Crystal Tower has to go

[Renalt]

I'll tell you why I don't like it.

#1. I've run this thing well over 100 times, easily. Without tracking or quantifying it at all, I know that ~100 human hours of my time has been spent in this shitty ass raid. I am sick of it and want off the ride.
#2. I get synced to level 50 every time I do it. It's so goddamn awful to play level 50 at this point. It doesn't matter the class or the job, all the cool stuff is gutted, all the muscle memory that has been built for the later stuff is rendered completely unnecessary. I tend to raid as Ninja; it plays so bad at 50, I know other classes do as well.
#3. If I wanted to run it by name, I would. And I would tolerate it if I didn't run it during the roulettes 6 out of 7 times per week. Have you queued in before, to see some dickhead change their HP from like 2000 to 10000 because they queued with a low item level? Yeah, that's why the roulettes are jacked. I do get that a larger portion of the playerbase cannot run 60+ alliance raids because of circumstance, but it is painful to be constantly dragged down to that level, day after day. It sucks, it is bad, and anyone who purposely messes with system to enforce level 50 raids is a giant douche that should be banned.
#4. I think it's crazy that people think Ivalice and HW raids are harder. Do you know why they're harder? It's because people aren't running them as much as running stupid Crystal Tower.
#5. It is disingenuous to suggest that anyone should run CT at minimum ilevel to get the full effect of the raid. That's crazy talk. Only lunatics would run it minimum ilevel on a regular basis, and that does not solve alliance roulette being corrupted by people who can only do or only want to do crystal tower and will find a way to drag randos into doing it.
#6. Yeah, maybe the gameplay is compelling at minimum ilevel, but it isn't anymore. I would never expect anyone but the sproutiest sprout to come in at minimum ilevel, and even they will probably have some level of augmented sprout gear.
#7. Of all the controversial opinions, this could be the worst one: It's not the playerbase's fault at all. SE is so proud of the CT raid that each expansion requires running a CT raid, either optionally, or as a requirement to complete some task: relics in particular, and famously ShB making it an MSQ requirement. [edited for length] After all wasn't Amon such a good character?

At this point CT is beneath my contempt. I've put a ton of time into it and have tolerated it for so long that I finally had to say something. It sucks and is bad; I have to keep doing it, and it sucks, and every time I go through it, it is bad. I hope this is to your satisfaction.

I want to hug you so bad right now. All very well said.

[Iscah]

Probably the same reason as those who do not like it as well. With the exception of World of Darkness (though that does fall flat on its face with the final boss. Did you know she has snake adds?)

I ran it with a minimum ilevel group one time and still didn't see any snake adds. And you can even still defeat Glasya at minimum ilevel before he gets to doing the platforms.

It really needs some extra HP on the bosses, and probably tweaking the order/timing of their attacks so we actually get to see them do interesting things before the fight is over.

(That goes for some later raids too. Knave of Hearts does not need two slow-cast spells to set up its clones every time.)

SE is so proud of the CT raid that each expansion requires running a CT raid, either optionally, or as a requirement to complete some task: relics in particular, and famously ShB making it an MSQ requirement.

I don't think they're "proud" of it; they just need people to run old content, so they incentivise/force people to do various bits. The longer it has been around, the more times they go back to it.

Adding it to MSQ isn't just to arbitrarily show it off; those events needed to happen so they could be built upon. So despite your blunt assertion that it "has to go", actually at this point it has to stay.

[kaynide]

Double edged sword really.

You did join roulette. Fair or not, you get what you get. Your inconvenience is paid for in xp.

However you are not wrong about the difficulty.. they absolutely should reduce the sync of ilvl to make it at least as challenging as 3.x raid. That is to say, players really should do the mechanics, even if they nerf some of them (like remove the charge- tower mechanic in behemoth).

Alternatively, just rework it to a 4 man dungeon at this point.

[Soge01]

You don't like getting Crystal Tower 3/4 of the time in your daily roulette? How dare you!!!

[BaconBits]

I'm sorry. It sucks and is bad.

Based take.

[Havenchild]

Meh, I still think people favor crystal tower raids as do I because of the speed at which you finish the roulette. 15mins versus the 40+ Nier raids will always favor the former. They could easily help this issue by actually increasing the Nier and Rabanastre Raid EXP much higher, cause its pretty crappy considering the time sink.

A quick roulette is infinitely better. If I wanted something else, I'd queue for those individually but if you doing alliance roulette atm for the EXP / Crystals, odds are you want something quick and that seems to be the mindset of the playerbase overall.

[Absimiliard]

After all these years people somehow still manage to wipe on Phlegethon with regularity.

[Raoabolic]

CT is too boring? It feels like most other content. Is this a hot new take or something? It's almost like the homogenization is starting to effect parts of the game and make it boring...
Personally, they should just do a prae/castrum rework and just turn it into an 8 man something or another and call it a day. If you are going to gut something then you can't stop halfway, lol.

[Ishe-P]

You did join roulette. Fair or not, you get what you get. Your inconvenience is paid for in xp.

Look, I understand the point of roulettes and their fundamental function to maintain old content, I really do. However, there are now 13 alliance zones in the game, 3 of which seem to be more prominent than the others. Why is it my fault for joining roulette earnestly hoping NOT to get CT when I have no personal control over whether that's the case and maybe getting a little variety or unpredictability out of my game? This argument makes no sense to me, but if I must take the blame for unwillingly padding out the numbers of the lamest alliance raid in the game on the daily I guess I must.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Look, I understand the point of roulettes and their fundamental function to maintain old content, I really do. However, there are now 13 alliance zones in the game, 3 of which seem to be more prominent than the others. Why is it my fault for joining roulette earnestly hoping NOT to get CT when I have no personal control over whether that's the case and maybe getting a little variety or unpredictability out of my game? This argument makes no sense to me, but if I must take the blame for unwillingly padding out the numbers of the lamest alliance raid in the game on the daily I guess I must.

Why are you acting like youre being forced into it. You already knew what you were signing up for when you queue for an alliance roulette that has CT in it.

Its like getting mad at the electrical outlet when you purposefully touch it with your bare hands. I dont get why people have this weird lack of personal agency when it comes to stuff like this. Yeah its not your fault, and rng dont care about your personal feelings on what you wind up getting. Either you deal with it or you dont. Lady, your argument makes no sense to me.

That being said, I understand the frustration. Again I would still want CT to be retooled to be less boring rather than it just be taken away.