Quote Originally Posted by Intellion View Post
To get to the point, I think the level-sync system should be changed so that when endgame players get placed in older, lower-level content, especially in roulettes, their character levels and item levels still get synced to match the content... but at the same time they still get to use ALL of their unlocked skills, and I mean ALL OF THEM, including their Lv. 80 skills.
While this is tempting, I think it would only create more problems.

The current level sync system really is the most fair and balanced approach you can take, as it means you aren't able to overpower content and involves no complicated ability balancing to compensate for different levels between other players and relative to the content you're doing.

That being said, the lack of abilities at lower levels is still something of an issue, and for more reasons beyond just how the level sync works. Low level gameplay simply isn't interesting because it's often over-simplified and it's back-ended with when you get various abilities. Just looking at how many jobs get fleshed out and far more entertaining to play in the level 50-60 range (gaining an ability every 2 levels) compared to before is staggering.

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So I'd say the real solution is a re-jigging of when various abilities are learned, mostly involving pushing them to lower levels (the 1-30 class quests, having you learn something for completing each one would help). Changing a few abilities to be "upgrades" where it makes sense, like Inner Beast becoming Fell Cleave for WAR, allows for them to have more abilities at lower levels without increasing the total ability count too much.

The catch is making sure players don't become too powerful when doing lower level content, having too many abilities could result in them being too easy or at least easily steamrolled (more than they already are). Luckily, combining this with the stat squish which is already planned for Endwalker is the perfect opportunity to do this and have it fit in seamlessly.

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There's still a problem being presented here, and that's the lack of abilities at lower levels... but the solution of giving players access to ALL of their skills while sync'd down results in too many other issues for it to be viable.

So we need a different, and more equitable approach; one which doesn't place lower level players at a disadvantage, nor would completely negate the intended difficulty of lower level content.