The Zodiac "Saga" has been a terrible experience for me.... It shouldn't be.

I love the relic quest. It gives me something to do... especially since I will never raid. I will always be behind but I get a sparkly weapon. I am working on my 4th anima weapon still as it gives me something to spend all the tomes I collect on.

Expensive for the relic? Really? Go do some beast tribes to get your materia. Yup more grinding. Yes I am a masochist.

Although the book part was rather long, the only beef i have is trying to hold on to materia for the 1,2,3,4. It's a lot of materia to hold on to. Granted 4's are easy now but i would either like a vendor or something to purchase 1,2,3. You can't always count on the mb to have them.

Every MMO has some form of grind attached to it though..
Relic has been a pita but hey all of those that complain always end up doing it anyhow

For relic lovers grinding is common sense. While the Zodiac saga was long it has been capped to the point that has become a joke. Unfortunately some players don't seem to gasp the reality of things. For now they have become more of a glamour , ( I still do them out of boredom or leveling other classes for fun almost done but hurts). IF anything I wish SE can incorporate them some how later on two by pass maybe another step for those of us whoa re just getting them. Just hope people are thankful they aren't like FFXI now that is grind. As for the materia requirements that is one thing airships can help with to an extend, other ones spirit bonding goes by fast with FC buff or even squadron item.

Relics are usually long and grindy. And not really worth it until last patch of the expansion, when the customisable stats finally make it BiS.

I personally despise it and hope what WoW did with their artefact weapon triggered SE to do better.
The story was simply dull at best and the grinding ranged from ok to horrible.
I don't have much problem with normal grinding but some steps are just a joke.

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Originally Posted by Sylvain

I personally despise it and hope what WoW did with their artefact weapon triggered SE to do better.
The story was simply dull at best and the grinding ranged from ok to horrible.
I don't have much problem with normal grinding but some steps are just a joke.

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Isn't that largely panned by the WoW community?

I'm mostly referring to the lore and basic system.
Obviously the whole "u need to farm like a retard every week" isn't what I had in mind.

However I don't know anyone saying the whole lore chain quest to unlock the weapon is trash. Some might be dull at best but I was super pleased with the mage one for instance.
And they did that for every single spec.
I would love for instance having a quest involving the creation of shantoto quest for instance. That'd be so much better than the whole naive spirit thing we had in HW.

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Originally Posted by Sylvain

I'm mostly referring to the lore and basic system.
Obviously the whole "u need to farm like a retard every week" isn't what I had in mind.

However I don't know anyone saying the whole lore chain quest to unlock the weapon is trash. Some might be dull at best but I was super pleased with the mage one for instance.
And they did that for every single spec.
It would love for instance having a quest involving the creation of shantoto quest for instance. That d be so much better than the whole naive spirit thing we had in HW.

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We get job quests instead of weapon lore (which also has a bit of lore, just not much....because it's welfare).

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Originally Posted by Pence

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This is very true, the BLM one was really nice ^^
And I wonder if the AST one is a hint to Geomancer as future job

The truth is that different parts of the game is designed for different groups of players. The Relic, first and foremost, is designed as a grind for mostly casual players. It was also designed for people who either like, or don't mind, those grinds.

Tomestone weapons, on the other hand, are designed as a catch-up mechanism and a remedy for bad luck. That is why they are easy to obatin, and they conform to the raiding gear standards.

That's the gist of it anyway. The strength of the Relic series of weapons are designed the way they are for only one reason: so that they are not completely useless.

The problem with the Zodiac weapons was that they were too specific. The rare Fate ones were the most obnoxious ones. I think the endless farming has the potential to make it better, but not enough content is available to contribute to it. If you could do literally any content and it would somehow contribute to it, it would be better. Hopefully, the Stormblood weapons will be like that.

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Originally Posted by Blanchimont

The problem with the Zodiac weapons was that they were too specific. The rare Fate ones were the most obnoxious ones. I think the endless farming has the potential to make it better, but not enough content is available to contribute to it. If you could do literally any content and it would somehow contribute to it, it would be better. Hopefully, the Stormblood weapons will be like that.

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From what I've understood, the Stormblood weapons are supposed to be something else entirely. They heard the feedback from the player base that we hated the crafted items step, and the devs realized that putting that step in encouraged very few people to actually craft and gather and just resulted in gil flowing into the hands of very few players, so they've said it would be removed. I wouldn't be surprised if other steps, like FATE farming might be gutted as well in order to introduce something new. At least that's what I hope.

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Originally Posted by wereotter

From what I've understood, the Stormblood weapons are supposed to be something else entirely. They heard the feedback from the player base that we hated the crafted items step, and the devs realized that putting that step in encouraged very few people to actually craft and gather and just resulted in gil flowing into the hands of very few players, so they've said it would be removed. I wouldn't be surprised if other steps, like FATE farming might be gutted as well in order to introduce something new. At least that's what I hope.

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The SB relic weapons are going to be a part of Eureka. This is also why we aren't getting the weapons in 4.15 since they had to push Eureka back.

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Originally Posted by Dualblade

The SB relic weapons are going to be a part of Eureka. This is also why we aren't getting the weapons in 4.15 since they had to push Eureka back.

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THANK YOU!!! I've been straining my brain all day to remember the name of that zone!

Hmmm well at the very least these relics are not as bad as FFXI now there was a grind lol

If it didn't take you 1300+ fates to get your 12 ATMA to start the process you don't get to complain about the grind!

http://wikigameguides.com/wp-content...0/685741_1.jpg

'Member back in the early days of FFXI when it took a whole LS farming twice a week and buying currency for two years or so to get one person a relic weapon? I 'member.

My relic weapon is stuck at the second to last stage because of that annoying crafting step. I either have to get ALL of my crafting classes to 50 with desynth or I have to pay for the garbage on the MB which is totally not a viable option. I just looked the other day and some of those items are over a million gil....and there are eight items. They should add those to a vendor now. At the rate I'm going through levelling crafting I should have them all to 50 in about 3 more years. :P

I THINK the stuff crafted from the desynth materials got added to one tab of another of the GC vendors...but it might just be the HW relic stuff, and not ARR

For what it's worth they don't seem to want to repeat the Zodiac (50) and Anima (its lv60 equivalent) saga design. They are coming up with a new kind of grind upgrade system for lv70 players which may not involve currency grinds but we don't know the details yet. Yes it's perfectly fine to criticise the Zodiac saga... lots of people did when it was released, even worse as it was pre-nerf. Yes it's not heavy on story or meaningful gameplay and the reward is outdated. It's fine to ignore and skip unless you're a collector.

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Originally Posted by Kagatoion

I THINK the stuff crafted from the desynth materials got added to one tab of another of the GC vendors...but it might just be the HW relic stuff, and not ARR

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No - the ARR crafted stuff must be desynthed yourself or bought off of MB still. I did this step literally yesterday (PLD relic achieved!) and it cost me a pretty penny.

As someone nearing the end of the Zodiac quest? This is complete crap. (gathering mats for the post light gathering phase)

Its cost me at least 2 million gil to do this....and its not the gil...it's the guess work and price gouging.

Anima is a cake walk compared to this. - But at least i can say i did it once...but that is more than Ill care to admit.

worst phase thus far? materia quest - that was infuriating.

So I finished the Zodiac Quest (Black Mage - Lilith Rod Zeta) this morning - it looks great...but the damn thing cost me nearly 4 Million Gil - and I had friends donating funds.

The gil isn't so much the problem - its the fact i had to spend that much to get what I needed.

Granted you could short cut a number of things - Anima cost me time...not gil.

drastically huge pitfall there. sorry to say - any newbie I encounter who asks where/why/how? I'm going to tell them honestly....don't go there unless you want to suffer painfully for weeks.

The other major frustration is I could have done a number of tasks (light gathering namely) very quickly if it wheren't for the stupid fact that only ARR Areas would count.

So Expert Roullete....various trials from HW/SB - all out the window/don't count.

Yeah...its great for a collector/achievement hunter - but only worth doing ONCE. - So sad.

oh and for ####'s sake.....bother to write in hints/pointers on next quest steps? We shouldn't have to use wikipedia's to figure out why the next step is blocking us or there's no waypoint markers....so damn confusing.


PS: I'm aware this is basically "abandon ware" in terms of SE's dev's - and they intend to do something very differnet..and yes i know its been buffed/nerfed/changed - I'm speaking as a newbie-brand new to this...right here...right now. ;)

To this day the longest relic step ever was the original 3 Thavnarian Mists step. It took 3 weeks because the Mists were bought with the weekly capped tome currency. Today (with a heavy time investment) I could grind a fresh zodiac weapon from start to zeta in probably 2 weeks

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Originally Posted by NephthysVasudan

The other major frustration is I could have done a number of tasks (light gathering namely) very quickly if it wheren't for the stupid fact that only ARR Areas would count.

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With the light gathering, can't you do it unsync these days and blast through a dungeon in less than 10minutes? I haven't worked on one of those relics in a LONG Time, and I am wanting to do them all, for glamour purposes, eventually(still haven't finished my DRG relic from back then...)

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Originally Posted by Avatre

With the light gathering, can't you do it unsync these days and blast through a dungeon in less than 10minutes? I haven't worked on one of those relics in a LONG Time, and I am wanting to do them all, for glamour purposes, eventually(still haven't finished my DRG relic from back then...)

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Just recently finished Nirvana Zeta at 60 and you can definitely just steamroll the ARR dungeons unsync.
Depending which one has the bonus up, Halatali, Sastasha or Tam-Tara are fastest, each around ~4m as WHM.

I started it way back but never came far let alone completed it, so I just finished it for completion's sake.
Can't say it was worth it. While the weapon (+replica of the various stages) look pretty enough, I had hoped for some more story. Something that really deserves to be called "Saga". And I'm never going to touch a book again. Ever.

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Originally Posted by Avatre

With the light gathering, can't you do it unsync these days and blast through a dungeon in less than 10minutes? I haven't worked on one of those relics in a LONG Time, and I am wanting to do them all, for glamour purposes, eventually(still haven't finished my DRG relic from back then...)

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Yes...that's true - but I have a tendency to get dragged into HW/SB dungeons/trials often with friends and will - it caused a major slow down. Bad luck i guess? Ironically i found it faster to spam trails lol.

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Originally Posted by Rilifane

Just recently finished Nirvana Zeta at 60 and you can definitely just steamroll the ARR dungeons unsync.
Depending which one has the bonus up, Halatali, Sastasha or Tam-Tara are fastest, each around ~4m as WHM.

I started it way back but never came far let alone completed it, so I just finished it for completion's sake.
Can't say it was worth it. While the weapon (+replica of the various stages) look pretty enough, I had hoped for some more story. Something that really deserves to be called "Saga". And I'm never going to touch a book again. Ever.

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Yeah...story - aside from watching gerolt do his thing - wasn't that great.

I think I might work towards finishing my DRG relic(it's already a Gae Bolg Nexus) this weekend. Then if I finish that, work on my BRD one which is currently a Artemis Bow Atma.

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Originally Posted by Culex

Screw this jumbled up, confusing mess... They could have at least organized the errand locations properly. The main thing is that there is no "Saga" here. it's nothing but a mindless easter egg hunt for glow effects - That you pay a ton of money and reward currency for.

The entire charade has amounted to nothing more than digitally interactive cancer.

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Uh, so, you joined in 2013 and are just NOW doing Zodiac Relic? Don't complain about this 4 years later just because you decided to do this quest waaaaay late.

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Originally Posted by Linx0r

Uh, so, you joined in 2013 and are just NOW doing Zodiac Relic? Don't complain about this 4 years later just because you decided to do this quest waaaaay late.

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What does that have to do anything?
A poorly written quest chain is a poorly written quest chain, wether you did it with 50 or 70.
And it was poorly written. There was next to no story, which made it undeserving of the title "Saga". There was hardly ever given any real insight or background to anything, you were only told to do this or that. Doing it at 50 doesn't make the underwhelming cutscenes suddenly into something epic and deep with tons of lore, good laughs and interesting secrets to uncover.

Well because when this was relevant people did it - liking some parts hating others. Now, this saga is significantly easier yet people still complain. Well, it’s OLD content. The story is meh, but the fact was when it was relevant in game it still gets done, still holds interest. You want a saga for story, ff14 May not be for you. The story in this game is maybe 6.5/10. The end of ARR was amazing. After that heavensward was melancholic but not bad and stormsblood is literally a giant

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Originally Posted by Linx0r

Well because when this was relevant people did it - liking some parts hating others. Now, this saga is significantly easier yet people still complain. Well, it’s OLD content. The story is meh, but the fact was when it was relevant in game it still gets done, still holds interest. You want a saga for story, ff14 May not be for you. The story in this game is maybe 6.5/10. The end of ARR was amazing. After that heavensward was melancholic but not bad and stormsblood is literally a giant

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....a giant turd

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Originally Posted by Rilifane

What does that have to do anything?
A poorly written quest chain is a poorly written quest chain, wether you did it with 50 or 70.
And it was poorly written. There was next to no story, which made it undeserving of the title "Saga". There was hardly ever given any real insight or background to anything, you were only told to do this or that. Doing it at 50 doesn't make the underwhelming cutscenes suddenly into something epic and deep with tons of lore, good laughs and interesting secrets to uncover.

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Except for this thread I don't think I have ever seen or heard the relic weapon quest chain called a "Saga". Where does that come from?

If i remember right its the name of one of the quest steps, and a reference to final fantasy tactics which was the first game that told the "Saga" of the Zodiac Braves.

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Originally Posted by Frizze

If i remember right its the name of one of the quest steps, and a reference to final fantasy tactics which was the first game that told the "Saga" of the Zodiac Braves.

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Checking various guides I cannot find any quest involved that is named anything with "Saga".

Reason I ask is that the main point of the OP's complaint seems to be that it is a boring grind that does not deserve to be called a "Saga". While I happen to agree with that, I just cannot find anywhere that actually calls the questchain a "Saga" which would make part of the complaint moot.

It's frequently called Saga during the quests themselves.
E.g. when you accept/ finished a part of it, a text appears on your screen reading "Zodiac Saga" and it's also mentioned during some of the dialogues.

https://i.imgur.com/sJnmdt8.png

It's a saga, you're writing the story of how cumbersome it was for you to achieve it. People expect a story written for them when low and behold they are writing a story about themselves.

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Originally Posted by Rilifane

It's frequently called Saga during the quests themselves.
E.g. when you accept/ finished a part of it, a text appears on your screen reading "Zodiac Saga" and it's also mentioned during some of the dialogues.

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Ah, that would explain it. I never got that far into the questline - it just didn't seem worth the grind to me.