Relic Weapons - Looking forward

[Kazamoto]

Right now, Relic+1 and Allagan are the best weapons in the game, both are based at lv50.

Both are relatively easy to obtain, mostly taking time to farm.

Looking back, when FFXI first launched, the level cap was 50, and while there were a number of strong items, relic weapons were not added until two years after the game launched. By this time, the level cap had increased 5 times (to 75) and a the first expansion had already gone live.

Time Line for FFXI:
- May 16, 2002: PS2 ver. released.

- Aug 8, 2002: Rank 5 Missions (including the Shadow Lord fight) were implemented, but with the level cap at 50, no one had beaten it.

- Sep 12, 2002: The level cap is raised to 55. High Level Notorious Monsters, such as Behemoth, are added to their respective areas.

- Nov 26, 2002: Level cap raised to 60.

- Apr 15, 2003: Rise of Zilart preparation update. The level cap now became 65.


- Apr 17, 2003: Rise of the Zilart goes on sale.

- May 16, 2003: Final Fantasy XI Completes 1 Year of Service

- Jul 17, 2003: The level cap became 70. A new region, Tu’Lia, was unlocked. New HNMs were added (such as King Behemoth).

- Oct 28, 2003: North American PC ver. released.

- Dec 16, 2003: The level cap became 75.

-Feb 2004: Dynamis, Artifact 2 and Relic Weapons were introduced.

In FF14, the cap is still 50, but relic weapons have already been added.

Where can we go from here? Ignoring 1.0, a level cap increase could come any time after 2.1, but I would think it would happen around the first expansion.

Would we then have Relic+2? And work our way up to Relic +7?

To the nay-sayers who doubt a level cap increase would ever happen, look at FFXI, they said they would never raise the cap from 75, now it's 99. WoW's level cap was 60, it is now 90.

To keep games going in the long term, caps go up, but where does that leave relic weapons? In FFXI, there are now lv99 versions of the relics, is that the path we are to follow?

[Estellios]

They... have always expressed plans on raising the level cap in this game every 1-2 years. And that relic weapons would be upgradeable as the game went on. It's how they were designed. They won't always be equal to the best gear in the game, though. In the future they will likely be behind weapons awarded in the most "current" content but kept competitive through upgrades.

Right now, Relic+1 and Allagan are the best weapons in the game, both are based at lv50.

Both are relatively easy to obtain, mostly taking time to farm.

What the hell?

[Kazamoto]

What the hell?

They already said, as time goes on, current content will be nerfed to make it easier, as new content is added. So if Allagan gear strikes your fancy, just wait a bit, Binding Coil will be nerfed in time.

@OP: Sounds like you're assuming that Relic-category weapons will always be the top tier of gear, but since they already exist you're concerned about how SE is going to do weapon progression?

Who's to say that more lore won't be introduced at some point in order to allow for weapons that outclass Relics? Just because Relics exist now doesn't mean that they're going to be the best weapon forever.

Relic were top tier in FFXI for ~10 years, even when they added the Mythic weapons and such, they were all side-grades and equally BIS. After SoA, they added craftable weapons that blew anything previous out of the water. (adding over 200 to skill in weapon and over 100 base damage more).

[Norbi]

@OP: Sounds like you're assuming that Relic-category weapons will always be the top tier of gear, but since they already exist you're concerned about how SE is going to do weapon progression?

Who's to say that more lore won't be introduced at some point in order to allow for weapons that outclass Relics? Just because Relics exist now doesn't mean that they're going to be the best weapon forever.

[Estellios]

You should have probably added that to your post since it is kinda required for that statement to make any lick of sense.

Relics in FF14 are top tier gear but nowhere near the idiocy of FF11's relics being overpowered to hell and back, which caused a whole myriad of problems as it set a limit to how good weapons could be way too early in the game's life and caused way too many problems when they finally decided that they needed to raise the level cap.

Since these are set up with growth in mind, and level increases are planned already, there should be a lot less problems adding stronger weapons and having Relics catch up later.

[Kazamoto]

I just hope they dont do what they did with Seekers...

Lv75 Relic Club:
Mjollnir Rare Ex
[Main] All Races
DPS: 11.10
DMG:57
Delay:308
Attack+20
"Randgrith"
Additional effect: Recover MP
LV 75 WHM


L99 Relic Club added after Abyssea:
Mjollnir Rare Ex
[Main] All Races
DPS: 18.12
DMG:93
Delay:308
Attack+40
"Randgrith"
Additional effect: Recover MP
Afterglow
LV 99 WHM

Lv99 Craftable club added for Seekers expansion:
[Main] All Races
DPS: 31.44
DMG:175
Delay:334
MP+35
INT+7
MND+7
Accuracy+26
Magic Accuracy+82
Club skill +215
Parrying skill +215
LV 99 WHM PLD