Ace-Bounty-Hunter

I wouldn't even bother building the Vulcax for damage because its performance is extremely poor. The only reason anyone uses it is because it's one of only two Sentinel weapons (the other being the Vulklok) that can go over 50% crit without a Riven. They're essentially just stat sticks for Tenacious Bond builds.

You can build it for damage, sure. But I find it pales significantly in comparison to Verglas in that regard. Especially if you're using an energy hungry frame with Duplex Bond equipped. Having three immortal Sentinels flying around and zapping your enemies is pretty dang satisfying. As for the priming aspect, I admittedly got lucky with a Helstrum riven that had fire rate and projectile flight speed on it. So it does a pretty decent job of stacking viral on lots of enemies and helping to generate lots of health orbs with Synth Deconstruct that synergizes perfectly with Equilibrium. At the end of the day though, Helstrum and Verglas are the only worthwhile options in an arsenal of mediocrity. I just hope DE decides to bring the rest of the weapons up instead of nerfing the only good ones.

Nightmare missions are an archaic feature of Warframe added to the game way before things like power creep and Steel Path were a concept. Outside of getting certain mods, they don't really have a place in the game anymore. Much like the old alerts system and acolyte event, they really should be retired and have their rewards added to more current content.

They didn't nerf Gauss after his prime was released. I know DE have a bad rep with overdoing the nerfs, but let's not blow things out of proportion.

I always make it a habit to try out the newest frame and see if I can make a build that is viable for Steel Path endurance missions. If they perform well and are fun to play I'll usually add them to my roster that find frequent use. Gauss was one of my most used Warframes until he was forever retired after his Prime version was released. Kullervo and Dante are the more recent frames I now use on a regular basis. I tend to only stop using a normal variant of a frame around 3 to 6 months before their prime version is released. That way they can feel somewhat fresh if I haven't played them in a while.

I've never been much of a fan of Protea, honestly. She feels underwhelming compared to frames like Gauss, Kullervo and Dante both from a Damage and Survivability perspective. I'm gonna get her and the new weapons to add to my collection. But for the most part she's just mastery fodder.

You do know there are modifiers that disable Gear and your Operator, right? There'll be a week where both options are available. I guarantee it.

Verglas is the only viable option if you want your Sentinel to do any meaningful damage. Helstrum instead if you'd prefer it to be a primer. All the other weapons need some serious buffs.

One flex slot is hardly enough to if RNGesus has been particularly unkind.

And you think using flat out unviable weapons and frames in a mode they were clearly not designed for is fun? Try using a Grakata against a level 400+ Steel Path Voidrig with the Gear Embargo and Ammo Deficit modifiers and we'll see if you're still singing the same tune.

So you just listed off a bunch of stuff from Helldivers. How about you just play that game instead of trying to turn Warframe into something else.

Yeah. I'm fully aware that the mode is encouraged to be done in a full squad. But unfortunately I don't have any friends that play Warframe, nor do I particularly enjoy squadding with randoms for anything that requires any kind of coordination. I treat the game as a mostly single player venture so I can play the game however I want without fear of bad latency, host migrations or a party member wanting to extract only 5 minutes into an endless mission. I'll express my right to complain about this new mode from the perspective of a solo player, but I'm not expecting DE to make any real overhauls to the system to accomodate me. (Though some modifiers could do with a bit of tweaking) I'd be more upset if I didn't have Netracells as an alternative.

Being pigeonholed into using whatever RNG loadouts the game gives you isn't my idea of a challenge. It's nothing but pure frustration and actively hostile against the player. Don't believe me? Try using a Grakata against a level 400+ Steel Path Voidrig with the Ammo Deficit and Gear Embargo modifiers. It's a cruel joke. You're quick to mock me, but I don't see you coming up with any solutions, genius! I could probably beat the missions solo with enough trial and error, but at the end of the day I play games for entertainment. Beating my head against a brick wall repeatedly just for a few extra rewards is not my idea of a good time. It's not fun to basically have the game dictate what you're allowed to bring into the mission while simultaneously trolling you with some god awful modifiers which I swear were not tested or properly thought out before being implemented.

More like you can solo it, but are the three extra rewards worth the anger and the frustration? I did manage to do solo Elite Archimedea during its release. Though admittedly I got super lucky with the mission types, loadout options and personal modifiers. I realised soon after that this mode wasn't for me because the reliance on RNG and the list of modifiers are, to put it simply, not fun in the slightest. You don't add challenge to a game by severely handicapping the player.

Oh wow. I already thought Mirror Defense was a poor fit for Deep Archimedea because it's the only mission type out of the available options with a failure state. But knowing one of the affixes which are immune to damage and CC can instantly fail the mission is utterly laughable. I know now any week with Mirror Defense as an option are a complete write-off.