Thread: The Current Status of FFXIV Patch 3.1 and How to Address it Moving Forward

Originally Posted by RiceisNice

You can glamour your weapons anyway, for the most part they're almost aesthetic in the weapon type; a Fire Mage using a sword is functionally not any more different than a fire mage using a staff.

I haven't checked the updates lately, but iirc you can change your relic path before level cap (versus getting a second one).

I also do not recall them explicitly saying that the artifact weapon is only for this expansion. If it was, then that's really a silly design to put as a form of character progression that's only present for levels 100-110.

You can glamour your weapon but only to the same type. If your a fire mage who doesn't like swords your kind of screwed. I don't consider this a minor thing as character aesthetic is pretty important in MMOs.

You can still only have one artefact before hitting 110. This means you cant effectively use more than one spec while levelling.

They have repeatedly said that the artefact is a legion only feature. It won't carry over to the next expac. Kosak even said they might make some ingame story reason explaining that your relic's power is drained or destroyed at the end of the expansion to explain why you don't continue using it (though I wont hold my breath since storywise Blizzard rarely bothers to explain stuff).

The artifacts are really functionally only just another talent tree, though one you can get everything on eventually. They don't even really allow for customisation beyond appearance. Everyone is going to max them out eventually. It would be better to look at them as an alternate advancement system rather than equipable weapon. You will still need to collect and equip items that give the artefact its actual ilvl.