Also, why would people group up to compete with lotting on VD (which requires the Warden kills and isn't simple)
Warden kill is not required.
Killing warden only opens drop 1 slot, that's it. Say if 1 VD takes 3 min with 1 drop slot, killing 3 warden takes 15 min for 4 drop slot(this is Papasses video, btw, your avg group without Papasse SMN will take MUCH longer than 15 min). 3x4=12 min, doing warden kill is actually less efficient but it has MUCH higher coordination and job combo requirement.
If your server has long queue I can see warden kill being worth it. Otherwise just no lol. Both MNK strategy and BLM SCH strategy can clear VD in 2-3 min or so with people spamming absorb TP, and absorb TP strategy is much easier to organize than warden runs since you only need to focus on 1 dmg type. Find 5 other people or multiboxer needing different pieces and team up is the way to go.
what is the VD strategy? out of pure curiosity
It's in this thread. Superbuffed MNK with 4 other people spamming absorb TP, or RUN+SCH spamming absorb TP.
Sch strategy can be done with just 2 people, but it's not as fast as bigger party. A 6 man BLM pt can push the clear time to 3 min or maybe less.
SAM works but it requires SP I believe, so resetting takes time.
If you want to kill wardens, the difficulty is on whole other level since you need to cover every dmg type and not time out. Check papasses video for warden strategy.
A no warden kill run is so much easier, as long as people are spamming absorb TP and geared enough to kill it on time it's not harder than ambu VD.
Edit: If you go melee you may need anchor to have an easier time, although people have reported getting win without anchor. If you dont like anchor and don't want to deal with push backs, sch is probably the way to go.