Are relic weapons ever going to be useful?

[Goldhawk]

I know I'm late to the party. Been gone a few months because relic weapon/dungeon grinding pushed me away.

But anyway, is this weapon ever going to be actually worth it? I feel in the end this weapon should be the most powerful weapon.

Step 1 - On the new server, just obtaining this weapon was a huge pain and very few could actually pull it off when they hit 50.

Step 2 - This one isn't too bad, but still a time killer.

Step 3 - Absolute poor design and could take the player anywhere from a week to a couple months. Best part? There's no stat upgrade. Why is this a step? Why collect atma if we're not going to get an actual upgrade?

Step 4 - Books are also a huge pain, where you have to not only farm but you have to kill hundreds of monsters and this wouldn't be too bad on the killing part if fates didn't take 3 to 6 hours to spawn. Man that's so much fun! I definitely want to resub when I missed a fate now I have to wait 4 days before I see it again.

Step 5 - Haven't even gotten to this part because I've been gone so long. It's expensive and pretty time consuming as well.

What the eff is the point of all of this? Chasing around stupid pointless quests, stupid repetitive sub baiting crap....

My question is considering this had a similar weapon in FFXl will we EVER see a point where this weapon is actually worth while? I apologize for the harsh tone, but the tail chasing this thing has put me through has been hell and I've been back 3 days and it's already driving me crazy.

[Malevicton]

Right now Nexus is the best weapon in the game

[Goldhawk]

Whoops I didn't see you said "nexus" not "novus"

[Roris]

My Nexus is useful right now. If you mean the quest being fun, engaging and well thought out with multiple unique steps with unique challenges created specifically for it with minimal grinding and you actually get to learn the story of your weapon and each step changes your weapon's look (yes I know the "next step" will have that, please look forward to it™), instead of simply adding some cheap glow that takes 5 seconds to create to mask the rehashed model and calling it a day, then yeah, that I have no hope for.

[Goldhawk]

My Nexus is useful right now. If you mean the quest being fun, engaging and well thought out with multiple unique steps with unique challenges created specifically for it with minimal grinding and you actually get to learn the story of your weapon and each step changes your weapon's look (yes I know the "next step" will have that, please look forward to it™), instead of simply adding some cheap glow that takes 5 seconds to create to mask the rehashed model and calling it a day, then yeah, that I have no hope for.

Well, I was unaware that another form of the weapon existed. But to be fair, there's what 6 steps now? Sure you can place whatever stats you would like on it during novus. But take ALL of the weeks/months you spent upgrading this weapon and throw it all away because there's better ways of obtaining similar weapons. I was thinking of putting crit/spellspeed on my novus and when it's all said and done weeks from now and some hundreds and thousands of gil I'll have obtained a weapon I could have just raided for.

THAT doesn't seem worth it at all.

[Blazer]

What really do you expect? For the most part the weapon can be completed solo and on your own time. It's one of the only things in the game where grinding is involved. It gives you a reason to play, and at the end a weapon that trumps all others of the same type.

[LaylaTsarra]

Atma's are work but very doable. I'm working on my 4th set (have 8). I have a StarDust Rod Nexus and a Artemis Bow Novus with 650 light at the moment toward Nexus. I also have a scroll for my Bravura (15/75 melds) and run a roulette every day for Alex. With hunts buying a map a day isn't that big a deal. I'm looking at these long term. The hardest part of the relic equation is the melding in my view depending upon the stats you want because of cost. Not everyone can afford the materia pricing.

Someone told me the ATMA drop rate was to be increased with 2.4. I don't know if that is true.

[ServerCollaps]

getting a nexus isnt a big effort

relic quest + relic zenith -> less then 1 day
atma quest -> takes average 2 full days/1 weekend
animus quest -> thx to hunt ~1 week
novus -> thx to hunt ~2 weeks for your first novus and like 5 min for your 2nd (since you can pre gather the alexandrite)
nexus -> depending on how much you are willed to farm per day: 2 days until 1 week

all in all the questline should take ~1 month if you start at zero and when you spend your most time with it

[Roris]

Well, I was unaware that another form of the weapon existed. But to be fair, there's what 6 steps now? Sure you can place whatever stats you would like on it during novus. But take ALL of the weeks/months you spent upgrading this weapon and throw it all away because there's better ways of obtaining similar weapons. I was thinking of putting crit/spellspeed on my novus and when it's all said and done weeks from now and some hundreds and thousands of gil I'll have obtained a weapon I could have just raided for.

THAT doesn't seem worth it at all.

Well Nexus is a good weapon in the end and after all the work, money and tedium you'd rightfully expect it to be worth it and it kinda is. Well, at least until 2.4 when Shiva weapons will most likely be i115 throwing all the effort into the trash, until you complete the next step of the tedious carrot and stick relic quest which I'm sure will be as fun and engaging as the past ones.

The overall experience itself from Atma all the way to Nexus was pretty much the most mind numbing, leas engaging and worst experience I've had in this game, but it's not like there was anything else to do in this game so I had to complete it anyway.

getting a nexus isnt a big effort

If you start now sure, especially with the coming nerfs whatever they are, but it was obviously longer as they were being released unless you were a no lifer. I just finished Nexus a week ago so it was about 6 months since Atma was introduced to get an i115 weapon when it's still faster to find good players and just learn and beat T9, I know easier said than done. At least when the wonderfully designed Atma quest was the brand new thing the incentive was higher because the other only way to get an i100 weapon was to either grind 1% RNG Leviathan mirrors or save up soldiery for it which could have rather be spent on gear, then when i110 Novus came out sands from ST and hunts still weren't a thing.

[Gurpsmeister]

The point, OP is to get you to grind while not paying attention to the fact that the devs aren't doing anything new or actually interesting. It makes you grind out old content you wouldn't have touched otherwise. So yes, for now it's the best weapon but dont' expect this to be the last stage either. I wager they're going to keep adding ridiculous glow effects until at least expansion.