[Would you use Topaz Archon Shards if...]

On 2024-06-11 at 4:37 PM, quxier said:

Xaku have more guns with 2nd.
In general I use little bit of range (e.g. Stretch and/or other 30% range mod).
Or with infusing helminth groupind abilities to make up their nerf (e.g. Nidus').
It wouldn't matter. Who goes aimglide? Only people that care about it.
You can use frame without augments. My point is that by using certain abilities you feel something is missing. Like old Grendel/Pulverize. It was harder to move (slower acceleration) so you needed augment for "dash" (Catapult).
Or like with new augment for Dagath. Her 3rd function like free life after death. You go to "special state", get guratanteed hp after kill, go back and have this ability on cooldown. If you don't die you have basically passive. Augment will let you enter that state aka use the ability.
I may be wrong but they like augments, however bad they are, for us to use AND waste slots. There are augments that could be merged but we get some changes most of the cases.
Rolling gives you 75% damage reduction.
It may be "me problem" but I believe rolls should be fast & quick to execute. Bullet jump are meant for long travel. Rolls on other hand should change your position only a little and return to normal state so you can continue shooting, normally. Having longer rolls or rolls that needs more complex actions (your double tap, cancel OR in game, while melee block + roll giving you shorter roll) is imho wrong approach.
ps. it reminds me of beginning of '100 days of warframe animation'. Excal was like this.
I don't think you can have them.
"Defining" power creep that way, I guess I agree with you.

Xaku, I can see that. Interesting DR, extra movement speed, lots of damage, and subsequent DR from void bubbles. As a Mag-main I can get behind Xaku's concept of bubbles and guns.

Agreed on the aim glide; I love it but I rarely see people talk about it. Probably because if people want aerial mobility they just bring Titania. My one-frame game pushes me to use discount versions of mechanics that have entire frames dedicated to it. (Not that I'm complaining, I enjoy exploring those niches)

Also agree on the augment comments. There's an obvious enthusiasm from DE about augments that you can see in their livestreams, and it's kind of humorous to me because it's clear that most of the community would prefer a rework over giving up Mod space. I think Augments make sense when they have pros and cons like Mag's "Magnetized Discharge" augment; I like the range/disarm, but I sometimes avoid it if I want to cast bubbles through bubbles (or bubbles on bubbles to maintain a defensive zone). But Augments do not make sense when they're just straight upgrades like Mag's "Fracturing Crush" augment; that increases casting speed and strips armor... when would someone not want that?

Rolling's DR is pretty nice. I meant though that the button itself doesn't do anything when you're mid-roll, so I think it's fine to add a roll-cancel feature to it. But to your point, long rolls don't serve much of a purpose when we have bullet jumping available. And actually bullet jumping can be cancelled with a double jump! So yeah, I think rolling could use some development attention.

I loved 100 Days of Warframe! My sense of humor is very much into the applying real life common sense to fantasy situations. Like just how many babies must Corpus be producing to keep up with even one player account? (Let alone tens of thousands of Tenno) There are likely days where 10-million Corpus die, but their operations aren't affected at all. Meanwhile here in reality, one pandemic cost us less than that and it very nearly crippled global society. So then I start going down this rabbit hole of speculating how a civilization spread throughout the solar system might be able to produce 10-million soldiers on a daily basis while also producing logistics, domestics, leadership, and civil service... anyway yes, I love that animation.

On 2024-06-12 at 12:53 AM, Gaxxian said:

I'm just using 2 of those into my Yareli, and i don't see any other use for them. Maybe with some of those proposals they would be more interesting... but right now i see them as being pretty much useless. Even just changing them from +CC to +CD would help a lot.

The funniest thing is that those Topaz Archons are specially expensive given how the shards drops are weighted to make the red ones more rare.

 

"The funniest thing" in a creepy sad-clown-face kind of way. Like: "They're useless! But the funny part is how expensive they are despite that! HAHAHaHahaha_haha..." *starts sobbing*

I'm also still a little miffed but the major nerf to the one useful perk the Topaz had. (The alternate way to shield gate) I'm 99% positive it actually was an intended mechanic until they saw how useful it could be and decided to kill it. There's no way the entire development team forgot to check if a shield generating feature had any relationship to shield gating. And they didn't have to nerf it as bad as they did. They could have at least made it something like "only applies to melee weapons" so that way you still have to be up close and personal with enemies and ranged attacks can take you out if you can't get close enough in time.

15 hours ago, KVenom said:

IF THOSE APPEAR FOR ANY SHARDS - YES!

Including Yellow.

But hey, they are still usefull. As source of Orange/Green Shards and Natural talent replacements.

I have a few Yellow installs for adding parkour velocity to my spy/Maroo builds. You know that Corpus Spy Vault that has the multi-story glass box in the center of an even larger room? You go in from the top and then dodge the lasers as you drop down one level at a time. Well anyway, with some TF Amber Shards, you can bullet jump upward and get to the top of the glass box in a single leap, which allows me to make it past all the security cameras and personnel during the invisibility duration of the Untraceable mod.

Very specific use case, but a use case nonetheless! Generally though I like having one frame dedicated to crazy far bullet jumps just so I can have some loadouts ready for missions like those where speed is more important than survival or combat.

[Suggestion]

Even if they just had a "Lure Specter" that could be deployed to give you that one extra lure it would be helpful. Especially if that lure started off fully charged without any need for Vomvalysts.

In terms of what it did in other missions... maybe it could just have an incredibly high aggro priority and very high HP that scaled with enemy level.

[Would you use Topaz Archon Shards if...]

On 2024-06-08 at 6:10 PM, quxier said:

Well, I rarely use huge Range so I'm not sure how effective it's in DPS or something. So I don't want to waste anyones time talking with me.

Interesting! I LOVE me some Range! Which frames do you usually use?

On 2024-06-08 at 6:10 PM, quxier said:

First, while we get more power from other sources (arcanes, shards, grimoire/noctua etc) we get more and more powerful foes and more 'harder' content. When they have changed armor, we get Steel path (+ some gun arcanes some later). It was, however, addition. I have avoided SP for long time, trying some mission from time to time (I was solo at that time, that matters a lot). It was fine. Content were geared towards normal levels. Nowadays lots of stuff are geared towards SP+ level (SP circuit, E/DA, Netracells). It's no longer addition but more like necessity. Someone may said "it's optional". Great, so what I can do with normal content? Circuit - frames I already have. Netracells/EDA? Nope, go get base arcanes?

That's true, there's kind of a wasteland forming between the Early Game and the End Game. I do love the cinematic quests, but those take so much effort on DE's behalf to create.

On 2024-06-08 at 6:10 PM, quxier said:

Secondly, it's not only about limits (how big your stuff is). It's about how builds "forces" you into schemas that you don't have a lot of free way to change... as well.  Some time ago it was basically checkboxes for energy, hp, ammo and few other stuffs. If you were not found of certain stuff or you have other (e.g. I like my Carrier so I cannot use Dethcube energy generator) then you had very few options for some stuff.

I've noticed this with EDA especially. There's no build freedom; it feels more like there's a single correct answer to solve the problem rather than it being open ended. I have to dedicate a lot of space to survivability strategies that do not rely on abilities, which in turn means I need to mod my weapons to achieve a reasonable KPM without having the benefit of abilities. No abilities and no freedom in weapon choice really kills the fun for me; it was nice to figure it out once as a puzzle of sorts, but when every week it's just the same puzzle with the same basic solution.

On 2024-06-08 at 6:10 PM, quxier said:

Thirdly, there are stuff that requires few things. For example to get more aimglide I need 2 mods: aim glide duration and negative gravity.

I feel you on this one. I've found a lot of uses for a long zero gravity aim glide, but the dual mod cost is always felt. I wouldn't mind if the Aura mod that gave us +6 seconds glide duration also gave us zero gravity (in place of the -24% damage while airborne); although it's an aura slot so that would mean -400% glide on a full squad... maybe instead put +6 seconds onto the Aero Vantage mod...

On 2024-06-08 at 6:10 PM, quxier said:

Fourthly, there are frames that have not great abilities that "requires" augment mods. You push limits (1 - 2 more slots) but you are forgetting that abilities basically push limits DOWN.

ALSO feel you on this one. While I love Mag's abilities, her Augments are too useful to pass up in most builds. But at least Mag can get by without them if needed (I don't have any in my EDA builds). Other frames though are not as fortunate.

That's actually what prompted one of my other threads I think. I'd love for there to be an individual "Frame Campaign" mode that upon completing it you get to turn your augments into toggle-widgets instead that don't cost Mod space. And thereafter any new Augments becomes a toggle for you as soon as you obtain the Mod for it from a syndicate or wherever.

On 2024-06-08 at 6:10 PM, quxier said:

Lastly, you mentioned "mobility mods" (I would add other sources). Those are not in great state, imho. Like mentioned aimglide requires 2 mods. There is no short roll mods (there were!). We have bullet mods + damage/status are those strong enough to kill SP mobs (those weaker one at least)? OR at least have some good usage? And why it doesn't affect rolls (no elemental damage on rolls) but lost of things affect roll length (bigger)? You get 1 or more jump(s)... so what? It's nice and all but it doesn't change other gear. For example more jumps has 0 EFFECTS ON EXODIA CONTAGION. What about slides? Does it even matter for non Nezha/Mirage player? Why there is no Primed rush or other mod that give you like 45-60% sprint speed. Or arcane double back that requires you to do 3 different manouvers within 4 seconds to get full buff...

Actually for rolling, wouldn't it be great if they let you just cancel the roll midway through? Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the roll button isn't serving any purpose when you're in the roll animation itself, right? I'd love if a roll could be double-tapped to make short roll. Because ya Parkour Velocity really makes rolling insane at a certain point. It's like a superhero origin story where the main character is still getting used to their increased strength and speed.

It'd also be nice to have Exodia Contagion build with more mid-air jumps. I'd love to see the kind of numbers with Duviri Decrees. (Although actually I've never seen Zaws available in Duviri...)

I can see what you're saying though. The shards feel more needed as more content gets added. One could say that's just a Band-Aid solution to underlying problems, but that's sort of what power creep is; just a bunch of small changes and then little fixes to keep things sane enough. And shards do help with that.

 

1 hour ago, Famecans said:

off: Green corrosive tauforged is a waste.
the modifier that increases corrosive damage is not increased by green tauforged that increase corrosive ticks so no one needs to exceed 4 bonus ticks.

Adding on to this: I've confirmed in testing that using the Green Corrosive stack boost against Necramechs does nothing useful. Damage Attenuation prevents higher DPS anyway, but there's also a bug (if it's not intentional) where the Necramech won't lose more than 4-stacks worth of armor from Corrosive even if the UI shows 14 or more stacks near its health bar.

The +10 or more stacks do strip Acolyte armor fully, but there are plenty of other options for those guys.

[Universal Vacuum, and a New Passive for Mag]

On 2023-02-23 at 12:13 PM, Probably_Asleep said:

Featured Passive Replacement for Mag:
Dirac String
Mag gets a boost to all stats based on the distance from where she last touched the ground. Every meter adds 1% to all stats.

A Dirac String is a concept proposed by a physicist by that name. It's an idea that allows for the existence of magnetic monopoles through separation of the end points. It's also a big question in physics because monopoles should exist but we can't find them. Well let's just say Mag has a little more insight on magnetism than the scientists of our day.

In practical application, this would register the point where you've last touched the ground, and upon leaving the ground (mostly via jumping) you build up a boost based on your distance from that anchor point. All stats would be boosted from HP, Shields, Armor, to Ability Stats; the only ones that wouldn't get boosted would be mid-air jump count and aim-glide duration. There are already natural limitations to this, so it wouldn't need a built-in limitation. For example, to get +100% boost, you'd need to travel 100m from your anchor point. That's not impossible, but it would require some effort, environment, and preparation.

The boost reset when you touch the ground, but not the walls, so if you're really good at parkour then it might be possible to create a massive boost to your stats. I'd love to see the extremes that skilled players take this to.

[DE: Reload speed and magazine size should be exilus mods. They do not "increase dps" in any relevant manner. See arguments below.]

10 hours ago, Tiltskillet said:

Nope. 

_{( ⬆️That's me going for brief. :P )}

Haha! Your efficiency is unbeatable!

[Would you use Topaz Archon Shards if...]

10 hours ago, KitMeHarder said:

Which does happen. Most modern defense/interception maps and Circuit maps often have three or more layers to them. There's also the Entrati Santum, which often has two or more. The new Ascension mode is coming and bringing more verticality to WF than ever.

Haha! Fair enough. I was sort of joking about the bees/rats/moles attack, but it's true there are some multi-level environments.

10 hours ago, KitMeHarder said:

Do you consider your efficiency shards S-tier? We already reach the cap without them, if so. What's the difference?

I wouldn't necessarily put either of them in S-Tier. I think their value depends on the frame and the mission. Even 175% efficiency is useless in most EDA levels that restrict power usage entirely or drain energy constantly, and Range isn't often included in Rhino builds. (I don't actually know much about other frames, so I did some digging through Overframe) I know with my Mag I would love them, but I'd only need one +15% efficiency while I would probably want multiple range boosts if I could get them.

10 hours ago, KitMeHarder said:

• I disagree. I'd much rather just buff the non-nuke abilities' base range if they really need it instead of adding an arbitrary cap per ability.
• And who's to say what's a nuke ability and what's not?
  • I.E. in DE's mind Tragedy's mere 6,500 damage is a nuke even if enemies don't have statuses on them, thus the nerf.
  • Abilities like Null Star weren't nukes until they got augments.
  • Rhino Stomp isn't a nuke at level 100, but it is at level 25.
  • While it can scale, basically no one complains about Thermal Sunder nuking high level enemies, only the level 25-50 enemies in fissures.
    • TS is also an armor strip. If you cap it because of it's nuke nature, you just wrongfully screw over the people using it as a utility ability.
  • Etc...
• And with your Magnetize example of 48m... CC abilities can be just as bad or worse than nuke abilities. Enemies immobilized 3 tiles away with no way to kill them is worse than nuking them. As if your bubble is 48m, that means its pull radius is a monstrous 96m.
• Your 40m cap example would already nerf quite a few abilities currently in the game just at 280% range. 
  • You went from massively buffing everything in the game in my mind, to now nerfing multiple present day abilities.

This is one of my most loved features of the forum, because I genuinely think it's a perfect system and it really excites me to see contradictory points of view.

So for starters, I'd say all abilities that deal damage should be capped to something (I said 40m but that's negotiable). Abilities that deal zero damage like Golden Instinct, Roar, and so on would not have a range cap.

I do agree that CC abilities could be used to troll the rest of the squad. I'm in the camp of letting players settle things among themselves at first. Usually any nerf to an ability because a few are using it to troll results in the majority of friendly players suffering from the nerf. But I won't deny that some things could get abused and if it becomes widespread there should be measures taken.

As I see it, the primary complaint against high-range abilities applies only to the abilities that start with high base ranges. Mag's Magnetize has a base range of 5, so multiplying that by 3 is only going to get it to 15. But her Crush is 18, so that would go up to 54. So to cap all range percentage would be punishing Magnetize much more than Crush. But to cap total effect range instead will punish only Crush (because Magnetize is probably never going to get to the effect cap). To me it makes sense that the "punishment" (nerf) should be placed on the abilities that cause complaint, and the low-range abilities should be left out of it.

To reach an effect cap of 40m for Magnetize, you'd need +700% Range, which is probably never going to happen; so if you're building around Magnetize then you'd be free to pile as much Range boost as you want. But to reach 40m on Crush you'd only need +60% Range; so if you wanted to build around Crush then you'd put 60% into Range and then use the rest of your Mod space for whatever else. It's a similar decision to Efficiency. You could put more than +75% on, but you just don't because you know it's a waste of Mod space.

10 hours ago, KitMeHarder said:

Effectively there isn't, as enemies can only spawn so far from you in most cases. And like was said above, while range may not "race to zero", it also doesn't linearly "race to infinity" like duration and strength does, it races exponentially.

That's a good point, but I do have one counter to this. If theoretically you were in a squad playing on separate ends of the map, then something like a 500m Nuke ability would nuke their room as well. To your point though that wouldn't apply in solo runs. But generally I think there's a clear mathematical difference between continuously adding to Efficiency vs Range.

[Would you use Topaz Archon Shards if...]

8 hours ago, KitMeHarder said:

_Fantasy
Before we start and to put it out there, I am a very large proponent for "power fantasy" and the Demigod-like power we embody.... But there are limits for various reasons.

First, some clarifications.

• _Temporary
  I said "permanent" range increases, so Invigorations don't count towards our true max moddable range stat. They're short lived "crazy fun" that we have little control over, just like fissure buffs. (I am also not a fan of Invigorations in general.)
• _Universality
  Almost no frames go past the 280% cap. We only have Loki, Mag, and Banshee afaik. So personally I'd either buff their base ranges to compensate and/or make some of them exceptions.

Now to answer your question.

• _Community
  People 100% do ceaselessly complain about nuke frames all the time. Personally I think their complaints are bologna 99% of the time, but there is already a non-insignificant portion of the community that complains about the range we already do have.
  • _Probability
    And you may not see players complaining about Invigorations specifically, but that's because you almost never see people with invigorations in mission. Even if you do, it may not be a range invig (and the frame may not already have 280% range).
• _Monotony
  I like our Demigod power fantasy, but there are still limits. IMO the sweet spot for endgame ability nuking feels to be around 50m, and we already have some frames pushing that. If you start to go significantly past this, you begin to suck all of the "interaction" out of the game... for just yourself, let alone other players. The game would start tipping the scale from "easy but interactive" to now being "easy and monotonous". You'd kill enemies so far from you that you might as well just run an auto-clicker, because it's not like you're going to engage with the enemies anyway.
• _Geometry
  Don't forget that range doesn't scale linearly. It has squared scaling for area and cubic scaling for volume.
  • 280->355 isn't just a 26.8% total increase.
  • It's a 60.7% increase in area.
  • And a 103.8% increase in volume.
• _Popularity
  And then there is finally my other point of that it will completely kill shard choice for any frame that already builds for 200%+ range. Those frames will more-or-less be locked into equipping 5 range shards, as that's just how powerful range is.

_Infinity
And I'll ask you this. If range shouldn't be capped at 300%, than what should the cap be? And if there should be no cap, why don't we just get rid of the efficiency cap as well? Should we be able to put 3 mods on our frame and then cast infinitely and without energy? (People like to joke that we have infinite energy now, but it'd be nothing compared to this.)

_Fantasy
I'll start with thanking you for taking the time to go into more detail about this; it's a well thought out analysis.

_Temporary
I'm also not a fan of the way Invigorations work. I didn't read up on it before I got it and installed it, and my imagination vs the reality was SO different. The in-game description reads:
"Allows The Helminth to inject a Warframe with an invigoration. Invigorations temporarily increase a Warframe's capabilities."
And so naturally I thought it would be something like spending some resources to get a few hours boost to some stat. But NOPE! Not even close!

_Universality
Fair and noted!

_Community
First time I've seen someone use the word bologna on this forum. Not sure if that mean's I just haven't been in the right circles, but all the same I'm a fan of word variety.
I did half expect this as the initial answer. While I don't play in a squad because I like play games to escape human interaction, it didn't take much imagination to suppose what would happen in a situation where everyone wants to contribute but one player removes that possibility.

_Probability
That makes sense, a momentary craziness is much more tolerable than a permanent annoyance. We had my sister in law stay with us and my wife was dealing with it ok until her sister started asking if it could be a permanent arrangement because she didn't want to deal with the hassle of apartment shopping. That's when the siblings started fighting like siblings.

_Monotony
Also reasonable. I've heard that Octavia isn't played despite her potential to be permanently invisible and highly scalable solely due to the monotony of the playstyle (ironic considering she's a music frame). Because I only play Mag, the abilities I'm used to require a lot of mental exertion. Choosing when, where, and how to apply abilities is an action puzzle that I find very engaging, but none of her abilities are meant to kill by themselves. I still need to see, shoot, strip, and stockpile while also constantly monitoring all elements of the UI. So it's hard to imagine high range being a problem for my frame, but I was anticipating that wouldn't hold true for every frame.

_Geometry
Believe it or not I did think of that. I even googled nuclear bomb blast radii because I was going to make an illustration. (Then I remembered I'm doing this on my work computer and thought I should probably not go too far down that rabbit hole)
And while I do agree with math, I think circumstances kind of negate this point. The difference between the area of a circle and the volume of a sphere aren't going to matter unless you have a swarm of bees forming an alliance with rats and moles to attack you from all 3 dimensions. An argument could be made that more affected coordinates result in higher CPU draw, but games should be optimized to process on an entity-by-entity basis. Of course I don't know how Warframe is constructed though so I could be completely wrong about that.

_Popularity
I see this as both a good and bad thing. Bad obviously because the existence of an S-Tier anything lowers the value of everything else. But also good because these should be S-Tier items! They're combined Archon Shards! At the very least they should be better than the two shards you had to spend to get it.

_Infinity
On the first question, I think the cap shouldn't be on the percentage, but instead on the effect itself. With Mods, Shards (fantasy TF-Topaz x5), Arcane Helm, Invigoration, and Fissure, Mag should be able to get to 960%, which would make her bubble with a radius of 48m. Obviously a big bubble! But it's still only about as big as other already-existing abilities that can nuke a room. So let's just say that all offensive abilities get capped at a 40m radius. If someone has enough percentage to put them over that, it gets ignored. But for non-offensive abilities like Golden Instinct, it can get as big as you want. That would be my preference. Then the abilities that already start at a high base wouldn't encourage modding much range, but the low-base abilities could be elevated to match the other wide AoE scales.
But now about the efficiency thing. While of course I'd love to 200% Efficiency (or even >200% Efficiency so I get energy back from using abilities), I think 75% is reasonable. Furthermore I'd say it's an apples to oranges comparison with Range. Getting to "infinite casts" would only take 100 efficiency points from Mods, but getting to "infinite range" would be impossible even if DE let us stack as many of the same Mod as we wanted on top of each other. ^{There's a big difference between the race to zero vs the race to infinity. And it would be incomparable in a practical sense as well. Efficiency has an upward curve in its return; 100 to 101 is just a 1% savings, whereas 198 to 199 is 50% savings, and the next percent becomes vertical toward infinity. Range on the other hand is a diminishing return; 100 to 101 increases range by 1%, whereas 200 to 201 increases range by 0.5%, and the only infinite percentage would be the difference between 0 and 1 Range.} (Sorry, the numbers got to me)

[DE: Reload speed and magazine size should be exilus mods. They do not "increase dps" in any relevant manner. See arguments below.]

46 minutes ago, Tiltskillet said:

Holstered reload mods I think are treated differently for two main reasons.  First, they're much weaker than standard reload mods for sustained DPS on the weapon they're slotted on.  The fastest one of these mods can do a complete reload is 5 seconds, which is as long as the most excruciating unmodded reloads.  Slot regular Fast Hands instead, and one of those excruciating conventional reloads is down to 3.8s.  And that's a best case scenario for Tactical Reload:  the comparison will look much worse on weapons with shorter reload times.

This is a strong point, there are definitely advantages and disadvantages spread between the two reloads. A 5 second reload would be terrible, but even a 1 second reload where nothing happens is less damage than something. A Primary/Secondary swap is roughly 0.3 seconds (which might be less than reload times on some weapons), and a Range/Melee swap is instantaneous (which might be irrelevant if an enemy is out of melee range). I do agree it's not always (or often) a 1-to-1 comparison.

52 minutes ago, Tiltskillet said:

I think it's clear DE likes to incentivize switching weapons.

True

53 minutes ago, Tiltskillet said:

I'll also quibble a bit with the word "precedent" you used.  That makes it sound like  holstered reload mods were wrapped into the exilus system later, when in fact these mods were classified as exilus when the system was introduced...i.e., at the same time as Fast Hands etc. weren't classified as exilus.  If that isn't what you meant, than one could just as easily say the fact that conventional reload mods aren't exilus is the precedent, and holstered reload mods shouldn't be either.  (I wouldn't make that argument either.  These mods are related but not the same, and it doesn't bother me that they get treated differently from each other.)

_{(Third draft, just can't shrink this down enough...)}
Okay so I think my basic point is that a precedent is simply a relevant past decision. DE initially said in Update 26 that no-swap-reload is DPS, but swap-reload is Utility. But then Update 32 dropped 0.5-seconds off the swap, increasing Holster-refill DPS. It increased further with the introduction of more powerful secondaries. Those more recent decisions let DPS increase through Exilus mods; a new precedent.

Jade Shadows might reverse this trend by doubling down on the earlier Exilus classification from Update 26, but that's not actually my point. My point is that it is a reversal. We were allowed to increase DPS through Exilus mods, which violated the original principle behind it. DE could either take a reformist or fundamentalist stance on that violation. My vote is that they reform the principle and consider all forms of magazine refill to be utilitarian even if it has some combat benefits.

If I seem curt it's only because I do my best to match my response size. I did like the points you're making and don't at all consider it quibbling.

[Would you use Topaz Archon Shards if...]

36 minutes ago, quxier said:

You are forgetting that every bigger range have some cons:
- Overextended have -60% strength
- Inviboration is only for week, you need either be lucky (certain frame + range buff) or you need 10 invigoration (3-4 weeks) and get range buffs. Realistically that's probably month+
- Fissure buff is only for fissures. It's random. It last for small duration (depending on relic level afair).
You could get such high range but realistically speaking you will go lower. Not everyone build for example may be ok with negative strength of Overextended.
Range shards would potentially raise AVERAGE range level of builds. Is this bad? I have no idea.

The last sentence got an lol out of me. It was like "Ah, but you forget THESE points... which may be irrelevant."

38 minutes ago, quxier said:

I just hate that kind of design. Why bother with 5 X perk number choices where your available choices are much, much lower. They should make it like:
- can put max 2 shards of same perk
- 1 shard give big improvement (that you can clearly see, but not too much)
- 2nd shard would give you something closer to "overpowered" (not too much)
That way you would at least have some variety. Much more than nowadays.
... I think I've made topic about it but I couldn't find it.

While I feel the same way, I'm not dismissing the possibility that this might be the subtle effects of power creep warping our way of thinking.

Rewind the clock back to September 6th, 2022. Mods were they only way we could increase most of these factors. (And some Arcanes, but that's a different discussion) For years people had been begging for some way of getting extra Mod space. "Can we get a separate Mod page for mobility?" "Could we get a system to make custom Amalgam Mods?" "Could we get Riven Mods for Warframes?" We all saw the limits of what we could do, and we all were looking for a way to push past that limit somehow. Even if it was just one extra Mod slot, we'd have been happy.

Then September 7th, 2022 rolls around, and Archon Shards are introduced. Mod-free boosts to Warframe and Weapon stats!? Are you kidding me!? We get to break past the limit finally!? It was a celebration just to see stats that had been impossible for years. The new Archon Shard system effectively gave us that one extra Mod slot.

But today is 1 year, 9 months later, and we're used to it. Now when we talk about upgraded Archon Shards, it only feels like we're talking about making changes to 1/5th of a mod slot. Is this a matter of perspective? Has the power creep warped our appreciation for what was at one time a cherished and impossible gain? I have no idea.

[Any Good Builds For Fighting The Tenno?]

The key to fighting the Tenno is to figure out why they've arrived and misdirect them. If the Tenno's mission is...

• Assassination
  • If your facility is the main headquarters for one of our VIP, then there's a good chance the Tenno aim to assassinate that person.
  • Assign one of the body doubles to fight while the VIP evacuates; try to keep them from taunting the Tenno over comms. Fortunately the Tenno never seem to wonder why they can assassinate the same person repeatedly.
• Capture
  • Ask your crewmates if they have any information vital to the Tenno cause. If so, then the Tenno probably want to interrogate that crewmate.
  • Swap the uniform with another crewmate and have them pretend to be the capture target. The Tenno can't tell us apart.
• Defense
  • Sometimes we uncover useless relics like Warframe cryopods. The Tenno will obsessively try to defend those objects.
  • Humor them by trying to destroy it; the longer the Tenno spend there, the less time they'll spend doing something we actually care about.
• Disruption
  • Alad V has put together a shipment of goods, as well as a game of sorts to disrupt the Tenno's plans to steal them.
  • Distract the Tenno by dropping keys to the conduits, and use death-row inmates strapped with bombs to rush it. We'll be unloading the real items while this happens.
• Excavation
  • Areas with rich Cryotic deposits attract the Tenno.
  • The Lotus has an amazing talent for locating deposits. Keep bringing Power Cores to the Tenno and eventually they'll leave; we'll mine those areas when they're gone.
• Exterminate
  • Sometimes that psychotic Lotus will just tell the Tenno to go on a killing spree.
  • They only seem to want to kill a preset number, so spread out evenly throughout the facility while we evacuate vital personnel.
• Interception
  • When your facility is a communications hub, then the Tenno are probably there to intercept messages.
  • Just inform your superiors of the situation; they'll reroute communications through another facility. Try to keep the Tenno there as long as possible.
• Mobile Defense
  • Occasionally all a Tenno wants to do is hack our consoles. If you see them holding a Data Mass then that's likely why they came.
  • Switch that facility's connection over to our dummy network and then pretend to resist. They only seem to want to hack about three consoles before leaving.
• Rescue
  • If your facility is housing prisoners (not to be confused with wall-decorations), then the Tenno are probably there to rescue the prisoner.
  • Immediately kill the prisoner and swap them with an operative clothed in a Tenno Relay uniform. Have that operative pretend to be saved.
• Sabotage
  • Our crewmen who have reached the end of their lifespan want to go out with a bang, so we put them in retired galleons and send them toward civilian settlements.
  • The Tenno will destroy the vessels. Ideally you should try to keep them there while it blows up, but your main goal is to simply let them do our demolition work.
• Spy
  • Some of our facilities are data servers. When the Tenno arrive, it's probably to extract data from those.
  • Just decrypt some information on cryopods or prisoner locations and then walk around pretending you can't see the Tenno.
• Survival
  • The Tenno sometimes like to split their forces between a diversionary Tenno squad and a lone operative that raids for supplies.
  • Cut off life support near the squad but leave it on for the lone operative. The operative never finds anything of real value, and it's good combat training for our troops.

The Tenno are just children who can't see the bigger picture. Though powerful individually, they've yet to deal any lasting damage to our empire or take any of our territories. They seem obsessed with making more and more powerful weaponry, but rarely if ever do they change their overall tactics and mission roster. It's a nuisance, but by using misdirection and littering our facilities with random crates and ore we've effectively domesticated them. Years of Tenno resistance has failed to win them even a single node on a single planet, so leadership is reasonably certain our strategy will remain effective for the foreseeable future.

[DE: Reload speed and magazine size should be exilus mods. They do not "increase dps" in any relevant manner. See arguments below.]

While I do think Reload Speed is (mathematically) increasing sustained DPS, I think an argument could still be made for moving it to the Exilus Slot due to the Eject Magazine mod. That mod is an Exilus, and it allows for "effectively" zero reload time. If paired with a Primary that does the same thing (either with the Synth Mod Set or Incarnon  evolutions like with the Felarx), or Battery Weapons like the Basmu, then the Tenno can fire at a constant rate without ever reloading.

The fact that DE decided to put this mod in the Exilus category should have set a precedent. Reloading is going from an empty to full magazine at the cost of an interruption to DPS. So a mod that goes from an empty to full magazine at no cost is mathematically superior, and it's in the Exilus slot.

[Would you use Topaz Archon Shards if...]

18 hours ago, Xylena_Lazarow said:

This leads to 355% range builds: good or bad for the game?

I'd be happy to get an explanation on why that's a bad thing. It's theoretically possible to get 610% (if someone is fortunate enough to have an Arcane Helm on Mag while running a Void Fissure mission). And even without the obsolete helmets and fissures, with a Helminth Invigoration it's possible to get to 380% for any frame on all missions (for a week). So it's not like this would be adding much to the game that's not there already. It would extend those numbers to 760% & 455%, but does that exceed any threshold that breaks the game?

 

18 hours ago, quxier said:

1. All damage? Isn't it just +10/15% strength but just 0.5x better? I wouldn't bother.
   First it would be probably calculated like: "base strength/damage" * mods/arcanes + N% chance for "base strength/damage". If damage came after mods/arcanes/stuffs then it would be too good compared to "on status +n ability damage"
2. You would require 4 normal or 3 tau making it... ugh... bad.
3. *take Probably asleep to the shelter so they cannot listen mean words*
4. First, I would start with Sprint speed and slap parkour for topaz or other shards. Why, oh why, when you just want sprint speed you have whole pack of stuff?!  I want to run faster not roll into the moon. Horrible design.
5. Secondly, I would add other stuff like shorter/longer rolls (shorter takes less time!), jump height, +n jump(bullet), slide duration/speed.
6. Thirdly, why just 15%?! It irks me so much. Like, what is 15%? When I mod my frame I think: "yeah, I need to run 1.24543% faster". Seriously, just slap (Primed) Rush already (45%) 30% sprint speed. Mods are for fine tuning IF YOU WANT. Shards should be good from 1 shard. At least don't do 1/2 of non-damage mod like Rush stuff...
7. Maybe.
8. Maybe. Another case of "yeah I need 2-3 mods". Like, I have Inaros P with base 190 energy. I want to cast 4th more often. I have no mod space (maybe I will remove 1 from 3 augments) and 2 (maybe 3) shard's slots.
   Azure give me 50/75 per shard. Slotting 2x normal would give me 1x cast. 2x Tau would give me 2 (missing 10 from 200 from base). So in total, normal - 2, tau 3.
   20% (2 normal shards) efficiency would give me 2 casts. 30% (2x tau) would still give me 2 casts (20 missing energy).
   If it would be 15%/22.5% then it would be better.
   From above, 30% (2 normal shard) would give me 2 casts. 45% (2x tau) would give me 3 casts.
   With 15% x5 you can max efficiency. With tau you can overcome negative duration. I think it would be "fine".
9. I honestly don't see it useful in most cases.
10. Blast is not nice status. I could pick Heat (armor strip), and cold for CC (eximus) and arcane/mods that depends on cold. Does blast have any "blasty" mods/arcanes? Maybe with change to blast damage/proc it would change.
11. I can get behind not getting Overshields but not regenerating shield when you hit shield gate kills it for me.
12. Another great idea like with Archon - let's make it for small part of roster. At least Violet shard have synergy with other shards:
13. Not to mention that it's pretty much useless with low number of shards or lack of tau. In such cases just slap strength. You would buff other stuff as well.
    Horrible design.
14. This is better but still "meh".
    I like that it just needs "affected" nto just "by X". like with blasty stuff. Even 50 kills is ok.
    However it's another case "more or don't bother". 50% seems high... till you see it's additive to mods like Pistol gambit. So you get 25% cc? 12.5% more. Resulting in 37.5% CC. Fantastic? I think it's bad. Normal Pistol gambit gives you 120% and prime 187%. You need at least 2-3 normal and 2 tau.

quxier!

1. I should think it would be multiplicative, probably resting in the faction variable so it's not overpowered with Roar, but calculated after most over factors.
2. I'm only speculating here, but DE seems to have an unspoken rule that 4 Archon Slots replace roughly 1 Mod Slot.
3. Haha!
4. I also prefer Sprint over Parkour! I like a little extra Parkor, but there's a definite limit that becomes counterproductive. But I love any amount of Sprint!
5. This feels familiar. I think we've talked before how it would be nice to separate the movement attributes into Accessibility options or an alternate Mod space.
6. This goes back to that 4 shards = 1 mod rule (which is in no way concrete); but yeah I agree that it's better for a shard to be useful on it's own w/o being TF.
7. Yes!
8. I also like running these kinds of calculations. I remember when I realized that Fleeting Expertise gives just about as many casts as Primed Flow, but with much quicker refueling. It would be nice as a +15% (+22.5%) though because that could let you hit the 75% cap with just Streamline and two TF shards.
9. Same
10. I'm hoping Blast will be useful with Jade Shadows. I've got another 10 days to feel optimistic!
11. Ya I don't think anyone could ever find the shield regen perk useful. Just slapping some Negative Recharge Delay and Positive Recharge Speed makes non-broken shields repair super quickly anyway. I was super bummed by this nerf when it happened because it was such a fun survival strategy.
12. Agreed. I wasn't happy about the Archon mods being element specific.
13. While I'm especially salty about Topaz I'll admit the Purple also gets little use in my arsenal. I like the Green's Corrosive effect, so I'll use it once in a while.
14. I think DE decides on the efficacy of their shards by assuming someone will put 5 TF of the same perk, which in this case would be 375% Critical Chance. Then add that with Mods and Arcanes and you can get your secondary up to 1,195% Critical Chance. That has a 21% chance of reaching 5th-Tier Red-Level Crits. And with Crit Dmg Mods that would be a grand total of ~425,574.9x Damage. Which means even if you got a Riven that reduced the base damage down to 3, it would still deal >1million damage. But if you can get your pre-crit damage to anything above 5,046, then you'll be hitting the ~2.1 Billion Integer Limit. (Which I think can be done with a combination of Mods, Roar, and elemental weakness bonuses; I'd say multishot but that splits the damage into separate displays)
    But that's just playing with numbers. I agree with you that it's a useless perk when it's additive and something you have to build up through conditional kills.

 

17 hours ago, Traumtulpe said:

22.5% crit chance for abilities would see plenty use.

15% sprint speed is terrible.

15% ability efficiency would see lots of use.

10% range is pretty good.

I love seeing the differences of opinion here! It just goes to show how varied Warframe's playstyle can be.

 

13 hours ago, KitMeHarder said:

I don't think DE will ever add the ability to permanently increase our range stat again (it's been almost 7 years since last time), nor do I think they should... unless....

The only way I see them doing it is if they make 300% the stat cap for range (fissure buff would still double it), just like efficiency is 175%. But that's still not enough IMO, as any build that wants range is automatically locked into equipping at least 2 topaz shards; And that kinda defeats the purpose of shards/takes the fun out of it. So we'd need Primed Stretch/Archon Stretch buffed first (with them at +82.5% range, and not some funky scaling like Primed Pressure Point). Then I'd be all for range being added to shards.

So this is piggybacking off of my question to Xylena_Lazarow, but what's killing the Range enthusiasm? As I said above, we can all get 380% right now (if an Invigoration is available) and I've never seen anyone complain about how the game is unplayable whenever that happens.

And I'm in no way trying to be argumentative here; I'm just sincerely curious. I only play solo and as Mag, so my experience is niche. Does high range make Squad play terrible? Or is there some frame-specific exploit that would became too insane when going from 380% to 455%?

 

11 hours ago, Fred_Avant_2019 said:

Dunno, casting speed, strength, duration, extra corro stacks and energy capacity are the only stats I really care about on shards really.

Efficiency means I get to not use Fleeting Expertise.

Extra range means I get to not use Overextended.

 

Imo sprint speed should already be part of the parkour speed one.

As for crits on abilities I'm not sure. Some already work with crits, gotta figure out how it would temper with that.

This got me wondering if the reason they don't have shards for Range/Efficiency is because you could instead use Corrupted Mods and then compensate against their negatives with red shards.

Agreed that Amber should have Parkour/Sprint together. I mean, Amar's Anguish does that, and Amar is an Archon... (although I see that Nira's Anguish only does Parkour, and Amber comes from Nira...).

 

8 hours ago, Venus-Venera said:

definitely. something like that brings more advantages than seasonal crits in orange or ability str in red.
and maybe harrow will finally get energy support spec. because at the moment you have to give up damage for it.

I like the phrase "seasonal crits"

And today's weather forecast: FIRE RAINING DOWN FROM THE SKY!!!

[An Overly-Optimistic Request to Make Jade's Subsume Ability her Passive Instead]

39 minutes ago, Pakaku said:

Or just don't subsume over it... Not every frame needs a helminth tweak, passive or not

Agreed. I think for the most part players can exercise common sense. I was just thinking along the lines of programming restrictions. Like if they can't get Voruna to operate properly with her passive deactivated then either prevent installing it over Voruna (or let her have two passives and a debuff).

[An Overly-Optimistic Request to Make Jade's Subsume Ability her Passive Instead]

17 minutes ago, KitMeHarder said:

IMO it should just be a new stock feature. Similar to how in the past Hildryn's passive made her the only frame with a shieldgate, but then it was added to all frames.

Modding has been a PITA anyway with how expensive mod drains are and how punishing polarities can be (especially in this era of helminth). If DE doesn't want have forma give universal polarities (sans Umbral), then a 2nd aura is a good enough compromise that won't even add that much bonus power.

I like your idea better

[Would you use Topaz Archon Shards if...]

1. There was an option to grant +10% Ability Range (+15% if Tauforged)
2. There was an option to grant +10% Ability Efficiency (+15% if Tauforged)
3. There was an option to grant +15% Sprint Speed (+22.5% if Tauforged)
4. There was an option to add +15% (+22.5% if Tauforged) "Critical Chance" to Abilities (multiplies final ability damage by 2)
5. Any of the above
6. I already use Topaz Archon Shards, I love them

[An Overly-Optimistic Request to Make Jade's Subsume Ability her Passive Instead]

_{The request:}
Please let us subsume and assign Jade's passive (just the two Aura Mod slots) instead of one of her abilities.

_{Why I'm sure people think it can't (or shouldn't) be done:}

1. We've never had a Passive available in the Helminth
2. Certain frames' entire kits revolve around their passive
3. The Helminth UI doesn't even have a space to pick passive as a swap-out
4. This might lower the chances of DE reworking outdated passives
5. The Arsenal UI isn't set up to show different passives in the Abilities icons

_{Reasons why it could work:}

1. Though unprecedented in the Helminth, it's also unprecedented to have a passive change the Mod Slot count
2. Some frames would also be useless if you subsumed over their best ability; it's a matter of player choice and discretion
3. UI changes are not that difficult (I'm a programmer, and I know I'm being a hypocrite because I've used this excuse on previous jobs)
4. How many years will we have to wait for all the passives to get reworked? And will they ever? Some frames have passives that will never be missed if subsumed over.
5. You could make separate icons for each passive, OR you could have the generic passive icon and then just a  single new icon for Jade's passive

I know it sounds crazy when thinking in the context of frames like Voruna or Lavos. But I'm sure compromises could be reached. For example, if a frame absolutely cannot operate without their passive, then make it impossible to install on that frame, easy-peasy! Or if that doesn't sound fair, then make it so the frame gets the second Aura slot, but suffers a misalignment burden that lowers their base stats.

But there are frames with passives that go years without even being noticed or used by players. There are threads with players begging for reworked passives. This would be an instant win for those frames. I of course love Mag, but her passive doesn't even work. It's been well reported (and I've personally experienced) that her vacuum bugs out under most circumstances, and even if it did work it's never going to get used because of companions anyway.

And finally, it's not like it comes without a cost. Losing the opportunity to install another ability is a high cost for frames that need an armor strip or energy economy. This subsume probably wouldn't take the place of the most popular ones already out today for that reason. It would only be for the frames that have throw-away passives and a complete enough kit that they don't need a subsume on anything else.

[Minimalist Warframe SVGs]

Thought it might be fun to try to make another one (it was).
If you can't guess who this is then I take full responsibility.

[Minimalist Warframe SVGs]

Tutorial:

Spoiler

1. Using a free diagraming application like Draw.IO, open a blank canvas
2. (Left-Hand Toolbox) Create Image from Presets: General > Ellipse (Hovering over shapes shows names)
3. (Right-Hand Toolbox) While new Ellipse selected, go to "Arrange"
   1. Set Size to 40 by 40
   2. Set Position to 0, 0
4. Zoom in to new position (Hold SHIFT and scroll UP on SCROLLWHEEL while Mouse Cursor is hovering over your Ellipse)
5. (Right-Hand Toolbox) While Ellipse still selected, go to "Style"
   1. Set Fill Color to 86BBE4
   2. Set Line Color to 5C819E
6. Create new Ellipse:
   1. Size 32 by 32
   2. Position 4, 2
   3. Fill Color 96D1FF
   4. Add Gradient (Checkbox beneath Fill Color):
      1. Set Gradient Orientation to South
      2. Set Gradient Color to 3C5366
   5. Deactivate Line (Uncheck box)
7. Create new Ellipse:
   1. Size 10 by 10
   2. Position 8, 30
   3. Fill Color 49667D
   4. Gradient Orientation East
   5. Gradient Color 96D1FF
   6. Line Color 5C819E
8. Create new Ellipse:
   1. Size 10 by 10
   2. Position 22, 30
   3. Fill Color 49667D
   4. Gradient Orientation West
   5. Gradient Color 96D1FF
   6. Line Color 5C819E
9. (Top Menu) File > Export as... > SVG
   1. "Transparent Background" Checked
   2. "Include a copy of my diagram" Checked
10. Export
    1. Save As: mag.svg (or whatever you choose to name it)
    2. Where: Device

Notes:

Spoiler

I ended up making this for a diagram to explain how I "bubble hop" with Mag in another thread. I thought it was such an adorable representation of Mag that it should be shared.

The colors are from the Mag image found on the Wiki. Just copy the image into MS Paint, use the eye dropper on a color, open up the custom color box, and take those RGB values to some place like RGB to HEX to get the values. I did slide the brightness meter up and down a little to get a better feel, as well as tried out different color samples until I got one that I liked.

Request:

I'm no artist, so I'd love to see people with real talent make other frames (or even better Mags). Obviously your choice, and I'm not saying you have to be an artist to add to this list (that'd be hypocritical on my part anyway). I'm just curious what other interpretations of Warframes there could be in this same minimalist, almost Emoji-like style. Thanks in advance!

 

EDIT:

I should add that not all image sharing sites allow SVG format. I uploaded this one through https://svgur.com/
(In case you're curious why SVG is great, it's because it's an image blueprint rather than an image rendering, it can be scaled to any size as well as opened and edited with precision. I recommended the "Include a copy of my diagram" option during the export because that way you can open the actual file back up in Draw.IO and make changes)

[Historical Warframe Claim: The First True Mag Master]

6 hours ago, Xzorn said:

My old build looked somewhat like this Old Mag Build except it used her Arcane Coil helm 25% Range and double Energize which you can't run anymore. Since enemies don't really scale like they used to the high duration to stack Magnetize ticks isn't as important. Her augments mostly did nothing for me back then. There was no range on Magnetize and while Armor Strip on crush was fine it was equally easy to strip enemies in Magnetize or stack it's damage so high it didn't matter.

This is my current toned down version: Sorta New Build

Crush obviously gained a lot of value since last I played giving Armor Strip, cast speed and shield gate. I changed the build when I came back. Thinking back I could have kept similar and just added Energy Orb Yellow Shards but I didn't have many at the time. Using 100 energy to shield gate is a bit expensive. The bubble hop doesn't feel as safe as it was either. I've gotten dropped a few times trying it again.

Shards are Cast Speed and Duration.

Your high-strength builds are much more humane than mine. A lot of my builds use 40% Strength because of Overextended. I tend to think along the lines of: "Meh, they're in the bubble so they'll die eventually..." and I just ignore them as the DoT/AoE takes care of them over time. But I've noticed when I go with more strength the enemies are put out of their misery much quicker.

Very envious you got an Arcane Coil helm.

When I bubble hop, I'm used to using it as an advancing technique like in Exterminate missions:

When I advance too quickly (entering the forwardmost bubble) then things don't work out well. But as long as I set the bubbles further ahead, I have a safe zone I can rely on.
The figure above is a rather extreme example because I wouldn't really be using it in such a nonaggressive manner. Instead of pushing through enemy forces, I'd be eliminating the laterally-positioned enemies, use the forward-positioned enemies to extend the bubble centipede, and then advance a bubble to repeat the process. This has the added benefit of extending the time Eximus units spend inside the bubbles; they have to travel an entire bubble's length before making it to me, which often drains their Overguard and "mob-ifies" them.

_{This is a bug, but I'm not sure if it's ever going to be fixed because I brought it up multiple times and it never got noticed...}
The Incarnon Kunai passes right through Mag's bubble, completely unaffected. It also tracks to headshots and can deal massive single-target damage. This makes it a perfect weapon to take down Overguarded enemies from the safety of your bubble. Modding for Magnetic Kunais might be a nice ace of your sleeve after they release the Jade Shadows update that promises to make Magnetic the anti-Overguard element. (Of course Mag's Bubbles also use Magnetic so maybe it won't be necessary then...)

Naturally this doesn't work as well when holding a static position because the enemies are coming from all sides. In that case I rely more on sealing off entry points, or using the 3rd dimension to lift projectiles over the defense target.

 

I'm impressed by your strategy though! I usually like having high efficiency because I have an instinctive distrust of relying on pickups for my energy economy. I'm impressed by anyone who routinely uses 100% or less efficiency.

[Jade's Helminth]

13 minutes ago, quxier said:

If I were solo player then it would be almost useless. I cannot revive Carrier with "X".

With team I revive all kind of foxes, cats, dogs & stuffs with name. I'm Vazarin so it's fast. If I were not Vazarin it would be nice thing, imho. It honestly depend how much you revive. Sometimes I have not great damage because I'm smie-constantly reviving something.

quxier!

That's fair. As a solo player I don't see a lot of death because I simply can't afford to, so I was taking my average deaths per mission (maybe around once every five to ten missions) and assuming it would only be that times 4 (so like maybe 1 in a mission).

[Historical Warframe Claim: The First True Mag Master]

5 hours ago, Xzorn said:

I've played Mag here and there when I came back but after this post I was more seriously trying to figure out how to deal with Overguard without playing "Shield Gate The Game". As I mentioned before I used to Bubble Hop with her and rely entirely on her abilities to stay alive. I ran no Defense mods at all. 200% Duration, 235% Range, 200% Power, 45% Efficiency. Something like that which doesn't quite work anymore.

Been thinking of a good Helmith for her to help with Overguard. Rad Pillars worked out great for Volt so might try that.

*gasp* Are we talking Mag builds!?

The can of worms has opened!
^{(A fun Warframe connection here: Worms Armageddon was released in--wait for it--the year 1999)}

I'll share my favorite builds from each of my four separate Mag Prime team members...

Series: Hero - Model: ALL

Spoiler

• Purpose:
  Hero is designed as a Jack-of-All Trades / Master of None build. She can do all the content (except EDA because it disables abilities), but her weaknesses have to be made up for with player skill. The ALL model is has additional survivability and armor stripping so that all enemies can be killed quickly.
• Mods:
  Overframe Build
• Shards:
  • (TF) Azure - 7.5 Health Regen / Sec
  • (TF) Crimson - 15% Ability Duration
  • (TF) Crimson - 15% Ability Strength
  • (TF) Crimson - 15% Ability Duration
  • (TF) Amber - 37.5% Casting Speed
• Helminth:
  Flexible. I used to love Polarize because the Augment worked on Eximus, but DE hates CC these days. Right now I have Xata's Whisper on to help against Overguard enemies.
• School:
  Zenurik
• Playstyle:
  Hero-ALL ranges from 2,387 to 31,407 EHP. She can armor strip within a 30 meter radius while locking enemy movement for 14.35 seconds. Her Magnetize bubble is 17 meters in diameter and lasts for 30.75 seconds. Aim glide is zero gravity and lasts 9 seconds. She has health and energy regen without the need for pickups or gear. Finally, she gets a 60% discount on Ability costs.
  With all these perks, her play style is very versatile. Generally though she survives by killing the enemy before they kill her, and she uses her abilities without caring about the energy cost. I have a habit of activating Zenurik's energy regen every couple of breaths during the heat of battle. The float ability is her main mobility method, and I get Sprint/Parkour from her weapons. I don't have any knockdown protection, so I compensate by just paying attention.

Series: Mage - Model: KPM

Spoiler

• Purpose:
  Mage is set up to rely on her abilities more than the other members. She's got a lot of power boost shards and her builds capitalize on that. The KPM build is specifically used for ESO because I'm still trying to get the Vandal weapon components that come from the 8th zone.
• Mods:
  Overframe Build
• Shards:
  • (TF) Amber - 37.5% Casting Speed
  • (TF) Crimson - 15% Ability Strength
  • (TF) Crimson - 15% Ability Strength
  • (TF) Crimson - 15% Ability Strength
  • (TF) Crimson - 15% Ability Strength
• Helminth:
  Polarize > Breach Surge. ESO enemies don't need any armor strip because Breach Surge in the bubble with a Pasmor just vaporizes them. Putting it in slot 3 lets it be used frequently enough in ESO.
• School:
  Zenurik
• Playstyle:
  Mage-KPM only really gets taken out for ESO runs, but she's comfortable in that arena. Her final Ability Strength rests at 259% and her Range is 265%, so her death bubbles act very quickly. She uses Praedos for Parkour boost, and her companion for enemy radar. The strategy is to leap into the most concentrated enemy cluster, Breach Surge, Magnetize, shoot a shot or two, and repeat. The bubbles continue to kill enemies while you move on, and the faster you move the faster the oldest bubble explodes. There are enough Eximus units in ESO that her energy is taken care or through Equilibrium, and she starts each round at full energy from Preparation. The only enemies that give me trouble are the Neutralizer Crewman; I've got a Cycron on hand for popping their bubbles, but they break the flow. Apart from all that it's just a matter of getting good maps for the week. the LOS checks make things like the Kuva Fortress a huge pain at higher zones.

Series: Rogue - Model: SPY

Spoiler

• Purpose:
  Rogue is a stealth and infiltration specialist. She has added parkour velocity for leaping over or through security systems, and extra duration for putting enemies to sleep to get stealth affinity bonuses. The SPY model is for blitzing through Spy and Rescue missions as quickly as possible.
• Mods:
  Overframe Build
• Shards:
  • (TF) Amber - 22.5% Parkour Velocity
  • (TF) Amber - 37.5% Casting Speed
  • (TF) Crimson - 15% Ability Duration
  • (TF) Amber- 22.5% Parkour Velocity
  • (TF) Crimson - 15% Ability Duration
• Helminth:
  Pull > Perspicacity. I could keep building Ciphers, but Perspicacity is just so convenient that it's hard to justify spending the resources. I'm thinking of moving it to her 3rd ability instead though because of the recent nerfs to CC.
• School:
  Zenurik
• Playstyle:
  Rogue-SPY has a sprint speed of 2.42 and a Parkour Velocity of +60%. I used to have higher parkour, but it was unwieldy. She has basic Ability Boosts too for the minor skirmishes, but her main role is to to just run past enemies and clear the objective. Depending on the mission I might change out her Aura Mod for Aerodynamic. The Lua Spy Mission for example has a section where you can just fly right above the electrified floor but under the laser platforms. Rescue missions are also easy with this build. I use Innodem rather than Praedos for the slightly higher Sprint as well as the stealth finisher bonus for rescues.

Series: Tank - Model: EHP

Spoiler

• Purpose:
  Tank is destined to take the most abuse; her design is all about surviving without using abilities. The EHP model is mainly used for Archon Showdowns where I need to just stare down a single enemy and keep firing while everyone is shooting me.
• Mods:
  Overframe Build
• Shards:
  • (TF) Azure - 225 Armor
  • (TF) Azure - 225 Armor
  • (TF) Azure - 225 Health
  • (TF) Azure - 225 Armor
  • (TF) Azure - 75 Energy Max
• Helminth:
  Polarize > Dispensary. Something I love about Dispensary is that the first drop is always a Health Orb. So with Equilibrium, it's an immediately refunded ability.
• School:
  Zenurik
• Playstyle:
  Tank-EHP has 595 Health with 86% damage reduction from Armor, (variably) 90% damage reduction from Adaptation, 64% damage reduction while airborne, and an additional 58% damage reduction from Quick Thinking when applied to her 830 Energy. So it's (595 / 0.14 / 0.1 / 0.36) + (830 / 0.14 / 0.1 / 0.36 / 0.42) = ~510,156 EHP. So after Adaptation spins up, you get over half a million EHP, and with Energy Nexus / Zenurik you're able to have an EHP regen of about 3,779 per second. And the first health orb that drops from Dispensary gives you a net positive ~36,375 EHP, with each additional health orb granting even more due to the casting cost having already been paid. Long story short, This build let Mag take a LOT of hits. This is only my speculation, but it seems like Warframe has a minimum damage register of 1 HP. With that said, in practice it's more like thinking: "I can take 595 normal hits to my health and 830 normal hits to my energy." So it can still drain pretty rapidly when playing solo and every single enemy is shooting you at once, but it also regenerates rapidly as long as you're keeping Zenurik up and Dispensary going.
  The other thing that's tempting to ignore but vital to keep going is to make sure you're floating, which means this doesn't work well with melee. But the playstyle is easy enough to understand. Just be careful while Adaptation is spinning up, and then jump, aim, and fire. When the aim glide wear off, refresh Dispensary and Zenurik's Wellspring, then hop back up and start firing again. You basically turn yourself into Protea's 2nd ability; just an immortal floating turret.

As is evident by now, I'm quite enthusiastic about Mag builds. I'd be happy to hear about any or your setups as well!

[Just a nobody's take on unexpectedly learning what kuva liches are.]

This was similar to my first Lich experience. I didn't know about them and I ended up activating one by mistake. I hadn't cracked any Requiem Relics just yet either, and I wasn't even through my Star Chart so my equipment was not great.

I also play solo.

I still shudder when I remember that first Lich. I have a habit of trying things out first on my own before looking up guides on it, which meant I ended up handling this Lich in the WORST way possible:

• Started by farming Requiem Relics and Requiem Mods
• Kept that up until I got one of each type of Mod (that took days)
• Next I started gathering murmurs, but didn't know that failed attempts to kill the Lich would level them up and move them to another planet
• I made that mistake twice, wasting precious nodes on Earth and Mars
• Finally got enough Murmurs to get the Requiem candidates, and started trying different combos
• My first two combos failed, so my Lich got all the way to max level before I got the sequence
• I didn't have any gun that could make a dent in my Lich, so the 2nd-to-Last battle was awful; I ran out of ammo in both my Primary and Secondary
• For the final battle I was like: "Forget this!" and I spawned every type of specter I had. (12 of them I think)
• It was a chaotic mess, two armies fighting in cramped quarters, but I won

And guess what weapon it was? A Kuva Seer! A week of headache for a Kuva Seer! Having to listen to that voice and those dad-joke level taunts for a week just to get a Kuva Seer.

But I still don't think you should quit! I did everything wrong and made it much harder for myself, but a little research and preparation would have made it a lot easier. But even with it being more difficult than it had to be, I still look back at the experience with some fondness. It was a dumb nemesis with a dumb weapon who pestered me constantly, but it turned into a funny story that I chuckle about now and then. Just because something isn't enjoyable now doesn't mean it will be a bad memory later. I can activate and defeat a Lich now in a few hours, and that only feels good to me because I still remember how miserable my first Lich was.

 

19 hours ago, Fnord_Asteroid said:

I know most of the content is intended for squad play anyway and this little kuva lich event really feels like a send off

I'm begging you, could you tell me a little about what you have in your Arsena? There's a good chance you have a weapon in there that can be modded to obliterate a Lich. And if not, then I'm sure there's an easy-to-farm weapon that's available.

I only use Mag, and she can destroy pretty much anything with a face, but that spoiled me into thinking the weapon I had doesn't really matter. I got through both the Start Chart and Steel Path using mainly a Sancti Tigris, but then the Archon Hunts came out and Damage Attenuation / Status Capping made everything I had useless. So I got onto this Forum and asked for advice, and people told me to go farm the Phenmor and give that I shot. I did, and it destroyed the Archon. It was a wake up call that I should try new weapons even if I like the one I've been using. It also just felt good being able to see a once-formidable enemy defeated, and seeing advice I got from others work out so well. I highly recommend giving the community a chance to help!

 

We're all on the side of the Tenno and want to see those filthy thieving Liches get what they deserve. Please give our experience a chance!

[Jade's Helminth]

7 hours ago, Drachnyn said:

It feels like they're just taking it off for the sake of taking atleast something off.

This was my thought as well. While I think it's cool I don't see it as being all that useful. Companions self-revive, solo has little use for it, and maintaining eyes on your fallen comrade is only slightly less inconvenient than having to stand next to them for a few seconds. (And going into Void-Mode Operator to revive someone is still better in my opinion because then you can't get downed while trying to save your friend)

I don't actually play in squads though so I could be completely wrong about this, but I feel like it's a cherry on top that no one is going to miss.

[Universal Vacuum, and a New Passive for Mag]

On 2023-02-23 at 12:13 PM, Probably_Asleep said:

Featured Passive Replacement for Mag:
Current Opposition
Gain 1 energy per second per Electric status on enemies and allies within Affinity Range

This is inspired by the new Magnetic changes being made in the Jade Shadows update. If Magnetic Damage causes Electric status after Overguard/Shields are broken, then this would synergize with that effect and give Mag energy for it. Essentially the more Electric stacks there are on enemies and allies, the more Mag generates energy. She could either just use her abilities to break shields/overguard, or she could build for Electric damage. With enough stacks, Mag should be able to keep up her energy even in game modes like E/DA where it's being drained constantly. Energy Exhaustion for instance drains 2 energy per second for each nearby enemy. This could be compensated though by making sure 3 or more Electric status stacks are on each enemy at all times. Even Vampyric Liminus, while draining 25 energy per second (or do they both do that separately? It is 50 per second for solo players?), they might still be contended with if you build for something like a high status duration with low damage for your secondary. Electric status has no limit to the amount of stacks, so as long as you're not wiping out enemies before having them work for you in generating energy, then you'll be able to compete with energy drain debuffs regardless of how harsh they are.

The science(ish) concept for this is that Electric currents produce Magnetic fields that themselves could generate more electrical currents. A lightning bolt for instance could short circuit a generator like the alternator in your car even without actually touching your car. So Mag being in the proximity of Electrical current should allow how to manipulate that to generate energy, and the more current there is, the more energy she's be able to generate. This would be so native to the way she operates that it would act as a passive; something she does like breathing and blinking where no thought is required. (Ironically though Mag has no eyes or mouth...)

[Historical Warframe Claim: The First True Mag Master]

9 hours ago, Dexaldem said:

Man this is straight 2013 Warframe energy and I love it. That is one impressive achievement, chief. Fantastic work, and the greatest of all kudos to a job VERY well done! xD

Thanks! That's an interesting way of putting it, but I can see what you're saying. Rather than trying to compete with the "meta," this style of gameplay is more expressive and experimental.

 

2 hours ago, Berzerkules said:

I love all animals and plant life but I do have a particular fondness for felines.

I just picked up a cat from the shelter a couple months ago after not living with one for about 5 years. After I had 3 cats and a dog that were 13-16 y/o pass in a 2 year period i wasn't ready for another furry companion until recently. I was actually still reluctant but my wife and daughter finally convinced me to go to the shelter. The shelter said they only had one cat but she was shy and wouldn't let anyone close. We walked into the room and she perked up, got super talkative and was trying to get us to pet her through the cage. She picked us. It finally felt like the right time and we found the right cat.

What a story! I'm sorry for your loss, too. I had a very similar situation, let me see if I can trim this down to a short story...
So my wife wanted a cat, my mother in law tagged along, and they both got cats (brothers). Mother in law couldn't take care of him, so we got two cats, but that second cat decided he and I would be best friends. Then after a few years he came down with a terminal illness and I lost my friend.

Shortly after that, my wife started helping out a terminally ill human, who had a small black cat. That human's condition got worse and she moved out of state to be with family. She didn't want her black cat because it was "antisocial and mean," so she was going to just abandon it. My wife and I couldn't stand the thought of that happening, so we took her and tried to find a home for her instead. However, the home we ended up finding for her was our own. She wasn't antisocial or mean; she just didn't feel safe and loved. Now she's a snuggly spaz.

I can relate to a lot of what you're saying. Loving and losing a cat, not feeling like you want another, having another get dropped into your life anyway, and loving the new cat while still remembering and mourning the old one.