These Relics Aren't Relicing

[Xaphire]

Don't they serve the purpose of being a relic to obtain easily with tomes then? Why have two?

Can I ask what the difference is between needing 1500 tomestones per step and needing 18 macguffins from dungeon x, y, or z?

[Kalaam]

Usually the selection of dungeon is relevant to a story being told, it can help make specific content relevant again/in the future.
The tomestones are immaterial, in the sense that they are not tied to anything. There is no "story" tied to your tomestones. You can just save them up from doing roulettes and get the relic on login when the patch releases.
They are litteraly easier to get than tomestone weapons. getting a relic done is also about the journey, it's a culmination of a quest, an achievment.

[Kaurhz]

Can I ask what the difference is between needing 1500 tomestones per step and needing 18 macguffins from dungeon x, y, or z?

See, here's where it's interesting because... Whilst you can argue there's no difference, but the presentation, and the wider scope of the relic are what matters the most.

Sure, you might be farming 18 McGuffins from some arbitrary dungeon, but then the subsequent step may have you out in the open world farming FATEs, or it may have you participating in 24-man content, or trials.

Now, you can argue that functionally the tomestone steps present this opportunity, but where they missed the mark is that relics for a lot of people ultimately comes down to doing the best possible activities to complete the relic, this is where they missed the mark because developer intentions don't always map or align with community perception, nor how the community interacts with said content in actuality.

Like, for a lot of people they may also be just doing roulettes alone for the capped tomes anyway - At which point completing the relic is just natural, and aren't really being forced, or placed outside of that activity, which some people liked.

[ty_taurus]

Can I ask what the difference is between needing 1500 tomestones per step and needing 18 macguffins from dungeon x, y, or z?

That didn’t answer my question.

[KuroMaboroshi]

At this point, we have seen three "styles" of obtaining relic weapons: Tomestones (6.x), old content-grind (2.x and 3.x) and new content-grind (4.x and 5.x).

Each other the latter two caused significant pushback. New content-grind was hated by those who didn't want to do that specific content and saw the alternatives provided as insufficient (which considering some content remained mandatory, they were). Old content-grind was hated by those who saw them as tedious, boring and way too long (which they also were). The current state of relic grind was perhaps inevitable in the face of the feedback Square continuously received.

Now going back to either the SB/ShB relic stlye of the ARR/HW relic style still bound to get the people who dislike that specific style of relic grind to be up in arms again (I know I'll be if we ever get another ARR/HW style relic grind, as I loathe it with a vengeance). They probably know this as well, so at most I'd see them refining the formula a bit going foward (unless they decide the pushback against this one was so bad from both sides that they'd rather just anger one of the two groups).

So the question is what Square could do to improve the new "style" of grind? Prevent pre-grinding by tracking it via a separate currency that raises at the same increment as Tomes? Raise the tomestone cost per relic (though at that point they risk having to introduce another inventory-cluttering in-between currency)?

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Unsure what they could really do to 'improve the new style of grind'.

I do think that Square really shouldn't forget that not all content must be made for everybody, especially when it's an entirely optional content like relic weapons with an established trademark of being grindy and/or time consuming for the past 4 expansions.

[LaylaTsarra]

I hard-disagree though.

I prefer this method of obtaining relics (which is actually the same as every other iteration, it just lets you choose what thing you're going to grind). And I like the look and effect on the final stage weapons.

This method is complete bullshit. I've just been redoing Eureka and Bozja and these relics involved work not just hand me 1500 tomes which I can get in running a few EW hunts in a few hours at most. Talk about a lazy way to get a relic this is it. So happy new zones are on the way and that people who want relics will actually have to work for them.

[Jatoi]

I like what they did for Bozja because that area added more lore to the world and it didn't feel bad at all!

This current way cuts time down, sure. Yet besides Manderville things, I don't feel like it added as much to the lore at large. Bozja sure did, but then again I am terribly focused on story stuff.

But maybe there ought to be a way to meet in the middle.

[Nezerius]

Can I ask what the difference is between needing 1500 tomestones per step and needing 18 macguffins from dungeon x, y, or z?

If you perceive that there's no difference between "needing 1500 tomestones", and "needing 18 macguffins", than you should just be fine with the original tomestone weapons, no?
Which leads back to the (still unanswered) question from the person you quoted; why do you need two different kinds of tomestone weapons?

[ty_taurus]

If you perceive that there's no difference between "needing 1500 tomestones", and "needing 18 macguffins", than you should just be fine with the original tomestone weapons, no?
Which leads back to the (still unanswered) question from the person you quoted; why do you need two different kinds of tomestone weapons?

Another thing to consider is having two weapons cost the same currency means those weapons are both competing for that currency. Anytime past relic steps might overlap with Tomestone acquisition that was not required for the relic, you’d also be making progress toward a Tomestone weapon alongside the relic rather than in opposition to.