CrownOfShadows

Precisely

This Tenno is super hyped. One of my favorite frames. (not hyped at all for Velox and Okina tho, I pumped 5 forma and a great riven into the Velox and it still sucked, I don't think I need to say anything about the state of dual daggers) I've been loving my Erosion Anchor build in particular, especially in the Circuit where missions are more conducive to that style, but she's a great frame with a regular build too. Farming her is probably the biggest memory I have with her, omg, so painful, and I was doing it when groups were everywhere on release, I can't imagine the pain new players go through farming her. Granum Void PTSD - took me way longer than I care to admit to figure out how to use the Xoris properly. I also have a lot of memories of running her in the Tyl Regor sortie assassinate mission for some reason - I always took her because her turrets will shoot the invisible guys that spawn. She's probably in my top 5 frame list, but the competition is tough these days, we have a lot of great frames. I don't know if I'll have the heart to one day delete my OG Protea, I'll probably hold onto her forever just like I have my OG Baruuk, but the prime will be awesome.

I guess I should ask about Styanax specters now too

Well as far favorites go - not what's most effective necessarily but just the ones I love actually using the most: Angstrum - feels incredible to shoot, too easy to charge, does decent work too. Such a success of an incarnon - can I even remember the Angstrum before? Oh man. Burston - feels so solid. The mag is huge and that feels great. It chews through everything too. Finally a machine gun that actually kills things - too bad it's technically a rifle like the phenmor lmao. Jokes aside, it's an amazing incarnon, it feels so wonderful to use, it feels.... reliable, comfortable. I love it. And that's it for me. There are a lot that are really close - many are held back by their incarnon mag size or charging mechanics. I want to love the Miter - it's so close, but it just doesn't feel good to use because it sucks to charge. I want to love the Dual Toxocyst, but it just hurts to charge it so much that it ends up feeling clunky despite being powerful. The incarnon program is absolutely one of the best things to happen to warframe. I really hope we get another solid round of them, and I hope they make a QoL pass on some of the ones we have already, because so many of them just need a simple tweak to become excellent.

I don't know that this is practical to solo - I tried it a couple times and couldn't pull it off but I haven't tried recently since learning what works. In a group, you basically need one good defense frame and at least one person on voidrig - that provides enough protection and enough dps. Two people on voidrig is even better. Two defense frames and two voidrigs is even better. Specters also help quite a bit to draw aggro if you have gear access. Limbo is actually god king here if you can safely bring him: voidrigs can use their 4th through the rift (and even if they couldn't he would still be great) - this is how to take zero damage on the objective. A well built Nekros is also a god king here: his shadows draw all the aggro and he is the second best defense in the game after Limbo imo. I've had intermittent success with other things like a lull build on Baruuk, and a chaos build with Nyx is of course a great defensive tool that I would place just below Nekros as far as effectiveness. Khora is ok but very reliant on statsticks for dps to clear the nets - and everyone else struggles to clear them for her. Frost isn't great - his bubble doesn't scale that high - his 4th is actually more useful here. Hydroid is ok but I find a lot of damage tends to get through his defense. Zephyr is good with enough range. Gara didn't seem to be as effective as I thought she would be: that DR helps for sure but you have got to have dps to back it up and she just takes forever to scale high enough to be relevant there - I'd add her as a secondary defense not as a primary. Anyone running silence is a blessing. Gloom is also handy ofc. Basically bring whatever you use to solo SP Circuit defense and add a voidrig. If no players brought any defense frames my best advice would be to drop a bunch of specters and jump into your voidrig and suggest to the others to do the same. With 3-4 voidrigs you can kill them all before they get in range to do damage (mostly) and the specters should catch what slips through.

I guess this depends on how much you believe DE reads. If you think they only skim headlines, then yes. If you think they dig deeper, maybe it's fine. I kinda doubt they ever make it past page 1 personally, purely for the sake of their time (and I think they basically never look at certain subforums, but this isn't one of those) - which is kinda too bad because in cases like this one some discussion results in a really refined idea that they'll probably never see. Also, people on the forums too often react to the OP and not anything said afterwards simply because many of them don't read either, they just see the title, post their thoughts immediately and move on, so if you want more pure reactions to the basic idea then a new topic is the way to go. * completely agree about Nidus - everyone built him for umbra, likely 2 or 3 deep, and the new augment basically demands they go get a new Nidus in order to play with it

Yeah overguard's awkward inclusion into our gameplay is a big mystery to me. I'm mostly just like.... why? I don't hate it on some frames, like Kullervo and Dante kinda are designed for it and would be terrible without it, but the sharing has got to stop or be nerfed super hard, it's dumb. I don't even hate it as a possible arsenal-wide mechanic but if you're gonna do that you gotta actually plan for it, not just slap it on whoever you feel like and then hyper share it afterwards. It's so wonky that in one game you can have 60k OG as Banshee or Nyx or something just because you exist in the holy presence of Styanax, Dante or Frost, and then any other time you're back to your regular programming. Like wtf is this mechanic. What's the dream/plan behind it exactly and why is it in this state?

So the Circuit at this point is probably set in stone and not going to change anymore, seeing as we finally have progress saving. That's fine, we're moving on to bigger and better things. HOWEVER, due to lack of end-game content in general (EDA & Netracells are fine, but I knock those out on Monday usually, unless I'm busy) - I still end up in the Circuit a fair amount - I just have nothing much else to do. So anyways, I have one last ask for the Circuit. It's a bit of a big one depending on baked lighting and the like, but I would really appreciate it if the mood cycles in Duviri would be reflected in the Circuit too, purely to help keep it feeling fresh and active. When it's Anger, I want the Circuit sky to be drenched in Orange and Red, when it's envy I want the greenish yellow eyes of doom, when it's Joy I want that beautiful, beautiful dream sky overheard. I even wouldn't mind some occasional VO from those moods to filter down, as if we're hearing it from deep underground, like it's far overhead, muted, echoed. I don't mind returning to play the Lone Story purely because of the moods and the skies. (Yes, I know, the undercroft is basically meant to be a dungeon and it has it's own dedicated sky, but still, just purely for the sake of enjoyment, some colors coming in through the bars of the windows y'know)

I agree, it's a great mode so far. I liked the Circuit and this just feels like a complete upgrade from it, more grounded, less arduous overall, back in the 'real' warframe world. Finally hard content that doesn't turn off our abilities or overly abuse attenuation or invulnerability. This is the kind of good difficulty that makes you think about what your build and what you bring. We'll see how it sits with me a month from now but right now I'm loving it.

I find myself in a weird position where I am loving EDA and yet also agree with many of the points of the OP. RNG is not difficulty: I actually agree with this. Does it make things harder? Yes. Is it difficulty? Not really - it's a gear check. Modifiers: I actually would go a step further than the OP and say that modifiers aren't technically difficulty either, for the same reason handicapping yourself isn't difficulty. It's artificial difficulty. It's pretend difficulty - you actually don't encounter this stuff "in the wild" as it were. It's interesting to compare this to Nightmare missions though. Gear: not all gear being serviceable. True, but we're getting there. Another strong round of incarnons and we'll be on the home stretch of having every piece of gear in the game being end-game viable which is actually nuts. Can't wait. For now, the gaps are low enough that RNG usually provides something that will work. Rewards: disagree with OP here - these rewards are fantastic. I really still need a TON of melee adapters so I'm still very happy to get them. I don't want to grind 50k standing for one. Eventually I may not need any more of them, but that's a long ways off and the same can be said for archon shards. Difficulty definition: I agree with this general sentiment where difficulty should be using all gear freely to it's maximum potential, but I disagree with 60 eyes being the gold standard because it still shuts off warframe abilities and uses heavy attenuation. The mechanics of that fight are strong - I like the fight itself. If we could use abilities and the attenuation wasn't such a chore it would be a truly fantastic fight. The ideal end-game content for me would be free use of any and all gear against content that doesn't use invulnerability phases, attenuation, or shut off warframe abilities. All that said. I love EDA so far. I love the randomization, it keeps things fresh. I kinda wish you couldn't take any frame you wanted because there is already a bad trend starting where people are trying to abuse the Revenant crutch - but that's more a Revenant problem than a problem with the mode. I don't mind the modifiers too much, they make me think at least and sometimes adjust my builds. I liked the Circuit, and this just feels like a total upgrade from it, more grounded, back in the 'real' warframe world, less crazy, less artificial feeling, and much more team reliant too, which is a plus I think. The great thing about EDA is that it is avoiding all the big pitfalls of the past. You can use everything basically, abilities aren't shut off, and it's still hard. Great job! We got there at last! That's basically the holy grail of warframe up until now, we didn't think we'd ever see the day. Right now EDA is the best content in the game available to me. I hope they keep pushing in this direction, BUT I do also wish they explored "real" difficulty too, because I think that is the superior end-game in theory (although this gets into deep problems with DR stacking and damage multipliers and invisibility). For now, it's a win, and I'll take it.

So the answer to this is probably no, because it sounds like a deep programming task. BUT it would be really nice if this (and any future modes that string missions together in a similar way) worked like the undercroft where things carried across, specifically stuff like arcanes. It kinda sucks to have all the arcane stacks reset to zero each mission - Molt Augmented, Arcane Blessing - that stuff takes a while to build up. Depending on your setup, this can apply to melee combo too (some stuff takes a looooong time to get up to 12x, like WHIPS omgaaaaaawd - true pain right there).

Seems fine to me

I'm actually really enjoying EDA. However, all 3 of these points are solid. I'd only do a soft contest on #2 - because the Circuit already got us started on getting our arsenals in order. Another strong round of incarnons and we'll be in great shape.

I had a pretty good time this rotation, it got harder and I'm liking it. The randomization is good, I like all the combos and things to think about, although sadly I don't even have to change any of my builds much - although I am expanding more and more weapons with anti-murmur builds these days. I failed 3 times, once on the boss (my first run) and twice on defense (because I went pubs all 3 times and the groups I got on these runs had zero defense-oriented frames. I knew in my heart I should've bailed on them as soon as I got a look at what they were bringing but I stuck with it. (My third run consisted of an Ivara, a Revenant and a Chroma.... yeah, that went well 🙄. I was Hydroid. I managed to keep the defense target alive for most of the first round before it died). On my 4th run I got a great group. I knew it as soon as I saw what they'd brought. I was a little worried for our Mesa, but they never once got downed, in fact, I was the only person to go down, once during alchemy because I wasn't paying attention to my ability timers (I was Zephyr). With at least one good defense frame and one or two necramechs going the target won't be taking hardly any damage. At one point at the end 3 of us were on necramechs. It's amazing how much of a difference a good group can make. The first try was a struggle, the 2nd and 3rd were downright painful, and the 4th was a total breeze. Makes me wish I had friends to play with.

I think Retribution is one of the better exilus mods, but extremely niche; I ran it on my Gyre for a while. I don't think it should proc off gunfire though (I think that's what you're suggesting?) as that would be op - all the enemies would be electrocuted whenever they shoot at you i.e. all the time. I mean, yes, stuff like wisp motes, Volt, Gyre and Diriga kinda do this, but idk feels way too strong for an exilus mod. Honestly, I think we need 2 exilus mod slots. One for PSF, and one for actual exilus mods that never see the light of day. Or better yet just convert all the "true" mobility mods to new type of polarity like a mobility polarity, add a slot for that, and then the original exilus can be for all the "false" exilus mods like PSF, Preparation, Coaction Drift, Master Thief, < cough all augments could be made exilus to compete in this slot cough >, etc. Then, one day, we could delete PSF, give it by default to all frames or as a helminth option, and then the exilus slot would truly be competitive instead of being 90%-99% used for PSF.

Not sure - kinda hard to verify, maybe it was a bug. Can check again on the next round maybe. I only know that I did one run which unlocked elite, then with elite active I did another which was the same difficulty, and then everything after that jumped up to what it should be. I remember thinking 'this is elite? it feels the same', and I jumped in to run another one just to test some stuff and I was like 'whoa what happened? This is different'. No worries on the Revenant thread, sorry if I was grouchy. I thankfully haven't seen any Revenant spam on these yet - we'll see how it develops. Once people realize they can take any frame they want we'll probably start seeing way more.

Yeah being able to safely short yourself one handicap is definitely a lifesaver. Those liminus were serious jerks on my solo run, never had energy and they followed me everywhere.

I don't especially get the impression that DE has the mindset that they are trying to balance warframes against each other - which is what this pivot theory shines in. Rather I think they are just trying to balance warframes against content. I understand why this might be the rationale: it falls into the "It's a PvE game" argument that many on these forums make - where only how the frame interacts with enemies needs to be considered. However, it's not just a PvE game it's a co-op game, and I think this is what causes a lot of problems because players have to compare what their frames/weapons are doing to what other's are doing - this just happens naturally by playing together. Comparing Nyx to Saryn just feels bad - because Nyx isn't balanced against Saryn. I'm not saying DE never considers how frames relate to each other, but I do think this is an extremely low priority for them, otherwise they'd be constantly keeping the warframe roster up to date, making sure all warframes can compete around the same level. Now there are other factors in play too: dev time, other focus, new content, etc, which also makes keeping everything balanced difficult, but I still think that they tend to view frames in a vacuum rather than how they work together.

Visual feedback is good. Disruption definitely needs it. I'm not actually arguing that, in fact I support it. I just want to tweak it to be more true to the previous way it was played. We can put visual feedback in that helps the player 'hear' it on screen without actually showing them right where it is.

Whoa chill out dude. I'm just sharing how I viewed those options if they were presented to me. If I try really hard I could probably put together a selection for myself that would suck to the point of being unusable, there's still a lot of arsenal junk or things that I just never really got into. It's just that they almost never all occur together in a randomizer.

While I don't hate this idea and could possibly get behind it - better than nothing I suppose - I think that on a more meta note whatever the designers feel the most engaging experience is should be the default, and provide an option for players that need visual support. So basically just the inverse. However, I'll note once again that even better than either of these would be to just include visual feedback by default but make it so that it doesn't trivialize the mode.

I'm confused. Do you want less power or more power or free power?

I agree I think this is overall a win. I see it having a fair amount of staying power - it feels like a more robust weekly than archon hunts. I have very few gripes about it so far, just a few little things that might need tweaks. It's not the end game content I was dreaming of, but it will keep me busy and engaged for a while and I guess that's all a Tenno can hope for.

Ok I do have one solid non-meta complaint about archimedea. Either something is wrong with Alchemy or you guys tuned it to take 5 years longer than it should be. OMG. I grinned and beared it the first time. But by my 4th run I facepalming and was like WHY just why do these crucibles need 5000 vials to fill up? - also I'm sure you're aware but the color of the liquid in the crucibles doesn't update on the second one. The UI is correct, the physical model is incorrect (seems always match the first crucible)

Unlike netracells, I do highly suggest groups. It's extremely hard solo if you take all the handicaps and get mediocre equipment. You can drop specters but their timer seems to be massively truncated. The energy and shield handicaps are brutal. It basically kills all shield-gating frames, pillage, condemn, etc. So many frames need energy to basically stay alive too. And without an operator escape you really have to figure how to do that. Energy Nexus came in clutch for me a few times as it's independent of everything else going on like energy orb drops. If you don't take the handicaps solo is much more feasible, but doing the disruption solo requires that you can take down the necramechs fast which is definitely a hard gear check.