Ok...let me level with you here SE...

[Camate]

I’d like to share the developers’ thoughts and plan for these new trials and upgrades.

When it comes to the first stage of upgrades for relic/mythic/empyrean weapons, this is considered to be the weapon’s complete form and is also the one the developers expect most players can achieve. They don’t want to dangle a carrot in front of everyone saying, “you can make these weapons even more powerful!” and then make it so only small fraction of players achieve this.

On the other hand, as some of you have already mentioned, the second stage of these weapon enhancements is left for those players who wish to go above and beyond—the “completionists” so to speak. This is why there will be no difference in weapon skill damage or other stats and only an AoE benefit as well as a special effect will be given for completing this upgrade.

[Insaniac]

I’d like to share the developers’ thoughts and plan for these new trials and upgrades.

When it comes to the first stage of upgrades for relic/mythic/empyrean weapons, this is considered to be the weapon’s complete form and is also the one the developers expect most players can achieve. They don’t want to dangle a carrot in front of everyone saying, “you can make these weapons even more powerful!” and then make it so only small fraction of players achieve this.

On the other hand, as some of you have already mentioned, the second stage of these weapon enhancements is left for those players who wish to go above and beyond—the “completionists” so to speak. This is why there will be no difference in weapon skill damage or other stats and only an AoE benefit as well as a special effect will be given for completing this upgrade.

I like the concept and I think a lot of players do but it's pretty universally agreed that the stage 2 trials are asking too much even for the completionists. I would like to see stage 2 requirements dialed back a bit but only if it has absolutely zero effect on the stage 1 trials. I think the exclusivity could still be retained with far lower numbers on the relic and mythic path but tell the devs to do whatever they need to do to keep my non-glow 99 accessible while retaining the same damage dealing ability of the stage 2.

[SpankWustler]

I’d like to share the developers’ thoughts and plan for these new trials and upgrades.

When it comes to the first stage of upgrades for relic/mythic/empyrean weapons, this is considered to be the weapon’s complete form and is also the one the developers expect most players can achieve. They don’t want to dangle a carrot in front of everyone saying, “you can make these weapons even more powerful!” and then make it so only small fraction of players achieve this.

On the other hand, as some of you have already mentioned, the second stage of these weapon enhancements is left for those players who wish to go above and beyond—the “completionists” so to speak. This is why there will be no difference in weapon skill damage or other stats and only an AoE benefit as well as a special effect will be given for completing this upgrade.

I love that "completionists" sounds like a polite euphemism in the last paragraph. I can imagine the developers seeing that some poor soul has completed an afterglow weapon, looking at each other with amused expressions, then cheerfully declaring that the King of all NEETs has claimed his lonesome throne.

They'll begin to debate whether such a throne is made of out Mikuru Asahina love pillows or Mami Tomoe love pillows, battle lines will be drawn, and even less work than usual will get done that day.

[Vold]

I love that "completionists" sounds like a polite euphemism in the last paragraph. I can imagine the developers seeing that some poor soul has completed an afterglow weapon, looking at each other with amused expressions, then cheerfully declaring that the King of all NEETs has claimed his lonesome throne.

They'll begin to debate whether such a throne is made of out Mikuru Asahina love pillows or Mami Tomoe love pillows, battle lines will be drawn, and even less work than usual will get done that day.

I predict if all of this stays true then the first person who pulls it off will have earned the right to be singled out by SE and congratulated for all to see on POL. Kind of like how they did that business for whatsitsname server and their long streak of undefeated wins in besieged(sorry but it wasn't important enough for me to remember jack about it except it was 2000 wins in a row or some deal) until SE opened their mouths and ruined everything by jinxing them. So they'll announce the one person who was first and people will know them and then say, cool grats brah let me see what it can do! ... thanks for the aura stat boost, brah. Sucks to be you. But hey you glow. Beats having a real life! And it only cost a billion gil. And I get the benefits of all that work. Damn brah, you generous.

[Alerith]

I’d like to share the developers’ thoughts and plan for these new trials and upgrades.

When it comes to the first stage of upgrades for relic/mythic/empyrean weapons, this is considered to be the weapon’s complete form and is also the one the developers expect most players can achieve. They don’t want to dangle a carrot in front of everyone saying, “you can make these weapons even more powerful!” and then make it so only small fraction of players achieve this.

On the other hand, as some of you have already mentioned, the second stage of these weapon enhancements is left for those players who wish to go above and beyond—the “completionists” so to speak. This is why there will be no difference in weapon skill damage or other stats and only an AoE benefit as well as a special effect will be given for completing this upgrade.

This point of view is understandable, but I think it's being poorly executed. If it's just meant to be a completionists thing, a carrot to dangle for someone who wants one push into a "status", then it should just be a glorified glow effect and the trial should be considerably less. The effect besides actually glowing is extremely underwhelming, especially for what the trial asks.

[Frost]

I’d like to share the developers’ thoughts and plan for these new trials and upgrades.

When it comes to the first stage of upgrades for relic/mythic/empyrean weapons, this is considered to be the weapon’s complete form and is also the one the developers expect most players can achieve. They don’t want to dangle a carrot in front of everyone saying, “you can make these weapons even more powerful!” and then make it so only small fraction of players achieve this.

On the other hand, as some of you have already mentioned, the second stage of these weapon enhancements is left for those players who wish to go above and beyond—the “completionists” so to speak. This is why there will be no difference in weapon skill damage or other stats and only an AoE benefit as well as a special effect will be given for completing this upgrade.

Interesting words chosen here; I'd say deliberate. Well played sir. (No Sarcasm)

Is there any way we could get just a tiny bit more "oomf" in the current "Final Form"? Yes I've seen the stats and such, and no I haven't checked em out on the test server, but could you just toss a cherry on top and give the aftermaths a little more potency?

Y'all were able to make some last minute changes to things like Bully and Scarlet Delirium, maybe a tiny bit of love on those aftermaths? You know, to make em, well, noticeable?

[Zhronne]

They don’t want to dangle a carrot in front of everyone saying, “you can make these weapons even more powerful!” and then make it so only small fraction of players achieve this.

Yet this is exactely what happened with Empyreal Weapons trial from 90 to 95, isn't it?

[Avina]

They don’t want to dangle a carrot in front of everyone saying, “you can make these weapons even more powerful!” and then make it so only small fraction of players achieve this.

On the other hand, as some of you have already mentioned, the second stage of these weapon enhancements is left for those players who wish to go above and beyond—the “completionists” so to speak. This is why there will be no difference in weapon skill damage or other stats and only an AoE benefit as well as a special effect will be given for completing this upgrade.

Yes, I can understand how this is for the completionists and whatnot, but the developer team seems completely out of touch with the reality of the situation. I want to ask the developers, deep down inside, would they themselves shoot to complete these trials? Would you...

Be willing to spend the time and effort necessary to gather the pops?
Manipulate a linkshell of friends for years for your benefit?
Stand tall and proud because you went "above and beyond" for minor AoE bonus buffs and a glowy animation?

People enjoy playing this game. People already went through the enormous amount of work required to simply get the original weapon. And now, they are faced with this trial. I, personally, will likely never get a relic or mythic weapon, but this just strikes me as terrible game design and a terrible goal to put in the game.

FFXI warns when the game turns on to not sacrifice your life for this game. Setting such a task only disregards that message. I thought SE would have learned by now, after FFXIV, that completely ignoring the complaints your player population poses to you was not the way to go to keep your player population interested. The developer team is wrong, in this case. The 'completionists' would be just as happy if the 2nd trial wasn't there, period. This is not a feature that anyone is clamoring for or would otherwise be hurt if it was never implemented.

It already is dangling a carrot, a carrot that is going to be able to seen by other relic holders as a form of the weapon that they couldn't get.

[Atomic_Skull]

When it comes to the first stage of upgrades for relic/mythic/empyrean weapons, this is considered to be the weapon’s complete form

Except it's not complete so long as the final stage remains. It is a slap in the face to relic holders who undertook the original relic quest as a capstone on their character to suddenly take that completion away from them and tell them that the weapon is no longer complete and will never be for 99.9% of relic holders.

I wouldn't mind a hard quest, even something on the order of the difficulty of the 10,000 currency stage as it was at level 75. Even if that meant the removal of the easy lvl 99 stage. Because at least that's just a matter of hard work and can be completed by someone willing to put in the effort. But this final stage is simply impossible for 99.99% of relic holders. You have taken my completed weapon from me and you can say the easy stage is "complete" but I'm sorry it's just not complete no matter what the developers say so long as there is a remaining stage and people are going to be angry and feel like something was stolen from them.

Asking for another 10,000 unit currency for 95->99 probably would have actually caused less rage than this because at least that can actually be completed and the upgrade (40% WS damage and enhanced extra damage proc) would be worth the effort.

[Strife]

more HNM's?

This!

I, personally, will likely never get a relic or mythic weapon, but this just strikes me as terrible game design and a terrible goal to put in the game.

Then why bother commenting on trials for them? Just kinda sounds like "I don't want SE to make hard stuff cause I'll never get it".

But the Dev team is going to get it into their mind that it's acceptable to make these horrid trials and to make gear even more of a pain to obtain than voidwatch already makes it.

When have they not thought this way? lol
Just because the game has been placed into easy mode now people seem to forget that a lot of old content, especially obtaining 'ultimate' items like relics and mythics were always hard. 30k alex when salvage used to be challenging and fun with low drop rates, people would've killed to change the trial to defeating ADL a bunch of times lol. Collecting currency for original relics -unless you were obscenely rich- took more than a few hundred dynamis runs (poor bastards). SE always has & always will make sadistic trials because as much as we may like to mouth off about them history shows we still like doing -or some people at least- them for that sense of triumph and superiority at the end, of course they also want to keep those ppl grinding and paying their subscription.

If we were certain that's how it would stay, I would agree with you completely.

We can't be certain of anything SE will do except maybe that they do stupid stuff. We can be certain whatever they do people will QQ about it though. lol

Just out of curiosity will anyone on here be doing the +2 trial and i know you have to be pretty brave to say you will on here.