Some thoughts on Level Sync and Abilities

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Because aggro is the first thing that most level sync ability naysayers always go to.

How will the level appropriate tank keep aggro on a lvl 80 BLM with all of their skills!

To be fair, that was before the tank changes in 5.0. I haven't seen anyone saying that since.

[Noitems]

To be fair, that was before the tank changes in 5.0. I haven't seen anyone saying that since.

If a PLD and a BLM are both in Satasha and the BLM is chucking fouls/flares/freezes out like candy I think the damage alone will take over (even with it being synced) since that's so much more going out over the PLD's Total Eclipse.

[frostmagemari]

If a PLD and a BLM are both in Satasha and the BLM is chucking fouls/flares/freezes out like candy I think the damage alone will take over (even with it being synced) since that's so much more going out over the PLD's Total Eclipse.

I think the worst thing that can happen in this discussion is assume that changes like this would happen in a vacuum and its almost dishonest to argue from a point where further changes wouldn't happen in tandem with the requested change.

[PyurBlue]

If a PLD and a BLM are both in Satasha and the BLM is chucking fouls/flares/freezes out like candy I think the damage alone will take over (even with it being synced) since that's so much more going out over the PLD's Total Eclipse.

Try it. Go into a low level dungeon unsyced as a high level BLM with only a level 1 or so weapon. Then compare that to a synced PLD. The BLM is very easily going to lose once its stat drop enough.

[MariaArvana]

If a PLD and a BLM are both in Satasha and the BLM is chucking fouls/flares/freezes out like candy I think the damage alone will take over (even with it being synced) since that's so much more going out over the PLD's Total Eclipse.

New tank stance is a 10x enmity modifier, making total eclipse a 1200 potency per GCD enmity battery. (Though factoring in tank damage penalties, its closer to 1000).

Unless its a barely geared tank, enmity is pretty much a non-issue. The bigger issue is as described on the 1st page:

Creating a system that:

1) Creates parity between low level and high level players for literally every single instance of the game, balancing around literally every single trait and skill you earn up along the way against every other potential instance you can get into.
2) Doesn't leave everyone weaker if they can't perfectly execute their rotation (normalizing potencies by targeting max level play)
3) Doesn't leave people OP beyond belief. (normalizing potencies by targeting mid level play, creating a huge power vacuum between players who don't know their rotations vs ones who do and leaving the good players severely overpowered in old instances)
4) can balance skills to still be used, but not rendered utterly useless. (Hallowed ground being OP to literally anything a low level GLD can do, Benediction/Tetra/Regens/Assylum annihilating anything a CNJ can do, etc.)

While not impossible, it's going to be far too much effort for too little gain in the dev's eyes. Not to mention they'd then have to literally revamp the entire system any time substantial changes to jobs happen mid-expansion, or completely re-write and re-do the system when the new expansion comes out due to it completely changing roations, etc.

From the times I've QA'd modular systems in other games and seeing the dead, lifeless eyes and frustrated groans of the devs there, I can pretty much guarantee the devs will stick with the syncing system they have to save themselves from a colossal nightmare inducing balancing headache.

[PyurBlue]

While not impossible, it's going to be far too much effort for too little gain in the dev's eyes. Not to mention they'd then have to literally revamp the entire system any time substantial changes to jobs happen mid-expansion, or completely re-write and re-do the system when the new expansion comes out due to it completely changing roations, etc.

But the old content doesn't need rebalancing despite the issues that you mention already existing. PLD for example went from not having AoE to getting it by the first dungeon. It hasn't really cause any balancing upsets. You're applying really right standards to balancing when the game doesn't.

From the times I've QA'd modular systems in other games and seeing the dead, lifeless eyes and frustrated groans of the devs there, I can pretty much guarantee the devs will stick with the syncing system they have to save themselves from a colossal nightmare inducing balancing headache.

No one is really in a position to say how hard it would be to add potency scaling to the game, coding wise, except SE. It's not really fruitful to bring up, at least in my opinion. Conceptually though, there isn't actually much to it. FF14 has a level curve already. What we're missing is something to scale down high level players to fit the curve. The game doesn't change drastically from level 1 to 80. Fighting mobs at either end is pretty much the same except at high level mobs have scaled HP.

[YojimboM]

(Though factoring in tank damage penalties, its closer to 1000)

???

There are no "tank damage penalties". Tank stances only increase threat now. That's it. The new tank trait that substitutes for old stance effects is a flat 20% damage reduction, and increased stat weight for vitality and strength (which, if anything, means they do more damage now).

I see weird stuff like this constantly on the OF and can't figure out where it even starts.

[MariaArvana]

???

There are no "tank damage penalties". Tank stances only increase threat now. That's it. The new tank trait that substitutes for old stance effects is a flat 20% damage reduction, and increased stat weight for vitality and strength (which, if anything, means they do more damage now).

I see weird stuff like this constantly on the OF and can't figure out where it even starts.

Not the tank stance, no.

The tank trait mastery actually nerfs tank damage by making STR worth less point per point than other jobs. Otherwise tanks would be doing much closer to dps than they are now due to the fact they gained a TON of str on their accessories the instant SHB started on top of gaining huge potencies to their rotation due to SHB changes, yet were only seeing very minor gains to dps by the time they reached 80 conmpared to their SB numbers, when the potencies and STR changes should have given them a several hundred to a thousand dps gains.

Tank mastery is literally giving you the positive effects of old tank stance's mitigation while nerfing your damage output by weakening the value of STR for tanks. And it starts in discords like the Balance where people do painstaking amounts of math and testing to figure out how the internals of the game work. Tank's are literally > 20% weaker proportionally with the same amount of STR than they were in SB due to the existence of the tank mastery trait.

Ergo, most of the potencies you see on tanks, when you want to compare them to a dps's potencies by relation, are roughly 20-30% weaker. hence Total eclipse can stave off about 1000 potency from actual dps jobs, whereas the sticker value for it says 1200.