This is becoming a deep rooted problem in all modes of competitive play in this game.
I just watched a 2200 rated mage alt of a 2800main die 3 times to wash away in a +13 while doing 18k overall.
If you want to pay to get boosted go right ahead and goodluck to you but stop ruining other peoples keys.
Raider io is fast becoming completely meaningless.
When that happens Iām like āhol upā in my head āhow is this person so bad!?ā
I donāt see an issue with boosting (heck I bought a few runs with gold on a new alt I had because I wanted the loot funnel to it), but people should still take the time to learn a dungeon mechanics as well as their own class before attempting a key where failing such would result in a lack of completion.
For me Iād feel horrible.
It was always going to get to that point. Anybody who was around in Wrath knows exactly how GearScore went from useful tool, to obnoxious ego measurement toy, to becoming baseline within the game. The fact Blizzard has chosen to sanction boosting because it inevitably drives their token sales through the roof and chosen profit over health should tell you enough taking this game seriously or any of its associated tools is a foolās errand.
Yepp i remember that it was horrible & unlike now if you accepted that lockout and got kicked for gearscore reasons that was it for the week.
Iāve said this as far back as WotLK when gearscore and the like got so popular that Blizz eventually just rolled it into the gameā¦ and back then you didnāt have as many āboostedā characters in the same way as you do now, but more like Elk mentionedā¦ gear-dumping to a character to expediate gearing but still expected to learn the class before going into ārealā content.
The biggest issue I feel, if we remove the banners and pitchforks calling for boosts to be axed, is that thereās zero accountability anymore. At one point players had a personal identity that lingeredā¦ lootninja - you were marked and known about it across the servers you interacted withā¦ be a douchecanoe?.. same thingā¦ nowadays you hardly ever see the same person in a queue unless you add them yourselfā¦ so thereās no accountability, no repercussions. Some people would argue that the FFXIV ability to vote on ārun MVPā and make that some kind of in game scoring system would helpā¦ but really? Letās be real hereā¦ that would just turn into people buying boosted rankings the same as buying positive reviews on Steam or people buying follows on Twitch/YouTube to boost their numbersā¦ and the boosting community would have one more thing to toss in their toolbelt to āsellā.
I donāt want to crap on the boosting communityā¦ it isnāt really their fault. They might have āsold the gearā to the player but they didnāt put the player in a key higher than their skill threshold and make them cowpatty the runā¦ and the absolute last thing we need is another in game ranking system being added, because we all know itāll be abused the same as every system thatās come before itā¦ then weāll be right back here asking for changesā¦
So what do we do? Just shut up and waste hours leading to weeks of playtime because players canāt be bothered to learn their class and expect a carry in every facet of content? Realistically that is just going to drive away any āpugā keys and make it harder for some players to experience contentā¦ because the years havenāt been kind to guilds, making it more punishing to stay in a guild and try to build it than just gquitting as often as worldquests refresh in search of a new place to milkā¦
The issue doesnāt really lie in one place, but the combined result of multiple systems slowly being abused and degraded within the gameā¦ guild loyalty goes about as far as a grey does in your bags when looting which has eroded community, that loss of community has eroded what remained of accountability, and that lack of accountability has largely brought us here, where a handful of people (relatively speaking) are slowly ruining the fun for everyone else
One way they can nullify rating boosting is by taking performance into account when the game calculates score , I couldnāt care less about gear.
If 1 player does no damage & is clearly the boost their score for that key should be 0.
How they would even attempt to calculate that i do not know but there has to be a way to calculate it like that.
That way the players who have maxed out gear but no rating are clearly boosted.
Itās been meaningless since it started. Itās never measured skill, just time and/or gold invested.