The Trust system will always remain a failure and garbage to me

[SturmChurro]

I agree that Trusts are bad, and I don't like them as a concept. As this thread demonstrates, many people use them to essentially not play the game while being handed the EXP, even if it's very slowly. They also denigrate social interaction in a game where social interaction needs all the help it can get.

The benefits of Trusts are literally to take a dungeon at your own pace. That's it. The queue argument doesn't hold much water, because if you have a long queue, that is time where you can do other things like gather, craft, make gil, daily hunts, follow a hunt shell etc. Trusts only real advantage is that they eliminate you needing other people to come with you into the dungeons for which they are available.

It also saddens me to know that my Trust's performance suffers from my performance being good. I've used them before on my Let's Play alt, and I totally understand why people like them, but to me they really do seem more like automatons than the characters they represent. They're programmed to dodge a single AOE, and then to stand still, even if they're a caster or ranged. This means if they get targeted by multiple AOEs, that they obey their dodge subroutine first, which does cause them to fail more intricate mechanics. This means that for every dungeon that's made with Trusts in mind, that Square has to take more time programming the Trusts to act out a certain set of movement in order to actually do new mechanics, which means it's less time they actually spend making the dungeon good for real people.

Yes! I forgot about this issue! I don't think the benefits (I can't think of any - other than afk leveling) are good enough to justify them. Things like this will only lead to the further dilution of this game, and it's content.

[Payadopa]

The Trust system was possibly the best thing they added to the game in ShB, and I haven't done a dungeon with a group since the twinning.

To each their own but as far as my understanding of MMOs goes, that's a giant failure in my book.

MMOs should encourage cooperation at every turn, not make you loathe it.

And I personally don't experience drama, least of all in dungeons. If anything people are quite open to a nice chat while running through one. The only drama I see is usually in savage content.

[SomeRandomHuman]

To each their own but as far as my understanding of MMOs goes, that's a giant failure in my book.

MMOs should encourage cooperation at every turn, not make you loathe it.

And I personally don't experience drama, least of all in dungeons. If anything people are quite open to a nice chat while running through one. The only drama I see is usually in savage content.

Whenever drama starts in DF just start doing the lali-hop or eating bread and just be the silent one. It's worked everytime for me. Especially in my snowman dancer glam. xD

[LaylaTsarra]

To each their own but as far as my understanding of MMOs goes, that's a giant failure in my book.

You're entitled to have your own book and not like it. Sorry but there are many of us who are extremely pleased this was introduced and it's much better than squadrons ever were in my view. Got to love the group content crowd with their wall to wall pull philosophy and they don't aoe so Trusts have to suck.

Simple enough if you don't like them don't use them but for many there are many good reasons for using them from farming loot to leveling roles (experience is pretty sweet) to playing and learning roles outside of DF that you rarely play. As I've said earlier I've taken two characters to Trusted Friend and hope to see this expanded upon.

And relative to group content I play more of it than most each week and welcome this as an alternative to have fun with. I'd be willing to bet Trusts are here to stay and will continue to be a part of the msq progression in xpacs to come.

[Yencat]

To each their own but as far as my understanding of MMOs goes, that's a giant failure in my book.

MMOs should encourage cooperation at every turn, not make you loathe it.

And I personally don't experience drama, least of all in dungeons. If anything people are quite open to a nice chat while running through one. The only drama I see is usually in savage content.

I much prefer to use DF myself because it's faster, but people that are disinclined to speak or be social aren't magically going to become that even if Trusts didn't exist.

The average DF run may as well be AI because beyond the initial "o/" there's very little communication if any at all. I use DF over Trusts specifically because it's faster not because I'm particularly interested in having a chat in between pulls.

Though that's not to say I'm unfriendly or just don't reply when people say/ask things, because I do, but it's just not my main purpose for using DF.

[Luluna]

I love the trust system I would rather go at my own pace. They are not perfect with some mechanics but I wish they would expand on them more.

I have more fun now with the story and the dungeons as not to be rushed. I have levelled a few jobs that way also it can be quite relaxing

[Peace-Division]

I think OP has missed a very big point the trust system was introduced for. It completely negates the often terrible queue times DPS jobs have to endure just to progress the MSQ.

It would be nice if they did a little bit more damage but its perfectly understandable why they are slower than doing it with a normal party of players.

Its a great system for first timer veteran players too whilst new to the current expansion . I used it as a WHM main to study what to expect come doing them again via roulette and of course to progress the MSQ.

Its much better than having your story progression halted by party requirements. Gone are the days where you wait and queue for an MSQ dungeon only to then get a cut scene then be expected to do a trial and wait again like at the end of HW in Azys Lla as one of many examples.

It isn't perfect but its far better than nothing and is entirely optional I expect this trend to continue and possibly be retro fitted into older expansions especially once we are in the 90+ realms of player levels.

[ReynTime]

Leveling trusts is a breeze and non-issue. Just go as DPS, let them do everything sans bosses, and watch movies/series/cartoons/play your PS4/5/Xbox/Switch.
Zero effort, pretty much.

But yeah it kinda sucks they rarely use any AoE. Then again I don't think they should be very efficient, to discourage socializing for PvE content even more in this game, and it's already rather anti-social/passive.

And I wish they had more voiced lines.

[Brill_]

Leveling trusts is a breeze and non-issue. Just go as DPS, let them do everything sans bosses, and watch movies/series/cartoons/play your PS4/5/Xbox/Switch.
Zero effort, pretty much.

If you need to watch netflix or play another game to make leveling trusts bearable, then that is a design failure in the content. That means it's boring and not engaging.

Trusts should level with your character like they do in FFXI. We already level all combat classes, crafters and gatherers. Then we have to level again in PotD, HoH, Eureka, and Bozja. I don't know what Yoshi P obsession is with having us level stuff.

[Vinupra-Rosa]

The trust sytem works fine. They are supposed to be slower than good DF parties. And I believe they are balanced to acheieve a certain clear time; having played trusts extensively on multiple jobs and on all roles, they all clear in 28 to 30 minutes which is roughly about 10 to 12 minutes longer than the average run, and about 15 minutes longer than good runs on the faster dungeons. DPS queue times are about 7 to 8 minutes on a good hour, 15 minutes or more on a bad time.

Trusts fulfill the niche of being a sub-optimal stand-in for DF at odd hours when DF queues are bad.

They also fulfill the niche of 'immersive/rp gameplay'. The trusts are framed in the story as the people you actually run the trust dungeons with, and they make commentary during the run that is absolutely amazing for lore nuts. Also gposing with your favourite trust npcs.

They also fulfill the niche of being a training tool and their slowness is actually a boon for this purpose; you see the same mechanics more often, which makes them good for familiarisation. That you -cannot- die because dying is an immediate wipe also puts more pressure on actually doing mechanics right.

And they fulfill the niche of being an option for people with social anxiety OR, as in my case, a weak connection. DCing as tank in a DF run? It feels horrid, you're wasting the time of three other people. DCing as a tank in a trust run? The trusts aren't going to be bothered and will patiently wait lol. Also less (nonexistent) competition for gear pieces.

What trusts are NOT made for is a straight up replacement for DF. Trusts are already better than SOME DF runs I've done; if they were noticeably better (yay AoEs!) there would be less and less incentive to actually queue for DF (at least for these dungeons; roulettes still exist) because why wait for queues, why gamble on meeting potentially toxic people, why gamble on hoping for a decent party when NPCs are almost as good? Just do trusts! And people would then be complaining that trusts are TOO good.

I know some people who already no longer do DF because they prefer doing trusts. And that's with trusts being about 10-12 minutes slower than the average DF!

Edit:
Also, re-reading your original post, if you want the title then work for it. It's not even THAT bad. And plenty of people I know personally have gotten it done before the nerfs. I myself had them mostly done when the nerfs came and I was even sober all throughout. Don't rush. Try to hit off more than one objective at a time (like, say, levelling alt jobs / practicing jobs you don't often use while levelling trusts) to make it less 'painful'.