yep gear is used.

"Is gear used in survival?".

Yes, gear is also very important. Don't forget to upgrade it.

Sorry guess i wasn't clear. I'm ranked 3rd in power on my server. Also i'm the 2nd or 3rd fastest with refines of 6, 5, 5, 4, 4.
The person i was vsing had only refines of 4,4,4,4,4 but yet he attacked first everytime. I thought about it for awhile and the only way i see him going for is the way i put my characters into the fight and my main character might have only only got one of my lower refine sets.. And theirs no way to check or change it so i had to waste a full team just to kill his main character. i'm also 17k power and hes only 13.5k power... This has happened before about 2 other times. Even tho i still beat all the survivals. If this would have made me lose out on making it to the end i would be very annoyed. But figured i would post the bug so it can be fixed instead of making it a issue for people that need the coins to keep up.

If this happened to someone that isn't as strong as me they wouldn't be able to make it to the end and could costing them all 3 of there teams. When that person should have won that fight because his refines are better.

The only way i could think of this getting fixed would be a way to change the gear parts around for the characters.

I have also seen this, it appears that the teams in Survival Trial get some sort of buff or bonus. My friend has slightly lower refinement on his main than mine, and we were both in the "Move 2" position. His main would move before my main in Survival Trial, but when we practiced fighting, my initiative was indeed higher than his.

To counter, I just moved my main to "Move 1," but other times, I'll have to use one of my other teams. I would definitely like it if the devs could elaborate on whether the enemy teams in Survival Trial are getting bonuses or is gear not being accurately recorded?

I think it has something to do when placing your characters in the field and they end up with gear from someone else. Like if i put my main character in first but he ends up with the refines of my healer. He will have less refines then normal. I've tried all kinds of combinations but once its set it don't change for the day and you pretty much have to lose a team just to take out a character or 2. If this was to happen twice in the same run would likely not make it to the end.

That's why i suggested maybe they add something in so we can move the gear around.