What SHOULD a relic step be?

[avraymk]

What would be your dream of a well designed relic step?

Disregarding budgetary/time constraints I'd love to see each job do something unique and varied for their step (this could also be relegated to class role). New content we haven't seen that could be synced to keep it casualish friendly with elements of Bosses/RNG/Puzzles/Randomly Generated parts to keep each attempt fresh and varied, but certain consistencies so you can learn and do better with each try until you make it until the end (the final result should feel rewarding and respect the players time).

The closest thing I've seen to this is the mage tower in Wow which was generally very well recieved from a design point of view.

[Raoabolic]

ARR or HW tier with more ways to farm light. Ez.

[avraymk]

ARR or HW tier with more ways to farm light. Ez.

I too liked the ARR and how many steps there were. I did think the 9 book step got a bit repetitous but I appreciated the variance (except for the leve portion). I specfically enjoyed charging into the most dangerous portions of zones where mobs attack you and you have to find the mob you needed. Felt great ticking each of them off.

[Turtledeluxe]

ARR or HW tier with more ways to farm light. Ez.

I feel like this is exactly it. I mostly had fun doing these, as well as the revised Eureka. I think there are good elements you can take from each thing. I think they should focus more on deviating ways to accomplish any given collection/task, so players can have more options. Minimize use of RNG and repetitious grinding that cannot be broken up somehow.

I think people are ok with grinds and long journeys, but give them options that keep it fresh and make the reward more meaningful (not only at the end).

Its kind of the same logic with materia. There's infinite ways to get it and all of the systems feed into one another. Relic steps imo should be more like this.

[Moqi]

I hated ARR's relic when it was current but I've come back to the game for the free login event and spent half the time doing ARR relics than progressing the MSQ because it was more fun (as I did the last few times I came back for the free logins).

With the nerfed grinding, ARR is almost perfect. It touched upon lots of different content and had you travel all around the maps. I despise light farming (and it's still too much) but other than that it was fun.

[Crafoutis]

That's the wonderful thing!

Ask 100 people and you'll get 100 different answers, lol.

[Raoabolic]

That's the wonderful thing!

Ask 100 people and you'll get 100 different answers, lol.

Doubt it, I'm sure there is a common thread within those hundred responses. Wouldn't it be funny if the majority of the answers are just the same thing worded differently, lol?

[Crafoutis]

Doubt it, I'm sure there is a common thread within those hundred responses. Wouldn't it be funny if the majority of the answers are just the same thing worded differently, lol?

Here are some methods I've seen recommended just off the top of my head:

Tomestones
Light grind
Atma
Crafted, exclusively
Crafted, tradeable
Solo challenge dungeons
Raid-unlocked
Trial-unlocked
RNG grind
Non-RNG grind
Time-gated and attendance-based

What's the common thread that all of them share?

[SalamanderIX]

To me the Shadowbringers Relic was the ideal way to do it.

This comes from the experience of actually going them.
When the content was new, it was a huge grind to do my Dark Knight Weapon, yet the three alternate jobs I wanted a weapon for were not such a high amount of time I wasn't able to grind a couple of days each for them.

During Endwalker, I wanted to get more of the Shadowbringers relics, and passively or actively pursue them. I got 6 more during that time, and in Dawntrail I have continued, getting 3 more. So I'm still not done all the Shadowbringers weapons, and I don't mind it. If I dedicated time, I could have them done in a few days. But it's nice to have a relic grind still going all these years later, the content is still meaningful to me. Meanwhile, I have all the Endwalker Relics, duty roulette completed them effortlessly before the expansion was over, without trying.

I had a friend who was determined to do all the Shadowbringers Relics when they were new, and he did it. He did say it was a crushing grind, but he was very proud of that accomplishment. I guess those kind of statements Square may had seen as complaints? I don't think it's a bad thing, if you really want all the weapons it should be such an accomplishment for effort. The issue with the way we're doing it now, as sure the initial accomplishment of the relic steps is great due to the grinds, we'll end up the same was as last time with all the relics done and the same lack of content longevity.

[Striker44]

Doubt it, I'm sure there is a common thread within those hundred responses. Wouldn't it be funny if the majority of the answers are just the same thing worded differently, lol?

Okay, maybe you wouldn't get 100 completely different answers, but I doubt you would get anywhere near just one single "common thread" among those responses. You'd probably get several, and at least of few of those would be complete, polar opposites of each other.