What should the DT relic upgrades steps consist of?

[HyperiusUltima]

In my opinion I think we need to take the Shadowbringers approach, but with some changes.

- Expeditionary Zone should be required, tying it to the story.

- External means of obtaining the Relic should be available, but as others have said in the thread, incentivize doing Expeditionary Zones over external through guaranteed drops or other means.

- Do not use Tomestones in the Relic.

- Provide a Trial to advance the Relic on its final step, one that has some actual difficulty. Given Asura, it presented only the same difficulty as a Normal Mode Trial at 6.0. We should amp up the difficulty for these Relics, especially if they're Best in Slot at the end of the expansion. They shouldn't be Savage level, but an Extreme on the level of Zeromus would definitely be a way to keep Relics fresh.

As much as people hate wanting to go into Expeditionary Zones(Eureka, Bozja), I think it'd be a necessary evil so that the zones do not stale on launch akin to a certain piece of content(*AHEM* Variant Dungeons). Otherwise, we run into the same issue where people are whining about content and rewards. I'm going to reiterate the issue we ran in with this expansion as well: It was a glorified Tomestone Weapon. 4500 Tomestones to complete a Relic. While I understand accessibility is a thing as well as having an ever-increasing amount of Jobs being added, there needs to be a balance struck so that the Relic can hold over people until the next patch and a half. Shadowbringers provided with Bozja's method, though I'm curious what systems they'll add.

[Lyth]

It's fine to allow people to opt out of Exploratory Zone content if they want, but it just needs to be incentivized such that participating is always more efficient, especially over multiple relics.

The most important thing is to start it off early and have regular updates. I know the content takes time to design, but it feels less satisfying if you're more than halfway through the patch series by the time the first update hits.

As far as the weapon itself is concerned, I'd like to see them experiment with more Exploratory Zone specific stats like Haste and Elemental Bonus, except introduced from the very outset. This content doesn't need to be balanced, so they can really experiment with breaking game mechanics. You could even have job specific stats within the zone, like reducing your Jump recast or giving you more charges of Ingress/Egress. I think a big issue with the Relic in general is that it seems redundant outside of glamour, so giving it value within a specific zone could be one way to give it some context.

Speaking of region specific stats, I thought that one thing that Bozja did very well was creating an optional grind for Suns rather than making all the levelling progression be mandatory. It would be interesting to see them try out an alternative levelling system this time, though. Perhaps something like the Sphere Grid or License Board.

[Hanayumi]

The original idea of relic was a very heavily spun process of obtaining a weapon on par with tome/relic, why it got dumbed down to basic catch up gear, I just dunno...

• Anima-esque relic grind (fairly heavy)
• Start off much earlier, x.05-x.1
• Equivalent to tome/raid weapon throughout the entire expansion, and not just final step
• Tied to no particular content
• Multiple options of step completions, similar to Bozjan weapons
• Skip certain steps after 1st time completion

[SailorCeti]

As long as it doesn't involve high-end end-game content, I'm fine. I cannot do extreme or savage stuff. I simply don't have skill and would be a liability to any group. One could argue I don't need it, but the Manderville Weapon is the only nod to solo players we get at max level. It gives us one measly thing to shoot for, and is within our reach. The rest of the gear can still come from high-end content.

[Gemina]

As much as people hate wanting to go into Expeditionary Zones(Eureka, Bozja), I think it'd be a necessary evil so that the zones do not stale on launch akin to a certain piece of content(*AHEM* Variant Dungeons). Otherwise, we run into the same issue where people are whining about content and rewards. I'm going to reiterate the issue we ran in with this expansion as well: It was a glorified Tomestone Weapon. 4500 Tomestones to complete a Relic. While I understand accessibility is a thing as well as having an ever-increasing amount of Jobs being added, there needs to be a balance struck so that the Relic can hold over people until the next patch and a half. Shadowbringers provided with Bozja's method, though I'm curious what systems they'll add.

These zones were never in any danger of being stale on launch. There were plenty of players who wanted to do them, and the relic was not needed to incentivize them to run the content. Players who did want the relic but were forced to go inside were the ones that complained. Some steps could be done outside, but you had to initiate the Bozja questline in order to get access and some steps of progression remained exclusive to Bozja.

It's fine to make some rewards exclusive the exploratory zones such as glamour, mounts, cards, minions, emotes, etc.. I actually think this is important to reward players for running it and completing objectives within it. Just not the relic. However, it is fine to give players the option to run these zones in order to progress relic steps.

[Eastwall]

bozja is a fine method. But l think for the first weapon, it will need grind field operation Or old content, Then turn in 3 tomestone items. For subsequent weapons, just 3 tomestone items will be fine. Also, future proof it. I hate timeworn artifacts step... I shouldn't need a pf to do old relic weapon in a reasonable speed.

[fantasiaaddict]

how about just actual content

[HyperiusUltima]

how about just actual content

[Saraide]

how about just actual content

Unfortunately many people in this game do not care about how good content is, only if it gives good rewards or not.

[Niroken]

Combine job quests with the relic with individual storylines per job based on said job with a unique look for each weapon depending on the story. You should be able to weave that into a bozja/eureka style area however any dungeons should be completely separate from the mechanics of the area so you can future proof it.

Why we haven't received bozja dungeons without lost actions confuses me to this day.