Quote Originally Posted by Alahra View Post
I'm a bit confused as to when you did your Alexandrite, but if you finished that part about a week before HW, it had already become a lot easier to acquire. The maps cost half as many tomestones if I remember correctly (400 Soldiery), and Soldiery was available at roughly twice the rate that Mythology was when Novus was first introduced (for an effective cost of 1/4 the Tomestones per map). If you got Alexandrite from FATEs, they had also by this time significantly increased the drop rate. So it might have taken you 23 days to do it, but you weren't doing it when it was at its most grueling (whereas you're discussing Anima when it is at its most grueling).
I spent some solidery on it, but the majority of mine at the time was being spent towards crafting and gearing up other classes while we were still under Poetics lockout, albeit the elevated one. It was pretty much entirely a built up reserve of Allied Seals, doing hunts and the daily Ex mission. FATEs I would only run if it was one of the ones in my Allied Hunt Log, I think I saw several Alexandrites from there across the three weeks.

And even so that's a step that deserves to be grueling. You're customizing your weapon how you want it, it was a welcomed effort. This in exchange is effectively an "You must have pockets this deep and playtime this wide to ride", compared to 2.x's initial steps that promoted far better values than this.