A potential rework to the level-sync system.

[Jojoya]

I have and always will think we should keep our skills while level synced. Perhaps even a box we can check just like min ilvl is selectable

1) Synced Weapon damage will normalize the damage at lower levels.

Not every action is a weaponskill that scales off weapon damage.

Standard Step says Hi. It's incredibly devastating at low levels, and that's just one example.

2) The content we are talking about is old, and outdated. Who honestly cares if we steamroll it?

Those who are new to the content and doing it for the first time? Those who want to see those new players having a good experience?

Making things too easy leads to boredom and negligence because there's no need to learn the most effective ways to use your abilities. Then you put the player into much more difficult content and they're in trouble because they've developed lazy habits.

If you don't like the current level sync system, don't do content that requires level sync. Stick to content your level, or do the content unsynced and solo/with friends. No one is going to object to you facerolling your way through The Vault solo.

[Mikey_R]

Not every action is a weaponskill that scales off weapon damage.

Standard Step says Hi. It's incredibly devastating at low levels, and that's just one example.

Weapon damage affects the damage of everything you do, not just weapon skills. This means an increase in weapon damage will also increase the damage of standard step etc.

The reason Standard step is so absurdly strong is because of its very very high potency for level 15. If we use Sastasha at level 15, the lowest level you can go into a dungeon and compare the potencies of abilities.

Dragoon's strongest skill is Vorpal Thrust at 350. Monk has a 200 auto Crit (call it 350 potency again, 1.5x crit damage to be generous), Ninja, Gust Slash 340, Samurai has Jinpu at 340 (call it 352 with the buff), I could go on.

However, Standard Step is a 1000 potency AoE attack with a 75% dropoff for the other enemies (so a 250 potency attack if I am interpreting the tooltip correctly) and it is only on a 30 second cooldown. This is close to 3 times as strong as a melee's strongest hit at the time. This is also the perfect example as to how quickly a level 80 toolkit will just decimate enemies.

Samurai's Tenka Goken is a 540 potency attack with no drop off, Dragoon has 600 potency Stardiver and 400 potency Nastrond and 300 potency Gieskogul, ninjas Mudras, Summoners incredible damage with DoTs, summons etc, BLM will melt things with flare and foul, the list goes on. Obviously, alot of these are just the raw potencies and do not take into account any buffs the jobs use.

[Kanosi1980]

I've played MMORPG's since 2001, but I've most recently played WoW. What I don't like about WoW leveling dungeons is that you blow through the trash without even executing a full rotation or feeling like you should blow any CD's. I like that in FF14 I can execute a full rotation multiple times before the trash dies, encouraging use of offensive and defensive CD's (if a tank).

Coming from someone who just lost sprout status, please don't nerf the dungeons. Part of what has made me useful in harder difficulties in raids and trials is having to learn mob and boss mechanics and practice my rotations and good CD use in leveling trials and dungeons.

[Intellion]

Not every action is a weaponskill that scales off weapon damage.

Standard Step says Hi. It's incredibly devastating at low levels, and that's just one example.


Those who are new to the content and doing it for the first time? Those who want to see those new players having a good experience?

Making things too easy leads to boredom and negligence because there's no need to learn the most effective ways to use your abilities. Then you put the player into much more difficult content and they're in trouble because they've developed lazy habits.

If you don't like the current level sync system, don't do content that requires level sync. Stick to content your level, or do the content unsynced and solo/with friends. No one is going to object to you facerolling your way through The Vault solo.

Again, as I've stated before, arguments like these would make more sense if said outdated content we're talking about were actually challenging with level and skill sync and actually required you to play optimally with level-appropriate rotations.

However, such a challenge doesn't even exist since synced veterans' ilvls still end up turning synced content into a brainless steamroll. The only literal difference will be that under the current system, veterans are spamming a few buttons over and over. With my suggestion, they at least get to use whatever skill they want to alleviate even some of the boredom. Would mobs die faster? Perhaps. But let's not fool ourselves here: with the current system, mobs already melt super fast anyways the moment synced veterans enter the fray.

So again, I'll dare point out that the thing that the no-crowd are trying to defend (balance/challenge in outdated content) doesn't even exist in the first place, so what exactly are they arguing for? With or without skill sync, said outdated content are brainless stomps anyways, so again, I say just let the veterans use all of their skills to at least alleviate some of their boredom and at least give them a sense of progression.

And again, no one is calling for the removal of level sync, only skill sync. Hence, I don't understand either why the no-crowd keeps throwing the "Don't do content that requires level sync" phrase. That completely ruins the point.

No, no one's asking for Lv. 80 powerhouses to be thrown into roulettes as is. We already have undersized parties for that. All we're asking for is to at least let us have fun gameplay-wise and allow us to use our full kit even when we are level-synced. Because let's be honest, even if you reach the endgame, most of this game's content will be synced (since most of the time, you'll be doing roulettes for tomes and money or older FATEs for relic stuff), and most of the time we don't even get to enjoy the Lv. 80 kits that we worked hard to attain.


And again, I'll dare to use the community itself to argue against the current system:

If the current skill sync that we have now is truly "healthy" for both the gameplay and the community, then why do most people turn it off via undersized parties when given the chance in Party Finder the moment the situation allows for it? If people truly enjoyed the "challenging" outdated content that we have now, then why do nearly all veterans AND sprouts just bumrush to the finish line instead of taking in the sights and exploring slowly and carefully? If players truly found forced skill sync so "engaging" in old content, then why do so many people play Blue Mage?

I don't know, but based on what I'm personally seeing in the community, I think the game will be far better off if we did away with forced skill sync on level-synced content.

[BlitzAceRush]

If the current skill sync that we have now is truly "healthy" for both the gameplay and the community, then why do most people turn it off via undersized parties when given the chance in Party Finder the moment the situation allows for it? If people truly enjoyed the "challenging" outdated content that we have now, then why do nearly all veterans AND sprouts just bumrush to the finish line instead of taking in the sights and exploring slowly and carefully? If players truly found forced skill sync so "engaging" in old content, then why do so many people play Blue Mage?

Just going to respond to this:
People's use of undersized has nothing to do with weather or not syncing is good or bad, the sync system is in place so people's first time through is as close to the ways the dev's intended as can be, undersized is there for someone to engage in content how they wish.
Your point also doesn't really stand up, you say "why do most people turn it off via undersized parties in party finder the moment the situation allows for it?" Well the situation allows for it right away, you could just clear everything unsynced your first time through, get some friends or randoms in party finder and clear your way to victory, mowing down everything with your full kit always. If what you say was true, the duty roulette would be empty and the party finder bursting with dungeon and normal mode parties ready to unsync their way through content.
However that's not the case at all, the duty finder is active and always popping while its rare to ever see a regular dungeon or normal mode trial in the party finder unless it's an unsynced farm or (ironically) BLU going in synced for the log/spells.

I've got everything at 80 and I'm fine with the system, is it a bit dull if I get a low level dungeon? Kinda but it really doesn't bother me too much, the only thing I'd change is letting all dps have some form of their aoe at lower levels, but otherwise I wouldn't want my full kit kept, because I know it would go one of two ways.
1: I'm putting in level 80 effort, but getting back level 24 results.
2: The level 24 might as well go make a snack because no matter how furiously they press those three buttons, they'll never keep up with me.

As for "It's not balanced anyway! Why bother!?" Just because something isn't perfect, doesn't mean you destroy it utterly, we're already too strong when synced down, the last thing they should do is make that worse.

[Hasrat]

Additional point, you can't really point to synced players being a bit overpowered as evidence that nothing is balanced anyway. It's an attempt at balancing. Of course they can't keep it the same as they originally were. But, it remains far closer to balanced than what would result from allowing the proposed system.

[Vyrerus]

That'd be true if Lv. 80 players are thrust into low-level content. That is not what I'm proposing though. Even if skill sync is removed per my suggestion, veterans will still be level synced and ilvl synced, which would still prevent one-shots and insta-kills.
And as I've mentioned earlier, if old-content is still a mindless stomp with or without skill sync, I'm pretty sure 99% of people would agree that being able to use all 24 skills would still be more satisfying and fun that being forced to spam only two skills over and over ad nauseum. So why not make something mindless even just slightly more fun?

Because I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't define pressing one or two buttons over and over in mindlessly easy content as "playing a job in a satisfying way," especially when the typical FFXIV player disables level sync when trying to clear old content for the first time via Party Finder or when trying to farm said old content for glamour/items/etc.

I wasn't talking about one shotting things. I'm literally telling you that if you give a person their level 80 skillset, they won't be able to use it half of the time anyway in low end stuff. The monsters in synced content die that fast. It's far more annoying to try to use your whole kit when most of it goes to waste, anyway.

Not too mention, if they caved on this sort of thing, the next thread would crop up, "Why not just give us our full kit right away at level 1?"

Also there are synced solo duties related to the Main Story Quest and Job Quests. While they aren't exactly pillars of difficulty, they are expected to be done at certain levels and be mildly challenging. What you propose would allow people to level past these points, and then go back and destroy them with skills not locked behind quests. This may potentially break some quests, because certain skills would allow for more player power than you're supposed to have from a design standpoint. They then have to fix something that would have never cropped up otherwise.

They also desire for the Ultimate fights to stay challenging. The level 70 Ultimates would become even less of an achievement to beat.

Your idea is bad for everything.

[Reinha]

Part of the fun in low level content is trying to complete it with the toolkit you have at that level. You get to play differently than you do at cap. As someone with everything already leveled, it's refreshing.

There isn't any need to do synced content if one doesn't like it. You can do hunt trains for tomes and materia, and Frontlines, beast tribe quests or the highest level dungeon for xp. Roulettes are optional.

[Deceptus]

Not too mention, if they caved on this sort of thing, the next thread would crop up, "Why not just give us our full kit right away at level 1?"

Also there are synced solo duties related to the Main Story Quest and Job Quests. While they aren't exactly pillars of difficulty, they are expected to be done at certain levels and be mildly challenging. What you propose would allow people to level past these points, and then go back and destroy them with skills not locked behind quests. This may potentially break some quests, because certain skills would allow for more player power than you're supposed to have from a design standpoint. They then have to fix something that would have never cropped up otherwise.

And SE has implemented an "Easy" mode for people who already struggle with some of those so don't pretend the precedent isn't there.

[xbahax92]

Part of the fun in low level content is trying to complete it with the toolkit you have at that level. You get to play differently than you do at cap. As someone with everything already leveled, it's refreshing.

That only counts when you are still low level outside of the dungeon. Once you get the nice, fancy new skills, the gauges and such, you'll notice how annoying it is. In some cases you have the gauge, but no skills or abilities to use it. being level 70+ and que'ing in leveling roulette for the huge XP, but then being stuck in sastasha at level 15 is a big joke, and Im sure Im not the only one with this feeling.