Maganar

Indeed, Viral is positively gamebreakingly overpowered in its current state. It was good before - to the point of being one of the most valuable status procs - but now it stacks up to obscene amounts of damage multiplication, works on all targets (since everything has "health" that must be burned through in the end). It is important to note that most of elemental effects are now wonderful and would be worth building if Viral wasn't currently outshining everything so much it is derailing everything this patch comes so close to accomplishing. What starts at the same amount of damage multiplication as before (200%, previously by halving enemy health) now SCALES beyond what was ALREADY one of the most useful status effects... and most of the others have been nerfed (rather than buffed). Viral stacks should range from 1.5x (an initial nerf) on first application to 2.5x on maximum stacks (a slight buff from previous state) rather than starting at 2x (previous norm) IMMEDIATELY and scaling up to a monstrous 4.5x (blasting Corrosive out of the water as sheer garbage by comparison with the cap that Corrosive now has at higher levels). I tested my weapons in the Simulacrum against enemies of an appropriate level for ordinary endgame as we have received it (aka, Level 100 - since DE seemed to have espoused that as endgame with Sorties, Arbitrations, and Kuva Lich leveling) and Corrosive almost invariably loses to Viral on my status weapons - yes, against armored Level 100 targets. I don't think the game should be balanced around endurance-runners, but for the record this will only WORSEN with higher levels that endurance runners face (the Viral always provides the same multiplication, but the cap on Corrosive means that it will scale worse and worse with levels). But Viral is already better than Corrosive on oneshot weapons (multiplier effective against more target types and status effect is meaningful after one application rather than requiring stacks like Corrosive). The result is that Viral is almost uniformly better than Corrosive. Worse, Heat does the majority of Corrosive's effect and can be PAIRED WITH VIRAL for devastatingly overpowered results. The main competition for Viral was always Corrosive and Gas, and we've already seen how Corrosive fails. As others have said, Gas has been gutted completely and unfairly, to the point of being completely useless now - somehow worse than Magnetic was before this update. Magnetic is, naturally, still garbage - it should be an EMP Burst effect that either acts as a total shield knockout instantly, or that causes the current increased damage effect to all targets in an AoE like that of the toxin cloud from Gas - allowing preemptive setup on multiple targets rather than a debuff onto your initial target that means nothing at all because the shields disappear by the time you have it stacked. Pretty much every other proc type is slightly better. Slightly being the operative word, and they weren't highly competitive against the former Holy Trinity of Viral, Corrosive, and Gas. Corrosive now falls into the "so-so" category others were in before (and still are in) now, and Gas is now sharing the "garbage" category Magnetic previously had to its lonesome. Meanwhile, Viral is buffed. I do not understand how this slipped through unnoticed. I've changed builds on all my weapons. Nearly every single one of my weapons now uses Viral, whereas previously a variety of different elemental combinations were viable and even preferable (with Viral only claiming "best element" award on "many" weapons, not "nearly everything in the entire game") The primary exceptions are Komorex (because it has innate Viral procs, so I can freely build the massively over-buffed Viral alongside Corrosive and Heat) and Hema (because it has innate Viral, so I can fully stack the over-buffed Viral with Corrosive and Heat). Yeah. Same reason in both cases. Because the Viral is free, I don't have to build it. If things don't have it, I'm building it. Synoid Gammacor? Viral. Glaxion Vandal? Viral. Rubico Prime? Viral. Vulkar Wraith? Viral. Baza Prime? Viral. Kuva Ogris? Viral. You know what unites these weapons about these weapons and their playstyles? Absolutely nothing at all. They all build Viral now though. EVERYTHING builds Viral now. As soon as people figure out how this update works and tests things, we're going to see nothing but Viral builds on almost every weapon in the game. It's a disaster gone live that is killing diversity, when diversity is what makes this game so exciting. It's fun to test out different weapons and see how they excel at exploiting different mechanics to accomplish the same end of defeating enemies. Or so it was, until this patch, unless something is done about the freak show that is Viral unleashed. I can no longer in good faith build weapons for anything other than Viral, without feeling like I am deliberately hamstringing my own performance. Something REALLY needs to be done. I propose three changes: 1) Reduce Viral damage amplification range to 1.5x (one stack) to 2.5x (max stacks). Something to this general tune is going to be necessary to prevent it from absolutely obliterating the competition in the status application field. 2) Raise the cap on how much armor Corrosive can remove to 95%. Corrosive can under no circumstance ever compete with Heat doing half its job as it tags along for free on Viral builds unless that cap is raised to around this much. 3) Return Gas to its mechanics before this update. Gas is beyond worthless now. Gas currently deals an AoE of a damage type that everything in the game resists (don't BS me about Infested when Toxic Ancients exist and Gas cannot be build alongside Radiation to strip their auras) and that bypasses no defenses of any type - it is utter trash on ever level! Gas had a meaningful, balanced place in the game before of which it has now been robbed. Just give it that role back. As minor recommendations: 1) Change Magnetic to an EMP burst that chains like the Electric Tesla Chain to nearby targets, applying the current debuff to ALL targets hit by the chaining. Shields are MUCH lower priority than health, so you need a more potent effect than Viral to make it compete with other status types, or it will always be worse. By giving it AoE setup that leaves shields ready to drop at a moments notice for ALL enemies in the area, there is just a chance it might finally be worth it. 2) Possibly nerf Heat armor strip slightly to further emphasize the identity of Corrosive as the optimal armor strip choice since Heat is also providing Panic and DoT alongside the armor strip that is now almost as good (due to the Corrosive nerfs). This is not a substitute for raising the Corrosive armor strip cap, but rather a potential complementary suggestion. Again, I stress that the everything else among the changes is great. The stacking bonuses for the elements I have not discussed in this post are perfect - but remain pointless to build or try out so long as they are completely nuked into oblivion by the overbearing presence of Viral. There is a whole wonderful and exciting world of new modding possibilities in this patch that will remain completely unexplored until Viral is addressed (and preferably - Corrosive and Gas with the recommended buffs I described).

Ouch, that burn. Completely true, though, and would kill the elitism, snobbery, frustrating learning experience, and high-stress environment within a snap of DE's fingers. The quickly-rotating asymmetric cycle that doesn't fall on neat hourly thresholds each day (allowing us to predict in our real lives when to come online if we want to run Eidolons) is such an obvious mistake, and yet it's persisted since Plains release... While I'd never rejoice at DE humiliating themselves after all the effort they put into this game and engaging the community with things like the devstream, at least something good might come out of this if they realize how unfair Plains day-night has been for literal years at this point and do something about it to save a little bit of face on this goof.

THANK YOU for these wonderful Kuva Lich improvements, based on countless fan requests. This is definitely overdue at this point and should have been a priority much earlier (read: before shoving Empyrean live way too early and forcing you to pick and choose which to fix first - obviously Empyrean got preference because it was hyped for two years via Tennocon publicity stunts), but that is not what matters here. What matters is that DESPITE biting off way more than you could chew and pushing far too many unenjoyable systems live back-to-back with the broken initial iterations of Kuva Liches and Railjack, both of them now feel in very satisfying, progression-granting places. The RNG isn't gone, but it is tempered by common sense "pity breaker" mechanics. Sincere thanks here, DE. Also on the topic of iteration based on fan feedback, the Ivara deluxe skin looks much better, but given it's original starting point and how badly it betrayed the concept of Ivara herself that wasn't much of an accomplishment. Yes, I know it was made by the same designer who created the original Ivara; that doesn't change that the designer took it in all the wrong directions originally. I still think this skin is going to be a hard "I'll pass" on this one based on previewing it in game, despite the fact I have platinum to spare and Ivara is by far my favorite warframe, which I always lauded pre-prime for its base appearance that shamed even the first attempts at Tennogen for it. There's a reason she has 30% of my warframe usage. Frankly, Ivara deluxe looks pretty alright at this point just as a concept overall, but it feels so wildly unlike Ivara (not just a new direction, which deluxe skins try to take, but as wildly and inappropriately different as the very unpopular Ember deluxe), but it would have been better as a new warframe or even an deluxe skin for a different warframe. Sorry to bring such disappointed feedback on this topic despite my positively elated feelings about the Kuva Lich changes. I hesitate to bring up yet another complaint as that's what most of my post has become at this point, so I just want to stress once more that my overwhelming feelings about this update are positive: the Kuva Lich changes are a lifesaver and I will actually be sincerely farming them again which I never thought would actually happen. But I want to be thorough and so let's dive into it... ...Blood Forge, really? Is this a real augment, or a joke? You know we already had a way to reload our weapon by pressing a single button, right? It's called the Reload key. Meanwhile, Baruuk is getting two augments that are going to positively break him through the ceiling and Garuda gets the ability to lose 50% of her hp to accomplish the same thing as using the Reload key??? This isn't just a forgettable, niche augment like Piercing Navigator for Ivara (which you can put on meme builds once in a while to have fun). This is an augment that just feels like the total waste of an entire mod slot, meant to tick off a checkbox on an ability that didn't have an augment yet. I strongly urge you to rework Blood Forge into something... anything at all worth using even for a niche purpose. To be clear: I realize Garuda doesn't need some insanely powerful augment to function powerfully (quite the opposite... but the same is also true for Baruuk that got MASSIVELY buffing augments here). But augments shouldn't just be code bloat that offer nothing but increased installation space on our hard drives. Thank you. Again, sorry for bringing up a couple major disappointments for me on a patch I am already VERY enthusiastic about, but I felt the feedback needs to be out there to help you keep abreast of fan opinions. Accept my sincere gratitude for the overall content in this update.

I agree, but that's hardly anything new that "someone messed up" just now. It's more like a promise they are only just now finally starting to deliver on. We were told ephemera would be challenge-based, but all the original releases were extremely low drop rates (often ~1%) from time-consuming and stultifying tasks. Then a whole bunch were released that were purely promotional and related to out-of-game actions (like Lotus Ephemera, Fae Path, etc.) or basic progression that requires little skill or effort (Nightwave's Eidolon and Spore Ephemera). To date, this is the first ephemera that actually rewards interaction with high-level content, albeit only after patching. Prior to this, we were lucky if an ephemera encouraged any sort of engagement with game content, regardless of level. It was almost entirely RNG or out-of-game promotion. I'm just glad this is finally a step in the right direction, and we really should see this sort of unlocking system provided with greater frequency in the future. It would be a massive improvement for overall game health.

I just want to say these are some massive improvements to the Railjack experience, and with the continual iteration, I am starting to warm up to it despite having barely engaged it at all when it was released. The same cannot be said for Kuva Liches, which are a shadow of the concept originally pitched to us. I would urge you to turn your attention to Kuva Liches next, as they came out before Railjack and have barely seen any iteration even though they are a mockery of the original concept we were promised. Railjack is now seriously starting to look in a much better place, and discrete thresholds of grind to shoot for (as promised with Tenebrous Ephemera re-implementation) rather than rare RNG drops requiring blind faith (in something that may not happen within tens if not hundreds of hours of gameplay) are a huge improvement that we should see more often in this game. I'm also still going to reiterate that Ivara Prime's Prowl visual effects feel gross and ugly to look at ever since the apparent "eye strain" "fix." I'd rather have base Ivara visual effects over the crinkly cellophane effect we have now. If the eye strain was caused by the celestial effects within her outline during movement, why did you not ONLY apply the fade-out during movement (which is fine and visually pleasing, for the record) as opposed to putting some ugly BLUR effect on her even when standing perfectly still? Please reconsider this change.

Please reconsider on the Prowl effect change for Ivara Prime. I've already stated that if people are experiencing "eye strain" (as hard as that is to believe for me) while moving, I don't mind a fade-out effect like the one you added while we are in motion. But the new blur effect added over the celestial pattern butchers it so badly it looks like crinkly cellophane. It is VERY ugly to look at, making non-prime Prowl effects more appealing visually. This eye-bleed mushy, muted splotch on my screen is not what I want from a PRIME WARFRAME that I've waited years to get, especially when it looked so amazing just days ago on its launch.

This is a half-truth. Firstly, what you did was a LOT more than a tweak. Secondly, it isn't just "while moving." The Prowl visuals have been changed wholesale, and they fade EVEN MORE while moving. I really shouldn't have to state what you obviously know (since you did it), but since you described the changes differently in the patch notes, I guess I have to... Now, I have nothing against the fade-out while moving if that was (somehow, though I find it hard to believe) causing "eye strain." But what you did isn't just "during movement," and the results are REALLY ugly. I'd rather have Ivara's non-prime Prowl effects at this point just because the celestial galaxies and stars are so muted and blurred now that you can't even tell what they are and it just ends up looking like crinkly cellophane which is extremely unpleasant. The Prowl visual effects where one of the things I got most excited about when using Ivara Prime for the first time and now it gets pulled out from under my feet... why? Not because of eye strain, apparently, since that was happening while in motion and this overall change to the visuals affects her even when stationary. So... why?