/r/ffxivdiscussion: A stricter ilvl sync is the solution to casual content being easy

[ACE135]

Counter point but the point of gearing in an MMO is to make older content easier otherwise there's no point in the progression curve existing. If you're just going to tightly item level sync everything, just give us stat tables and make all gear slots purely cosmetic. You're meant to skip mechanics and even entire phases with gear, especially in normal mode content. Maybe I'm just accustomed to WoW where the power creep is insane (and that's before modes like MoP Remix) and you can melt bosses in a few minutes while ignoring 90% of the mechanics. I just feel it would be a huge step backwards if the impact of gearing was negated by syncing everything, at that point it wouldn't be worth doing anything more than once or twice (personally I'd save the glamour farming for when the weekly loot restrictions are removed).

Gearing up isn't solely for making content easier but also to get access to higher duties.

[Reimmi]

I'd love to see this as a bandage fix til they do a level squish and actuall solve the problem

[aiqa]

If you don't want everything to be synced, then don't queue for synced content. Make use of the Duty Finder settings to unsync your party and invite like-minded players to join you.

That basically means "if you don't like what I like, you could just do it in a way that takes much more effort and gives you lower rewards". That arguement works just as well the other way around. Like: If you want content to be more difficult, don't queue for content that is to easy. Remove half your gear to make yourself weaker and and invite like-minded players to join you.

The former sync creep is fine to represent the power fantasy of gearing up, the latter is just pointlessly excessive

Disagreed. With the existing item level syncs, FF already struggles to maintain a sense of progression for casual content.

[Local_Custard]

I have direct experience with this besides just seeing the powercreep as I too have queued for MINE (min ilvl, no echo) content.
ARR content is in dire need of ilvl retuning. The max ilvl makes content get move far too quickly and so the boss is unable to do all their mechanics. As a results, fights feel less engaging. I have done normal ARR trials (the primals + hildibrand fights) and so far for raids I have beaten the Labyrinth of Ancient on MINE. The CT series especially suffers from ilvl creep. Did you know the final boss of Labyrinth of Ancients have smaller AOE safe zones as he progresses? I certainly didn't until we progressed the fight. Many enemies that could previously be melted were suddenly deadly and could one shot you.
That isn't the only problem with older content and power creep, however.
This next part I learned from a friend (so do elaborate on this or correct me if I am wrong). Potencies have changed over time. We now do higher potency attacks at lower levels because our rotations and openers have been pruned for higher levels. Because of this you could be at a tighter ilvl but still melt everything. Some jobs are more guilty of this than other jobs (especially the new jobs). Other people have mentioned this but the fact we have less to do at lower levels makes a lot of older content feel much worse. Pruning kits at lower levels is not future proofing because sprouts experience older content for the first time all the time. Sprouts are our future so it is in our interest to make older content more engaging by fixing power creep and the lack of a kit at lower levels (level 50 for example, does not feel that great to play).
So the problem is two fold: powercreep from gear and powercreep from potencies. Not to mention having less to do on top of that makes older content feel worse. All these compound to:
-skipped mechanics
-ignoring mechanics (see: CT stacking stack markers and everyone living. This is bad because it teaches sprouts bad habits)
-incoming damage getting nerfed
-boring as sin rotations because they are in incomplete kits
-players not wanting to queue for older content, potentially increasing wait time for a party to fill
-fights being too quick. This sometimes ruins the feel because the boss just dies even though the game was setting it up to be an epic fight

If jobs are engaging at lower levels and older content is ilvl tuned (+potencies given something extra to lower them at lower levels to be close what it was at the time of release for jobs that existed at the time and be lowered to reasonable levels at lower levels for newer jobs) I think the issue of powercreep would be at least alleviated a little bit.

It makes me sad to see older content made boring because of fights not being given enough time to shine. The most fun I have had lately is by making older fights in MINE parties.

[Ayche]

Normal trials are meant to be these peak moments in the narrative where you get to have an awesome boss fight while usually best of Soken's music blares.
So the fact that lot of normal trials barely involve gameplay you have to respect AND they get cut down prematurely too, it is like the content and story get humiliated in the process.
It is insane to me they have not course corrected like ... 3 years ago.

[Sacae]

The thing is, some of them still do! Titania still wipes groups today, Zodiark and Hydaelen are fine, even Susano and Lakshmi still have some bite to them.

It's the capstone level trials. They fixed Ultima and put a bandaid on Endsinger, but aside from individual people wiping the group in Seat of Sacrifice and, maybe Tsukoyomi, capstone level trials from previous expansions just can't compete with the amount of damage we put out these days.

Sync them like we do the leveling trials.

[Swordsman]

I am all for making older content more spicy again, both by a better ilvs sync, but also by giving people access to more of their jobs abilities at lower level.

That's a good idea too. Some of the newer players who are already familiar with MMOs are dying of boredom at the lower levels.

I'd love to see this as a bandage fix til they do a level squish and actuall solve the problem

I've always wondered if it will ever get to a point like that, a la world of warcraft - a level squish and a general numbers (both hp and dmg) squish across the board.

[Boblawblah]

As fun as it would be to do the same simple mechanics just for 5 minutes longer, nah, let's not do that.

[Kaurhz]

I'm all for stricter item level requirement. Though I personally don't think it really makes the content more difficult, there's only really a few encounters where it would actually apply as a result of skipping certain mechanics. But universally, the only thing I feel like it would accomplish is how punishing it would be for failing a mechanic, and would allow for players to explore more of the encounters.

I do agree in principle though that the mechanics of a boss are a means of representing or conveying the identity of that fight, and honestly is much of a story-teller as to what the actual dialogue of the game itself is, e.g., it's bizarre we get all the way to King Thordan and he just falls flat on his face, and with people dealing excess damage it just diminishes the story-telling aspect..

[ASkellington]

I'm just gonna bring out my quote from ages ago because it still stands true:

Tighter ilvl sync isn't going to do jack except to maybe Crystal Tower series. My problems with current fight design are thus:

• Damage is too infrequent
• Damage comes too slow
• Tankbusters come too slow
• Too much avoidable damage

All of which ilvl sync doesn't do a damn thing towards.

So things are going to hit a bit harder. Big whoop. That's only part of the problem. I'm not against tighter syncs but I'm also not going to sit here and say, 'yeah! that fixes my problems'