Guild Wars 2

In WvWvW, the level adjustment doesn’t seem to be very effective. When you’re playing someone who’s an actual level 80, you stand no chance if you’re not. I’m level 43 and do almost no damage to anyone lvl 80. I spent 20 seconds going full-force on a thief and did 40% of his health in damage. And no, it’s not that I’m bad at PvP, I’m very good when it comes to sPvP, but in WvW, it’s ridiculous.

Has anyone else been having the problem where they are doing no damage and getting totally owned by everyone who’s actually level 80? Anyone think the level adjustment should be better?

The level adjustment doesn’t just “make you level 80”. It adjusts your stats based on your level and the gear you’re wearing. If you’re level 40 in level 20 blue items, your stats are going to suck pretty bad. If you want the upscaling to make you good, you need to wear high quality gear close to your level.

It is a bit off. I remember going in on my Staff Ele who was at the time around 58 I think? I got hit by another Staff Ele standing on the wall of a keep hitting me for crazy amounts of damage. I think Lava Font hit me for 4k and I had about 15k HP so it only took a few Fire spells and I was dead in seconds. I thought at first that something was seriously off about that, either she was using some sort of siege weapon that appeared in my combat log using the same names as Ele spells, or maybe she was hacking. Then I realized she was probably just a geared 80. My spells did nothing close to that much.

I imagine it would be possible to legally exploit the level adjustment.
Gather the very best gear for a certain level and go to WvW. You’ll be leveled up to 80 including your stats. Your level gear might be actually better than the very best level 80 gear (after the level adjustment).
One problem though, you’ll outlevel it in an hour and your stats will drop again.

In WvW you’re missing one of the key attributes that the level 80 has and you, the non-level 80, don’t: Unlocked Traits.

Are you on Crystal Desert or Dragonbrand? Were you that Guardian in Dragonbrand last night who came at me while I was rezzing a friend? We were laughing so hard as I sat there reviving and you were throwing everything you had into trying to kill me. I remember saying on TS, “Oh no the burst!” and everyone rofl’d. I managed to rez two of my group before you got me down to ~3k hp. After my low-health stealth kicked in, I healed, and it looked like you only did 40% damage, but it was like 75%.

I’m geared to take less damage on purpose, and although it’s underwhelming being sub-80, it just means you need to stick to the zerg until you get 80. It’s a learning process too, for example, if someone is rezzing, you’re about to be facing 2 players, so not a good choice to stick around if you’re not 80 and geared yourself.

Should a L43 be putting a L80 with gear on his toes? It can be done, but less often 1 on 1. Plenty of large sub-80 groups push us off a little, that’s how those two died in the first place.

shortcake.8659:

The level adjustment doesn’t just “make you level 80”. It adjusts your stats based on your level and the gear you’re wearing. If you’re level 40 in level 20 blue items, your stats are going to suck pretty bad. If you want the upscaling to make you good, you need to wear high quality gear close to your level.

Hit the nail on the head.

I felt really powerful around level 10 when I had around the same level gear. That power dipped off in later levels when my gear started lagging behind. Even if you are not at top optimal fighting condition, there is still plenty of things to do in WvW.