I think its rather lame how relics work in this game just because of past complaints

[SilverObi]

I understand OP's sentiments since they wholesale lifted the term from FFXI (yes and probably other games I'm sure but XI was clearly the inspiration especially in the 1.0/2.0 relics), even most of the Relic weapons in this game bear the same names as various legendary tier weapons in XI. And in that game they demanded intensive time and resource requirements and gave you a nearly end-all be-all weapon barring a few specific oddities. Of course this isn't XI so bla bla different rules, just saying I get why it feels like false advertising that something called a relic or is a restored legendary weapon of eld is second best until the end of an expansion and only keeps its relevance for 3 to 4 months before trash weapons from the next expansion make them weak.

It's not wrong to want your hyped up weapons to live up to the hype even if you don't need them for harder content, in which case they might need to be rebranded so folks don't get the wrong expectations.

[Kaliesto]

I understand OP's sentiments since they wholesale lifted the term from FFXI (yes and probably other games I'm sure but XI was clearly the inspiration especially in the 1.0/2.0 relics), even most of the Relic weapons in this game bear the same names as various legendary tier weapons in XI. And in that game they demanded intensive time and resource requirements and gave you a nearly end-all be-all weapon barring a few specific oddities. Of course this isn't XI so bla bla different rules, just saying I get why it feels like false advertising that something called a relic or is a restored legendary weapon of eld is second best until the end of an expansion and only keeps its relevance for 3 to 4 months before trash weapons from the next expansion make them weak.

It's not wrong to want your hyped up weapons to live up to the hype even if you don't need them for harder content, in which case they might need to be rebranded so folks don't get the wrong expectations.

I guess you can say it is a "relic" from days gone by in the MMO world.

[SavishSalacious]

Why even call them relics at all when its always weaker than gear that isn't really legendary?

The newest Skysteel Tools that are "supposed to be legendary" are kind of pathetic to once again Market Board green gear. I think they need to stop slapping on the name "relic" and just give the gear a new name at least because the weapons and other gear surely isn't legendary.

I don't know what specifically happened back in the days of ARR and HW to make this kind of strange shift, but I don't really agree with it.

Troll thread or not I agree. They are broken. Not mechanically, just - How are they "relics"? And if they are, should they not be more powerful then anything else in the game at all times regardless of expansion? I feel like they should be reworked into some kind of new teir so that relic can actually apply to its core concept: A extremely powerful, hard to get item.

Or maybe rework them such that instead of a new one per expansion, we get one and we upgrade it over all expansions.

[Kaliesto]

Troll thread or not I agree. They are broken. Not mechanically, just - How are they "relics"? And if they are, should they not be more powerful then anything else in the game at all times regardless of expansion? I feel like they should be reworked into some kind of new teir so that relic can actually apply to its core concept: A extremely powerful, hard to get item.

Or maybe rework them such that instead of a new one per expansion, we get one and we upgrade it over all expansions.

I have no reason to troll.

[Verendal]

Troll thread or not I agree. They are broken. Not mechanically, just - How are they "relics"? And if they are, should they not be more powerful then anything else in the game at all times regardless of expansion? I feel like they should be reworked into some kind of new teir so that relic can actually apply to its core concept: A extremely powerful, hard to get item.

Or maybe rework them such that instead of a new one per expansion, we get one and we upgrade it over all expansions.

Why though? A relic is an antiquated item, ancient, historically significant. It has never been that in this game. You feel that it should be more powerful because it's...a lot of time to get? That's not what they are in this game. It's not what they are meant to be. Relics in this game have the purpose of 'keep you busy until next patch' and 'provide something powerful that doesn't require savage.' What you are asking is for a weapon that would be better than savage, THE place to get the best gear much of the time for...much easier content that just trades time? I'm sorry but in this case you need to adjust your expectations, they are decidedly unreal in this case. Not to mention that continuation design would require retroactively adding in relics to levels for jobs that didn't exist.

Merriam-webster:
Definition of relic
1a: an object esteemed and venerated because of association with a saint or martyr
b: SOUVENIR, MEMENTO
2relics plural : REMAINS, CORPSE
3: a survivor or remnant left after decay, disintegration, or disappearance
4: a trace of some past or outmoded practice, custom, or belief
Nothing in that implies 'better than new current things' and it is only the magical power imbued into that weapon, by your efforts no less, that makes it able to be what it is.

[hobostew]

Do the devs actually call it relic? I thought that was just what the community calls it.

[Rae88]

Do the devs actually call it relic? I thought that was just what the community calls it.

It's not to do with the translation, the term is fine. Even if they were legendary weapons of the past, that does not mean they are legendary today. They aren't current legendaries they are ancient weapons.

The community has expectations and those expectations do not fit the term unfortunately

[Vyrerus]

They keep relics in check because they want to release and design a lot more weapons. The original relics started out at i80, and already then, they made the Ifrit, Garuda, and TItan weapons pretty much obsolete and pointless. They were easy enough to get, even at the time, that you could get one for every job, and skip out on primal grinding. Then it was a 3 week stint to upgrade them to i90. Which, iirc, put them at 5 ilvls behind the Twintania Allagan weapons. This made many of them the BIS weapon due to substats or close enough, that it made the playerbase have even less of a desire to beat Twintania.

If they make relics as strong as Savage, then there's no reason to do Savage, other than to unlock Ultimate, and if you're not doing Savage regularly enough to get some weapons, then you're not going to pick up on Ultimate as fast as you need to in order to clear it in 4~5 months.

More than that though, people wanted them to continue the relic questline. They wanted them to make them better than all raid and primal weapons, even if they had to upgrade them every few levels going into Heavensward. They didn't, and stated the reason being that they didn't want new weapons to feel pointless and they didn't want a repeat of what happened eventually in FFXI. This amounted to, "If you don't have your relic/mythic/empyrean/aeonic, then you can't join my PUG." They want every player to be able to take different routes and still do well. Relic is just another path, and it's damn good for how easy it is, especially now.

[MariaArvana]

I always assumed it was used interchangeably in MMOs, but if this is not the case then I do apologize for my ignorance.

Yes, the purple designation is not a notification of power; its a simple categorization of what type of gear it is. Purple denotes the item is a relic, nothing more. Stats are entirely based on ilvl, and in the case of white/green items, whether its HQ or not.
Hence, the Edenchoir weapon is stronger because it is i505 whereas the relic is only i500.

Troll thread or not I agree. They are broken. Not mechanically, just - How are they "relics"? And if they are, should they not be more powerful then anything else in the game at all times regardless of expansion? I feel like they should be reworked into some kind of new teir so that relic can actually apply to its core concept: A extremely powerful, hard to get item.

Or maybe rework them such that instead of a new one per expansion, we get one and we upgrade it over all expansions.

The simple reality is that this game uses a very vertical based power system; raiding gear always has to be stronger than any equipment the player can attain when its released or the content becomes obsolete to incentivize it. Relic in this game has been delegated to a catch up weapon that anyone can attain regardless of skill; with the only factor being time.

If you want it to be the strongest at all times in the expansion would be the same as asking that to upgrade your relic, you would be required to beat savage & ultimates, which you can guess how well that will go over with the fanbase lol.

[Jojoya]

The newest Skysteel Tools that are "supposed to be legendary" are kind of pathetic to once again Market Board green gear. I think they need to stop slapping on the name "relic" and just give the gear a new name at least because the weapons and other gear surely isn't legendary.

Slow down and take another look at the stats. The Skysung tools (830/455/6) are superior to unmelded Aesthete tools whether NQ or HQ (711/399/0 or 806/441/0).

They're slightly better than HQ Aesthete with 3 materia. If you use a Competence VIII, Command VIII and Cunning V (since 6 CP is cap), you end up with 827/454/6 - still less than the Skysung.

It's only pentamelded Aesthete that can be better, mostly because we can customize the melds for the stats we want. But we don't need pentamelded Aesthete for any crafting in the game. At most they offer a small advantage in Expert crafting for now.

We're also not at the final stage. We don't have the actual "relic" yet. The next stage should pull slightly ahead of even pentamelded Aesthete with the final stage far superior.

It's the final stage that matters, not the intermediate steps.