Hey folks,
Today's Test Center update contains the new Dynamic Combat Level system mentioned in the anniversary livestream. For a full explanation of Dynamic Combat Level and the details behind why this is being implemented, you'll want to check out @MichaelMayhem 's post on Dynamic Combat Level here:
The function of Dynamic Combat Level is essentially to remove the previous set enemy scaling to a region, and instead have enemies dynamically scale based on your personal hero level.
This allows us to, for example, have Story mode enemies scale up in difficulty based on your level rather than their set level progression. It also allows us to have two players of any level be able to play in the same content rather than split them up based on their level.
If you'd like to test Dynamic Combat Level on Test Center, we'd encourage you to take heroes of different levels into content and see how the general difficulty of enemies feels compared to the live server.
Enemies in all zones should always reward appropriate experience for your hero level. Unlike the previous system, you should be able to collect Eternity Splinters and other forms of loot even against enemies much lower level than you. This should remain true even if you are grouped with another player who is on a hero of a significantly different level (such as a level 30 and a level 60 in Chapter 2 of Story, or within a patrol zone).
Some specific questions as you check out the zones where Dynamic Combat Level is enabled:
Compare incoming damage from enemies. About how much damage does each hit take off your health? Is it comparable to Live?
Compare how much damage you deal to enemies of different ranks (white, blue, yellow, etc). How many hits does it take to kill each rank, on average? Is it comparable to Live?
After changing to another hero that is a different level in the same region, does the difficulty of the region feel about the same?
When running in a group setting, do bosses die slightly quicker than when solo?
Have different allies change to different levels from each other. Does the fight feel natural despite each ally having different level/gear (e.g. the level 60 isn't dealing insanely more damage than the level 10)?
Note that due to the overall changes involved with Dynamic Combat Level, some differences between the Live servers and Demo with Dynamic Combat Level are expected. Such as:
Story Mode should, on average, be slightly more difficult than it is currently on Live. This is due to your hero no longer going over the intended level for the zone quickly - enemies will always be tuned to your level, regardless of what that level is.
Terminal enemies (both regular enemies and bosses) should have noticeably more health than compared to Live. These have historically been undertuned compared to other zones of comparable difficulty, with Green and Red being tuned to insignificant levels. Terminals should now more accurately reflect the tuning of similar content (Green to "Normal" Level 60, Cosmic to other Cosmic zones, and Red somewhere in between)
Patrol zones and One-Shots should be roughly the same compared to Live
Let us know what you think about Dynamic Combat Level here in this thread. Thanks!