Level Sync- discussion

[Eilistrae]

Level Sync

I read through some other threads pertaining to level sync, but I didn't really see any interesting discussions on how people feel about it.

On one hand, level sync is great! It makes finding party members much easier, assuming that the person is willing to sync to your party's level.

On the other hand, there are many draw backs to being synced. If you level during a long time level sync party, you don't get skill ups (unless of course you are the person being synced to). Normally it would be pretty easy to cap skills in a regular party, at least in my experience it didn't take long to cap skills.

Level sync and fields of valor. This has been bothering me, leveling my paladin up and doing fields of valor with a party, if you are synced to a player and they drop party due to DC or what have you, when they return or the party is re-synced, the buffs gained from Fields of Valor are wiped. Those cost points earned, its extremely irritating, at least for me, when this occurs.

Also, the one thing that really seems to steam me is that people seem to feel that you absolutely have to use level sync, even if there is only one or two members in the party that is one level below the rest of the party. I don't see why its necessary. They are only getting a small amount of exp less than the rest of the party, and with the exp and anniversary bands, that hardly makes a difference these days. Especially given that exp mobs are so much easier to kill and chain off of these days. This goes back to all the other issues with syncing level, lack of skill ups, certain spells/abilities being inaccessible, etc.

It seems to me, that the only actual benefit of this, is being able to put a party of varying levels together easily. The negative aspects far outweigh the benefits.

What do you all feel about it so far? Its been available for a few months now, I've only been experiencing it for a month though.

 

[ds083roadkill]

Just like any good thing, use in moderation. If you sync 10+ levels far outside of your own, then it's your fault and spend a hour skilling up.

a good thing about it is, level sync allows you to stay in camps for longer periods of time. so a rouge pt member 3 level above everyone else dosent bonk the exp for everyone else.

the only exception to this is when sync'ing breaks weapons or important gear (pcc, haub, sorobo, ect...)

 

[Helius]

Level Sync:Well, I see the whole discussion about not getting skill ups from parties, though this could also be seen the other way around. For instance, I'll use my character. Scythe is at two hundred fifty plus, though my great sword hasn't even broken one hundred. Instead of using it in a party where I'm not synced fighting more difficult mobs. I could find a great sword on par with that of a synced party where my great sword skill would be just about capped and level it up while the others are fighting, not to mention. Get myself some experience or merit points. Makes it worth while and I'm still getting experience.

Fields of Valor: These don't really apply to me since I've already leveled four of the six jobs needed and the other two aren't going passed thirty seven. Though it could be fun to just sync down to a friend and duo the mobs with them for kicks. Not to mention get a little something out of it. These are extremely beneficial to those like LadyKiKi who solo, period.

 

[Eilistrae]

but what if you already have weapons capped and you have nothing to switch to?

 

[Helius]

Then why would "Skill Ups" be in this topic of discussion?

No matter what, level sync can be used to a pretty good advantage. Anything can in life, just gotta use it the right way.

 

[Eilistrae]

There are other things to skill up upon leveling aside from weapons. Ie, singing skill, magic skill, etc. My bard skills are falling behind because every party I got since I returned has been synced. Bard skillups take a long time as it is XD

 

[Halifirien]

It seems to me, that the only actual benefit of this, is being able to put a party of varying levels together easily. The negative aspects far outweigh the benefits.

It's all in how you use it. I haven't had it in an XP party yet, but that's probably because I haven't been in an XP party for months. What I've used it for is duo work on my Dragoon. I sync down, pop an Empress band to kill a ton of mobs, throw in a few rounds of Fields of Valor, and call it a day. I can't praise the new system enough.

The lack of skillups is a drag -- I wish they'd set it so you could still earn them, albeit with a cap on the weapon skills you could use -- but it's not a problem that can't be overcome. That's why skillup parties were invented, after all.

 

[Zephayra]

The lack of skillups is a drag -- I wish they'd set it so you could still earn them, albeit with a cap on the weapon skills you could use -- but it's not a problem that can't be overcome. That's why skillup parties were invented, after all.

This.

Not to mention that skill up parties were around before Level Sync, so its really not that big of a deal to have to go out and skill up afterward - it was going on way before this feature. It can be a pain if you were 10 levels below (and hadn't already capped your skill for your level anways).

I like level sync because it allows me to get a group of friends together, regardless the level and make a decent party with more job balance. Before, making parties was a pain because most of the time, a job you wanted was not seeking at the level you wanted. For example, I usually get asked to come out on my PLD due to the lack of tanks exping right now.

I'd love to try Fields of Valor. I should do that soon.

 

[Achates]

There are other things to skill up upon leveling aside from weapons. Ie, singing skill, magic skill, etc. My bard skills are falling behind because every party I got since I returned has been synced. Bard skillups take a long time as it is XD

Off topic... if you have sea take your brd to Sea and case debuffs on non-agressive mobs... you'll skill in no time.

 

[LadyKiKi]

If people are worried about skill ups, look at it this way:

You can either stay stuck where you are and never get to 75

Or forget skill ups and work on them later as you go on. If you do Assaults/Nyzul/Sky/Sea where you need to "farm" mobs you can skill there with a bit of food/gear adjustment.

If you're worried about magic skills, for enfeebles sit in sea and cast on the "goldfish". They love you and won't hurt you until you damage them.

For Dark/Elemental/Ninjitsu just do a few besieged and spam the magic.

Evasion is a doddle. For parry/guard/shield you'll most likely not cap them when you get to 75 so they need manual work to cap/skill up either way.

As long as you're sensible and place some sensible limits (i.e. if you levelled to 73 purely in the dunes via level sync then don't jump into a level 73 party straight away) then you shouldn't struggle that much.

 

[Xalioniaf]

Also, the one thing that really seems to steam me is that people seem to feel that you absolutely have to use level sync, even if there is only one or two members in the party that is one level below the rest of the party. I don't see why its necessary. They are only getting a small amount of exp less than the rest of the party, and with the exp and anniversary bands, that hardly makes a difference these days. Especially given that exp mobs are so much easier to kill and chain off of these days. This goes back to all the other issues with syncing level, lack of skill ups, certain spells/abilities being inaccessible, etc.

This is the one thing that irks me about Level Sync. I hate it especially when we've synced to someone, they level, then the party realizes someone else is still the former level, stop everything, sync, then we have to rebuff and my sublimation was capped and... rrrrgh.
Hell, I preferred parties where the melees were a level or two higher than the mages.

There are other things to skill up upon leveling aside from weapons. Ie, singing skill, magic skill, etc. My bard skills are falling behind because every party I got since I returned has been synced. Bard skillups take a long time as it is XD

Seafish!

 

[Eilistrae]

I guess I'll need to work on finishing COP then ; ;

 

[Olrox]

On OP I always would try to find 2 people within my range I'm planning to exp at, 1 person thats is 1-1.5 levels higher than another, and then sync to the higher person, so when exp gets stale, we sync to lower person. That keeps a steady flow of exp and the 1.5 lvls behind the one guy is doesn't care since we get exp for an extended amount of time without replacing anyone or disbanding altogether.

 

[Lavi]

This is the one thing that irks me about Level Sync. I hate it especially when we've synced to someone, they level, then the party realizes someone else is still the former level, stop everything, sync, then we have to rebuff and my sublimation was capped and... rrrrgh.
Hell, I preferred parties where the melees were a level or two higher than the mages.

Most parties I have been in sync to the lowest person in the group and in the case where multiple people are the same, lowest level, they ask each tnl and sync to the person furthest from leveling up. Never really had problems otherwise to be honest.

My problem with level sync is the gear syncing. I chose to party as my 75 NIN a couple of days ago to help my friends level who likely would not have found a tank otherwise. When I went to get gear while they found a 6th person, I found that the best pieces were not even available on AH (ended up using haidates, /sigh). Then when we finally got a 6th person, we ended up syncing to a lower level than what we previously considered making most of the gear I picked up worthless. They need to add a lot more items like the CoP rings where its useful for all levels and I honestly don't mind them being semi gimp as long as it's better than wearrring nothing or solely defense gear which is what I see most players doing.

 

[Orinna]

If you're worried about your brd skills being capped you don't NEED to go to sea to spam threnodies. When I was leveling bard I didn't have sea. I didn't need to keep wind capped outside party, as there was no level sync, but i liked to have string capped b/c i like my blue numbers.

Anyway, I'd go find some crabs.. The ones in Kuftal at lower levels and steel shells at higher levels.. Then just stand there in your highest Chr gear.. Lullaby a crab, spam threnodies.. When it wakes up, lullaby again.. It's best to sub nin doing this b/c they'll usually get one attack off before you get them re-slept. But that worked miracles for me. Good luck.

Edit: Also..if you're doing steel shells, I recommend pulling one to the zone to Cloister of Storms. Easier to spam your songs there, just in case something happens and you need to zone.

 

[Tribalinius]

it's still easier in sea though, I got something like 15 levels in 10 minutes few days ago Oo.

 

[Lavi]

it's still easier in sea though, I got something like 15 levels in 10 minutes few days ago Oo.

Eili doesn't have sea yet so what Orinna said would actually be easier for the time being.

 

[Whimsey]

There is someone in my linkshell who has taken something like eight jobs from 31 to 75 since Level Sync came out by syncing down and partying in Garlaige Citadel. He says skill-ups aren't an issue because most of his skills were capped or near capped from the jobs he had at 75 before Level Sync came out.

On the other hand, there's someone else in my linkshell that won't take a level sync party more than three levels below his current level, so that his skills don't get too far behind to be capped in an hour or so.

Personally, I still try to put together parties the way I always have, and only use Level Sync if it's necessary. Last night we had to sync because the only tank we could find was 37 levels higher than our lowest members. For the record, I synced to me, because it was my party. Since they've fixed the buffs-wearing-on-level issue it's not so bad. That really got to me. Here we go, lets spend 200+ mp on buffs, only to have them wear because somebody leveled so now I need to cast them again, and I didn't even get the mp I just spent back because it wasn't me that leveled.

Overall, I like the system. Except that I still have to spend hours trying to get a party in the Dunes . . .

 

[Ewok]

Don't forget, as long as you don't have tags, you can gain skillups in Campaign (I got like 20+ lvls on H2H punching walls on my DNC, lol).

 

[Orinna]

I usually never level sync lower than my level.. Like on Warrior.. from the time lvl sync was introduced I ONLY synced to my current level. I just got people higher than me to sync down. I don't have a big issue syncing lower if I would have had to... But it was never really an issue.

Recently we decided to have some fun in dunes and sync down to lvl 10.. Was a riot. We could have just synced to 71..b/c out of the 6 of us that was the lowest lvl.. but someone changed to lvl 10 and we went to dunes.. We died to many times it wasnt funny. Was the most fun I've had in a long time.