A Different Approach to Relics

[ty_taurus]

I am sure when 5.3 hit and a LOT of old players took the plunge again and returned to the game, the need for an obvious "back stop" weapon become apparent.
You could get the base ShB relic for just some poetics, making it a very convenient way to jump from a 430 weapon all the way to 485, essentially solving a lot of gearing problems for returning and new players. Whatever you lose in the aspiration value of the relic weapon by forgoing its role as the long grind weapon was probably easily made up by the fact that people could just ... get on with the story without jumping through the weapon acquisition hoops.

This is an old blind spot in the gearing system that I have wondered why it hasn't been solved earlier. Dungeon sets work as a backstop for anything but weapons. If you are short on gil, you can be out of luck how to get a real catch up weapon to get to every final story content. In that situation, having a weapon you can get by just spamming dungeons and roulettes for 1500 tomestones is very feasible, the player probably gets that passively by just catching up on content.

Deep Dungeons also did this, where the first form weapon was a fairly small grind to get a 235 weapon for Heavensward or 365 weapon for Stormblood.

[strawberrycake]

This is true of any and all 'choice', though. If a job is badly underpowered, it becomes a "non-choice". If a job is actually/significantly overpowered, it makes those it competes with "non-choices". The same goes for content and their efficiencies. If a few significantly outstrip the rest, they become the only choices.

But that's not a reason, necessarily, to remove all choice and make everyone do A, B, and C in precise rotation, especially given that such starves queues for those who run ahead or behind without any other options to fall back on. Just as that's not a reason to have only one job per role.

That's just a reason to actually balance the damned choices. Which we should be doing anyways, regardless of whether it's just for Relics or for the broader game.

Also another reason making it all equal wouldn't work, we'll still go for the easiest solution, I DO NOT put that much faith into the NA XIV comunity.

[ThaCa]

They should add PvP Relics.

Maybe even Gold Saucer ones for fun.