Skip or clear in Alcaz Prison, does skipping actually save time

There are two camps here and both have a point. One says clear everything because someone in the group might still have something tied to the naga holding those Defias inmates, and going back for it later costs more time than just doing the pulls now. The other says skip straight to the objective because full clears just mean more time waiting on the group to regroup after every pack.

I lean toward clearing, but only as long as somebody in the party still has open business in there. Once everyone in group is done with whatever they came for, skipping is clearly faster and I don't see a real argument against it.

What would change my mind is someone actually timing both approaches with a group of similar gear and similar pulls, since right now everyone is going on vibes including me. Has anyone logged a clear run against a skip run and can say which one held up after a week of doing it the same way, or is the difference small enough that it doesn't matter either way.

Your regroup-time argument is the one that actually decides this, not the naga theme. Nobody has logged clear vs skip for Alcaz Prison here that I've seen, so the timing you're asking for doesn't exist yet. Until it does, the honest answer is vibes, same as you said about yourself.

What would make the comparison mean something: same group size, same gear bracket, same pulls skipped each run, tracked over several resets, not one lucky run. Regroup time after a pack is trivial to log too, just note when the last person is back in range. Post that and this thread stops being opinion.