How Do You Feel When Old Content Is Made Easier?

Some content gets harder over time naturally, because all the best players finish it and then never go back.

It annoyed me in FFXI how everyone simultaneously praised CoP and also completely swore off ever going back and doing any of the fights again.

Normally I'd be fine with it only if there was an option to retain its original difficulty, but I honestly don't expect that XIV would be capable of that over the course of class changes, many of which take no issue in breaking job balance over earlier levels. As such I've given up on caring one way or the other.

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Originally Posted by Fawkes

It annoyed me in FFXI how everyone simultaneously praised CoP and also completely swore off ever going back and doing any of the fights again.

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Running for my life through that mine and that final battle with a balrog was awesome and exhilarating. I can't wait to do it again! - Gandalf

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Originally Posted by Canadane

No there are places where it's absolutely made easier. Outgoing damage being reduced, HP of bosses being lowered, etc.
Almost always for very outdated things. LotA comes to mind, for example.

It kinda sucks because if you're looking for the original challenge, it's simply not there anymore.

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I always thought if you wore the ilvl gear for that content and lvl synced, like doing Bahamut at 50 in i120, it was the same. Can't say I have gone back and tried, there really isn't much need.

Learn something new everyday.

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Originally Posted by Fawkes

Some content gets harder over time naturally, because all the best players finish it and then never go back.

It annoyed me in FFXI how everyone simultaneously praised CoP and also completely swore off ever going back and doing any of the fights again.

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I did them on 3 chars and our ls always helped people through content so we did them often multiple times. You just needed to make friends in vana'diel instead of relying on pugs

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Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia

I always thought if you wore the ilvl gear for that content and lvl synced, like doing Bahamut at 50 in i120, it was the same. Can't say I have gone back and tried, there really isn't much need.

Learn something new everyday.

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The only place it makes any difference is if you use the Relic/Anima weapons, as you can tune those weapons a specific way. The tomes gear when level synced are basically the same save for the secondary stat arrangement.

The game internally scales things two ways. There is a straight up chart of base stats that all characters have at a set level. Then there is a second one for gear. When you are level synced that first chart changes your character stats, and the level sync also changes the primary and secondary stats based on the gear chart. So there is an effective cap on secondary stats when levelsynced, but it's not ilevelsync. This is why you can be levelsynced to 60, and wear a mixture of 50/60/70 gear The level 70 gear will be synced as if the gear was level 60 independently of what your characters stats are and from other gear being worn.

So if you penta-melded gear, those melds are useless if the gear is level synced. ilevel sync scales the stats of the gear to a specific cap inclusive of the melds. So it's technically possible to meld an additional stat that the gear doesn't have and keep it even when ilevel synced. This is still trivial however, if you're playing anything with an ilevel sync, it's you don't need any melds at all.

When they removed the bonus stats and race stats, those stats used to be put on top. But they are no longer there. Hence every player gets exactly the same experience when synced. The result however is that this results in a net buff for all jobs since players could no longer put points in "the wrong stat" but it finally removed the problem caused by ACN/SCH/SMN having INT/MND bonus stats applied to only favor one job. Actions without potency like Lucid Dreaming/Refresh (formerly Shroud of Saints) are based off the level of the character only, and are not affected by gear and were never affected by bonus stats.

Realistically, the game needs to have the ilevel sync set to cap at the end game content for that expansion at the minimum. Ideally they would be synced to the ilevel of gear dropped in that duty +10, so that you can get past that content using gear dropped in that content.

I don’t really care.

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

It has nothing to do with power creep. They outright nerfed all dungeons level 60 and below. That's why they feel so incredibly easy. They are.

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While that's true (although correct me if I'm wrong but I think that was only for the ARR and HW leveling dungeons?) there's also things like the Accuracy and Parry stats, which had no impact on damage previously turning into Direct Hit and Tenacity which DO impact your damage output.
Plus now tanks have strength on their accessories (assuming you're level 61+ and syncing down) and Samurai and Red Mage just outclass every other job at 50 and 60 due to only being designed with level 70 in mind.

Being a relative noob*, I don't know what's nerfed and what's not. All of it is difficult the first time or so out; it's hard to have a basis for comparison when you just receive it as it is now. I'm still learning what it is I'm supposed to do, and am trying to have fun too. If you think things are easy, I agree with other sentiments here: you got better. Like, lots better. So did your gear. I don't have your gear, your knowledge, or your time spent, so don't have quite the same experience as you - I mean, I don't even know what some of you are actually talking about. I have a whole load of stuff still to catch up on (you may have experienced content in more of a drip-drip fashion, so have had much more time), so frankly, since it'd likely be rather overwhelming otherwise, a nerf here or there to make things bearable isn't so bad.

That said, that road to 60 thing is ridiculous: any alt I make gets so overlevelled for content it's silly.

*To clarify: I made the account/main char a few years back, IIRC. I played for a week, got overwhelmed/anxiety and returned to GW2, which I'd played since headstart, and only quit that in February this year, after a hospital stint gave me some thinking to do. Hubby suggested doing this game again, so I did that, and have stayed, more or less, since. Still so much to do!

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Originally Posted by Fawkes

It annoyed me in FFXI how everyone simultaneously praised CoP and also completely swore off ever going back and doing any of the fights again.

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COP was too hard, period. I think i bowed out at the airship fight, but people mostly praised the story; the challenge was just too much and the expansion after was much less difficult overall I think because of it. It's pretty much the best argument for not making story content hard, because players just never beat the COP story unless they were diehard endgamers who needed sea access. They didn't get better, they just got filtered out.

As for keeping old difficulty, people say they want hard stuff, but leave after the first wipe. FFXI had hard stuff, but they also had easier stuff or different stuff as an alternative. Here there really isn't alternatives to story mode or endgame mode. So if you make it hard, people are going to get roadblocked and have nowhere else to go.

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Originally Posted by Ameela

While that's true (although correct me if I'm wrong but I think that was only for the ARR and HW leveling dungeons?) there's also things like the Accuracy and Parry stats, which had no impact on damage previously turning into Direct Hit and Tenacity which DO impact your damage output.

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Fairly certain the level 50 and 60 dungeons were included in the blanket nerfs. Some level 50 dungeons were nerfed when they were current (Amdapor Keep, Pharos Sirius). And while Dorect Hit and Tenacity do affect damage, the latter's contribution is fairly insignificant at low levels, if I recall correctly. D.Hit would be more influential, but less so the lower thr Value of the substat is.

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Plus now tanks have strength on their accessories (assuming you're level 61+ and syncing down) and Samurai and Red Mage just outclass every other job at 50 and 60 due to only being designed with level 70 in mind.

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To be fair, in HW most tanks already wore STR accessories anyways (up until they scaled tank damage to VIT), so having STR in leveling dungeons isn't that big of a difference if you recall how things were in HW. And RDM and SAM are OP at level 50 also because so many other jobs lost core skills they would have had before (MCH's oGCDs, BRD lost oGCDs, removal of older cross-class skills from some jobs, etc.), or because their revolving mechanic shifted to level 70 play (like MCH and Overheating).


The dungeons are also naturally nerfed because of the way item level syncing works - you get synced to such a high maximum that everything just rolls over; more so than it may have at release for some of the more easier dungeons. I'd honestly like to see lower item level syncs, or older dungeons be restored to their original difficulty if the ilvl sync is going to remain so high.