WoW Legion uses FFXI style for relics but FFXIV does not?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

A while back, Welsper59 actually brought up the point that XIV might benefit quite a bit from slowing down the prolificacy of content patches so that they can a.) spend more time making each one a bit more quality and a bit less fleeting in terms of design, and b.) so that players who play at a faster or more skillful rate will be able to enjoy their rewards for longer before the inevitable "catch-up patch" hits. Who knows if their subs can sustain that kind of "some of you might only subscribe for two months out of six to twelve months" business model, though.


EDIT: I always wonder how many people who feel like they "always have something to do" are people who haven't been playing since OBT/launch? I'm not saying that makes their opinions any less valid, I'd just be curious to see if there's a correlation between time played =/= satisfaction with state of the game.

I've been playing since 1.0, and I still find plenty of stuff to do. I have stopped raiding, but that was more from disinterest in Alexander and no longer having the time than anything else.

And i have 329 days, 21 hours, 12 minutes of mostly non afk playtime logged.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

If anyone has any questions, I'll be glad to answer them, as I'm currently neck-deep into Legion and loving every second of it. Personally, I think they ripped the artifact idea straight from XIV relics, like XIV so often borrows ideas from WoW, but unlike XIV I feel like they actually improved upon the existing concept/system, rather than made it worse. Artifacts have plenty of lore and story behind them that I axtually care about, as they are pretty much from events that happened during WoW's timeline, unlike the farce with the Zodiac Braves who never show up outside if the relic quest, lol. Upgrading them occurs in a much more
staggered, satisfying way than shoving the endless grind right at the front like XIV does - WoW even has like 4 unlockable skins with 4 colors each for the glamour nerds out there. XIV you just try on the finished product and dream until you finally grind enough to unlock everything - weapon, color appearances and all. It's a reward system that shoves all the gratification at the end, which is why I think the Legion system is a lot better.

Opinions may vary though; the point of my post was more to provide some information that people may be interested in reading to see the OP's comparison to FFXI.

To be fair, the sheer length of time has actually become an increasing point of contention amongst the WoW community. That being said, I feel FFXIV's mistake isn't your relic being replaced each expansion, but rather the devs cannot seem to balance between an enormous grind or challenge. The former is boring; the latter too difficult. What should be the focus is a more steadied progression pace with ample story and lore tidbits along the way. Make us power up our legendary weapons through beating Extreme Primals, make unique fates (without asburdly long spawn times) and perhaps unique ways of clearing them. Basically, stuff that feels like a constant progression. Even if you've already beat Thordan or Ifrit, it still feels like you're empowering a legendary weapon given the status a Primal carries. Collecting 80 Umbrites is just a thankless chore. I don't even think about it, I just do it. This is alright for tome capping, though plenty of problems exist there. But for supposedly an "epic" piece of gear, we shouldn't be progressing it through ran-of-the-mill dailies.

[CaptainLagbeard]

Well, the Relic (or Anima for HW) is kind of meant to be your main weapon that you use throughout the expansion...

But not only is the grind obnoxious, the requirement of obtaining some expensive items meant it wasn't available to everyone to even get it.
The only alternative weapon that's easy to get is the tomestone ones, and that takes away a little over 2 weeks of upgrading your armors to get one of them.

While the Relic isn't supposed to be something you get easily to give it some actual meaning, putting it behind large amounts of grind and money just makes it not worthwhile which is why the alternatives seem so much better options.

I don't mind grind, but when you have to grind with a drop chance that varies from terrible to random, it's not fun. And locking it behind crafted items that have no purpose beyond getting your relic just makes it harder to get unless you level up your crafting classes as well by not having the Gil for them.

Edit: Ok, I don't know the developers thoughts on the Relic... But as long as the Alternatives to the Relic are easier and faster to get, people are going to be getting them over the Relic. If you can get potentially get a full set of armor and a weapon with 450 weekly capped Tomestones before you can get your Relic and get it powered up, then the Tomestone gear is obviously a more appealing option making the Relic almost worthless to everyone who isn't Minmaxing.

[Remedi]

Well, the Relic (or Anima for HW) is kind of meant to be your main weapon that you use throughout the expansion...
.

No the relic is not meant to be your main weapon it is meant to be as an alternative to those not good enough to defeat the endgame content according to the recent yoshida interwiew

[cammi]

I don't get how people think it's useless now cause it's been nerfed when they got it BEFORE the nerf happened. It's not like the nerf went and took your weapon away. No you still have it, you still downed content before everyone else, you STILL had it for X amount of months before the catch up. Tell me again what you LOST? Cause if it's time then you will ALWAYS lose time in gaming or anything. so what is wrong with the catch up patch? It didn't take ANYTHING away from you. The only thing it does is let others get it. Thats it. And if you don't want others to get it than thats a personal problem you need to get over.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

snip

While I myself have taken breaks from FFXIV, it's mostly to play a game like Dark Souls 3 and it's not because I'm tired with this game, I just only have so many hours I can play a day. When it comes to the patch rate, FFXIV has adopted a model in an attempt to keep their faithful and loyal players subscribed where as WoW (Since that's what the topic's actually about) focuses on constantly attracting new players or players who have been gone for an excessive number of years.

In response to the OP, I'd say that WoW isn't doing anyone favors by forcing the relic weapon on players since it essentially means that you'll never get a "new" weapon again. It's also nothing like the weapon you got in FFXI where you put literal years into making.

[FoxyAreku]

As terrible as XIV relics are, they're still better than legion's 'relics' imo, because you aren't forced to do it like you are in legion.

[Duelle]

As terrible as XIV relics are, they're still better than legion's 'relics' imo, because you aren't forced to do it like you are in legion.

This comparison would hold if Legion artifacts required RNG fate grinds and animus books and all that nonsense.

[Zumi]

I wouldn't want to see stuff like the 1.0 speed runs for relics return. There was stuff like everyone must use BLM as the only DPS because it can aoe trash mobs the best, warrior can be the only tank because it does the best aoe. Except when you get to the last boss all the blms changed to monk because it was the best single target dps and the boss was weak to fists of fire. Or people would run through tons of mobs to skip them.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

I think SE's excuses for Anima are lame, Hildy quests interesting has fights that are slightly challenging(casual), Class quests these are more challenging than Anima and some are interesting(casual), Weeping City of Mach(casual) need I say anything, A8 quicker to get the 1k lore and 7 cogs than getting to the equivalent Anima stage (casual)

Now you say that the casual players cant handle some semi difficult content but you have all this above. Stop treating us as mindless drones and actually give us a relic with some depth and challenge.