Didn't actually mean to make my post sound like that was too crazy to believe (it is a little crazy) but was more or less going to say that if that's all that he was doing he should probably take a break from it. I've done two ATMA weapons now and whenever it got to be a drought I just took a break for a few hours or even a few days. That always seemed to make the process easier and when I did come back I usually ended up getting an ATMA relatively fast after that. If spending a few hours in a zone doing fates as they popped didn't yield anything I would just stop doing them. No sense in punishing yourself like that.
