Increase reward for Castrum Meridianum in Main Scenario Roulette to match the effort

I've been running MSQ Roulette more often recently because of the increased tome and EXP reward. I don't mind the unskippable cutscenes. Especially for Praetorium, the reward feels appropriate for the time. However, I hate getting Castrum Meridianum because it's almost as long as Praetorium (35+ min vs Praetorium's 45 min) but gives only about half the EXP as Praetorium.

Please increase the base reward of Castrum to 200 tomestones of Poetics to match Praetorium and increase the EXP reward of Main Scenario Roulette when you get Castrum.

*nod* I hate CM because the increased exp it got is not proportional for the time spent, whereas Praet's is.

I'll gladly take on Praet's exp/time with its better-placed CS even though it takes longer.

The developers have already announced that they are buffing the rewards for MSQ Roulette. I’m guessing they’ll probably put them in for Patch 4.25; definitely by 4.3. For specific EXP rewards, they will probably remain scaled the same—since Castrum takes half the time of Praetorium (CM is ~35 minutes; Praetorium is nearly an hour), it would make sense for you to get half the experience for it.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

since Castrum takes half the time of Praetorium (CM is ~35 minutes; Praetorium is nearly an hour), it would make sense for you to get half the experience for it.

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It was already increased with Patch 4.2:

To ensure new players are able to enjoy the cutscenes in Castrum Meridianum and the Praetorium, all cutscenes in these dungeons can no longer be skipped.
Because this will increase the time required to complete these dungeons, completion rewards and Duty Roulette bonuses for these duties have been increased.

With the unskippable cutscenes, Castrum now takes at least 35 min, but Praetorium is only a little slower at 45 min so it doesn't make sense for Castrum to only give half the exp of Praetorium. Even with the unskippable cutscenes, Praetorium never takes an hour in my experience. It's actually very consistently around that time now and there's very little you can do to speed it up or slow it down, unlike Castrum which can suffer from a variety of slowdowns.

I haven't run it ONCE since the patch took place because it isn't worth it. It's just too much time for a minimal reward. I'd at least allow some good rewards like cracked clusters or something.

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Originally Posted by axemtitanium

It was already increased with Patch 4.2:

To ensure new players are able to enjoy the cutscenes in Castrum Meridianum and the Praetorium, all cutscenes in these dungeons can no longer be skipped.
Because this will increase the time required to complete these dungeons, completion rewards and Duty Roulette bonuses for these duties have been increased.

With the unskippable cutscenes, Castrum now takes at least 35 min, but Praetorium is only a little slower at 45 min so it doesn't make sense for Castrum to only give half the exp of Praetorium. Even with the unskippable cutscenes, Praetorium never takes an hour in my experience. It's actually very consistently around that time now and there's very little you can do to speed it up or slow it down, unlike Castrum which can suffer from a variety of slowdowns.

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They are buffing them again--they announced that in the Live Letter following 4.2. Here's a quote from the latest Live Letter Digest thread:

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We feel that the rewards for Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium aren’t balanced enough, so we’re planning to enhance the rewards.

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Castrum is 35 minutes, but Praetorium is almost an hour; the Praetorium run I was in on Patch 4.2's release was a 15 minute wait and took almost an hour to complete. There was no bonus, so everyone was a veteran in there. Praetorium is double the time, so it makes sense for it to give double the experience. I'm fairly certain Praetorium has more CS in it compared to Castrum. For placements, they're both badly designed.

If your concern is just experience, I'd suggest Alliance Roulette. It gives way more for less time spent.

I don't know what to tell you man. I've run MSQ Roulette every day for the past two weeks and the timer ends at around 75 min left (45 min elapsed) pretty much every time for Praetorium. I'm not including the queue time because it's the same for both Castrum and Praetorium; you don't know what you're going to get until you get in.

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Originally Posted by axemtitanium

I don't know what to tell you man. I've run MSQ Roulette every day for the past two weeks and the timer ends at around 75 min left (45 min elapsed) pretty much every time for Praetorium. I'm not including the queue time because it's the same for both Castrum and Praetorium; you don't know what you're going to get until you get in.

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I mean, it's simple though. If you don't feel the rewards are worth the time, then don't do MSQ Roulette.

Every Praetorium I've been in has been nearly an hour. Our experiences are different, but Castrum takes less time, hence less rewards. Wait and see what the buffs are when they come, but if you don't feel it's worth it, then I think that tells you all you really need to know.

Reward an item that when used gives like 25% of your current level in EXP. You can get the item and change to another class you're leveling then use it. You can get it only once a day.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

I mean, it's simple though. If you don't feel the rewards are worth the time, then don't do MSQ Roulette.

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And I don't run it for this very reason anymore. None one in my FC runs it either. It's just not worth it. As more and more people stop running it they will be forced to increase the reward.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

I mean, it's simple though. If you don't feel the rewards are worth the time, then don't do MSQ Roulette.

Every Praetorium I've been in has been nearly an hour. Our experiences are different, but Castrum takes less time, hence less rewards. Wait and see what the buffs are when they come, but if you don't feel it's worth it, then I think that tells you all you really need to know.

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Your experience is wrong. This screenshot is from a very leisurely run of Praetorium I did today. We had 2 sprouts in AF1 gear so less dps and we had to wait for them multiple times because they got lost. Unless 45 minutes means "nearly an hour" to you, and unless 35 minutes is "half" of 45 minutes to you, then you're simply lying about your experience to try and defend a bad state of affairs.

https://i.imgur.com/bD1IDIf.png

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Originally Posted by axemtitanium

Your experience is wrong. This screenshot is from a very leisurely run of Praetorium I did today. We had 2 sprouts in AF1 gear so less dps and we had to wait for them multiple times because they got lost. Unless 45 minutes means "nearly an hour" to you, and unless 35 minutes is "half" of 45 minutes to you, then you're simply lying about your experience to try and defend a bad state of affairs.

https://i.imgur.com/bD1IDIf.png

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??? O.o How is my experience a lie? Were you there? I timed it and it took almost an hour, and this was on Day 1 of the changes—I actually still have it written down: Queue popped at 8:03am my time, and we got out at almost 9:00am my time; wait time was about 10~15 minutes for it to pop.

EDIT: I actually found my post from that day in another thread:

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

Just did MSQ Roulette myself—Praetorium.

Wait time: ~10 mins (DPS)
Instance time: ~50 mins (skipping/blowing through things as per usual)
Experience (level 60 job): 274,217 experience for the mobs we did kill; 1,338,681 experience for the Roulette (was not AiN).

My overall opinion? Not worth it. The experience reward doesn’t seem to be anymore than what I used to get running it beforehand.

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So yours have been faster? Good for you? Just sounds like you’re irritated that your experience isn’t universal. Calm down, please.

As for “defending a current sad state of affairs”, I was extremely vocal about disagreeing with the change the make the cutscenes mandatory and unskippable in the first place. I guess you weren’t around to see that, but my posts in various threads are there. Feel free to go back and search for them if you think I’m lying.

My point still stands: If you feel the experience isn’t worth the time spent, then don’t do it.. They’re buffing the rewards probably with 4.25. You can wait and see if it’s the same then, or better.

Ah, there's the problem: you're counting your queue time. The queue time is the same for both Castrum and Praetorium when you're doing MSQ Roulette so there's no point in counting it for both when comparing the two. When you queue for MSQ Roulette, you're committing to whatever queue time you get (unless you withdraw). When comparing the instance timers, Praetorium is only slightly longer, but gives almost 2x the experience (2.6M for Praetorium, 1.4M for Castrum on WHM54, not in need).

It's not that I don't feel the experience is worth the time spent. It's that there's a 50% chance that my experience per time spent is way lower for no reason when I get Castrum instead of Praetorium, through no fault of my own.

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Originally Posted by axemtitanium

Ah, there's the problem: you're counting your queue time. The queue time is the same for both Castrum and Praetorium when you're doing MSQ Roulette so there's no point in counting it for both when comparing the two. When you queue for MSQ Roulette, you're committing to whatever queue time you get (unless you withdraw). When comparing the instance timers, Praetorium is only slightly longer, but gives almost 2x the experience (2.6M for Praetorium, 1.4M for Castrum on WHM54, not in need).

It's not that I don't feel the experience is worth the time spent. It's that there's a 50% chance that my experience per time spent is way lower for no reason when I get Castrum instead of Praetorium, through no fault of my own.

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I didn’t count my queue time in that, though. I was in the the queue for ~10 minutes, and then the instance for ~50; when I say the queue popped at 8:03am, that means that’s when I hit “Commence”, not when I queued up for it.

Either way, our experiences are different. Doesn’t make either of us liars. And, like I’ve said, wait until 4.25 when they buff the rewards again, and if they still aren’t worth it, then I would seriously advise you to just do Alliance Roulette. It’s faster and you get more experience out of it. Plus, I personally find the 24-mans more entertaining.

50 minutes is quite close to 45 minutes. It seems your run managed to dawdle even more than mine did. All the same, getting 50% of the experience as Praetorium for taking 70% of the time is still not a good ratio. There are only two options; there shouldn't be such a large disparity in the rewards between them and it shouldn't be difficult to balance the two.

45, 50... No one wants to be in an instance they've done several times, with unskippable cutscenes they've witnessed several times, for more than 30 minutes, if it does not grant REALLY good rewards. I'm talking about a full level when between 50 to 60, and at least half a level between 60 and 70. And a cluster if AiN.

Reward not very much from forced to watch all those cut scenes. When not done without the roulette bonus get maybe 500k with all the buffs can have. That's to little when have to watch 30+ minutes of cut scenes. Should give at least 2mil exp. without the bonus being forced to watch long cut scenes. 45 minute queue time for 500k exp. way to little.

I'd suggest they also put 100-200 creation tomes for level 70 players as well because I just found out you can turn in Lost Allagan Gear for GC seals. That should ease up the queues for non-tanks a little more.

The level 50/60 roulette gives creation tomes for daily roulette completion for the level 70 player, yet they can be done faster than the cutscene-filled Main Scenario roulette.

Castrum is still busted as of Patch 4.25. Less than half the exp for the same amount of time.

TBH, rather than experience, I feel it'd be better to add alternative rewards to it - perhaps mhachi matter (or maybe even demimatter) like alliance roulette for AiD along with some tomestones overall.

Reason why not clusters - leveling dungeons simply need more tanks and healers than the two MSQ 8mans, so that is where the clusters should be. Besides, if you REALLY need them, MSQ roulette is not going to be the source.

Recently i lvl my PLD and now i'm doing the same with DRK and i will tell you one thing - if i didnt have a second screen so i can watch a movie i would never do this two dungeons. But the exp and the chance to actually watch a movie while playing its making this two dungeons ok to run. But i will tell you the truth, once i hit lvl 70 with my DRK they will not see me anymore... until i need to lvl another tank or healer. Even with dps i'm not going to que for this dungeons because isnt worth the time.

I think that Squeenix should team up with Netflix, and suggest to them to add free Netflix time to everyone running MSQ roulette.

Run a daily MSQ roulette = get 1 hour of Netflix for free!