Quote Originally Posted by Voidmage View Post
It doesn't, it follows ARR which also had crafting and given how simple it is nowadays to level crafters up I don't see the issue.
You will survive.
I don't think that just because ARR did it makes it free from criticism. ARR certainly did some things right, but back then the Relics actually meant something and carried slightly more prestige. Over the expansions, they've been turned into glorified tomestone weapons or "catch-up" ilvl weapons barring the expansion's last patch where being BiS by that time is largely pointless.

Also, simply levelling-up crafters and then actually gearing/melding them to acceptable craftsmanship/control thresholds to HQ these items are two different things.

I get throwing crafters a bone with this relic step, but I thought that's what crafted weapons were for. It's a bit jarring that they've turned away from forcing them to be necessary for relic weapons for nearly a decade and then suddenly make them a part of the process. And I don't think this step is as innovative or refreshing as some people want to make it out to be when I suspect for the vast majority of players this is simply a trip to the Marketboard. When I logged on the price of each mat was about 400k, within a couple hours most have halved in price; I imagine it will be undercut to like 100k some time within the day and will be dirt cheap by the weekend.

So basically, aside from the bicolor FATE currency, this is just a gil-sink speedbump.

I mean, I appreciate the subsequent aetherwell step; giving us a reason to run some largely-ignored roulettes. I haven't been in a Hades NM or the mud Arboretum in years. This part is kind of what I'd expect more or less with the relic steps. It's just a shame that I feel like the Light step is coming up soon, which always usually just devolved into running the fastest trial with the most light during a given time over and over. That was boring.