The All Blacks will play their final game of a long season at Principality Stadium, a week after being run close by Scotland at BT Murrayfield.
Gatland said: “The All Blacks were pretty good against France and they’ve had a lot of games this season. They’ll be disappointed with the match against Scotland.
“I thought Scotland took it to them, but saying that they still won the game and they had that X Factor when they needed to turn it on.
“In fairness to Scotland, they kept going.
“In the past they may well have capitulated when they went behind and conceded three or four soft tries, but they didn’t do that and kept playing.
“I was impressed with the way Scotland played.”
The All Blacks will be without the injured Rieko Ioane and Luke Romano against Wales and their head coach Steve Hansen has already lost the experience of Brodie Retallick, Ben Smith, Israel Dagg and Joe Moody.
“I’ve never seen an All Black team that’s been vulnerable,” Gatland said.
“The All Blacks have made comments themselves that they have dominated the game for too long.
“People want to see the All Blacks come under pressure and teams pushing them close. We’ve seen that in the last few weeks with Australia beating them in Brisbane. I think that’s good for rugby.
“We want to see those close contests where teams that perform on the day are able to push the number one team in the world really closely.”
Wales are assessing the fitness of Liam Williams who has been struggling with an abdominal problem, but Justin Tipuric is back in training ahead of this weekend.
Prop Samson Lee is unlikely to feature due to an Achilles injury.
The last time Wales beat the All Blacks was in 1953 and Gatland said: “There are games against them in the past where we’ve been in front at half time, so it has been frustrating at times.
“As Wales coach, right from day one, the mantra has always been that we will take the opportunity to play New Zealand, South Africa or Australia.
“It’s the only way a country with a playing base this small can improve and get better. You’ve got to play against the best players in the world.”
