OP here.
[Edit 11/5] I'm editing the thread to my updated view since people like to necro this thread and post replies 3 days later :>
Ion did say that Anima is going to be like Valor.
But it isn't like Valor.
The reason it isn't like Valor is because Valor had a weekly hard-cap. You couldn't continue to grind it.
Anima grinding is uncapped, However, Anima usage is weekly hard-capped.
It would be like being able to get more than 1000 valor points per week. So people that want too can gain endless valor points and stockpile.
What does that mean?
You can only gain so much power (1000) from it every week - It's a timegate for progression raiders, there is a fixed weekly limit on progression
You can infinitely grind it (5000+ per week) and use Anima to buy items which don't affect power.
Instead of letting people grind infinitely, and then needing to bump up the power levels to the nth % to entirely negate the hard work those players invested as a catch up mechanic - they're instead just putting a hard-cap on the power that can be gained weekly.
The catch-up mechanic seems to be quests (only for those which have fallen behind) which will allow them to gain what they would have usually gained from previous weekly hard-caps, like talents, had they been around.
TL;DR
- You can continue endlessly obtaining anima.
- you will only be able to use a small amount of that anima every week, so it's timegated.
- This allows players to effectively always have anima in reserve for future weeks.
- but not be able to use that anima on anything asides from cosmetics or things that do not result in a direct gain of power.
- players that weren't around for previous weeks will get quests that give them the reward obtained from those weeks.
What this means:
Progression raiders only need to log in once a week to do their weekly anima turn-in and log off until the next weekly hand-in. They can do the grinding any time they want to stockpile anima.