What's so great about the BAF iTrial?

I've run it 5 times now, and it's been exactly the same each time.

Watch cutscene.
Kill some warworks.
Congregate in big crowd on tennis court near buffers/healers.
Wait for sb to pull Nightwing, defeat her.
Defeat waves of non-attacking runners for 5 mins.
Go back to tennis court.
Wait for sb to pull Seige, defeat him.
He rezzes, Nightwing arrives. Attack them both so they eventually fall within seconds of each other.

All of this happens in a very small area of one map.

I haven't noticed any specific ATs being required. I'm doing this on an en/en/fire Blaster, so I'm there for damage obviously.

Maybe I'm missing sth important being done by other ATs? I heard some talk of 'rings', possibly there's turrets involved?

I haven't been dying more than once per run.

It's all over in half hour, easy. It's extremely repetitive and simplistic, and appears basically unfailaible as long as the teams not made of morons.

I don't understand why anyone would do it more than once ot twice if it wasn't for the Incarnate rewards.

are there any fans of the BAF out there who like it for any reason other than it's an easy way to get threads etc in half an hour?

Eco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Nightstar*

Also, it's just fun. Some folks like it, others don't.

I pretty much agree. I find the BAF somewhat boring compared to Lambda and Keyes. It's a lot like the ITF, it's less interesting than the equivalent level content but it's enjoyable enough and offers good rewards/time so people run it a lot.

I prefer BAF over Lambda a lot. I think this is due to my initial exsposure to Lambda (spent all of my time dying with no one telling me what I should be doing.)

I understand how Lambda works now but can't be bothered.

As I just stated in another thread, BAF is easy to understand, and straightforward to complete. It doesn't rely much on gimmicks that you must work around and doesn't require specific ATs or any real setup and planning. You can pick it up quickly, run a trial and move on to other things. You just play the game, basically.

Prior to everyone being +3 and slotted with Destiny, the BAF was a very different experience and entire team wipes sometimes occured. That changed after about a week or two. It has always been my least favorite of the 3 trials tho.

There are badges for different tasks, such as defeating Siege and Nightstar at their spawn points (instead of pulling), which is much more difficult.

There's also a badge for defeating all of the adds before dealing the final blow to the AVs; sometimes you can just get lucky in an AOE-heavy league and not even have to think about it.

The towers fire deadly lasers unless disabled, but you get an extra Astral Merit for not disabling them (and a badge the first time you complete a run without disabling them). On a team with enough healing, or pulling behind the wall, it doesn't matter, but fighting the AVs at their spawns has, in my experience, required someone on the turret controls.

I think getting a Master of the BAF badge awards an extra Empyrean Merit for that run.

Characters that get enough aggro are targeted by Siege and/or Nightstar, a ring VFX and a warning will pop up over them. If they have two rings then they need to stop building aggro and get away from other people, as they can be Sequestered, which is an unresistable hold on the target and everyone nearby.

There's a lot going on, and rewards for doing things differently, although as any playerbase we've discovered the easiest way to power through it, and so that's what we do most of the time.

BAF's not great, but it's good; and I think it really shines when you run it with 12 to 16 players.

BAF is the favorite trial for me.

It's straight-forward. I usually enjoy stopping the prisoners. It's a good all around trial.

I love Lambda on my Bane. Otherwise, it's eh.

Keyes - I'll skip it. Fortunately, that seems to be the majority opinion.

That being said, I only do trials for the carrots. Lambda on my Bane, I would do occassionally, but I would otherwise be doing story arcs and tips.

It's a nice starter level Trial - it's intended to be the first one people run, so it's set up to ease them into the way Trials work.

It's quick and easy and has some nice variety in between the mob clearing, the escape and the AVs. It's also fairly well rewarding, you can get 5 or so Astrals and your Empyrean per run.

It easy to understand for folks new to the Itrials. It does not rely on getting temps and if done right can give you some good rewards and be ran quickly enough so you can do something else.

It might also be worth mentioning that the BAF has the worst server based lag of the 3. The prisoner escape phase is only 50% about stopping the prisoners; the main challenge (for me at least) is playing "which powers are recharged?" wack-a-mole with the action bar.

the BAF its also extremely easy to make astral merits from, you can very easily get 7-8 astrals per run if you get every badge

lambda is 4 avg (5 if you get synchronized, 5-6 if you are really intent on trying to get one of the 3 remaining side badges)

keyes trial avg is about same as lambda


the basics come down to the side badges are much easier to get hence more and easier astrals per run

the lambda badges are already stupidly aligned so you cant get more than 1 of the 3 sides other than synchronized per run and the keyes side badges are even more ridiculous and/or possibly bugged in the case of avoiding the obliteration beam


IMO when it comes down to just needing threads, BAF is the way to go

I fail to see the purpose in you calling anyone out Pacur. Why be that antagonizing? Besides that. I SPECIFICALLY recall him stating that the iTrials are trivial... Which of us is right and does it really add anything to the conversation?

If I wanted to engage in forum PvP I'd say prove it, link to his complaining about it being too hard. But I'd prefer if everyone could avoid this sort of pointless one upmanship...

BAF is easier and a more consistent source of Astral merits. Getting the bonus Astrals from the escapee phase and from leaving the turrets on is almost guaranteed these days.