The only reason having the BiS slot that lasts for 3 years or longer was because it used to take ridiculous effort to get it. If Relic+1 is the BiS weapon in the game for the next 3 years, people would (rightfully) complain that it's pretty messed up a trivial encounter still produces the best weapon in the game even when you have 5 digit HPs. People really need to be careful of what they think of. It's quite easy to make gear with a lasting impact, but the tradeoff is that you most likely wouldn't have it. If everyone have the 'gear with lasting impact', then the 'lasting impact' part might as well be something built into your character. In EQ1/EQ2 the epics pretty much have unreplaceable special effects, and at least in EQ2 they eventually just made the special effect part of your class because otherwise you'd never be able to replace your epic weapon since the special effect on it outweighs any stat gain.