Atma Reformation Suggestions

[Yhximott]

Salutations,

Now I know I'm not the only person who finds the Atma grind to be a detriment to this game's user friendliness, and may result in the loss of players in very extreme cases. At the very least people who don't mind it agree that it could be better. Last I checked, this game took EVERYTHING about WOW that people hate, and didn't include it.

The truth of RNG is that you could achieve them all in an hour, or you could spend 10 years trying and never get a single one. Both are very unlikely, but still possible. That aside, there are some strong opinions in both directions (for and against the current system) which is causing an unfriendly atmosphere to rise in the game and on the forums regarding the matter. I think factors like these warrant the consideration of a reformation to the Atma quest.

I have seen promising suggestions for the reformation of the process, but no one has yet consolidated them into one thread for discussion:

In case of TL/DR, I'll post my favorite solution first:
Jalzahn gives you an item that captures the Aetherial energy produced by the throes of monsters you defeat at a random rate of at least 1% (up to 100% granting an instant Atma) per completed fate, producing an Atma upon reaching 100%. It would reset to 0% upon completion of a fate in a different area. This would still leave the grind up to RNG, but would limit the number of fates any player would have to do to 100. It would also require that the person is within the perimeter of the fate at it's end, putting a stop to the on-hit-quit technique users.


Another suggestion includes Jalzahn presenting the fruits of Atma research by giving the player an Aether reading device, which would tell you how likely you are to receive an Atma upon completion of particular fates, akin to using special items to weaken or capture quest specific monsters.


One is that Atma's should have specific FATE's that drop them for everyone involved:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ould-have-been.
For this system, I think the drops for these should be akin to the B-rank hunts. One person can obtain one alone and the bosses should spawn rather frequently, so as to avoid animosity between players. Jalzahn could tell you the name of a fabled monster (given at random), and you would then have to find and defeat that specific monster in your current Job and bring him the Atma in order to progress to the next one.

Another suggestion is that Atma's could be bought/sold/traded:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...er-atma-thread...
I personally don't approve of this suggestion, but I want everyone's opinion to be heard. I think making it into a tradable item would encourage RMT, unless the seller was required to obtain an in-game sanction of some sort in order to gain access to the selling of untradable items, which could still be circumvented.
A similar suggestion would be that you might be able to get them from a Mor Dhona trader by giving up rare drops like other highly coveted items, but I think that would diminish the personal satisfaction of cultivating your Relic on your own.

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If anyone has opinions or suggestions of their own that aren't already listed, I strongly encourage you to share. Any solution is preferable to the prospect of spending a potentially unlimited amount of time grinding with no success. And in the future, never leaving the progress of individual gamers entirely up to RNG with no statute of limitations is probably a good idea.