Currently the game only checks if the the average item level of all equipped gear is higher than the minimum ilv of a duty. This is, in theory, to assure that people are properly geared for content they queue for. However, in practice, one can intentionally or unintentionally end up in duties with gear that is too low to be acceptable for said duty
The most common example, generally done by new players and (hopefully) done without malicious intent, is to queue for a duty with mostly fine gear except for one or two extremely low pieces of gear (god forbid it be the healer's lv30 weapon while everything else is over i120 and the duty becomes unclearable)
Other more extreme cases are completely missing several pieces of gear. Due to item level inflation across expansions, you can technically qualify for the minimum ilv despite missing half your gearset. For instance, using level 80 gear, i could queue for all content up to Castrum Abania without even having gear on my entire left side
While this is exaggerated, a particularly lazy or oblivious player could just do their roulettes without pants or a similarly important piece of gear because they technically qualified the minimum item level, despite them not qualifying for it after being level synced. Even without going to such lengths, a lv60 player with some 270 pieces can queue for a good chunk of heavensward content without having several other pieces of gear (why buy gear ill only use for 1 lv cuz ill do HoH amirite /s)
Proposed solutions:
- Make the game check minimum ilv of each piece of gear instead of average minimum ilv
Pros: Most straightforward
Cons: New players will have a harder time getting through endgame content. I remember being new to endgame and having to farm sohr khai only so i could queue for nidhogg normal and the alex raids. This change wouldve made me grind the whole gearset instead of a few pieces
- Make the game secretly calculate the standard deviation of your gearset. If the deviation is too high, it would mean one or more of your pieces of gear is too low and youre trying to overcompensate with a high ilv piece
Pros: Fixes all the aforementioned problems
Cons: False positives?
- Make the game secretly check for minimum main stat (vit,str,dex,int,mnd) depending on job
Pros: Ensures the player has the required stats for the duty regardless of item level
Cons: You can still end up with someone with a subpar weapon
In all three scenarios, if average ilv gets past the minimum but not the failsafe, the game could show a message such as "One or more pieces of your gear do not meet the item level requirements for this duty."
Regardless, the game should also calculate average item level of gear after being synced to the duty. Being able to queue for stuff you cant even beat once synced makes no sense (and this gets around the alliance raid roulette ilv cheese too while we're at it, so thats 2 birds with 1 stone).
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The most common example, generally done by new players and (hopefully) done without malicious intent, is to queue for a duty with mostly fine gear except for one or two extremely low pieces of gear (god forbid it be the healer's lv30 weapon while everything else is over i120 and the duty becomes unclearable)
Other more extreme cases are completely missing several pieces of gear. Due to item level inflation across expansions, you can technically qualify for the minimum ilv despite missing half your gearset. For instance, using level 80 gear, i could queue for all content up to Castrum Abania without even having gear on my entire left side
While this is exaggerated, a particularly lazy or oblivious player could just do their roulettes without pants or a similarly important piece of gear because they technically qualified the minimum item level, despite them not qualifying for it after being level synced. Even without going to such lengths, a lv60 player with some 270 pieces can queue for a good chunk of heavensward content without having several other pieces of gear (why buy gear ill only use for 1 lv cuz ill do HoH amirite /s)
Proposed solutions:
- Make the game check minimum ilv of each piece of gear instead of average minimum ilv
Pros: Most straightforward
Cons: New players will have a harder time getting through endgame content. I remember being new to endgame and having to farm sohr khai only so i could queue for nidhogg normal and the alex raids. This change wouldve made me grind the whole gearset instead of a few pieces
- Make the game secretly calculate the standard deviation of your gearset. If the deviation is too high, it would mean one or more of your pieces of gear is too low and youre trying to overcompensate with a high ilv piece
Pros: Fixes all the aforementioned problems
Cons: False positives?
- Make the game secretly check for minimum main stat (vit,str,dex,int,mnd) depending on job
Pros: Ensures the player has the required stats for the duty regardless of item level
Cons: You can still end up with someone with a subpar weapon
In all three scenarios, if average ilv gets past the minimum but not the failsafe, the game could show a message such as "One or more pieces of your gear do not meet the item level requirements for this duty."
Regardless, the game should also calculate average item level of gear after being synced to the duty. Being able to queue for stuff you cant even beat once synced makes no sense (and this gets around the alliance raid roulette ilv cheese too while we're at it, so thats 2 birds with 1 stone).
Continue reading...