What SHOULD a relic step be?

[Raoabolic]

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?

A long term goal where the relic quest tells you where you need to grind, that you may or may not need a crafted item, and have to engage in systems/dungeons/raids that are not being used outside of roulette slop. EZ.

[avraymk]

A long term goal where the relic quest tells you need to grind for where you may or may not need a crafted item and have to engage in systems/dungeons/raids that are not being used outside of roulette slop. EZ.

Are you suggesting you're bored of running the crystal tower?

That's just silly.

[Raoabolic]

Are you suggesting you're bored of running the crystal tower?

That's just silly.

I would prefer if there was a lv 100 version of the crystal tower. :^)

[0blivion]

anima weapon

[AmiableApkallu]

I don't know about the current step (because I haven't gotten all the way through it, yet), but it's otherwise been a long while since we've had to be on the job, or even have the relic equipped, in order to progress it.

[Kirutsuki]

Simple:

Options, even if you'd lock the relic behind just OC itself, you should have options of doing other things in it than just FATE's for the target.
Well what else is there other than Mobs and Fates in OC that's similar busywork? Well if there is non, how about you add some basic exploratory stuff in there, like I dunno;
Collecting wilds animals or something.

It doesn't actually matter if it's tomestones, lightgrind, atma or whatever, as long as there is multiple ways of attaining those things that doesn't;

1. result in repetition
2. become too easy

To achieve this you kind of have to allow each step to utilize alot of the games regular content. FATE'S, Hunt Trains, Duty Roulette, World bosses, Deep Dungeons, Variant even Raiding & treasure maps are allowed. Simply becuase things to do inside OC is very limited (but you could add things in there as I said)
Also instance based content like doing Eureka and Bozja would have to have means for you to attain something to the relic step, so that people who have kept those in the backlog have a CURRENT goal they can bring into it.

The hardest part is balancing how much you gain towards the step from doing certain tasks versus others and thats related to difficulty of the task.
And people would ultimately find the 1 method that is best.

The bad part is that when people find the 1 method, SE barely ever implements a simple patch that increases or decreases the ammount
and if they do, it's too late. Other MMO's do adjustments on almost weekly basis. But for SE a simple value change needs a meeting & 3months of development time.

[Turtledeluxe]

Relics are not something I think about in steps. Relics for me ideally are

- Long term investments
- Not just cosmetic
- Encourage you to play different elements of the game through required tasks and collections
- Have minimal to no RNG but instead focus on the volume of tasks and collections. If there has to be RNG it needs to be tradable.
-Have some kind of region/story element tied to certain zones and require some kind of achievements there (so a boss, a rare fate, a jumping puzzle, idk).

Forcing it in steps feels bad, as do generic tome turn ins. But the average player of XIV is ok with instant gratification, which imo is why relics have looked like crap the last few sets. ARR/HW/StB were the best. I don't think that is their fault either. XIV lacks diverse enough gameplay and world design to support a relic journey imo, it just ends up being really boring, really RNG crap. As long as the goal is accessibility and instant rewards, relics are just another tome gear and are not serving their intended function in an MMO imo.

[ForteNightshade]

Take the ARR/HW methods and simply improve upon them.

For example sake, let's look at the often maligned book phase. All they need to do is repurpose Chloe's Wondrous Tales system. Treat it like a scavenger hunt of sorts. Which is essentially what that step tried to be, but they didn't take into consideration how world mobs and fates didn't spawn fast enough to compensate for players endlessly farming them. Especially in the latter. So make some adjustments there and voila, you've fixed the step.

For the light step, just do what HW did, but with better variety. Random trails/raids will be "enhanced" or whatever you want to call it, and you need to farm them in that window. Heck, if you really want to be daring, lean into the "enhancement" idea and make the fights very slightly harder. Could be anything from speeding them up to increasing damage. Embrace the chaos!

There's so many ways to make the relic steps engaging. They've simply settled on the most boring.

[Ephremjlm]

Maybe controversial but i kinda half way think that relics should be tied to more difficult content. That said I don't like people arguing that it should only be made up of extreme content runs because that is only a single content type. (that said I know that is mostly all this game has as far as "difficult" content). It should be a healthy mix of content types, with varying level of difficulties. This would hopefully be tied to releases of content as it comes out. Think open world content for open world zones like (Bozja, Eureka, OC), Limited Jobs (BLU, or BST), Critereon dungeons, 24 mans, fates, the s rank hunts, interactions with some form of crafters and gatherers, and of course at least some savage runs. Again preferably as more content for these is drip fed, we would get relic requirements related as well.

It used to be that relics in MMO's were content that showed full competency of the game. Endwalker basically threw the baby out with the bath water on that one and I think they just need to double down on it.

It's not like there aren't accessible glowy weapons in the game already, and tombstone gear at either 740 or 750 will likely be enough to get you through the entire patch of base content, so it doesn't need to be attainable for everyone, otherwise whats the point about it feeling special?

[legg]

Unironically i want more Anemos Crystal/Protean and or Tortured/Sorrowful/Harrowing/Bitter Memories.
Peak relic step i enjoyed the most.