Originally Posted by
Punslinger
The incredibly dumb thing is that this is a solved problem! Guild Wars 2 has had dynamic scaling throughout its entire world since launch all the way back in 2012. You keep all your unlocked skills when you get synced down to match your zone - the only thing adjusted by the sync is your stats, to keep the world relevant. If GW2 can do that for its entire damn Core Tyria, then FF14 can do that for FATEs and instanced content. Let players keep their full rotations and just drop the ilvl sync to compensate. Boom, done.
(Also the ilvl sync needs to be dropped in the CT raids anyway, because new players don't even know those fights have mechanics, with how fast everything gets melted.)
I think CBU3 still doesn't trust their own process. They made gaming history when they saved FF14 with ARR, and then they've just mindlessly copied that template over and over. It's exactly what you do when you succeed without knowing why, so you're afraid to change anything, in case you break whatever made you successful. Once something achieves even a small success, CBU3 etches it into stone and turns it into an immutable part of every expansion. Blood Gauge on HW DRK became "Job Gauges for everyone!" Eureka in SB became "Relics always locked behind shitty FATE grinds!" Hunts and treasure maps are exactly the same now as when they were first added over a decade ago.
And we all know, sight unseen, that 8.0 will launch with two new DPS jobs, six dungeons and three trials at x3, x9, and x0 levels, six zones, one new city and one new endgame hub, that 8.05, 8.2, and 8.4 will have four raids, that 8.1, 8.3, and 8.5 will each have a 24-man, that 8.25 will introduce a relic gated behind a shitty FATE grind...