Did you (or do you plan to) level your Trust NPCs to 80?

[SomeRandomHuman]

I leveled all trusts. Just take it one run at a time and it's not too bad really. Do like 1 run per day or 1 run every 2 days. Since you're leveling side jobs it also lets your rested exp build up. I also recommend just leveling one group from 70 to 80 instead of hopping back and forth between the total of 2 groups to get them all through the dungeon at once.

The biggest benefit of this is being able to take rhyne into every dungeon and enabling thancred's cartridge combo. Also her trick attack is another nice bonus to open with on bosses and bursting down a mob.

Overall trusts are only as useful as you make them. They give you the option for them for your first run in every dungeon just to get through the MSQ but after that they can easily make leveling a dps job much more bearable since you can avoid que times. At the bare minimum I think everyone should level Thancred, ether healer(although Alphi is better imo), Rhyne, and Y'shtola. That way you have a full NPC squad for whatever dungeon crawling you wanna do no matter your role.

-Thancred just takes hilariously low damage between his brutal shell shield and aurora. He also places damage dealt down debuffs on enemies and is pretty quick to yoink aggro off of everyone else. My biggest issue is his tendency to use aurora on others when it's not really needed.

-Y'shtola follows a general rotation that includes aoe spells so she's the, imo, best dps trust. Her foul spell also chunks everything. Bosses included.

-Alphinaud can be a little slow on heals sometimes but his AI will spam lustrate in emergency sichuations. Also his carby does damage and provides 30 sec damage buffs.

-Rhyne has a trick attack. That on its own makes her really helpful. She also enables thancred to use the cartridge combo, which he uses fairly often btw, and she has an aoe spell she'll use occasionally. I've found she's liable to use it right after finishing dodging aoes and she's out of melee range. It hits decently hard on its own which is nice.

[Iscah]

The biggest benefit of this is being able to take rhyne into every dungeon and enabling thancred's cartridge combo.

I've read before that this is an illusion and Thancred's base damage is adjusted depending on whether Ryne is in the party. So he'll do the cartridge combo if she's there, dealing more damage with those specific attacks, but if she's absent then all his other attacks are doing slightly more damage to compensate.

I don't have a source for this though.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Once you unlock g’raha, you are very likely to not care about Thancred anymore. G’raha is just way tankier & safer to force him a wall pull.

Healers are all eh.
G’raha brings Aero III, occasional Holy & generic WHM kits but he’s permanently locked into my tank slot so nah.
Urianger brings break (useless), occasional Death (rarely misses, doesn’t work vs Sin Eater types) and cards every 30s. Additionally his Malefic cast time is akin to our AST, so he has more time to get that cast off & still move out of red carpets.
Alphinaud brings occasional Miasma II & moonstone carbuncle dmg buff but I do not know when or what makes him utilizes this buff. In my runs with him he annoyingly almost always the one who eats red carpets.

DPS.. I just take whoever. Except Alisaie (my fave) if for some reason I decide to pick Alphi. He will prioritize saving his sister over you.