Level Sync feels worse every expansion

[Atreus]

Jobs at 60 in 2015 were completely different from jobs synced to 60 in 2025. Something like SCH has probably lost 4 core rotational spells, most have had their upkeep buffs/debuffs completely removed, and plenty have had core mechanics revised multiple times or outright removed.

Hugely agree with this statement. Jobs are absolutely not the same synced now as they were on content release going all the way back to ARR. With every job rework or redesign, SE cobbles something together to make them "serviceable" in different levels. As others have reported, newly released jobs tend to feel even worse.

You'll never know what ARR was like until you're forced to Flash groups of mobs for hate and you had no AoE damage.

[Nero-Voidstails]

the only reason it feel worst as it goes it's because they keep gutting job to make them so simple it's braindead they removed so many skills that are still coded in the game! squadron have them and we should have kept them in my book and then get upgrade and stronger version as the expension want on with like one or two more skills

[bundythenoob]

Leveling kits have had issues for years now, but it wasn't until ShB that I truly felt the pain of the buchered kits alongside said leveling kit placement.

DRK not having Stalwart Soul and Dark Missionary earlier really hurt the overall leveling experience when compared to GNB/WAR back in ShB. I know this was fixed later, but not matching the leveling kits on release was a terribad oversight
Blood Weapon not being the first skill you learn at 30 alongside Flood of Darkness makes the builder-spender feel awkward for those first 5 levels and it makes playing DRK a slog
this doesn't even include the lack of an early TBN (bring shadowskin back!) or fact that Oblation in its current iteration is a lv 20 skill at best.

SCH getting their Aetherflow/ED moved from lv 15 to lv 45 was a huge mistake, as the job is now lacking crucial damage and mana generation at those levels where it can only rely on Adloq and a non-targetable embrace
My girl Selene who carried me through ARR is gone but not forgotten, and switching between fairies depending on the content was another fun strategy point that we lost. everyone knows about Bane/Shadowflare at this point too


the criminally underused trait system could help fix the leveling kit issue. they already use it to transform our lower lvl skills into higher lv ones, but for some reason they refuse to expand on it and instead give us these "Melee Mastery" junk traits?
like why do we gain those "new" healer attacks like AST Oracle at lv 92 and not in the 30s or even 40s...but PLD gets their Goring Blade at lv 52? (this change was DOGWATER, give me my combos back!)
they could easily make all of those "melee/magic Mastery" traits redundant if they just let us build more resource or gave us our attacks at lower levels. maybe even return buffs to their former glory (i miss 20% Litany, made the long cooldown feel worth)


I could go further, but the point is that if the devs intend on making a "return to harder content"
then most, if not all jobs, NEED to have their kits re-evaluated and skills NEED to be redistributed

[Supersnow845]

I really don’t get what problem square had with aetherdam

It was literally the easiest slam dunk of a trait that made low level SCH more interesting without doing literally anything on their part because it already existed

It’s like they actively try to make the low levels worse when they redo jobs

[Arohk]

Then don't do level sync content?

Roulettes are fine; there's more than enough people who want to do them even if you don't.

Sorry that some people still care about the game and want it to be better instead of just quitting.

[Valence]

Jobs at 60 in 2015 were completely different from jobs synced to 60 in 2025. Something like SCH has probably lost 4 core rotational spells, most have had their upkeep buffs/debuffs completely removed, and plenty have had core mechanics revised multiple times or outright removed.

Remember how you had 2 full hotbars at lvl35 back then? 3 at max level (60)?
Even sastasha had you with more tools than you currently get at lvl 30 those days.
And that's without even mentioning the old battle system, because MP and aggro was damn relevant in there too.

[Commander_Justitia]

You gonna get ff14 mobile, you wont get more skills again. You probably get less.

[Nana_Bear]

Well, that can easily be mitigated. Just give synched players a debuff, a reverse echo if you will, that caps their maximum potency per GCD to the expected level of the current instance. Hells, give players an option if they want this type of sync or the current one.

Cause really, what do I care if Johnny Greensprout does the same DPS in Sastasha with 2 buttons as I do with 20? At least I can play my full kit and have fun with my class, and Johnny has something to look forward to.

If I understand correctly what you're saying, I agree.

Perspective from someone here who never does roulettes:

I worked hard to earn my abilities, learn my rotations, etc., and hate walking in to see so many of them greyed out. It's like learning how to do architectural wonders Lego sets, and then being handed toddler red/blue/yellow wooden building blocks to work with.

If what you're saying is "Let us keep most or all of our actions, but just sync down the *effects* of said actions," YES. I wouldn't mind doing less damage, getting less heal-power, etc. to help balance out the dungeon and put me in range with the *effects* level of some player who's just hit high enough level to do that dungeon. Same for our gear, honestly. And I totally agree that people coming in and clearing it before the story/dialog can even play through, can really suck for a first-timer doing it: they miss a lot of the experience that way.

My other beef with roulettes: I'd like the ability to be able to block out certain dungeons/trials/raids, so I don't randomly end up in ones I hate doing. And/or maybe a way to "favorite" some, so we get them more often?

If they'd offer the above, I would start doing roulettes... at least in part because I like helping newer players working their way up.

Side note: could we get the cap on poetics to *raise* a bit at certain level markers? I get really tired of hitting it fast when doing things that rack them up, then having to run off to find a way to spend them rather than see "earned after the cap" ones vanish. Also, more things to *spend* them on would be nice.

[Atreus]

If I understand correctly what you're saying, I agree.

Perspective from someone here who never does roulettes:

I worked hard to earn my abilities, learn my rotations, etc., and hate walking in to see so many of them greyed out. It's like learning how to do architectural wonders Lego sets, and then being handed toddler red/blue/yellow wooden building blocks to work with.

If what you're saying is "Let us keep most or all of our actions, but just sync down the *effects* of said actions," YES. I wouldn't mind doing less damage, getting less heal-power, etc. to help balance out the dungeon and put me in range with the *effects* level of some player who's just hit high enough level to do that dungeon. Same for our gear, honestly. And I totally agree that people coming in and clearing it before the story/dialog can even play through, can really suck for a first-timer doing it: they miss a lot of the experience that way.

My other beef with roulettes: I'd like the ability to be able to block out certain dungeons/trials/raids, so I don't randomly end up in ones I hate doing. And/or maybe a way to "favorite" some, so we get them more often?

If they'd offer the above, I would start doing roulettes... at least in part because I like helping newer players working their way up.

Side note: could we get the cap on poetics to *raise* a bit at certain level markers? I get really tired of hitting it fast when doing things that rack them up, then having to run off to find a way to spend them rather than see "earned after the cap" ones vanish. Also, more things to *spend* them on would be nice.

I don't think a percentage-based "reverse Echo" like he suggested would be exactly right. I rather think that traits that hard cap your potencies depending on job and level cap is the correct way to go about it. Using PLD as an example, you simply can't bring 1000 potency Confiteor moves to lower dungeons. Here's a quick napkin example:


Lv70 cap
Atonement combo: capped at 260 potency (rough average of your basic 1-2-3 combo)
Confiteor combo: capped at 600 potency (to match the potency Holy Spirit would be at that level)

Lv60 cap
Atonement & Confiteor combo: both capped ~260 potency for the same reasons

With this, defensives would remain unchanged and it would not really factor in extra oGCDs you'd bring. That's why I'm a strong proponent of lowering item level caps in duties to restore some measure of difficulty.

[PyurBlue]

I don't think a percentage-based "reverse Echo" like he suggested would be exactly right. I rather think that traits that hard cap your potencies depending on job and level cap is the correct way to go about it. Using PLD as an example, you simply can't bring 1000 potency Confiteor moves to lower dungeons.

Why not? With the correct multiplier it wouldn't matter what potency is at all. You can make the final damage number anything you want it to be.