Anima Weapons. Putting things into perspective.

[Kurai_Miu]

prices on tonberry have remained roughly the same at 70-90k a item only paid 1.6mil for both of my relics but that's just how the economy on Jp servers are they keep stuff reasonably priced.

[Berethos]

This constant call for nerfing all content gets really old. They need to make some things hard to get and keep it that way. Not everyone needs to have onr to play this game.

Consider this - the reason the 210 step was made as lengthy and potentially as expensive as it is was due to trying to make a comparable non-raid equivalent to what was then available as a 210 option...which only existed in Gordias Savage. That was your alternative if you didn't want the relic, and we were told by Yoshi-P that it was intentionally designed that way.

Now the alternatives for a 210 are significantly easier than either Gordias Savage or the relic. In other words they have already been nerfed.

Since the anima wasn't made to be lengthy to obtain for its own sake but rather to be equivalent to the alternatives(this isn't speculation, we were told this was the case), seeking to have it continue to be comparable in effort to obtain to the alternatives makes sense.

[IndigoHawk]

Yes, the 210 relics are way too much work considering how easy it is to get 210 weapons elsewhere.
The previous stage should always be nerfed when the next stage is released. The relic grind is just to keep people busy. Once there is a new stage, people can be kept busy on that, and the old grind should be phased out.
The current stage of the relic should take about a month, the previous stage should take about a week, and anything before that should take a day at most. It's just for glamor.
Also, once a stage is nerfed, any crafted components for that stage should be available on a vendor, probably a beast tribe vendor. That way people can earn materials for old stages instead of pay a lot of gil for outdated glamors.

[Felis]

Consider this - the reason the 210 step was made as lengthy and potentially as expensive as it is was due to trying to make a comparable non-raid equivalent to what was then available as a 210 option...which only existed in Gordias Savage. That was your alternative if you didn't want the relic, and we were told by Yoshi-P that it was intentionally designed that way.

Now the alternatives for a 210 are significantly easier than either Gordias Savage or the relic. In other words they have already been nerfed.

This would be correct, if the new steps would be also a big grind. But it is a baby grind, not big enough to replace the ilevel 210 grind.
So the ilevel 210 grind still exist to make it not to easy to get a ilevel 230 weapon. It also reward those who don't wait first for a nerf before beginning the relic quest.

[Whiteroom]

Rage thread without taking into context what you needed for Eso upgrade when Relic quest was released or that it will be nerfed, or that the step before and after are both incredibly easy?

Putting thing into twisted perspective is a more appropriate title.

[Berethos]

This would be correct, if the new steps would be also a big grind. But it is a baby grind, not big enough to replace the ilevel 210 grind.
So the ilevel 210 grind still exist to make it not to easy to get a ilevel 230 weapon. It also reward those who don't wait first for a nerf before beginning the relic quest.

The new step doesn't need to be a big grind, the whole process just needs to be somewhat comparable in terms of effort to the alternatives of the same ilevel. It's certainly closer to the 230 alternative, so any adjustments do not need to be severe (more tweaks of the level of removing the specialist requirement), but I don't think leaving it as it is now is the answer either.

[Felis]

The new step doesn't need to be a big grind, the whole process just needs to be somewhat comparable in terms of effort to the alternatives of the same ilevel. It's certainly closer to the 230 alternative, so any adjustments do not need to be severe (more tweaks of the level of removing the specialist requirement), but I don't think leaving it as it is now is the answer either.

The devs will not leaving it as it is now. They just wait until the next big grind in 3.3 (or 3.35), where the anima will be upgraded to Alex2 level, before nerfing the ilevel 210 step.

[AeraLure]

OK. Why the hell hasn't this been eased with the addition of a new stage?

I think the answer is: the Seraph Cane is completed at that point, while the Majestus can be further upgraded. You are making an investment, at least until the next relic step and you turn this one in for a token (lol).

I don't necessarily disagree with you though. It's not the grinding of it that kills it for me. I love grinding in most any other game. It's what I do. In this game, however, tome grinding is so monotonous. I think it's mostly the lack of interest. It's just numbers. There's not a continual advance of stat or weapon improvement, or interesting things to fight or do or hunt like in other games. It's simply running roulettes and other content we have already spent too much time in and the reward is numbers at the end of your run. Intangible and uninspiring. Game design issue as I see it.

[Derio]

The grind for the current relic weapons are very small. You can get them in under a month with minimal daily playtime. And in under 2 weeks with normal daily playtime.

[Inzoum]

Rage thread without taking into context what you needed for Eso upgrade when Relic quest was released or that it will be nerfed, or that the step before and after are both incredibly easy?

- Eso weapon got nerfed (half price, upgrade item easy to get, no more weekly cap on Esoterics).
- Alexander Savage got nerfed (now at 15% Echo)
- Relic .... Not even the early stages got nerfed. It's not just the cost of the 210 stage, you have to account for the time spent on earlier stages. None of that got eased either.

The only reason this step is so tedious is because Square Enix completely screwed up the item level scaling across different content and it had to have some level of parity with Alexander Gordias (Savage). This was admitted in a dev post by Naoki Yoshida himself. Considering that item level 210 has reached a certain degree of obsoleteness and 210 is little more than catch-up gear at this point, there's no reason to maintain the tedium.

The promise that "you can upgrade it further so it's definitely worth all the time you put into it" is bullshit. It would make sense in a situation where only the recent stages require some time and effort, and every obsolete step before that were eased progressively. The previous relic was much more balanced in that sense. The idea would be to have diligent players spend large amounts of time on the next, best and final step when it's released, while giving new players or players who start the quest later a chance to step in with only a reasonable amount of extra catch-up work. Keeping them in perpetual catch-up with underwhelming gear is functionally the same as telling them "you're not welcome here".

I haven't been able to finish the ilvl 210 step yet, a trait I share with many of my friends. This despite pouring every single tomestone, beast tribe token and hunt seal into Unidentified items. I only have a fourth of what I need. I MAY be done by the time we get to 3.3, but by then, it'll have a whole other level of obsoleteness again. If it's not possible to catch up, then the promise of further upgrades is entirely empty and meaningless.