In regards to this, how about enemy balancing be based around the specific "region" area - in Final Fantasy XI for example monsters in starter zones scaled from city > outland, then the next zone over they were a little higher in level but still generally for the newbies then the zone after that it begins to ramp up for party play.

Right now, enemies are either pushovers or will slaughter you or one hit kill you and we (players) seem to only benefit from being over the rank of the specific monster and nothing more.