Level Syncing isn't the best solution

[BillyKaplan]

You are implying that seeing someone who is a higher level would cause depression in new players. Depression that they are forced to start play at level 1 when there are older players who are level 70...?

You're being disgustingly ableist about it and throwing the words depression and therapy around way too easy over someone essentially disagreeing with you, especially since they didn't mention it at all. Chill.
And yes, these things can be pretty disheartening - to both sides. The new players who can't do what the higher level player can, which will only rub salt in the wounds of people who already resent the leveling process. And seriously, yeah, having one PLD with access to their entire kit and one PLD who doesn't because they're on-level, why does that make sense to anyone?
And then it's for the higher level players, too. Way I see it, that means higher level players will have - more engaging gameplay? But also basically have to work somewhat harder to reach the same damage output as the sprout who hits the one button. And no, they won't let you keep your kit with the same potencies if they implement this at all, that's out of the question.

I'd sooner hope they kept the leveling experience in mind when designing classes rather than just unlock max-level kits all around.

[Nabril]

You're welcome to reply, but that comment was addressed towards another poster.

my apologies

[Nabril]

You're being disgustingly ableist about it and throwing the words depression and therapy around way too easy over someone essentially disagreeing with you, especially since they didn't mention it at all. Chill.
And yes, these things can be pretty disheartening - to both sides. The new players who can't do what the higher level player can, which will only rub salt in the wounds of people who already resent the leveling process. And seriously, yeah, having one PLD with access to their entire kit and one PLD who doesn't because they're on-level, why does that make sense to anyone?
And then it's for the higher level players, too. Way I see it, that means higher level players will have - more engaging gameplay? But also basically have to work somewhat harder to reach the same damage output as the sprout who hits the one button. And no, they won't let you keep your kit with the same potencies if they implement this at all, that's out of the question.

I still don't believe this problem exists. I don't buy it. I don't think it's real at all. I don't think that any new player gets upset that an older player has better looking gear than they do or that they couldn't start the game with Fire IV at level 1.

I don't believe you.

[Gemina]

I still maintain that item level is important to this discussion. But no, they were not designed with those in mind, but I don't see the point of keeping them out when there's such a huge push to keep old dungeons relevant. This is where most of our currencies come from. This is highly important to becoming a mentor. This is something that everyone encounters repeatedly in this game... over and over again. Level-syncing.

Once you've done all of the current content, most of what you do requires level syncing if you want to quickly max out all of your currencies- or go back and do content that you missed (job quests, or solo-duties for example). Hell, I out leveled the MSQ as I tore through them and was level synced just doing the solo duties. It's what this game is. Doing old content as if it were relevant.

And so with such a huge push, the majority of my time is spent not casting Fire IV. (replace Fire IV with any high level ability that happens to fit your job).

If this were a small monthly event like it is in the MMO World of Warcraft then it would not be an issue to me. But it's part of the main course in FFXIV.

Let me put it this way: It sucks, and I mean outright sucks to level a tank when you're behind. The reason is because the DPS and sometimes even the healer have capped stats and you do not. This makes it more difficult for the leveling tank to maintain aggro despite using their enmity tools and mitigative CDs. Now you got SMNs and BLM using Death Flares and Fire IVs on top of it... in Dzamael Darkhold??

I will also add that earlier content isn't going give you much practice to keep your max level rotations sharpened. Again, the content is not designed around these abilities, and the earlier content will serve to be a whetstone about as good as a striking dummy. If you wanna git gud with your70 rotation, you need to use it in content where mechanics are designed to disrupt it.

Take it from me who isn't max level anything. I constantly hear and read about the relevant content. Not the old stuff. It's important to keep old content relevant, but not at the cost of new player morale.

[JohnSpawnVFX]

I still don't believe this problem exists. I don't buy it. I don't think it's real at all. I don't think that any new player gets upset that an older player has better looking gear than they do or that they couldn't start the game with Fire IV at level 1.

I don't believe you.

You don't believe a RDM having access to their full kit would easily rip aggro from an on-level tank, because no matter how they try, their Aggro per second would be outclassed by the RDM's, given all the potency available to them, even if they scale down the potencies/stats?
What do you think can deal more damage in a certain amount of time(assuming the stats between both stays the same): a lvl 18 RDM with only access to Jolt, Verthunder/Veraero, Scatter and the first hit of the melee combo or a lvl 18 RDM with access to the full melee combo, the AoE melee hit, Jolt II / Impact, both Fleche and Contre Sixte and Verholy/Verflare?
Oh, and there's no possible way to have Diversion/Lucid Dreaming up for every pull, unless you want a run to take 30+ minutes while the group waits for the synced lvl 70s to get back their aggro cooldowns.

[Gemina]

You are implying that seeing someone who is a higher level would cause depression in new players. Depression that they are forced to start play at level 1 when there are older players who are level 70...? I don't feel that this is a problem in this or in any other MMO that I've played. I just don't see it. If there is depression of this, then I would recommend that the player see a therapist because it would mean that there are way bigger problems in that player's life. I don't say this to sound cruel or trolling as I know depression is a very serious issue. I recommended help because I know how serious such things can be.

Oh man, I just saw this from another person's quote. YES! Absolutely. I don't know about causing depression, but it can be depressing feeling so inadequate in a duty. This happens when the intent is to do a good job. So IOW, this is a player who actually gives a schite and is not some dime-a-dozen tank playing it for the quick queues.

I mention tank specifically because they feel it the worst in dungeons. The spotlight is totally on them. A healer can get away with sub par gear so long as he/she keeps the party alive and cleansed. Their DPS is a contributor, not a factor. One over-geared DPS player can easily pull the weight of another subpar DPS player, so two of them with ok-ish gear will be just fine. A tank though, MUST have BiS in the leveling stages or they are going to have a lot of trouble.

Demoralizing budding tanks is likely what leads to them being so bitter and avoiding roulettes like the plague later on. This applies to healers and DPS as well. Any player not past the leveling stages, or at any given time should not be punished through feelings of inadequacy when they are putting the effort in. I understand the good intent behind your suggestion, but I feel it would only exacerbate this effect on the community.

[Deceptus]

While I have, admittedly, been hesitant in this past. I have to agree. There are jobs I almost refuse to play in low level content because they're simply awful. Astro's lack of an AoE until 52 makes ARR content a needless chore, especially now that they've gone back and nerfed everything. Warrior is downright dreadful below 60. And even then, not much better until you have Inner Release. Monk and Ninja feel naked without Form Shift and Armor Crush. And Machinist... only hell is Machinist bad below max level.

The current synced system simply makes non-70 content much less engaging. Granted, I'm more annoyed at how easy it all becomes due to how high our synced level is stat wise. But that's another discussion.

DRK's are really bad about this as well.

Let me put it this way: It sucks, and I mean outright sucks to level a tank when you're behind. The reason is because the DPS and sometimes even the healer have capped stats and you do not. This makes it more difficult for the leveling tank to maintain aggro despite using their enmity tools and mitigative CDs. Now you got SMNs and BLM using Death Flares and Fire IVs on top of it... in Dzamael Darkhold??

As long as you keep your gear up to date, and there's no reason not to with gear vendors in cities, aggro "shouldn't" be an issue. Sometimes it might, but overall you should be fine.

And if the DPS did have all of their abilities, so the mobs die a ton faster and less overall damage goes out? Regarding low level content, there's been times where I as the SCH has had more hp than the tank due to them being new. I simply told them to do the best they could but dont' worry if someone rips aggro.

And you know what? WE DID FINE. In every case this has happened. Completed the content with zero issues. At some point, you have to stop coddling EVERYONE.

Even if the DPS rips aggro, perhaps they'll learn to use their aggro reducing tools which people at 70 don't even use because tanking is so effective leveling up.

[zuzu-bq]

Being able to sync down your level is fine and honestly very nice. The issue is mostly the loss of your skills. With the battle revamp of Stormblood and consequentially the next revamp by Shadowbringers SE should honestly consider not locking away skills when getting sync'd down anymore. Given they already said they don't care much about job balancement outside of level cap anymroe.

[Yimiko]

As long as a redmage can run around dualcasting end game potency crap in tam tara normal, synced down, then there's really no reason to keep everyone else's toolkits locked down for "balance." I'm sure the next new classes will be even worse.

As an additional reason to stop locking down toolkits on sync, stormblood killed a lot of skills from the 50- rotations and made them kinda mind numbing...especially for summoners and the like. Seeing a full toolkit might help newer players figure out what they really want to do and/or stick with it to get those awesome godly skills.

If they wanted more balance, they'd do better to lower the stat caps when synching, instead of removing your entire damned skillset so everyone just keeps mashing 1 all day long. >3>

[SannaR]

Dang it's this thread again. I thought we mostly agreed that most of your rotation would either have to do piddly or nothing and be interrupted a lot for any of this to work while the on level people could do just as much damage while getting away from pressing less buttons. What I mean by interrupted a lot is that the monsters would die too fast to get through some job's rotations. Yes for some people seeing what cool awesome skills they'll get in the future will urge them on, but I feel that they're in the minority. Also just because you tell a not synced/geared tank to not worry about it too much and you can get through a run fine doesn't mean it can't be disheartening to the ones who actually care. It can also end up spitting out tanks like some posters on here who think face pulling is ok at higher levels and then wonder why they get kicked later on.