Well, it's also partly that I'm reluctant to invest too much into an alch when my best one is only green; on the other hand, I've got an orange assassin and paladin already being built up... and putting a orange marksman through their paces.
I'm getting second thoughts about employing a DM in a progression team though; they're fantastic in levelling teams where they can use their AoE on a short CD to wipe lower levelled groups, but they NEED to be in the first position and four stacks of bleed to realize their potential.
Alch I'm still iffy on, but thank goodness for Marksman when doing the Temple boss...
Edit: Oh, and in terms of quicker progression... remember that after 18 (different) stages, you get to enable 2xSpeed.
Update: Oh myyyy. Some of the bounties are really hard/annoying. One of them was basically a mega worm boss with 25kHP... and recovered like 5k with every baby worm it eats. And the babies have a ton of HP too.
My other SS-difficulty bounty... was a version of the summoned megabat with the IMMORTALITY trait. If it does anything while within <15%, it gets a full restore. It also had almost 20kHP. Aurrrrgh. "Killed" the bloody thing five times before attrition did me in. Should've just fled instead...
Update 2: So I've opened Prophet (and autocombat, thank goodness...) and it's weird. Base attack hits from any position and does 20% lifedrain, has a buff that gives taunt+100%deathresist, a heal that does heal+regen (same as the paladin buff)extends it, doesn't add it, and a death nova debuff. I haven't actually tried it yet (holding out for a legendary one) but I'm thinking that it could replace a priest.
Also, be really careful if you're running a gunner in a zone with succubi and you're using autoattack. The AI will cheerfully try and gun down your ally. As well as any other classes, but the rest of them aren't as likely to be able to kill them in a single hit. They try and use all buff skills too, so you'll want to be careful with what skills they learn if you don't want them to spam Holy Shield, either. (And, inversely, they don't seem to be using the paladin cleanse/heal nearly as often as it should...)
A few other general thoughts... a high escape percentage is also super useful when doing high-rank bounties; it allows you to escape the battle, pop a ton of food, and charge right back in without the enemies being allowed to heal or anything. Also refresh the recruitment roster a few times when a new team comes in; 500/1000/2000 is negligible later on and you'll want to get a full legendary team ASAP so you don't keep wasting xp/skill books on second tier members.
...Because, holy, it takes a hellacious amount of time to level. ._.
Freakin' healing bosses... 187 turns. Went on for like 20 minutes before I flipped it into manual.
Okay, yeah... REALLY don't use the gunner if it's your most powerful character in the upper difficulties of Crimson Castle. Gargoyle rearranged my team, Succubus charmed her, then when she advanced to position 2, she got Preparation and dropped Bombard and Blasting Shock on my face. RIP.
Welp. That was a fun run. Lost a team of L26 with skills up to date and red/legendary gear. SSS bounties are no joke. 5 +HP, 2 +Armor, 4 +Attack, 1 +DeathResist and I got creamed. (Nope, that's not the end. Had just enough gems to buy holy water to revive my team. Guess I'm grinding the endless tower for that tasty ~150-200 holy water per run...)
1500 days... STILL can't get an orange Prophet.