What should the DT relic upgrades steps consist of?

[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.

[HyperiusUltima]

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.

I think it's more Delubrum Reginae being a relic that wasn't future-proofed via Duty Finder due to the Lost Action system. I honestly would've preferred it to be an Alliance Raid since it literally is.

As for Job Quests, a reminder those are essentially becoming a relic since we've had for two expansions in a row now Role Quests. Role Quests are perfectly fine going forward considering the fact that we've got close to 25 jobs with the new expansion.

[Asako]

World Bosses like Chi. Let's get the community into each zone and start blasting super bosses. Each zone should have 1 superboss fate that spawns several times a day. Kinda like hunts but requiring a ton of lads and not melting in 30s. I want the bosses to survive for at least 10 minutes of scrapping and plenty of time so people have time to actually zone in.

I know a lot of people hated it, but I think Atma fate farming needs to come back.

Other than that just the usual getting people into less common instances that we need filled.

[Reinha]

Everything except the hardest content. ARR relic in it's current form is good, HW is decent but should have less things available with poetics.

[SieyaM]

I suppose they could do something like making a rare item drop from the current trial, another item drop from the current alliance raid, and then another drop from the 8 person raid so it feels like you are actually putting something together to create a powerful weapon instead of just buying it. They could require multiples of each item if people don't want the RNG to play a roll so you have to run more than one time of each of those, or sprinkle in some kind of FATE or light kind of grind as well. Honestly I would just prefer something like the old school EQ relics where you were travelling far and wide and taking on legends and myths of the world to create incredibly powerful weapons.

[Boblawblah]

I think people should be able to do what they want and work towards relics. If you have to push people towards specific content it shows you're not confident that the content would be enjoyable without the push, which always puts a bad taste in my mouth. As far as I'm concerned, people should be able to fish for 100 hours or pvp for 100 hours and get a relic.

[Mecia]

I just hope its optimal to be in the new exploratory zone instead of outside.

[Kemiko]

I'm probably going to be a minority here, but I think the relic weapons were at their best in terms of effort to reward when they weren't tied to any specific content. I also feel as though if a content needs to have a completely unrelated and separate piece of content to make it feel more worthwhile that then that content cannot stand on its own and should either be scrapped or looked into WHY it requires it to feel complete.

The relic weapon system in both ARR and HW didn't have Eureka or Bozja gatekeeping it and I much prefer that to remain true going into Dawntrail. Admittedly, yes, you had to unlock certain things in order to progress either in ARR and HW but it was less intensive than an exploration zone where you'd unlock a dungeon, a trial or a normal raid here or there. The most annoying steps of it were just farming things like light, which you could do in anything but some were better at reducing the grind so you'd have incentive to unlock that content. But the big thing here is, You Didn't Have To.

By the time of Stormblood, relic weapons were directly tied to exploration content. And while Bozja would let you progress steps outside of it, that didn't change the fact that you were locked into Bozja directly with it. If you wanted the relic, you were forced to unlock and participate in Bozja. If you wanted to upgrade your relic, youre forced to progress Bozja. No amount of "you can progress steps" outside of Bozja changed that to upgrade it you HAD to do Bozja. And if exploration content isn't your jam, but you like relic weapons, you're thoroughly screwed in these scenarios which are directly counter to what relics were introduced as and progressed to in ARR and HW.

I have absolutely no problems what-so-ever if you can progress your relic in an exploration zone. That, I feel, is thematic with the relic system as it was originally. What I don't want is it to be tied to the exploration content. Period. I want the two to be separate, but be given the choice to progress my relic while engaging in the exploration content.

As much as I've heard complaints about the current system I've been very happy with it compared to both Stormblood and Shadowbringers versions, even though I've engaged with and completed both Eureka and Bozja. Everything you do in the game at max level gives you tomes. Which means I get to engage in progressing my relic however I please. I'm not forced to lock myself into a zone that cuts me off from the rest of the game in what might not be something I enjoy doing to grind something unrelated to it.

While I do agree that 1500 tomes per step is the easiest grind it's ever been and absolutely doesn't engage in the crafting or gathering aspects of the game (though Eureka and Bozja didn't either), I think it's a better alternative. Ideally, the relic should be its own thing and have its steps progressed in a way you choose that engages with all general aspects of the game itself that, in short, requires some continual effort on your part. But, I do have another requirement with it:

If the relic is supposed to be a "powerful weapon players can grind for instead of running Savage" like it was originally pitched as back in ARR, it shouldn't be easy or quick to grind for but ALSO shouldn't be weaker than even tome weapons, like it currently is for the first 4 patch cycles of an expansion. The effort should match the intended reward, otherwise until the end of the expansion, tome weapons are both an easier and shorter grind with a better reward for your efforts.

[RyanCousland]

I think people should be able to do what they want and work towards relics. If you have to push people towards specific content it shows you're not confident that the content would be enjoyable without the push, which always puts a bad taste in my mouth. As far as I'm concerned, people should be able to fish for 100 hours or pvp for 100 hours and get a relic.

I agree to an extent, which is why I hope the devs revisit the Mandeville weapons with this suggestion mind, however it should be obvious that people have different preferences in content as well as whether some content is worth the time for player to invest in, so when a developer is making content it would be difficult to take into account all of these factors so adding an incentive thats somewhat correlative, would help players interacting with that content regardless of its quality or player value. A personal example I have is, I love the yorha/nier raids but the ques are not always active even at times when youd think they would be and despite the content being well made (good mechanics, 2B, music, design, glam, 2B) there's not enough engagement. if there was a DT relic step for one of the weapons that involved out dated content then it helps those enjoy the content while providing something of value to those who might just tolerate it.