#35 - Sept. 11, 2012, 4:09 p.m.
To clarify, when drops are scaled to your level, there is a chance that they’ll either be level-appropriate for you or level-appropriate for the content that you’re completing. You’ll get a mix, allowing you to collect zone-appropriate crafting materials and drops while also still being able to find gear that’s appropriate for your character. In general, the chance of getting character-level appropriate gear is better the closer that the content is to your actual level. Since the difficulty of the content increases at higher levels, we want to reward high-level players more for playing through the challenging high-level content that is available more than if they play through the easier low-level content that’s designed to let players learn to play the game.
Additionally, when you get gear at a specific level, it’s not guaranteed to be gear that requires that level to equip. It’s not uncommon to fight enemies a couple levels higher than you, and it’s frustrating to get cool new drops from the enemies and not be able to equip them. Generally, the required level to use a piece of gear is a few levels below the level of the area it was acquired, so that when you get gear as loot, you’re able to equip it immediately.
edit:
About the plains of Ashford giving out level 26 rewards, thanks for the heads up- I double checked, and this area is indeed giving out inappropriate loot. I’ve entered a bug on this and hopefully we’ll have it fixed in an upcoming build.
