Passage of Persistance should just be get 7 wins and you get the adept. Losses don't hurt in anyway, and you don't have to do any card resetting until you get the adept. Once you get it, you reset and get another adept roll after 7 more wins. This would keep people in the playlist until they get their god roll and make the mode much healthier.
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If you still can't get an adept with the easiest trials card they have added I think it does boil down to a skill issue. Just play control more until you have a squad to 3 man trials. Farm for god role pvp weapons from nightfalls. You can't expect to get rewarded just for playing.