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

[Crysten]

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.

Yo, dawg. I heard you like to finish relics so we put a trial on your finished relic so you can finish your finished relic.

I can totally understand the dev's thinking behind the move, but the implementation, like most things in the game have always been, is positively mind boggling. The level 99 weapon is considered "finished"? That's a funny definition of the word "finished" considering the weapon can still be upgraded, even if the upgrade is an absolutely minute AOE effect. An upgrade is an upgrade and either way, you're still dangling a carrot in front of players. An extremely small, possibly moldy carrot that considering the amount of work to get it should be completely ignored, but a carrot nonetheless.

I have no doubt that -someone- out there is going to attempt to complete this trial but the principle of the matter still completely irks me. The amount of work to get to that true completionist's pinnacle has not been thought out in the slightest, and I feel sorry for the LS ultimately shoehorned into undertaking the task for their leader.

I am never going to say these trials should be easy, but you should not be designing these trials around LS sized events where only one person reaps rewards when the majority of weapons are soloed/lowmanned these days. I'll take a damn good challenge to get my afterglow, sure. Make me defeat some kind of HNM akin to the final Mythic fight. Make me go through some kind of storyline. Give me something that only a group of relic holders can achieve together at the same time.

Don't make me have to drag 17 other unlucky saps to Dynamis-Xarcabard and ZNM events for the next several years for almost nothing in return. Why must they shoulder all that burden, also?

Someone's already mathed it out - I can make several emps, mythics and relics to 99 in the time it'd take to get one Afterglow. I'd take the former over the latter anyday, and I can't believe the dev team legitimately believe this is good game design in this day and age.

This seems like a bet to me - someone's just curious enough to know if there are people out there retarded or commited enough to pull something like this off and there's some money riding on it, lol.