Relic Weapon Upgrade

[Zaresin]

I have just recently came back to the game after taking about 8 months off from the game. I expected all my hard fought gear to be outdated as that is the norm for any MMO that is regularly updated.

What I didn't expect was how boring the grind would be to do the upgrades. While I hated Titan HM (especially as healer, oh god how I hated him) it was frustrating but not boring. Instead of doing an extended quest line with some kind of climax, we have hours upon boring hours of grinding boring fates. The system is not fun in any aspect. Even if the quest line took several weeks to complete it would be more entertaining than mind numbing borningness that is fate grinding. I've done the Atma grind for my Blm and am working on my Smn and Scholar. Does this sound like fun? To me? No not really. It feels like a chore and that is not why we play this game. We don't play it to make it our lives or to be bored. We as players play for fun.

This system feels less thought out than a particular DLC for Skyrim. It has no FF love to it. At the end of all the mindless hours of grinding the only thing you'll feel is a sense of relief and dread when you know you will have to do it all over again for the next relic weapon. You shouldn't dread playing the games content, you should have a sense of anticipation and excitement to see what is next. We dont' have that with this system. I implore the developers to change the system and make it true to the FF Legacy, not this half baked system we have right now. This current system does not make me want to keep playing due to the dred I feel in getting my relic weapon upgrades complete due to how boring it is to do, it isn't even hard just plain boring.

[Nutz]

While I'm certainly not disagreeing with you, this particular system is made long (and boring) I think in an attempt to make players focus on a single job (as it pertains to their relic anyway). I would absolutely not recommend trying to do the full quest chain on multiple jobs unless you have a ton of free time and patience. The atma gathering portion can be extraordinarily long (or short if very lucky) and the next few legs aren't any shorter (and can't be made shorter through luck -- except perhaps Novus but you'd require an absurd amount of luck).

Since you just got back, you are probably unaware that roughly everyone hates gathering atma. This is likely the 500th thread calling for them to rethink/ reconfigure/ tweak this portion of the quest and they mostly don't comment on it at all.

[Zaresin]

This is likely the 500th thread calling for them to rethink/ reconfigure/ tweak this portion of the quest and they mostly don't comment on it at all.

I pose this question:

If I as a provider have a large part of my target consumer base hate an aspect of my product, that would tell me that something needs to change. Wouldn't you if you were a provider of a service?

Now to comment on your thought about it being their attempt to make players focus on a single job. I personally think if that were true, they would have not implemented or done away with how jobs are switched and gone to the classic single job unchangeable per character created.

[Cuervo78]

They provide alternative weapons that are about as strong as the relic and can be easily obtained. So go to Syrcus Tower, get yourself an UAT and trade it in for a ILvl 100 weapon.
Get a Sand of time from Syrcus and upgrade said weapon to 110.

[Nutz]

I pose this question:

If I as a provider have a large part of my target consumer base hate an aspect of my product, that would tell me that something needs to change. Wouldn't you if you were a provider of a service?

Now to comment on your thought about it being their attempt to make players focus on a single job. I personally think if that were true, they would have not implemented or done away with how jobs are switched and gone to the classic single job unchangeable per character created.

Oh, I definitely agree that keeping atma the way it is seems counterproductive. I'm sure several people have quit in frustration (maybe they would have quit soon enough anyway...). The sheer fact that they know everyone hates it and they keep it the way it is is what makes me think that they want players to only ever bother with 1 relic (zodiac) weapon. I don't think they want players to restrict themselves to 1 class/ job really, just that as it pertains to the zodiac weapon quest they want players to have a single preferred job (or perhaps 2 or 3 for hardcore players).

[Xephier]

I'm sure several people have quit in frustration (maybe they would have quit soon enough anyway...). The sheer fact that they know everyone hates it and they keep it the way it is is what makes me think that they want players to only ever bother with 1 relic (zodiac) weapon. I don't think they want players to restrict themselves to 1 class/ job really, just that as it pertains to the zodiac weapon quest they want players to have a single preferred job (or perhaps 2 or 3 for hardcore players).

His point still remains though that even doing this on one player is a long boring struggle. If they at least boosted the % of atma drops above like 1-2% then it'd be bearable but who wants to farm fates for 2-3 hours at a time to get nothing? I won't even put out the effort to get this on one character because it's not fun. I'd have more fun fishing(irl) than doing this quest and that's saying something, cuz fishing is about as fun as starring at rocks.

[Xephier]

They provide alternative weapons that are about as strong as the relic and can be easily obtained. So go to Syrcus Tower, get yourself an UAT and trade it in for a ILvl 100 weapon.
Get a Sand of time from Syrcus and upgrade said weapon to 110.

Book of diamonds is it(I'm a SCH)? That'd be great if the stats on it weren't garbage. It's a pretty weapon don't get me wrong but for functionality it isn't worth the sand.

[ServerCollaps]

everything that counts is the ilvl of the weapon, you wouldnt notice a difference between novus and book of diamonds anyway, because the weight of the other stats is just too small

[Zaresin]

Book of diamonds is it(I'm a SCH)? That'd be great if the stats on it weren't garbage. It's a pretty weapon don't get me wrong but for functionality it isn't worth the sand.

Not to mention those items will have a finite number of upgrades but the relic weapons are iconic to the classes and will constantly be upgraded. One thing that has been a staple is that customizability in weapons makes them more stronger than their static counterparts in the long run in reguards to power. Yes the best weapons in the game should be a challenge to get, but the challenge should not be the challenge to stay awake.

[RyuRoots]

I don't think you'll find anyone really disagreein with you Zaresin but, sadly, I don't really see SE changing it. They'll probably say it's "working as intended". It took me several months to get atma for ONE weapon (since apparently RNGesus utterly hates me with a fiery passion) and I have 3 other jobs I play regularly with Zeniths...so that'll be GREAT. A 5% drop rate for low level content that locks out almost all of the abilities you're used to using with no end in sight? I can't imagine what buffoon thought this was the best way to go about upgrading relics. Hell, even for the book upgrading phase with the Atma, at least you're doing specific tasks with defined goals so I don't even mind those as much. Anyway, I know I'm not saying anything new or exciting either.

tl;dr is that yes, it IS an utterly atrocious system but SE will probably never do anything about it.