Quote Originally Posted by Rentahamster View Post
Take two players, one at rank 45, the other at rank 50. Give them the same exact stats and gear. You'll see a big difference.
Exactly. And this is the only MMO you can actually make that test on and it being completely valid... Why? Because rank doesn't determine your stats. Take off all your armor, use the same weapon, lower your stats down to basic starter stats, and compare yourself to someone of the same race (because you wouldn't want that omg 1 stat difference to skewer your results) and check for yourself.

Go ahead and try what Rentahamster suggested and you'll see the difference.

If DLVL or DRNK wasn't as big a factor as we tell you it is then the following will happen:

No damage difference.

But we know thats not the case.