The Experience of Playing Jobs Under Level Sync

[Dillon0_o]

One of the most frustrating parts of level sync is how it strips away the majority of your job’s skills and makes your rotation nonexistent in most cases. When you are at max level, it can feel miserable to suddenly lose the core abilities that make your job enjoyable. This issue has been in the game for far too long, the current system is outdated, and needs a fix IMO.

Instead of removing all of our skills, why not adjust the damage values of existing abilities to scale appropriately for lower level content? That way, players could still use their full toolkit while maintaining balance, and max level players wouldn’t feel like they’re playing a gutted version of their class.

Some may be wondering do you really expect them to go back, and edit systems like this? Yes, I do since it is still a monthly Sub MMO, not to mention they have a cash shop they have more than enough resources, I just think they are not putting the money back into FFXIV. I don't say this because I hate the game i mean i won't lie it is a bit frustrating, but I just want to see the game I play improve.

[Jeeqbit]

The reason is because they view each expansion as a "whole new game" (their words). When you sync down, you sync down to the "rotation of that expansion". Now, sure, they remove jank and merge things to reduce the overall amount of buttons at those levels to make it manageable at higher levels, but the essence of the rotation is mostly intact. If they revamp it, they still try to maintain some similar essence to what it had at those levels ie. you still use egis at lower levels on Summoner, you still spam the Rage of Halone combo on PLD at level 50 and it still has no magic attacks until Stormblood.

So if they synced it by adjusting potency they would need to have a button that level syncs the attacks still in the settings, so that we can play the rotation of those expansions if we want to.

There are balance issues with it though. Content is designed around jobs having certain abilities, which is part of the reason for homogenization. For example, at a certain point you notice all tanks get a "short cooldown" that is less than 30 seconds and then that becomes an integral part of mitigating some fights. At a certain point we get more heals but then they scale outgoing damage accordingly. And lower level content may not have necessarily been designed with these evolutions in mind. It's also difficult to predict how each person's personal level sync could unbalance lower level content in terms of damage with an automated, one-sized fits all potency sync, when we already unbalance it enough as it is.

As for them not putting money into the game, I really think it's just decision-making. Their focus is always on the next patch, and nothing else (except the Graphics Update, which there was notably few updates to in the last patch if any which makes me wonder if there was a problem).

[aiqa]

The reason is because they view each expansion as a "whole new game" (their words). When you sync down, you sync down to the "rotation of that expansion". Now, sure, they remove jank and merge things to reduce the overall amount of buttons at those levels to make it manageable at higher levels, but the essence of the rotation is mostly intact. If they revamp it, they still try to maintain some similar essence to what it had at those levels ie. you still use egis at lower levels on Summoner, you still spam the Rage of Halone combo on PLD at level 50 and it still has no magic attacks until Stormblood.

So if they synced it by adjusting potency they would need to have a button that level syncs the attacks still in the settings, so that we can play the rotation of those expansions if we want to.

That works more or less for the previous expansion. But those aren't the real problem. Going down from 100 to 50 feels terrible, and modern day 50 is certainly not similar to how it was 10 years ago.

So that argument doesn't really work.

There are balance issues with it though. Content is designed around jobs having certain abilities, which is part of the reason for homogenization. For example, at a certain point you notice all tanks get a "short cooldown" that is less than 30 seconds and then that becomes an integral part of mitigating some fights. At a certain point we get more heals but then they scale outgoing damage accordingly. And lower level content may not have necessarily been designed with these evolutions in mind. It's also difficult to predict how each person's personal level sync could unbalance lower level content in terms of damage with an automated, one-sized fits all potency sync, when we already unbalance it enough as it is.

Lower level balance is all over the place already. And in any balance discussion people claim only current tier savage+ matters. But when it's about syncing down suddenly we can't have more fun rotations because of balance considerations.

Max level balance is generally far better than the lower level stuff. So if anything it's far easier to match the intended player performance of the content by potency/mitigation nerfs for max level, than the current level sync system.

[AnnRam]

One of the most frustrating parts of level sync is how it strips away the majority of your job’s skills and makes your rotation nonexistent in most cases. When you are at max level, it can feel miserable to suddenly lose the core abilities that make your job enjoyable. This issue has been in the game for far too long, the current system is outdated, and needs a fix IMO.

Instead of removing all of our skills, why not adjust the damage values of existing abilities to scale appropriately for lower level content? That way, players could still use their full toolkit while maintaining balance, and max level players wouldn’t feel like they’re playing a gutted version of their class.

Some may be wondering do you really expect them to go back, and edit systems like this? Yes, I do since it is still a monthly Sub MMO, not to mention they have a cash shop they have more than enough resources, I just think they are not putting the money back into FFXIV. I don't say this because I hate the game i mean i won't lie it is a bit frustrating, but I just want to see the game I play improve.

Its more important the "fresh-new" experience (according to this forum) of free trial accounts and "newbies" who may play the game 1 week and never come back or people that never going to sub rather than veterans that have been playing this game for years. That's why you are not allowed to have fun.

[Fynlar]

They won't, because it isn't possible. How are you gonna "balance" decked out level 100s with loads of AoEs in their kit against babby level 15 DPS who don't even have any?

If you don't like being synced, don't do synced content. This doesn't become an issue just because it's a style of play you don't particularly care for. I don't go around saying savages/ultimates need to be "fixed" just because it's content not suited for me.

[alibutterfly]

While I also would love it if they could find a way to just power scale any current abilities that we have unlocked whenever we level sync down, I always rationalized their decision NOT to do this as an anti-griefing measure. Inevitably, there would be a certain subset of players that would kick actual lower level players in favor of having someone get slotted in with more skills unlocked and therefore the ability to clear the dungeon 1-5 minutes faster (or slightly more comfortably, even if not actually faster), and I'm quite sure they DON'T want this happening. It's part of the same reason/logic why they made cutscenes mandatory for everyone in the MSQ roulette; no need to kick a first-timer that's stuck in the cutscene if EVERYONE'S stuck in the cutscene. No need to kick an actual lower-level player if EVERYONE is functionally that same level.

[theunhappypotato]

They won't, because it isn't possible. How are you gonna "balance" decked out level 100s with loads of AoEs in their kit against babby level 15 DPS who don't even have any?

If you don't like being synced, don't do synced content. This doesn't become an issue just because it's a style of play you don't particularly care for. I don't go around saying savages/ultimates need to be "fixed" just because it's content not suited for me.

sync damage numbers

[Sunhwapark]

If you don't like being synced, don't do synced content.

Works for me.
I do the latest dungeon like once for the story, and then don't touch the roulettes on 90% of occasions.

But then again, some people treat the game like yoshi-p is holding a gun to your head forcing you to queue into certain things.

[BlisteringFrost]

That works more or less for the previous expansion. But those aren't the real problem. Going down from 100 to 50 feels terrible, and modern day 50 is certainly not similar to how it was 10 years ago.

So that argument doesn't really work.



Lower level balance is all over the place already. And in any balance discussion people claim only current tier savage+ matters. But when it's about syncing down suddenly we can't have more fun rotations because of balance considerations.

Max level balance is generally far better than the lower level stuff. So if anything it's far easier to match the intended player performance of the content by potency/mitigation nerfs for max level, than the current level sync system.

Every melee DPS but Ninja and Monk is basically unviable for UWU and UCOB because of the simple fact being the other melees don't have Speed intrinsically baked into them. Samurai doesn't have any cooldowns so it can't even burst which is why it's off the menu too. Tanks and Healers will out DPS them.

If that isn't an indication the balancing is ONLY tailored for current end-game I dunno what else to tell anybody who is deluded enough to believe otherwise.

[Raikai]

If you don't like being synced, don't do synced content. This doesn't become an issue just because it's a style of play you don't particularly care for. I don't go around saying savages/ultimates need to be "fixed" just because it's content not suited for me.

This doesn't make sense when they want queues and roulettes to have a healthy influx of people.

They just need to fix the AoE situation for low level classes. Just have at leat a basic AoE tool by level 15 when you can get to your first dungeon. And then scale upper level damage to balance it out with newbies.