Relic Weapon Skills at Level 99

[Alerith]

I'm currently neither a Relic nor an Empyrean holder (34/50 Helms of Briareus!!!)

That being said, I started serious work on Almace last week, and here I am now finishing up the Helms stage. I've done all this with the help of a single friend, pick up groups and no linkshell.

The friend who comes with me is working on Kannagi and we are splitting helm drops. But in less than three weeks, I will have the level 80 Almace done, and that's while being lazy and going to get the NMs and helms at my own leisure AND while splitting helm drops. Granted the level 80 version is useless, Sobek skins aren't exactly Sins of Indignation.

You can't do this as easily with a Relic. To draw a fair comparison, I'll use the Relic sword, Excalibur. The time it would take to get an Excalibur is much longer, assuming you don't pour out of pocket for currency, and if you loaf around, you're only going to add to that already extensive time.

The overall time and effort required for a 75 Relic surpasses a that of an 85 Empyrean. You're looking at, MAYBE, a month of leisure work for an 85 Empy. You're still looking at 3+ Months of leisure work for a Relic. If you go super hardcore on both, you can probably get an Empy done in three days. For a relic, you're still looking at weeks if not over a month.

I think the only empy that can be considered comparable to a relic in time is Ochain, simply because of the Colorless Souls stage, and even then that's stretching it.

I agree that Relic WS should be stronger, and the weapons themselves better. They are the original "Ultimate Weapons" and if they end up the better of the three Ultimates at 99, I would be perfectly fine with that, even while holding an Almace.