Guild Wars 2

I’ve been searching and searching, and I can’t find anywhere that provides information regarding how ITEM LEVEL vs CHARACTER LEVEL affects armor bonuses while downleveling (PvE) and upleveling (WvW).

So, my question is, how are gear bonuses affected by Dynamic Level Adjustments?

TLDR Version: Does having outdated gear penalize you in dynamic leveling, or are your formulated stats simply based on your level, and not affected by the level or quality of your gear?

It seems there are two major theories / formulas.

THEORY 1: Flat adjustment based on CHARACTER LEVEL relative to ZONE LEVEL
All of your attributes are added up, and the final numbers are multiplied by a set value based on your level relative to the zone. This theoretically results in ALL high level characters being considerably stronger while downleveled than any appropriate level characters in the zone (See Example C).

Example A: If you’re CHAR LVL 50, and you are wearing GEAR LVL 50 blue “Hearty” gear, and zone into WvW, you’d be relatively similar to a CHAR LVL 80 in all blue GEAR LVL 80 “Hearty” gear.

Example B: If you’re CHAR LVL 50, and you are wearing GEAR LVL 40 blue “Hearty” gear, when you zone into WvW, you’d be relatively similar to a CHAR LVL 80 in all blue “Hearty” gear of a lower level (ie, GEAR LVL 70, or GEAR LVL 65, based on the values of the dynamic leveling formula).

Example C: If you’re CHAR LVL 50, and you are wearing GEAR LVL 40 blue “Hearty” gear, when you zone down into a ZONE LVL 10 area, you’d be relatively similar to a CHAR LVL 10 in all blue “Hearty” gear of a lower level (ie, GEAR LVL 15, or GEAR LVL 20, based on the values of the dynamic leveling formula).

THEORY 2: GEAR LEVEL relative to CHARACTER LEVEL relative to ZONE LEVEL
All of your attributes are based off the quality of your armor relative to your level. This theoretically results in most high level characters being considerably stronger while downleveled than any appropriate level characters in the zone, but players with outdated gear could be barely stronger, or even theoretically weaker, if the gear is outdated badly enough (See Example C).

Example A: If you’re CHAR LVL 50, and you are wearing GEAR LVL 50 blue “Hearty” gear, and zone into WvW, you’d be relatively similar to a CHAR LVL 80 in all blue GEAR LVL 80 “Hearty” gear.

Example B: If you’re CHAR LVL 50, and you are wearing GEAR LVL 40 blue “Hearty” gear, when you zone into WvW, you’d be relatively similar to a CHAR LVL 80 in all blue “Hearty” gear of a lower level (ie, GEAR LVL 70, or GEAR LVL 65, based on the values of the dynamic leveling formula).

Example C: If you’re CHAR LVL 50, and you are wearing GEAR LVL 40 blue “Hearty” gear, when you zone down into a ZONE LVL 10 area, you’d be relatively similar to a CHAR LVL 10 in all blue “Hearty” gear of a lower level (ie, GEAR LVL 1, or GEAR LVL 5, based on the values of the dynamic leveling formula).

I haven’t looked into this since they did a recent change to scaling, but the way it has worked since at least BWE2 (and at least until the recent change) is that your modified (including gear, food, traits, etc.) stats are multiplied by the ratio of your base (naked, buffless, traitless, etc.) toughness (or power, vitality, or precision—they are all the same) at your current level to its value at your scaled level.

Edit: As you level, the amount of stats you get from gear, traits, food, and natural progression changes. At 39, stats from traits have the largest impact, and the increased quality of gear that is available at higher levels is partially to compensate for the declining role that traits play as you advance in level.

That is helpful information, but doesn’t explain why a blue level 44 sword does more damage than a green level 40 sword when they show identical stats and damage output.

There’s more to the dynamic formula, I’m hoping there is documentation showing testing, but I can’t find any.

Well…

As a level 48 mesmer leveled down to level 5, I have…
- 43 power naked, giving Attack 434.
- 44 power when wearing +14 level 14 boots, giving Attack 448.
- 44 power when wearing +15 level 20 boots, giving Attack 449.
- 45 power when wearing +17 level 44 boots, giving Attack 451.

As a level 48 mesmer leveled down to level 24, I have…
- 168 power naked, giving Attack 434.
- 173 power when wearing +14 level 14 boots, giving Attack 448.
- 173 power when wearing +15 level 20 boots, giving Attack 449.
- 174 power when wearing +17 level 44 boots, giving Attack 451.

As a level 48 mesmer leveled up to level 80 in WWW, I have…
- 984 power naked, giving Attack 434.
- 1016 power when wearing +14 level 14 boots, giving Attack 448.
- 1018 power when wearing +15 level 20 boots, giving Attack 449.
- 1023 power when wearing +17 level 44 boots, giving Attack 451.

All this is unarmed, so it is pure basic weapon-less ratio power-to-attack.

So, basically, the power on the gear doesn’t get leveled: +10 power on an armor gives +10 power and +10 attack, regardlessly of how high level you are leveled too or how high level your gear is.

From what I have observed and learned from chatting with friends, the strength of your gear is based on a ratio of Gear Lvl vs True Character level. Now if you’re not down leveled, then it doesn’t matter (beyond being inherently weapon like you would expect). Yet when you do have your level reduced, your gear has its effectiveness reduced. It seems like the % multiplier is based on the expectation that you’re wearing current that’s equal to your current character level. If it isn’t, then the reduction multiplier will hit you even harder.

Case in point, try being 80th with a couple of different weapons. You’ve got a 65th Yellow weapon and an 80th Blue weapon. Then you walk into a lvl 20 area. Both of these weapons gets hit with a reduction multiplier that would be balanced around you wearing a full set of 80th gear. Now look at your Yellow weapon. Even though it is at the same artificial level are the Blue weapon, you’ll see that its +stats are much lower. Why? The issue is that the Yellow weapon is at a level spread of <True Level -15> while the Blue weapon is at a level spread of <True Level -0>.

Wiser with Age.3714:

From what I have observed and learned from chatting with friends, the strength of your gear is based on a ratio of Gear Lvl vs True Character level. Now if you’re not down leveled, then it doesn’t matter (beyond being inherently weapon like you would expect). Yet when you do have your level reduced, your gear has its effectiveness reduced. It seems like the % multiplier is based on the expectation that you’re wearing current that’s equal to your current character level. If it isn’t, then the reduction multiplier will hit you even harder.

Case in point, try being 80th with a couple of different weapons. You’ve got a 65th Yellow weapon and an 80th Blue weapon. Then you walk into a lvl 20 area. Both of these weapons gets hit with a reduction multiplier that would be balanced around you wearing a full set of 80th gear. Now look at your Yellow weapon. Even though it is at the same artificial level are the Blue weapon, you’ll see that its +stats are much lower. Why? The issue is that the Yellow weapon is at a level spread of <True Level -15> while the Blue weapon is at a level spread of <True Level -0>.

This pretty much sums it up, as far as I know. Unless it was changed with the recent changes to level scaling—I haven’t looked at it since then. Generally, even if you’re playing downscaled, you want your gear to be at or close to your true level.