Atma Grind Needs Some Changes...

I dont know, Id take a quest for each atma to kill 100 fates in each area of the overworld over the way it is now. It would take some doing to complete 100 fates for each and every atma but at least I can see a quantifiable end to it. How it is now, its merely a slot machine pull. Some people are super lucky and some people are super not. There are people who completed the whole thing in about an hour or two, others spent that same hour or two and didnt get squat. Myself... I sat in an area for over 4 hours before one actually dropped for me. I havent bothered to go any further in the chain. The books themselves should have been the grind, since they really are.You work for the points to spend to buy them then have to do a series of things to finish it. The whole atma part could have been made easier because honestly you are putting forth all that effort for really zero reward. You dont even make the weapon better, it just gets a different little glowy effect. Really? Oh and the privilege to grind out books.

Of course people will defend it by saying it was meant to make you smash your monitor in frustration after the thousandth fate with no atma. No effort, no reward. Right? Bollocks!

Right now Atma and hunting are probably the two most repetitive activities in the game. I've never really seen anything quite like them since the olden days of MMORPGs where designers didn't really know any better and examples of good alternative systems didn't exist.

If they want to develop content that is going to last players between pushes, they really should look at Path of Exile or some parts of ArcheAge, not old Final Fantasy XI or Everquest.

well, to those who have gotten lucky on there atma stones /salute. Myself, I am 2/12 and have spent total time of 12 hours(ish) in Upper La Nosca trying to get the Atma of the Water-bearer. Watched 5 people join my group, and get it (2 of them at the same time). /sigh and here I go back to the grind.

Thing is the relic quest pre 2.2 was a brilliant quest line. At the end of it you really felt like you'd accomplished something especially when your in gear just above minimum for Titan hm. Then you realise that after the brilliant quest line your now stuck in an endless ranged grind before an even bigger grind for myth then alexandrite. Just think it's a shame they took this route as it did show so much potential at the beginning. And people want it because it's continuelly upgradable and it's linked to your class. Personally I can't be bothered with atma so I'd rather get all my 50's up to the 90 weapon and there gear close to 100.

I hoped the relic grind (at least atma) would be toned down with this patch. People who want the best relic right away can grind like crazy. Meanwhile everyone else could have their relics 2-3 upgrades behind without too much grinding.

What's wrong with increasing atma drop rates to 25% per fate? Or dropping myth books from 1500 to 250? Don't make that large of a jump all at once, but ease down the grind over time.

I too liked the Titan HM approach for relics. (Titan HM was too hard for the gear pugs had, but it was still the right idea.) It let people who were inbetween casual and hardcore have some fun progression. Zenith weapons were a reasonable amount of work and skill for reasonably powerful weapons. The grind after Zenith is miserable and should be nerfed.

Let raiders show off, let grinders show off, but don't discourage the majority of players from upgrading relics.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Firepower

I would hope to assume that Yoshi will be making the Atma part much quicker or easier in 2.4 as it then becomes outdated content. I believe he mentioned that he did not want to make Atma or Animus easier at the moment as it would potentially upset people who put all the hard work in already.

---

I have my novus. I have absolutely ZERO problem with them nerfing the Atma grind. The rest of the quest is tolerable, but the RNG atma fest was the worst.

Although, even if you handed out atmas for just talking to the quest guy, the balance is still out of whack. I got my UAT+Sand for one of my alts 3 days after 2.3 :/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IndigoHawk

What's wrong with increasing atma drop rates to 25% per fate? Or dropping myth books from 1500 to 250? Don't make that large of a jump all at once, but ease down the grind over time.

---

If it was 25%, I'd get Atma for all my jobs. I'd be down for this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Giantbane

I have my novus. I have absolutely ZERO problem with them nerfing the Atma grind. The rest of the quest is tolerable, but the RNG atma fest was the worst.

Although, even if you handed out atmas for just talking to the quest guy, the balance is still out of whack. I got my UAT+Sand for one of my alts 3 days after 2.3 :/

---

I absolutely *hated* Animus. I thought it was so annoying to have to sit and wait for my fate to spawn for up to 4 hours, but they did fix that so it can't be horrible now.

It is funny that after 4 months since patch 2.2 more and more people are leaving FF14 because of the sole factor of the Atma Grind and again the only people defending it are the Elitist. If you go to http://xivsoul.com/ and look at the stats on the game, you will notice since the last time SE published any facts about their game's population that is has that they have not gained that many players into the game but have actually lost active subscribers since patch 2.2 with this free weekend as prove of it! Most of the people on facebook and twitter I talk to including several of my friends have stated they left solely for the reason of the Atma grind and on the direction on where the game is going....not the FF14 we came to love but a clone of the irritating and campfest that was FF11 which only the most hardcore elitist fanboys enjoyed while the rest of us casuals leave for something more useful with our time in another game!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Exstal

I absolutely *hated* Animus. I thought it was so annoying to have to sit and wait for my fate to spawn for up to 4 hours, but they did fix that so it can't be horrible now.

---

Also sucks, but at least I could just camp the area and do something else outside of the game while waiting. So in my mind it was better than fate spamming (although not *great* by any means). I don't know if they're all fixed either, Seps can still take a very long time even after the patch.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IndigoHawk

What's wrong with increasing atma drop rates to 25% per fate? Or dropping myth books from 1500 to 250? Don't make that large of a jump all at once, but ease down the grind over time.

---

Hell, even if it were 5% you'd be getting atma one out of every 20 fates (on average) instead of out of every 50-100 fates (or whatever abysmal drop rate it currently is)

I don't know if the myth is a big deal any more. Myth rains from the sky in 2.3 with the increased roulette amounts, first run bonuses, hunts and pvp.

SE is in a tough spot now. Cater too much to casuals and there is no reason to play because there is no endgame, but cater too much to hardcores and you lose all your subs.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Giantbane

Also sucks, but at least I could just camp the area and do something else outside of the game while waiting.

Although it's not that much better. Seps can still take a very long time even after the patch.

---

I hope the massively nerf Animus by 2.4 because doing that on Ninja is going to make me pretty angry.