Well , since HW we now have 2 kind of "raids" to grind : 24-man with the Ark series and 8 man with Alex NM.

Here's how I take it, hope this could help:

- if any loot takes me more than 7-10 attempts i just buy the i220 crafted item instead. You can put 5 materias on these so they are even better than Midas in most cases. On my server if you know some crafters you can get any of these items between 500k and 1 mil each. My rule: if getting the Midas loot takes longer than making the gils in the meantime (+- two days) i just buy the crafted item.

- most of the turns are easy enough to be facerolled by PUGs but for "hardest" turns i run them with people i know... who dont need their loot.

- vote for the loots you dont need first and let them win their weekly roll before you roll on your bolt. Helps a bit.

They did a really good job with adding the i220 crafted stuff at the same time than Midas NM stuff imho. This time the grind is just "optional" at least.

Good luck.