The famous paladin Rextroy has discovered a problem with scaling in PvP for World of Warcraft. Apparently, you deal less damage and take more when you have better stats, even though you see something different.
What is the problem? Rextroy, the guy who killed 20 players with a single attack as a warlock, explains a problem in PvP. He has tested how it affects the damage taken and dealt when you socket your armor.
To do this, he obtained a versatility gemstone. Versatility increases your damage dealt and decreases your damage taken by a percentage and always works the same way. His result: with the socket gemstone, he takes more damage and deals less.
In another test, he even replaced an Azerite item. Identical item, identical effects, different item levels (480 and 465). Again, he took less damage with the weaker item and dealt slightly more damage. You can see his test here in the video:
The crux of the matter is that you don’t necessarily see it yourself, as you are still shown higher damage when attacking. Only the correct number appears to the opponent with the info about how strong your attack really was.
PvP Scaling in WoW as the Cause
Where does the problem come from? The whole thing is based on the mechanic of “PvP Scaling”. This applies to players between levels 110 and 120 and is meant to ensure that the strength differences between players are not so immense.
To do this, the game calculates the damage and healing a player actually receives based on their stats through a formula. Broadly speaking, scaling means that
- Players with worse gear deal more damage to players with better gear and take less from them
- Players with better gear deal less damage to players with worse gear and take more from them
The corresponding formula adds values from sockets, among other things, thereby determining how much damage you deal or take. By the way, you can find out your PvP item level by entering the command “/run print(GetAverageItemLevel())”. The third value is the one for PvP.
What is this good for? The system is designed to ensure that newcomers in PvP or players who are just reaching a higher level are not immediately torn apart by PvP professionals, but have a chance.
Should I wear weaker gear now? Not necessarily. In another test, Rextroy replaced his gloves with item level 475 with those of level 310. The result: he takes significantly more damage. Scaling only works up to a certain degree.
He even shows this in another one of his videos. There, he stacks the versatility value so high that he takes down opponents with a one-shot without class abilities.
Additionally, stronger equipment usually has stronger effects like better corruption or better Azerite traits. These typically offset the disadvantages you experience due to PvP scaling.
By the way, PvP will become significantly more important with the upcoming expansion Shadowlands. Because anyone who wants all legendary items will have to fight other players. Whether scaling will still be a problem in this form remains to be seen.
