Why bother with ATMA now?

[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.

[Chrisbox]

You realize the relic weapon gets better as time goes on right? There will be an upgrade further than novus etc thats why you need to do atma.

[Sessurea]

I actually loved the atma quest so much. ( love/hate ofc ) That feel when one dropped =D

Then onto animus......didn't even finish 1st book, mundane heap of crap.

....don't even get me started on novus....masochistic.

Yup, i'll pass all that rubbish and just get the ilvl 110 weaps from vendor ( one that requires UAT )

There are quite a few options for decent weaponry nowadays.....why are these atma threads still active? xD

[sagitis]

i hope that in the future if your spirit bond bar with relic is full your relic STAT will increase but it will reseted if sprinit bond bar becomes zero.

[Chrisbox]

I actually loved the atma quest so much. ( love/hate ofc ) That feel when one dropped =D

Then onto animus......didn't even finish 1st book, mundane heap of crap.

....don't even get me started on novus....masochistic.

Yup, i'll pass all that rubbish and just get the ilvl 110 weaps from vendor ( one that requires UAT )

There are quite a few options for decent weaponry nowadays.....why are these atma threads still active? xD

This is so odd. The animus books are such a joke compared to the atma grind in terms of effort required.

[EricCartmenez]

This is so odd. The animus books are such a joke compared to the atma grind in terms of effort required.

And guaranteed! It's been do this, kill this, join these fates. It's not like you're joining hundreds of fates and finally... Atma! It's successful completion - Move on. 3 fates, that's it. 3 dungeons, that's it. 10 times 10 bad guys, move on. The hard part is getting all the dang tomes on the way! You can complete a book in a day, then 1500 tomes to the next one. Hunts help for sure with that. I've been maxed out several times because of hunts.

[Logo]

You realize the relic weapon gets better as time goes on right? There will be an upgrade further than novus etc thats why you need to do atma.

And do you realize it will always be a second best alternative.
Thats a lot of wasted time, when, you know, you could just raid or hunt.

[HaelseMikiro]

I would still bother with the atmas personally. The biggest issue I see is that each individual relic takes a huge time commitment. I took my SCH book to Atma and Animus, then ended up switching my main class to DRG and I'd already started with the Novus. So...now I'm sitting 9 melds away from having SCH Novus, on a DRG with HA Spear, and Gae Bolg Zenith. Unfortunately, in a game which encourages players to do different things, the relics are going to very much be 'pick 1 or 2, and hope you stay playing these jobs enough to not regret it'.

[Benolan]

You can obtain better weapons now without the stupid ridiculous grind. Even Everquest from 1999 didn,t have a grind like this, plus I think its stupid that were grinding for ATMA items from low lvl FATES.

Why doesn't our epic weapons drop from epic bosses?????????????????????????.
Wouldn't that make sense? O no I need to farm lvl 4 fates,LOL LOL

15 years later and Everquest still has a better loot system than this crap.

Lies! It took longer just to wait for the boat in EQ than it does for an ATMA drop. :P

I will take Fate grinding any day over a Highhold Pass group, where you have to sit in line for a spot for 3 hours THEN spend 6 hours killing the same 4 things over and over.

[Ringabell]

And do you realize it will always be a second best alternative.
Thats a lot of wasted time, when, you know, you could just raid or hunt.

Because not everyone has the availability/desire to start or join a raid group?

As a married father, I won't commit 2-3 nights to raiding. Too much going on. For me and others like me, there is an alternative that doesn't require a static.