Dr.Tursko

....Or someone answered....

CALIBAN MENTIONED RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

THIS IS ALL A CONCEPT POST. FEEL FREE TO BRING UP ISSUES IN THE REPLIES. It is no surprise to anyone that Narmer as a threat is very diminished after New War. Save for the Archon Hunt and Narmer Bounties, there are not even Narmer missions. They do not even have a bane/expel/cleanse/etc. mod for them, while the Murmur received one upon release. With how far into the game you must go to see Narmer, I figured out a potentially better use for them as a faction. Steel Path is unlocked by players who complete every star chart node. Including ones on the Zariman, and now also including Deimos's new nodes. This means that players entering some of the more recent levels of content (such as Cascade and Netracells) do not even have galvanized mods, because Arbitration is locked behind the same requirements. This proposal serves to give two ideas for consideration: 1. Narmer takes over Steel Path My first argument is to replace normal Steel Path enemies with their Narmer equivalent. This removes the boost some sets get from faction mods, increasing difficulty. If higher difficulty is not the goal, then a Narmer set of faction mods could be added to these enemies. As for Infested, Deimos Labs, and Zariman nodes, these could remain the same, since their events take place after The New War, and Narmer has no interest in the Infested. By the point a player gets to Steel Path, they likely have decent gear, and have seen all the threats in the game. They will at least have Nataruk and Broken War, which can perform decently due to Slash damage, so I do not think throwing them against Sentients that come with Narmer would be too far. As DE referred to it prior to launch, Steel Path is supposed to be the 'hard mode' of Warframe, so players who do not enjoy these mechanics, such as using operator to strip resistances, do not need to interact with the nodes for normal completion. Most of all though, it gives a feeling of progression. From my interactions for the past few years following The New War update, most players feel like Narmer has almost no role to exist in the game and does not feel like a threat the Tenno and their allies are pushing back against. By having this 'round 2' of the entire system, partially liberating the nodes from Narmer Control, gives players a purpose for the increased difficulty, as well as explaining why the 'hard mode' exists. It also becomes a new goal for players who reach the end of the current quest line. "What now?" "Now we fight back against Narmer." 2.Lower Steel Path and Arbitration Requirements The easier alternative, and not nearly as interesting in my humble opinion, is to lower the requirements of these 'hard modes'. Either making them available after The War Within (following completion of Kuva Fortress) or Sacrifice will allow players to start reaching a higher level of power they likely have seen from other players' builds. This idea however leaves Narmer trapped to Narmer Bounties and Archon Hunts and does not resolve their issue of being absent in the game Post-New War. This post is really just me spitballing a concept that probably has a great number of errors, but I wanted to give my 2-cents since I love this game so much and have experienced just about everything in it. I have even seen a friend awaken for the first time as a Tenno and go through their journey all the way to finishing Whispers in the Walls. I have gotten to see what sort of questions players have even if they are trying their best to pay attention to the story. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the replies. I look forward to discussing and potentially expanding these 2 concepts.

Ironically, I'm borderline always using the 'mr0' loadout. I love using Braton Vandal, Lex Prime, Skana Prime. Sure they all have incarnons and prime mods on now, but the simplicity and reliability of them to do their job always feels the best for me. Braton for crowds and status, Lex for single target hard-hitting shots, and skana prime because getting those crits with the new arcanes feels so good

Hold up you might be onto something. He could be a mimic of a Warframe, a mimic of an heir to the Sentient throne. He could maybe have all his abilities be 'mimics' of the other sentients best abilities, like you said.

Primed Sure Footed, Nourish over his 1. Molt augmented and Molt Efficiency Growing Power, Rolling Guard, Power Drift, Primed Flow, Stretch, Transient Fortitude, Primed Continuity, Augur Reach, Intensify red archon shards for duration. Experimenting with using a single orange shard to get shields for dealing blast damage (which his 4th ability does)

Styanax can use his Overguard Augment to basically face any level of content. Caliban has to shield-gate and pray.

THIS ENTIRE POST HAS SOME BIAS AS A CALIBAN MAIN. DE's negligence of Caliban as a whole has felt almost on purpose at this point. He released with The New War all the way back in 2021 and has received 0 love since then. Not counting minor bug fixes and tweaks to his abilities, Caliban has become the new punching bag of Warframe. If you bring up Caliban, you're met with 'who's Caliban' and other totally originally statements, which sure, are funny once or twice, but it's also a clear sign something needs to be done for the poor frame. STORY He has an interesting lore concept, being a blueprint by Erra that may or may not have been given to him by Ballas during the Old War. His presence during the Old War opens even more doors for story due to the fact he appears mostly Sentient, rather than a hybrid like Revenant. However, Caliban is instead locked behind Narmer Bounties, something very few people even do, and has no relevance to appearing there. There isn't even a Leverian for him, his prex-card is instead just located randomly in Drifter's Camp. BALANCE AND GAMEPLAY Caliban is notorious for being pretty bad in comparrison to other Warframes. His 1st ability is basically fodder to put a Helminth infusion onto, which is already a bad sign. It also supposedly has a multitude of bugs as well as deals almost no damage, but I do not know how true or prevalent this is because I infused over it. HIs 2nd ability is a crowd control that pushes enemies away and lifts them in the air. Okay, sure, not the most useful but has some utility. But oh wait, it has an enemy cap for some reason. I see no reason an ability that applies the most annoying status (lifted) in the game as well as pushes enemies away in a looter-shooter needs the hinderance of an enemy cap. His 3rd ability summons 3 Conculysts. This gives him high survivability with Shield Gating since they restore his shields, but thats about it. The Conculysts have poor pathing sometimes, and they often get teleported back to Caliban because they go too far to try and attack an enemy. They also are the weakest Sentient (with adaptation) in comparison to the more interesting Sentients that arrived en masse with the New War. Even Battalysts would be better, but alas. His 4th ability is the only arguably 'good' ability. It's an armor/defense stripping ability that can be boosted to 100% armor strip. This is fantastic. The only downside is the massive energy cost, slightly sluggish casting speed, and needing a good bit of range to be efficient. I will say that is has some utility over other armor strips due to it affecting things it probably shouldn't, such as Stalker, Eximus Units with Overguard active, and more. This gives Caliban a slight niche as an armor stripper, due to these unique properties. Should these ever be fixed, he will fall deeper into the pit of irrelativity. His passive is negligible on himself, having relatively low health compared to his shields, but it can be useful for granting mini-adaptation to his allies. Inaros, Nidus, and Kullervo likely love a Caliban on their team. However, nothing a Wisp or Trinity couldn't do better. His signature weapon, Venato, has no unique gimmick aside from having a chance to grant additional combo when wielded by Caliban. The scythes mediocre stats, along with boring bonus, make for a disappointing signature weapon. All of these combine to make the most 'meh' frame in the game, aside from maybe Limbo, but even Limbo can have some use on defensive missions. Everything Caliban does can be done by someone better. TENNOGEN AND POPULARITY Due to all of the above facts, Caliban has an incredibly low play rate. The Warframe usage stats for 2023 show he has a 0.16% playrate. Qorvex, who released only a few weeks before the stats were released, was at 0.13% playrate. This is abysmal, and its the only base warframe Caliban beats that does not have a prime. This means Caliban loses in popularity to Yareli, Kullervo, Protea (soon to be released though), Styanax, Dagath, Citrine, Gyre, Voruna, and Qorvex, all who came after his release. Obviously, due to lack of popularity, there is less of a want for skins or cosmetics for him, both from DE themselves as well as fans. As of this post, Caliban has two tennogen posts, one being a remake of the previous. Miraculously, this item was added, but it is only a helmet, not a skin. (Still a great cosmetic, and I even wear it! Go support the creator LostEpoch!) DEVELOPER IGNORANCE Last Devstream, they mentioned that Dante would be the first male-warframe that floats. This includes his animations while moving and attacking. While the last part is true, Caliban floats in his idle animations, making the statement untrue to a degree. While likely a mistake, it shows the developers overall indifference towards Caliban. The last Devstream also showcased that some newer Warframes would be getting augments. This included Styanax, Citrine, Gyre, and Kullervo, all who released AFTER Caliban, who has not received a single augment since his release. In Devstream 176, when Pablo asked chat to list who they thought was up next for rework, there were about as many 'Caliban' messages as 'Inaros'. As we know, Inaros is getting reworked. I am fine with this, due to Inaros being in-game longer, and being in more need than even Caliban of a rework. I still believe that the amount of people asking about a rework shows the communities general distaste for the frame. CONCLUSION As I stated at the beginning of this post, I know I have a lot of bias since I am a Caliban main. I simply made this post to discuss Caliban and his balance with my fellow players while hopefully avoiding the repeated 'jokes' about his irrelevance. I thank you all for reading and look forward to discussing our favorite useless Sentient Frame.

That would open the oppurtunity for some funny 'grineer' mods. "Bigger Shoot" [ + 75% damage, -10% accuracy ]

For real. I love the Zariman and Entrati labs to death, but I also want to farm prime parts. Please DE, let me feast my eyes upon your labor.

I understand DE wants to not divide the playerbase up unless it absolutely needs to, but I am so bored of the same tilesets for the relics I'm cracking, especially if its Lith and laughably easy. Could we not have Zariman and Entrati Labs both be eligible for void fissures? With their close connection to the Void, it would be the perfect excuse to allow any relic type to be cracked there. It would encourage replayability, as well as providing higher level enemies for void fissures without needing to do an endurance run. Please, DE, I'm begging you. I would farm so much more if I got to be in the Zariman or Entrati Labs. Just no more Earth Tileset, please....

It seems like, with the new trailer just released for Whispers in the Walls, Wally is coming to collect his payment. "Don't. Be. Late." What do you guys think he wants?

Seriously, I always come back to this game and it helped me understand my love for Science Fiction as a genre, as well as horror (shoutout to Wally). So many iconic characters too, love this game.

I swear the fourms are just filled with negative people. Thanks for being a voice of common sense and reason.