I see lots of posting about these 2 things that can be distilled to a simple set of arguments.
1: I want frames to be better balanced so I can have a role to play regardless of what kits my teammates run
2: I want x frame to be more powerful so I can solo content when I've put lots of work into x frame, instead of having to switch to a frame that is perfectly suited to a certain task.
Honestly both of these are valid wants for your experience, and I think in the state the game is in currently it's satisfying neither, but could be satisfying both. The primary thing I have to say is that nerfing frames and creating prohibitively niche difficulty multipliers (more on this later) is killing both sides of this slowly. When a new frame is released or a frame experiences a power bump from other new content release, people rail about it because it upsets an existing meta. I however am always excited for this. It is important to recognize, I think, that reaching the end of Warframe's available content requires an immense investment in time, that can be curbed only by a similar investment in money. However you feel about this, people are making sacrifices in time and effort to achieve the power fantasies they want to, and within a game this variable and huge that means sometimes frames outpace one another or dip into new roles they couldn't before as the players discover interactions to exploit between content. This is a natural and normal part of any game of this format, and in my opinion this is a GOOD thing. Players don't need to be incentivized to frame or kit swap any further than expanding mastery rank for access to more content. If that approach is fun for you, there is nothing stopping you from picking an optimal frame and kit to cheese content, but other players run into an issue where as frames receive nerfs or content difficulty becomes more barring to less niche kits, their favorites kits become stagnant with no avenue to move forward into the later game. If a frame has hit a fantasy that lets it solo all content, it will run out of things to improve, and thereby cease to evolve for the player using it. After you enjoy this a while you'll probably be itching to make a new build to tackle the game in different and interesting ways. If you've hit the ceiling of content difficulty and are advocating for frames to be nerfed to restore the difficulty of that content you are missing the point of this game. You should not want to rob a player whos put much time and effort into a spectacular build of their access to it. Instead you should advocate for greater attention given to frames and weapons who cannot be built to do so. You should not wish for content to prohibit the efficacy of certain builds through narrowing and narrowing the options for success, but instead for content to grow and grow in diversity and scale to create more opportunities to flourish differently. Archon hunts are a hot topic of discussion still as the nature of their fight brings this concept brutally into play, with archon Nira appearing easy to players who have acquired and cultivated the tools that excel at killing her, while players who enjoy builds outside this small selection are sometimes completely dissuaded from touching the content.
Here's my proposed solution in 3 parts:
1: Do NOT nerf any frames or weapons
2: Work on abilities and weapons to improve the ones least used or swap their effects out entirely
3: Create content that rewards a diversity of play
Part 1
Frames and weapons being able to cheese content isn't an issue. While you may feel that other people cheesing something you queued up to play isn't fun, I can assure you it's fun for them. The problem is more that other tools may lack the possible interactions to achieve similar power, and THAT is what's not fun. You deserve to laugh maniacally while your build born of hours of research and experiments tears through scores like a swarm of locusts or shrugs off nuclear amounts of opposition. That's cool and good and should be possible for any 1 frame or weapon in some way at least. Lets not take it from people who've already found their fantasy.
Part 2
Weapons and abilities that are unloved or less used need to be more present and viable. If somebody wants to use Nyx, kunai, or a bo to play endgame content, they should have at least some path before them to creating a nasty interaction that takes them to that level. Rivens are a step in this direction, but still fall short in terms of access. Random bonuses are awesome, but the pool of available buffs will be better on certain types of weapons more than others, and increasing that pool will only make getting a synergizing set more difficult. I think if the devs focus on creating more things to do other than insane damage or status, we'll find this medium. Ex 1.) weapons with poor dps or status being updated to provide some other benefit like knockback resistance, energy, or invisibility. Also giving poor weapons weird new ways to do damage and status or other things entirely that don't involve their per shot effect (stuff like Halo's needler maybe, or Ana's team healing rifle from Overwatch) Ex 2.) Good mid game abilities with poor endgame interaction being given additional effects rather than tweaking their existing effects. (perhaps letting people have true flight with Hildryn's 4 and making the damage of stopping it scale with your distance from the ground, stuff like this) Ex 3.) Poorly functioning abilities being changed entirely to reach outside of a frame's current kit, or synergize with it in a way they don't currently. Keep doing these types of things and players will have more reasons to grab everything they can and put it together in new and interesting ways, which in my opinion is already the core of Warframe's fun.
Part 3
Content like Archon hunts may feel easy to those with the right gear, but it should be accessible to any gear of a similar level of player commitment. If the above two principles are followed, this should come naturally. But if everyone is hitting like a train or tanking armies like it's nothing, how will you participate in the fight when your teammates are outplaying your builds role??The answer, I think is for content to engage teamplay on a player by player basis. Imagine something like this: Instead of an Archon having the complex damage reduction upon receiving lots of damage from your team, they could maintain it constantly for all the players in a team except one. If this rotated periodically or at certain damage thresholds, then everyone would need to contribute a little to achieve their goal, but the mission could still be accomplished solo with your favorite build, just with you doing all the work instead of taking turns. This approach would still let well built players shine by getting their jobs done quickly or effectively, but without ending the content instantly for players who wanted to participate.
Thinking of creative ways to involve each player or each tool like this are going to be paramount to including the diversity of our player's styles as our available toolkit keeps growing, and I'd love to see anyone else's ideas for what could be altered across mid and endgame content to encourage this.
TLDR; Reducing the viable options in abilities, weapons and strategies for winning is stagnating for players. Increasing the options and participation of each player is rewarding and life giving to Warframe.
