Zodiac Weapon Upgrade

[Psykloned]

Hi all,

I just wanted to post here to get some public opinion on the grind from Atma - Zeta.
Since Heavensward is out in 4 months roughly, I was wondering if it's even worth it for me to work on this? I just came back from a 2 year hiatus and am noticing that even just Animus is a tedious task, that would probably take me longer than it should due to my work schedule.

I'm not sure how long it has taken people to get the upgrade from atma to zeta, so I figured I'd ask on here as well.

Any rough estimates of time investments on this?

Thank you ahead of time for your help!

[Psykloned]

Ah, my apologies already saw an answer to the first part of my thread. However, I'd still like to inquire about an estimated time of completion if anyone could indulge me! Sorry for the repetitive OP lol. Search function lucius..search..function. Derp

[Jamez82]

Some people fly through it like its nothin. I did it casually and it took me a couple months when all was said and done.
5-7 days to do atma books.
8 to 9 doing alexandrite (can be done in 3 with a little luck on hunts)
6 to 8 gathering light.
5 or so uorading to zodiac.
2 to get zeta.

This is casual play by the way. You go hardcore on it and you can cut thise days into 1/3's Probably.. maybe.

[Darkstride]

I have a busy work schedule so I play what most would consider to be casually. I work long rotations, so I only play a few days a week and even then I'm not online non-stop.

Based on my Achievements, I got my Yoshimitsu on 1/28/2015. I upgraded to Animus on 3/7/2105. So, it took about 5 weeks for me to go from Relic > Zenith > Atma > Animus playing very casually. I'm currently 50/75 Material infused on my Animus, and again I'm not hard core grinding it, just doing hunts, buying maps with soldiery, and daily map quest. I could be pushing it harder, but I like to break up the grind every now and then.

The books from Atma > Animus were the worst part for me. Queue times for low level dungeons for the books were REALLY awful, otherwise it could have gone much much faster.

[Kairobot]

Zeta is BiS if you can afford to buy materia to max the stats. It is a long grind but some people think it's worth it. On the recent live letter 3/14/15, the unofficial fan translation mentions that the encrypted tomestone will be available after patch 2.55 (not sure if it will be implemented right away). This basically means you can grind for an ilevel 130 weapon in 3 weeks, which costs 1300 poetic tomestones, 1 carbontwine and 1 encrypted tomestone. Not a bad alternative deal ;p

[The_Last_Dragoon]

The Animus books are hands down the hardest and longest part of the Relic grind now that almost everything has been nerfed (Atma specifically). Sure, they reduced the cost of each book, but the requirements for each one can still easily take a whole day to complete if you're unlucky with Duty Finder or FATEs. The Nexus and Zeta grinds are super easy since they're actually grindable and as long as you're playing the class you'll make progress on it.

I haven't done the upgrade to Zodiac yet, and I've heard some horror stories about how it's especially brutal on dps since the dungeon items aren't guaranteed to drop every time you run, and waiting 30+ minutes between each run is taxing. There's also the fact of the Desynth/Craft items which I dropped about 2 million gil for before they climbed too high. Hopefully they'll drop significantly as time goes on. The materia for the novus upgrade is also extremely expensive and there's a very big chance that if you don't get Zeta before the expansion comes out then it may become unavailable, or at the very least hard to obtain due to a lack of players willing to do old content.

[AskaRay]

Hardest part for me was alexandrite.
Took me two months to get all the alex I needed. I wanted to just give up and throw my bow in the dirt but NOPE I really want that Yoichi Bow. The books weren't that bad for me....I could usually do one book in two/three days if I correctly remember. I'm almost done with collecting nexus light, about a week and a half after I finished alex grinding.

Like honestly I'd take FATE grinding for atma over alexandrite quest again any day (funny alex just never dropped for me while doing fates. I got one. Once. In the two months while gathering alex. Ugh.)

[Rufalus]

Hi all,

I just wanted to post here to get some public opinion on the grind from Atma - Zeta.
Since Heavensward is out in 4 months roughly, I was wondering if it's even worth it for me to work on this?

Basically no, it's not worth working on now if you are that far behind, you won't need it in Heavensward.

I have two Zeta weapons, but only because I was ready for the upgrade quests when they were released.

If I was several steps behind at this point, I wouldn't do it.

[Psykloned]

I appreciate the responses tyvm all of you!

I think I will grind it out so I can at least have 1 zodiac. Hopefully I will get lucky on the light/alex parts xD

[Atoxs]

I got my atma done in 3 days over a couple a sittings. It really wasn't too bad, a couple of drops I got on the second fate others, probably 10+. I'm not sure how I feel about the next step though since it's going to require a lot of sol and I still need a ton to get new gear. After I hit ilvl 100 I might give the next round a shot but by then maybe it won't even be worth it with the xpac.