What SHOULD a relic step be?

[CaptainLagbeard]

Personally, I think Light farms were a good relic step... Specifically the HW Relic's light farm, where you got it by just playing the game.

[Sunhwapark]

I liked whatever Eureka did, live and play in the zone.

[Xactly]

While Phantom weapons did bring back the 300k gil sink (I know it was multiple items) and crafting from Zodiac.

There are three method steps I probably haven't seen in a while from Zodiac weapons series (I don't know what it was like in the past as I done two weapons during SHB before flying was added in 5.3),
Though one of the methods I mention may have the same BLU complain when the Yokai Watch event returned after many years since it's last appearance in 2017 if it were in older area's.

But I do be surprised if we ever got some form of those expanded hunting logs again where you had to complete 9 of them. Which were a select number of enemies, 3 dungeons, 3 fates and 3 leves.
but the cons for two of those would be:
*Enemies - Probably requires area instances more if a lot were to hunt the same
*Fates - if I remember with ARR area's you sometimes had to some fates spawn less than others while follows up didn't always pop up.
*leves - (Wait we don't even have battlecraft leves)

Then the other two methods probably do be melding materia's on a scroll and spamming those treasure maps without a dungeon

[Jeeqbit]

I found Heavensward to be a grind that kept me busy for months. Felt like you'd earned it.

But it involved doing old content. I prefer new content, so Eureka was better. But Eureka had many problems, such as RNG stats (at the time, people had started leaving WoW due to BfA rng) so it just is not a good idea to spend days only for it to be discarded repeatedly.

Shadowbringers was a lot better, but it was more efficient to farm outside Bozja than in and forced us to do a bit of old content. It also was problematic to farm DR that much, or CLL when less people were doing it.

Dawntrail is much better due to making OC more efficient than outside OC, but obviously had the issue with the last one requiring you to wait hours for the right CE to pop.

So overall, I actually think Dawntrail's first step was the best, since it had us doing new content and that being the most efficient method. While also solving the problem of the ever-expanding number of jobs making the grind ever-longer each expansion if you do all jobs.

That said, the new content Dawntrail sends us into isn't as fun as Eureka was. Enemies barely aggro, too much of a constant train, obviously FT not being as approachable as they intended. And the new step people are saying involves old content, which I'll have to see for myself but I still prefer it to involve new Field Operation areas.

[Mikey_R]

For me, a good relic step is one that forces you to, or, at least encourage you to participate in content you might have put down to help you in completing the relic weapon.

If I were to provide some examples, the book step for the Animus step of the Zodiac weapons was a good idea conceptually and definitely something that could have been improved on. Whether it stayed as a list of things to complete or change it up so you have to complete X amount of Y things, both would be fine. Another example is the collectathon for the first Anima weapon (the step after the Awoken stage). There were various methods to get the items, some from beast tribes, beating A1-4 etc. but you could pick and chose what you wanted to do and quicken it up if you wanted to. You could do these small things daily and eventually get it, and it doesn't take up much of your time.

Another step I enjoyed is the Umbrite step, more specifically, collecting the Crystal Sands. You get given a note of the items you need in order to exchange for a Crystal Sand, these items come from various different locations in the game, so you could, again, pick and chose how you wanted to go about it. Yes, Umbrites were tome sinks, but, doing the step slower, you will easily keep up with the tome requirement to fuel the Crystal Sand, not to mention the RNG in the second half that could speed up the completion.

Light farming is also something that could be considered well made. Go and do content, doesn't matter what it is, you get rewarded. Again, another step that you can put as much or as little effort into as possible and you will eventually complete it and honestly, a variation of a light grind might have made the current Phantom Relic step seem more meaningful. First, why only 4 elements? Seems odd to miss out Lightning and Ice despite them being primary elements in FFXIV, bring them all back. Next, I would have made all duties give 'light' to a random element, skewed towards your lowest element. If you had filled an element, then it would not be picked for the 'random' element. The next thing I would do is assign each duty and zone a specific element or 2 and at the end of that duty, you would get additional progress based on that element. This 'bonus' progress would not be transferable, so now you have to take that into account if you want to maximise the gains, though it will also only come into play once you get closer to finishing anyway. It is still a light grind, but it is presented differently. Also, the unstable Aether in OC is an excuse so that each Fate/CE gives a random element, so it doesn't matter what zone you are in and it is universal.



Hopefully this gets across more of what I want from a grind. Collecting tomes is nothing special and whilst it can be part of a step, there has to be something else to accompany that grind. Something that makes that step stand out from the rest so that this is a weapon you earn, not a weapon you just stumble upon. The RNG grind (with some RNG protection) from the first step would have been fine for all weapons and it could have been the case that the required items for the second and onwards relics were reduced, either 2 or even 1 of each Demiatma per weapon. Without the distinct grind for each relic, their status is lessened.

[Basteala]

You know what I'd really like? An optional dungeon with a relatively high difficulty (akin to ARR Hard dungeons or the like), themed around OC, to unlock something you need.

[ViinaS]

Honestly?
There are 2 thing I just don't wanna see in a Relic Grind:

- Fate Farming
- RNG Grinds wiht low odds.

And the DT Relic has both of these already as the first step.
Which means I absolutely despise this Relic from the get-go.

Easily my second msot hated one except the ARR one (so far)

[Gurgeh]

Each week an a single extreme is selected.
It is level synced to enable the full job suites to be used.
Echo is enabled.
You can only queue in parties maximum of four.
(full parties are not eligible for rewards)
Anyone who abandons without vote, or who DCs before the hour is up, is locked out for 24 hours.

Old extremes with full cap gear, and echo, are very easy. I think? I assume if I can do them they are easy.

(no I don't care if unreals aren't interesting afterward. Unreels are a cheap waste of old content as far as I'm concerned. Everyone should have a fortnightly, echo duty finder extreme with full job kits to run. Semi casual blind prog, but a a little challenging. How few echos can you clear with?)

[Ardeth]

Not dogshit RNG.

[Turtledeluxe]

ARR or HW tier with more ways to farm light. Ez.

I feel like this is exactly it. I mostly had fun doing these, as well as the revised Eureka. I think there are good elements you can take from each thing. I think they should focus more on deviating ways to accomplish any given collection/task, so players can have more options. Minimize use of RNG and repetitious grinding that cannot be broken up somehow.

I think people are ok with grinds and long journeys, but give them options that keep it fresh and make the reward more meaningful (not only at the end).

Its kind of the same logic with materia. There's infinite ways to get it and all of the systems feed into one another. Relic steps imo should be more like this.