Quote Originally Posted by Felis View Post
The easiness of this step foreshadow the grind of the next step ^^
Yup, you should definitely be worried. Previous upgrades seem to follow the pattern: an easy grind to match tomestone weapons, followed by an agonizing grind to surpass them and (almost) match raid weapons. The 3.5 anima step is going to be hellish. Or, possibly, the 3.5 anima step will actually be TWO moderately bad grinds, one to reach 270, and the other to match the raid weapons at 275. At least, in ARR, the relics eventually reached the same ilvl as the Raid weapons, and I'm guessing the same will be true here.

Quote Originally Posted by JunseiKei View Post
Not every "casual" has the luxury of a time sink like relic.
I hate to break it to you, but relic weapons are not, and never have been, intended for casual players, and not once have the devs claimed that they were intended to be. The grinds involved are far more than anyone who calls themselves casual can consider doing, and I don't think that's likely to change.

No, the casual endgame weapons in this game are, and always have been, the Tomestone weapons. The two other endgame weapons, relic and raid, are both intended for non-casual players - just by different flavors of non-casual.

Quote Originally Posted by Blood-Aki View Post
I don't even mind if it's a legitimate grind, So long as it does not recover extremely expensive items due to having to depend on crafters.
How is grinding cash any less legitimate than grinding tomestones, or grinding dungeons, or whatever else it is you have to grind? It's all a time sink, in the end. Heck, I'd wager that even at their most expensive, grinding out enough gil to pay for crafted items was STILL less time consuming than, say, grinding out Alexandrite for the ARR weapon.