Guild Wars 2

If you’re going to reduce the stats of 1-30 mobs, won’t they become easier for a a lvl 80 with full exotic/ascended? It was easy as it was before..

they mentioned to make the downscaling hitting harder.

To be fair they can’t really balance low-level stuff around max-leveled and max-geared characters.

Xyonon.3987:

they mentioned to make the downscaling hitting harder.

Ah ok. Another solution would be a debuff to high lvl character in low level zones. Like 10-30% stat reduction depending on your level and the zone. On top of the current reduction and downscaling.

They can introduce a stat cap, wich depends on the level of the area you are right now. For example in a lv 20 area, there are no rare+ items yet, so all your weapon stats get reduced to a green item. Same goes for armor and stuff. lv 20 also means you cannot have more than 10 trait points, reducing all 11+ lv trait bonus stats to 0.

There we go

Is that something they are doing? If so that makes the level 30 trait-lock seem more appropriate. As is I think there will be an imbalance between PVE and what our characters are capable of if the enemies are not brought down accordingly.

They really need to go through lower level content and make some of the group events easier/soloable as well. It’s frustrating that towns are just constantly under siege because there is no one around to actually bother doing anything about it and your dinky level 20 character is hardly able to solo champions.

Since we won’t have traits below level 30, it’s a fair trade off.

Behellagh.1468:

Since we won’t have traits below level 30, it’s a fair trade off.

Fair/Necessary.

Many of the classes would not have been physically capable of advancing through their personal story, nevermind the rest of the game, without traits at level 11.

I’m still not really for dumbing down the early stages of the game for such a long period of time, but then I make the assumption that most people playing the video games in this age are competent enough to learn the mechanics fairly quickly. I absolutely hate the ‘hand-holding’ segment of most MMO’s.

Bah levels.

Why can’t we remove that horribly outdated mechanic entirely?

Shakkara.2641:

Bah levels.

Why can’t we remove that horribly outdated mechanic entirely?

It works well enough as a method of introducing gameplay mechanics periodically so that the player has game mechanics to play around with before the developers evolves them. In an MMO, where longevity is an important aspect, this is often a critical step to ensure that the player doesn’t just get the best everything out of the gate and get bored in a week. ‘Leveling’ isn’t any different than getting power ups in Banjo-Kazooie or finding a new hat in Mario. It’s the exact same concept, leveling just has a more pronounced title of progression.

Problem is when developers focus too much time on the ‘learning’ stage of their game, which is something MMO games do entirely too often. I’ve been playing games for 20+ years, I don’t need three weeks to figure out how to dodge attacks or click the mouse button before you start introducing new mechanics.

lordkrall.7241:

To be fair they can’t really balance low-level stuff around max-leveled and max-geared characters.

They have to.

Otherwise, max level characters will steamroll and ruin the event for everyone.

runeblade.7514:

They have to.

Otherwise, max level characters will steamroll and ruin the event for everyone.

And if they do people that are on the actual level of the events will be unable to do them.

I have yet to see max level characters being able to steamroll Shadow Behemoth or the Shatterer.

You should go to a more populated server then (or don’t, since it sucks); Shadow Behemoth usually has so many people attending the event on my server that if you are not in the swamp 10 minutes before he is spawned you might as well not show up. He goes down that quickly.

lordkrall.7241:

runeblade.7514:

They have to.

Otherwise, max level characters will steamroll and ruin the event for everyone.

And if they do people that are on the actual level of the events will be unable to do them.

I have yet to see max level characters being able to steamroll Shadow Behemoth or the Shatterer.

Then why downscale it more?

@ Warkupo. Both high pop and low pop servers have issues.
I’m on Vabbi. as a nice thing. we can pretty much choose when to activate a WB and can do them in small groups. 2-3 manning Fire Elemental is good fun and challanging.
BUT: it also means that loads of events will never ever happen. 3H. Wurm, Marionette, most Many Orr events. Teq, Karka Queen.-
These only occur when a huge Zerg from Jade Sea or the Spanish etc come and invade.
This also means that they fill up the map. making it close to impossible to get in on it.-
Throwing us on OF if we join late.
And worse. since your huge pop servers are so filled- they will also go and do normal (easy) content like Behe on our server while they are there.
So its a positive thing that I sometimes get to do the rare events while they visit- if I notice in time, But it’s also pretty annoying that a huge foreign zerg comes in and steamroll through our normal content.

Further- we will have to listen to verbal abuse if we try to visit big servers to try the new content- just for being guests- while we have no choice- if we want to try the new content.
And don’t get me started on wvw- at a big rare day for vabbi we might muster 50 players- but that wont matter versus 150+ enemies.

Server numbers needs re-balancing – not messing with the down/up scaling.
If 10-20 players wants to go a boring champ farm in QD. I can’t care less.- It’s sad that it happens in human start area. where so many new players get the wrong idea that – thats how the game is supposed to be like- but besides that – meh

Gearbox.2748:

@ Warkupo. Both high pop and low pop servers have issues.
I’m on Vabbi. as a nice thing. we can pretty much choose when to activate a WB and can do them in small groups. 2-3 manning Fire Elemental is good fun and challanging.
BUT: it also means that loads of events will never ever happen. 3H. Wurm, Marionette, most Many Orr events. Teq, Karka Queen.-
These only occur when a huge Zerg from Jade Sea or the Spanish etc come and invade.
This also means that they fill up the map. making it close to impossible to get in on it.-
Throwing us on OF if we join late.
And worse. since your huge pop servers are so filled- they will also go and do normal (easy) content like Behe on our server while they are there.
So its a positive thing that I sometimes get to do the rare events while they visit- if I notice in time, But it’s also pretty annoying that a huge foreign zerg comes in and steamroll through our normal content.

Further- we will have to listen to verbal abuse if we try to visit big servers to try the new content- just for being guests- while we have no choice- if we want to try the new content.
And don’t get me started on wvw- at a big rare day for vabbi we might muster 50 players- but that wont matter versus 150+ enemies.

Server numbers needs re-balancing – not messing with the down/up scaling.
If 10-20 players wants to go a boring champ farm in QD. I can’t care less.- It’s sad that it happens in human start area. where so many new players get the wrong idea that – thats how the game is supposed to be like- but besides that – meh

Heh, I usually go to Tarnished Coast if I need/want a more populated server. Just speak in third person and emote a lot and they generally accept you.

I have no idea what sort of tech limitations this would involve, but I would really like it if zones worked more like their own servers. So if I go to the normally desolate Kessex Hills the game would combine people so that the zone has an average population, then make another channel or ‘overflow’. Kind of like how overflow works now, just in reverse.

Warkupo.1025:

You should go to a more populated server then (or don’t, since it sucks); Shadow Behemoth usually has so many people attending the event on my server that if you are not in the swamp 10 minutes before he is spawned you might as well not show up. He goes down that quickly.

Behemoth is the only boss that goes down that fast. Try to solo the Maw Shaman .. or do him with just 2-3 others .. it still takes very long and he can hit hard.

Or go just for fun to maybe Snowden Drifts and stay into some Icebrood Wolves and say how long your 80 will live if your not a warrior with high passive healing. Or steamroll the Mesmer Boss at the Skill Challenge in Snowden.

Beldin.5498:

Or go just for fun to maybe Snowden Drifts and stay into some Icebrood Wolves and say how long your 80 will live if your not a warrior with high passive healing. Or steamroll the Mesmer Boss at the Skill Challenge in Snowden.

Best Skill Challenge ever :P

Xyonon.3987:

they mentioned to make the downscaling hitting harder.

Really? I’m glad to hear that, where did they say that? I must’ve completely missed it.

Beldin.5498:

Behemoth is the only boss that goes down that fast. Try to solo the Maw Shaman .. or do him with just 2-3 others .. it still takes very long and he can hit hard.

The Jungle Wurm takes about 2 minutes to kill with 3 people (4 minutes solo) and the Maw takes about 4 minutes.

(from what I’ve seen over the last week)

I made a topic with this focus as well called “make exploration fun at 80”, feel free to hope over and see some of the ideas being thrown around, as well as peoples opinions on the current status of scaling and difficulty.

I’m just going to repeat myself; Go to a server with a higher population. Zone Event bosses like Shadow Behemoth do not do enough damage that they cannot simply be overwhelmed, and often with record timing.