Let's talk about Atma

[Reap00]

And just how infuriatingly bad it is.

I'm no stranger to grinding. I'm generally tolerant of RNG when it comes to grinding out for a specific piece of gear or material from dungeons/raids. Because when doing that, I at the very least get some form of compensation for all of my invested time, even if I do not get the item I want at the end of the day, I still don't come out empty handed. Not the case with Atma. With Atma, you can sink HOURS in ONE ZONE farming FATEs without getting so much as getting some rare, fancy item you could at least turn for profit or other kind of use.

I am staunchly against RNG in relics. I do not understand what could ever prompt a person to incorporate RNG into something like relics, and if you were to ask me, RNG has no place being an obstacle to achieve your class' desired weapon of power.

When I think of some legendary piece of gear, I think about a pretty powerful item that takes a while to grind out. What I imagine, is a relatively long journey, but with consistent progress.

Atma is anything BUT consistent. It's such a joke of a system that merely getting my first atma, Yoshimitsu Atma, felt like a massive disappointment for all the effort put in.

Let me explain to you in brief what exactly is Atma:
It's a no skill, pure luck based game of chance. That's it. You gamble your precious time on the off chance you score an Atma crystal. There are 12 types, you need one of each, and there are TEN ARR CLASSES EACH WITH THEIR OWN ATMA WEAPON.

You could've made it so that you do X amount of FATEs will guarantee you an Atma, you could've made it so killing Y mob will guarantee you a certain Atma, you could've just made it so that you can get one of each crystal per day, making it simply timegated would have been several times preferrable than what we have now.

I am merely here to ask, if I am not the first person to come complaining about how poorly constructed and flawed the system of atma acquisition is, how come it has still not been fixed?

This thread is 10 years late.

[Boblawblah]

I'm on the materia section, it's worse than the atma part imo. I could just blow a couple hundred thousand gil to get through it, but I don't really want to. Instead I made a low level materia farming set to use in the diadem. At least that way I'll actually make some gil while I'm farming, but it feels completely disconnected to the whole process. Doesn't exactly feel epic at all.

[Nebelheim]

I'm on the materia section, it's worse than the atma part imo. I could just blow a couple hundred thousand gil to get through it, but I don't really want to. Instead I made a low level materia farming set to use in the diadem. At least that way I'll actually make some gil while I'm farming, but it feels completely disconnected to the whole process. Doesn't exactly feel epic at all.

The materia step was my least favorite also and didn't like the book step much either.

[Jeeqbit]

Beside buying the items with Allied Seals, you can get 5 per map from Mysterious Maps with poetics. Either way it's fast.

[Vahlnir]

Considering how long it took me to do this pre-nerf...yeah. It legitimately took me a couple of days to get all of mine, and even then, I got lucky. Now? It can be knocked out in an afternoon if your RNG is good, a bit longer if it's not. I'd say things are pretty good now.

[Folko]

Considering how long it took me to do this pre-nerf...yeah. It legitimately took me a couple of days to get all of mine, and even then, I got lucky. Now? It can be knocked out in an afternoon if your RNG is good, a bit longer if it's not. I'd say things are pretty good now.

Therein lies the problem: "If your RNG is good" my RNG is NEVER good. Ever. Period. I don't doubt that I'll EVENTUALLY get the item, but the amount of tries it takes for me compared to others is absurd. It's such dumb luck it's infuriating that I have to put in such effort for such little reward.

[Folko]

A lot of people keep repeating "you know it used to be worse, right?" Yes I know. But it's irrelevant to the point being made that the fact RNG even plays a role in getting your Atma relics is asinine. Doing all these FATEs takes time and you get nearly nothing for doing them more than half the time. I once spent over an hour doing 30+ FATEs in upper la noscea until I got ONE atma crystal. ONE. 30+ FATEs. Having to also wait for FATEs to respawn takes time, and when there are more people doing FATEs for their relics, it leaves less FATEs for me to do as well. This entire process is so time consuming without any seemingly worthwhile reward.

[Vahlnir]

This entire process is so time consuming without any seemingly worthwhile reward.

Your reward is progressing your relic. The same as it was for all of us back in the day. ARR relics were designed to be a monumental task, even after the nerfs. Everything is as it should be.

[Jeeqbit]

Grinding fates can be relaxing as well.

[Musashidon]

Your reward is progressing your relic. The same as it was for all of us back in the day. ARR relics were designed to be a monumental task, even after the nerfs. Everything is as it should be.

it wasn't then and still isn't now. a fake grind isn't monumental it's boring.