Feedback Regarding the Relic Upgrade Quest

[Menfist]

The ATMAs FATE grind is on a completely different level of PAIN as compared to dungeon grinding. I think you will "understand" if you ran FATEs for hours and hours and more hours and then even more hours and finally even more HOURs and STILL NO ATMA drop.

Have you ever tried hunting for rares with a drop rate of 0.01%, lasting 5 min & killing each mob individually before? You should try it someday.

1. And how does that help new players? Having 10+ 50s zerging the fates so that new players cannot make a meaningful impact on the fates to get a good reward isn't helping them.

Players sync there lvl so lowbies can still effectively contribute and easly get gold. Surely you played beta/launch and saw this wasn't a flaw? It also shows a sense of livelyness in areas we wouldnt have seen since the frst few months of launch, effectivtly giving new players a positive experience.

2. Yes, there are other weapons. But the others have much higher requirements to get them. People who cannot get into a static coil group or cannot clear titan extreme to get to Levi Ex automatically default these options.

People have a choice to use DF and Party finder in order to get ilvl90+ gear or to do PrimalEX's. You don't even need to have a pre group to do this now with Echo. Another thing is that I don't see people complaining about farming Soldiery in order for them to get Weathered weapons and, which in all honesty is just as much of a pain to attain. You could get one before or after attaining a ATMA depending on luck. But lets face the simple fact and I quote from Letter from the Producer XIII:

This isn't something you should expect to complete in patch 2.2—it will continue through patch 2.25 and 2.3. Until now there have been mainly two means of progression: the first being defeating powerful enemies in end-game content to obtain high-item-level equipment, and the second being collecting Allagan tomestones to purchase gear. The Zodiac Weapons do not have the restrictions of these two methods, but are designed to take a long time to complete.

3. Perhaps. Also consider that a lot of people are only doing this right now because of the amount of people doing this right now. As time goes on, less and less people will be doing this making the fates harder and harder to complete. It is the catch 22 of the system.

It is clear as crystal that as new patches roll along the process will be nerfed/revised. It would be stupid not to once areas become stale again.

[EwanCathal]

What about being a healer and don't be able to kill the boss of a Fate, 'cause you don't have enough damage alone to do it? I left Upper La Noscea 'cause I was the only one farming fates there and tried another map before.

FATE's should scale with the number of people doing it, at least the bosses. If someone joins you, it gains a bit more HP. If you're doing it by yourself, it should be easier.

It's not a choice: You HAVE to farm them, so being able to do that in less than 10 minutes would be great.

[KyroeFelix]

I cant understand all the hate surrounding FATES. Sure it gets old, but so does doing side quests, leves, the same dungeon over and over. Did people bitch about Guild Wars 2 having a similar system to fates?

I don't understand this argument. As far as I remember, GW2 didn't rely on their world event system to upgrade your weapons. The only exception I can even think of would be the event to get into the Flame Citadel or whatever it was called. The events in GW2 were completely optional, whereas in this game if you want to upgrade your relic, you have to do the FATEs.

I don't have a problem with the current upgrade system, just a problem with this example.

[Menfist]

I don't understand this argument. As far as I remember, GW2 didn't rely on their world event system to upgrade your weapons. The only exception I can even think of would be the event to get into the Flame Citadel or whatever it was called. The events in GW2 were completely optional, whereas in this game if you want to upgrade your relic, you have to do the FATEs.

I don't have a problem with the current upgrade system, just a problem with this example.

I used it as a example of comparison to FATES in general, not the process to upgrading Atma. All I was saying is I don't remember GW2 events having the same backlash that FATES have had. Even GW2 had end game players go back to do low level events (not sure what it was for, but I re rolled last year and saw this happening. I guess it was achievement's)

[KyroeFelix]

I used it as a example of comparison to FATES in general, not the process to upgrading Atma. All I was saying is I don't remember GW2 events having the same backlash that FATES have had. Even GW2 had end game players go back to do low level events (not sure what it was for, but I re rolled last year and saw this happening. I guess it was achievement's)

There was no backlash because this content wasn't necessary for anything in the game. It was just a great way to level, unlike our current situation with FATEs and atma. Nobody has an issue with FATEs as a system; they are just mad SE put a really low drop rate on items needed to upgrade their endgame gear and this system is taking the brunt of that anger because it is involved. If SE had put the atmas in chests inside the lvl 15 dungeons and given them the same drop rate, people would be angry with those instead.

[Applesnap]

Just adding my experience. The first ten I had an average workload of around three hours per atma; an exception being East Shroud, which took around five hours total. Currently on the last two and hit a brick wall. Over ten hours in Western and Central Thanalan, 150+ FATEs and nothing to show for it. I've done everything I can think of. Solo, solo with chocobo, partied, tagged every FATE up and rotated between them, planted myself in one FATE start to finish ... nothing.

Did have an interesting glitch at one point changing between my main set of gear and a Spiritbinding set: "Curtana Zenith registered to this gear set could not be found in your Armoury Chest. Replace it with a Curtana Zenith?" Made me laugh (morosely). What if all those FATEs I'd been doing had also glitched and it didn't detect my sword was equipped...?

I believe Square-Enix made a very bad call putting the first step as a 100% r.n.g grind that just sows malcontent and frustration in amongst the playerbase.

[waldo]

Stilling trying to love it, still not much fun though.

[CianaIezuborn]

Question:

Is there anyone out there that has completed the quest with an average time per atma greater than 5 hours that thinks this system of pure RNG is a good idea? Cause I'm sick and tired of people telling me how they completed the entire quest in less than 50 hours and that I'm just not working hard enough.

On 22 hours and 1 atma so far, I got the first one in 30 minutes. I'm well aware that it's doable, that people have done it, I just want those people to acknowledge that if you're clocking an average of 3-5 hours between drops, you're on the lucky side of the equation.

Who knows, maybe my luck will change on the back end, but having not seen an Atma drop in 20+ hours is discouraging and more importantly not a lick of fun.

[Grizzlebeard]

114 pages in this thread alone and still no official response on such a clearly divisive topic.

They are clearly aware of the discussions going on, they've locked duplicate posts about it on the German forums. They can see it's important to a whole chunk of the playerbase and yet they somehow feel ignoring the elephant in the room is a suitable way to show respect towards their paying customers.

[DragonFlyy]

114 pages in this thread alone and still no official response on such a clearly divisive topic.

They are clearly aware of the discussions going on, they've locked duplicate posts about it on the German forums. They can see it's important to a whole chunk of the playerbase and yet they somehow feel ignoring the elephant in the room is a suitable way to show respect towards their paying customers.

The do know about the thread. They posted in here and consolidated other threads into this one. Doesn't mean they aren't listening, they just have nothing to say on the matter right now.