Low level Combat gameplay and Job identity is HORRIBLE.

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Originally Posted by Azureskies01

Let everyone know you didn't play back in 2.0 without telling everyone you didn't play in 2.0.

15-40 dungeons were always bad because you always got most of your kit and passives at the end of the 1-50 grind. Some classes were worse than others like og black mages being at like ...45? or 48 before they got their passive that allowed them to be black mages.

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Sure the <50 level dungeons never had a full kit. But since you insist to be pendantic about it, that has nothing to do with with ARR. Only level max level, so 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, etc, content was designed for a full kit. And you're intentionally searching for the parts where a small part of my post doesn't apply, and ignoring where it does. It applies for all raids, most trials and most dungeons. How to handle content where a full kit really causes issues is open for discussion.

Until they do a complete overhaul this situation keeps getting worse the higher the level cap goes.

Back in ARR and HW days you would get skills reasonably fast afterall your whole kit came together at 50 and 60 respectively.

Now they keep pruning abilities and adding upgrades and new ones to the final 10 range so people have something "to look forward to", which in turn butchers the low level gameplay even further.

To compensate, the potencies of lower level skills have gotten out of hand so you can do reasonable damage with fewer buttons. This creates another problem where your super boring rotation absolutely melts enemies, making the instances even easier.

So now we are in situation where people get bored from both having next to no buttons and enemies being glorified set pieces that do nothing.

I think they should force some of the lead devs to play through ARR and maybe HW as a Healer to truely experience the worst of the worst the game currently has offer in terms of combat, maybe it would open their eyes a bit.

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Originally Posted by Mikey_R

I done some maths, just for the FoF window, the difference in potency between a PLD in Sastasha and level 90 is this:

2500 potency over 20 seconds for on level PLD, Level 90 PLD does between 6537.5 and 7037.5 potency (between weakest GCDs and strongest GCDs in the 3 free GCDs). That is an increase of 2.615-2.815 and yes, that is using oGCDs of 50 potency (even CoS being 50 potency in total).

To put this into context, if your PLD done 10% of a bosses HP in that 20 seconds, at level 18, at level 90, you will shave off 26-28% of that same HP, this is also before we start taking into account the rest of the party.

Not to mention this punishes jobs that rely on oGCDs for damage. A Job like Warrior is going to suffer less compared to a DRK.

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Oh no! Leveling dungeons might be faster.

The Horror!

Also, that potency doesn't matter as much when it's determined by the ilvl capped weapon damage modifier.

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Originally Posted by Deceptus

Oh no! Leveling dungeons might be faster.

The Horror!

Also, that potency doesn't matter as much when it's determined by the ilvl capped weapon damage modifier.

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Potency is always relative. A 200 potency attack is always twice as strong as a 100 potency attack and a 300 potency attack is always 1.5 times stronger than a 200 potency attack no matter what ilevel you are. Stats (including weapon damage) only modify the potency into damage. This basic concept is the whole reason why you can make rotations only knowing potencies it is also why you can apply a damage buff to the potency and it will be reflected in the actual potency.

The only time this isn't 100% accurate is if you were to compared different jobs, which, in this case, I compared PLD to PLD, so that isn't an issue.

It certainly is unfortunate that job reworks/adjustments tend to be balanced around the max level experience at the detriment to the early game experience. But it's the design philosophy they've decided to go with, and I doubt they'll change it.

And I think if we're honest, we'll admit that generally speaking, job identity isn't great at any level.

To those that argue against potency synching: It really isnt all that hard. Really, it can theoretically all be calculated in an Excel sheet.
1. Let Excel calculate the Potency Per Minute (PPM) for each class, for each level
2. Let Excel calculate the difference between PPM for each level, from each level
3. Implement a debuff that reduces Potency by n%, as determined by your level, and the aforementioned Excel sheet.

Cause honestly, what do I care when I have to push more buttons to do the same damage as a sprout learning the game? At least I can use and practice my full, fun rotation.

Alternatively, classes should just have a proper skeleton of their final rotation by level 50, and then just receive upgrades via traits, more oGCD's, and utility. That way, synching down does not feel like gimping your skills.

Knee-jerk thought is that a level squish could help the lower level experience, but there is a lot of weirdness that occurs in ARR from its MSQ structure, and class to job quests -- even if it's something like the entirety of ARR now ends at level 30 or 40. ARR would need another round of adjustments.

They never consider lower level content at all in balancing or how it feels to play a job. Which is so odd to me as if they're acting like Level Sync doesn't exist.

Its the game's shittiest feature, and I wish more people talked about it.

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Originally Posted by aiqa

Sure the <50 level dungeons never had a full kit. But since you insist to be pendantic about it, that has nothing to do with with ARR. Only level max level, so 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, etc, content was designed for a full kit. And you're intentionally searching for the parts where a small part of my post doesn't apply, and ignoring where it does. It applies for all raids, most trials and most dungeons. How to handle content where a full kit really causes issues is open for discussion.

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I'm saying as long as the 50+ stuff feels good to play it doesn't need the full kit because FFXIV has never had lower levels have the full kit. Like all you are arguing for is changing the game for the worse with the excuse of "I wanna hit more buttons!".

Does it make running min ilv stuff kinda funny/dumb, sure. That is a small price to pay for the way the classes grow as you level through every expansion though..... unless you take the level 50 min ilv super seriously. If you do then I suggest you go get help.

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Originally Posted by Azureskies01

I'm saying as long as the 50+ stuff feels good to play it doesn't need the full kit because FFXIV has never had lower levels have the full kit. Like all you are arguing for is changing the game for the worse with the excuse of "I wanna hit more buttons!".

Does it make running min ilv stuff kinda funny/dumb, sure. That is a small price to pay for the way the classes grow as you level through every expansion though..... unless you take the level 50 min ilv super seriously. If you do then I suggest you go get help.

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Heavensward very CLEARLY created a theme, and type of rotation that had fun in mind. ARR absolutely did not. I've thought SO MANY classes were absolute garbage until I hit 55-60 area, where a single change actually makes the class fun, and gives it a cool theme to work with.

As far as I'm concerned, the low level dungeons/trails/what not is one of the worst aspects of FF14. I spent all this time leveling and, and hitting cap, just to find out that I spend most my time not actually using my new abilities.

Imo, scale it as best you can. And just hide the abilities from players who haven't reached high enough to see it.