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

[dragoon_apprentice]

they want you to play ff14. guess what? it is still very boring.

[saevel]

Honestly I'm kinda glad it's a)crap b)so stupid that most of us will never seriously contemplate doing it. If the trial was the same but the end result was amazing we would all be really upset we couldn't take it to the last level, if the trial was a little more reasonable but still rather stupid we would possibly attempt it and waste mass amounts ofour time on it.

Be happy for what the trial is and fear what they could of done. If a few want to do this glow trial then good luck to them, I'm thankful for the lackluster upgrade as to not make me emo to worry about it. They are determined to do thisd minority upgrade so be glad it's crap and leave it alone.

It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. No matter what SE does there is going to be player rage against them. They could make the weapons OMFG "hard" to obtain, then the people who want status have something to be happy about but most relic holders will be pissed off. They could make them easy to obtain, but then the people who are status are pissed and moaning, most relic holders are happy but complain that it's "too easy". SE opted to do both, create one trial that's relatively easy such that a majority of players can obtain it. It has good stats and resembles the final version of their weapon. They also created an "upgrade" stage to it that has no additional stats and a weak aoe effect. It's ridiculously time consuming to obtain, but once obtained it'll be shiny and immediately noticeable, it'll make the status seekers happy. The only people pissed now are the ones that would be pissed no matter what SE does, just gotta filter them out.

[Insaniac]

People didn't do relics for performance, they did them as a capstone on their character. SE has now taken that away and said that we will never complete our weapons.

I don't mind a hard quest to complete it, even something as hard as the original lvl 75 final stage (which I would be glad to do for the stats they listed for the 99 relics). But telling us "99.9999999% of you will never complete your weapons but here's a consolation prize" is more likely to make people quit than just asking for another 150 million gil in items would have been.

Don't be ridiculous. Relics would not have been a capstone if they weren't the best weapons so they were still done for performance. If they weren't done for performance then Aegis Mandau Apoc Gjallarhorn and Amano wouldn't have been the most popular weapons by a huge margin. And, while technically correct, saying you aren't complete without doing the glow stage and acting like it's some huge slap in the face is really really over dramatic.

[fxp7]

Would be fun as hell if the afterglow weapons lagged people (like the telepoints and confluxes) to the point that the owners would be prohibited to use these weapons by their LS fellows.

[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.

[Xilk]

I think I'm more likely to point and laugh at anyone who actually does get a glow effect on their weapon.

[Alerith]

People didn't do relics for performance, they did them as a capstone on their character.

Wait...what?

I don't know what you're talking about, but I finished my final weapon for the sake of performance. I mean, being a PLD, I kinda had to in order to progress in my performance.

Sure, it's an achievement and all, but I don't see people making the less useful R/M/E just for the sake of saying they have it.

[FrankReynolds]

I personally thing they should take away the sphere effect that it gives to party members, and add that too the first trial.

The second trial should give nothing but a cool looking effect.

The trial is virtually impossible to complete, and attempting it will inevitably lead to woe and misery. The reward should be so bad that no one will ever do it.

[Camiie]

I personally thing they should take away the sphere effect that it gives to party members, and add that too the first trial.

The second trial should give nothing but a cool looking effect.

The trial is virtually impossible to complete, and attempting it will inevitably lead to woe and misery. The reward should be so bad that no one will ever do it.

Either that or scrap the whole thing and focus their resources on content that actually matters. That'd be ideal, but your way is a good compromise.

[Atomic_Skull]

Aegis Mandau

The fact that Aegis and Mandau actually got made in large numbers shows it was more for status than performance otherwise people would never have made relics for two of the lowest tier jobs in the game.