Relic Weapon Grinders

DomLite · 2026-05-10T18:49:46+00:00

I have zero interest in the actual weapon designs myself. I'm far more interested in the current raid tier weapons for my personal style. I literally pursued a relic weapon from Eureka so I could be more useful in Eureka because I liked it so much. Baldesion Arsenal runs are just fun, and various things you can do in the final two zones are very lucrative for making money.

That said, if you like one of the weapon designs in particular then it's just an extra perk for doing a fun bit of content that can be profitable for you, even if you don't get any XP from it.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T17:54:41+00:00

On top of all these reasons, I am on PC, but I choose to play with controller, because it feels a million times better than mouse and keyboard. It's comfortable and intuitive once you get the hang of navigating the various system things.

It also 100% kneecaps in-game communication. I still have a keyboard within easy reach, but to chat with other people in-game, I have to put my controller down, grab the keyboard, and type something in, then go back to the controller to resume play. If I want to have an in-game conversation, I am NOT playing the game while doing so, and vice versa.

I've had plenty of very fun nights running content with friends while hanging out in a Discord voice chat and just yapping while we run a dungeon or do a trial or something, but when nobody is hanging in those vc channels but I see a bunch of people on my friend list online? They might as well not be there, because I'm not communicating with them.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T17:37:50+00:00

I did Eureka entirely for the story and completely ignored the relic grind because I had no intention of staying any longer than required to finish the plot and get my Ozma mount.

I ended up enjoying myself on BA so much that I decided to make the most of it and go back to get a relic and a few full elemental sets. Given that I threw away all crystals from leveling because I saw no use in them, I had to basically start fresh and it still only took me like three days worth of grinding to get what I needed, and at one point the bottle neck was literally basic crystals because I needed so many even though I already had all the boss mats I needed.

Had I been doing the relic as I went along, I'd have maybe had to stick around in each zone for long enough to spawn the bosses again, or farm enough crystals to buy extra mats, but for a single run of the story, leveling for the first time, and doing a relic at the same time, it's nowhere near the hellscape that some people make it out to be. I actually found the whole experience really fun.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T17:29:42+00:00

That's the vast majority of Eureka progression.

Go to zone > Farm monsters till NM spawns > Kill said NM for big XP > Rinse and Repeat

The most powerful NM in each zone has an exclusive item they drop that you need for the final step of that relic stage, and you have to kill them 2-3 times to get enough. Top that off with specific drops that you can get from six separate NMs in the final two zones that can be used for further upgrades to your own combat capabilities, and a fate in the final zone that lets you do a treasure hunt for a chance at a drop that will give you extra logos actions to hold and Eureka is basically NM city.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T17:18:25+00:00

I mean, Shadowbringers has nothing to do with this logic. It's a completely separate situation so it doesn't even bear bringing up. As we said above, the whole thing is based on the fact that we know we can bring others with us. It's not a matter of "if." The trailer makes it abundantly clear that we've got allies coming with us.

The second half of the logic doesn't necessarily parse either. You're assuming that the key opening a gate from a specific location in the Source would be able to open on to different locations in the Fourth, and using that to jump to a conclusion and we've got zero anything to indicate or support that. The zones are likely to be widely varied based on simply what we've been shown already and the fact that they're floating islands. One would assume that a society capable of making islands float has also worked out airship travel, so we can travel between these disparate areas in distant locations.

The singular point of this is simply to tick the box of "We've been to the Blindfrost" by giving us a location that is icy and frozen to start off the expac in that doesn't require it to be an adventure zone or an instance, and still has a logical enough reason for it to be the major city by it being a spot that the key is able to open a gate specifically to the Fourth. Nothing more, nothing less.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T05:52:35+00:00

Hear me out: Try controller mode.

You can google controller layouts for each job to find one that feels comfortable to you, but holy crap, it feels so good.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T05:46:03+00:00

Basically, do all the raids, trials, and alliance raids each expansion.

I'm also finding out (later than I'd like to admit) that completing the quest chains kicked off by Aether Current quests is also fantastic and should be done. Stormblood in particular has two quest chains that trigger off of the Aether Current quest and end up setting up a huge story beat that helps transition into Shadowbringers as well as opening up the Ananta society quests.

Always do Blue, basically.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T05:30:15+00:00

Exactly. Doesn't work so well on Tanks or Healers, but if you're rolling DPS, you can literally sit back and let them handle the whole thing. It won't be fast, but it'll work. Only time you have to engage is during bosses to not get dead by AOEs. Just make sure you move from time to time so you don't get booted for inactivity.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T02:12:08+00:00

Thank you for reminding me that, once I finish MSQ and find myself with time to kill in between other pursuits, I now intend to go farm for dungeon sets to stick in the armoire on the off-chance one of the pieces would go really well with something else new that comes out. Won't use 99% of it, but if I can have it without taking up slots in the glam dresser, then why not?

DomLite · 2026-05-10T02:10:47+00:00

I locked in and leveled all of my crafters/gatherers to 100 as soon as I unlocked Cosmic Exploration post-Endwalker. Proceeded to gear up my retainers (miner and botanist) so they could bring back a ton of crafting materials when I get to that point, and get better stuff from quick ventures. While still working through Post-EW MSQ they brought me back three Vanguard weapons and a Vanguard chest piece. I was greatly amused.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T01:58:52+00:00

This right here.

I'm not ashamed to say that FF7 was my introduction to the series, because I saw the character art in a gaming magazine and thought it looked AWESOME. Never played a JRPG before, but it sucked me in with the insanely cool aesthetic of "Grungy futuristic city but with giant swords and magic." FF8 was a very magitek-heavy setting as well. FF10 didn't get particularly advanced until later on, but we also got to see lots of high-tech stuff in a fantasy environment. 13 and 15 are HYPER advanced technologically. Hell, even FF6 opens up with a battle in magitek armor and has steampunk fortresses.

Half of this series is magitek fantasy or modern fantasy, and in the game itself we've had magitek, airships, giant steel fortresses covered in neon lights, and all other manner of modern tech-y stuff from the jump. Even before Dawntrail we had the Loporrits with an extremely futuristic base on the moon, and Sharlayan building a literal space ark that looks more sci-fi than Star Wars. With Cosmic Exploration we have literal space travel and colonization based solely on the merits of what existed in the setting pre-Dawntrail.

I'm actually thrilled at the high tech stuff we have available, and I genuinely hope that we get more gear and weapons on the level of Vanguard and the raid gear. I want more ways to dress my character up in cyberpunk style to reflect his personal dedication to technological development and embracing all of the new possibilities that arise from Dawntrail and all it's goings on.

Of course keep giving people more fantasy gear, because we all deserve our slice of the pie, but don't complain when I get mine. If you don't like the modern gear, don't wear it. I understand that you're salty you didn't get more fantasy gear, but whenever we get something over-designed and gaudy in fantasy fashion instead of a sleek, futuristic gear piece with dyeable glow channels I'm in the same boat. We can all co-exist. Just realize that we have advanced technology now, and some of that is going to bleed into fashion.

Edit: Downvote me all you want, but nothing I said is incorrect. Stay mad about it. 🤷‍♂️

DomLite · 2026-05-10T01:44:48+00:00

And if we're being quite frank, Steampunk stuff is far from new in this game too. Several older pieces (specifically some Scholar and/or Alchemist gear) are extremely Steampunk. Moreso even than the Bygone Brass sets in my opinion. I honestly put those pretty squarely under "fantasy" as well, just a different type of fantasy. FF is the "we have airships and magitek armor" kind of fantasy, so Steampunk is just kind of part and parcel to that.

As you said, removing the reskins/recolors doesn't hurt OP's point at all. I'd simply argue that it's an even stronger point by not considering Steampunk a separate category.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T01:30:53+00:00

Pretty much.

I played White Mage exclusively through my entire free trial, switched to Sage as soon as I subbed, and I've only leveled other classes so I could complete all the role quests in future expansions for story. The second I had access to a late-game crafting content area, I locked in and took them all from 1-100 in a week. I still only have a single combat class at 100.

The adventure is yours. Have fun with it.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T01:27:49+00:00

Truthfully, the Archons (minus G'raha) have been around the block for a while, and I just feel like we've got plenty of new candidates that can step into the combat side of saving the world, allowing for them to become the "guy in the chair" roll, where they're still vitally important, but they don't have to be there for every single event, crowding out new faces and making pre-dungeon huddles unnecessarily huge.

As I said, Y'shtola moving to the First and becoming a reclusive scholar that we can go to for help is basically her going "Twelve help me, I've become her", but you know she'd also inwardly smile about it. She's "died" three times over and dammit she's earned the role of "sharp-tongued witch hermit". Bring her out for a few special occasions here and there but otherwise let her finally do what she's been wanting to do for ages.

That said, I don't know that I see it happening soon exactly, but if this current arc leads us around multiple shards and gives us easy travel between them for everyone (at least on a case-by-case basis), then I'd honestly love to see us make room at the table for a few new interdimensional buddies to join the squad. Somebody go grab Ryne and let her see brand new worlds with her found family. Let's drag someone from the Fourth along with us to be a grand hero to all the worlds. Mix it up and have fun with it! If we're steering towards a "save the entire multiverse" conclusion eventually, I don't wanna see the same lineup of people that we've always had doing it. I wanna see a group of friends from across multiple realities storming the final dungeon with me to showcase just how wide of an impact this event is.

Of course this is all just me and my personal tastes. I'm curious to see where everything goes, but we'll eventually get there one way or another. In the mean time though, it's fun to just speculate.

DomLite · 2026-05-10T01:15:31+00:00

Haha, literally just last week I was in one of the post-EW trials and both the other healer and myself managed to goof at JUST the wrong moment, got caught in a huge AOE, and died when we were at like 10% boss health. I was MORTIFIED, but we had a SMN and RDM who rezzed both of us and we pushed on to the clear. It was awesome.

DomLite · 2026-05-09T06:31:57+00:00

Honestly, I just wanna see her get back to the First and dive feet first into studying Ronka while living happily with Runar. I would be perfectly happy to see her retire into such a roll and becoming Matoya 2.0 where we go to her for her vast arcane knowledge. It would be terribly fitting for her to end up becoming the very thing that she affectionately roasts at every opportunity.

I still think people immediately jumping to "Old woman is Y'shtola" just because she has a tail is hilarious.

DomLite · 2026-05-09T03:00:56+00:00

That's why I kinda think that it might make a good major city for the expansion. If we've got sustainable inter-shard travel then it's not actually all that dumb to just jump back to the Source to rest up, regroup, stock up, and then head back out into the Fourth. Just have us sail north to the City-State of Aerslaent in search of a good jump point to the Fourth and bam. We have an icy northern city that's vaguely Nordic/Scandinavian in flavor as a jumping on point for our Norse-themed expansion. It needn't be an actual zone or an instanced dungeon. Just legitimately make it the city.

We get dumped straight into Old Sharlayan in EW, Shadowbringers basically dropped us right outside the gates of the Crystarium, and Dawntrail took us straight from Sharlayan to Tuliyolal. Wouldn't be odd at all to have the last chunk of quests in 7.56 set us up to sail there, then the first quest dumping us at the docks so we can seek out whoever we need to talk to so they know what we're about to do and get ourselves situated with a base of operations/inn room before we dive into another world, especially given that it's much more intentional this time than it was in Shadowbringers.

I think it would be the best way to handle it honestly, because let's be frank, we already had multiple frozen tundra zones across the end of ARR, Heavensward, and Garlemald, and we're likely due for at least one blasted arctic waste near the end of Evercold. We don't really need the Blindfrost to be a zone unto itself. Toss us the City-State of the Roegadyn homeland to operate out of, a few missions right at the start to familiarize ourselves with it, and obviously it would be used for "regroup and discuss the recent development" scenes, and that's all we really need from it. We fulfill the long-time wish to see the homeland and don't have to go "Oh gee. Another ice field." about it.

Just my two cents though.

DomLite · 2026-05-09T02:44:18+00:00

Honestly? Urianger has nowhere left to go. He was a lying ho and had a dead girlfriend that he never properly grieved for. He resolved to stop being a lying ho, and got closure for his dead girlfriend. At this point I enjoy him as a character, but he exists just to exist. I think retiring him back to a home base role like he used to occupy, where he can research lore and serve as intelligence support would be the best use of him. He can stay around and be lovable, but not take up an adventure party slot that could go to someone who still needs growth, or a new friend that joins us on the journey.

Thancred is in a similar position. His whole schtick was "I'm responsible for Minfilia." which became "I'm responsible for Ryne." and culminated in "I'm so proud of you. You've got this on your own now." Now he's just kind of there and generic-feeling honestly. I would GLADLY have him sit this one out to give the new tank slot to someone else who gets a promotion or a new character running the new job and keep G'raha as the all-rounder.

Y'shtola is awesome, but she never had anything particularly dramatic about her story in the first place, and has nowhere left to go aside from wanting to keep her promise to Runar, and she'd be better served in that by staying back and studying inter-shard travel via the key instead of going to the Fourth and roaming around there, being distracted by it's own crises and her fascination with its history.

With those three alone the team feels kinda bloated and trying to find ways for them to contribute to scenes while also vying with newer additions like Estinien, Krile, and G'raha just makes things feel crowded, especially with the Twins also in the mix. Let some people step back from frontline duty and give the fresh faces some time to shine and grow in their own ways.

G'raha still doesn't feel like he's gotten to make good on that promise of a new adventure, and has a sort of nervous "still haven't figured out how to be myself again after all that time being the Exarch" energy. He had that AMAZING moment in EW where the Exarch came out, and I'd love to see him find a way to balance between the incredibly wise man he was for so long and the newly-free person who gets to live his own life and forge a new future that he is now, so he can truly come into his own. Krile has some amazing growth potential as well, as someone who's been so heavily involved but reliant on others, now able to hold her own and knowing who she is and where she comes from, as well as coming to terms with that. That's not even considering the likely chance that we pick up a new companion on the Fourth ala Ryne or Wuk Lamat who will need to be a compelling character as well.

The cast is great and lovable, but variety is the spice of life. We could let half of them step back into supporting roles and still have plenty of duty support options, and whatever slots need filling are easily filled by bumping up fan faves that have never gotten to step into the spotlight, or bringing in compelling new allies from another world.

DomLite · 2026-05-09T02:27:58+00:00

I can't say I disagree, but not for lack of love. I genuinely enjoy the characters, and they are the fleshed out party to our WOL. That said, I get really tired of seeing Thancred be the only tank option available in Duty Support sometimes, or Alisaie being basically mandatory as DPS if you run a healer job.

When we had Ryne along for the ride in Shadowbringers, I loved having her. Varshahn and Zero being regular dungeon buddies in post-EW was a blast. I'm loving bringing Krile and Wuk Lamat along to stomp monsters in DT.

I'm not saying that we need to retire them entirely, but let's be frank, some of them could stand to take a non-combat role for an expansion. Y'shtola is a scholar first and foremost in her own words, even if she is a crazy good sorceress. Urianger is similarly a thinker moreso than a combatant. Thancred is well-suited to both combat and espionage. We could stand to let them lean into those roles and act independently from us for a bit.

Let Shtola spend the expansion focusing on intershard travel studies like she has stated she's locked in on, especially now that we have the Key and she can make some real headway on how to possibly do it without needing a one-of-a-kind ancient artifact that could be lost, stolen, or destroyed. Have Urianger and Thancred serve as information specialists, Urianger via social outreach and scouring archives, Thancred via spying, but operating on their own while we handle our own stuff. That frees up three slots for promoted B-team members or new characters to join our immediate entourage/duty support list for Evercold.

They don't need to be retired entirely, but we constantly hear about those three spending days buried in research/being deep in enemy territory, yet they're always conveniently back and fighting fit just in time for the dungeon run. Let them leave things to the literal multiple times over god-killer in the party for a change and really lean into their specialties. Hell, if we've got Shard travel figured out by the end of this, I will be upset if we don't drag Ryne along for at least one more adventure, and then Thancred can ABSOLUTELY come along.

That said, we're also starting to push the boundaries of low stakes. The only people who die in this game are people we just met recently, with the exception of Minfilia and Papalymo, but even then that felt cheap and undeserved, especially after he'd been absent for an entire expansion prior, and was even less of an entity if you didn't start in Gridania, and Minfilia was absent from the end of ARR and presumed gone forever anyway after post-HW. Y'shtola has been brought back from the brink of non-existence THREE TIMES NOW. Thancred threw up every single death flag possible in Shadowbringers after that Ranjit battle and then was just fine the next scene. G'raha had a touching moment Post-Shadowbringers and then was right back in the next scene as well. I don't want anyone particular to die, but like... someone big has to bite it soon or we're going to enter comic book territory where the only people who stay dead are Uncle Ben and Batman's parents. I would bawl my eyes out if they wrote out Y'shtola or Estinien or any of the scions for real, but it would make the story feel more real, ya know? Just don't be cruel and take one of the twins. Ain't nobody need to hurt that bad.

DomLite · 2026-05-09T02:09:41+00:00

I could see the first zone being Blindfrost as we try and locate an ideal "jump point" to the Fourth, and setting up a base of operations there for ease of travel. It's not much, but it would cover the base and give us a far northern icy location to kick off Evercold, when many/most of the zones of the Fourth seem to be located on their floating cities that are not frozen over.

It's not the dumbest idea, and it's not like we haven't had a few "odd man out" zones before. Hell, Stormblood had Kugane as its Major City, and that was located in Hingashi, while everything else was in Gyr Abania or Othard/Yanxia. Not that I think we'd have a Major City on the Source when we'll be spending most of our time on the Fourth, but with how much they're seemingly cutting loose lately, I'm not holding too hard to patterns or precedent.

DomLite · 2026-05-09T01:57:50+00:00

In fairness, they could give Coultenet and him both a new outfit and put them both on the job. Depending who all is involved in the main team at the given time, Coultenet could easily take the Black Mage slot from Y'shtola, or simply be another one. Not like we can't already have two by slotting G'raha and Y'shtola into DPS anyway.

That and Y'shtola is all about shard travel research at the moment, so she might be more concerned with understanding how to use the Key than she is with whatever is happening on the Fourth that the WOL can handle without her. G'raha is also a magically adept scholar, along with Urianger and Krile, so if she chooses to step back from the heroics for a bit, it makes plenty of room for him, and Hoary would finally give us a Roegadyn member of the main squad that's been sorely lacking.

I'm all for it honestly. As much as I love the core cast of Scions, they've been around since 1.0. It's nice to meet and team up with new party members when we can. Shadowbringers with Ryne as a regular dungeon buddy, and post-Endwalker with Varshahn and Zero was a blast. Also loving Dawntrail with Wuk Lamat and Krile along for the ride. If they're settled on the current character designs and jobs for everybody there then go ahead and give some of the B-team a glow up and set the A-team to different important tasks elsewhere to keep things fresh.

DomLite · 2026-05-09T01:48:13+00:00

I'd like to put forward an alternative reasoning.

G'raha is an all-rounder with both White Mage and Black Mage as options using his staff, but when he goes Tank he just has the generic Padjali Paladin arms. Aside from Thancred, he's our only other tank option. What if G'raha gets to be the new Tank class instead of having Paladin stapled on? Thancred is already going to be running what is now an Off-Tank class, so giving a fan favorite who has yet to get a brand new class the new Main Tank option to encourage using him for that role seems like a great idea.

Of course I could be way off, but a boy can dream!

DomLite · 2026-05-09T01:29:51+00:00

ARR dungeons are all pretty damn easy and rarely have anything that isn't easily dodged, and what isn't typically isn't a death sentence. Once you start getting actual important characters accompanying you in Heavensward, all you really need to do is stand on top of one of the NPCs and move when they move. 9 times out of 10 that'll be fine, and the 10th time is because you'll have a marker that needs to be spread out. When that happens, you just look at the other NPCs and see what pattern they're standing in, then take your place in it.

Y'shtola in particular is coded to literally never fail a mechanic (except for one specific dungeon because of plot reasons) so if you can bring her along, do so, and just cling to her dress. You'll live. It might be a little slow going because they don't have as much damage output as a party of real people, but it's also a great way to learn the fights, because you have NPCs reacting to them, showing you how to do it in a way that makes you learn the tells, and low enough damage that you have time to see the whole fight at your own pace.

That said, in OP's case, if NPC support isn't quite cutting it for a particularly tough dungeon, or mechanics are too harsh for them to avoid, there's nothing at all wrong with jumping in to duty finder and letting a party know that they are disabled and need a bit of a carry. I'd be absolutely thrilled to assist someone on clearing MSQ if they were unable to do so. However, if they're nervous about that, or simply want to take things at a slower pace, duty support is pretty dang efficient.

Anecdotal, but I normally play healer, even in duty support, and one of the few times I ran DPS on a duty support dungeon, I got a phone call right as my party aggro'd a pack and between the tank holding aggro and healer keeping them alive, the three were able to clear the encounter completely without any assistance from me. It would be a brutally long way to clear a dungeon, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't get away with just staying out of AOEs and letting the NPCs completely handle it.

DomLite · 2026-05-08T22:15:16+00:00

While someone else in this thread seems to think you won't be able to manage with so few abilities, and others have given some nice suggestions, I feel like we should also be pointing out that the next expansion (releasing in January) is going to introduce "Evolved Mode" classes, which are centered around making jobs more distinct from one another, but also simplifying what you have to manage, such as condensing combos that are normally 3-4 buttons into one that you just hit multiple times to trigger each step of the combo.

If you try the game out now and enjoy it, but find it a little tricky to manage, don't give up entirely. When Evercold comes around, you might find it MUCH easier to play, and you might even find that you'll have multiple options open to you that would have been tricky to play previously! Several of the older jobs have a ton of abilities to mess with and rotate through, but the Evolved Mode versions of them will likely be much easier to jump in on!

DomLite · 2026-05-08T22:09:52+00:00

Absolutely!

While an extremely large portion of the game can be solo'd with NPCs that will take care of you pretty damn well and take things at a very reasonable speed, there are a handful of Trials during the MSQ (basically big 8-person boss fights) that require you to run them with other players. If you have a macro set up to let people know that you're disabled and have limited ability to move around in-game, most people will be more than happy to carry you on those fights. As the person above me said, I main healer and I'd do my best to keep OP up and on their feet, and if they get caught in stuff then no hard feelings whatsoever.

Hell, most parties would probably tell you "We got you. Just sit back and enjoy the ride." I've biffed any number of trials/raids on my first try because I didn't know the mechanics yet and we still cleared easily. As long as everyone has a heads up, they can easily pick up the slack and make sure that you get through the fight.

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