Time to stop making synced content

[Goji1639]

It's really the only way to keep content even remotely engaging. Having ilvl 500 characters basically soloing runs that are scaled to allow fresh 80's to participate is boring, and scaling everything so high that an ilvl 500 character would be appropriate excludes most of the playerbase.

I do think this game has always struggled to provide consistent, engaging high-end content, though. This game needs some kind of treadmill like Mythic+ to make high end gear actually mean something.

[Deceptus]

I'm just not a fan of the dev's making content say, in patch X.3 or X.4 that has gear requirements of X.0.

This is a perfect example of it (same with Bozjan). 435 is attainable almost immediately after you hit 80. What is the point of spending time gaining gear and power if it is rendered useless constantly?

Yes, those vet players "would have and advantage" and they SHOULD, even if just slight. They worked for their gear. Even a 450 / 460 ilvl sync would have been better than a 430 / 435

[Goji1639]

I'm just not a fan of the dev's making content say, in patch X.3 or X.4 that has gear requirements of X.0.

This is a perfect example of it (same with Bozjan). 435 is attainable almost immediately after you hit 80. What is the point of spending time gaining gear and power if it is rendered useless constantly?

Yes, those vet players "would have and advantage" and they SHOULD, even if just slight. They worked for their gear. Even a 450 / 460 ilvl sync would have been better than a 430 / 435

If it's synched at 435 then it's obvious that SE wanted a completely level playing field. There's really nothing wrong with that; not all content is intended to let people walk in with a clear advantage.

That said, I do think SE should release more content that allows people to leverage their hard earned gear. Making the end game character building experience feel meaningful is one area where this game seems to fall short.

[Hysterior]

Well the whole point of Unreal fights is that they are level-synced.
I don't know how it could have been interpreted differently.
It had to be a lower level than what you can currently have now, otherwise there would be no challenge at all.

[SaberMaxwell]

Well the whole point of Unreal fights is that they are level-synced.
I don't know how it could have been interpreted differently.
It had to be a lower level than what you can currently have now, otherwise there would be no challenge at all.

I thought the point was "we gave this lv50 fight lv80 stats enjoy," not sure how iLv factors into that.

I'm on team "sync shouldn't null materia but otherwise idc," personally, but you and I understand intentions of Unreal quite differently.

[AdamFyi]

WHY?

It’s generally to prevent the content from being steamrolled i.e. undersizing older content. Other than that, it’s to keep the impact of item level variance at the absolute minimum. By keeping the sync level low, more players are able to participate and also makes it significantly easier to balance when every player that enters is set to a predefined expected stat value.

I'm on team "sync shouldn't null materia but otherwise idc," personally, but you and I understand intentions of Unreal quite differently.

It’s most likely just to prevent materia cheesing. They probably don’t have a way to sync materia that gets slotted into gear yet so disabling it probably was their best option. Being able to bring, say, a crafted level 80 pentamelded set with Grade 7&8 crit materia (+180 crit rate) to something like Sastasa doesn’t sound like a good idea.

[TheRealQuah]

As the title says. Stop item level syncing content. its stupid, even the new unreal shiva is synced to i435. This makes getting gear and capping weekly tomes literally pointless. Why even bother raiding? Why bother getting a BiS gearset? Whats the point when the only content you use it for is the content you get it from. BiS gear to make savage easier? Pointless. Even the expert roulette is synced! New bojza, synced. WHY?

Syncing at i435 for the unreal is a bigger kick in the nuts than ever before, thats not even last tier gear that AF, new level 80 dont even bother farming phantasma cos you dont need it level.

I'm assuming you've cleared all Savage and are in full BiS then?

It's synced because they obviously want it to be a challenge and not iLvl cheesed. What's the issue with that?

They said it was lower end EX level difficulty content, so it's not going to be for Savage raiders with BiS, that's what ultimate is for.
This is casual+ content to get people trying out harder stuff, without being able to cheese it, and the iLvl sync is obviously at that level so it can be attempted as soon as you finish the story as an entry into endgame content.

Having nothing synced and blasting through it with high level gear with no challenge sounds awful tbh, but you do you.

[Sabrenn]

I think syncing to 430 is a mistake, and they should've let it be any ilv.

Why? Because all this will do is reinforce what I guaratee you we'll see: PF's locked to "must have cleared original shiva ex" so that the people know mechanics.

For example, I still remember doing shiva ex when it was still the latest extreme. I could spend 1 h lockout trying to explain to a group of 7 people who have never done it, or I can make a pf for people who already know the mechs and clear it easily.

HOWEVER, if they hadn't locked the ilv, I wouldn't care because it would be easier to carry newbies because deaths wouldn't matter as much, neither would the dps check if we had an overall average ilv of 460 in the party from newbies with 430 and raiders with 500.

It being locked so low means that there's no improvement in dps checks possible at all either, so if people are struggling with the dps check there's 0 thing they can do in terms of gear because it's locked to the minimum apart from overmelding old gear and using pots (which while useful in savage, I don't think should be necessary for extremes)

There's absolutely no way that people won't still lock pfs to ilv 490 + purely because they know people with that kind of ilv has put effort in to learn the game and their jobs. It doesn't even matter about the dps output here, it's just fact that if you have ilv 500 gear now you have put in effort to learn your job etc. Just because you can't get that ilv without doing savage.

I have no issue with people who have never done savage personally and I don't mind explaining the strat and have done so in mentor roulettes but that won't stop this from happening.

So yeah I think this is a bad thing for new players, it'll either show them that A: the game is really easy if they keep the checks lax, or B: the game is too hard if they give it the same checks it used to have without letting us overgear it.

Hopefully I'm wrong

[Wyakin]

I'm assuming you've cleared all Savage and are in full BiS then?

It's synced because they obviously want it to be a challenge and not iLvl cheesed. What's the issue with that?

They said it was lower end EX level difficulty content, so it's not going to be for Savage raiders with BiS, that's what ultimate is for.
This is casual+ content to get people trying out harder stuff, without being able to cheese it, and the iLvl sync is obviously at that level so it can be attempted as soon as you finish the story as an entry into endgame content.

Having nothing synced and blasting through it with high level gear with no challenge sounds awful tbh, but you do you.

As I’ve stated before, it has nothing about wanting steamroll everything. It’s about being able to use the gear I’ve earned. The gear I have the skill to earn btw. The fact remains that the natural order of things is at first content is tougher, then you get better gear and learn fights making them easier. Is it my fault my gear is better than most? What is happening is I’m not being c***blocked by this item level sync making the effort I put forth pretty much useless outside the raid itself. Yes, being item level 500 WILL make it easier, as it damn well should.

[ForteNightshade]

As I’ve stated before, it has nothing about wanting steamroll everything. It’s about being able to use the gear I’ve earned. The gear I have the skill to earn btw. The fact remains that the natural order of things is at first content is tougher, then you get better gear and learn fights making them easier. Is it my fault my gear is better than most? What is happening is I’m not being c***blocked by this item level sync making the effort I put forth pretty much useless outside the raid itself. Yes, being item level 500 WILL make it easier, as it damn well should.

It won't just "make it easier" though. It'll neuter the fight to be effectively pointless. When you get BiS in 5.4 or 5.5 go back and clear E4S. You'll obliterate him; skipping the entirely of phase three, and a good chunk of phase two. At that point, the dev team made a piece of content which will last all of four minutes and not a single mechanic will remotely threaten you.

The whole point of syncing content is because there's no realistic way to balance it with such a linear leveling system like we have. If they put it at i465 with no sync, we're steamrolling through which makes working on it kind of pointless. If they put it at i485—closer to the current ilvl cap—it prevents people who haven't been playing from participating. Considering Unreal is more geared towards the casual playerbase. That restriction makes little sense.

You think I’m quaking in my boots cos I can item level cheese the fight? Mate, I have the gear I have because I’m able to clear the fights. I’m i500 because I can’t actually play the game. I also cleared shiva extreme when that was current tier content. My anger is the fact that my gear and melds are pointless outside the very raid I got it from. I’ve said this many many times. I’m sick of item level sync content. Bozja, synced. Expert, synced. Unreal, synced. It’s dumb. Why even bother getting gear at this point?

I don't disagree they need more content where our raid gear is relevant but that isn't likely to happen as this game focuses very heavily towards including everyone. For the exact reason you them to abandon syncing is why they won't. You'll be leagues above more casual players, thus it'll make content like Bozja less enjoyable for them. Granted, I'd actually argue the content would be worse for those of us with higher level gear. Why? They'll always balance things like Bozja, Expert and such around the casual demographic. I wouldn't find it all that fun going into Bozka next month and laughing as the i430 mobs barely tickle my i500 tank. Frankly, that makes the game boring.

As for why bother gearing. Ultimate. That's literally the reason, which is why I really think there needs to be three. Since this tier lacks an Ultimate encounter, parses are all you have. And while SE will never admit it. They know how much they benefit from FFlogs given how much people care over their logs. If neither of these activities interest you, then there isn't a point to gearing up. FFXIV is more or less designed that way.