Is Alliance Raid Roulette STILL Always Crystal Tower?

[@gogogagagugu2134]

The problem is it only takes one person who only has CT unlocked to queue for alliance roulette to pull 23 other people into their 200th time clearing Syrcus Tower

[@elixir478]

Not only that but it's the only REQUIRE ar to unlock. You have to go out of the way to get any other so the majority of them who have only crystal tower unlocked will pull all the other who don't into their 5000th clear

[@Scerttle]

@@elixir478 and the other remainder of the time it's gonna be one of the stormblood raids cause a few people have unlocked them for Bozja.

[@lappyappreciator2340]

if i see someone claim that they're "optimizing their account to only get CT" im going to their house and stealing something from them

[@tehSunBro]

@@elixir478 Better to be pulled into their 5000th clear, than their 5000th wipe wasting time in Orbonne.

[@tehSunBro]

@@lappyappreciator2340 I'd pay money for the option to lock Ivalice and Nier again.

[@Vengir]

As painful as it is to get CT yet again, it's important that it continues to fill for people who actually need to complete it for the MSQ. Some stuff, like perhaps improving the visibility of level 60+ alliance raid unlock questlines, make perfect sense. More drastic measures, like splitting it into a separate roulette, should probably wait until CT is added to the Duty Support system.

[@zhane6816]

Put it in msq roulette, it is required for msq after all.

[@viysnjor4811]

@@zhane6816 Caetsu explained why that's a bad idea. Why would matchmaking ever wait for 20 more people when it could just start one of the dungeons/trial the moment it gets 4 players?

[@Fayfh23]

The crystal tower could be rework to be an npc alliance raid with random adventurer honestly. It would serve as alliance raid tutorial. There is nothing interesting in doing it now, all mecanics are bypass by pure dps it's even confusing for new players as it teach them to ignore mecanics and just DPS.

[@xela4854]

They should remove the requirement, why does CT even matter? Fandaniel? They already do a good enough job re-introducing him in EW.

[@coaster1235]

i miss when it was always aglaia but then everyone else finished their 90-96 spam 😔

[@ClairvoyantLastrus]

I mean I did it until 100, the exp is insane, it gives the same amount as a daily roulette

[@ciberkid22]

I would've done this but I cared more to finish the shared fates for Dawntrail lol

[@0Fyrebrand0]

I actually hated that. Aglaia is such a joke with 24 people all in BiS gear, bosses melting way too fast, tons of mechanics getting skipped. It became the new level 90 Crystal Tower.

[@MajoraZero]

​@@0Fyrebrand0I agree it's a joke that might be easier than CT. And if I'm healer it's as interesting as CT... However as dps you get to use your level 90 kit so that alone makes it considerably more engaging

[@veesalazar8605]

I’m still getting Agalia a lot

[@marilynmonstermaniac]

FF3 Crystal tower: you are here forever FFXIV Crystal tower: you are also here forever

[@ThisIsntAYoutuber]

It’s always CT when you don’t need it. Then when you finally do need it because of something like Wondrous Tails, it never is.

[@snowy7730]

Wish I "needed" it more often

[@FubukiShiromiya]

I like the separate roulette idea best, given that it separates mandatory and optional content, just like trials vs normal raids. The bias for heavensward raids doesn’t bother me both because I like those raids and because I don’t get sastasha or copperbell mines every time I do leveling, so I’ll put up with getting the occasional level 60 raid even if it’s slightly more often. I might even grow to like the stormblood raids if I played them more.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That is a good point! Presumably even if shadow of mhach would become the new "most likely", it would probably still be much less than crystal tower is now! 😅 And more variety would mean everyone would have more regular practice with all of them, making them easier by extension!

[@zrshade]

On the topic of making the raid quests more visible for new players, why not just add a new quest marker/icon *specifically* for raid series quests. New players will see the different marker and be compelled to check it out.

[@gaialudovicaangeloni2179]

i mean, aren't raid quests already blue, the color of unlockable content? for me its egregious already to hear sprouts claim it was a discontinued feature, i can only think these people never watch the map to see what could they do around...

[@kitsunehanyou09]

Afaik, most new players are either told by the game or by other players that the blue quests unlock things--even if they're part of a chain(ex. Tomra dwarf quests being blue before you even unlock Dwarf society quests and the Nier raid). Having an extra marker might with work but kinda redundant for the work of making a new marker then retroactively changing the relevant quests. If a player doesn't want to do side quests, you can't force them do it.

[@Medardusai]

@gaialudovicaangeloni2179 @kitsunehanyou09 Do you guys know how _many_ blue quests there are? I started a little over a year ago and only unlocked most of the raids because my FC did mount farms and I had to seek those out specifically. You never know _what_ at the end of a blue quest is. Sometimes it's a raid series. Sometimes it's tribals. Sometimes it's a trial. Sometimes it's entire new areas with their own rules (Eureka, Bozja). Sometimes it's an entire new job. Sometimes it's a dungeon. Hell I know people who played longer than me that didn't know what guildhests were because the game doesn't really point you to them. When you are a new player you are massively overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content and since there is absolutely no distinction in the markers or guidance to content you want to do a new player will either give up and just do MSQ or has to do research outside of the game. SE could absolutely do a better job at pointing people in the right direction and marking what an unlock quest is for. Especially alliance raids and raid series should have their own marker.

[@Medardusai]

My original comment is just gone - I can see it in my history but it doesn't show up here in the video. For completeness I have edited it in here: Do you guys know how many blue quests there are? I started a little over a year ago and only unlocked most of the raids because my FC did mount farms and I had to seek those out specifically. You never know what at the end of a blue quest is. Sometimes it's a raid series. Sometimes it's tribals. Sometimes it's a trial. Sometimes it's entire new areas with their own rules (Eureka, Bozja). Sometimes it's an entire new job. Sometimes it's a dungeon. I know people who played longer than me that didn't know what guildhests were because the game doesn't really point you to them. When you are a new player you are massively overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content and since there is absolutely no distinction in the markers or guidance to content you want to do a new player will either give up and just do MSQ or has to do research outside of the game. SE could absolutely do a better job at pointing people in the right direction and marking what an unlock quest is for. Especially alliance raids and raid series should have their own marker. Hell, the Nier raids are unlocked by a questline from a dwarf in Kholusia. When I originally saw that I thought that it'd unlock dwarf tribals and would go back to it once I had leveled the older tribes up. Cue my surprise when I was told by members of my FC how great the Nier raids where, I go to look up how to unlock them and it's _that_ blue quest. I wouldn't be surprised if many others had the same thought process - and if they are not interested in tribals just ignored the quest alltogether.

[@heartscaless]

Yeah it would be really helpful to diversify quest markers a bit more, I remember when I was going through msq and how disheartening it was to clear a blue quest only for it to unlock basically nothing (not that I wouldn't do them anyways eventually, but it would have been nice to know where I should be investing my time for the sake of unlocking actual content)

[@Mjupi]

A good suggestion I saw someone talk about was adding furniture to Alliance Raids. As long as the furniture remains exclusive to their respective ARs and are appealing enough, more people will likely both unlock them, but also keep them more relevant. Another thing I wish the game as a whole was better at was indicating which quests unlock battle content, i.e dungeons, raids, alliance raids and trials. Maybe have a different icon or graphic, because when I was a new player and didn't focus yet on unlocking all content, I would get overwhelmed by how many blue quest marks could pop up in a new city. A red or green quest marker perhaps for battle content like that? idk

[@Box_of_Cox]

I'm thinking add a number or some symbol to indicate which kind of content it is. Red and green are already being used for "cannot turn in quest due to level or job/class requirements" and "able to turn in quest". Maybe keep the current blue Q+ icon and add a 24 next to the + for alliance raids, 4 next to the + for dungeons, and 8 for normal raids and trial series? Something like that.

[@Aviii_]

I respect the attempt at coming up with a solution, but I don't know if furniture would change anything to be honest, that seems like a pretty bizarre thought Housing is extremely limited, and even for FC houses and apartments, people usually just use it to stash all their "quest trophies". Free stuff they get from events and quests, like the monster hunter BBQ roasts. Most players ignore housing, and it'd be a pretty weak incentive IMO

[@OfLaSoul]

I'm definitely getting more CT raids, but funnily enough, Fun Scaith is usually the second most common in my case.

[@raarasunai4896]

@@OfLaSoul seems like it’s a case of getting either Crystal Tower or something awful(Dun Scaith or Nier raids)

[@BlueThe1up]

​@@raarasunai4896 "awful" and then theyre the best raids in the game

[@raarasunai4896]

@@BlueThe1up I respectfully disagree

[@hoodiesticks]

I've also gotten a lot of Dun Scaith lately.

[@prettyboyvolf3364]

Dun Scaith is my favorite AR. And it most commonly occurs when I queue as tank, so I need not worry about a full wipe even against Diabolos

[@tsbulmer]

If Crystal Tower ARs were siloed away into their own roulette, I might actually do the AR Roulette again. I haven't been bored since the 90s, and the Crystal Tower has taken that as a challenge!

[@Sniperbear13]

dump them in the Main Scenario Rolo!

[@TheIvoryDingo]

​@@Sniperbear13 Putting duties with different player requirements in the same roulette is a bad idea.

[@JustSkram]

That's why you scale it. You could easily use that same argument for how it is right now ​@@TheIvoryDingo

[@Andrew-l3h]

i know my take on this isn't popular, but i think every alliance raid series should be completed prior to advancing to the next expansion. Same with raid and trial series (not extremes, savages, or coil), that would allow the storywriters to write stories that don't need different options based on if you have completed the previous content or not. It would cut dev time.

[@Null_Experis]

I think a better option is to make it so players have to UNLOCK the raid, but not complete it before moving to the next expansion. This way it still ends up in the rotation, but players aren't forced to queue for it to move the story forward, they can get it through roulettes. The games should also halt MSQ progression once you complete a section and force you to unlock the next one.

[@TheIvoryDingo]

Just a shame Nier throws a wrench into that with how much of a nothing burger it is for XIV lore stuff.

[@Infindox]

I agree with you, but I would make a huge exception to the Nier raids lol

[@asmonull]

@@Null_Experis I have about the opposite take - at no point should random roulette drop you in what would be first clear of any given content; all first clears should be intentionally queued for. On whether clearing raid series/alliance raids should be required to move to next expansion is up for a debate - there's clear downside when it comes to people that don't care much about repeated content and want to focus on story (CT timing is already quite awkward as to when it blocks your progression), especially when catching up through non-current content.

[@dojelnotmyrealname4018]

I don't think this makes much sense. The alliance raids are mostly unrelated to anything that goes on, with the exception of the crystal tower. Writing in an easter egg also doesn't take any significant amount of dev time.

[@HakureiIllusion]

Usually queueing alone as max level with everything unlocked, running Alliance Roulette every day for the past month, I can count the non-CT raids on one hand. Two Void Ark, one Orbonne, one Aglaia, one Puppet's Bunker. Also noticed a rise in scuffed World of Darkness runs. Today was the first WoD I've seen in a long time where we haven't wiped or almost wiped multiple times. My normal runs tend to include tanks spinning the bosses and getting people picked off, no one handling the adds until they silence/wipe everyone, and I've only ever at most seen 4 people in Cerberus's belly recently (up until today where there were actually a good handful of people from each alliance in there). On one run, only like one or two other people and I targeted the five-headed dragon's heads during that phase, and we barely managed to take them out before the wipe happened. Also my absolute favorite is during Cerberus when people in alliance B insist in-chat that A and C handle adds and chains rather than going in the belly, but then don't go in the belly themselves.

[@RockR277]

What data center are you on? I can't even remember the last time I wiped in WoD. Also, I am so sorry for your poor luck in roulettes.

[@HakureiIllusion]

@@RockR277 I'm on Dynamis, which I do expect to get Crystal Tower more frequently than other servers. Lots of new worlds that new players will want to make their characters on for the EXP bonus. But it's not even every time that I see new players, lots of runs where we start instantly with no cutscenes or anything to sit through.

[@medivh1035]

Well, you just got to make a free trial account to ensure you will only get labyrith and circus tower

[@Kpsla]

I still think the right answer is the put it in MSQ roulette. It is true that Crystal Tower will be unlikely to be pulled randomly in this scenario, but the intention of the MSQ roulette, and roulettes in general, is to help new players queue for these important, mandatory activities. The queue prioritizes duties that have been waiting the longest, so it will eventually fill when a new player queues for Crystal Tower, and people doing MSQ will realistically only get Crystal Tower when someone *needs* to do Crystal Tower (or if they queue with 5+ players or two healers), which I think is the best case scenario.

[@Strider_Shinryu]

Yeah, that's my take as well. I haven't done the math or anything but it feels like the best option to me.

[@paragonyoshi4237]

If they do banish Crystal Tower from the Alliance Roulette... I hope we at least get the daily tomestone reward of the MSQ Roulette, if not higher. Because Alliance Raids are so much more stressful, even as just a DPS. The current reward doesn't make it worth it. But with a daily reward of 500+ tomestones, I would consider it at least.

[@TheIvoryDingo]

The issue with that is that you would then put 3 duties that need 24 players into a roulette with 3 duties that need 4 players. And with how FFXIV's duty finder works, the latter three would be MUCH more likely to actually pop (leading to people being unable to progress to Heavensward due to long wait times on the CT raids). It's part of why you pretty much never see the singular 8-man Guild Hest.

[@Box_of_Cox]

I have had nothing but CT for two weeks. I've only just started Shadowbringers on my character, which I made at the release of DT, so my options are only the ARR, HW and SB series, but what sticks me in the rear end is that I can't even queue up for an alliance series other than CT. It always stalls out over an hour, getting maybe two or three other people queuing for the next one I wanted to do. I had to unsync the Ivalice raids, my favorite ones, just to get them completed. I don't expect this to get any better for the reasons you listed here in this video, simply too many people only want CT for fast clears or Aglaia for exp. They *must* segregate the CT series from the current roulette and make it its own roulette, because I have lost all enjoyment from curb-stomping Labyrinth and Syrcus, and I barely have any patience left for wiping at Angra Maynu in WoD every other run.

[@alexh1465]

Queueing alone daily, at 100 I got a CT raid 5x/week on average it seems (I have all alliance raids unlocked). I think adding a checkbox, like they do for limited levelling roulette would be a good compromise, maybe to indicate a preference to start with your highest avaiable Alliance raid (party member limitations would apply of course). I don't hate CT, but I want variety in my *random* content. My friends and I also think that the last MSQ dungeon for each expansion should be added to MSQ roulette to add more variety there too.

[@PersonaMC231]

This is why I keep the ShB relic quest that requires Loathesome Memories up at all times, never know when I'm gonna get another one for all the relics.

[@Novakixx]

Here's an idea. How about making it so you get a bigger exp gain/tomestone payout with more alliance raids unlocked and queuing in with gear fit for later content. That would incentivise unlocking the content and gearing in to higher tiers.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That is certainly an interesting suggestion I haven't heard before! Increasing the reward depending on how much of the total pool of content you actually qualify for! 😊 That sounds interesting!

[@viysnjor4811]

I mean you literally can't queue without being geared for the latest alliance raid you can do so that part at least isnt necessary

[@WhtCrstlJudgmntDrgn]

Last 10 Alliance Raids: 7 CT 2 Ivalice (Orbonne) 1 Nier (Paradigm) I do have all raids (Normal and Alliance) unlocked and completed, and I'm playing a level 9x tank for the sake of this point. First, let me start off with saying Thank you. I learned a bit about how the system works and I honestly didn't know how it worked, but I was aware of the cheese (which I hated as a tank cause boring fights, sorry, gonna say it). Now, officially, my stance is of what you mentioned about removing CT from the Alliance Roulette and making its own thing, or with MSQ, which would help with the DPS disparity, since we are using 5, and you know what you're getting if that pops. Considering that CT raids are as fast/faster than the MSQ dungeons/Ultima due to unskippable cutscenes, this evens out for the most part for time/exp ratios. As for unlocking them? Yeah, we need better indicators. I'm pretty much with anyone who mentions that. You actually have a point about Normal Raids. I personally believe that Alexander and Eden *should be mandatory* due to MSQ relevance. A case can be made for Binding Coil due to the ending of Heavensward (Azys Lla specifically) and us effectively diving into Allagan tech areas (Granted, I know levels matter here, so I don't know how that would be fixed, but you get my point, hopefully). That way you don't really have to re-write anything to have those fit into their respective MSQ, outside of Gaia, but she doesn't really interact with you outside of the Raids, so don't have to change anything, really. Maybe have her show up in Eulmore for chats or a sidequest. Well, just some thoughts.

[@LeviathanLP]

Kinda agree on Binding Coil. Even the story acts as though you've done it, I'm pretty sure. If we don't want it to be mandatory, at least add it to the roulette list.

[@trevorromein14]

0:38 Crystal T2......Crystal T2.....Crystal T2.......Crystal T1.........Crystal T2........Crystal T1........Crystal T3.......Oh Void Ark? Thats a breath of- and back to Crystal T2........

[@trevorromein14]

Now a fair argument, I've yet to unlock EW Alliance Raids and I've just gotten all my Jobs up to at least Lv. 70, but still....

[@SREDISKRAD]

I feel like I'm the weird guy who loves the lvl 80 raids. Once the lvl gets above 80 I actually have enough buttons to start having fun. I actually hate seeing Crystal tower and could rant about it for ages. Only one I tolorate from CT is Syrcus Tower.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Oh the good news is from what I can tell that A LOT of players hate CT, but some amount just also would rather put up with that than the other options (for some reason!) 😅

[@drake713]

You'd think with 24 people and 17 crowns it would go better than it does but nope. Under 60 people's braincases are vacant

[@cross6781]

Playing any sort of melee in 50 is awful. Reaper doesn't even have any positionals in that level lmao

[@backslash4141]

@@cross6781 Reaper sub 70 feels like any other class sub 50, it's missing all of it's core identity. probably my only criticism of the class other than wanting a way to get harvest moon mid combat.

[@cross6781]

@backslash4141 monk already feels "complete" 50, but I feel it's the only job to have that luxury. You can effectively play it almost the same way you play in all other levels (I know there's more to it in later levels, especially 70) I mean, if we really wanna talk about bad design, look at viper having nothing until 90.

[@Chloe-ov2xr]

I've also been getting much more variety lately. It's been a welcome surprise

[@william-projetopiano2312]

Instead of creating a new roulette for Crystal Tower, they should create an “expert” alliance raid (similar to what they did to dungeons), so players could only join while they have all available alliance unlocked. New expansion is out with new alliances? The roulette get locked gain until the player finishes it once. The rewards could be better, and we would really offer variety =)

[@zachh6868]

I got through Stromblood and was nearing Shadowbringers BEFORE I knew Heavensward had the Sky Pirates alliance raid, which is crazy because the sky pirate storyline was pretty fun, and might have helped me get hooked on the game sooner

[@DevilGT666]

For the people that think there is no other Alliance Raid after Crystal Tower. They should put on the side of the roulette the number of Duty unlocked VS the possible Duty for the lvl of the current job. That way, people will see that they can do it, but could also have more. And that also can be done for all the other roulettes. Maybe put a special Icon or a "all duty unlocked"/"Completed" that might push more people to try unlocking more.

[@Discount_ed]

Getting Crystal Towers was way too often for me, pre Dawntrail. Despite having all the way up to stormblood alliance raids all unlocked. And the jobs I ran my roulettes on being level 60-70 ans having the item level ready I'd still be stuck in CT. Now I've noticed I'm getting a very small mix of the Allience raids mainly from Heavenswards, which I love cause I won't be bored out of my mind, I don't leave my duties but I have fallen asleep doing CT before. (I'm serious) Edit: I que alone btw

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It does not surprise me at all that some would fall asleep to CT 😅

[@NordicLily]

There is one argument towards why someone might actively want Crystal Tower raids that I kinda don't see anyone talk about. It's about how STACKED they are if you are a relic farmer. By doing CT you can triple-, if not quadruple-dip into several relics at once: - light farming for ARR relic - poetics/light farming for HW relic (even if the light farm part is the least efficient component here) - timeworn pieces for ShB relic (the ONLY other option for them being Castrum in Bozja, which needs both luck finding it active, and luck finding people actually capable of doing it at the time it goes up) - poetics for EW relic I feel like Square made a huge oversight by putting so much relic farming weight, intentionally (ARR/ShB) or not, into just one raid series. I honestly go into the alliance roulette, HOPING for CT, not even for leveling or any other rewards from the roulette itself, but for relic grinding alone. Yes, there are many other sources of poetics, but this all just makes the CT raids a sort of one-stop-shop for relic needs like that. So one other aspect to solving the 'always Crystal Tower' problem is for Square to put this, albeit niche, sort of reward incentive into other raids going forward

[@HakureiIllusion]

To add some solutions onto my earlier comment, I definitely think this game has a problem in general with failing to help new players prioritize the specific things that are best to do while catching up on the 10+ years of content. The first solution I can think of is splitting the usual blue quest markers into two different colors. Blue can still lead you to unlockable content like beast tribes and housing districts, but you could have another color that is specifically for things like dungeons and raids, i.e. anything that might impact other players if you DON'T unlock it, as a way to push you to those. Combined with constant stressing of these things: have NPCs point at them, make sure they're front and center on your recommended quest list when you log in, etc. I'd even be up for having an icon appear next to a map/region where you still have these quests unfinished while you're selecting a teleport destination, as a way to tell you that there's something you want to look for there. As things are, Square seems to want the community to sort of self-address this with wikis and word-of-mouth, which clearly isn't working ideally. So if they're not going to funnel you toward the content and just expect you to figure it out, I'd honestly be onboard with more hardline restrictions for queueing for alliance roulette. Like, once you've started the first Stormblood MSQ, you're locked out of alliance roulette until you unlock the Heavensward raids. Then once you start the first Shadowbringers MSQ, you're locked out again unless you've unlocked the Stormblood raids, so on and so forth. Or, for slightly lesser than that, lock alliance roulette until you have at least one alliance raid each from two different expansions. This one I'm not too sure about since I feel like it'd just change the problem from "it's always Crystal Tower" to "it's always Crystal Tower or Void Ark". Technically still an improvement but only slightly so.

[@momoass_momo]

Split daily roulette AR into high level AR and low level AR. Give 300 tomestones for low level AR. While High level AR remains the same rewards as now but requires unlocking at least 6 AR raids that is from expansions Stormblood and beyond. I don’t think we’re able to enjoy all the content of the game when all we get is the same raids, the newer high level raids are so well made and more interesting. It also makes it hard to practice the mechanics when we rarely get queued into them. Also Main Scenario would be so much better if the story was designed to be done with npcs. Like a solo quest. Where you battle through the perspectives of different nps along the way and should only be done once and never again. I don’t see why it has to be done with 3 other real players, it’s so easy and it’s all about the story progression not the fight. Better be transformed into a solo quest with npcs…

[@boltonhero1]

I still see World of Darkness in my nightmares, but I've also been seeing a lot more Aglaia lately due to its viability as a leveling duty.

[@SaraAliciaCaster]

Another thing I would do in the 2 alliance raid option Make it as if CT alliance, only gives tomes and gold, no exp, but a triple amount of gil once a day

[@viysnjor4811]

so like high level (formerly 50/60/70/80) roulette but with alliance raids?

[@kayffxiv]

I've long since loathed exp being useless after level 100, as someone who simply likes doing roulettes even if I have no reason to do them-- I believe this to be a big core of the issue. Personally I'd love to see some system addition that allows you to accrue exp for duty completions at level 100 to work towards long term goals. Think pvp series xp? But with over leveling. Or if FOMO is the issue, then maybe achievements for over leveling 1000 times like hunts? A higher population of max levels queueing would alleviate this issue tremendously, as personally the only way for me to justify doing casual content anymore is mentor roulette. More rewards in dawntrail! Let me enjoy my exp gains despite being max!

[@AnjaliSmith.]

I agree! Another reward could be that you get like a tiny reduction on how much gil you pay for teleports. Like build up a merit point system and for every merit point you get one gil off one aether point or for like a 100 merit points 1 gil off all the teleports

[@cattysplat]

I like how GW2 gives you spirit shards, a currency for accruing levels after cap, used for crafting legendary gear. It may not be the most useful thing, but it is some thing.

[@RainfordYT]

After DT's release, I queued for Alliance Roulette once every day for 3 weeks while levelling my various jobs. *18* of them were specifically the Royal City of Rabanascre and I now resent that one more than CT

[@IKMcGwee]

There was alot of those at DT launch for me too... Odd.

[@dexi6111]

it might be because of the free trial players cause they're capped at 70 and SB

[@zarith87]

Free trial players.. Stormblood are now free...

[@sabrinasummers9943]

Personally, I think one way to solve the potential issue is to just, re-balance the crystal tower series. Now that it is mandatory for MSQ, it does fall under the purview of eventually adding duty support to it. And Yoshi-P has shown that they will rework mandatory content that can't be done through trusts. If a slight balance adjustment to make the bosses also not be complete pushovers was added to that, then the only mandatory alliance raid is no longer the shortest, and it would breathe new life and hopefully alleviate the boredom of getting it. Personally, my only issue with getting crystal tower somewhat regularly is that my brain just turns completely off for 90% of it. Admittedly, I'm a much higher skill level than the typical player, but even if there was just a few things I had to keep an eye on it would be nice. Labyrinth and Syrcus Tower are almost strictly tank n' spanks. World of Darkness at least has Cerberus belly, but that's the highlight of the series and it's barely anything. If they gave the raids a coat of polish, I'd be fine getting it slightly more often than others.

[@Jayfam09]

Yea pretty much it actually has quite a few mechanics that gets out right skiped since it just be out healed tanked or ignored. My call is to lower the synced ilvl first and make adjustments from there

[@SMaster777]

The last week has been nothing but CT, even when I've left (first or otherwise, two days ago it was literally LoA 3 times in a row). I'm an omni-90-or-higher, with every AR unlocked, and I've been solo queueing. Its true that its not as bad now as it was when IL Cheesing was a thing (and to this day I hope all IL cheesers step on legos daily), but given I've been trying to level RPR and the only class more horrendous to play on ARR levels than it is VPR.... yeah, its been absolutely awful. They really do need to make CT its own roulette.

[@alphadron4073]

I have been keeping tabs on what duties I get in which roulettes for the last two months or so, mostly due to banter with a friend of mine. Both of us are level capped, with level 90 or above classes at the time of queueing (except once where I went as Viper at 87). Over the last sixty days (to round it up nicely), my alliance roulettes were: - Aglaia, six times - Euphrosine, once - Thaleia, three times - Void Ark, twice - The Weeping City of Mhach, twice - Dun Scaith, twice - Rabanastre, once - Ridorana, twice - Orbonne Monastery, thrice - Copied Factory, once - Puppet's Bunker, twice - Tower at Paradigm's End, once - Labirynth of the Ancients, twelve times - Syrcus Tower, nine times - World of Darkness, thirteen times. So, yeah. Still definitely a bias towards the Crystal Tower series. Even though there is some variety to be had, more than half of my alliance roulettes were that.

[@TaranTatsuuchi]

I got one of the endwalker ones yesterday. And neir the day before. Tower is still common though.

[@MrSpiderspider12]

For more lucrative rewards for alliance raid roulette/unlocking the alliance, I have some ideas: 1. Update the first time completion achievements to have rewards that can be easily spotted by the naked eye and can be seen often minion/emote/glamour/mount. Even a minion can be a good reward if it's interesting enough with sise, animations, and if it has glowing particles 2. For roulette, to increase the amount of gil/exp/favored role rewards/ current/ poetic tombstones you get with each alliance unlocked AND the increase to be significant value for players to consider unlocking othe alliances [this idea can be also applied to unlockable dungeons]

[@mismismism]

Give CT a separate daily roulette like MSQ roulette and maybe put in some rewards that level sync or something. Like you could get exp scrolls that work on crafting/gathering jobs or something similar to venture boxes with random glam and dyes or something, at least add a few new things to the reward pools of older raids. At this point I'll take anything because I dread alliance roulette, I can't even lie.

[@Xorua]

I haven't queued for Alliance roulette much in Dawntrail but when I have it's mainly been Aglaia. Though, that's almost certainly cause in early Dawntrail, people were manually spamming Aglaia to level. If we EXCEPT Aglaia from the selection, it was a load of Labyrinth, some World of Dankness and a Dun Scaith. On the topic of Shadows of Mhach... Void Ark feels like a slap in the face, honestly. Hooray, it's not crystal tower! Except... This raid is about as bad as Crystal Tower, maybe a little worse than some of them.

[@RngCheese]

From the release of dawntrail, i'd say I normally get primarily crystal tower still. I usually queue as a 90+ job, and have every alliance raid unlocked. I'd put crystal tower at the top, followed by myths of the realm, sky pirate series, and 70/80 raids at the bottom.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Yeah that all tracks with what makes sense: Crystal towers massive advantage Myths leveling strategy pushing those upward And the rest ranked in order of how low level you need. That would be my expected distribution as well 😊

[@maracaegrizzley8734]

One point, you can *easily* be level 60 or even level 70 before *reaching* Heavensward. Hell, I got a character back during Shadowbringers all the way to 80 before he entered Heavensward. With the Road Buff going all the way to 90 now, that's EVER so much easier if someone has the Buff and doesn't multi-job. So yeah, overleveling is obnoxiously easy.

[@tehSunBro]

As someone that left before they implemented those changes, i had been exclusively queing in ilvl70 gear, because unless a duty that takes 3x as long as Syrcus gives me 3x the rewards, i'd rather no longer queue for aliiance roulette at all, than waste my time wiping in Nier or Ivalice. So yeah not fond of the changes, when i eventually come back, this will just mean i don't queue for it anymore. I also would fully support the idea of making CT roulette its own thing. Basically just a second MSQ roulette but for 24 man.

[@shikiyama]

I think the best option to make it more varied is probably to make it so while the party is in the member gathering process, if theres a high enough amount of players above level 70 (for this idea we assume all 24 have every alliance raid unlocked, it won't be the case most of the time but hear me out) for example, lower level Alliance Raids will instead of having an equal chance of being pulled will have a lower weight until a certain amount of people have been partied up, at which point the roulette will pick a duty. If it chooses Ridoranna Lighthouse for example, all players currently queueing for Alliance Raid roulette that aren't eligible will be filtered out of that group to prevent scenarios where all other players are level 90 or higher but 1 single player being level 57 will force all those people to do Crystal Tower. I however think that'd be way too much work to code but something like that would be very interesting to theorycraft.

[@LycanFayn]

I'm glad to see they swapped it to item levels only for what you have unlocked, providing sprouts creeping through stormblood with crafted level 80 gear so that they could continue doing roulettes was funny but very confusing for them! I'll continue to express my frustration that things can't be blocked from roulette when it comes *specifically* to the epilepsy trigger that is Tower at Paradigm's Breach. But I understand that in *general* that's a feature that would cause more trouble than it's worth. My data: Alliance raid solo queues since DT release, only level 90 jobs, mostly dps, some healer but distributed across all results, all raids unlocked: 56 ARR: 26 HW: 8 SB: 4 ShB: 5 EW:13 This is about a distribution I'd expect given that people *have* to unlock the ARR raids, and that manually queuing for Aglaia is useful for levelling - though my Thaleia 'first timer' runs are more than I'd expect! The lower SB/ShB is about as I'd expect when it comes to community enthusiasm. LotA: 8 Syrcus: 9 (one ice bugged) WoD: 9 Void Ark: 2 Mhach: 1 Dun Scaith: 5 Rabanastre: 1 Ridorana: 2 Orbonne: 1 Copied Factory: 2 Puppet's Bunker: 3 Tower: 2 Aglaia: 6 Thaleia: 5

[@SomeRandomDeveloper]

It would be nice if all roulettes would exclude you from the last dungeon/raid tier you did.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That is an interesting way to force variety 😊

[@CeliLarsonient]

I feel like every time I ask for Aglaia out loud, I end up being given Crystal Tower as a punishment. XD

[@Icarusqt]

lol. I was going to say something similar. Every time I queue into alliance “for fun” I get CT. Every time I’m trying to get some quick exp on an alt job… it’s Nier.

[@divineroc]

Yes, I've seen a lot of those Crystal Tower raids lately, however, that is probably because I'm on the dynamis data center, which does tend to have a lot more new players. Hopefully as people make it past ARR they find out about and unlock more of the alliance raids. Because I do find them to be quite fun to do. I only started the game about 6 months ago, and I have sought to unlock as much as possible, because I like having a variety to do.

[@vespi57]

Since Dawntrail's release, I have mostly ended up in Labyrinth along with my wife. As much as I'd want it to be something else, I still do it. But yeah, I also think separating Crystal Tower raids from the Alliance raid roulette would work wonders. It should be like that since they are mandatory for MSQ. One other way I have been thinking for Duty Roulette, is a Duty filter of some kind. For example, every player can choose around max of 3-5 duties that won't be included in the roulette while queing. Implementing this however, may be difficult. By the way, I found myself in the Tower at Paradigm's Breach clips.😊

[@ThePizzabrothersGaming]

I do think crystal tower should be in a similar category to Main story roulette. it's mandatory content, which is nice to have short queues for. It's not that hard, and none of the duty drops are worth your time except the crafting mat

[@thejaguar3191]

I think it would be great if the "Chronicle of a New Era" quests had a different colored or shaped quest icon as opposed to being blue like every other feature quest. I'm currently a sprout going through each expansion one by one and I basically have to google which quests unlock the raids and trial series because there's so many blue quests out there that it's hard to figure out which ones start the raids/trial series. I also like the idea you mentioned of adding NPCs or textboxes after each expansion's base MSQ that point out that you now have access to that expansion's raid questlines.

[@deathknell609]

Great video. Thank you. I have to say that I am usually getting Crystal Tower and most recently, the level 90 dungeons. I have to agree with you that the reason why it comes up so often is because it IS a mandatory dungeon. If the others were mandatory, then those would come up more. I think more of a "go this way, stupid" in the game would be more helpful with getting players to play them. It can be so difficult to find the npc to start these quests (that includes anything that is not a main quest, like custom deliveries) and (Yes, I know, big blue circle, but there isn't anything that is pointing you to it. Y'Stola could say, "Oh, btw, if you wanna go and do that hobby or crafting and gathering that you like to do, you can speak with "x" npc and they might have some work for you." There we go, thank you Y'Stola). I think moving crystal tower into main scenario would be a good idea. That way, Praetorium won't come up almost all the time (really, there are only 3 in there? What??? Could have sworn there were other ones). Anyway, that is my 2 gils worth of thought. I charge more for extra :P

[@MajoraZero]

Early DT, when me and my friends were leveling 90+ only jobs there was big presence of Aglaia e a bit less of other EW AR. The rest was rather consistent too so it was pretty decent. More recently I've been leveling SAM with them. Out of the AR Roulette I've done with level 60, the vast majority has been.... CT. There's a been a decent number of HW, but not really. (all of my friends have every single duty unlocked) I don't think people intentionally avoid unlocking the other AR to avoid adding to the roulette. More of just not unlocking them.

[@INeosIRex]

They do, I do for example. Although i unlock a few more than CT that i find fun.

[@Cactusssutcac]

As a newer player before reaching Endwalker I got into that issue of needing an iLvl of EW alliances but not actually having them, I panicked and luckily had a few FC friends to help me with my gear as I had no Gil as well I, for one, am glad they changed it because I love duties/roulettes and I'm pretty sure other people also do and those of us that are still sprouts won't have to deal with this bs The try-harders are a really bad tradeoff tho...

[@codsamanta]

Honestly, I was lucky to have a friend who's been playing for many years and guided me when unlocking the raids. Otherwise I probably would have had a very hard time finding them on my own and I would have definitely overlooked them had I not been actively looking for them.

[@heartscaless]

My ally rouls are 95% CT 5% Nier. Every time I get SoM or RoI I take a screenshot because it's like winning the lottery. Also I have an additional theory regarding another potential factor as to why CT is so popular - the leveling experience from 50-70. Prior to level 70, the most effective methods of leveling are dungeons and roulettes, since you don't have access to Bozja or the improved FATES yet, so more people are likely to save their dailies for leveling jobs in that range (I do this myself)

[@Fgtr4Life]

Given that Crystal tower is integral to MSQ, I'm surprised that they don't add it to the MSQ roulette or something similar. Addendum: As I was typing this, I realized that might not be possible given the current MSQ roulette is made for 4 players, but I will keep my original thought process for posterity's sake. Addendum 2: As soon as I posted this comment, you brought up my point about the 4 player situation lol.

[@Viech54]

I have all alliance raids unlocked and I queue as whatever job needs to be leveled at the time. Which is likely part of why I mainly get Crystal Tower or Mhach raids as the job I level up right now just recently reached level 70 and I haven't queued for AR roulette since. Most of them are still Crystal Tower. But it is possible to get Wondrous Tails done for raids other than Crystal Tower using just the roulette without doing it every day. I use daily roulettes solely for leveling, so me running it with a level 100 job or even a level 90+ is quite rare, comparatively. Which is why lower level raids will always be more common, at least until all my jobs are at max level.

[@SuperShesh2]

I just want them to rework crystal tower so its actually fun, or harshen the ilevel sync. Simultaneously stops the people who obsess over it for its ease/time efficiency, and gives a far better indication of the current state of the game. Itll make the min maxers angry but thats a sacrifice im willing to make. Admittedly this still runs into the issue of, the first void ark raid is then the easiest (and painfully boring) so min maxers would just go to that. But its making the problem less centralized.

[@SuperShesh2]

So many issues could be resolved with a lot of the game if item level sync was not "max of the entire expansion" and more tailored to the actual duties.

[@backslash4141]

Crystal tower is definitely less common now, but not to a significant extent likely due to people leveling alt jobs. in terms of how often I get the different raid series its: - CT (still the most common, with world of darkness being the one I seem to get the most) - HW/Sky pirates (although never weeping city, usually void ark or dun scaith) - Ivalice (relatively even distribution, though rabanastre seems to be the rarest) - EW/the twelve (Aglaia got a breif boost due to the leveling advantage but still uncommon, 2nd raid is definitely the rarest) - Nier (dissapointingly my favourite series is the rarest, usually puppet's bunker, but I have seen TaPB a few times. I have to actively queue for copied factory if I want it)

[@Perial51]

Visibility of Alliance Raids and normal raids would increase by a different quest marker alone. Have some fancy icon that sticks out and new players will interact with it more likely than all the blue plusses.

[@danelwind2574]

As a relatively new player in FT, I 'll say I have enjoyed the questlines for CT and Mhach, currently completing Alexander. Indeed, CT seems to dominate Alliance Raid roulette. When doing the Mhach questline, I would need to queue directly (and as Healer). Wondrous Tails is a good reason to look for certain raids...and wonder why they never show up in Roulette when you need them. 😅

[@vigo2669]

Used to get CT raids almost exclusively probably until some time in Endwalker. Nowadays I get a much more varied selection. Especially considering I have all 15 alliance raids unlocked.

[@KrakenMo-mhm]

I've been getting a good variety lately, even in party(with completionists, to be fair). I have finally mastered the sniper guy in Orbonne because it wasn't most of a month between attempts.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That's great to hear! I could imagine that would help a lot! 😅

[@raevenent751]

In my experience it's been pretty varied, I do still CT a bit though, but that is to expected because of it mainly being tied to MSQ and is required for it. But nowhere near as often as it used to pre-6.5

[@dexi6111]

I actually got The Orbonne Mastery a couple of times this month, which was nice cause I really like the voice acting and general vibe of it, but it's been CT all month other than that.

[@0Fyrebrand0]

Lately I've been getting a lot of Ivalice and Nier raids. Crystal Tower still happens of course, but it feels like roulette is a nice mix now, and not just CT every single day.

[@Nukrid]

Especially on Dynamis, Crystal Tower is present 80% of the time (and it's always Syrcus Tower, WHY), the other 20% are usually Weeping City or some random Nier raid, I can count on my fingers the times I actually got any Endwalker alliance (literally once), although to be fair, I've only been around on this DC for a month, so who knows how it will change in the future. Back in Primal, things were a bit more varied.

[@rspoonzzz9428]

I started about a year ago. Worked through MSQ straight up through EW (and now DT). Did not do old raids as I went through the expansions except for the first 4 of Alexander. I did not unlock any other Alliance raids. When my FC does roulettes with me it's only CT and Alexander. They continuously question why. I remain silent.

[@Zooft11]

Make all raids weekly lockouts, unless you make a custom party to run a specific raid. Make the lastest raid repeatable for around 1 or 2 patch cycles, then move it to weekly lockout. That way people who wanna run multiple raids have to do so on the lastest and that keeps people from getting syrcus everyday. This will also incentivise people unlocking more raids so they have at least 7 they can get once a day.

[@steveh1474]

while i was getting everything from 90 to 100, i saw every alliance raid at least two times except Thaliea, which didnt pop even once! i definitely saw syrcus and LotA the most, both of them probably 6 or 7 times, im sure, but i know i saw orbonne as a healer, which scared me as im not confident on healing, or got paradigms breach on raid night and started cursing my luck because i was banking on syrcus that time. i agree that the roulette does its job well >for solo players, >with everything unlocked, and it doesnt need to be changed at all, i think its fine. but i would also agree id like to see a crystal tower roulette separated from alliance raid roulette. level 50 content was absolutely awesome when i was level 50. its a bit less fun now that i see half my buttons are greyed out :c

[@bipolarprobe]

I'll be interested to see if the upcoming alliance savage helps shift the community awareness around alliance raids. I feel like even the sproutiest sprout has at least heard of raiding because of how much savage and ultimate raiding are talked about, even among players who never raid. Also from stormblood onward anyone who wants to do old ultimates for any reason has to unlock the gating raid series, even if they just do them unsynced. Ultimate titles and weapons are definitely sought after enough that even if you don't plan on actually doing it, you might see one in limsa as a new player and go "wow that weapon is awesome! How do I get it?" And either by asking friends or doing some googling you learn about normal raids, savage raids, and ultimate raids. Savage and EX mounts do a similar thing for creating awareness of hard content through visible prestige.

[@RockR277]

Omni 100, all raids unlocked. I used to feel like I got CT a whole lot (especially Syrcus Tower for whatever reason). Lately, however, I do feel like I've gotten a good mix of all the others. At DT launch, with the discovery of the crazy EXP Myths gave, that became pretty dominant. Recently, however, It's a pretty good mix. I still get Myths most, but I also get NieR, Sky Pirates, and Ivalice a fair amount of the time. I really hope they touch up CT at some point. Tighten the IL synch and maybe change some mechanics so that they're more engaging to play. Void Ark too, actually.

[@InsaneDragoniteHD]

White mage tends to get me more varied alliance raids, which usually tend to be either CT or one of the Nier Raids. Occasionally, I'll get Ivalice, or Aglaia series of raids. If I queue as Black Mage, it's either CT or the 90 alliance raids.

[@PhroXenGold]

I'm a pretty new player, currently slowly working my way through Shadowbringers MSQ (it's good, I'm just short on free time...), but I've got all 9 alliance raids from the earlier content unlocked. I'd say 80%+ of my AR roulettes put me in one of the Crystal Tower ones even when playing a character high enough level + ilvl to play anything I've unlocked. And I'm just bored of it to the extent I'm not bothering with that daily roulette anymore. I just wish that the chance of each raid was roughly equal.

[@titaniumvulpes]

I have access to all alliance raids and never queue below level 90 (me and my friend queue together, but neither of us have a job we play that's still below 90). I don't have actual numbers, just estimates, but I'd say we get CT around 40% of the time. About 20% of the time it's _specifically_ Aglaia. 30% of the time it's a pretty decent mixture of HW and SB raids, where Void Ark is more common than Mhach is more common than Dun Scaith, and Rabanastre is more common than Orbonne is more common than Ridoranna (I find it interesting that the Ivalice raids have the second raid in the series come up _less_ often than the third, and this trend continues for the ShB and EW raids). 3% of the time it's Copied Factory, and 1.9% of the time it's either Paradigm's Breach or Thaleia. I've had Puppet's Bunker and Euphrosyne exactly _once_ each since DT dropped (though I think my friend got Puppet's Bunker one other time on a day I was unavailable). I think pulling CT into its own roulette could be an option. I also think a more aggressive version of "point the player towards them better" would work quite well: Once a player reaches a certain point in the MSQ, specifically the final main quest from the patch in which a particular Alliance Raid was released, they are now banned from Alliance Raid Roulette until they go unlock that raid. It has the bonuses of "block AR Roulette if you don't have them all for your level" but without the drawbacks of "You might out-level the MSQ". The question would be if this is code-able. If it is, it could also be extended to Normal Raid Roulette to even them out as well, though they don't tend to be quite as badly skewed as Alliance Raids (at least until the final patch cycle of an expansion).

[@Dunker401]

I get a decent mix of everything now but it definitely used to be CT all the time so I’m very happy right now

[@hauntedmasc]

I've been max level on any job I'm queuing for since 6.5, normally playing tank, I play on Aether, and I have all possible raids unlocked. I've always felt that my Alliance Raids have been a solid mix, leaning slightly more towards Myths of the Realm and Return to Ivalice, with Shadow of Mhach and Crystal Tower being next most common, and YoRHa being least common, though still present.

[@Mintilla7868]

I'm max level and don't have any except the required unlocked. I assumed whilst going through the msq it would force you like arr, then just completely forgot they existed, and moved to the next expansion 😂

[@Gunthersby]

I was in a weird specific position when DT launched that I didn't have enough time secured in the day, too many potential interruptions, to comfortably start the expansion content, so I chose to level ALL the jobs at the same time. Problem was most of my dps still had Cryptlurker's gear and Alliance Raid is one of the few roulettes to ever have DPS as Adventurer in Need, so I would find myself unable to join; I'd end up having to grind Poetics since i didn't wanna spend my gil on 4 gearsets

[@Donutkins]

I feel that Crystal tower is more frequent as when people are at higher levels, they have access to bi-color gemstone fates and eureka/bozja for alternative leveling routes. Some friends are intimidated to do anything but DPS on alliance raids, so they'll skip alliance raids when leveling non-dps.

[@rhaellia]

I wonder if reworking/rescaling the CT raids so that you actually have to do all the mechanics that get skipped these days would both make it more enjoyable to get these raids, and bring the clear time somewhat more in line with the later raids therefore reducing the incentive for people to figure out ways to only get CT raids when queuing. It won't fix the other point you made that all players queuing will have CT but at least when if you get it in roulette, it won't be so boring! Edit: To answer your question about which Alli raids I get, the new ilvl requirements has made it very hit or miss if the job I'm leveling can even queue for Alliance Roulette, I usually find myself locked out of it after hitting old level caps and I'm too lazy to go re-gear just for it to be obsolete a few levels later so I just skip that roulette until I naturally re-gear while levelling.

[@TheUltimateRiku]

For myself, the majority of the time I got LotA, can't say that's any better.

[@GemmiElf]

Personally still getting ct far more than anything else but it's not entirely ct. It might have been said already but perhaps they can link what expac you've completed to what alliance raids you need unlocked to go into alliance roulette? Say for example if you've just finished shadowbringers, the alliance roulette is disabled until they unlock the first of the nier series(this is also a good place to put a do the quest here like they used to do with class quests which would also help with the don't know about it/can't find it issue) This would counter the need to spilt ct into a seperate roulette and the only way to get into any ct raids would be that you ended up with a ARR sprout who hasn't finished HS or getting unlucky on the roulette spin or someone's using the roulette bonus to level a 50-60 job and the only option is that, but I'd assume(this is a guestimate) most alt job levels are prolly not in that level range, though if there's any way to get that data I think that'd be interesting to cover.

[@Jajarra]

For a while after DT for me, it was almost exclusively Aglaia and Nier raids, with the occasional Ivalice. It was a couple of weeks before I even saw CT, and a while more after that before I started to see the Mhachi raids. I was still getting a majority of the higher level ones when I ran out of things I wanted to do and let my sub lapse. This was on Aether, for whatever that's worth. I would personally like the CT raids being split off into their own thing even if I don't think that would actually fix anything, since I prefer doing fewer higher value duties to maximizing exp per hour. There's always going to be a lowest level duty that is thus the most common and I don't think you can fix that without making the high level ones mandatory or adding rewards to make them more attractive. That being said, while I have not run the numbers myself, I do remember frequently hearing whenever the conversation came up that the exp to time ratios for the other raids were fairly even with CT being the outlier in how fast it was. I do feel a little called out by the comment at 4:40. When I started in Stormblood, I did end up passively hitting 70 on my main job Monk before I even set foot into HW simply by doing my roulettes daily while tying up ARR loose ends like Coils, the relic questline, Hildibrand, leveling crafters, and beast tribes. Fun fact: since skills are unlocked solely by level from Stormblood onwards, I ended up unlocking the passive to gain chakra charges from crits before I unlocked the ability to actually use them or even see the gauge, causing me to get spooked by the Full Stacks noise occasionally while going about my business and being utterly mystified.

[@Katana314]

A long time ago I stopped including Alliance in my daily roulettes. I hadn’t even realized how repetitive it was to get CT, but so many of the mechanics in other dungeons are ultra confusing to parse, especially if you haven’t done them in a while.

[@jordanstonecypher9916]

What if they made it so you could queue into certain raids without necessarily unlocking them, but you do meet the requirements by a long shot. Are the quests to unlock them all that important/would anything be missed without them? Like a lot of them time it's just go here then go here then go here, you know? I'd bet a lot of people are just rushing through the texts or skipping cutscenes to unlock them quickly. And then maybe after completion it could give you some sort of makeup quest or item to kind of fill you in on what just happened in the raid or something like that. Maybe it could even have a gear/glam drop from the raid to give you a hint on what pieces drop from it. Might be fun to run into a new raid this way?

[@fluffyfang4213]

My sample size is not very large, but I feel like I get CT a perfectly reasonable amount. As in, only slightly more often than getting ARR content in any other roulette. The other roulettes technically have the same issue, but it's probably more noticeable on Alliance Raid because there are fewer instances to land in (and it's a meme by itself). So if I queue Alliance Raid roulette and get CT, I'm going to immediately notice a "pattern". However, it might take a whole week of level 50 dungeons in my "High Level" roulette before I notice there's a pattern going on. To add to the "Why are other Alliance Raids so uncommon?" section, several relic weapons do encourage certain alliance raids. Both Loathsome Memory of the Dying for level 80 relics and light/mahatmas for level 50 relics can make CT lucrative. Also, if someone makes an alt for some reason (maybe RP or Savage content?), it's useful to unlock enough content to do roulettes for exp/tomestones, but they generally don't go around unlocking everything.

[@wynterlol]

watching this to pass time while i do my daily crystal tower

[@zerophoenix1794]

More incentives to clear other raid series might help maybe unlock hair, weapons, emotes, mounts or minions that can be purchased at the gold saucer like how lvl 70 raids has hair you can unlock or like neir has mama minion. They could add onto those then maybe would get people into more alliance raids.

[@stevenharris19901990]

Ya know they won't let me queue in expert roulette till I have all 3 available. So I feel alliance roulettes should require you to have previous expansions unlocked to enter the roulette. You're in stormblood? Then you need the void ark series all unlocked to access the roulette. You're in endwalker. Then you need all the alliance raids up to nier unlocked. So how to address the rewards feeling samey regardless of which one you get? I vote that since you get about half a level from the roulette, I'd bump that up by 5-10% per expansion newer that you get then people will cheer for getting more exp on newer alliance raids. The last bummer is the ftp players. They only have access up to the ivalice raids. But I dunno how much of the ff population is free to play.

[@dacomputernerd4096]

Ive had other raids a few times now. My last few alliance roulettes were rabanastre, copied factory, and the weeping city. Now what I have is the normal raid is always the first Alexander raid

[@futurepastnow]

I only queue on a level 90+ job (because all my jobs are 90+), and I have every raid unlocked. I would say about 1/3 of my raids are CT raids. Another 1/3 are 90 raids (mostly Aglaia). The remaining third are a nice variety. If I get to fill a 0m in progress raid, it's almost always a Nier raid.

[@Lunarowl]

My view is, that, I don't think the iLevel gear requirements really worked that well as expected (by SE, if that's what they're trying to do to prevent players from gear cheesing to get crystal tower series). As long as Crystal Tower remains compulsory to the MSQ (with the other alliance raid series being optional), then we're still going to get the crystal tower series more often than the other series. That being said, I would believe that a fix for it, would be: that you have unlock all the alliance raid series, in order to use the Alliance Roulette. Same logic with the Expert Roulette (because to que for that roulette, you will then have to unlock the other two level 100 dungeons).

[@Iskariot94]

I had a downright ungoldy amount of Dun Scaith, Wiping City and Nier raids sprinkled in during the last 3 weeks. One of the ARR Alliance Raids would be a welcome change of Pace at this point

[@coffeeafters3x]

Since Dawntrail, I've noticed I kept getting Aglaia so often. And regarding the mousetraps, I do despise getting the Copied Factory.

[@NiraSader]

I do have all alliance raids unlocked outside of the 90 ones, and I do get Ivalice and Nier raids with decent frequency, but I feel like nobody bothers unlocking Mhach these days even though they are closer in length to CT than the later ones.

[@orciencor6001]

Honestly, if they were going to fix CT's abundance in any fashion, there's an additional thing I'd like them to do that wasn't mentioned. Primarily that of updating it somehow to just make it more fun to do in the first place. I think that's actually my biggest problem with its prevalence. It's not so much THAT it's there as much as it is (and I really never mind it when there's even 1 newbie in it), it's that it's so boring, and for most mechanics, you barely need to care or even try to do them. And then the power creep is so bad that there are mechanics that most people don't even know exist anymore. I do suspect something of this sort will happen whenever they get around to adding duty support to it, with a chance that it may stop being an alliance raid all together (speculation here, and I'd personally rather that wasn't the case, but you never know). And I'm ever so curious to see HOW they will change it for duty support. But if it does happen to lose it's alliance raid status when they do, or gets shifted to its own roulette, then Void Ark specifically will be the next one people end up hating for how often it pops. Because Void Ark is as brain dead and boring to play through as CT, being on the same relative difficulty scale with nigh ignorable mechanics, and power creep making so much of it trivially fast to get through. The other two in the Mhach series are definitely more difficult by comparison (and at least to me, more fun because of it). As for the primary question of what my roulettes tend to look like? I've not kept actual track of things, and it's 50/50 on whether I'm doing them solo or with one other friend who is often on a max lvl class for tomestones. But it does at least feel like the CTs are... 50-60% of what I get, with about a 1/3rd of what's left being Nier raids, 1/3 being EW raids, and the last 1/3 being everything else. At least for now, while more people are still leveling stuff.

[@fawkes6352]

I'm hoping that 7.1 will make the upcoming Vana'diel raid more common. Both because it's new stuff, and because the non-weekly coins will let non-Savage players finally get their hands on IL 730 gear. edit: I meant "weekly" instead of "non-weekly", my bad

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Those coins will be weekly though so it is just one per week, just like it was in each expansion prior! 😅

[@fawkes6352]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Agh, yeah, that was a typo. I had "weekly" and "non-Savage" both on my mind, so the former ended up coming out as "non-weekly". 😅

[@darkmindaustin]

When DT dropped, I was getting Neir raids up the wazoo, and by week three though, I was only seeing ivalice and Circus Tower.

[@AnjaliSmith.]

Every week I meet up with 2 friends to hang out in FFXIV. We each started playing in 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 with all raids unlocked and all our jobs are at least lv 90+ with a decent ilv. In the past 10 weeks or so we had CT like 7 times to our utmost displeasure. The remaining where a mix of EW and SB mostly. Very rarely we had ShB. To blot out the bad taste the CT raids are leaving for us we started to specifically choose the 24man raids we feel like doing. The CT to all the other raids ratio when soloing is not much different for me. It really feels like a bad lottery system to me: only a few wins in the pot and rest is all blanks :( I absolutely love the idea with having 2 separate Ally roulettes. My idea was somewhat more radical: I wanted to be able to toggle which Ally raids and maybe dungeons I want to have in my dailies even if that meant my waiting times might increase (which I doubt since I'd so far only toggle CT raids off - I cant stand them anymore after 11 years of playing)

[@joscelynvos5473]

Over the past couple of months or so, I would say I've gotten ARR content in my roulettes about 80% off the time. If I'm cursed to only play this, I hope that this content gets reworked to be more fun. Or at least add some more interesting drops to make it feel worth doing that many times.

[@Lohrenz01]

I've been in Crystal DC for the past couple weeks and the variety in alliance roulette is way less the when I was in Aether. This could be a coincidence obviously but I thought it was an interesting tidbit. And yes, I've only done crystal tower in the roulette for over a week.