Currently on the test server the requirements for getting a Relic, Mythic or Empyrean weapon to 99 with the afterglow effect are as follows:
Empyrean 99 (afterglow) = 3000 Riftdross or Riftcinder (depending on weapon) from Jeuno Tier 6 Voidwatch NM Ig-Alima or Botulus Rex
Relic 99 (afterglow) = 1000 vials of Umbral Marrow from Arch Dynamis Lord
Mythic 99 (afterglow) = 500 chunks of Mulcibar's Scoria from Pandemonium Warden
Going to break these down into the time it requires to complete each one.
[SIZE="5"]Empyrean Weapons[/SIZE]
Tier 6 Jeuno VW assuming someone in your alliance of 18 gets one of the these drops and everyone agrees to give it to you. I will assume each fight takes 30 min waiting due to the fact each fight takes little under 30 with waiting on weakness / loot distribution. We are in for 3000 fights.
3000 x 30min = 90,000 minutes
There are 1440 min in a real life day
90,000 min / 1440 min = 62.5 days of playing FFXI
So to finish this trail it would take 62.5 days or 1500 hours of playing FFXI.
Now then I can finish this faster if I buy more Riftdross or Riftcinder from other people who do these and people do VW sometimes for scrolls other weapon drops ect so yea I could buy a lot if I am rich with gil too speed this up.
[SIZE="5"]Relic Weapons[/SIZE]
I need to kill Arch Dynamis Lord 1000 times for 1000 Umbral Marrow this is no easy task because he often takes 18 people to kill and also requires the use of 2 hour abilities to beat most notably a Summoner's Perfect Defense. I am limited to 1, 2 hour dynamis run per day
If I have 18 people to help me do my weapon it will take them 1000 real life days of doing Dynamis and about 2000 hours of playing FFXI
2000 hours of playing FFXI spread out over 1000 days. We are talking at least 3 years of playing FFXI doing dynamis every day having 17 other people helping you finish your weapon. (A bit unrealistic I believe) Relic weapon users won't have the luxury of buying any Umbral Marrow because nobody farms Arch Dynamis Lord since his other drops are not very sought after.
[SIZE="5"]Mythic Weapons[/SIZE]
This is probably the hardest quest out of the 3 and most unrealistic to do.
I need Zeni for Pandemonium Warden pops and lots of it
At the best prices possible I need 71000 Zeni to pop PW + 1500 for Tier 4 island travel - plus the time needed to kill 30 NMs PW would be the 31st
If I can trade plates for Zeni every hour on the hour 24/7 I can get about 19200 Zeni per real life day. Get about 800 zeni with good plates per day. FFXI only lets you trade plates ever game day keep in mind.
Time for some math:
(72500 * 500) = 36,250,000 Zeni
36,250,000 Zeni / 19200 Zeni = 1888.02 days
About 5.2 years of playing FFXI 24 hours a day / 7 days week doing nothing but ZNM and trading plates to finish. But lets be realistic here you can't play FFXI 24 hours a day 7 days a week. You need to sleep and work whatever. So lets say you can play 12 hours a day, that is about 10.5 years to finish your Mythic weapon to 99 with afterglow. Like relic users, mythic users have no option of buying their items as Pandemonium Warden has outdated and obsolete items so players do not try to kill this NM anymore.
I ask you SE devs did you even think about this when you added this trial? Will your game FFXI even be online in 10 years still? This is not just unrealistic its insulting to your players.
[SIZE="5"]Final Analysis[/SIZE]
Empyrean Weapons 99 with afterglow - Someone with a lot of gil could realistic finish in a year. A good linkshell thats dedicated to doing a lot of void watch probably take around a year to finish too since it takes about 62 days of play time for 1 weapon. However this also this could lead to someone who buys massive amounts of gil from RMT sites to finish this quest. Hurting everyone else in the process because they will buy everything at higher prices.
Relic weapons 99 with afterglow- Nobody will probably do this because it takes 3 years of doing dynamis every day with 18 people to finish 1 weapon
Mythic weapons 99 with afterglow - Nobody in their right mind would even attempt this. In a 10 years time you will see 0 finished since it takes slightly over that amount of time to do 1.