level sync worriesFollow

I have recently decided to lvl pld. I have gone from 4-16 this weekend and I am worried about level sync parties. When I lvled my war I was constantly in lvl sync parties. I stayed in quifm and the jungle the entire way to 37. Of course, my axe skill suffered from this. I am worrying about shield and sword suffering the same fate. I have sword capped at about 90, from rdm i think, and shield a bit higher than that due to my 75 whm. I am also worried that if I decline lvl sync parties I will lvl very slowly or not at all. What should I do?

I haven't accepted a level sync invite since I got a size 3 shield, I have never had a pt that didn't complement me on my skills and I got many repeat invites from higher levels syncing down to me simply to insure that they would have a good tank.

Without level syncing my shield still lags a good 4 skills behind and since I am going the DD pld route (and it is working out VERY well) shield skill is very important as it is my only real line of defense from gear. For the same reason a pld should never take hits without af boots I refuse to sync down and party with shield skill way behind.

Even with the search comment "(level sync) <my level> +" I get invites rather quickly (imo anyway since my 75's are drk + thf and I had to make most of those pt's XD) and even if I dont get an invite right away I useally just make a pt with a bunch of people above my level, DD's are almost never picky about syncing down so all you gotta do is find some mages relatively close to your level.

EDIT: Naturally this only applies for after you catch up to your skill, and If you do want to skill up on other jobs go for it I guess, but I'm on diablos too btw and I haven't had any issues XD

Edited, Feb 25th 2009 9:11pm by SillyXSara

Not much new to say here, Sara nailed it. Just have to reiterate that you'll avoid a lot of trouble just by adding a /seacom "Level Sync __+"

Also, like Sara already said, don't be afraid to utilize people higher level than you. Tanks are hard to come by, and DD's will sit for hours without a party, so they'll often take anything.

Edited, Feb 25th 2009 8:44pm by Illusitaru

Sure, but that doesn't mean skilling up doesn't suck. Any skilling up you can do in parties without really gimping yourself is skilling up thats well worth doing.

First time posting in the PLD forums, but this thread is relevant to my interests, plus I can also offer some feedback.

I'm currently 63 PLD, and I did a huge chunk of it (42-60) in East Ronfaure [S] Level Sync 37 parties. Although I already had sword skilled up to about 210 (leveled BLU, and also have 75 THF and skilled sword up a bit that way) my Shield skill is pretty gimped atm at 158 skill at Lv. 63, which makes Level Sync a real double-edged sword.

Couple ways that I can think of that would help raise shield skill...

1. Put in /seacom that you want a Level Sync party at Lv. XX+ (XX being a level slightly higher than your current shield skill) Unfortunately, in my experience thus far, despite my /seacom asking for an invite for a specific level range, I will get party invites from people higher level than my PLD wishing to Level Sync down to me, which really doesn't do anything for me. When this happens, I do this...

2. Spam Reprisal! When I have Reprisal up, I see my Shield block proc a lot, and I will get skill ups that way .3, .4, or .5 up at a time, although not very often. Another thing you can do to help increase your shield blocking proc rate is to equip as much AGI+ gear as you can without hurting your overall defensive stats. Just 2 Drone Earrings is enough to do the trick.

Hope this info helps you.

good call, back then we use to wear a lot of drone earrings and Haubergeon, lots of agi+, shield skill etc. Plus it helps skill up (Parry) which I think its very useful.

If I still had premium, I'd do the nodding face.

PLD has no reason to accept a level sync party, unless they are the sync. Tanks are few and far between these days, that any party should be syncing down to you. Gimping your shield just isn't worth the chance of picking up the quicker party.