I've been talking about this with the crew for a little while.
I seem to remember seeing pic related pop up during an event, hell, I even remember joining raids from there.
inb4 hudddurr photoshop, I know, it's just to get the point across.
I remember this shit but I can't remember when it happened, or if it happened at all.
Did I seriously fucking dream about it?
The alternative is that I'm either going retarded or peeking in the future again.
>My first SSR was Claimh Solais
Who?
If you're just starting look here >>14207628 and see if there's an account with characters you like.
Strenght wise, I'm not sure the side stories have anything valuable other than the characters, pots and now the tickets. You should go on with the story until you can host your hard raids and omega raids, then slowly grind that shit until you become able to MVP them.
Mats wise,raids do give a little, but I think most of mine come from Token&Boxes events.
I've been there, it was a couple of rough months with very shit legfests.