New Relic weapon quest - are we down to 1 hour content already?

My only complaint is that now I have to wait a few more months before I find out if they're really planning on re-skinning Eureka or not.
(On the off-chance they're still deciding: please SE, please. Don't. I'll grind out 16000 poetics per weapon - hell, 60,000 per - before I ever set foot in an Eureka clone again.)

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Even if the others do have more/longer steps, you're not exactly describing them in equal terms.

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I pretty much am.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

A new field zone

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You mean the new little area to idle about in or queue up for Savage to get better gear than the relic if you haven't already completed it in how many weeks since it dropped?

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Originally Posted by Iscah

unique dungeon with multiple bosses (and story for those who care)

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Excuse me? Dungeon?

No, we got a solo duty. A one time, solo duty.

Eureka came with an entire new zone, with new mechanics and a plethora of non-Relic loot to attain too (Mounts, Furniture, Glamour items, actual useable trinkets like Strider's Boots) - This is all included with the first step of Eureka.

The story was really nice, but at the end of the day, little more than the story we got about each of the fabled Zodiac Braves whom wielded the Zodiac weapons or the story about how we create artificial life of a weapon or the story behind the fate of Eureka.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

and unique EX trial.

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This is about all that is actually on par with the very first relics and their unique trials. Though, it's not actually necessary to do it at all in order to get your relic weapon so it's hard to consider if it's actually part of the Relic package or if it's just a random extra EX Trial added at the same time.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I just don't see the appeal of having to farm FATEs to gather up huge amounts of crystals.

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Farming FATEs has little appeal for me either.

But having to do something would at least provide incentive to actually play more.

Like, even having to do the EX Trial at least ONCE would at least be something. But no, it's currently, just do a solo duty and get free loot.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

If you don't want to put yourself through that... why is it appealing to be required to do them, if you wouldn't want to spend your time on it otherwise?

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Because doing things to earn a reward is literally how gear treadmill games work?

If Savage didn't offer gear, no-one would play them. If Ultimate didn't give rewards, no-one would play it. If dungeons didn't offer tomestones, no-one would run them after doing their MSQ.

If we continue down the line of "If you don't want to put yourself through that" then what next? Free Savage gear for logging in to the game because many people don't like/want to do Savage raiding?

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Originally Posted by Limonia

The only thing I don't like is that they kind of invalidate the Ruby ex weapons.

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But at this point people already have Crystarium weapons and ES weapons which already invalidate those even more, and the former is even easier to get than the Ruby EX one.

I really liked the way they started this new Relic Chain.

Well we were warned this first step would not take long, the remaining steps will be far more grindy they devs have said. I enjoyed this content for the short time it lasted, if it makes you feel any better than new crafter and gatherer relics are a little more grindy.

Sounds like someone wants the pain of Atma farming before the nerf again. Took me 3 days of running fates to get 1 atma.. no thanks.

I have a feeling devs will use this topic as an excuse to give us 500 hour light farm as next step.

...why do people ignore the EX-trial that we got with this quest-chain to unlock the armor? That should keep one busy for more than an hour, right...?

Unpopular opinion, but I'm quite happy this first step is mindless. I've not been playing all that much in recent months, and my gear/weapons probably reflect that a bit. This is a nice stepping stone to get back to a decent level, and fast.

Time to farm more poetics!

I don't want to farm more poetics.

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Originally Posted by Tlamila

But at this point people already have Crystarium weapons and ES weapons which already invalidate those even more, and the former is even easier to get than the Ruby EX one.

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I can't do much PF content as I often can't sit there and play without pause for multiple hours anymore, so I can't do a lot of extreme or savage content, only very little here and there. So I haven't done this savage tier yet and also haven't cleared Ruby ex often enough to get my weapon. For my main job I got the Crystarium weapon instead (...how exactly do other casual players have multiple of those already?).
But there are so many players who also don't do savage, but do ex content enough to get those weapons. If you just got some of them they're not worth much anymore, even though you had to put much more work into getting them.
I mean, for me it doesn't matter because I can slowly farm some poetics to get the relics instead. But for players who farmed Ruby Weapon for the weapons it's kind of stupid. The relics often had the same ilvl as the ex trial, but you at least had to put some time or effort into getting them.

I just realized, this patch follows the current trend of reducing playtime. Ruby Ex requires more time than the Relic by a substantial amount. By devalueing it immediately while its still current content, the actual relevant progression content goes down by another boss, which seems to be the general aim of SE (minimizing gameplay time).
Its a weird strategy that makes no sense to anybody, but they HAVE been consistent with it for half a year now, so for whatever reason, maybe they want us to play significantly less?

I agree with everything you posted and I'd also like to add that the idea of simply buying mats with Poetics (again, SE, again?) to get other relics after your first one is so incredibly dull and annoying.
Can we stop with this Poetics thing now? It's been going on for too long

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Originally Posted by Vidu

...why do people ignore the EX-trial that we got with this quest-chain to unlock the armor? That should keep one busy for more than an hour, right...?

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If you care about doing Ex and want to do the same thing 20 times yes there is something to do I guess.

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Didn't touch Eureka past an hour because it was immediately uninteresting and off-putting

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It was at least something you could spend a lot of time doing for rewards.

We BADLY needed that in 5.05, its even worse in 5.25.

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It was flawed, but they put a lot of work into fixing it up over Pyros and Hydatos, only to throw it all away for ...this? I'm baffled.

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Basically this.

I didnt want to "have" to grind as much as Eureka needed in the Anemos/Pagos days, but having the option to do even the Hydatos grind for some sort of tangible reward is sorely needed.

If this is the content they're killing off other content for, they need to find competent non-Japanese designers or actually have a budget.

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Do people not remember Zenith weapons? Awoken weapons?

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Zenith weapons came out in the 2.1 patch. By the 2.5 patch cycle, we were on Novus weapons.

Anima weapons came out in the 3.15 quest, and required either a fully completed Zodiac or a LOT of work per weapon. By the 3.25 patch cycle, we were on Hyperconductive weapons.

Then last expansion, in 5.25, we had Eureka.



This is significantly less content than any of those.

the .25 step should be the latest in an expansion life you have the grindy bits start (and it should really be the .15 patch if not .05), especially when you have removed the other grindy bits.

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Time to farm more poetics!

I don't want to farm more poetics

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I end up capping them 2-3 times a week just doing 1-2 roulettes a day, 1k is more or less nothing based on the cost of umbrite :p

I'm glad I have something to spend it on besides seeds.

Was really kind of hoping for a grind. Between my working-from-home-quarantine easily facilitating grinds/mindless activities, a potentially delayed shipment for FFVIIR, and my 11 day vacation starting next week (requested it months ago ugh) right in the middle of the quarantine... I have a lot of time on my hands.

That said, I guess I can always go to Diadem...

There's been quite a lot of talk about how you could skip the first step of HW relic and this is nothing new.
Except, those people are wrong. You could skip the first quest of anima (Soul without Life) and avoid the FATE farm, but that came in the same patch as the next two quest steps (all 3.15). That is the dungeon crawl (Toughening Up), and the item farm (Coming into It's Own) that was infamous for needing 400+ Alex tokens. So you could skip a first quest, but you still had a fair bit more for that first step to do after until you got that patch's relic content done (and the linked Animaniac achievement).

It's not a fair comparison, because this is the entirety of the patch's relic content, the story duty or 1,000 poetics is the entirety of it.
It's ridiculous, and a real let down.

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Originally Posted by FedoraTheExplorer

Patch they specifically said was going to be short turned out to be short in the end.

The horror!

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Short would be ok, this is tiny though. The solo instance was cool and all, but after doing it and unlocking Gerolt I had hold of 3 relic weapons in about 5 minutes.

Consume, do not criticize.

Imagine re-subbing just to get the relic, and essentially paying 1 dollar per minute of content xD.

as someone who watched the LL , i knew what we were getting

This first part would have been completely fine for me, if they had the next and (according to the patch notes) much longer step in game already.

The content was fine and the new ex trial is pretty fun (you don't have to do the ex for the weapons.) But I was also really hoping for a grind to sink my teeth into this time.

I can only guess that they didn't want to add anything too daunting right before the FF7R launch. I can certainly understand that if that's the case.

I just hope we get a new weapon patch relatively soon. We waited far too long for this and I'd hate to wait that long for the next step.

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Originally Posted by Sesera

If you care about doing Ex and want to do the same thing 20 times yes there is something to do I guess.

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I'm even more confused now - people asking for this to be more of a grind, yet doing the same thing 20 times isnt good either...?

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Originally Posted by drmambo1999

This first part would have been completely fine for me, if they had the next and (according to the patch notes) much longer step in game already.

The content was fine and the new ex trial is pretty fun (you don't have to do the ex for the weapons.) But I was also really hoping for a grind to sink my teeth into this time.

I can only guess that they didn't want to add anything too daunting right before the FF7R launch. I can certainly understand that if that's the case.

I just hope we get a new weapon patch relatively soon. We waited far too long for this and I'd hate to wait that long for the next step.

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I dont think FF7R and FFXIV have such a big crossover of players. If they really kneecap their MMORPG for a lackluster remake of an old singleplayer game for an entirely different audience, I cant help them I guess, but that would idiocy of amazing scope.

I am with you hoping against hope that we get a new weapon patch anytime soon, but since SE is strictly following the pattern of releases, at EARLIEST we can hope for 5.3, and very likely just one step then. You have to keep in mind that ilvl 505 cannot be reached by the Relic before 5.4, so at most there can be 3 steps in between now and 5.45 (about half a year from now).

My guess is, optimistically, another step for 5.3, another for 5.35. But that would be really lucky already.

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Originally Posted by Niyuka

I think whats truly stunning is how THIS little scrap of cutscenes and one solo instance (that you never repeat) are what we had to pay with less content/dungeons for?

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Infuriating, shadowbringer is proving to have the worst patch cycle disregarding 2.X mostly adding staple features like Glamour housing Pvp ect.

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Originally Posted by Vidu

...why do people ignore the EX-trial that we got with this quest-chain to unlock the armor? That should keep one busy for more than an hour, right...?

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Really, people are not looking at what the new grind is intended to be and only see the fact they can get 3 i485 relics in 1 hour and miss everything else.

It takes 10 clears of the new EX to get one set of i480 dyeible Job gear and 162 clears to get all 17 sets withour winning a coffer. This is what is intended to be the filler grind.

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Originally Posted by Barraind

Zenith weapons came out in the 2.1 patch. By the 2.5 patch cycle, we were on Novus weapons.

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Zenith were originally known as +1 and available for 900 mythology during 2.0 once you had the i80 version.

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Originally Posted by LittleImp

Consume, do not criticize.

Imagine re-subbing just to get the relic, and essentially paying 1 dollar per minute of content xD.

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This is me. I was foolishly hoping that with the deep dungeons being 86'd for this expansion (no, I'm still not over it), there would be some meaty content on offer for the relic steps—ideally, something like a soloable Eureka that didn't suck. But of course, SE are sticking with their "do Savage, go craft, or get lost" approach to post-expansion patches. They clearly do not want casuals who aren't interested in crafting subbing to their game.

People complained about Euerka yet it was some of the games finest, yet definitely flawed, grindable content. Now we don't get anything and I am sad.

Because going out and solo'ing old fates for crystals with terrible drop rates was so fun, interesting and engaging amirite? I'll take interesting lore and cutscenes over the nauseating game play that was ARR and HW Relics. Let's not let rose-tinted glasses cloud our judgement by claiming that any of the introductory parts of any of the relic weapons was somehow fulfilling and interesting content.

I kind of miss the HW anima relic experience. It seems to be the most interesting of the few we have received.

This new relic seems underwhelming initially however we need to keep in mind that this is only the first stage of the weapon and theres a chance the other stages will add more longer lasting content.

I am more upset that they locked the dyable jobgear behind a extreme trial. Sad that they choosed to punish casuals because they created a giant contenthole.

it could be worse, since it's at least not like the abomination that was Eureka (although I have that nagging fear that they'll turn it Eureka like in later steps). But there definitely is a huge difference between "there won't be much of a grind" and "wow, it's *kupo*ing nothing".
Also I'm really not sure if locking dyeable AF gear behind an EX trial was a good idea

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Originally Posted by Ultimatecalibur

Really, people are not looking at what the new grind is intended to be and only see the fact they can get 3 i485 relics in 1 hour and miss everything else.

It takes 10 clears of the new EX to get one set of i480 dyeible Job gear and 162 clears to get all 17 sets withour winning a coffer. This is what is intended to be the filler grind.

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Chapter 1 makes me think of ARR relic. We know there's subsequent chapters, so I'll wait to what they're like before I cast doubts. I think it's one of those cases where "wait and see" should apply, though I am aware in many cases "wait and see" ends up being a moving goal post, but at the moment our only point of reference of SE doing something like this is ARR relic, which in subsequent tiers was grindy as heck (to my disappointment, filled with waiting around and RNG). If the next tier is like this, then I might start worrying what's up.

I know the trial is gonna be our grind but for the relic armour sets and not weapon.

And I guess in fairness, how relic is earned has been different each time. Taking the first tiers of each, ARR was a questline with 5 HM trials, HW was FATE grinding + dungeons + items, SB was glorified FATE grinding in Anemos, ShB is a questline + solo instance + EX trial grinding.

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Originally Posted by swiss_Momo

it could be worse, since it's at least not like the abomination that was Eureka (although I have that nagging fear that they'll turn it Eureka like in later steps). But there definitely is a huge difference between "there won't be much of a grind" and "wow, it's *kupo*ing nothing".
Also I'm really not sure if locking dyeable AF gear behind an EX trial was a good idea

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Agree. Locking nice things behind an EX trial isn't going to make people do the trials if SE is wanting to boost the amount of players doing the content unless the trial is a punching bag.

They're taking Rowenas maerketing to heart, it's very meta.
In her eyes, you get one free to keep you coming back for more sands.
In SE's eyes they make stage one very quick and easy and you'll be back for stage two.

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Originally Posted by Ranaku

I am more upset that they locked the dyable jobgear behind a extreme trial. Sad that they choosed to punish casuals because they created a giant contenthole.

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I'd say any casual can clear the extreme trials they've been putting out, recently. But then I remember that I'm on crystal.

I mean the guest line was semi interesting and the solo duty was fun, and can't complain about getting a weapon that easy and fast. Sure I wanted a little bit more, but this wins over the HW fate grind I did for 7 Animas. People also seems to forget, there is going to be more. Hopefully we won't have to wait months and months, but there is more chapters, more steps, this isn't the whole weapon. I stay neutral about the relics until we see next step or two.

To be fair, they did tell us this step was the easy step, so I'm not bummed out with it. On top of that I think this EX trial is better than Ruby Weapon in presentation and difficulty.

What isn't okay though is that we've consistently got less content this expansion and the reason for that has not been explained. The assumption is possibly ARR rework, but without confirmation, that's just giving SE a free pass which I don't think they should be given.

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Originally Posted by Videra

I'd say any casual can clear the extreme trials they've been putting out, recently. But then I remember that I'm on crystal.

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My problem isn't even that it's maybe too hard (or easy). I can clear it and someday even maybe solo it when we are lvl 100. I am just upset they used it for filling their self created content hole. It's like a one trick pony, couldn't think of something new so we get just the same old ex trial we have to deal always with and because it needs some reward just lock the glam behind it.

I don't know, slowly it just looks like a one trick pony, i know Eureka wasn't that great but honestly it was finally something new. And filled with many rewards such as mounts and glam and housing items. What do we have in ShB do fill the midgame? Diadem, running/flying in a circle and grinding nodes + crafting the same old collectables.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

They're taking Rowenas maerketing to heart, it's very meta.
In her eyes, you get one free to keep you coming back for more sands.
In SE's eyes they make stage one very quick and easy and you'll be back for stage two.

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But I don't want to be in in-game debt :(

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Originally Posted by Ranaku

My problem isn't even that it's maybe too hard (or easy). I can clear it and someday even maybe solo it when we are lvl 100. I am just upset they used it for filling their self created content hole. It's like a one trick pony, couldn't think of something new so we get just the same old ex trial we have to deal always with and because it needs some reward just lock the glam behind it.

I don't know, slowly it just looks like a one trick pony, i know Eureka wasn't that great but honestly it was finally something new. And filled with many rewards such as mounts and glam and housing items. What do we have in ShB do fill the midgame? Diadem, running/flying in a circle and grinding nodes + crafting the same old collectables.

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I'm glad we DON'T have Eureka as I thought it was terrible content for relics and only existed to show people that old school MMO gameplay is the way of the past. The only good thing that came from Eureka was the Baldesian Arsenal. Relics should have never been a part of it, but without holding relics hostage inside them, very few would bother with Eureka as is, especially prior to BA's release.