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

[MomomiMomi]

Should not be a viable replacement for DF in my opinion.

I don't see why not. It's not like people are going to queue for these dungeons outside of roulettes, and trusts being a viable DF replacement is not going to stop people from queueing from roulettes. Nothing would be lost.

Outside of story clears, their main purpose seems to be earning experience. Which they're terrible at.

We also have tons of things that have impacted dungeon queues far more than this would if they were even halfway decent. PotD, HoH and squadrons are all generally superior to queueing for a dungeon. This for some reason is an outlier.

[Nixxe]

I don't see why not.

Because this is an MMORPG and the game should be designed to encourage group play and socialization with solo options being clearly inferior alternatives for those who are determined not to group for whatever reason. If people want an optimized single-player experience, they should go play a single-player game.

[MomomiMomi]

Because this is an MMORPG and the game should be designed to encourage group play and socialization with solo options being clearly inferior alternatives for those who are determined not to group for whatever reason. If people want an optimized single-player experience, they should go play a single-player game.

Why not both?

Also, the majority of the main scenario says you're wrong. Or did you forget all those solo instances?

[EdwinLi]

Why not both?

Also, the majority of the main scenario says you're wrong. Or did you forget all those solo instances?

I think you're looking at Trust the wrong way being that you expect them to become a alternative to Player parties with them having the same mentality of real life players being "Get this Dungeon done as fast as possible within 15 to 20 minutes or less."

Trust groups are more designed to give the MSQ dungeon the Story instance experience rather than a "Simulation" of a Speedrun group that can get the dungeon done within 15 to 20 minutes using only Mass Pulls of 3 mobs or more with 2 to 3 AoE skills spam between boss fight and being able to kill bosses within 3 to 2 minutes.

This is why I am more in line with the improvemeant to trust being more RPG related than just pure stat boost to get things done faster related because the intended experience between Trust and Player Parties is not intended to be the same experience. Trust experience is more story experience related while player party is more Player community experience related which differs greatly since Story experience related aspect of Trust is to follow the Dungeon under the expect rules of a Story Instance being one encounter at a time with the NPC's including unique habits, skills, and story related dialogue to the MSQ Dungeon lore and themselves (The trust do have some unique skills only they can use such as Thancred will sometimes jump into the air to head slash a tall boss enemy and if "Minfilia" is in the Trust Team with Thancred they will perform a Unity Attack where "Minfilia" thorws a Special cartridge to Thancred so he can perform his strongest attack) while Player Party experience is more focus on the community and what the party deem how they should handle the content as a group such as taking things slowly for the new player to learn or rush through the dungeons as fast as possible to get things over with faster without a care to the dungeon's detail nor lore since it is just another Dungeon run to get over with.

Yes the RPG upgrading as Trust level up elements added into improving Trust Companions as a group and individually will still reduce the time it takes to complete dungeons (most likely within 20 to 30 minutes based on how lazy or active the player is rather than the normal 25 to 35 minutes) but Trust is a story instance experience that takes on the enemy mobs differently from what Players have set themselves to act.

[Nixxe]

Why not both?

Also, the majority of the main scenario says you're wrong. Or did you forget all those solo instances?

Because you can't have both. There is a single pool of players.

Then why is it possible to solo PotD/HoH and get exp for it? Why is it possible to level up all jobs with only squadrons who are at least as fast if not faster than normal groups and who have no downsides to the loot too? (And give poetics at lvl 60). Why should the trusts be the one not allowed to do what is already done ingame? And they still could lock this ability behind getting them to 80 so that it does take some work.

It would just be an option for those of us who (for various reasons) dont want to always run with real people. I still do roulette, simply because it gives a nice exp boni. But other than that I am right now getting all jobs to at least 60 with squadrons, roulettes and hunting licenses (also solo content with lots of exp behind it) and after that will exchange squadrons with trusts as soon as possible, maybe with some PotD or HoH in between.

If Squadrons are faster than normal duty finder groups, they need to be nerfed.

[Shougun]

If Squadrons are faster than normal duty finder groups, they need to be nerfed.

Mine are, after being upgraded to max offensive and setting them all that way (even my healer is offensive). I'd also not want them nerfed. I still use the roulette for the bonus but occasionally, specifically on DD, I really appreciated the squadron system.

They also don't really run fresh content where their speed might have a bigger impact of the DF. Which is why I get the trusts can't be upgraded to go as fast as squadrons can now (otherwise it replaces fresh content easily). I'd still really love if they could get moving quicker later as the content becomes less new. Like next expansion or late late 5.XX. They could be made slightly quicker as we go along earlier, just not squadron levels.. yet. Perhaps if Trusts get added to older content (that squadrons haven't been updated to) then they can make those similar speeds. Of course like said before I'd really appreciate it if SE can continue some sort of content feature for squadrons if Trusts are going to kill one of the major features.

Also squadron are faster once you know how to use the AI, because the AI without your management is really silly. They can easily handle mass pulls and they can heal quite well, but you need to know where their AI just freaks out and drops the ball else you'll probably die (or just set them to balanced or defensive where they all a sudden become tank lords). Once you know that though they're consistent and very strong. Because of this certain dungeons are just awful and should be avoided at all costs lol.

So yes they can go faster (dungeon dependent), like faster than even "pretty good groups", they've not caused issues so far, and I appreciate their service - so no please don't nerf. I feel that suggested nerf would ruin a good thing that hasn't harmed others (as it appears so far).

[RokkuEkkusu]

If Squadrons are faster than normal duty finder groups, they need to be nerfed.

It's not that squadrons need to be nerfed, it's just that there are a lot of new, average, and/or undergeared players that make normal duty finder groups run slower than some want it to be.

That being said, Offensive 5 on all my squadron members for dungeon runs is beast and fun.

[Alleo]

If Squadrons are faster than normal duty finder groups, they need to be nerfed.

They existed for quite some time and barely anyone complained about them being too fast. Heck the game still has enough people running stuff with other people so I see no reason on why they should be nerfed? I am not even sure if some dungeons could even be cleared if they are nerfed...

In the end to use squadrons or trusts to level up your character you need to put work into this. For squadrons you first have to get them, then level them up enough to join a dungeon, need to pay to get into that dungeon and need to work quite a bit to make it out alive. With trusts you have to level them up too if you want to use them for all levels. Which again takes time and dedication. You also have to be way more aware of the run, especially the bosses, because if you die the boss fight is over.

[SerLuke]

Perhaps later they will add a merit point system like FFXI had but for Trusts where we can augment our Trusts later on(though FFXI only did this for the player character I can see something like this being used for XIV Trusts)