Quote Originally Posted by LineageRazor View Post
The way I saw it, the daily quest is the default method for collecting Alex. The devs then realized that folks would be outraged that they'd be forced to spend at a minimum 75 days in order to reach the next stage. In order to appease the ravenous gottagetitnownownow folks, they added HORRENDOUS GRINDS that would allow them to obtain additional Alexandrite, since some people deal better with HORRENDOUS GRINDS than others do. It seemed like a great compromise to me, after the disaster that was the Atma collecting stage.
It's more likely FATEs were the default for Alexandrites and they added the maps (quest/myth) as the new way.
Imagine if they had released Novus as planned and it was strictly FATE based drops (probably higher drop rate than now though).