New Sword shown..

[Nalien]

The grind for a relic in this game isn't even a fraction of what you had to do in XI, it's not even comparable in terms of a time sink let alone difficulty.

What exactly was difficult about XI's Relics? I found Titan infinitely more challenging, heck Chimera was harder than anything XI threw at me... Dynamis was effectively just a bigger dungeon with more trash mobs, I wouldn't exactly call it harder, same for Salvage really... XI's took longer, sure, though a large part of that was just because of lockouts (which are purely artificial)... Imagine finishing an Animus weapon when you can only do a dungeon once every 3 days; even ignoring purchasing the books, that's over 80 days. Farming Alexandrite would take nearly a year... The only difference then is that Dynamis takes an hour or so, and a dungeon takes no more than 30 minutes (guess we could also throw in "You cannot do a specific dungeon if anyone else on your server is currently doing that dungeon"). The events you had to do in XI were longer, sure, but most of the time sink came from lockouts and there really wasn't any difficulty outside event planning... XI in general was only challenging if you wanted it to be, since you didn't have strict event requirements and could solo/lowman if you wanted.

[ShinKerron]

That is the most gaudy sword ever and I want one.
Like. A lot.

[Tupsi]

What exactly was difficult about XI's Relics?

At their peak Relics in XI required a few difficult fights and even DD (DPS) checks for certain NM fights, e.g the Ram, Yin/Yang (and by extension, Dynamis Lord) and your respective Animated Weapon/Shield fight. Remember XI also had a significantly different battle system (less face roll same 1/2/3 rotation) I'll just assume you did relics long after they became the norm when SE nerfed every step outside of reducing the currency needed.

heck Chimera was harder than anything XI threw at me...

This is why I make assumption. Especially if you take into consideration how Mythics required you to master many of the ground kings in ToAU and Einherjar content. Especially at their peaks before SE made the game much easier. Empyreans as well has pretty challenging fights at the peak of their introduction that later became cake walk.

though a large part of that was just because of lockouts (which are purely artificial)..

Welcome to FFXIV's end-game structure - It's easy to try to downplay FFXI when XIV isn't any better.

XI in general was only challenging if you wanted it to be, since you didn't have strict event requirements and could solo/lowman if you wanted.

This is incorrect if we're talking about the same FFXI. The XI you're probably talking about is 80-99 cap XI, when they made so many adjustments that allowed lowman/solo of most end-game content because back at 75 cap, the most you could 'solo/lowman' was Salvage, and that was if you were at the top of your game.

[Fayto]

Remember XI also had a significantly different battle system (less face roll same 1/2/3 rotation)

Yup, in XI it was faceroll while spamming macros and menus. Same concept, different UI. Also XI was an easy MMO, it was just extremely time consuming which is not difficulty.

[ananda]

Gold globs do not make for a cutting edge. You are more like to annoy your target than really hurt it.

That's perfect then, isn't that what tanks do? Annoy the boss really bad so it goes after you instead of just instantly squishing the guys behind who are actually hurting it

[ReplicaX]

At their peak Relics in XI required a few difficult fights and even DD (DPS) checks for certain NM fights, e.g the Ram, Yin/Yang (and by extension, Dynamis Lord) and your respective Animated Weapon/Shield fight. Remember XI also had a significantly different battle system (less face roll same 1/2/3 rotation) I'll just assume you did relics long after they became the norm when SE nerfed every step outside of reducing the currency needed.

Arch Dynamis Lord was no easy feat. Your average LS when it was released had no chance. Getting a completed lvl75 was a pure grind and time sink. Then the Trial of Magians was yet another grind. Finally for lvl99, you had to compete with others to get 5 Umbral Marrows which drop off Arch DL. My LVL 99 Amanomurakumo was my biggest accomplishment & longest goal in the 10 years I played XI. I quit before getting my Aegis from 95 to 99.

[Nalien]

At their peak Relics in XI required a few difficult fights and even DD (DPS) checks for certain NM fights, e.g the Ram, Yin/Yang (and by extension, Dynamis Lord) and your respective Animated Weapon/Shield fight.

I don't really remember them being any more difficult than S Ranks. It was just a case of "We're doing Dynamis - Beaucedine tonight and I'm throwing you all under the truck to get my Attestation". Yin/Yang was probably the only thing with any real mechanics (had to kill them around the same time, no?), and that's a bleedin' Guildhest in this game, with 5 mobs instead of 2, though I guess they don't hit like a truck.

Much of the "difficulty" I remember in Dynamis was killing things in an order, with the actual "bosses" being trivial if you gave yourself plenty of time after currency farming. I guess if I count idiots in Dynamis - Windurst (for example) as difficulty then that would make Dynamis harder, and I guess I should since idiots are the only reason Titan was ever hard... Still, fights with groups in XI were just a matter of auto-attacking and hitting a macro when you got TP, or /healing when you ran out of MP (oh god I'd forgotten about that until now...), really cannot find it in myself to call it harder when I specifically remember doing Dynamises at 2am, dozing off several times, and still clearing it. I simply cannot do that in XIV...

Welcome to FFXIV's end-game structure - It's easy to try to downplay FFXI when XIV isn't any better.

Main difference being, XIV only does it with Coil (and that's something they even want to rectify). Loot lockouts in Crystal Tower I guess, but you can still do the event. By the time ToAU came around XI had enough content for it not to matter as much, but I still remember spending a lot of time not really doing anything in the game because I couldn't (because of lockouts). Really isn't the same case with XIV.

the most you could 'solo/lowman' was Salvage, and that was if you were at the top of your game.

Are you talking about Relics/Mythics specifically, or the game in general? Because a lot of content could be lowmaned, or even soloed, other than Salvage before Abyssea came in and ruined the game. I mean, RDM/NIN was a thing.

Arch Dynamis Lord was no easy feat.

Arch Dynamis Lord was after Embrava was introduced, no? Everything was an easy feat after that.

[Moerser]

I know this sounds weird...but here i come.
Id like *drums* TO SWITCH COLORS OF THE SHINE EFFECTS.
Make it expensive, whatever.
Im in.

Greetz,
Mörser out

[Zumi]

Dynamis Lord and Animated weapon strat , chainspell stun + zerg. Rotate bards between parties before the pull use all your JAs, hit your WS button when you get 100 tp. It was not hard at all. You had to have a rdm/drk that didn't lag or something to chainspell stun but other then that it was cake.

I had 2 relics pre nerf, 5 more after the nerf in FFXI. The hardest part was getting currency not the DL and Animated weapon fights, those were pretty trivial. But to finish weapons faster I would craft sell stuff for millions on the AH buy currency out of peoples bazzars.

[Nalien]

chainspell stun + zerg

Good God, I'd forgotten about this... Yeah, really... XI was not a hard game. Not the Relics, at least. Didn't basically everyone (with a brain) get Reraise off equipment too (not the Shinryu drop)? The game had a lot of things which were easy to abuse and trivialize content with.