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

[Runespider]

It's a freaking hard quest for limited value to YOU. So, don't do it. Problem solved.

I think it's silly but I know people will do it, just as the 90>95 emp trial is stupid right now and people do that...although I do think they will scale that one back next update. Functional upgrade trials should not be as stupid as 1500 plates.

I don't really have an issue with this, they could of made the 95>99 trial this and left everyone out in the cold, as it is doing all that work just gives you a retarded glow. Have they stated what the "achievable" version is for everyone else yet? I'm more intrested if I should be raging over that then some dumbass linkshell leader making his sheep do this trial to glow in PJ.

Only thing I dislike is the precedent this sets, final trial for a few minority, new NMS for the few minority? etc. I know the current dev team likes to make status items and a class system in FFXI but don't piss off the majority to attain that stupid royalty system. Abyssea was awesome because it was open to all, let's try make the vast majority of content for your playerbase and not a handful of people, it's not like we have a huge dev team that can have time be wasted on stuff for a few.

[Unctgtg]

How about you guys tell us what Stage 1 is.

[Alerith]

Let me put this way: anyone who completes the stage 2 trial is an absolute moron. You're losing 2.5m potential gil every dynamis run you fight ADL instead of farming currency. Multiply that by the number of times you'll need to kill him for every person in the alliance, and you could have completed every relic weapon up to level 99... instead glowing blue.

The auras are nothing more than a /point and laugh at how stupid someone is for actually having completed the trial.

I don't completely agree with this. You could argue that anything you do is a waste when you could spend that time doing something else.

Not everyone plays in the same way, and while one player may prefer to specialize in a broad range of jobs and collect relics for each of them, others prefer a far fewer number, even one job, that they choose to specialize in and complete as much as they can.

While I understand where you're coming from and I agree the time could be better spent, it's not the motives of the players that I'm concerned about when it comes to this situation. It's the trial and SE's line of thinking that concern me.

[Strife]

If the +2 is a trail you don't want to do for a reward you dont want.. where's the problem?

I don't understand QQ'n because someone else may be getting what they want while by your own admission it's no lose to you.

Don't forget, that that Afterglow effect is overwritten if they have a relic/emp/mythic and activate their aftermath. Priority order is Aftermath Lv3>Lv2>Lv1>Afterglow. So if you think that getting that afterglow so others with emps/relic/mythic can reap the reward, think again. As soon as they gain their specific aftermath that afterglow is gone meaning it only benefits those without relic/emp/mythic or don't use the WS to activate aftermath. In otherwords, about the only ones who reap any reward out of this are WOE users or someone using their Merit WS. ~golf claps for SE development~ Thank you for giving us something that hardly benefits anyone at all unless they don't have one of these weapons already.

I'm all for helping my fellow player...but not by making them slave away to give me a spiffy glow and afterglow they may not even benefit from anyway.

Kind of sad when you think the people most likely to do the stage 2s will be in linkshells with other relic/ emps and will therefore have thier hard won buff wasted.

They should really at least make Afterglow a separate buff from Aftermath so that it can stack with other player's Aftermath, considering how marginal Afterglow is... :/

I agree after all as far as i know sphere effects from gear and atmacite aren't over written by aftermath but I guess it depends on the strength of the effect as to wether this will be to over powered or not.

[Camiie]

It's a freaking hard quest for limited value to YOU. So, don't do it. Problem solved.

I won't do it, but it can affect me just the same. What I'm trying to avoid is a precedent being set for other content. If the playerbase finds this type of trial acceptable or is silent about it, you can bet they will introduce something similarly time consuming for the rest of us. Oh it won't be killing 500 PW or 1000 ADLs, but you know they'd love to have everyone slogging through already implemented content for years for a single upgrade if they can get away with it. I want them to know that, for me, that's not cool.

[Insaniac]

I agree after all as far as i know sphere effects from gear and atmacite aren't over written by aftermath but I guess it depends on the strength of the effect as to wether this will be to over powered or not.

They are separate buffs. After glow is like an instant cast AoE buff that lasts 30 seconds. Kinda like warcry but activated by a WS. Once you get it you don't need to stay in range or anything so it shouldn't effect true sphere effects in any way.

For people talking about the precedent these trials set you are looking at them in the wrong way. They set the precedent for extremely long soul crushing grinds to be truly optional. For instance the upgrade to nyzul gear could be reasonable all the way up to the last stage which could require something crazy like 200k tokens or defeating some random pop NM 300 times but the effect would be a blinking light in the middle of your askar helm and a 1% boost to the set bonus over the previous stages effects which are +15% crit damage and 10 str.

SE is clearly intent on making these unholy grinds (/point VW) so wouldn't you rather them be optional like stage 2 trials instead of being something you feel obligated to pursue?

[Washburn]

I think i speak for most relic holders by saying the stage 2 trial is a major slap in the face to anyone who made a relic. The amount of hours put into the weapon's usable form at 75 is already a daunting task, especially for those who did it before the dynamis changes. Then the trials, some people did the 2000 ws kill trials for +1 DMG to try and improve the weapon. We relic/mythic weapon holders are accustomed to being patient and putting in a lot of long hours and more work than anyone in the game for what we have, especially when you think about how an 85 emperyan compares to a 95 relic/mythic. Still not a whole lot of difference, and continuously adding rediculous trials to get us to keep playing to complete what we thought was done (especially relic/mythic holders @75 cap) seems like a shitty way of keeping your playerbase. Why not add more quests, or more crafted items, or more HNM's? I'd much rather go back to camping HNM's than dragging my LS to something thats bullshit. If you (aimed at the designers) are gonna make new trials and adjust the weapons so there is a more significant difference between an 85 emperyan and a 95+ relic/mythic. You guys have balls enough to completely change what a corsair roll does, so alter the weapons so we can be proud of the hard work we've ALREADY done, and if you really want to make the relic holders happy, how about making new animations for them?! Theyre so outdated, my mercy stroke looks like a damn pink gravitation animation. Oh and how about 30-60-90 second aftermaths?

[Insaniac]

I think i speak for most relic holders by saying the stage 2 trial is a major slap in the face to anyone who made a relic.

You do not speak for me or any relic/mythic/emp holder that I know (30+). I am happy with this set of trials. No one I know cares enough about glowing to be mad about the fact that we are supposedly getting reasonable trials for the important upgrades.

[Washburn]

You do not speak for me or any relic/mythic/emp holder that I know (30+). I am happy with this set of trials. No one I know cares enough about glowing to be mad about the fact that we are supposedly getting reasonable trials for the important upgrades.

Thanks for, in douche fashon, pointing out that you are not one of the most that i talk to.

I only know 3 people with mythic, and haven't asked their opinion on any of it, and making an emperyan is a joke, which is why i was referring to specifically relic holders at the beginning. The trials are a lot more reasonable now than they were at 75 cap, and so far, i've willingly done them all.

The glowing effect, specifically, wasnt the gripe, i was pointing out that even pinning a trial that they know is rediculous for no direct benefit to the person doing the work, is not reasonable, not worth it, and in my eyes, a waste of development time they could have used on something that might make the game more valuable and enjoyable.

By the way, who doesn't have an emperyan yet anyway? I don't really consider an 85-90 emperyan as something thats viewed as difficult to obtain.

[Insaniac]

I'm not real sure how I was being a "douche" but w/e. If not a single one of the r/m/e holders that I know feels this "slap in the face" then you just might be wrong about most of us being upset about it. Also of note 95 emps aren't that easy and anyone who is staying at 90 wouldn't be effected.

What you need to think about is that SE was, one way or another, gonna make some kind of death grind. Be happy that it's something that you don't need to do. If they made stage 2 a necessity for doing as much damage as you possibly could then 10x the people would be raging so don't go poking the hornets nest and get something amazing added to stage 2 just for the sake of "not wasting dev time".