Level sync system

[LiteDeadman]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this game, just reached the end of ARR, and I've been wondering about the level sync system for some time now.

How does it actually work in terms of stats and equipment? I can see that my level obviously syncs and above-level skills become unavailable, but what if I had top-tier armor and weapon? How does that syncs down?

Let's say I, level 50 Paladin, try some 20-level dungeon. I have a 50-lvl sword and a 30-lvl sword. Would wielding a 30-lvl sword make any difference compared to 50-lvl sword, since it's a 20-lvl dungeon anyway? Same goes for armor, of course, and stats they give to character.

And I guess same system works for FATE events, or are there any differences?

Thanks in advance!

[ItMe]

Let's say you que up and you get Wanderer's Palace.
That synchs you to iLVL 110.

The first thing you need to know is that when you iLVL synch you lose any bonuses from materia.
Your piece acts like it has no materia when it is iLVL synched.

As for the stats on a piece itself, let us take a quick look at some iLVL 110 PLD body pieces:

Heavy High Allagan Coat


Noct Lorica


Wootz Cuirass

If you take a look at their main stats (defense and magic defense) you see that they are all 162 (note, the Wootz Curiass can only reach this value if it's High Quality).
If you synch down to iLVL 110 your defense and magic defense will synch to 162.

As for the other stats, they seem a little less uniform, but there is an easy method to it.
Each of these pieces has 4 substats, wether they be strength, vitality, whatever.
But the highest valued substat gives 46 points for all of these pieces (funnily enough, they all give 46 to the same substat: vitality)
That highest value is what ALL of your gear's substats will synch down to.

So if you come in with an iLVL 115 piece like this one:

Mythrite Hauberk of Fending

You can see that, like, some of your stats will be a little higher than the iLVL 110 piece, but only one of them crossed that 46 point threshold and would get capped at 46. And you would lose all bonuses from materia.
That's not great, and that means you're ultimately gaining a little bit of stats from the piece and losing more from the lack of materia. When just running dungeons, alliance raids, etc this is fine. The stat loss is small enough that it really makes no difference in that content. If, however, you are doing a new Ultimate you should be aware of this and try and get gear that is just a little older because whatever is current will always be in this weird zone where the materia is worth more than the tiny stat bump you get from newer gear.

But, if you've adventured for a bit and you go into Wanderer's Palace with an iLVL 185 piece, something that's gonna have a much larger increase over iLVL 110 than iLVL 115 does...
All of your substats will be over 46:

Sky Pirate's Coat of Fending

All of your substats are synching to 46.
That's a huge increase, way larger than what you would have been able to accomplish with materia, and this one of the reasons why doing lower iLVL content (even just within the same expac) can feel much easier.



So to answer your question

I have a 50-lvl sword and a 30-lvl sword. Would wielding a 30-lvl sword make any difference compared to 50-lvl sword, since it's a 20-lvl dungeon anyway? Same goes for armor, of course, and stats they give to character.

In some situations that level 30 sword might be technically better in a very small way, but unless you're doing really cut throat content it's generally unimportant/worse to stick with lower iLVL pieces. Unless you are trying to do something very specific with your stats in the highest end content just get that iLVL as high as you can and you'll have no problem ; )

[Rongway]

How does it actually work in terms of stats and equipment? I can see that my level obviously syncs and above-level skills become unavailable, but what if I had top-tier armor and weapon? How does that syncs down?

Gear over the item level sync for the dungeon is syncked to the item level sync for the dungeon. If the dungeon doesn't have an explicit item level sync, the item level sync is the max item level available at the character level you are syncked to. Materia on item level syncked gear is ignored.

Let's say I, level 50 Paladin, try some 20-level dungeon. I have a 50-lvl sword and a 30-lvl sword. Would wielding a 30-lvl sword make any difference compared to 50-lvl sword, since it's a 20-lvl dungeon anyway? Same goes for armor, of course, and stats they give to character.

Both swords will IL sync to the max item level available at character level 20-something and materia will be ignored. The only difference will be in which secondary stats are present. If you had a third sword that was the maximum IL available at the dungeon's sync level, you could equip that sword and it would not IL sync, and its materia would be active.

The most powerful gear in an item level sync context will be gear that is exactly the IL of the item level sync, with full materia melds. This is why people working on Ultimate fights keep a set of fight-specific item level gear for each fight.

And I guess same system works for FATE events, or are there any differences?

There's no difference. FATEs use a character level sync with no explicit item level sync, so the item level sync is implicitly the highest available at the syncked character level.

[LiteDeadman]

Thanks guys!

That's actually really interesting, like wearing same iLVL gear as dungeon in order to be able to use materia (well, as you said, that barely matters in casual content, but anyways).
Well as far as I understood it's much like I imagined it: the higher iLVL you have - the higher stats cap will be applied upon sync'ing.

Thanks again for detailed explanation!

[ItMe]

Thanks again for detailed explanation!

No problem and good luck~

[Jeeqbit]

Leveling dungeons (1-49, 51-59, 61-69, 71-79) are synced almost to the minimum item level that the content was tuned for, so everything hits really hard. There is a gear progression but once you are in gear from a few levels higher, it's already being synced.

Max level dungeons (50, 60, 70, 80) are often Item Level synced (there is an icon next to the dungeons that are). It will say in the details what item level the enemies are scaled to (average item level) and the item level it syncs to next to it. If it's not item level synced, then it syncs to the maximum item level of the expansion.

The maximum item level for each expansion is...
50 (130)
60 (270)
70 (400)
80 (530)

8-person content is always synced to the maximum item level of the expansion, so at level 50 this is 130. This is often double the item level the content is tuned for, making it extremely boring compared to when it released.

If you have a pre-formed party you can use the Minimum IL and Silence Echo settings to make it more fun or challenging.

Materia doesn't count when you sync down. The difference in a sword that is higher than the sync is what stats it has on it, but not the amount of those stats.

Something that doesn't seem to sync well is food. If you use level 80 high quality food, you will be a lot stronger than if you use level 50 high quality food.

FATEs only level sync you, but like with leveling dungeons, if you sync to 57 in a 52 FATE your damage will still be low because that is a difference between 130 and 142, but if you sync to level 60 in a level 55 FATE you will destroy it because the difference is 136 and 270.