Two months into Shadowbringers, do you find yourself still using Trusts?

[Cilia]

I've never touched them and have no real intention of doing so.

Doing dungeons with NPCs kind of homogenizes the experience. Real people are unpredictable, which makes it exciting; no two dungeon runs will ever be the same. NPCs removes that element, making every run with those NPCs the same.

I understand the desire for and utility of the system, but it's not for me.

[EdwinLi]

Yes.

I enjoy the trust giving a experience of being a Storyline Instance sometimes.

Normal Player group play is fine but let us face the reality that majority of the time it will be only Spam AoE between Boss fight and tanks chugging down Healer's healing like a Healing addict. People's disdain of Trust is more towards not being "Speedrun" efficent compared to Normal Player parties which is understandable but also uncessary since Trust was never meant to be a alternative to Fast Speedrun MSQ dungeons but a alternative experience towards MSQ dungeons that is something different from the normal Player Party experience being for the MSQ Dungeon to be a Story Instance rather than a Dungeon which is expect to have mix feeling over since certain people only deem things fun if they can get through the content fast as possible.

Sometimes I just want to take things at a steady pace and the Trust gives that moment to try Dungeons differently.

However, i do hope we get additions to Trust to make the experience a bit more unique later such as Each Trust get their own Solo LB so they no long use the Normal Party LB such as Tnacred gets Lionheart LB. Also maybe Trust Character/Party Skill tree for each Trust Companion so as we level them we can make them more unique from normal Players.

[UnrealTai]

Yep still using them.

A lot of players forget that squadrons essentially are trusts too, and you can just solo level from 20-80 using a combination of the 2.

Its alot faster 20-70 to use trusts (squads) because the wait timer for those dungeons are HORRIBLE.
Plus, you get the push ups emote, perfect for PVP kills if emotes were still allowed there lol.

By the time the duty ques you could already have completed 1-2 runs, if youre even still awake by then.

Problem is squadron “trusts” is not something you can just go instant unlock, it takes about one week of doing meaningless (but very short) tasks once every 18 hours, but once you get to rank 2 its full steam ahead, spam dungeons and insta que.

Nice option for getting everything to 80 and is tons faster then fate grinding.
I really hate dungeons, but I hate leveling slow even more (fates), and potd hoh is not appealing to me.
Squadrons and trusts are really faster anyway, assuming the que time is bad of course.

[Alleo]

god no

i ran holminster switch once and it took 2-3x longer than if i were doing it with live players. i would have to do it 3 more times in order to level them so they would be able to do the level 73 dungeon.

at that point i'd rather eat a bullet than waste my time like that. daily roulettes are much better for getting a job to 80

2-3 times longer? Of course if you have a great player group you might be able to finish these dungeons (with good gear) in maybe 15 minutes but three times longer would be 45 minutes. Honestly most of my runs are around 30 minutes with them and for most random groups thats probably only like 10 minutes longer. (And as a DD I have zero wait time)

Could you elaborate on why you think Trusts are good but Squadrons are not? Squadrons, once you get the damage rank, go very fast (faster than most DF groups). Meanwhile Trusts go slower than most DF groups by a decent margin (in my experience).

Not the person you quoted but I still wanted to give an answer to that because I too see the trusts as better than the squadron. (All my squadrons are max level and have most of their stuff unlocked..and I have over 100 runs with them)

Trusts are tailored to the dungeons. Sometimes they die (especially a certain healer and a certain BLM..) but most of the time they will stay alive, will rezz death people and work mostly fine. I can run as a DD to groups of monsters and pull them back to the tank and he will get them off me quite fast.

My squadron experience: A lot of the 50er dungeons feel like being nearly impossible to do, especially if you are the tank. They dont do mechanics at all so you will get target by everything alone thus you have to micro manage them so that they stack with you for example in Sohm Al or stop attacking certain things.

The healer AI is just utterly horrible..they only start to heal when you are quite low and wont stop their DPSing even if you are nearly dieing. No matter how many buffs I pop I wont survive it if they are throwing a stone out at the moment instead of using the slow heal spell..I dont know how many wipes happened because of that and if you need to pop your "oh shit" buttons with a normal pull of one trash group then there is imo something wrong with that AI. I have given up on doing certain dungeons as a tank because I get hit with everything, they dont do mechanics and the healer wont heal me. They can also rezz but will always wait until after the fight..which means that I have to have certain potions with me to rezz the group while endangering myself at the same time.

The tank is not much better. They are holding out a bit more so I can pull bigger groups with them but I need to click on every single mob a few times with engage because unlike with Trusts they dont aggro all of the mobs at the same time..Which means (since everyone starts attacking with engage) that the healer and DD NPC will get a lot of the monsters at first..and I also have a lot of monsters on my back (sometimes being killed thanks to it). The tank also seemingly likes to turn bosses towards the group..

The DDs are probably the best part of the squadron because of their damage but as soon as they get monsters on them they will try to walk away. Also not always using their DoTs and skills like that.

Before the nerf to Engage you could run certain dungeons quite fast. With that much power you could also kill lots of bosses before they could harm you..after the nerf a dungeon (since I want all the exp) will still at least take up to 20 minutes..the micromanaging of them can be annoying and dieing as a tank because I pulled one group also gets old after some time. Changing their behaviour does not do much and I wished that they would have made the healers truly just be healers..

With trusts I only have to be careful at bosses (but me dieing with squadrons also ends the run and I get hit will all the stuff there too) otherwise I can run forwards as a DD and pull more stuff to the tank who will take it from me and is able to survive it. I also was able to survive more than one trash pull as a tank myself. Sometimes they might die to bosses but I barely had any deaths when I leveled them all to 80. I dont want to count the amount of death my squadrons had. They know were to stand and at least still do some DPS and I dont have to micromanage them. The runs are taking a bit longer but are less stressfull and theoretically you could just run into the next trash and the tank will get everything and you can go afk or look at the envoirment. With squadrons you have first need to make sure that the tank even has the aggro at all.

[LaylaTsarra]

2-3 times longer? Of course if you have a great player group you might be able to finish these dungeons (with good gear) in maybe 15 minutes but three times longer would be 45 minutes. Honestly most of my runs are around 30 minutes with them and for most random groups thats probably only like 10 minutes longer. (And as a DD I have zero wait time)

Don't forget to count the queue times if you're a dps especially. I've not had insta queues for expert or those dungeons even as a healer so after all is said and done I'm sure the time invested is about the same.

[Komarimono]

I've had no use for them. I play mostly a tank or healer, rarely DPS. Queue times for fine for me and trusts do poor poor pooooooor DPS and a waste of time.

[Alleo]

Don't forget to count the queue times if you're a dps especially. I've not had insta queues for expert or those dungeons even as a healer so after all is said and done I'm sure the time invested is about the same.

That too. Which is why I am a bit skeptical how a run can take especially three times longer if you are comparing it with randoms. Might be possible with friends that are great players with awesome gear but when you start out and play a DD it might even be just faster with trusts.

[MomomiMomi]

after the nerf a dungeon (since I want all the exp) will still at least take up to 20 minutes

My longest dungeon is The Vault which takes me 18 minutes. One of my dps isn't even maxed out yet. Everything else takes less time than that, usually 15 minutes.

Don't forget to count the queue times if you're a dps especially. I've not had insta queues for expert or those dungeons even as a healer so after all is said and done I'm sure the time invested is about the same.

Only if you sit there doing nothing but stare at your screen during your queues.

[Alleo]

My longest dungeon is The Vault which takes me 18 minutes. One of my dps isn't even maxed out yet. Everything else takes less time than that, usually 15 minutes.

Do you kill everything? Are you the tank or the DD/healer? My runs go a bit faster when I am not the tank because the NPC tank can take more damage. I am not at the vault yet with them but anything under 50, especially when I want everything will take quite the time. I am not sure if 15 minutes is possible then.

[Rannie]

I've got them all to level 80 and I'm still going to use them for leveling my other jobs. I honestly switch between using trusts and waiting for the que to pop even for dps. I definitely use them for each dungeon once per job so I can get the feel of what the run will kind of be like before running with other people.