Artificial difficulty
Atma: FATEs for an undetermined amount of time to get randomly dropped items to recolor your relic, with no stat increase. No real payoff.
Animus: Do a bunch of tasks to gradually increase stats. Measurable progress with stat increases.
Novus: Dailies and myth tomes for maps. Stat increase and customizability. Speed is determined mostly by how hard you work to collect alexandrite.
Nexus: You do a bunch of endgame stuff. Speed at which you get it is determined entirely by how hard you work at it. Measurable progress. Increased stats and iLevel, as well as bitching new design.
Atma has no business giving players such a hard time. Every other relic step is semi-commensurate to the reward, with stat increases, tangible progress, and content that is semi-engaging.
The atma step should either be removed entirely, or the base atma relic should be an i95 weapon with i95 stats with the number of animus books reduced to compensate and the drop rate of atmas increased.