Quote Originally Posted by Reynhart View Post
  • Anima was released in 3.15. 5 months after Savage, for an i210 weapon. At that time, you could have an upgraded tome 1 month earlier, and it's without counting the actual time to get the Anima weapon, with the mysterious step.
  • The next step was released in 3.25, 5 weeks after the tome upgrade for an i230. So, the Anima weapon was better than the basic tome weapon for at best, 2 weeks, and that's if you did it by grinding tomestone and not waiting for the Archmagus lockout. And Midan weapons were way above at i245.
  • The following step was released in 3.3 for an i240 weapon, so at the same time that you could upgrade your tome weapon with Mhach...for the dreaded Umbrite steps, requiring lots of tomestones. So, you'd probably have your weapon later, and, again, not that much better than a tome weapon, considering the work you had to do to obtain it.
  • Next step, 3.45, 5 weeks after the new tome for an i260 weapon. So, again, Anima was better for at best, 2 weeks than a basic tome weapon. And Alexandrian weapons peaked at i275.
  • Next step, 3.5, for an i270 weapon. The same time where Dun Scaith allows for an upgraded tome weapon...so the same ilvl.
  • Last step 3.55 for the Lux weapon.

So, basically, the Anima was on par with a tome weapon for most of its lifetime, sometimes even on par with a non-upgraded tome weapon. It was only better for a few weeks while waiting for your last raid tokens, or at the very end of HW cycle, month after the highest content was cleared. As for the Savage weapon, the first one was tied with the Gordian weapon (Since it didn't have the 5 ilvl bump), and apart from that, only the very last step had the same ilvl.

So, in fact, you didn't even check your facts before claiming that people "did not play at all during HW". Nice one !
The weapon upgrade through 24 mans was always introduced at the nex even patch or a minor patch few weeks before the next even patch