It's time to redesign Level Sync

[Naunet]

the initial leveling process in FFXIV is so very quick

Jobs don't really pick up as far as having a decent range of abilities until 40-50. What's more the overall leveling process is absurdly slow, given that you have to go through every single MSQ (unless you want to give SE money, which is stupid).

And why would a new player invest in a story skip potion just so they can spam PotD? That's absurd.

[Kosmos992k]

Jobs don't really pick up as far as having a decent range of abilities until 40-50. What's more the overall leveling process is absurdly slow, given that you have to go through every single MSQ (unless you want to give SE money, which is stupid).

And why would a new player invest in a story skip potion just so they can spam PotD? That's absurd.

Hey, I agree with you, it is absurd, but so is the idea that MMORPG players who are renowned for their endurance of long play are unwilling to invest the time needed to learn this game. Since I have seen new sprouts arriving at the gates for Royal Menagerie I can only conclude that leveling and progress in FFXIV is relatively quick.

[Beckett]

This is the worst case scenario, but I can easily see someone queuing into a dungeon, seeing that 2-3 party members aren't level sync'd and

/sit
/p vote kick me
/p im not wasting my time a nonlevel sync party

[Mysticdraggon]

i probably just had the greatest solution...

follow with me on this:

what if we REVERSED level sync to focus on the highest level player and applied it to dungeon difficulty itself!

simply put, you have a group of a level 70, and three more level 20's, in a level 20 dungeon.

instead of syncing the level 70 to level 20, buff all available abilities/actions/traits of the level 20 players AND the dungeon level itself including enemies and bosses!

PERFECTION!!!

[Sandpark]

Hey, I agree with you, it is absurd, but so is the idea that MMORPG players who are renowned for their endurance of long play are unwilling to invest the time needed to learn this game. Since I have seen new sprouts arriving at the gates for Royal Menagerie I can only conclude that leveling and progress in FFXIV is relatively quick.

I am of the mind that these types of games are supposed to take somewhat long, sprg are for finishing the whole game in 30-100 hours.

But I have never timed 1-20. If it takes significantly longer than 4 hours, to start getting into the meat of the game, then it is quite slow. XIII got reamed for that very thing which was a 20 hours tutorial.

The nerf to overworld sprint and no mount until level 20 is probably transparent as tedious to someone coming in who isn't a huge FF fan. I didn't mind it myself until the fourth or fifth job leveling.

I see people at level 50 running from easy fates just because they have no self heals on DPS.

Why isn't Second Wind on a 2.5 cooldown like other usuable self heals for other roles?

I haven't done PotD post Stormblood, can jobs with long cooldown for self heals still solo floors 1-100?

[Felis]

i probably just had the greatest solution...

follow with me on this:

what if we REVERSED level sync to focus on the highest level player and applied it to dungeon difficulty itself!

simply put, you have a group of a level 70, and three more level 20's, in a level 20 dungeon.

instead of syncing the level 70 to level 20, buff all available abilities/actions/traits of the level 20 players AND the dungeon level itself including enemies and bosses!

PERFECTION!!!

Why not just replace the lv 20 dungeon with a random lv 70 dungeon if a lv 70 job is in the party?

[Mysticdraggon]

Why not just replace the lv 20 dungeon with a random lv 70 dungeon if a lv 70 job is in the party?

new players would be experiencing spoiler-heavy content.

[savageink]

All I can say is, it's Sastasha. What do you need extra abilities for? lol

[NocturniaUzuki]

I've been contemplating this ever since someone on the forums first mentioned the idea to me and I've got to say I lean towards this change now. It's obvious that Square Enix is no longer putting effort into maintaining smooth gameplay at lower levels. When they introduced the Lv61-70 abilities, they adjusted many jobs in such a way that their kit relies heavily on their Lv61-70 abilities to actually play properly. And that's on top of the fact that just having more abilities is more fun.

I know it could be quite difficult to balance, but I think that, ultimately, it's worth it. As someone mentioned, it would give newer players something to look forward to. It would also encourage players to interact with older content more, which will go a long way towards resolving the game's dead content issue and obsession with unsyncing. I'm sure a lot of the material-reward-obsessed players will still ignore older content and only unsync battles for WT. But there is also a sizable portion of the playerbase that actually does enjoy a challenge and who would actually interact with synced old content if they didn't face the prospect of having to play with a boring or limiting rotation/skillset.

Remember, we're not just talking about Sastasha here though. It's things like Lv50 battles, and even some Lv60 battles now since a few classes got their Lv60 gameplay butchered too in exchange for Lv70 functionality.

[NocturniaUzuki]

Level 20 Lancer can raise their damage 15%. Can not do any aoe damage at all.
Level 20 (70) Dragoon can raise their damage 15%, can increase the target's piercing damage taken 5%, can periodically raise their damage a further 15%, has a dot, can raise the party's crit rate, can raise their damage yet another 10% while raising another player's damage up 5%, has multiple aoe attacks.
There is no reasonable way to make these players even remotely similar in dungeons.

Here's a simple solution:

Raise everything's HP relative to the levels of the players in the party. Also, lower or raise the tank's net enmity gain by a percentage based on the level of the players in the party. Finally, raise the incoming damage done by enemy units by a percentage based on level of the players in the party. The exact percentage would have to be a little different for each stat change, and also depend on a slightly different equation. But it wouldn't be that difficult.