Why Squads and Trust is the best thing for classes

I don't think enough praise can go into this system and hope we either see a better versions of squads and trust going through. The idea that you can do a duty at any time with these NPC's has cut so much time for DPS on their 10-20 min wait time. It has also given players the confidence into going in to dungeons with no experience in healing or tanking for groups to practice allowing them to be effective when playing with actual players.

My wish is that we need these systems available for newer players who are not required to unlock the entire rank system of grand company's and instead a mercenary like group. I would also like Squadrons to be allowed up to level 60 covering Storm Blood content with a improvement on their A.I. system like the Trust system.

Imo the dungeons are still much faster with real people even if you get queue +20min

Trusts are fine - to a point.

However as the members of the trusts neglect to use any AoE attacks actually completing a dungeon via the trust takes an awful lot longer.

I kind of hope they revamp the systems so they have a nice handoff and existence to each other, this doesn't mean they all have to have the exact same formula / system but that they don't commit mijin gakure at the existence of another system (like it seems our squadrons appear to be abandoned since Trusts).

Idea of some strangers / mercenaries being around to help out in earlier levels isn't bad and could be quite helpful for those early on players, also our chocobo depending on your rank could be introduced to that.

Yet as these systems merge and diverge I hope some grander plan is involved- like it could be a nice throughline, a concept that each has a place but vaguely similar purpose (before trusts were out I suggested trusts would be far stronger, far smarter, and thus faster/way more reliable to do a harder content but they would have cooldowns because they're important people, obviously that didn't happen but it's an example to show how each group would produce value), or they could even have divergence (rather than abandonment) at certain points like I suggested once the Trust system begins to run your squadron might begin to operate your airship or something. They could also enhance and further emphasize the war table concept (and I honestly think if they redid the UI for the missions to feel like a war table that it would look and feel quite cool, right now it's more of a menu diving experience which is alright but having a mission table I think would add a lot of flavor and as well add expectation that 'that' is their thing).

Was related to another thread but also suggested you could start going out on expedition missions with your squadron and doing things like making outposts and caravan runs into dungeons, there might be a new monster or path, the re-use of resources making this content far easier to create, while also giving players something new to do. Say you go deep into the lava dungeon and after setting up multiple staging camps are able to create a furnace that unlocks some new GC gear and when crafting near it enhances your crafting ability (making it easier / more reliable for certain crafts), or another might be obtaining special quenching water from another content, unlocking a cavern full of rare resources for your miner, naturally of course some new glamour and or mounts.

Tangent-ish but had thought of also reviving the hamlet defense (1.0), while originally a concept for an advanced FC doma reconstruction (FC owns a town and develops a town from scratch in essence), it could be the player's own personal hamlet (closer to WoW garrisons), and here then squadrons could make a nice resting place for their purpose.

Concept of outposts and tiers would also add some decent fun to the war table concept, as you protect, unlock, expand, and assess resources.

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Originally Posted by Jin-

Imo the dungeons are still much faster with real people even if you get queue +20min

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Compared to trusts I'd say sure but Squadrons can haul some serious booty while still being synced. I would say they are definitely faster than your average DF group and especially faster if you include wait time.

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Originally Posted by Jin-

Imo the dungeons are still much faster with real people even if you get queue +20min

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This is also my experience. Trusts take so long and you actually need to run 50-60 dungeons with them to get them leveled enough (in order to go in with any role). As a result, mine are pretty dead to me. I might use them if I need to farm gear at any point (for glam or ultimates) but that's about as useful as they get for me.

Having leveled all the Trusts all the way to 80 they definitely have their break points.

Anything over 2 packs and both healers just stands there and lets you die. It's like they have no idea what to do when you're HP is dropping quickly. This is when I was a PLD with hallowed ground AND clemency. Still died multiple times.

The lack of AoE, even a 100 potency one, slows things down considerably.

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Originally Posted by Deceptus

Anything over 2 packs and both healers just stands there and lets you die. It's like they have no idea what to do when you're HP is dropping quickly. This is when I was a PLD with hallowed ground AND clemency. Still died multiple times.

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Big pulls, even wall-to-wall, do work with Trusts but it's a bit of a dice roll. Trust NPCs never learned the first rule to "always be casting" so as soon as they have to dodge an aoe they stop what they're doing, move out of the aoe, stand around for 1-2 GCDs doing nothing and then resume casting... which is where the dice roll comes in, just hope you don't take too much damage during that time. This, combined with their refusal to use any aoe skills, makes big pulls rather pointless unfortunately and consequently makes the dungeon take way longer than it would with the average DF party.


There's also the issue with Alphinaud's brain falling out of his skull sometimes and he just stands in aoes, not healing himself, until he dies. Urianger on the other hand starts spamming cards or casting his ridiculously slow DPS nuke spell while completely forgetting that he's a healer.

I agree they have issues still. The idea that you have to level them versus them just syncing is a strange choice and siding with Shoguns' point that they need a boost in power, speed, and thought process. They have the breaking points, but I am happy the Dev's did not abandon the idea with squadrons and are committed so far into improving the system. I think they should consider having us bring a trust, squadron, or even retainer to do some fates or quest events similar to the choco system, but a more improved system.

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Originally Posted by Jin-

Imo the dungeons are still much faster with real people even if you get queue +20min

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Don't know about that. With squadrons at level 4 and 5 orders, its possible to clear a dungeon in about 15 minutes. Each level of Def, Off, or Independent orders increases the dmg, def, or a blend of both by a fixed percentage so teh damage scales up if you go Offense or independent on the deeps. Get a Paladin squadron mate and they will hold onto every mob there and the squad healer will do there thing. Only hang up dungeon is WP hard. Even going as a dps, you can clear roughly about 15-20 minutes. These guys are good through to level up alts on honestly. Just gotta put the initial time sync in on command missions. BIg thing to remember with the squadron, their skill set is completed based off, i want to say the 2.5 skill set.

Trusts you are pretty much spot on wiht the time to run a dungeon with them. Even though they sometimes dodge aoes and can do limit breaks without being, the dps imo scales very little and I agree with you on its faster run the dungeon with real people.

I made the experience that dungeons with Trusts are faster as a DPS if you count the queue time. They take about 26-32 minutes (I always use food at the start and by the last boss the food buff is either almost over or it has like up to 5 minutes left. With real people it's like 20-25 minutes on average, after the wait time of 15-30 minutes. With Trusts you know what you get, with real players you might get a single pull tank, a zero DPS healer fishing for Freecure procs, or DPS that do the same damage as the Trusts. And most times you really get those kind of players in leveling roulette.

It's annoying that when you pull extra, the Trust tank takes so long to aggro the enemies, while the healer gets beaten up because he healed you. Or when you're the tank it's annoying that when you pull, the Trusts start attacking immediately and get left behind when you pull more. And of course they are slow and stop everything during mechanics. But other than that it's a nice way to level, or see the dungeon without being rushed through it.

It would be nice to unlock them for low level stuff as well, but it would need a very good incentive to make people do those dungeons with others instead of only Trusts.