Hey everyone, first post. I have long been a fan of TES (Morrowind being my favorite game of all-time) as well as MMO's, but despite that I was very skeptical of ESO when it was first announced. Thankfully, a lot of the information and videos i've seen recently have persuaded me, and i'm now more excited for this than I have been for an MMO in years. It really seems like they are trying to keep the integrity of TES, while still creating an MMO that is both familiar and fresh.

One thing, however, is worrying me, and that is level scaling in PvP. I am not opposed to it as a concept, but I worry that if it is not handled absolutely perfectly, it will screw up the integrity of the game.

On the one hand, I understand that you want to allow people to PvP as quickly as possible. Especially since Cyrodil seems to be the main/only form of PvP, if you forced players to hit cap before they could even taste the very reason many of them bought the game, obviously that would lead to disgruntled players.

On the flipside, however, I worry that if you scale players too well, it will destroy the sense of accomplishment that I believe is necessary to an RPG. By this I mean, if a level 10 in average gear can genuinely hold their own against a level 50 in great gear, then something is wrong. RPG's are all about your character, and specifically the growth of your character. There absolutely needs to be a sense of accomplishment as you level up, fight to get great gear, etc. If you take this away, and make it purely about "skill", then you might as well be playing a FPS with swords instead of guns.

My biggest concern is I think TES has a bad history with this. I know many might disagree, but for me personally the level scaling all but ruined Oblivion. In Morrowind, you could easily run into enemies that were way out of your league, and you would get utterly destroyed. I wouldn't say that was ever a "fun" experience, but it did make the world feel more alive, and it gave you a sense of purpose. You would resolve yourself to go back to that place and get revenge once your character was powerful enough. This led to a fantastic sense of accomplishment as you got more powerful and progressed. In Oblivion however, for whatever reason, I could literally go anywhere, and could kill anyone without issue. I knew there was a big problem when I created a character that did nothing but punch and heal, and managed to beat the entire arena before I even reached level 5 (the character never even died once). Leveling felt pointless, and my character felt pointless. I should feel weak at the beginning of an RPG, and strong at the end. Otherwise whats the point of even having skills and levels?

Has anyone heard about how they plan on finding the balance with this in PvP? I am perfectly ok with scaling characters up so that they don't just get one shotted by everyone, but I firmly believe that if a level 10 can hold almost as much weight in battle as a level 50, that PvP in this game is doomed. You take away motivation to strengthen your character, and everything else becomes frivolous.

I get the PvE leveling concern, as that is completely valid in my opinion. But as to PvP, not so much.

First player skill will play a big role.

Second, scaling up usually means you have the equivalent of basic gear for that level, so anyone with better than vendor gear should have an advantage. That shouldn't translate into instant OMGWTFBBQPWN!!

Next, both players will have the same amount of skills slotted. Yes the lvl 50 will have more and probably better skills to select from, but it won't be like WoW where you have 18 toolbars with every possible skill available, so if you forget to slot anti-CC, yea that lvl 10 might eat your lunch while you run crying to the wayshrine.

Obviously skill should play a part, and I think it will simply by the combat system this game seems to be implementing. And no I am not saying that a level 10 should get immediately pwned by anyone level 50. But what is the logic of a level 10 being able to "eat your lunch"? How does that not destroy the integrity of the RPG side of the game, which is based on character development?

Think of it this way. If you are a level 50, and you've accomplished all you have in your Alliance. You've defeated large raids and perhaps even fought whatever is considered the powerful enemies of the game at that point. Then you jump into a fight against the other Alliance's, and a level 10 who probably has played the game maybe 10% as long, and just got his first horse for crying out loud, is able to actually put up a good fight against you. How does that even fit in an RPG universe?

In my mind, having very powerful players that few can defeat is actually good for the game, as it makes it more exciting. Think back to previous MMO's, say WoW for instance, when you would run into a character that had the highest gear, maybe even a legendary. It was the coolest thing. You KNEW that player had put in the time, and the effort, and that they could kick your ass. You were in awe, and you wanted to be like that some day. If you found yourself in a PvP environment with them, you would have to team up with other players to take them down. If you defeated them, your team felt a great sense of accomplishment. If you couldn't, then that player would almost become a legend in your eyes, and people on the server would talk about them and be in fear when they were around. It helped create intrigue in the universe. Now imagine if everything is scaled. That player with the fantastic gear just becomes a cool looking character that is no more powerful than anyone else. At that point Zenimax might as well just sell really cool skins because the only thing that matters at that point is what your character looks like. I just dont understand who this benefits.

It's like if everyone in the NBA was nearly the same. What if they even made it so only people between a certain height could play, or a certain strength, or a certain vertical leap. After all, it would be "unfair" for any players to have such advantages. Everyone had to be the same. There would be no Wilt Chamberlains or Lebron's or MJ's. No giants of seemingly superhuman skills to look up to. Sounds boring to me.

I didn't say the lvl 10 would be able to consistently whip you. I said if you weren't prepared for his tactics, then you could lose. Not will, but might.

The alternative is you can't PvP at all until you hit max level.

Back to scaling. I think you are reading too much into this. Scaling to max level gear isn't the same as saying you get scaled to the best possible gear, or else no one would seek out better gear. As I said, it will probably be about as good as what you can buy at that level. To be clear, I mean buy from vendors with gold. Not tokens etc.

I doubt we will ever see an Emperor that isn't max level. If my +1 Strength armor scales to +100, but you are wearing some legendary +250 Strength armor, and packing skills I haven't even seen yet, it would take massive luck and skill for me to beat you.

To use your basketball anology. I am a high school player going up against an NBA player. Am I going to win? Let's put it this way, I am betting on you. But that doesn't mean I can't score, and if you have a bad day, get cocky and I have the best day of my life, I might get within a 100 points of your score!!

in other words, the devs aren't stupid. They know what works and if PvP scaling is messed up, chances are testing will find it. If it launches in a fubar state, they can always adjust it. That's one of the good things about the campaigns, once it ends, they can patch it without messing with people's scores.

I hope you are right. I have no objection to what you are proposing. I do want level 10's to be able to make a difference in the overall battle, otherwise what would the point of them even being there. Just as long as they aren't scaled too powerfully, I am ok with it.