They do, with the exception of Thaz.
So really whats the big deal anyways? You basically only raid to get gear anyways according to an earlier post. Relics are just random. So they don't drop there whats the big deal then? Your still getting nice gear ups and after all relics are only a "nice bonus" right????
At least the quote below supports this line of thinking.
Also, this seems like something of a misrepresentation. You aren't raiding for relics and relics alone, you're raiding for gear upgrades. Relics, being random, are just an occasional bonus.
On a side note I can look back to when I first got lifeward. It was a very very long time ago mind you. This little story kinda goes hand in hand with this thread and what others say is normal. I spent like 8 - 12 hours a day for many many days on everburning life. I'm not joking about how long it took for that single drop. It was over a week and a half of those hours per day. Everything else was a piece of cake and by far less time consuming. I finally got my stuffs and shield completed with the help of Latten. He really came through for me one day on Aanallain. =) Thanks again BTW your the man! Anyways alot of people started posting about how much lifeward quest sucked. Zummba even made a post about his lifeward battle. Needless to say nobody in history of SOD probably took longer then me to get burning life drop. I was also right there in those posts jumping on the band wagon saying nothing was wrong, and I didn't even want to see a change.
The moral of the story is it's very easy to say something is fine once you get past that stage. Or you got lucky and had a set of people who could raid every single day 12 hours a day for great progression. Or your a dinosaur who has been here sence the dawn of time. The game does in fact cator to very high end raiding. You have the most targets to choose from at any given time. Of corse it's no big deal to anyone at that level.
Nothing will probably change as expected, but I can promise you there are quite a few people out there that want to see that very first relic. It is a big deal with more people then you might think. I know I'm certainly not asking for them to become trivial or common. I am asking that it maybe gets looked into.
We might as well look at the math side of things as well. I do respect what Nwaij has to say, but that is very easy coming from someone who has exceptional gear, all spells, and bonuses etc. He does have his time into SOD, but based off of my numbers I still have to disagree with (1) maybe (2) relics per month. Expecially when your considering the kills per raid. According to Nwaij this is the acceptable standard for all tier 4 / 5 content.
Hmm, some math: 2 - 4 raids a week, 4 weeks in a month. --> 8 - 16 raids a month.
1 - 2 relics/month ~ 8 - 16 raids.
So you say you get ~ 1 relic every 8 raids.
Sounds totally fine for me in the early (pre-IP) tiers.
Lets start with the low ball first. Let say we are lazy and only raid twice a week. Mind you this has never happened before but humor me on this.
(8) raids per month killing only a pittiful (2) named per raid. 8 x 2 = 16 kills per month on average being very lazy. Yes, I would agree this would sound acceptable at (1) maybe even (2)relics per month if we got lucky.
Now lets say we decide to be lazy but maybe not that lazy. We still only raid (8) times in one month. Let's say we kill only 3 named per raid day. 8 X 3 = 24 kills per month average. I'm starting to find these figures disturbing, and we still haven't even reach out monthly average yet. More kills in but still you have the possibility to get (0) drops per month. On average (1) maybe (2) relics per month doesn't sound all that appealing.
Let's move onto an average and say we are raiding (3) days per week and (12) days per month. Let's also say we still only average (3) bosses. 12 X 3 = 36 kills per month. We do this quite often and still only see maybe (2) per month if we are lucky. I have seen months like that with (0) - (2) relics.
Now lets just go right for the gusto and go for as many possible relic kills we can take. We decide to raid (4) days per week or (16) days per month, and kill at least (4) bosses per raid on average. 16 x 4 = 64 kills. Based off of months and months of seeing how they drop on our tier I can only conclude that death by numbers wont help as much as you might think. Chances are you will still get (0) - (2) relics per month. Unless you get uber lucky somehow and get a few more. That again is a big maybe from what I have seen month in and month out they are just to rare.
So yes I do believe they are to rare from what I have expecienced. If it's widely acceptable to get (0) - (2) relics per month for killing (16 - 64) bosses then I can't possibly counter anyones arguement.
Wiz and everyone on staff might want to consider that not everyone can dedicate more then half or all of their day to this wounderful server every week. I know I would if I cound but alas I run my own business. I do however play a crap load of hours per week going on 2 1/2 years now. I have seen more guilds come and go more times then I can possibly count while allways staying loyal to my origional friends and guild. There is a reason why people jump ship from a guild or quit playing the game all together. Not everyone can be hard core player. People who start new have to build from the ground up. It takes most of these people more time then it's worth. Eventually they might loose interest and quit playing. IMO it takes way to long to get the critical needed buffs. I know it took us a month of sundays to get ours. It certainly wasn't for lack of effort I can assure you. For most people though this critical time isn't something they want to be put through. It just easier to move to another game or guild. Anyone who leaves SOD is a pitty. They were faced with ginding the same content forever or quitting or doing what is easy.
Our guild is stronger then ever and actually very lucky that we are such great friends. I would wager that alot of other guilds might have almost had as much glue as ours but yet still failed. I would also speculate that relics and that needed buff / heals / dps aquiring on a very select few play a big part in that as well. Of corse sence they are "so rare" during that guilds very trying moment in time.
Also for the record I'm not just a fresh off the boat 65. My cleric will be hitting 400 aa's here pretty soon sence I will be grinding his ass off. He will be grinding tombs like mad here pretty soon. As for my wizzy he will be 325 pretty soon to and grinding tomes as well. I might not have seen much content above tier 6 but I do play alot and have been round for 2 1/2 years now. My cleic and wiz would easily have 6.5 - 7k mana with decent FT at our current level if I didn't pass almost everything to guild mates. Thats not uber but it's pretty decent for our level right now.
I'm just trying to say that yes I still think relics are a bit to rare at our current level. I would like to see it looked at if possible. Relics do play a big part in peoples interest in this game. It's also a shame to loose good new blood to the server when people start to drop like flies.
If your opinion is they are not rare and fine as is I can respect your opinion even if I don't agree with it.