Is there any logistical benefit to expanding my Alliance Raid Roulette options?

So I'm kind of amazed that I had the alliance raid roulette option open up as soon as I had the quest for the second wing of the crystal tower. I did all three wings because, as it turned out all the recommendations to do them for ShB story purposes were extremely valid.

Here's where I pause, though.

Obviously, the runs of the crystal tower are complete and efficient cakewalks, and the roulette even favors DPS rather often. The queues are managable and so I find myself wondering that, interesting as the story might be, is there any benefit to opening up more options on the roulette? Like are Alexander and what is it, rabanastre(?), are they are efficient and inevitably cakewalked?

To be clear: I'm not looking "for a challenge," I'm just looking for some "apply time and win" for tomestones and leveling DPS classes. There's no turning back once I put something on the roulette, and I can't be the only one who has asked this question in their mind for these reasons, so it stands then to reason that I'm not massively expediting the queues by opening more options. It's not like there's a story requirement for the MSQ so there isn't really a gaurantee of higher churn of players in the higher raids.

So yeah, am I better off just leaving it at the crystal tower or are all the other alliance raids on the way up equally time efficient and effortless? I can always just watch the stories on you tube or something, but once I cross that line they're always gonna be there in the roulette.

Sky Pirates (60) Alliance Raids are pretty much as fast as 50 by now. Ivalice (70) isn't that long, either. Nier (80) can take significant amount of time, but mostly because it's still fresh, not because it's particularly hard to do.

Also, if anything, there is a way to avoid higher level raids in roulette, and looking at how frequently I have Crystal Tower in my roulette - people do this a lot.

The Mhachi alliance raids are not quite cakewalked, but fairly close. Also, they have some interesting lore about that entire era—the conflict Mhach had with Amdapor and Nym, and how that dark history led into the founding of Ul'dah's predecessor, Belah'dia—which is fun if you enjoy the lore in the game. I sometimes see the Mhach raids—usually Dun Scaith—show up in Alliance Roulette on Leviathan.

The Ivalice raids (Royal City of Rabanastre, Ridorana Lighthouse, and Orbonne Monastery) are good story if you liked Final Fantasy Tactics (or FF12, for that matter). The Ivalice raids are also frequently an unmitigated disaster of proportions both cosmic and comic on the very rare occasions they actually turn up in roulette; many people ran them a grand total of once to finish the storyline and then never again, and they have mechanics which are... let's go with unique. (My personal favorite could be described as "Tactical Combat Math Homework".) But they almost never show up in roulette, at least on my server; I've seen Orbonne turn up in my roulette exactly once (and it resulted in a truly epic wipefest to be sung of for generations).

Honestly, even if you have run every single alliance raid in the game and are queuing at level 80, 90% of the time you'll get Crystal Tower. (And I think 60% of the time, it will be specifically Labyrinth of the Ancients.) So if you want to do 'em for story, I recommend doing them; it will not appreciably change the results of your Alliance Roulette in any way you'll generally notice. And the lore can be interesting.

(Though the wine-related filler quest in the middle of the Ivalice raids made me want to beat my head on my desk.)

Clearing Rabanastre (and the rest of the Ivalice series) will be a prerequisite for the Lv80 relic weapons side content.

They also have nice glamours that you can't currently get elsewhere.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Clearing Rabanastre (and the rest of the Ivalice series) will be a prerequisite for the Lv80 relic weapons side content.

They also have nice glamours that you can't currently get elsewhere.

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Valid points!

(Also, Tactical Combat Math Homework. Who doesn't think that mechanic sounds amazing??)

If you don't care things, why we have to convince you do them? If you are fine with just first two-three raids, that's good for you.

I wish there was a way to re-lock already unlocked content to not have it appear in roulettes. The Crystal Tower raids, especially the first two, are such snoozefests with a barely functional set of abilities that I'm bored to tears doing them over and over and over again. And apparently some people reduce their item level on purpose in order to force a Labyrinth pop. I'd much rather do any if the Ivalice raids. On the other hand there's little reason to do those raids outside of the roulette, nor is a Labyrinth pop from roulette worth abandoning since the next pop would most likely just be another Labyrinth. At least it doesn't force me to watch cutscenes.

Format for alliance raids has remained unchanged for the most part: Four bosses separated by trash and/or mini bosses with the 3rd boss leading right into the last. What changes is the closer to max level they get, the longer they take to clear. Average CT clear takes around 18 minutes. Copied Factory? Expect to be in there for around 45 minutes.

If you are just about efficiency when it comes to getting tomes and exp, then no. There isn't much benefit to clearing other raids in terms of roulettes. Unfortunately, it is also something a lot of players are unhappy about as only having two available instances kind of defeats the purpose of a roulette. LoTA and ST being the first two alliance raids, will always be the most efficient.

Personally if this is your main and you haven't done them I'd do them all for the experience and to see what they're all about. On alts personally I unlock the roulette and I'm happy. i don't feel the need to do them all.

On a side note if you plan on doing the new relic you will need the 70 level raids to unlock the quest for relic it will be locked behind doing them (Rabanastre, Lighthouse and Orbonne).

Shadow of Mhach raid is fine now, there are one, two bosses that could be difficult for new players but overall you should get through it without problems. The story wasn't that interesting and significant for the overall plot though. At least not yet.
Return to Ivalice gives me PTSD... There are certain bosses that have mechanics people regularly die too even now. However this raid story is interesting and if you want to know how other countries on the map are doing, I recommend it.
The current Nier Automata raid is really fun at least for us big Nier fans. I don't think it has to much to do with the story of ffxiv so if you never played Nier Automata this might not interest you as much. However it is challenging as it is still rather new and people still die like flies sometimes.

As said, Ivalice will be a prerequisite to that's good to do
The Mhach series imho it's one of the best stories in the whole game, and it gives a load of ancient lore that you can't really find elsewhere. plus they look stunning, visually, especially if you're into dark stuff.

And if you care about others a bit..do it for the sake of all of the people forced to do just LotA/Ssyrcus over and over because people didn't unlock the other series/cheese ilvl. The moogle event pushed people to do Mhach raids again and it was such a breath of fresh air.

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Originally Posted by Halivel

[...] Nier (80) can take significant amount of time, but mostly because it's still fresh, not because it's particularly hard to do. [...]

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Tell that to the dead alliance-parties. I've been running as brd to cast peloton. Now with Nier in roulette, I only join alliance as smn so I can ress (especially heals) in case I get Nier.

Please stop making us run Crystal Tower repeatedly. I'm sick of it. Please unlock your other alliance roulettes. I want to do something other than LotA. Please. I beg of you.

At a minimum, unlock Void Ark too. A modern group can do it in under 20 minutes, there is actually probly less risk of a wipe then there is in a typical LotA run, and you get to use some of your skills above level 50. Personally, i would say unlock them all. If all you use to level up are level 50 instances, then you wont really have a handle on how to play your class when forced to do so in current content. Also, lots of fun glamour options.

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Originally Posted by MightyTachikoma

Please stop making us run Crystal Tower repeatedly. I'm sick of it. Please unlock your other alliance roulettes. I want to do something other than LotA. Please. I beg of you.

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iLvl cheese to get CT used to bother me but in terms of reward vs time, CT raids are the most efficient.

SE needs to up the reward for the other raids to make them worth running as roulette.