Alliance raids have no business being a relic step.

[SturmChurro]

Looks like I am back to farming these again, for my red mage. I don't like doing them either, specifically crystal tower.. ALL the time. The thing is, from what I've heard, the second time around, you don't even do the Ivalice series raids, so the only raids that are continuously encouraged are CT, and the HW raids. I'm pretty sure these raids never really had an issue with getting people to do them prior to these relic steps, so it is quite nonsensical to me that SE has us doing these raids over and over and over. On top of that, there is no reason to do Bozja over these raids for your relic, since the raids are a guaranteed drop. I really think this is lazy implementation; cheap padding.

[Avatre]

Looks like I am back to farming these again, for my red mage. I don't like doing them either, specifically crystal tower.. ALL the time. The thing is, from what I've heard, the second time around, you don't even do the Ivalice series raids, so the only raids that are continuously encouraged are CT, and the HW raids. I'm pretty sure these raids never really had an issue with getting people to do them prior to these relic steps, so it is quite nonsensical to me, that SE has us doing these raids over and over and over. On top of that, there is no reason to do Bozja over these raids for your relic, since the raids are a guaranteed drop. I really think this is lazy implementation; cheap padding.

You only need to do the HW and StB raids once. Only 15 CT and 15 DR are needed for every relic. So to do them all, you would need 255 CT, 18 Mhach, 18 Ivalice, and 255 DR. Or the Bozja/overworld/PoTD equivalents.

[SturmChurro]

You only need to do the HW and StB raids once. Only 15 CT and 15 DR are needed for every relic. So to do them all, you would need 255 CT, 18 Mhach, 18 Ivalice, and 255 DR. Or the Bozja/overworld/PoTD equivalents.

Then the speculation that they did this to get some of these raid series popping, isn't even a thing.. It's just CT over and over again? Wow.. Looks like my opinion, as to cheap padding is unchanged, and the ridiculous DR drop rates make more and more sense..

[Avatre]

Then the speculation that they did this to get some of these raid series popping, isn't even a thing.. It's just CT over and over again? Wow.. Looks like my opinion, as to cheap padding is unchanged, and the ridiculous DR drop rates make more and more sense..

Pretty much. The DR drop rates could definitely be buffed. In my 49 runs(according to the achievement at least), I have gotten 3-4 of each of the miniatures, 1 mount(kept it for myself), 1 hair(sold it for 14 mil), 3 Orchestrion rolls(1 was a duplicate so threw it on the marker - don't think it sold yet since that was earlier today), and a bunch of(probably 30-ish each) field notes and fragments. There is still one Orchestrion roll I need(The Queen Awakens), and another hair for myself to keep, but I feel with the drop rate I should get them in the time it takes me to get the remaining pieces I'm missing for relics(sitting at 30 in my saddlebags, and another 3 on me)

[SturmChurro]

I am being told Castrum is now the more efficient method of getting memories. I'm gonna try my hand at it later. Not really looking forward to sitting in there for an hour waiting for a castrum pop, if I join at a bad time, though.

Pretty much. The DR drop rates could definitely be buffed. In my 49 runs(according to the achievement at least), I have gotten 3-4 of each of the miniatures, 1 mount(kept it for myself), 1 hair(sold it for 14 mil), 3 Orchestrion rolls(1 was a duplicate so threw it on the marker - don't think it sold yet since that was earlier today), and a bunch of(probably 30-ish each) field notes and fragments. There is still one Orchestrion roll I need(The Queen Awakens), and another hair for myself to keep, but I feel with the drop rate I should get them in the time it takes me to get the remaining pieces I'm missing for relics(sitting at 30 in my saddlebags, and another 3 on me)

The drop rate is straight up trash. I've cleared it 37 times, I have not once gotten a hair, a mount, or a barding. I have gotten several duplicate decor, a few orchestrion roles, and a lot of field note. Oh, and I did get like 4 or 5 gold coins in my runs. Nothing I really wanted though. Hopefully the next 15 for RDM give me something I want..

[Erendis]

good luck convincing anyone that you did Stormblood FATEs for 35 hours to progress past the roadblock in the current relic tier, we all know you did the Alliance raids like an obedient little WoL

Yesterday it took me less than 6 hours to get 33 memories from SB fates (I got 3 before patch).

[Liam_Harper]

I'll agree CT was poor design because now it encourages ilv cheese for Alliance Roulette.

The best way to farm multiple relics is to keep a quest open for the Loathsome Memories and just do your Alliance Roulette every day, but ilv cheese it. That way you'll have a good stock by the time 5.5 hits with minimum effort for that step.

The HW and StB Alliance step doesn't help populate the queues either, except for The Void Ark and Rabanastre. Almost no one is farming Orbonne for memories. Besides that, the steps were a welcome change in that it actually requires some effort and grind, but nothing excessive. Compared to "spend 1000 poetics" or "faceroll 20 HW fates" I'll take it.

[Lanadra]

people would rather strip off their jewelery than risk getting a Heavensward or Stormblood alliance raid.

I'm going to try that on my tank today.. if I can avoid HW and SB Alliance Raids by dunking my ilevel enough I'd definitely do it.. I don't even know why I didn't think of it before.

[RyuDragnier]

You only need to do the HW and StB raids once. Only 15 CT and 15 DR are needed for every relic. So to do them all, you would need 255 CT, 18 Mhach, 18 Ivalice, and 255 DR. Or the Bozja/overworld/PoTD equivalents.

Meaning 51 Castrum runs compared to CT runs, since you get 5 guaranteed from the last boss.

[Greyhawk]

Prop up 'dead content', by locking it behind the relic, so those that still need to clear said Alliance raids, can do so without being impeded by a 30-minute queue? Sounds like a good approach to me, genuinely. The number of people doing a relic makes it the perfect piece of content with which to revitalize older content.

How many times though do you need to run CT raids to 'revitalize content'? These raids have become an almost daily thing to run in roulette BEFORE relic updates. Now, this is all the crap we get are the CT raids. It's gotten so sickening that now people just leave the raid as soon as they see it's a CT raid. We've already been brow-beaten to death with CT. I don't mind going back to do some older content, but not beginning of the game content we already get forced into on a daily roulette. If you are going to 'hide' new content behind old content, at least spread it out a little bit for the steps. 15 loathsome memories? Okay, fine - don't just stop at CT, give me other ways even if it's in Leveling, Normal or Trial roulettes. 36 more? POTD? Really? Cmon...