I just tried to get a friend into the game, his first an only match, we had a tier 5 shae antag running the asi dagun. She always was focusing on him and he was hating it ( not to mention he didn't like some of the unusual mechanics like stress and melee), he never wanted to play another match after that, but boy was he elated when he got his hands on her and went for the beatdown.
I now understand why people like the idea of opting to be invaded by antags, but personally I think it should only be allowed for very low level people, so that they can see if the game is fun without the fear of a high lvl antag ruining their first impressions of the game.