Level Syncing isn't the best solution

[JunseiKei]

The system I proposed wouldn't break anything that's not already broken by the current system. As for power creep- a little testing goes a LOOONG way. That's why games like this have testers. So properly utilized, the testers would ensure that this doesn't happen. It's what testers are for and a company this big knows this.



You don't play much content do you? Combat dummies are garbage and everyone who raids should already know this. There's a HUGE difference between a caster standing in one spot on a combat dummy vs. running around and doing mechanics in a real fight. Yeah, combat dummies serve a purpose and that's to let you practice the ideal rotation in a perfect world, but once you get into a fight, you have to practice THAT fight so that you can alter your rotation around the mechanics FOR THAT BOSS.

Anyone who says otherwise is just someone who doesn't know how to play this game or is simply making up arguments to keep changes from happening. Which one are you?

I do everything outside of ultimate, and that's simply because my raid group just doesn't want to (and I don't particularly want to do that with complete strangers :\). You're strawmanning my statement. I even said nothing is better than the actual fight for optimization, so I don't know why you are saying that back to me. These "anyone who disagrees with me are this" statements are just plain annoying and sound more like a kid saying "I'm right, so there!" but it'd help if you took in my whole statement before you tried to come after me.

What exactly would testers be doing? Companies use player-testers to make sure content that is created works. In this case, giving level 70 players full access to their skills as early as the level 10 guildhests. You queue up, you use a level 70 skill. It works - huzzah! What you don't get out of these tests : the impact of having higher level players being compared against the actual low level characters and how boring it becomes for that new player. SE has also stated how they do in-house testing in past LLPs, so it's not like zero testing is being done.

The idea needs to address issues like this, but so far has failed to do so:

The problem is not the idea itself, but rather its actual implementation.

Suppose you get a DRG in Satasha, a level 15 dungeon.
At level 15, a DRG(or rather, a Lancer) does not have any AoE skill.
Now if the DRG is level 50 he will have more tools to increase his dps, such as Blood for Blood, Doom Spike, and Dragonfire Dive.
He will have even more at level 60 and 70 (Geirskogul, Sonic Thrust, Nastrond etc.)
How do you propose the devs balance these skill? Do you simply just reduce their potency so that the total output remains the same as that of level 15 player (which is simply impossible by the way as they don't even have AoE skill) making higher leveled player perform more for less?
Do you leave thing as is? Giving the actual level 15 tank much harder time to deal with aggro, possibly turning more people away from tanking? Hell it might even cause higher leveled players to despise lower leveled players even more for not having all these sick skills, making the run longer, on the other hand.

You said the current system is unbalanced, but what you suggested takes it to the other level.

I'm saying as someone who doesn't really enjoy level syncing much (mostly for just sub level 50 contents), but it is what it is.
So you either deal with it, or suggest an actual realistic solution.

The only MMO I've played that does it is WoW, and it works badly there. They mess with the content tuning so it either remains trivial for max level players being scaled down with full toolkits or ends up too difficult for players who are at the intended level but only have partial toolkits. I'd not enjoy seeing it repeated here. If the content is designed around players having access to only certain abilities then it should be experienced that way when synced.

I'll have to second this statement. The dungeons in WoW, while fantastic and completely stomped on XIV's one, have problem due to its level sync system. New players might as well not bother and just watch the veterans mow down everything in their path. It's part of the reason I did not bother continue playing.

How do you effectively make someone with a full AoE toolkit deal damage on par with a player that hasn't leveled high enough to get any AoE abilties at all, especially considering the way things get chain pulled? Drop the potency on the AoEs from the typical 100 or so down to 10 so if it hits 10 mobs then it deals roughly the same damage as a low level player will deal using their standard single target attack?

Do you cap potency on all single target abilities at 150 or perhaps even down to 100 depending on what item level sync is being used? At what content level do you start increasing the potencies to bring them more in line with the demand of those higher but still not max level dungeons?

I'm sure SE would love to see the players behind this change presenting their theorycrafting analysis showing how this can work successfully on a job by job and dungeon by dungeon basis.

Probably needs to be said, since my other statement wasn't full comprehended, I'm not even against the idea. However, it has issues that need addressing before it should even be considered. Not to mention yet other important issues others have pointed out.