Why bother with ATMA now?

[echoica]

You know I had really bad luck getting atma the first time around and I don't like grinding without a definite end in sight but I think it's worth it. The relic weapon is a special item in this game and I personally look at people with novus relics or coil weapons as the committed players in this game. The soldiery weapons are just lazy filler with a really short shelf life. I have all of the relics to at least zenith, whm at novus and sch I'm doing the books for animus currently. After that I'll probably grind atma for smn xP at the end of the day, we all have different play styles: choose what suits you.

[RiceisNice]

Atma farming is hardly the worst thing that people have been grinding in this game.

This is the main topic of discussion when relic weapons are considered though. I already finished my Atma and working on the animus books, but even I feel that the Atma portion is completely unnecessary, partially because of how it is executed (completely RNG dependent) and the end reward (or lack of) for that particular step.

I was incredibly confused and a bit annoyed (by the lore/story) when I found like that the step from Zenith to Atma has absolutely no upgrade to the weapon, but instead unlocks the portion that allows it to gain additional stats to match an Ilvl 100 weapon, and eventually turn into another ilvl 100 (animus) with the stats to match.

http://puu.sh/as6E8/967c5774eb.png
"...savior the newfound power that courses through it!" This is the part of me that got annoyed by the lore context. What new found power? It's exactly the same stats as the Zenith, minus the glow. And it doesn't even get passed off as "the power to absorb the souls of the fallen", because Jalzahn straight up tells you immediately " I have more plans to empower your weapon even further!", making me doubtthe possibility that the "new power" from earlier is infact, its ability to gain additional strength from slaying enemies or following the exploits of the zodiac heroes.

[Illya]

I can't wait for the threads to start from all the people that are totally against relic>atmas>novus come to find out in future patches that it'll turn into the best weapon in game for that class. Then they'll cry tears of blood and demand it be easier to upgrade them since it takes so long to do it now, even if you are on top of it each patch. Going to love seeing those threads.

You're delusional if you think they won't nerf lower tiers of Atma -> Animus -> Novus when Zodiak is released. They have already nerfed Animus by adding Hunts, the 13,500 Myth which used to be soul-destroying to grind out falls from the sky now. They'll probably do some kind of nerf to Novus as well when Zodiak hits.

I'm a bit surprised they haven't nerfed the Atma step yet but that's just random chance anyways.

[TomTom1968]

Why would i care about the Relic Questline i've killed T9 and didn't even started the Quest.

Huh? It's been some time but a finished Relict quest was the requirement to start Coil if I remember correctly. Maybe I am wrong, it is almost a Year ago for me.

[RiceisNice]

...

That's more of a indirect nerf than anything. The hunts provided as a source of mythology, which wasn't necessarily implemented to nerf the relic questline as much as it was to introduce another source of myths.

Again, what's earning the most ire from people is not the relic questline, but specifically the atma step. I described how I feel that it's completely useless and unnessescary due to it's execution, relevance and the end result of that particular step. I mean it could be worse, the atma step could've been introduced as the only upgrade step to the relic weapon in patch 2.1 or something (with base and zeneith being in 2.0).

[Caiera]

I look at it like this, the Atma step is an equivilent of a boss in a Dungeon
In a dungeon you go through mobs to reach a boss, then after the boss you go through more mobs to reach next boss,etc. yes?
Well in my way of seeing this, Atma, is the boss for the Relic progression, yes its a bit tedius at times but only the strong willed (or lucky) people will progress.
I'm sure that the Relic upgrades will get harder and harder and offer the more committed players a challenge to sink their teeth into.
Sure some bits will be long winded and hard going, but isn't that why we all play?
To challenge ourselves and work through the mundane parts to get to the juicy bits and feel like, yes, i've worked my butt off to get this far and I have something to show for it

[Llyren]

ATMA is not a juicy bit, it is rinse and repeat trivial low level content to win.

The Grind may be a way to challenge the time rich player, but is a poor way to provide challenging content to pretty much everyone else.

[Benolan]

Some challenges test skill, some patience... some your will to live.

[RiceisNice]

I really feel iffy about calling the relic questline, specifically the Atma aspect of it, a "challenge". The only part of it that I felt "challenged" was trying to solo the alexendrite maps and some of the FATEs (looking at you, Surprise). Everything else is just an exercise in repetition with Atma being the worse of it. There's nothing hard about bashing your head against a 1-3% droprate, just tedium.

"They don't want everyone to have an upgraded relic weapon" has been mentioned a few times. Well gee, its not like the atma aspect even helps in that regard when there's the off chance that people have gotten all 12 within the week or even 3 days (and I've seen the latter in my guild). Even then, you still have the long process of animus books and novus alexendrites (and melds on top of that).

Unless people really feel that having something be incredibly up to RNG to be a testament of player skill or earn you some sort of self-satisfaction...

[Cynfael]

Atma is and will continue to be a poor design until they do something to mitigate the outliers on the RNG spectrum, namely the players who get hung up on this step for weeks of regular play. Adding a currency for FATE completion that would allow players to gradually progress as an anti-frustration feature could at least stop them from being gated for an absurdly long time without speeding up the process for the average player.

I'm about to complete my Omnilex Novus, and I unfortunately have no desire to progress past Zenith on my other jobs. I kind of liked having the to-do lists for the Animus, but Atma farming dragged on for far too long to be fun. Finishing Atma was 0% accomplishment and 100% relief, which is a little messed up.