Why bother with ATMA now?

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

With the addition of new content, old content is (generally) made easier or more accessible. As of the cap reset today, I'll soon have a Soldiery weapon. . . My Atma Relic is going to collect a LOT of dust until the Atma/Animus gates are lifted/made easier to open. Why do I say this? Well it's simple: Upon realizing the month and a half spent on Atma only rewarded me with a weapon glamour, and seeing that the Animus books again only force fed FATEs to me again, I lost interest and discarded my first book. I had a choice: mindlessly grind the same content I'd been already doing for so long (and not of my own free choosing) or test my skills against the higher challenges the game has/had to offer, and with slightly better chances to attain better gear/weapons.

The choice was obvious. I have no regrets.

If when SE wants to MAKE me upgrade the relic after so long, and it becomes a requirement for progression in the game, I'll have another choice: Upgrade it, or find a new game to play. I think that choice will be obvious too.

[Ringabell]

With the addition of new content, old content is (generally) made easier or more accessible. As of the cap reset today, I'll soon have a Soldiery weapon. . . My Atma Relic is going to collect a LOT of dust until the Atma/Animus gates are lifted/made easier to open. Why do I say this? Well it's simple: Upon realizing the month and a half spent on Atma only rewarded me with a weapon glamour, and seeing that the Animus books again only force fed FATEs to me again, I lost interest and discarded my first book. I had a choice: mindlessly grind the same content I'd been already doing for so long (and not of my own free choosing) or test my skills against the higher challenges the game has/had to offer, and with slightly better chances to attain better gear/weapons.

The choice was obvious. I have no regrets.

If when SE wants to MAKE me upgrade the relic after so long, and it becomes a requirement for progression in the game, I'll have another choice: Upgrade it, or find a new game to play. I think that choice will be obvious too.

Hey, your call. You had a lot less work for a pretty damn good weapon by going the Sol route.

Just know that the Sol weapon will likely never be upgraded, whereas Novus is not the end of the Relic line.

Makes that choice a little less obvious.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Just know that the Sol weapon will likely never be upgraded, whereas Novus is not the end of the Relic line.

This is entirely possible. However, if SE decides to stop providing alternatives, then not only are they doubling back on that practice, but they'll be bottle-necking progression, if not slowing it down for everyone. Novus got pushed back once before because "not enough players had Animus weapons". Do you think they'd want to shoot themselves in the foot like so once again? The gap will only widen. And if players are forced to close the gap, as things stand right now, they'll have an even bigger problem later.

Sol weapons may not get upgrades, and that's fine. But if no other options are provided, especially as new gear and expansions and weapons are released, well, that would just be bad game design.

[Ringabell]

This is entirely possible. However, if SE decides to stop providing alternatives, then not only are they doubling back on that practice, but they'll be bottle-necking progression, if not slowing it down for everyone. Novus got pushed back once before because "not enough players had Animus weapons". Do you think they'd want to shoot themselves in the foot like so once again? The gap will only widen. And if players are forced to close thegap, as things stand right now, they'll have an even bigger problem later.

Sol weapons may not get upgrades, and that's fine. But if no other options are provided, especially as new gear and expansions and weapons are released, well, that would just be bad game design.

They did not shoot themselves in the foot. They simply waited until enough people upgraded to their Animus. Animus and Novus are not intended to be something everyone has. It's supposed to be rare enough that you can be proud about it, yet not so rare that SE feels it wasn't worth the dev time.

At one point full Darklight was the Gold Standard. Now if you enter a DF dungeon with full Darklight you may get vote-kicked. lol. Turn 5 used to be quite difficult (and still can be if you use DF), then they added Echo to try and push everyone to higher content. When the next Coil is released we'll probably see Turns 6-9 get an Echo boost.
Even the Allied Seal/Hunt system was intended to boost everyone's everyone's ilvl for 2.4.

These things lead me to believe the next Relic upgrade may take it to 115+ with the next Coil top weapon being 120+. There may not be an 'alternative' 115 weapon and there doesn't have to be. I'm sure you'd still be able to complete all game content with sol weapons.