I can tell you that the threshold for "not insane" mat requirements stops at Mega-Potion/-Ether/regular Elixir. HQ Mega-Ether is not too bad either:

NQ: 24% MP (270 max), 4m CD
HQ: 20% MP (340 max), 3m36s CD
X-Ether NQ: 20% MP (420 max), 5m CD

Beyond that (if people are even interested in that on your server), ALC is pretty pointless beyond making and melding SCH/SMN relic weapons. In my opinion at least.