Is this just how guys are, they always diss one another? and the only way to stop this is to either have high value, or hurt them in a way that they decide not to pick on you?
The harsh truth is that yes, when people are at very different "values", those are pretty much the only ways.
I used to be a hardcore disser. Just like everyone else, I excused with it "I'm just having some with ya" or "that's just how guys are". But when I look back, there's really no doubt that if you peer behind the curtains, I was aware that I considered the guy I'm dissing as "beneath me" and I knew I could get away with it and that even if he made a "comeback" at me I knew I could just shrug it off because I was higher value. The only people who I didn't do this with, or who I held back on my disses with, are the people who I thought of as having much higher value than me, or with people who I knew would get angry and who could also kick my azzz.
Guys who I thought of as at the same level or only slighly higher value than me I would also target, but a lot of them had some pretty good comebacks, and I used to spend a lot of time and energy "competing" with guys like this without anyone ever getting
really mad. So, if a group of friends are all roughly at the same level, give or take a bit, then this kind of thing can work without feelings getting hurt (too much).
But when one guy is way higher value than you, then the disses can really wound you.
Personally, I know plenty of people who I consider myself way higher value than. But I'm more mature and more compassionate now, so I don't put them down. Even when someone challenges me, I tend to take it easy on them and I don't hammer them completely; just enough for them to realize what's up and they can back down without being disgraced.