Should GW2 have Level Upscaling as Well?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

We have level downscaling, which allows toons higher level than the zone is labeled for to still have a little bit of challenge and still get just as much reward as if they were in one labeled for their level. This basically means that say, a 50 ish toon has many, many zones to pick from to play in without being forced to go to one designated for their level that they don't like. Hate greenery and flowers and damn elves? No need to stick around in Magumma; just go to Ashford or something.

The problem is, this only works one way; as said before, a higher level toon has all the choices laid out for him, whereas a new toon only has a half dozen zones from the start to pick from.

I'd say... why not make it work both ways? Perhaps a level 10 hates all of the starter zones, but likes beaches. He could just port to Lion's Arch and walk down to the Coast and start smacking, and not instantly die, and still make progress.

Ofcourse, the side effects of scaling would be reversed as well; ATM a higher level guy going into a lower level zone will kill minions about 50% faster than he would in his own area, and take about 50%ish less dmg. A low level going into an 80 zone would obviously kill them about 50% slower and die 50% faster, but he could be rewarded for it because it's challenging. (Besides; if your a fresh toon heading straight for the high levels, your probably already familiar with the game and love your roll button just as much as you love your life). That way, everyone would have all the options from the start.

Thoughts?

[Valeron]

why have levels at all? but that was my argument before the game even came out

anyway, not going to happen but at the very least I think someone should be able to mentor someone to boost them to the level of the area if they wish

[lawow74]

I would mostly be in favor of upscaling for the Living Story, as I feel it's the one area where you're walled off when you shouldn't be. The new zones tied to it could upscale you as well. The only drawback I see is what they want to do going forward with the xpac and how that might affect things.

[LilSaihah]

With the way a lot of zones seem to be moving to large-scale collaborative group content, like with Dry Top and Silverwastes, the performance gap would be immense and directly punishing to people who are subcap. This is already called for in WvW, and people there usually accept the social responsibility. What if 5 or so sub-levelled people decide they want to come to your Silverwaste run and they're the weak link preventing you from getting good results on Breach and Vinewrath? How will the average MMO player take that, and what choice words will they use on mapchat?

How many high-experienced players does this actually negatively effect? It's very easy to get a dearth of insta-20 scrolls and Tomes of Knowledge so you can always pop them and get into a zone you like with relatively little effort. You get 10-15 levels a month just by logging in every day.

[Fencers]

Guild Wars 2 already has level upscaling in a limited form. Also during the major seasonal events there was discrete upscaling to level 80. The game is capable and does support such a feature.

Anet likely don't believe in broadening upscaling to the whole PVE game. Besides the level ranges per zone have a wide variance.

[Rukh]

They use upscaling for some things. Its enough you can participate, but it doesn't work well enough to put you on equal footing with actual level 80 characters (except when it blatantly breaks and makes you massively OP compared to level 80 characters, lel).

On other things where they don't use it, they don't because they want that locked until you achieve the level. They still value the idea of power progression leading you to a sense of accomplishment and growing your character.

[Kelimbror]

I think the reason they ultimately decided on levels and don't utilize upscaling in the general sense is due to the skill discrepancy between a level ~10 and a level ~80 character. The encounters/mobs in the higher level zones have a higher skill cap and benefit from having more access to abilities as well as more experience with the game's mechanics. While this isn't a hard or sometimes even noticeable cap, it is present.

Allowing everyone to do anything from Level 1 onward would negatively affect many players' experiences. I think that was something they wanted to avoid, which is why levels were appealing as the easiest way to accomplish that.