New Relic weapon quest - are we down to 1 hour content already?

[Moomba33]

What about the fate grinds though, as far as I'm aware, other expansions didn't have such (long) grind at launch of their expansion. I think that may have played a part in descision to make first relic step quick.

Even after you maxed fate level of each zone, you can still decide to grind for materia and make some gil, at least if you're DoW/DoM only. Better ways to make gil for sure but its not completely worthless infinite grinding I'd say.

Don't get me wrong though, I'd much rather had this first relic step be grindy as well.

Perhaps. I finished maxing the Shared FATE ranks ages ago and grinded out what I wanted from the vendors as they released new stuff, so I want something new.

[JisKing98]

Meanwhile I think I’m the only one who actually enjoyed how easy this first step was. I hated how grindy the past relics was. ARR’s books made me drop it entirely, I only got to light farming before I dropped it too in HW, I won’t touch eureka with a ten foot pole. So when I heard how easy it was this time, I was actually excited. So after I beat the solo instance and got the tomes, I was happy as hell to get my weapon. Plus it made it easier to get my other lvl80 jobs their weapons.

I honestly wish SE would put out more solo endgame content. I find them far more enjoyable then the raids.

They should make the next step be a solo instance as well but make it long and hard as hell to beat.

[Caitlinzulu]

Meanwhile I think I’m the only one who actually enjoyed how easy this first step was. I hated how grindy the past relics was. ARR’s books made me drop it entirely, I only got to light farming before I dropped it too in HW, I won’t touch eureka with a ten foot pole. So when I heard how easy it was this time, I was actually excited. So after I beat the solo instance and got the tomes, I was happy as hell to get my weapon. Plus it made it easier to get my other lvl80 jobs their weapons.

I honestly wish SE would put out more solo endgame content. I find them far more enjoyable then the raids.

They should make the next step be a solo instance as well but make it long and hard as hell to beat.

Relic has allways been about the grind, it should never ever be difficult content since we already have trials and raids for that. Also it would lock out just about every casual player if SE followed your suggestion of making it long and hard. Not everybody enjoys bashing their head against the same thing over and over and over.

[ForteNightshade]

I understand the disapointment when comparing Stormblood and Shadowbringers - I dont understand it in regards to HW and ARR... I'm happy the relic quest has become something of its own - and isnt stuck being a way to make us repeat Wanderers Palace.

The disappointment generally stems from ARR and HW giving people a reason to do old content and actually stay active. Were they all good grinds? No. But people aren't asking for a repeat of the book phase but rather an improvement to that formula. Make the grind more enjoyable instead of abandoning it entirely. While yes, you could argue Shadowbringer, attempted a quality over quantity approach. I find that somewhat debatable. The zone and instance are all one and done, so there isn't any lasting appeal there. Which just leaves the EX fight. That's actually a nice addition but otherwise... it's something with virtually no longevity, and no lasting accomplishment. The latter is what I suspect bothers a lot of people. You're essentially handed a relic weapon(s) for doing nothing.

In a game already quite sparse in casual battle content. That rubs people the wrong way.

[Amnmaat]

Relic has allways been about the grind, it should never ever be difficult content since we already have trials and raids for that. Also it would lock out just about every casual player if SE followed your suggestion of making it long and hard. Not everybody enjoys bashing their head against the same thing over and over and over.

Exactly this, if I wanted hard content to get 485 gear I'd just hop into Ruby Weapon. I don't know what the devs are thinking. The savage crowd has been getting a lot of content while the casuals are now down to getting the relic weapon a full year later.

Savage, Ultimate, Unreal primals, now even relics
What's next, tomestones locked behind Baldesion Arsenal world bosses?
The reason a lot of us joined XIV was because of how casual friendly it is, I hope the devs never forget this point.

I know the rejection of the Eureka grind scared them into thinking we hate mindless grind, and we do, but that's because Eureka is a FFXI design slapped into XIV. FFXIV doesn't thrive on zerg-only content, it thrives on progression-based grind, whether that's dungeons or fates that you can't zerg too much. That's what I liked about ARR and HW, the fate grind couldn't really be zergged like you could zerg Eureka world bosses.

Next time just have a variety of fate types that's less about getting 100 people in to the fate and more like parties of 4-8 people doing different fates around the world with 1 or 2 world bosses people join together for from time to time.

[JisKing98]

Relic has allways been about the grind, it should never ever be difficult content since we already have trials and raids for that. Also it would lock out just about every casual player if SE followed your suggestion of making it long and hard. Not everybody enjoys bashing their head against the same thing over and over and over.

That’s the thing, I personally hate grinding. Let me do this solo instance that’s long and hard and give me my reward at the end. I wish wholeheartedly that we get rid of grinding but I know 99% of this community will Stan the grinding.

[Malmstrom]

That’s the thing, I personally hate grinding. Let me do this solo instance that’s long and hard and give me my reward at the end. I wish wholeheartedly that we get rid of grinding but I know 99% of this community will Stan the grinding.

If you hate grinding then you are playing the wrong kind of game.

[Stepjam]

I dunno, they were pretty clear for a long time that the first step would be shorter than usual. As long as the second step is more than an hour long (which it seems will be the case with the recent live letter), then I'm not that worried.

[MsQi]

People need content to sink their teeth into.

Relic weapon content may have been historically time consuming, it has been pretty shallow. People telling you a bunch of stuff then you do a bunch of stuff. Frankly the introduction story had a lot more depth than previously. Seems they finally understand that people play multiple Jobs and don't need to waist weeks on mindless repetition.

[Iscah]

Honestly I don't think the patch was that bad in terms of effort put into it, I just think they back themselves into a corner with how they put those resources to use. They pour their time into a new zone, 17 weapon models, a big PvE instance and an EX trial, but they're so afraid to ask anything of us now that they just hand us the rewards at the start, or attach no real reward so we can skip it, and all those resources are wasted.
MMO's thrive on keeping you occupied long term. Next patch is months away after all and old content is not unlimited. It's just not sustainable to pay a team to put countless hours into designing something that lasts your playerbase 45 minutes. It's probably why they had to drop a dungeon, those are a massive resource waste.

I still don't see the appeal in being forced to grind something repeatedly.

If you want to spend your time doing old content repeatedly, do it just because you can.

If you don't want to, find something else that you do want to do with your time.

(And no, that's not a "go away and unsub" instruction... you can still be subbed and enjoying the game without needing to spend more time on it than you actually want.)

I'll get my enjoyment from having the weapon and seeing how great it looks on my character, and I'd rather not have to go through hours of content I don't want before I can get it. I realise this feels like "accomplishment" to some people, but it just makes me feel guilty about how much time I'm spending on a videogame without actually enjoying it.

That’s the thing, I personally hate grinding. Let me do this solo instance that’s long and hard and give me my reward at the end. I wish wholeheartedly that we get rid of grinding but I know 99% of this community will stand the grinding.

This is my preference for gaming and rewards. Do content, have the challenge built into the first time you do it, rather than having to run it repeatedly. I realise it's not entirely compatible with RPGs or other games where you level up your character, but there's a balance to be struck with how much time needs to be spent on it specifically. We have so many different things that need levelling here.