Hello! I happened upon this thread and thought I'd offer my two cents. I started my monk Novus back before the Nexus was announced, so I was in no hurry. Between the "Morbid Motivation" daily map quest and casually buying maps from Auriana whenever I happened to have enough, it took me about two months to get all 75. My friends and I never had any luck getting Alexandrites from FATEs.
Lately, I've found that hard mode primals and Turn 4 of the Binding Coil of Bahamut are surprisingly fast and easy to spam, even by yourself. The reason why is because of Novus light grinding. You can check here to see what bonus windows are up (if a hard mode primal or Binding Coil turn are listed as "Bright," then it is the current bonus). If something is currently on bonus, you can bet that the queue will be very quick (even if you're DPS!) and the run usually lasts no more than a couple minutes, since a lot of Novus wielders will be queueing up for it repeatedly. I personally find Ifrit, Garuda, and Turn 4 to be the fastest.
Even if the bonus is not up, Turn 4 is still pretty easy to queue up for now. People regularly spam this for allagan silk/leather/wootz nuggets, armour/accessories for desynthesis, easy Novus light, and for the Paladin and Warrior mount achievements. 10 soldieries per run may not seem like much, but when you can do 6-10 runs an hour, it adds up. If you happen to get one new person in the party, you'll also get the 100 soldiery bonus!
High level roulette is nice, but the queues are usually fairly long, especially if you're a DPS. Also keep in mind that you'll get less soldieries if you happen to get Wanderers' Palace or Amdapor Keep, as opposed to Tamtara (HM), Stone Vigil (HM) or Hullbreaker Isle. It is a bit more fun than repeatedly doing the same trials though, haha. If you get a party full of new people, though, it might take longer than expected. Not sure how high roulettes are now, with the Zodiac weapon quest. I heard it's better than it used to be.
One of my friends got their Novus only a week or two after getting their Animus. When I asked them how they did it, the answer was in The Hunt. Basically, they hunted non-stop and bought Alexandrities using Allied Seals, and maps using Tomestones of Mythology (which are, as you know, now bought using Tomestones of Soldiery). They were hunting even when they still had their Animus, so I'm sure they had Alexandrites even before completing the Animus books. Mind you, this was back when non-weekly B rank hunts still gave everyone rewards, so I doubt the same feat would be possible now. But The Hunt is still a very viable option, especially if you happen to be on when all the marks pop!
Hope that was a bit helpful. Good luck!
Lately, I've found that hard mode primals and Turn 4 of the Binding Coil of Bahamut are surprisingly fast and easy to spam, even by yourself. The reason why is because of Novus light grinding. You can check here to see what bonus windows are up (if a hard mode primal or Binding Coil turn are listed as "Bright," then it is the current bonus). If something is currently on bonus, you can bet that the queue will be very quick (even if you're DPS!) and the run usually lasts no more than a couple minutes, since a lot of Novus wielders will be queueing up for it repeatedly. I personally find Ifrit, Garuda, and Turn 4 to be the fastest.
Even if the bonus is not up, Turn 4 is still pretty easy to queue up for now. People regularly spam this for allagan silk/leather/wootz nuggets, armour/accessories for desynthesis, easy Novus light, and for the Paladin and Warrior mount achievements. 10 soldieries per run may not seem like much, but when you can do 6-10 runs an hour, it adds up. If you happen to get one new person in the party, you'll also get the 100 soldiery bonus!
High level roulette is nice, but the queues are usually fairly long, especially if you're a DPS. Also keep in mind that you'll get less soldieries if you happen to get Wanderers' Palace or Amdapor Keep, as opposed to Tamtara (HM), Stone Vigil (HM) or Hullbreaker Isle. It is a bit more fun than repeatedly doing the same trials though, haha. If you get a party full of new people, though, it might take longer than expected. Not sure how high roulettes are now, with the Zodiac weapon quest. I heard it's better than it used to be.
One of my friends got their Novus only a week or two after getting their Animus. When I asked them how they did it, the answer was in The Hunt. Basically, they hunted non-stop and bought Alexandrities using Allied Seals, and maps using Tomestones of Mythology (which are, as you know, now bought using Tomestones of Soldiery). They were hunting even when they still had their Animus, so I'm sure they had Alexandrites even before completing the Animus books. Mind you, this was back when non-weekly B rank hunts still gave everyone rewards, so I doubt the same feat would be possible now. But The Hunt is still a very viable option, especially if you happen to be on when all the marks pop!
Hope that was a bit helpful. Good luck!
