What's so great about the BAF iTrial?

Well for one, BAF, unlike Lambda, isn't too full of ******** non-game activities like avoiding fighting enemies while punching boxes to get temp powers that will confuse the below average intelligence quotient of the participants.

Instead it is just full of ******** non-game activities like putting escaped non-combatant prisoners back in their fascist-state brainwashing mind-control-prison by punching them repeatedly instead of, oh, I don't know, rescuing them and bringing them back to Primal Earth for deprogramming.

Fortunately the escaped prisoners part of the BAF is quickly over and done with and doesn't involve dying over and over and getting lost in lag-inducing weird warehouses and laboratories trying to find way-too-tough crates and clone vats to smash.

If these trials had been created in a manner that suits the genre we would not be running around looking for the counter-agent to portals or Marauder's super-rage within the confines of the very place Marauder is set to protect, but we would instead be planting super-bombs or computer viruses to destroy the facility.

We would also not be fighting the brainwashed prisoners but their armed and very much in control escorts who are slowly trying to bring them out of the prison before we can destroy the robotic wardens. When we defeat the entire escorting group we can lead the grateful prisoner to a portal leading to Primal Earth where they will be treated by the best Arachnos Fortunatas and Longbow Empaths we can muster, to break their programming.

1. BAF is how we unlock Judgment and Lore, two of the most-desired Incarnate powers.

2. 90% of the time on Lambda, I get stuck on the Grenade team. I dont mind on a character running shields, but if Im on a squishy character this all but guarantees me the ten-threads-only reward, because I do nothing except die. I dislike this INTENSELY.

3. On Lambda people want to do stupid crap like not take out the turrets. This annoys me.

4. On BAF, people want to do stupid crap like assigning one team - which I am always on - to defeat the Warworks spawns. Unlike Lambda, I can ignore this command and keep hitting on the AVs for increased rewards. [I have seen several BAFs fail due to one team being redirected away from the AVs, luckily this stupid tactic seems to be going out of fashion.]

For all these reasons and more, I prefer BAF.

You don't increased rewards any longer on the spawn team.

Shared league wide now.

...Ah, the great ixp nerf [and yes, thats what it amounts to]. Thanks for the reminder.

I never cared about any possible Warworks-team increased rewards; what it looked like to me was that the people on that team had less of a chance to score the very rare reward table. I have no idea how true that was, nor does anyone outside the development team... but had no plans to continue trying to find out.

To be honest, BAF is my least favourite trials. It involves a bit too fudgy mechanics (I don't like synch-kills) and the lag on the escapee phase is still very, very annoying.

I personally like BAF much more than Lambda or Keyes because it's easy to stay organized- I don't really like Lambda because of Sabatoge. The whole idea of scraps, brutes, and tanks who know exactly what they're doing blowing up crates and then running off to the next one while the Empathy defender who doesn't have the trial memorized is dying every 3 feet... Just doesn't appeal to me. Not to mention Marauder tromping around all over the place.

For Keyes, the whole trial is just total chaos- You can't even run back from the hospital before you're dead again. I've even gotten stunned by the massive invisible god mode weapon (or is it weapons? I still don't care enough to figure out much about it) as soon as I came out the hospital door.

BAF is a good trial because it requires teamwork, following instructions, and overall coordination... Without the hectic, people randomly dying when they didn't do anything wrong aspect that the other two both have.

The obvious reason BAF is run so frequently is it's relatively straightforward, can be completed quickly, and is the easiest to earn merits on. End result is it gives more reward for less time/effort than the other two.

It's also more "inclusive" in that its design tends to encourage the league (or at least each team) to stay together in predictable locations/patterns - the squishier characters get to support the tougher characters, rather than the latter going their own way and the former trying to find them/keep up.

It also has the added bonus that it's a lot harder for a few bad players (clueless *and* doesn't read league chat, or outright griefers) to screw it up. In the other trials bad players can noticeably reduce the chances of success (not using the temp powers, aggroing Marauder at the wrong time, beating on anti-matter, etc), and if gone unkicked too long can actually cause the trial to outright fail. This makes BAF appealing both if you're still a novice (as your mistakes have less impact and are more likely to go unnoticed) and if you're not (so long as enough people play well the novices can't really stop the trial succeeding - that one guy can't ruin it for everyone)

(Kinda just repeating what others have said, but then so are a number of others, so why not me? )

To make it simple the BAF is the easiest to complete and awards more Astrals, even without doing anything special, that either the Lambda or Keyes.

I don't think anyone is crazy about the current IXP nerf.. prior to 20.5 I could expect to get between 10-15 % of the XP required for Judgement or Lore on a BAF now I am getting 2-5%? I saw in another thread some one speculating that they may have started low and will up those percentage later but who knows for sure? To me it has definately become easier to simply convert Merits to threads and buy the IXP I need but not every player has several Tony Stark style (Billionare) characters around to finanace that.

At this point it really doesn't matter what your team is assigned to do since everyone gets credit for every defeat including the AV (S) on any trial. I have Blasters that have never fired off a single shot at an AV on a BaF and came away with rares or very rares. I have a plant/rad that usually gets assigned to the AV teams (why would you put a debuffer on adds?) but has occasionally been assigned to ADDS. I generally run over and put a debuff toggle on either or both AVs and then run back to help kill adds.. THAT troller seems to be a Rare/Very rare magnet and I actually had to craft commons to complete tier 3 and 4 powers because she wasn't getting any no matter what her assignment. Now they CLAIM rewards are random but that Troller has actually sold off very rares to fund other stuff and her debuffs are AoE along with a number of her vine attacks. I have melee ATS (my Tank and my Widow) that battle just a hard and as long and getting anything above an umcommon is a rare treat.

I can see the point made concerning the excaping prisoners but from the CUT SCENE, thank goodness we don't have to watch that every time anymore, we know that sleeper agent have been planted in with the regular prisoners. In the short amount of time we have to deal with the situation is it really a good idea (for RP purposes of course) to try to decide who is a GOOD escaping prisoner and who is a BAD one? The old "Shoot em all and let G O D figure it out" mentality seems best. Once we defeat both Nightstar and Siege to end the trail who is to say we don't go inside the facility and rescue everyone? Remember its COH.. nothing ever dies here I open up with my automatic weapon. I fire grenades at you, set you on fire with my flame thrower and when your health reaches zero you are magically teleported to medical facilities, healed and then sent back to a prison cell. Then considering the number of times I have defeated the same Council bosses on radio missions apparently the guards at the Zigg never bother to check your cell for that escape tunnel you used and throw you right back into the same one LOL

The BAF is probably the most popular trial at the moment, I see more of them forming than any lother, mainly because it is easy to complete and has better rewards.

BAF is a little bit spechul ;p more times than not I don't get that extra Astral for no prisoners escaping