guild-wars-2
If I get within a few feet of an Asura gate, text will appear telling me where it leads. However, this is not very convenient in places like Lion's Arch, where there are many gates.
Is there any way to identify Asura gates on the map? Failing that, is there any way to identify them from far away?
Level downscaling will downlevel your character to the maximum allowable content level for that area.
So this will affect all your primary stats, Toughness, Vitality, Power and Precision. When you open your hero panel you'll see your main stats on the right in white, and next to them on the left you'll see your 'effective' stats in green. These are the numbers that you're going to be using. As these numbers are changed this will effect your damage, hp, crit chance, etc.
The thing with you feeling more powerful is that you still have the higher level gear. So for example, if you are lv30 you might have an amulet with +11 power. You go to a lv10 area, and fight with players who at lv10 can't even equip an amulet. Now I'm assuming, but let's say that the downscaling is a %, then your overall stats will be higher, meaning you'll be stronger at lower level because of your better gear.
You are by no means at all invincible, but you'll certainly fare a little better due to having more or better gear. The real killer is that as a higher level you will have traits and skills available which lower levels will not. You can also use your Elite skill still, if you've unlocked it. So there are some advantages to revisiting the lower level areas.
I think most people's experiences of this will be doing each of the race's starter areas once they've finished their own.
You can read more on the wiki, http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dynamic_level_adjustment
Character level adjustments have a limit, however. The level-adjustment system won’t let a level 1 character go head-to-head against a level 80 character with much chance of victory—a level 80 character is still going to have more bonuses on their gear and access to a full complement of utility and elite skills that players just don’t have at lower levels. This is not to say that the high-level character will one-shot the level 1 player, but they will have a clear advantage.
http://www.arena.net/blog/mike-ferguson-on-guild-wars-2-world-vs-world
Edit
Since Jan 28th 2013, the downlevelling has changed. https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/dynamic-leveling-adjustment/
Left-clicking on the ground is the most reliable way to deselect all targets.
ESC deselects any selected targets, but if nothing is selected you will bring up your menu (can be annoying mid-combat).
There is also a key binding to target the nearest ally, which will select yourself if no other allies are around. This is useful if you are having trouble finding a patch of ground to click on. This key is not assigned by default, so look for "Nearest Ally" under Targeting in Options->Controls.
You can also select the next closest target using TAB, in case you do actually want to direct your spells towards a different enemy then the one you current have selected. Then again, a left-click on the target works more reliably if multiple targets are in view.
There is also a Guild Wars 2 printable keyboard layout to help you visualize the default key bindings.
Best Answer
Unfortunately, as of release, there's currently no label on the World Map or anything else that marks the Asura Gates.
However, in Lion's Arch, the NPCs standing near each gate are indicative of where the gates go to. In the image here, you can see 2 Norn at the left gate to Hoelbrak and at the right gate, 2 Charr at the gate leading to the Black Citadel. So at least there, you can just glance at the NPCs standing at the gates rather than having to run all the way up to them.