Relic quest summary -> Good by to casuals

[scarebearz]

i wont say goodbye causals, but i will say : goodbye to all any alts classes relics you arent planing to specialize in!

the atma/animus/novus grind just make getting relic on alt jobs a useless. the amount of time you need to put into novus for ONE job is stupidly high. so freaking high that trying to level the other relics is nonsensical.

Great point, I'd have liked to get the weapon for my bard or sch, but.... yeah no way lol

[Karnyboy]

Eh, I got my Atma today and I didn't sweat much, nor I do to cap myth almost every week. I just do roulettes, beast tribes, and some Coil (T1-4). I've yet to see the huge grindfest people are talking about. I bought my first book today, I'll start working on it tomorrow, and I'll probably do a book a week, maybe more if I put some extra work into it. I don't really see how Novus is different... I have started leveling DPS magic classes and converting/keeping the materia I want for the infusion, and as far as Alexandrite go, there'll be more ways to obtain them in 2.3.

I feel this is as casual as it gets. You're not supposed to do it in a week. Just take your time, it's not a race.

Exactly. I don't know why some people don't get this.

[Kuroyasha]

i wont say goodbye causals, but i will say : goodbye to all any alts classes relics you arent planing to specialize in!

the atma/animus/novus grind just make getting relic on alt jobs a useless. the amount of time you need to put into novus for ONE job is stupidly high. so freaking high that trying to level the other relics is nonsensical.

This. I have monk animus. Am working on BLM animus. I have mnk i110 tome weap as well(got it after). Mnk is my primary class for coil. We beat t9 so i'll be getting i115 as well. so mnk animus is put on hold indefinitely.

BLM. BLM was my first main(didnt start mnk till late january). BLM is now my alt. I'll be getting that i115 weap as well. So my animus/novus for blm will be something i take at a snail's pace. I'm talking like straight up not caring/only doing when I'm bored/have nothing else to do in-game. It'll be my side chick and nothing more.

[Enepttastic]

Exactly. I don't know why some people don't get this.

Let me enlighten you then:

Simplest reason is that some people just honestly enjoy running through content as fast as they're able to. Some do it for the thrill of being one of the pioneers, some do it for the bragging rights, another set do it because they want to complete it as it was "meant to be" before any potential "nerfs", and then others do it so they can get the information needed to help others understand/surpass the content.

Now, for Zodiac-Specific reasons? Primarily it's because there's not really much in the realm of options for players weapon-wise at the moment and honestly, the name of the game for MMOs is, "Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade!" When you hit 50 here, there's nothing left to upgrade but your gear and your weapon is pretty much the single-most important piece.

Now, take into account that it's not too daunting a task to get one's Zenith weapon players are stuck at a few options if they want to improve their weapon:

1. Leviathan Ex(Wave/Tidal Wave)
2. Binding Coil(t5)
3. Second Coil(t9)
4. Soldiery Tokens(Weathered)
5. Zodiac

Now....

1. Leviathan Ex is currently gated via Titan Ex which, unless you have a competent raid group you run with or buy a carry, you're practically dealing with as much RNG to get past it as you will be hoping for a weapon/mirror drop in Levi Ex.
2. Not everyone cares to raid, so that takes away (High) Allegan Weapons for another chunk of the player-base. Those that do raid have only one shot a week for the High Allegan however.
3. Can't grab a Weathered Weapon without a T2 drop so those who steer clear of coil are out again. Even if you do run coil, you're probably better off spending your soldiery tokens on armor/accessories for your class or alt classes instead.

Thus, we have the Zodiac Weapons, which, can be continuously upgraded, and if you keep em upgraded, should at least be a competent weapon to get your foot in the door for any of the end-game content. Additionally, the process isn't difficult, albeit horrifically tedious for Atma/Animus, and can be done in your off-time. This makes the Zodiac weapons an appealing idea to work on for casuals to raiders, even if you have a better weapon currently.

Thus, a good chunk of the player-base will be working on their Zodiacs at some point in time. Notable exceptions to this are the:

• "Don't raid, don't care, Zenith's good enough for me!" Crowd
• "F this upgrade BS" Crowd

Which brings us back to why rush it? Well, as mentioned before, "Upgrades, upgrades, upgrades!" being one reason. Most people will naturally want to get an upgrade as soon as possible. However, there's one more reason I hadn't touched upon yet.

That would be the "Just get it over with" types. These started on the upgrade and, for whatever reason, just want it done. May be because they have a better weapon already and merely want their Zodiac to be up to date for when the next upgrade comes around and would prefer to just hurry up and get it done with. Others may just have an OCD-esque mentality and once they start working on it, they don't want to do anything else until it's done.

Personally, I'm a mix of those two along with upgrade syndrome. However, I don't mind the Zodiac weapons being something that takes time and effort. That doesn't bother me at all, in fact from what I've heard about the Novus path thus far, I think it's almost perfect. Those who want to rush it have their options, those who don't but want to actually make progress have an option as well. I do think there's a few flaws with it, but they're minor compared to anything from the Atma/Animus design. I can easily argue at length as to how both of those upgrade paths are examples of bad design.

That said, I do think that anyone complaining about the myth maps, or "It's going to take forever" on Novus needs to shut the hell up. Atma/Animus bitching is completely warranted, not due to time but the tedious nature of it and Yoshi really should make some sort of response regarding the obscene use of Myth Tomes in the questline.

[Diavolo]

I'm not sure what's bad about casuals. I consider myself a casual, even though I log in about a good 60-70 hours a week in the summer, and in the academic year, about 28. I'm not going anywhere.

[Vahlnir]

-snip-

I personally don't mind the time sink, or the possible gil sink for that matter. Just going to give that part some time to let the prices of materia drop...hopefully. The possibility of failure upon melding is also questionable at best, so I may wait a little longer to see how that plays out. Now, the maps on the other hand...I welcome a challenge every so often, but I must admit my first impressions of being blown to smithereens fighting the Mythril Golem were very off-putting. If they decide to tune the mobs required down a little bit I won't complain. It wouldn't be so bad to just do at least 75 maps, 1 per day or 2 depending on your Myth supply, but it's left too much to chance and takes away some sense of progress with it's current difficulty. Some, not all. I'm aware that there are more ways coming in 2.3 to obtain the Alexandrites on top of what we have already with fates and maps, and that's fine. But what we have now is somewhat flawed, fates and all, considering our previous grind. Zenith>Atma>Animus is where SE hit a happy medium in my opinion.

[Vallug]

Serious question. So like someone said, I cant see myself doing this on every alt..if I wanna play a diff class alot though without grinding my relic what weapon do I go with then? Like as of current patch do I grind Levi for the weapon drop and that is what is current?

[Gormogon]

Square is known for this when it comes to best weapon grinds and upgrades. FFXIII, FFXII, FFX, etc, etc, etc. Even leveling is sometimes a big grind.

Yet people go on about "handouts" so it's no surprise to me that this happens. If I can't upgrade because I don't have the materia for it I ain't gonna spend millions of gold I don't have for it. Probably put crappy stats on my novus if I have to just to get er done.

[Kat_Manx]

Even though the steps they add each time seem more and more horrible, I still consider this path the casual path, and I am casual myself.

The latest and bestest weapon always involves some fight or coil with crazy mechanics and people yelling at you and stress and annoyance.

This weapon I just pew a few F.A.T.E and gather myth. If I feel like it. You don't have to grind it, you know. In fact, grinding is not casual.

[Enepttastic]

<snip>

Honestly, I don't mind the time sink either. It's when the time sink is utterly tedious(Atma), goes against what the lead developer said(Look at my sig), come to find out is even more BS due to more information from the lead developer(Animus books aren't actually the original, potentially "hard to find in Eorzea" copies that we were told, in game, they'd be, thus making their cost even more idiotic), that I begin to have issues.

For the relic upgrades, as I said before, aside from the myth buy-in to start Novus, I don't have a single problem with how it appears to be. The Atma/Animus situation on the other hand.....