Issues with Duty Finder (with suggestions)

[LaiasForte]

Hello! This is my first post on the official forums and I'm not sure where to post this so please be kind

I finally obtained Astrope couple weeks back and posted on Reddit about my experiences (https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._and_thoughts/). I considered posting here on official forums back then and now finally got around to it. If you're interested in reading the Mentor Roulette experience in a JP DC (Elemental) and seeing the data collected do check that post out!

This post however mainly aims to highlight the issues regarding Duty Finder that I have observed and experienced during my 2000 Mentor Roulette grind.

Average minimum ilvl

The current way SE handles minimum ilvl is currently being taken advantage of. It was a step in the right direction when they finally introduced minimum ilvl for dungeons, but they're using average minimum ilvl. I'm pretty sure it's present in NA and EU DCs as well, where people will get cheap accessories to boost their ilvl while being severely undergeared for the other slots. Seeing people in Shadowbringers dungeons equipping Stormblood dungeon weapons or wearing Scaevan gear in Amaurot boosted by Neo-Ishgardian accessories is quite disappointing, though I will say that this issue is rare and thus probably not worth the time implementing it. But it's clear from that lvl5 quest that SE is able to do individual gear slot checks, so why not use it?

Story mode Titania and Innocence have no minimum ilvl

I didn't realise this myself until I saw this Dancer in Titania Normal using lvl60 gear. After that I tried queuing for Titania with nothing but my weapon, and it worked! I get that this is probably to discourage Trial Roulette ilvl cheese but when you see people with lvl60-67 weapons in Titania and even Innocence, it just feels really really bad. Then again it's rare, and the best solution I can think of is having an additional minimum ilvl check before queuing in Duty Finder depending on the level of the job you're queuing with.

I hope SE eventually implements something to address these since responses I've gotten so far from those players is basically either silence or "The game allows it, so why are you complaining?"


I'm fairly sure folks know and have went through the same experiences as me during normal roulettes at some point in time, so I just hope this somehow gains a decent amount of traction and have some meaningful discussion at least? I personally still can't think of another way to remedy the second issue besides what I mentioned above or just closing both eyes and pretending it doesn't exist. I will also say that I don't claim to be right about anything so I'd love and appreciate it if anyone can share their own differing opinions if any!

Thank you for reading

[StriderShinryu]

I had heard the system was gameable but I wasn't aware it was quite that gameable. It definitely sounds like something should be looked into there.

[tdb]

My suggestions:
- Make average ilvl weighted according to the stat budget of each slot, perhaps with some extra weight on weapon
- In addition to minimum average ilvl, add a minimum single item ilvl (should be somewhat lower than the minimum average so that players are not forced to upgrade all items too often, especially when working through 5.x)
- Add ilvl requirements to the "leveling" trials
- Make roulettes have an ilvl requirement equal to the highest relevant content for which the character level requirement is met (for example a Lv70 character queueing for alliance raids would need to have i365 gear; this prevents ilvl cheesing)