A case for 2 dungeons per patch cycle...

[Valence]

The good news is they are making 3 variant dungeons:

1. More difficult (at least solo I've found the last bosses give me more of a challenge than regular dungeons ever have, not saying they are difficult generally).
2. No duty support.
3. Not sure if variants are actually a testbed, but they have put new mechanic ideas in them I feel like.
4. Layouts and puzzles are often different in variant dungeons, so they are a testbed in that sense!
5. They are optional, unlocked via a sidequest!

The problem with variants, really, is there is not a roulette for them and they are hidden away in this menu where nobody is going to check once they cleared all 12 paths. And despite all these things, are they really that fun? Tbh no, and that's probably in part because of how thoroughly boring the trash is and waiting for the NPC to talk and press things.

Solo variants are a bit harder because you're on your own to heal yourself, protect yourself, and do damage and mechanics. If you die, you restart. In groups though? They're hardly different from what we're getting now in normal dungeons. If anything, you have broken duty actions to help you, and not in normal dungeons... And that's only talking about bosses.

[Supersnow845]

Variant is not a replacement for roulette dungeons because they alone have no inherent value to be completed other than for the sake of completing them as they are tied to no roulette and unlock nothing. They also have a poor reward scheme.

Saying variant is a replacement for roulette dungeons is like saying directly queueing for a random dungeon is a replacement for doing the roulette. One has clearly superior rewards, is encouraged by the system and isn’t cut loose into the graveyard of barely supported content

Either variant needs to be given its own roulette that selects a dungeon and a route direction (ie either left right or centre) or variant needs to be dumped in favour of returning extra dungeons that can be put on the roulettes

[Jeeqbit]

What I mean is it's a replacement from the developers' perspective and when you think about it, it is technically doing a lot of the things people want like multiple routes and puzzles and in that sense, it's making a start on things people are requesting.

Obviously a big reason it's not good enough is being hidden in a UI that nobody is going to look at, instead of being a roulette in Duty Finder.

When they are new, they do give decent tomestone rewards but it doesn't change how they are hidden away in this UI instead of in Expert roulette or another roulette that provides similar daily rewards.

[Bonoki]

I completed the first variant dungeon but didn’t bother with the other two. I wasn’t really impressed with the first one, and the rewards across all three didn’t motivate me to continue. It felt like dead-on-arrival content for me. Honestly, I would’ve preferred another dungeon in the roulette pool instead.

[Daralii]

I completed the first variant dungeon but didn’t bother with the other two. I wasn’t really impressed with the first one, and the rewards across all three didn’t motivate me to continue. It felt like dead-on-arrival content for me. Honestly, I would’ve preferred another dungeon in the roulette pool instead.

Like a lot of things, they were a decent concept with poor implementation and will probably never get iterated on. Ironically, the most praise I saw for anything related to this form of casual content was the most hardcore of hardcores saying that criterion savage was good 4-man practice for ultimates.

[Hyperia]

The alternative is to just leave all of the max level dungeons in the expert. I don’t run experts anymore because it’s so boring.

The same dungeon for 9 to 10 months is poor design.

[Valence]

Well it's good because we're getting 5 more months of the same dungeons, with just an additional one. Lvl100 roulette isn't happening until 7.2.