-end stuff. Which is rather more than was mostly the case in GW – and it didn’t stop that being a darn good game.
**Rather like some of the Mastery stuff coming up in HoT, in fact…
(edited by Doghouse.1562)
@OP
FYI the down-scaling has been reverted back to before the camera zoom patch with the latest build(46472).I have no idea if it was intended or not since nothing was mentioned on the patch notes.
No, it still isn’t like a year ago and the mobs have become slightly harder to kill with the latest patch.
The problem with too much scaling is – why should I level my toon or gear it?
That’s a different issue. But – you level because most scaling only works one way (and, frankly, simply because you want to, and you can). And you gear because it helps with all sorts of high-end stuff. Which is more, frankly, than was mostly the case in GW – and it didn’t stop that being a darn good game.
high end stuff? you mean which zergfarm is a high end stuff? silverwastes or orr?
My point is when you go low lvl areas you dont need to be op, but you should feel stronger when you’re max lvl in those areas.
@OP
FYI the down-scaling has been reverted back to before the camera zoom patch with the latest build(46472).I have no idea if it was intended or not since nothing was mentioned on the patch notes.
No, it still isn’t like a year ago and the mobs have become slightly harder to kill with the latest patch.
Camera zoom patch wasn’t a year ago… SMH
@OP
FYI the down-scaling has been reverted back to before the camera zoom patch with the latest build(46472).I have no idea if it was intended or not since nothing was mentioned on the patch notes.
No, it still isn’t like a year ago and the mobs have become slightly harder to kill with the latest patch.
Camera zoom patch wasn’t a year ago… SMH
Seems as if you didn’t understand what I just wrote – but ok.
One of dungeoneers is reporting that scaling is back to normal today.
Waiting for confirmation from other competent ppl.
If this was their intention all along why they waited a year with the change? This is why I think it’s lazy. If the scaling was “broken” too high at the beginning they would have changed this long time ago. So this either a bug or, you know, laziness.
Let me explain how this works. At any given time they have a list of things to do. This list contains far, far, far too many things for any team to be able to do all at once. They have to prioritise the tasks they can take on.
Some of the tasks in this list are just skeletons, bare bones ideas, basically just questions to be asked and answered. Others are fully fleshed out, they’ve been considered, debated and have a detailed solution proposed. A lot of work goes into making these changes before they go anywhere near the code or database.
In the case of a change like this a lot of that work will involve gathering and comparing data over a period of months. It’s a tweak to existing systems but is a pretty huge tweak and should be done with great care. It’s important but fairly low priority. That makes this kind of task a classic “back burner” task: something that should be addressed because it’s not right but it’s not as big an issue as something like a crash to desktop or developing a critical new system to support the games future.
Accusing them of “laziness” because they’re doing this now is just plain wrong. Anyone with any knowledge of or appreciation of the complexities of software development will know that they are working their kitten off.
(edited by Moderator)
pifil are you a developer for gw2? how dare you telling me how this game works. you are noone. I want a red post to clarify if this is intended change and if it is, why isnt it in patch notes and why are they trying to hide such changes?
(edited by Moderator)
I haven’t done much other than pvp since the update, so I’m not sure how far this change has taken the game. However, my biggest obstacle with world completion in the past was getting bored rolling over all the content once I hit 80. I’m not someone who could bring myself to wear worse gear just to make it harder. I like to try my hardest, and be challenged. Sounds like a good change to me.
I don’t. It would feel silly if my lvl 80 who’s conquered Orr to go to Queensdale and get beaten by some bandits.