Anima Weapons. Putting things into perspective.

[Moonleg]

Absolutely not.
One of the mayor design flaws of this game, and MMORPGs in general, is the notion that somehow investing time into something makes it hard or challenge, which honestly, in most cases just challenges one thing, playerbase patience.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hard

Look at definition #8 and tell me that doesn't describe the relic grind.

[Ashkendor]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hard

Look at definition #8 and tell me that doesn't describe the relic grind.

I think anyone that would describe this grind as "hard" must be new to MMO's or something. This is baby stuff.

[Moonleg]

I think anyone that would describe this grind as "hard" must be new to MMO's or something. This is baby stuff.

That's a nice little ad hominem attack you've got going there.

I've been doing MMOs since Anarchy Online went free to play, so the past 12 years or so, maybe more. Probably more.

There is nothing hard about the relic in the sense of, "Keep banging your head against this wall until luck is on your side" like getting a specific drop from a Heroically Mythical Savage Raidz0rz. There is, however, a difficulty in enduring the necessity of doing the exact same thing over, and over, and over, and OVER without tearing your eyes out from the inanity of it all.

I'll be honest, I'm about two weeks of one hour per day on beast tribes from finishing that part of my relic, and I just can't do it anymore. I have seen way too much of the Sylphlands. I have sat waiting at Quenching the Flame for 90 f'ing minutes drumming my fingers, postponing dinner and arguing with family because "It will probably spawn Soon(TM)!" The damned annoying adds in Sapsa Spawning Grounds keep preventing leader mobs from spawning because I'm under attack, however the hell that works.

The fact is, doing something for THIS LONG when there is nothing FUN about it is hard by some - admittedly not all - definitions of the word. But then, raiding isn't hard by all definitions as long as you're at least having fun and don't want to be somewhere else, ANYWHERE else rather than raiding, wouldn't you agree?

[Warlyx]

there is no absolute , raiding can be fun at the beggining , when u learn the 1 and 2 phase...once u start learning the last one , and u need to repeat the 1-2 its get boring....next boss , fun time again /loop

Anima can be boring because u do the same stuff over and over , by no means thats "hard" , just repetitive.

Is like work or any other activity, it could be hard when u were learning , but now that u can do it with your eyes closed , isnt hard , is boring....

and WHY IS BORING? because u do the same thing OVER AND OVER....w/o being challenged , thats Anima weapon in a nutshell....no challenge , no fun , just repeat this thing u did lots of times before but now u got do it again for this weapon....

Doesnt help that the 3.0 relic weapon has more content in 2.0 than 3.0 ....wonder when a newbie or some1 that just bought HW , ask what u need for the relic? grind fates lol..., 2.0 dungeons and some 3.0 dungeons , Tribe quest from 2.0 and 3.0 , even now 2.0 24 man raids....oh and poetics....is by no means mandatory , but will speed up the process....

[Reinha]

I think too few people are taking advantage of the first-timer bonuses. My fc has been doing some unsynched runs for old extremes (including Odin) and coils and it's super fast. Each instance gives a 100 poetics bonus when a first timer is present, which is a total of 2000 in bonuses and 397 from base rewards. That's almost 3 unidentified items in one sitting and you get to revisit some content you haven't done to death recently. It may not be as fast as speed grinding Alex but it's definitely more fun! Do it a few times a week on top roulettes and beast tribes and you'll have a relic in under a month. Flexibility is something I really like about this relic chain. You can pick what you like doing instead of killing 10 of this and this mob or doing this and this fate/leve.

About effort vs. reward. People don't take into account that each step can be worked on at the same time, so anyone who picks up the quest now can make progress faster than someone who has kept up with the quest. You get tomes while doing the required dungeons and you can do fates while queuing for roulettes. The relic does take more active play time than a tome weapon. However, by doing only 50/60/ex/MS roulettes, CT and HW beast tribes the amount of days it takes is very similar to what the tome weapon takes: 54 instead of 49.

Some steps for the relic are harder than the equivalent tome weapon (like the 210 step), but some steps are easier (like the current one: Esoterics and CT instead of Lore and A8). The path of the relic weapon is one where the reward is not always obvious but lies in the future. Right now the people who have kept doing the quest are getting an edge in gearing with Lore tomes as they don't have to spend 1000 Lore on a weapon. Even though the two weapons are seemingly equivalent, the relic offers 1000 Lore tomes worth of a boost in other gear slots which makes it a superior choice. Therefore the extra effort it requires in total is justified, especially for those who are progressing through savage.

The benefits for doing the quest chain will only become more clear with future relic upgrades where you will be able to customize stats. Those who give up early will complain again and again how the whole quest chain is too much work compared to the most recent tome weapon despite the fact they have had almost the entire expansion to work on it.

Seems like we are playing different games!
Accepting the quest does not mean you can do them at same time!
While one quests you have to have the weapon equipped in the other you need fates and cant go into dungeons.
Dont forget diadem items and you have to buy stuff with same stones (actually a good thing but too expensive for more than one class)

It feels as if you have to do all quests step by step one after anohter, you can NOT do them at same time! (most of them)

I wasn't talking about the actual quests but the items you need to gather. You can start gathering Unidentified items (3rd step) and Aether Oils from CT (4th step) whilst still getting the fate crystals. I know because I'm doing so at the moment. That's why I said "each step can be worked on at the same time" not "each step can be done at the same time". I suppose the dungeon step is an exception but it's quite trivial compared to the other things you need to do.

[raela]

Revisiting this - for both those who haven't finished, and those who have (and/or have multiple or are working on multiple now), what is your experience with the crafting side of it? A lot of the discussion has been about the tokens in general, or the overall process in general terms, but this particular part of that step seems like it could have the biggest variance and I'm curious what everyone's experiences with it so far are?

I used my red scrips to buy 2 crafter souls so that I could craft 5 of the items myself (friend did the other 3). I crafted 3 sets of itemsvat once. The most annoying part for me was queueing into diadem - it took foreverrrr.

[Yukiko]

(..) People don't take into account that each step can be worked on at the same time (..)

Seems like we are playing different games!
Accepting the quest does not mean you can do them at same time!
While one quests you have to have the weapon equipped in the other you need fates and cant go into dungeons.
Dont forget diadem items and you have to buy stuff with same stones (actually a good thing but too expensive for more than one class)

It feels as if you have to do all quests step by step one after anohter, you can NOT do them at same time! (most of them)

[CyrilLucifer]

It feels as if you have to do all quests step by step one after anohter, you can NOT do them at same time! (most of them)

I think you misunderstood the point of that post, because they're right. You can start gathering Unidentified Objects well before you reach that stage of the quest.

[Felis]

Revisiting this - for both those who haven't finished, and those who have (and/or have multiple or are working on multiple now), what is your experience with the crafting side of it?

around 300k each during january.
Cheaper than the premelded crafted weapon i bought during 1.23 for the first relic (that a failed melding not only destroyed the materia, but also the item, increased the price alot)

It feels as if you have to do all quests step by step one after anohter, you can NOT do them at same time! (most of them)

Not quite right

You can buy the unidentified items and aether oil with tomes without having the anima quest active or already done
You can get the unidentified items from beastmen dailies without having the anima quest active or already done
You can get aether oil from the weekly CT quest without having the anima quest active or already done

[Dramatic]

The items are 5.7 million for all 16 on my server atm, that's the only thing stopping me from bothering with it.