A potential rework to the level-sync system.

[Deceptus]

I can see it now, the can of worms you're referring to:

"Oh god the tank isn't synced so we're stuck with smaller pulls"
"The dps isn't synced, our aoe is going to suck"
"The healer isn't synced, they won't be able to handle big pulls"
"Ugh you're all synced, this is going to be so slow"

It would also be demoralising for some newer players to see others use abilities they have no access to from the same class. It could make them feel less powerful. And it could be confusing to them as well because a new player is likely to not know why they can't use Flare but the other blm can despite being the same lvl.

Few counterpoints:

1) If a tank is a sprout and the healer is a synced 80, they can be drug to the finish line easily.

2) If the healer is a sprout down and the dps is 80 the pulls will die fast enough not to be concerned about their healing

3) On the flip side a sprout dps could see a synced down other dps that is lvl 80 and their flashy skills and it could motivate them to keep leveling that dps or perhaps level the job whose flashy skills they saw.

Or they saw a well played tank or healer and think, "Maybe I'll try to level one of those".

Never mind how higher lvl abilities would completely trivialise some mechanics in lower lvl content. Stuff that is supposed to kill you may not at all because you have access to abilities that far outpace the danger the instance is supposed to bring. This would result in instances feeling like entirely different content depending on how many players are synced or not. And it could also result in new players getting carried to the point that they are used to higher lvl players being able to do most of the work, and then get a huge shock when they end up in a party with no one synced.

People aren't asking for 80's to be in the same dungeons as level 15's normally. They're asking to keep all of their skills so they don't go from 24 buttons to 2.

[Penthea]

1) If a tank is a sprout and the healer is a synced 80, they can be drug to the finish line easily.

So you think it's a good thing if the tank can be carried? Also this situation only works if the healer is not a similar lvl to the tank. My comment about tanks would still stand if the healer wasn't at high enough lvl to carry the tank.

2) If the healer is a sprout down and the dps is 80 the pulls will die fast enough not to be concerned about their healing

Again this is framing being carried as an okay thing. And again this would happen only sometimes. What do you think would happen to a new healer player who happened to get lvl 80 dps in every instance and then suddenly does not? Well then suddenly the demands of their role could rise very considerably and they would be unprepared for it due to lack of experience with needing to heal a party that needs well timed heals.

3) On the flip side a sprout dps could see a synced down other dps that is lvl 80 and their flashy skills and it could motivate them to keep leveling that dps or perhaps level the job whose flashy skills they saw.

Sure that's true but I know that personally I wouldn't have been a fan of watching the other dps being able to do so much more than I could simply because of game design, and not anything that is my fault. I wouldn't have liked to feel as if my contribution mattered very little because the other dps was far higher lvl and I was unsynced. I HATE getting boosted.

People aren't asking for 80's to be in the same dungeons as level 15's normally. They're asking to keep all of their skills so they don't go from 24 buttons to 2.

And asking for this means a person fails to understand that lower lvl content is balanced with the parties having certain abilities in mind. Some higher lvl abilities would trivialise older content. And they're not all ogcds or major cds. Having strong aoe on its own can make a dungeon a joke if it's balanced for lower lvl classes who do not have strong aoe at that point.

Sure SE could rebalance the dungeons so that higher lvl abilities do not trivialise content but then that's asking SE to rework several expansions worth of content which is a tremendous amount of work to fix something that isn't even a big problem. I would go as far as to say that it's not even a problem. If a player doesn't want to get lvl synced, then they should avoid content that lvl syncs them. You can still cap your tomes while entirely avoiding lvl synced content.

However I will admit that the xp buff on some servers does land some players being much higher lvl than the content the msq requires them to do, but that is a fault of the xp gain being too high and being unable to turn off the buff. Not the nature of the balance of content being bad.