Should Level Sync better not remove skills?

[Curemefi]

Unfortunately, hard pass from me. It would cause people who are actually the intended level for a run to feel practically worthless. I'm thinking the lower-level dungeons in particular. Hey, my RDM being synced down has his full tool-kit with multiple AoE spells and a high-powered combo. You, our newer player just reaching that dungeon for the first time, don't even have a single AoE ability yet. Entire packs melt and all you got to do was a couple single-target attacks against one mob.

Syncing the skills as well gives everyone in the party the ability to feel relevant, while still giving higher-level players being synced down a bit of extra power (since it syncs to the max level for the area rather than where a leveling player would likely be gear-wise).

There will be 3 reactions:
1) They will be hyped for what the future will bring to them.
2) They will not care. They are even not be able to see your skills because they turn the effects off for others.
3) Just like you said.

[Curemefi]

Do you have even the slightest idea the amount of work that would go into scaling a level 90 player to be equivalent to an at-level player throughout the entire game? We're not talking just a flat percentage reduction by level or anything. At every level the at-level player would gain a new skill or trait, you would need to recalculate the scaling equation entirely.

And that's just for the skills that function on equations to begin with. How in the world are you going to scale an invulnerability skill to be equivalent to an at-level player that does not have access to any such defense? How do you expect a full-heal skill to be scaled down?

What about temporary buffs? Is your BLM damage output, already scaled down, completely trashed because you're not using Sharpcast or Ley Lines on cooldown? Do you adjust to have the entire party take more damage because BRD/DNC should be using their defensive buffs?

And then there's skills with charges. Where do you even begin to balance a MCH with an additional use of Reassemble?

Job gauge resources. You're going to scale back a GNB with three powder charges to be equal to a beginner with only two?



In summation, no. The system in place now does a far better job of maintaining parity while requiring minimal developer resources. It might not be perfect. But the alternative is a nightmare.

You are overthinking. WoW has done many "balancing" and it turned sour for the game. I don't want FFXIV to go that path. Balancing is good for current raids and high-end contents. But not the less important ones such as daily, old contents, FATEs, and stuffs.

[Hurlstone]

I think it would be better if perhaps a few more core skills came into play earlier in the jobs life... and I am not just saying that because a one button AOE with classes like DRG is HELL for far too long... but also I am.

[Striker44]

Yeah better take care of that newbie who probably is playing with a free trial or maybe he/she is going to do TamTara for first time ever and never touch it again(or until the sprout unlocks roulettes at levell 50) instead of catering to veterans who stays subbed and keep playing the game every month.

Hate to break it to you, but sprouts (new players) are what give a game longevity. Things will always naturally happen that gradually filter out veterans. What matters is whether there's actually new people staying and becoming the new veterans to fill those spots. It sounds like roulettes just might not be the thing for you. That's okay. One of the awesome things about FFXIV is the sheer amount of different things there are to do, so find something that does interest you more and go for it! The entire purpose of the roulette system is to support newer players and help them integrate into the game community.

[Deceptus]

I heard an interesting quote about "progress" the other day.

When in doubt just do it. People will either get used to it or people will get over it.

[Supersnow845]

Hate to break it to you, but sprouts (new players) are what give a game longevity. Things will always naturally happen that gradually filter out veterans. What matters is whether there's actually new people staying and becoming the new veterans to fill those spots. It sounds like roulettes just might not be the thing for you. That's okay. One of the awesome things about FFXIV is the sheer amount of different things there are to do, so find something that does interest you more and go for it! The entire purpose of the roulette system is to support newer players and help them integrate into the game community.

“Sheer amount of stuff” yeah we got roulettes, 1 savage tier every 8 months, housing if you can get it, 7 types of fate farming (fates, field content relics) and crafting

Much diversity, if you knock roulettes out there really isn’t that much to do in this game

[kevin_satron]

no, don't. with current skill/spell/kits/utility, old duties will be a joke for everyone.

if they wanna do that, they have to check EVERY SINGLE SKILL/SPELL and EVERY SINGLE LEVEL from 16-90 just to make it not overpowered in a old dungeons/trials/raid

[DixieBellOCE]

Just play white mage.

Its no different from 15 to 90.

[Jeeqbit]

“Sheer amount of stuff” yeah we got roulettes, 1 savage tier every 8 months, housing if you can get it, 7 types of fate farming (fates, field content relics) and crafting

and gathering and blue mages and 2 extremes in that 8 months and MSQ and sidequests/lore and alliance raids and large-scale raids (BA, CLL, Dalriada, DR and DRS) and hunt finding/spawning and treasure hunting and collecting all the triple triad cards and chocobo breeding and getting all the gold saucer rewards and crystalline conflict and frontline series rewards and beast tribes and mount farming from all the mentioned content or content that doesn't get updates anymore like the firmament.

There isn't a lot of content if you are only interested in select pieces of that content.

[TheDustyOne]

I feel like the best approach would be to instead change the order of when skills are obtained, including making more weaker versions of higher level skills; so that the lower levels can at least not be quite as dull in regards to class kit. Or at the very least having the bare basics of combat available by the time you reach Sastasha. Why is it that we can't do our most basic 123 combo and let every job have a spammable AoE by level 18?

It would be very nice for a job to at least feel 'put together' by level 50 or so with the core mechanics intact, with flourishes, nuances, and flashiness left for later levels. Why can't I have a weaker magic phase on my level 50 Paladin? Why can't I have Fire IV also at level 50 on my Black Mage? A lot of jobs would feel better at lower levels if they had something resembling their core rotation earlier.

As for the idea of syncing not removing skills at all, there's too many issues with it. Firstly, some abilities just don't sync down well at all. A tank invuln for example is going to make you invulnerable regardless, you can't make something only 'slightly invulnerable', because it would still be invulnerable. Secondly, it doesn't account for player skill differences, someone synced down with a full kit that's still trying to piece together how to best use their buttons will end up doing less damage with more buttons compared to the person next to them only pressing their 123 combo because that's all they've got. It makes progression feel awful like that when you have to put in thrice the work for the same output.

I could very well sing a different tune if such a thing got implemented well, but I think the best approach is to introduce core combat and class skills earlier than what we have now rather than letting a level 90 tank invuln their way through early dungeons while a new tank gets left in the dust.