Occult Relic grind needs to change.

[Daralii]

I was in OC yesterday for about 2 hours. I would say I was severely under levelled compared to most others in the groups for CEs. I only got one demiatma (yellow) for all the fates and CEs I did. I was hoping for a bit better drop rate in OC. I have not done a bunch or DT fates for reference. I have 21 relics to do. Yes I am a glutton for punishment but at least throw us a bone in terms of drops.

The atma step for every weapon after the first is just 1500 tomestones instead.

[Allyissa]

The atma step for every weapon after the first is just 1500 tomestones instead.

If the drops themselves are going to be miserable, it will still be kind of painful. Also if you look at it this way, I will still have to grind out 30k tomestones. At least that I can do through general gameplay. I will still have to decide whether to buy the crafting materials off the market board or farm the tomestones like crazy. I wish they would have said something or did I miss that bit of information?

[VeyaAkemi]

So after a few days of farming it, my take is that the drop rate is completely fine, but I am finding issue with how the CEs are sorted, let me explain, and for that look at this map:



The way Demiatmas work is that they drop per zone, the Shark Attack Critical Engagement can only ever drop a Realgar Demiatma, and because of the way CEs are sorted, this makes Verdigris remarkably rarer than all other options, because not only it is covered by a single CE, the one CE that drops it is the rarest of them all, and actively requires players to spawn the thing by killing Inkstains, which a lot of players may not even realize they need to do.

Perhaps the best way to solve this would've been to add an additional CE to the map, perhaps at the top of the spire to the left of the Calamity Bound, but as it is, Verdigris will be a lot of player's bottleneck.

[Daudream]

The way Demiatmas work is that they drop per zone, the Shark Attack Critical Engagement can only ever drop a Realgar Demiatma, and because of the way CEs are sorted, this makes Verdigris remarkably rarer than all other options, because not only it is covered by a single CE, the one CE that drops it is the rarest of them all, and actively requires players to spawn the thing by killing Inkstains, which a lot of players may not even realize they need to do.

This. I'm currently stuck at zero verdigris with the only other atma I'm missing being a single azurite, which I'm not feeling pressed on because it has three CEs I can get it from. Fates has this problem where people have no manners and instantly pull them, so even if I go the moment a fate spawns I will at most get one hit in because it's already dead at the seventeen minute mark, asking in /shout for people to wait more doesn't help much.

The only other way for me to get verdigris is to go to kozama'uka and while I need bicolor gems I usually avoid grinding for them in lower level zones because of the fate level sync.

So my options are to sit in the SW corner waiting for things to spawn while maybe grinding inkstains or go to kozama to grind fates and deal with the level sync... the former I'd like to avoid because while in OC i want to have fun or feel like I'm progressing and the latter will be a boring grind done all alone which for all I know has a lower drop rate than in OC but will be what I'll end up doing once I get that azurite regardless...

RNG is already a boring form of grinding, there is no challenge it's not hard or difficult it's just random, but because of this decision it's turned into a nightmare chore, almost like they don't want people to get this one atma inside of OC.

[Supersnow845]

This. I'm currently stuck at zero verdigris with the only other atma I'm missing being a single azurite, which I'm not feeling pressed on because it has three CEs I can get it from. Fates has this problem where people have no manners and instantly pull them, so even if I go the moment a fate spawns I will at most get one hit in because it's already dead at the seventeen minute mark, asking in /shout for people to wait more doesn't help much.

The only other way for me to get verdigris is to go to kozama'uka and while I need bicolor gems I usually avoid grinding for them in lower level zones because of the fate level sync.

So my options are to sit in the SW corner waiting for things to spawn while maybe grinding inkstains or go to kozama to grind fates and deal with the level sync... the former I'd like to avoid because while in OC i want to have fun or feel like I'm progressing and the latter will be a boring grind done all alone which for all I know has a lower drop rate than in OC but will be what I'll end up doing once I get that azurite regardless...

RNG is already a boring form of grinding, there is no challenge it's not hard or difficult it's just random, but because of this decision it's turned into a nightmare chore, almost like they don't want people to get this one atma inside of OC.

I don’t see how “I can rush what I’m short on and guarantee it’s the only type that will drop or go slower and progress it alongside other things” is a bad design strategy. You’ve correctly identified that if you want vedigris your best bet is kozamauka yet you don’t want to do that because you don’t like kozamauka’s sync, all 6 zones can’t be living memory. But you also mention that using OC is a net benefit in other areas but leads to vedigris more slowly. Outside of vedigris being less likely to spawn because of karnak’s fewer fates I feel like this is exactly the right move to make as you can’t really control the flow of OC (vedigris having less spawns is arguably an issue but I’ve also seen people struggle with almost every colour except caput strangely but that may be due to people constantly trying to spawn oracle)

Gold and silver coins already fill the non RNG grind you are basically just making a choice as to whether OC progression or epic progression matters more to you

[Daudream]

Oh I don't really think it's a bad design strategy, if anything I thinks it's a really smart choice to make atmas also drop from the fates of the different zones, my only issue is that within OC verdigris only drops from one CE, had there been two i would not have any issue because while RNG is a boring kind of grind I don't really have an issue with it personally, especially if it's alongside progressing on other things, which is what this design is doing.

Yes, and it's sad to say, that not every zone can be living memory (or heritage found, neither of them trigger the sync) but it's just what I must do... and most likely alone as those I did OC with had better luck getting verdigris and I don't want to burden them with fates since they are all really vocal about disliking that, I find fates boring myself but I'll manage, I only really whined about kozama because the fate sync is a personal gripe of mine hehe.

So yeah as you said I've correctly identified what I need and my plan is to go kozama once i get that azurite, if I'm lucky a verdigris might also drop before then but the odds are kinda against me with there only being one CE in the area, which again is my only issue, I also want to specify that my "nightmare chore" comment was only for inside OC as focusing on RNG often makes it tedious.

I did want to focus on this bit, as it confused me some.

“I can rush what I’m short on and guarantee it’s the only type that will drop or go slower and progress it alongside other things”

I'm guessing you meant "get the azurite then go kozama" vs "stay progressing in OC but slower verdigris" in which case i want to highlight that i will progress something regardless on if i stay in OC or not, once more my main issue was within OC only.

Not sure what epic progression is but i guess you meant relic? as for gold/silver(?) grinds unless atma also drops from random mobs I'm not sure why you mentioned it (unless again epic means relic and you meant OC progress vs relic progress) also really sorry if this is a lot to read.^^;

[CCheshire]

I spent a bit over 4 hrs since Day 1, and I just got 2x atmas from running CE as Fates often died before I could reach them. I did manage to collect 3k silver pieces just for the riding map alone, but boy is this RNG harsh on me.