Forced Level Scaling in Early Zones
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TLDR (you derserve it /looks down..);
Forced level scaling of mobs is not fun imo, especially combined with any or all level challenges (Reso+IM+NM). Give us a way to toggle on or off the level scaling of mobs, so both sides on this topic can alter their own gameplay wishes and be a happy gamer
Recently level scaling has been introduced to the 1-20 zones. Judging from Discord's history this seems to have been enabled on and off over the past 3 months. I couldn't find any other info about it other than a small note in the changelogs that level-appropriate green drops have been updated for 1-20 mobs.
Intention & Purpose of Level Scaling?
My question is if this level scaling is intended, and will it expand to higher level brackets? If so, I'm wondering what the purpose of this change is? I can only think of some marginal positive effects, but to me at least it has negatively impacted the game and my motivation to roll a new character.
Note that this comes from someone tackling reso/IM/NM, so its not a few hours breeze through 20 once or twice, I spend a lot of time in these level brackets so this change has a big impact for me.
Personal View on Level Scaling
- 1-20 is simultaneously the most boring and most dangerous combat
Your hero pre-20 won't nearly have a toolkit to deal with a far majority of situations or have access to plenty of fun skills. So it's safe to say not only is your hero still kinda boring, it's also ill-equipped to deal with a variety of scenarios. This makes combat relatively more dangerous to higher levels as there is less plays you can make.
Combine this with level scaled mobs along with level challenges, it creates an extra hurdle to leveling that I've not even opted for myself.
- Disconnect of green quests and on-level mobs
Level scaling also adds a weird disconnect between barely green quests and level scaled mobs (though I belief I saw Dutch mentioning on Discord they were working on this, but not sure).
It's like having to work harder for a quest that provides less rewards. Killing equal level mobs gives you more xp at the cost of spending extra time (its not the most efficient farming mobs on-level vs 1/2/3 lower lvls generally). At the same time quests will give less xp cause they'll turn green/gray quicker, as well as providing worse rewards for more time spent.
- Level scaling means you grow weaker
1 AP/TP at level 10 will make you slightly stronger until you reach 10.5 and the mobs scale with you and you might as well have been a lvl 9 fighting a lvl 9 mob. I don't see how that is fun. What's even the point of leveling up then?
Of course the more abilities you unlock and synergies with talents you get will negate this effect at some point, but again; why make 1-20 a worse experience "leveling up"?
- Challenges exponentially increase difficulty/tediousness of level-scaled mobs
Fighting equal level mob as NM challenge all the way to 20 is NOT fun, and resolute/ironman makes it very punishing if you slip up at any point or fall victim to the RNG of parries.
Death (or alts) for me now means back to the muds of level 1-20 scaling and slogging through it all over again. It makes starting a char feel worse than losing a char to me.- Level scaling caters to just one group's wishes
I feel this level scaling change caters to one group's wishes (if it even is intentional?), while forcing others to go with it. In reverse, it would be like suddenly removing the 3x XP option from all servers. I imagine this would upset a lot more people than level scaling in (early) zones, but I hope you see my point; it doesn't need to be either/or.
Solution
Neither side on this topic needs to be negatively impacted in their gameplay wishes.Level scaling doesn't need to be forced on players. Keep it on by default (like 3x XP), sure idm, but give those who want to play in a different way the choice to do so. It's the reason why I've had so much fun on Ascension; the variety and choices of gameplay.
Since non-level scaling was standard up till recently, surely there's a way to toggle it back on at the npc where you pick level challenges?
Hope this will be taken into consideration, loving almost everything else on Ascension so far
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==TL;DR:
scaling in it's current form isn't very fun. being able to turn it off for now would be appreciated.==Long-winded opinion:
i've played both retail and Ascension at times when level scaling existed and when it didn't. IMO level scaling is a step backwards in terms of immersion and enjoyment.
without scaling, your character improves, becomes stronger, and moves to a different zone in order to find more challenging things to do. when you reach higher levels, it can be fun to return to "the old stomping grounds" and see how much easier it is to explore or farm crafting materials.
you get to see the difference very clearly between your old self and your new self. mobs that once rushed you and kept you from mining or gathering herbs, now barely glance in your direction, even when you stand next to them.
but with scaling, your character never outclasses or outguns the local mobs. if the boars in Ellwyn Forest scale with me all the way to level 100, why should i ever leave Ellwyn? why don't i just grind all the way to max level killing kobolds and spiders?
even worse: while the mobs scale in starter zones, they don't scale just 1 zone over. by the time you complete all the quests in Durotar, you're over level 20, and get sent to the Barrens. where mobs are now all grey because they didn't level up like the ones you fought doing the lowbie quests.
and the scaling seems flawed as well. it feels to me as though the mobs gain item level faster than the players. gear drops are less likely to be upgrades as you level up, and even items with higher ilvl seem more likely to be at best a sidegrade rather than an actual improvement.
the current form of scaling makes leveling new characters (or prestiging an old character) far less fun than if scaling were removed.
however, the idea of scaling being available, but not required, sounds like a great idea. if things like gear, quest rewards, character power levels, etc. could improve alongside the increase in power of the scaling mobs, it might be more fun. but until then, being able to turn it off would be a huge help.
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I didn't realize you could out-level a quest while NPCs continued scaling.
I never played WoW with the concept of scaling NPCs, so I just assumed that a quest would stay yellow the entire time the quest's mobs were within your level range. That definitely seems counterproductive to doing quests if the mobs keep the same difficulty but the quest's xp reward doesn't keep up.
On one hand, I liked the idea of scaling mobs because it meant I could continue a questline until I finished it rather than having to choose between dumping a storyline I thought was interesting or moving on to an activity that rewarded more xp...but I also figured the quests would stay yellow as long as the mobs did.
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@Darayna I hate it. I absolutely abhor level scaling of mobs.
It's not fun.
What logical explanation is needed? It's not fun, that should be enough.
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100% agree. Didn't even realize this was a feature of the server until I happened to run back to an area I just cleared only to find every single enemy had been doing pushups the whole time. The scaling also seems to kick in halfway through a level which feels completely bizarre as you trounce all NPCs after the major power spike of a level, only to be punished for playing the game halfway to the next. Why even bother with this mechanic if its not going to be consistently implemented?
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I like the mob scaling because for some reason all ascension mobs are loot pinatas. With the constant gear upgrades it would be too easy without the scaling. I'd like less loot drops if they remove the scaling or just less loot in general. Also it would be nice to see less gear drops that are 10+ my level.
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@Darayna I agree with the majority of the responses here, I very much dislike scaling mobs. I hated it when it came to retail and it's one of the many reasons I left retail. One of the more enjoyable parts of leveling is the feeling of getting stronger, scaling mobs removes that. In addition when doing challenge modes it makes the grind more tedious and far less enjoyable.
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19.10.22,
They made it worse now scaling is global.
I could not find anyone who asked for this, did they not play retail?
It is antithetical to power progression, aka. why a lot of people play RPGs,
and why RPGs are not Adventure Games.
Triple Challenge is now, even for me to masochistic,
and I have done all others.
Please remove level scaling all together, or make it an option.
If that is to big of a bother, at least roll back the change to advance it to all zones. Was 1-10 scaled up to 20 not enough, for the players I cant find whom where asking for the change ? Maybe they are all on the gambling server? I would not know.Off-topic; Please bring back pve servers, I have to change to risk and change back to no-risk so often, since the hybrid risk system seams to default to High-risk Pvp after any loading screens.
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i just started on this sever and so far been a pain finding the answers iv been looking for glade i found this post iv literary spent more time looking for answers than playing.
and have to say with the mobs leveling as you do kind of a deal breaker being new to the sever and trying to level get some gold, i couldnt even complete the starting zone as is
it makes me feel forced to do the resolute mode or as pet class/caster since you cant upgrade your gear to keep up, i can barley cover the cost now for the food to keep questing cant imagine in 10 more levels being able to eat
this equal level shit is why i didn't make it very far into gw2
also how does this work with other players around , i have already notice when i higher level player attacks a mob it stays at my level but i dont know if i try to help it at the players level that attack it first so you wouldn't be helpful because your much lower level than the player your helping and cant hit the mob due to the level difference or is that mob still at your level for you while being high level for the other player????
i do like the concept on here but wtf, just too many red flags to put any time on this sever,, i have spent 10 hours on here and only lv 16 like i said trying to find answers is a pain and my questions got to be really basic for any new player
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