Well the way I see it is that there are a couple level advantages that could occur. 1 attack and defense modifiers apply and for the most part counteract each other for those at ruffly the same level but begin causing drastic differences to players of different levels. 2 the pve idea of a scaled debuff on damage going out/taken depending on level (the pve 20% reduction per level seems high for pvp maybe 5-10% per level). I'm pretty sure its number one because they said your gear would matter . Impact was the only thing that mattered on weapons in normal crucible as far as damage goes so the only way to make the better gear count for more (weapons wise) would be to include the attack modifier, and of course the defense modifier to counter with as you rise in level and gear. Again, my understanding is that the armor/recov/agility has always applied to crucible.