Anima... its not fun anymore

[Brill_]

A1S is DF faceroll friendly. And as a tank it should be no problem to get instant queue for A1S DF. You don't need PF for it.

A1S is not instant queue for tanks. Even during bonus, 15-20 minutes queues at least on my warrior.

[Ama_Hamada]

You can do PVP, POTD, Diadem, even maps if you're really patient. I can't stand grinding dungeons either so I just... didn't. Got my umbrites done at the original cost without doing a single dungeon roulette; it wasn't exactly fast but at least it wasn't tedious. Working on my second now for glamour.

Hunts* 3.0 relics give you so many options, you can even get them done doing dailies.

450 poetics= 2 sands, (hunts give that too) lol@ thinking you need crafting or pay "scalping prices" I am getting a second done in the next 3-4 weeks or so just off dailies and quests. 2.0 relics did not have options like this.

[stardrifter]

Yea it's not fun, it could be, but they just want a massive grind fest. At least they could make it feel like your doing an epic quest line.

[Silverquick]

I have 3 i275 relics, 2 260 relics, a 230, one thats almost 240, and ther est are all at 170, with one halfway through the dungeons.

Its really not that bad. There's no RNG involved with it. If you do them when they are relevant they stick with you for the whole expansion. I've never regretted starting them. Reason they stopped making them "hard" was cuz for the 2.0 version, everyone bitched over how hard titan was, because people couldnt do mechanics.

I never once got knocked off by a landslide, because i didnt try to finish what i was doing before gtfo'ing.

Its true, if you had done this back during the beginning of the expansion it would be relevant... but because of the way the game has changed its not anymore.

And the real problem is the effort spent vs the effort spend to get other general i270 gear.

I was able to fully equip my character in i270 gear... while the Anima weapon was still sitting at i230.

There's a disparity between the effort to get similar gear... and to get an Anima weapon to a similar level.

Not to mention the Expansion is about to make all that effort irrelevant and for nothing anyway.

[Vexander]

To be fair, the anima/relic weapons are glamour sticks and nothing else. You don't work on a relic to get the BiS weapon for your job, you do it for the appearance and, perhaps, the story. Its meant to be a grind because you have other options to get weapons on an equal strength to the current step, much faster no less. Having an anima/relic weapon isn't a requirement, its purely for those who want to pursue it.

That said, endless grinds are a pretty tiresome mechanic to gate it behind. I don't mind some grinding, and I'm grateful there is little RNG involved in the weapon, but I wouldn't be opposed if, say, you have to visit the stones of the Twelve around Eorzea to seek their blessing to empower your weapon either. Maybe face a solo-boss tuned to the weapon's iLvl as a kind of challenge by said deity. Or imagine facing primals solo for the same purpose. I feel like there are a lot of options to make these weapons -feel- more legendary in the course of the journey of their creation, than we have currently seen. The entire story of the anima is to make it stronger so the budding life can grow within it and such. I can accept we're essentially treating it like an infant and giving it a steady diet of selective aether baby-food. I just hope what we have in Stormblood will be more about creating a legendary weapon, and -performing- legendary feats in the process. I'd like for NPCs to have little gossip texts like, 'Is that the blade Masamune?! Forged by the Blacksmith Gerolt and the Swordmaster <insert Doman name here>? The blade which struck down the terror Susano?!"

I don't think they'll ever be free of grinds, but I do feel like the grinds need to be simpler while the epic moments need to increase.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Or the fact atma drops and dungeon drop rates had astonishingly low percentages, so low that almost nothing in this game has ever rivaled them in terms of drop rates. Or the fact that the special fates required had some of the longest wait times out of any other fates. The fact you had to meld 75 materia into the weapons while trying to Spirit Bond or purchase them off the mb. Or the required perfect crafted items which was a grind in its own special way if you didn't have gil, knew a crafter, or never started a craft before.

Nope it was because Titan, all him, all the other steps were meet with glee and happiness from everyone in the community, we all sang songs and joined hands during those other steps, that's exactly what we did.

My point was, they made the relics interesting, and people hated the difficulty, so they nixed that and made them grinds.

[DaikiKiyoshi]

To be fair, the anima/relic weapons are glamour sticks and nothing else. You don't work on a relic to get the BiS weapon for your job, you do it for the appearance and, perhaps, the story. Its meant to be a grind because you have other options to get weapons on an equal strength to the current step, much faster no less. Having an anima/relic weapon isn't a requirement, its purely for those who want to pursue it.

I don't think they'll ever be free of grinds, but I do feel like the grinds need to be simpler while the epic moments need to increase.

I was under the impression that not counting the diadem weapons, the i275 anima is BiS for certain jobs because of the customizable stats?

And as far as the person that said it would be worthless once SB comes out I disagree there too. If HW is anything to go by we'll be able to use it to get a head start on the SB relic.

[Jpec07]

I'm still farming Umbrite for my first Anima. I doubt if I'll finish before 4.0 (even though, as I understand, this is the grindiest part). I may take a weekend and just chain Aetherochemical Research Facility to finish this part, but then comes more grinding.

Honestly, these weapons reward diligence and persistence more than anything. They're a really long grind that only pays off if you're extremely diligent with it. The "fun" component relies on your ability to enjoy playing through the same content on repeat. If you don't love your job, and if you don't love the content, you'll burn yourself out on it.

[Ririta]

Is anyone else burnt out on this or is it just me?

I did the Zodiac but I can't justify the investment anymore, not when I saw my Excalibur turn into two worthless crystals.

[NovaLevossida]

Anima was never fun. It was just a time sink and grind, disconnected from player skill and engaging content. What did you end up doing? FATEs, roulettes, and grinding out dungeons or A1S. What a treat.

The relic was fun, back in the day, when it had two trials built just for it and then tasked you to do some challenging-but-not-Coil level difficulty trials, culminating in Titan Hard which was an extremely fun fight that was marred by some connection issues at the time. Ever since then, there's been nothing engaging about these weapons: just a mindless grind that anyone can do regardless of skill. I know that's what YoshiP says nowadays (power for time invested), but it's sure as heck not what the relic started out as. I don't even know what kind of accomplishment you can even feel after grinding for one other than "whew, the grind is over." It sure never resonated with me.