Idea of using scaling to at least keep all areas closer to player level, without just setting everything to the same level.
Different areas would have a minimum lvl and a scaling factor that determines the minimum distance their level would be from the players level, for example:
- Abandoned keep, minimum level 1, scaling factor -3;
- Dark cave, minimum level 20, scaling factor 0;
- Hellgate, minimum level 60, scaling factor 5;
Meaning that if a level 58 player entered these places:
- Abandoned keep would be level 55;
- Dark cave would be level 58;
- Hellgate would be level 63;
That way players would always have places where they can take it easy and kill stuff faster (Abandoned keep) and places where they could challenge themselves (Hellgate) for chances at better loot and more XP per kill.
There could even be conditions to change the scaling of certain areas, maybe by completing a quest you could reduce an area scaling for a while, and opposite to that some events could raise an area scaling temporarily.
I feel like this could be an interesting system giving meaning to more areas and allowing some fluctuation on farmed areas according to changing situations.