For those of us Relic Hunters

[Mocita]

It's easy to get up to the simple relic now, but some of us like going even further. Two of these is the 5 Æther Oil needed, and Umbrite. So far, getting Æther Oil a week is simple, since I don't like spending 1,800 Tomes to buy it. And I use those same Tomes to get Umbrite, which is currently the only way of getting it. Why not give us a weekly that gives us Umbrite like they do with Singing Clusters?

[Belhi]

We might get nerfs in 3.5, maybe. Regardless I agree that the recent steps of the Anima are far too gated behind Lore. I don't mind grinding but I don't like grinding the one thing over and over again which is the case with efficiently earning lore.

[LaylaTsarra]

You can be sure an Umbrite nerf is coming. The question is will it be 3.5 or 3.55. I suspect they'll reduce the number, or reduce to the cost, or add a quest or two to earn them like clusters. Possibility they'll do more than one.

[Brian_]

As long as the next step doesn't require a large amount of lore, I think the existing grind is okay.

The entire process is relatively cohesive.

You get GC seals from the fate grind step and from the gear-turn ins in the dungeon grind step. You can use those seals to purchase the i210 turn-in items or convert it to gil to spend on sands (or if the conversion rate is bad, you can just trade for moonstones straight up).

You get 4 UI items per day from Beast Tribes. The poetics can be used to purchase sands or UI items.

You get 1 Aether Oil per week from the weekly CT quest. The poetics can be used to purchase sands or UI items.

You get 17 Singing Clusters per week from repeatable quests.

And because the rest of the relic doesn't really require lore, you can spend all your lore on Umbrites.

That way, assuming you just do your dailies and weeklies, you get one up-to-date relic every 5 weeks (bottle-necked by the Aether Oils mainly) with no other grinding.

Currently I have 3 (and almost 4) up-to-date relics and 2 more at i210. Outside of the my first relic, I really haven't went out of my way to grind anything. I just did my normal daily routine that takes maybe an hour or two.

So yea... as long as the next step isn't a lore grind, I think the existing quest cycle is fine. The only thing I think needs changing is the singing cluster quests need to be made available regardless of your relic progression. That way, while slowly accumulating Aether Oils with the CT weekly, you can work on your i240 progress by spending lore on umbrites and can work on your i260 progress by doing your singing cluster repeatable quests. While this doesn't matter to people who've already done one relic, it'd help streamline the grind for first time relic questers.

If they do add another lore grind, though... well, I would be really disappointed at the complete lack of creativity. This entire relic has been copy-and-paste but it'd just be another slap to the face. But yea, they'd probably need to adjust how we get Umbrites then.

I think the i270 and i275 relic steps should focus much more on how to keep your players active given the upcoming content lull before 4.0. Lore grinds don't actually do that well since it just forces players into whatever is the most efficient means of grinding lore and kills everything else.

[JunseiKei]

Lore grind > crafter grind or materia grind. At least you can do other things while grinding for said lore. *PTSD from materia melding for the Zeta weapons.* Yeah, that's one step I never want to see again. The umbrite and crystal sand step is similar, but nowhere near as horrifying.

Or the light grind, only because to efficiently farm light, you needed to do specific trials for roughly 2 hours before it changed and you needed to figure out what the new efficient trial was. <-- Thank goodness this step also got two or three nerfs to it so it's stupidly easy and faster compared to what it was.

[Lambdafish]

This frustrated me, adding more methods to get umbrite isn't a nerf, it doesn't take any less time, it only gives variety to the content (especially with singing clusters). Honestly I loved the varied methods to get the sands, but the umbrite half turned the entire step into "grind lore to win"

[Rinuko]

I dont like the Umbrite step. I've been stuck at it for like a month. Granted I dont grind 24/7 but i'd welcome a nerf or least lower the cost to like 50-100 lore /ea

[aesteval]

I have words to express my feelings for umbrite and they're liable to get me banned for using.

[Zigabar]

I'll be on the umbrite step until a nerf happens. My Lore is better spent on crafting mats. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[LaylaTsarra]

I'll be on the umbrite step until a nerf happens. My Lore is better spent on crafting mats. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Lore has too many uses sadly. It's bad they make one choose relic or other items like gearing alt roles and crafting etc. There really should have been alt ways to get it along with a quest like they did with clusters. For those without time relic isn't very doable.