Levels of scaling difficulty

 Some verses are harder to scale than other verses. This is an attempted categorization of verse difficulty to scale. This is a categorization out of 5 points based primarily on 3 factors:

1: Length: Obviously a series gets harder the longer it goes just do to how much information one needs to know to scale it properly.

2: Directness: How direct and obvious is the scaling? Are the feats just blatant and in your face, or it subtle obscure details both for how strong characters are and how they relate?

3: Abstractness: How abstract of ideas does the verse use? Are the abilities of the verse pretty standard or is it crazy higher plane mystical jargon everywhere.

There's hypothetically a fourth factor which is the availability of the series; how easy is to actually find and watch/read/play etc. but I felt that's not really a fair factor so this assumes you can actually find it perfectly fine.

1/5: Very Easy: Very easy is for series where none of the 3 factors are problems. It's something you can view all the way through pretty easily in a few hours and which you need to view once, MAYBE twice to get all the information you need from it. Being an expert for this series is kind of a meaningless title as anyone can become an expert in this series very quickly. None of the series on my favorites list are this low because only a few are short enough, and they tend to have abstract concepts but going into my favorite films list if you were trying to scale something like Princess Mononoke or the Iron Giant, it would be this level of difficulty. Just watch the films once and take notes and you'll be a scaling expert for the series. In general this isn't the difficulty level of series, this is the difficulty level of the thousands of single shot installments (singular films, books, games etc.) of short to normal length without any underlying scaling system or complex concepts.

2/5: Easy: Easy difficulty means the series is either easier then normal in at least two of the three categories or is really easy in one; either it's very short, it's very simple, or it's very direct. An easy series is a series that's unusually easy to scale and while it's not as easy as the 1/5, it still would only take one maybe a couple of days to become an expert at it. Experts of this are more commendable therefore because it shows some effort was put in, but if you want to become an expert of any 2/5 series, it's not gonna be that difficult. Examples from my favorite series would include things like Tokyo Mew Mew or the Powerpuff Girls. Both verses have relatively simple scaling with only a few "tiers", pretty direct in-your-face feats, and not too many abstract concepts (PPG having more then TMM.) Series where there's basically no powers but are long-running are usually here from length, I think. It's not hard to do, it just takes a while.

3/5: Average: Normal difficulty to scale. This is for when 0-1 of the three factors are easier or harder then normal and none to any huge degree. This is when being an expert on a verse starts to become notable, and it's a notable time investment if you want to become an expert in the verse. Examples from my favorite series would include things like Freedom Force or Magic Knight Rayearth. Both verses are of fairly average lengths (FF being 2 normal sized tactical RPGs and MKR being a relatively normal sized anime), both have some tricky bits to their scaling but are mostly easy, and both are mostly pretty normal in terms of powers used but with some more abstract stuff near the endings of their arcs. This is the difficulty for most things that are relatively average in difficulty to scale; mostly straightfoward to scale with a few complications here and there. 

4/5: Hard: Harder then normal to scale, these verses have multiple factors making them harder then normal or at least 1 factor that's pretty extreme whether that's being really long, having lots of details and complications, or being very abstract and esoteric. Generally one relies on experts of this verse if you want to use it, as the verse's time commitment to understand is outside the scope of most vs debaters. The verse might not neccesarily be that long, but it means this takes a longer time then normal to understand. Examples of this from my favorite series include Sailor Moon and God of War. Sailor Moon is not terribly long as a series, main series being 60 acts, but it's full of tiny details and complicated powers and abstract ideas and the scaling is very much not in one's face half the time. God of War is a bit longer given that it's a multimedia franchise with novelizations and comics, and while it's scaling is usually a lot more blatant then SM, it still has many more abstract feats and ideas in it. 

5/5: Very Hard: Series that are very hard to scale are series that are difficult in all regards being generally massive multimedia franchises with difficult scaling and very out there ideas. A distinctive feature of this difficulty is these are series that are difficult enough that some vs debaters focus strictly on scaling these series just so that the information within can be used by others. Examples of these from my favorite series include Saint Seiya and the Clamp-verse in general. Both are massive franchises that require one to watch multiple anime, read multiple manga, and go through supplemenary material to fully understand, have a ton abstract ideas and concepts, and are complicated in their scaling. Very hard series are series that even hardcore fans may not be experts in.

Marvel and DC would probably the hardest series in abstract to scale due to the unmatched amount of content both franchises have, the vast number of concepts including everything you can imagine, and the complications in scaling from numerous writers. That said those verses are made easier then they would otherwise be due to just how many people are constantly scaling them.