Initial thoughts on Exploiter Orb

[ADirtyMonk]

This is after reading someone's quick guide writeup on r/warframe and personally running the boss 3 times.

Compared to the usual standard of Warframe bosses, this was quite well done. I think the cost of entry is pretty reasonable at one Diluted Thermia. Exploiter Orb itself is not a 100% DPS race. There are invulnerability phases for the orb but we're always given something to do or shoot at. Having high DPS will speed up the fight but not turn the fight into a one shot and scoot. The mechanic of running and grabbing Distillate before yeeting it at the orb is the good type of non-DPS mechanic. The player is encouraged to bounce around and take advantage of Warframe's movement system AND we are given a large enough area to do so. Once we have the canister, there is no wait time, no defense objective, we just aim, throw, and shoot. Simple and fast. Contrast the horrible LoR "mechanics" of players sitting on a pad for an entire stage while praying the EV trin can EV hard enough for the Vaubauns maintain bastille over the entire world.

The dialogue and personality written for the Exploiter orb is amazing and definitely the highlight of the fight. Exploiter is a near perfect combination of intimidating, creepy, antagonistic, and full blown psychotic overbearing nightmare mom that everyone loves to hate. Completely unexpected especially after the wannabe ASMR creeper that Profit Taker turned out to be. If this is a preview to what the Sentient Grandma is going to be like then we're in for a treat. I'm sure at some point I will tire of the Orb screeching at me while Zuud has a livestreamed PTSD episode so an option to turn off or limit boss fight dialogue at some point down the line would be nice. Same goes for all bosses.

I thought the coolant raknoids were easy enough to see during the outside phase. I actually wish that sometimes there were more of them to make CC frames worth taking (in return, make them highly resistant but not outright immune to CC abilities). They are relatively squishy and their AI is very dumb as sometimes they just stay in the distance and walk back and forth a bit. 

I really love how the big mortar has a very clear tell exactly what and where is going to explode when it lands. I do wish that enemy explosives in general had such clear indicators. Napalm rockets, eidolon starfall, grenades, etc can be hard to see flying at you but a big red circle on the ground is hard to miss and all I really need to know is "do not stand here". I wish the Orb's Fire Blast had a bit of a chargeup and an indicator of exactly where it is going to hit since it locks players behind the flame wall.

I love the glory kill moves that we perform on Exploiter orb in phase 2. Warframe has not had anything like that before and it's a good way to show off how strong the Warframe are when we're literally ripping parts out of a massive robot. Major kudos to whoever suggested that.

Most important things that could use improvement:

1. There has to be a waypoint or voice line from Zuud that points us to exactly where the Thermia Distiller and the Expulsion chamber are. If I had not read the guide I would have missed the distiller completely and for most of the fights in Phase 1 I was randomly bouncing around trying to figure out where the Distillate popped out of. The machines could use a stronger glow to them as well to make them a bit more obvious.

2. The vents in phase 1 could use a stronger indicator that they are shootable. And that they are even vents. Initially they are dark tubes on a dark moving object in a dark room. At the very least have them glow red/orange hot and have them be venting smoke or embers so we know they are vents.. Once they ice over they are far easier to see and a pretty clear indication we are supposed to hit them with something. After that it's up to the squad to figure out mechanics.

Edited March 15, 2019 by ADirtyMonk

[Midas]

Dps adds is something DE needs more of! X4 cp for raknoid burning fast!