I'm more interested in WHAT gear they were using when clearing the content for all 4 savage tiers (ex as well). If they were using fully upgraded tomes gear (all except 1 additional tome ring), or even all savage gear (including weapon)- the damage might've actually scaled different.

This entire thing sounds like nobody was in a full crafted gear set (maybe +barba ex weap) fully melded when they completed each of the tiers of content.