Quote Originally Posted by Nyvara View Post
Unlike many games I was used to( EQ, EQ2, Wow) The Relic here isn't something needed for end game/raiding which feels sorta odd to me. Wish I knew the story of why it is like that but there ya go.
The story is a design oversight with the implemention of the story mode raids.

Back in 2.x, the relic was indeed the best weapon for (early) progression. For example when patch 2.4 introduced a new raid tier the max item level was 110 before, with item level 115 weapons. The relic WAS item level 115 at that time. The new tomestone gear of that patch was item level 120, and the raid gear 130, with a 135 weapon. The Extreme Primal of that patch dropped an item level 110 weapon.

With the intorduction of the story mode raids in 3.0, they implemented an item level step between the former highest item level and new tomestone gear. Wich means you don't use the gear of the last tier for (early) progression anymore. This item level step, with normal mode raid gear, crafted gear and extreme primal weapon, makes all the gear of the last tier obsolete, including the relic weapon.

Another point is that the relic was the only option to get a strong weapon without (savage) raids at all. The tokens for the tomestone weapon were locked behind the raid. The introduction of the story mode raid also made these tokens available for everyone, wich further reduced the relevance of the relic weapon.