why do you get relic upgrade materials from crystal tower?

[MeiraStarborne]

Now, that said... Bozja isn't without some serious flaws. For instance, I really, really wish that the Bozja content had a better balance on getting those materials. Having the better drop rates for the materials be outside of Bozja is frustrating; have the mats available outside of Bozja, but have the drop rates better inside. Make Castrum drop 3 per run upon clear! That would keep Castrum active for people who need it to advance the story anyway. (And also Castrum should've been moved to a queue-in-to-it duty like Delubrum Reginae is, so you don't have people wait 45 minutes for a shot at Castrum that never fills.)

Bozja ain't perfect, though I do rather enjoy it. But the relic weapons are part of Bozja, just like Edenmorn weapons are part of savage.

^^ This.

I enjoy Bozja. I like the Skirmish and Critical Engagement grind. But why are memories so much harder to get inside of Bozja than out? Why incentivize what is (I thought) the alternate method over the intended method for acquiring the upgrade materials?

I'm sadly only Rank 10 because I didn't have the time to rush grind to 15 in a day like many people did. I could do a little at a time, and by the time I hit Rank 10 it was very difficult to find a group running Skirmishes. Thankfully I did manage to get to Rank 10, unlock and run Castrum. I feel really bad for those who still need it and are having a hard time getting a group to fill. It's just awful the way that raid functions. Waiting for it to pop, then hoping to find enough people within your Bozja instance is brutal.

I love the new raid. I'm also desperate for the new hairstyle, so I'll be spamming it until I get that drop. I wish random, rare drops weren't the only incentive for doing that raid more than once (since I don't think 510 gear is really enough to keep people coming back for more, though I could be wrong.

Overall, I don't mind that SE gave alternative methods to farm the relic materials. But I'll never understand why the methods outside Bozja are guaranteed drops while the methods inside have such a low drop rate. As others have said, it's like SE doesn't really want us to be in Bozja at all....

[Packetdancer]

But I'll never understand why the methods outside Bozja are guaranteed drops while the methods inside have such a low drop rate. As others have said, it's like SE doesn't really want us to be in Bozja at all....

To be fair, as much as I (demonstrably, given previous posts in this very thread) hate the low drop rate on things in Bozja, I think the balance was meant to be that you can do one outside thing for a guaranteed drop of one type of thing; you can run level 60 dungeons to get Bitter Memories, you can spam Crystal Tower to get Loathsome Memories, etc. Meanwhile, doing stuff in Bozja might give you Tortured/Sorrowful/Harrowing memories (dependent on the zone), plus Bitter memories, plus Loathsome memories, plus clusters, plus lockboxes... so while the drop rates of nothing are guaranteed you can be farming basically all the things simultaneously.

I suspect that was the intended tradeoff. And that's cool, I'm fine with the drops not being guaranteed in Bozja as a tradeoff for being able to farm materials for several different relics (at several different stages) all at once.

But I ran a lot of stuff in Bozja yesterday and didn't see a single Loathsome memory drop, and that is a problem. Sure, I might be able to get anything in Bozja in theory... but if I need a specific material and the drop rate in Bozja is so low as to be functionally 0%, then I'm sort of forced out of Bozja to do the other content.

And that seems like a design flaw.

[van_arn]

To be fair, as much as I (demonstrably, given previous posts in this very thread) hate the low drop rate on things in Bozja, I think the balance was meant to be that you can do one outside thing for a guaranteed drop of one type of thing; you can run level 60 dungeons to get Bitter Memories, you can spam Crystal Tower to get Loathsome Memories, etc. Meanwhile, doing stuff in Bozja might give you Tortured/Sorrowful/Harrowing memories (dependent on the zone), plus Bitter memories, plus Loathsome memories, plus clusters, plus lockboxes... so while the drop rates of nothing are guaranteed you can be farming basically all the things simultaneously.

I suspect that was the intended tradeoff. And that's cool, I'm fine with the drops not being guaranteed in Bozja as a tradeoff for being able to farm materials for several different relics (at several different stages) all at once.

But I ran a lot of stuff in Bozja yesterday and didn't see a single Loathsome memory drop, and that is a problem. Sure, I might be able to get anything in Bozja in theory... but if I need a specific material and the drop rate in Bozja is so low as to be functionally 0%, then I'm sort of forced out of Bozja to do the other content.

And that seems like a design flaw.

This. I can see a 75% or 50% droprate in Bozja to make up for the other things you're obtaining, but the droprate is so low as to not be worth your time to take the bozja path.

I'm fine with alternative options being available, but I'm not fine with the false choice of "make progress" and "don't make progress" we have now.