Dynamic level adjustment (down-leveled) reduces a character’s attributes and level when the character’s level exceeds the area he or she is in. For example, a character with an actual level of 50, in a level 10 area, will have his attributes reduced to an “effective level” equal to a level 11 character (max level for the area +1). Effective level is shown as a green number in parentheses next to the actual level on the experience bar and is stated under the actual level on the hero panel. Changes to attributes are also seen on the hero panel in green next to the actual attribute values.
- That doesn’t explain how downleveling works. How do you define what stats level 11 character is supposed to have? As you can see when you bring your different characters that are above level 11 into level 11 zone, they all have slightly different stats. Level 80 character with maximum stat gear is going to be more powerful than level 11 character in level 11 zone.
Again, the question is how does it work? What’s the formula we’re looking for?
I’ll give you a short example:
Level 11 character with no items equipped has 68 points in Power, Precision, Toughness and Vitality. If you put two points into your trait line that gives your character +10 power for each point, then that downscaled character will have 85 power. That is only 17 points increase.
(edited by Zenith.6403)
Well in Gw2 do you really need more than 8 characters since each character can go to any zone at any level and do things. At most i can see someone needing 16 one of each class and each sex but i think 8 is about the only needed amount.
You won’t be able to see all the personal storylines with 8 characters.
Asura have 3*3*4=36 different storylines
Charr have 3*5*3=45 different storylines
Human have 3*3*6=54 different storylines
Norn have 3*3*4=36 different storylines
Sylvari have 3*3*4=36 different storylines
Then there’s also branching within each story.
I have to agree. I find myself just wanting to use signets for passive stat increases as the other traits just add nothing to my gameplay. There is too few interesting ones, that are completely situational and most of the time aren’t reliable… then there is the exceptionally long cooldowns.
- These are exactly my feelings when I look at slot skills available to most professions.
Let’s take Mesmer’s Signet of Illusions active as an example: "Active: Recharge your shatter skills. "
So what do you have to do to use this skill? First you got to summon clone / phantasm. Then you have to shatter it. Then you got to summon another clone / phantasm while shatter skill is on cooldown. Now you get to use that signet active and afterwards you can shatter again. Talk about complicated process!
I feel busy enough trying to get the five weapons skills to work in some kind of synergy. Ten is just too many to bother.
Exactly knightblaster. Now we get back to the question I asked in opening post: if level-upping doesn’t give you a stronger character but rather appears to be a penalty, why have leveling system along the whole storyline in the first place?
I’m not aware of level scaling the way you describe it. It was my understanding that Level 10 gear will add exactly the same stats to a level 11 character as it would to a level 10 character.
- There are white stats and green stats. White stats are what your character has without any scaling taking place. Green stats are what your character actually has after scaling is applied.
I took two screenshots to illustrate this:
http://imgur.com/a/CiDPy
The first image is my character level 15 and second is my character level 16. I changed no items between these pictures. The white stats got higher from level up, but the green ones went down. This means that my character performs worse and the only remedy is to upgrade equipment.
Alright, I’ll explain. Stats go down when you level up because of level scaling. A level 10 character with level 10 equipment is going to be better than level 11 character with level 10 equipment. Scaling means that your level is measured against your gear to determine your effective power. You can see this for yourself when you take screenshot of your character stats just before you level up and compare it.
The system assumes that you keep upgrading your equipment all the time as you progress. From my point of view, we’re forced to do it. Equal power could be accomplished by capping the level lower, or designing some creative system where levels are no longer necessary.
(edited by Zenith.6403)
I was visiting a merchant on Snowden Drifts to get some new equipment. The pants he was selling had +1 power more than what I was wearing and so I decided to give him 1 silver 92 copper for them. I equipped the pants and my attack went from 869 to 870. My effective attack didn’t budge from 418 where the game had dumped me. Every time I level up, my stats go down. I need to get new pieces of equipment to get where I was before.
I wonder what’s the appeal of the system as it is. Sure I understand that ANET wants to make it so that every field is like endgame field. But that directly implies that there is no character progression, and indeed that’s the case. Leveling up is like punishment, where in other games it’s a thing you desire – you become more able and powerful. Original Guild Wars’ expansion packs had the right idea: leveling from 1-20 was like doing tutorial. You graduated and became more knowledgeable, eventually reaching level 20 where majority of the game happened. Why did they change the system?