New Relic step is great

[Exinias]

Because they simultaneously want something challenging, but only in the things they want. They asked for something harder and the devs delivered, so now they are complaining that it's not fair and it is too hard because they neglect crafting/gathering and how dare Squeenix try and make them do content. (that last bit was sarcastic).

The devs are damned if they do, damned if they don't. Nothing they do or add is ever good enough for some of these people and the ones who act the part of contrarians are often the loudest minority on the forum and on social media.

Please stop adding to the disillusionment that this relic step is hard or challenging in any way and that's why people are frustrated. People are mostly frustrated because it's just roulettes and or they have to spend gil.

[Supersnow845]

Genuinely what are people actually willing to spend Gil on?

Like if you are whining about wanting to spend Gil on a relic what are you willing to spend Gil on

[BokoToloko]

Tomestones for weapons after the "hard" step is fine by me. Not that there is much use for them, unless you count the Mason's Abrasives for 7.3 crafter gear.

Making subsequent weapons simple to get is healthy overall because we're talking about 21 weapons and, in the future, there will be more jobs and, thus, more relic weapons per expansion and more time sink.

What I do wish is that we could get an improved armoire where we can dump all the completed relic weapons because it's either deleting them or them taking unnecessary space. And I'm not keen for either. But, alas, the item systems is still as flawed as ever.

[VerdeLuck]

The combat relic requiring max level crafters is such a weird and silly requirement to have. I don't know what was going through their heads when they set this up. Are they going to put an item for the crafter relics behind savage next?

[Raoabolic]

The combat relic requiring max level crafters is such a weird and silly requirement to have. I don't know what was going through their heads when they set this up. Are they going to put an item for the crafter relics behind savage next?

Their line of reasoning was probably, "Oh, this lv 100 relic should involve lv 100 crafting. If they don't have a lv 100 crafter they can always talk to other players for this step. It's an MMO after all!", lol.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Didn't ARR and HW have cap level crafter tidbits, too? DoH/L back then were also way more evil & less accessible, lol.

During post EW patches, I recall some players calling for ARR/HW-styled relic grind, so Ig that's why?

[ZephyrMenodora]

Didn't ARR and HW have cap level crafter tidbits, too? DoH/L back then were also way more evil & less accessible, lol.

During post EW patches, I recall some players calling for ARR/HW-styled relic grind, so Ig that's why?

ARR had things I had to buy on the marketplace as I hadn't done any crafting. A green weapon with a materia on it or something. HW had some pieces you could buy with crafter scripts; not sure if you can get them another way since I always just used scripts.

I guess even though I have level 100 crafters now, when I saw it needed 12.5K quality and durability of 35 to work with after I gathered everything, I decided to just buy the pieces for this relic. I think I spent about 3 million to get the array. If I waited it already would have been a lot less with how prices are going. (Most of that cost was the 600 bicolor gemstone item as I really don't feel like grinding fates).

[BokoToloko]

The combat relic requiring max level crafters is such a weird and silly requirement to have. I don't know what was going through their heads when they set this up. Are they going to put an item for the crafter relics behind savage next?

This is like saying needing potions and food are silly requirements for raiding because you need to craft them. Crafters aren't supposed to be an isolated bubble apart from combat content. Completely the opposite, as matter of fact, as a very sizeable portion of the crafting log is combat gear.

ARR had things I had to buy on the marketplace as I hadn't done any crafting. A green weapon with a materia on it or something. HW had some pieces you could buy with crafter scripts; not sure if you can get them another way since I always just used scripts.

There was also one of the early stages of the Anima weapons where you had to get a number of components, some of them could be either crafted (and, at the very beginning, it needed a craffer with soul crystal and to be HQ) or bought with a sizeable amount of GC Seals

[Turtledeluxe]

This!

People extremely often forget that this is still a multiplayer game. They saw a craftable item and they scoff and groan "now I gotta craft this". No you don't, you can gather the materials if you hate crafting, and if you hate gathering too you can buy the materials with the gil you get from roulettes and then get someone at the end to craft it for you, or just straight up purchase it from the MB.

After looking into the relic steps myself (have not done them because unsubbed) in greater detail, I think the complaints are overblown. For the most part, these steps are exactly what a relic grind should be. The only things I dislike about it are the over reliance on RNG (where applicable) or grinds lacking options (aetherway).

I feel like for example, you could give people some alternative ways to complete the aetherway, such as completing a specific set of hunting logs daily the open world, or a set of gathering requests. I think having a few options available that give small rewards toward progress might help break up the grind a bit.

I do understand their goal here is getting the roulette more active, which is why if they do offer more activities that give progress, they may need to slightly heighten the point requirement.

[Arrius]

Their line of reasoning was probably, "Oh, this lv 100 relic should involve lv 100 crafting. If they don't have a lv 100 crafter they can always talk to other players for this step. It's an MMO after all!", lol.

My FC has a few dedicated crafters and gatherers, so they made all the crafting stuff for free for the members.
We also do a Fate Saturday so we can tour a bit and get the bicolor gems for those who don't have enough right now.

It's good to be connected, eh?