Jarriaga

We are definitively hitting MR30 this year. Let's make count: - Current MR needed for MR30 (Non-founder): 126,499 - Hard mode: 27,051 - 3 Prime frames and their weapons (2 per frame) left for this year: 36,000 - Broken frame with just 1 weapon assumed: 9,000 - The next frame after broken frame, assumed with 1 weapon (Because DE won't let the year pass with just 2 new frames): 9,000 - Command Intrinsics: 15,000 - Late 2020 main expansion. On average for the past 4 years, that means at least 40,000 mastery on the conservative side. Total amount of mastery to be introduced this year: 136,051. Even if we take Command out of the picture, the remaining amount (121,051) is so close that even 2 new weapons outside the ones expected with new frames will fill that out. MR30 is this year. So I think the conversation about what will happen at MR30 is a valid one. If Stalker Mode (Or just a badge/trophy) that is what happens, it will be such an underwhelming and disappointing build-up towards MR30 over 7 years that it will most likely result in the biggest backlash DE have ever seen. That build-up and anticipation is what pushes towards farming all the mastery you can, the legendary MR30 mystery. The pinnacle. The summit. The ultimate goal as there is no such thing as MR31. Yes, you can argue that it's players setting themselves up for disappointment and that having such a build-up for years and years sets expectations and standards that are impossible for DE to meet, but just a badge or a trophy will only serve to kill any motivation to pursue a higher MR rank beyond QoL for mostly everyone else. Once the first person hits MR30 there will be no more mystery at that point. Players will know for sure from the get-go if the grind is worth it, so DE will have to prepare something that makes people say "Yeah, that is worth the grind" be it a weapon, a game mode, a special ability or an item, whatever it is, it will have to be something more than just a Stalker Mode. Personally, the only things I can think of as being worthy of the effort are double the physical mod slots (And capacity), and the ability to build your Warframe from a modular system for the visual design while taking abilities from other frames based on the parts used to build it: The main WF BP for the passive, and the systems from a WF with the ability you want to add per slot. That sounds broken as hell. But seriously, DE need something big for MR30 or it will effectively kill grind past MR16 beyond QoL. The deadline is this year.

This is my stance as well. Slots taken by Link Armor (1), Link Health (2), Pack Leader (3), Medi-Pet Kit (4), Reflect (5) and Tek Assault (6) would just be replaced by 100% damage/support buffs in my Adarza, making it little more than an immortal crit chance stat stick that heals me every time it attacks (With Hunter Recovery). I think that would be a broken interaction for the same reason as Xoris is for stat sticks: The level of convenience is so high that it oversteps and eliminates several "soft-caps" by not having to aim towards balance at all. I'd be fine with Companions getting a rather large boost to HP, Armor and Shields by making companion survivability mods be 3x-4x their current values, but not full and complete immortality.

Why would that be an unpopular opinion? If there's something you don't see people argument about is the quality of WF's soundtrack.

That video goes to show that even the absolute "worst" weapon in the entire game is still sufficient for the purpose of beating the game. It's only deemed bad when compared to other things that are more efficient, which does not change that the Stug is still sufficient. Sufficiency =/= Efficiency. In other words: If it doesn't insta-kill per shot it sucks.

I don't know what to expect to see this year since DE have been particularly secretive and they already said no Duviri since they want to show things that are close by and Duviri is not this year. Maybe the 3rd Orb Mother considering Reb's comment with Buried Debts assuming that it was more than just meta-humor. I do know what I don't want to see: Watch Dogs and Anthems. DE should stop the overly-ambitious and unrealistic Tennocon demos. Don't present to us what can't be ultimately achieved as 90% envisioned/presented due to technological, logistical, or business reasons that had not been accounted for when they chose to present the demo/feature. DE are the ones setting us up for disappointment otherwise. Just because they are honest months later by admitting it was "just a demo" doesn't negate that they chose to present us an unrealistic vision rather than a grounded one.

These threads... Am I the only one here who got her in 4 hours split between 2 days while accounting for a part I lost due to a bug?

Nothing to add here beyond how broken that would be considering how powerful it already is at the bracket it sits in. Sure there are many different possible ways to handle progression, but how many of them respect tiers? You can't always go left and right at once. You can argue and campaign for a full system overhaul, but that can only be possible once DE themselves no longer want tiers. I disagree. The very reason why those weapons are what they are relate to their stats, which can override mechanics. Even if Strun needs a 165x buff in order to match the Tiris, it is possible. The only reason why Strun is weaker than Tigris is because the devs chose to make it weaker than the Tigris by giving it stats that clash against its mechanics. To be honest, that's not something I notice. For me, unless you have incomparable behaviors and animations like Astilla vs. Arca Plasmor vs. Phage then it all feels like different stat adjustments of the same thing. Other than the damage and speed, Tigris Prime and Strun feel the same to me despite the Tigris's double barrel trigger because in practice it always shoot and reload without letting my magazine run dry. And that's true for most weapons. Paris, Cernos and Dread feel the same to me: As bows. Only Lenz and Brama feel different for the same reason Astilla feels different for me vs. other shotguns. And to me it shows the variation in mechanics are not as many as you believe. At least for me. I see this as an argument for more universal weapon skins like that Nyx deluxe shotgun skin that works in all shotguns rather than on one specific shotgun. I don't see how that relates to tiered progression.

I made a follow-up post to this. My observation was a rather cautionary one as it would push powercreep more than Rivens. Not everyone has a Tigris Riven, but anyone can reach MR29. What would an MR29 Tigris Prime look like? That's on top of Rivens scaling whatever that is even more (Assuming Rivens still existed). You can then argue that the system should not benefit higher-tier weapons, but this would essentially mean that weapons are equalized to the point there's no progression at all, thus making different weapons nothing more than different skins with different visual effects and reload mechanics. There's no easy answer here that allows tiered progression while at the same time keeping powercreep on check.

Pretty much. But my observation was a rather cautionary one as it would push powercreep more than Rivens. Not everyone has a Tigris Riven, but anyone can reach MR29. What would an MR29 Tigris Prime look like? That's on top of Rivens scaling whatever that is even more (Assuming Rivens still existed). You can then argue that the system should not benefit higher-tier weapons, but this would essentially mean that weapons are equalized to the point there's no progression at all, thus making different weapons nothing more than different skins with different visual effects. There's no easy answer here that allows tiered progression while at the same time keeping powercreep on check.

That is indeed a viable solution. I don't like to be cynical about DE's intentions, but I'm starting to question why they allow the Riven market to be what it is.

Misguided or not, that's the current system we have. If a player likes a weapon in the lower tier brackets with no analogue higher tier then they can at least petition for a Prime/Vandal/Kuva variant to be made. That sounds interesting, but it would have to affect weapons in the upper tiers as well. Otherwise they compete. The purpose of the brackets is to signal a level of core progression, which means that gap should remain.

Miter: MR6 weapon. DE's weapon balancing philosophy guiding the 2018 weapon damage balance pass: Some people don't know this or willingly choose to ignore it, but that damage pass tied overall weapon damage to the expected damage ballpark of their MR bracket. They are already where DE want them even if players feel they are underpowered. But underpowered compared to what? The balance pass explicitly signaled that weapons like the Stug (MR2) are not meant to compete with the Tigris Prime (MR13) in any way, shape or form. Taking that context into account, the Miter performs rather well in relation to other weapons in the same MR grouping (4-6) such as the Flux Rifle and Cernos. This means that this weapon is not in need of a buff. Outliers like the Stug (For example) do need a buff but if you're comparing the Stug (MR2 secondary) to the Tigris Prime (MR13 primary) instead of comparing it to the Castanas (MR3 secondary) you're doing it wrong.

I don't think he had a single valid point. His argument was centered around how this is a false statement because of Rivens and because Xoris is objectively worse than other stat sticks: Which would indeed be a lie on DE's end. However, DE's actual full sentence was this: Which means something completely different. The first one means "not allowed under any case" while the second one is "allowed, but not with a specific implementation". Brozime willingly removed/ignored that context so he could argue his point. That's dishonest, and you can not make "valid points" under a false premise. Which is made even more disappointing after his interview with Scott.

Hey DE, since you're looking to introduce additional Operator cosmetics with The Steel Path, I feel it's a good time to point out that Operator fashion is limited to 3 slots and you are unable to purchase additional slots. You can get additional config slots for frames, weapons and even companions. The system should be expanded to Operators as well. Thanks.

I personally wouldn't mind separate balancing and rules for hard mode. I mean, it's supposed to be hard mode. DE so far have settled on adding a cooldown to energy pads, but I don't think that's enough. I think DE could use hard mode as a sandbox for balancing and testing without affecting the rest of the game. Mow down hordes of enemies that are unable to fight back power fantasy = normal mode Overwhelming odds stacked against you with accomplishment catharsis power fantasy = hard mode Seems like a good compromise.