Has the question of how many people have cleared T9 vs. obtained Novus ever been...

[gamesmart]

-People can't clear T9 not only because of time, but also ability. So its not just a time issue. The monetary investment is compensation to get a fairly comparable weapon.
-Getting a high allagan weapon is subjected to rng dropping your weapon. Some will never see the loot they want even after clearing t9 for many weeks. Novus is more or less guaranteed once you finish the process, though there is also rng involved with melding
-Novus allows you to customize the stats and even exceeds the stat weight for an i110 weapon. Combine that with the fact that some HA weapons are horribly itemised (smn book I'm looking at you) it's quite attractive to get a novus

All in all, I think it's quite a balanced system.

You forgot to mention that relics will continue to progress beyond the current patch while the other weapons won't - that's mostly why I went and ground out a Novus (plus it looks cool).

[KrenianKandos]

I have my Novus and compared to the headache of going to get my T9 weapon, I prefer having it done on the Novus.

Granted I did Parry/ACC which is my tank weapon, I just don't see the idea of going Det at all on my PLD. I don't min/max anymore as, simply put, I don't do hardcore raiding anymore.

I've got 18 points to go on my shield and in no rush to do it either. =/ Just in a place right now that I don't really know what I wanna do in the game. BLeh.

[skaterger]

You forgot to mention that relics will continue to progress beyond the current patch while the other weapons won't - that's mostly why I went and ground out a Novus (plus it looks cool).

Yeah I still went ahead and finished my novus even though I got my HA weapon from T9 because it will likely be an upgrade come the next patch. Just not sure what form of grind/rng yoshi is going to subject us to in the next stage of the quest > <

[Exstal]

Combine that with the fact that some HA weapons are horribly itemised (smn book I'm looking at you), the two weapons are fairly on par for some classes.

Crit/Spell Speed isn't that bad >_>

It's better than acc/spell speed.

[mero-ix]

You don't have to use for level IV Materia. Also, what are you using your girl for?

I don't "have" to use IV materia, but the perfectionist in me won't allow otherwise, so I'll just wait and hope prices eventually go down. I'm in no rush. I'm doing novus because I know it'll keep upgrading as time goes on and I don't want to miss out on that content. I don't need it as a weapon, I just want to have a nice glowy thing.

What am I using my gil for? I have a wedding to save for! Also, I am no where near having 8mil gil, so it's not a matter of being stingy, I'm just poor lol.

[kuikui]

It's funny how the majority of responses to the cost of Novus is akin to something inherent to the time/grind it takes to finish. The absurd and astronomical price tag is because of PLAYERS wanting to gouge the price of an item they believe they can cash in on. it's nothing more than selfish greed. 800-1mil for mat IV is just stupid. It is by far the most expensive commodity in the game.

[skaterger]

Crit/Spell Speed isn't that bad >_>

It's better than acc/spell speed.

It's bad enough. HA weapon does about 5-10 dps more than book of spades. Any worse and it would be inferior to novus

[Lyrinn]

800-1mil for mat IV is just stupid. It is by far the most expensive commodity in the game.

Yet, people still buy them. Basic economics, prices will stay as high as people are willing to pay. If anything, the number of people willing to pay those prices is an indication gil is inflated (ironically).

[Cyrus-Wallace]

Snip

IMO, the time is not an issue since I don't see anything wrong with spending time on something here. This way, you have something to do in this long term process as you finish your weapon. Let alone the fact that the hunting system increased the speed of tis process by... a lot. Heck, I even have a FC member that just got like half of them in 1 week. The materia costs are debatable, depends on the servers and depends on the people. The materia you'll use is your choice alone, and you can split it between 3 stats, instead of 2 alone. In the end, and if you think about it, you'll only be sacrificing 10/13 points of any stat. It's not that much. If you do the same with a secondary one, you'll have 20/26 points to spare in a 3rd sub-attribute. I don't know how the situation in your server is but, in my opinion, the most "critical" stat is the accuracy, since there's a minimal requirement for that in every end-game raid in this game. Having that stat in a safe point, you can mess around with your other stats. When the weapon is ready, it becomes an ilvl 110 weapon, having an increased damage and its main atributes are increased as well. Keep in mind that you'll be able to reset said stats in the future, so it's not something that you'll be tied forever.

This weapon will be improved as well, as the patches are being implemented, so it's more like a future investiment. Even if Yoshi-p said (If he did) that the relic will always stay a step behind the most big d*** in-game weapon, we don't know how we'll obtain the other alternatives, so we better stick with what we know so far. They might even change their mind and the last part of the new end-game raid drops an item to increase the relic's power to its maxium for that patch! We don't know.

Snip

Acc/Parry is a safe combination for tanks. I did that with my Curtana/Holy Shield. It's not an impediment for clearing T9 though, so you're good with that.

[Sapphic]

I don't see how a "casual" could ever afford to meld all the materia. I've heard it costing 8-12mil gil for a det/crit novus. My BLM one is at 60/75 and I just have little desire at this point to finish it when DET IVs are 600k each. My DRG one is at 25/75 and will be staying there indefinitely because @$^%! that!

Atma>>>Animus>>>Novus can be achieved solo. Hence the time taken is equal to the effort needed to clear turn 9.

Also, Materia IVs are not needde whatsover. You can cap on Materia 3s for Det and Crit and finish with something like accuracy, Skill or spell speed, reducing the cost even further. Also Materia 1 to 3 do not take an extended time to Spritbind by yourself.

As I said, the time is extended to counter the effort needed to create or join a party, then learn to be able to clear t9. Also, due to RNG, you may not see your weapon drop in a longer time frame than it takes to obtain Novus. Novus is guaranteed, your turn 9 drop isnt.