Updates to Dynamic Leveling in Guild Wars 2

Arenanet has announced updates to the dynamic leveling system in Guild Wars 2, with some interesting possibilities.  This system adjusts the effective level of a given character down if they wander into a lower-level area.

The intention is that it allows a player to have a more enjoyable experience in a low-level area by making it harder than it would be at their full level.  As a reward for that greater difficulty, the character earns experience as if they were the adjusted level, meaning that high-level characters are still capable of gaining meaningful amounts of experience even in starting areas.

Now Arenanet is increasing how much lower players’ levels are adjusted in those areas, in the hopes of giving them a similar difficulty to what a character actually going through the area at the appropriate level would have if they had the same gear.

The trade-off is that now players will always receive loot based on their actual level, meaning that wandering back to Caledon Forest at level 30 can still net you level 30 boots.

I’ve always been a fan of the dynamic leveling system, and the only real complaint I had was that going back to starting areas meant dedicating to getting nothing of value loot-wise for the duration.  This change has some potential for abuse, but has some exciting potential in Guild Wars 2.