Tried the Exploiter Orb Fight. Won't bother to do it again.

[EmberStar]

47 minutes ago, Kontrollo said:

With what I've seen you post in other threads I don't have too much sympathy for your case.

 

That said, you should definitely not give up on it yet,

Why not?  Several of the other posters seem to be strongly implying that not only should I give up on the fight, but on playing computer games of any kind.

As pointless as it is to mention, I *had* seen videos about it.  Unless someone had been going out of their way to avoid all youtube and twitch streaming (iFlynn, OriginalWickedFun, Tactical Potato) it's pretty close to impossible not to have seen *some* kind of guide.  I'm aware of the mechanics of the fight.

I shot the rocks at her feet.  For two minutes (and a death for me) before she finally fell down.  Was I hitting the right spot?  Was I doing any damage at all?  Absolutely no clue.  There was no FX feedback at all, no sparks or rubble to indicate I was hitting a spot that was any different than any other random wall.  Maybe the fight assumes you have damage floaters turned on.  I wouldn't know, because I don't have them turned on.  (That's my choice.  In any other content, damage floaters are irrelevant visual clutter.)

I threw the canisters at the vents.  She did the same thing as the ospreys, where by an *amazing* coincidence she moved just as I threw it nearly every time.  Even when I did line it up and shoot it properly, it only seemed to count every couple of throws.  ("That was a hit."  "Nu-uh, didn't count.  It bounced off.  BANG!  You're dead!")  Meanwhile, spending more than a few seconds anywhere I could throw it was getting me hammered by the homing bullets from her laser cannon.  Inaros doesn't get a significant amount of healing from Sand, and the tiny spiders seem to be pretty much invalid targets for finisher attacks.  I got as far as her climbing up on the ceiling and summoning coolant raknoids before I finally ran out of revives.

It wasn't fun.  It wasn't interesting.  It was frustrating, time consuming, tedious and completely pointless.

[Kontrollo]

1 minute ago, EmberStar said:

Why not? ...

Exploiter is soloable and not particularly unfair. It's true, the fight isn't that interesting, but more because it doesn't really matter what you bring to it.

 

1 minute ago, EmberStar said:

... As pointless as it is to mention, I *had* seen videos about it.  Unless someone had been going out of their way to avoid all youtube and twitch streaming (iFlynn, OriginalWickedFun, Tactical Potato) it's pretty close to impossible not to have seen *some* kind of guide.  I'm aware of the mechanics of the fight. ...

Well, I haven't, so I wasn't going to assume. (Because I don't really care about Warframe played by Twitch/Youtube guys.)

 

6 minutes ago, EmberStar said:

... I shot the rocks at her feet.  For two minutes (and a death for me) before she finally fell down.  Was I hitting the right spot? ...

The rocks you have to shoot have this short glow like other destructibles. Although it can be missed if you don't know what to look for.

 

9 minutes ago, EmberStar said:

... I threw the canisters at the vents.  She did the same thing as the ospreys, where by an *amazing* coincidence she moved just as I threw it nearly every time.  Even when I did line it up and shoot it properly, it only seemed to count every couple of throws. ...

Bring an AoE weapon to make shooting the canisters easier if you like. You can also grab and throw them with your Operator anyway, and park your Warframe somewhere safe.

You have to hit the vents multiple times with canisters, the first time you're only chipping a bit off of the ice and it gets a bit smaller.

 

Anyway, if you're going to try it again, I suggest you do that with Nezha. He's pretty much made for this. He's tanky, and you can use 4 and 2 on the little ones to get a field of orbs. In stage two he's great to get around, too.

 

And if you don't, well, making a thread here is definitely not a good way to spend your time, either.

[-CdG-Zilchy]

24 minutes ago, EmberStar said:

I shot the rocks at her feet.  For two minutes (and a death for me) before she finally fell down.  Was I hitting the right spot?  Was I doing any damage at all?  Absolutely no clue.  There was no FX feedback at all, no sparks or rubble to indicate I was hitting a spot that was any different than any other random wall.  Maybe the fight assumes you have damage floaters turned on.  I wouldn't know, because I don't have them turned on.  (That's my choice.  In any other content, damage floaters are irrelevant visual clutter.)

I threw the canisters at the vents.  She did the same thing as the ospreys, where by an *amazing* coincidence she moved just as I threw it nearly every time.  Even when I did line it up and shoot it properly, it only seemed to count every couple of throws.  ("That was a hit."  "Nu-uh, didn't count.  It bounced off.  BANG!  You're dead!") 

Meanwhile, spending more than a few seconds anywhere I could throw it was getting me hammered by the homing bullets from her laser cannon.  Inaros doesn't get a significant amount of healing from Sand, and the tiny spiders seem to be pretty much invalid targets for finisher attacks.  I got as far as her climbing up on the ceiling and summoning coolant raknoids before I finally ran out of revives.

There's a visual indicator as the fight starts, the rocks get a shine that goes across them and shows their hitpoints.

The trick is to jump behind her, she will jump down from what she's climbing on and land and be stationary for you to throw the cannister directly on the vent. You do more dmg by blowing it up just before it hits.

As for the homing cannon, it's called Operator mode. You mentioned using a Lanka for Eidolons so I assume you're familiar with using Void mode to avoid damage instead of standing still trying to tank it with your face.

Edited March 24, 2019 by Zilchy

[HugintheCrow]

If I can win with my HP-Regen-Tank Saryn, you can win as Inaros.

[Qmiras]

4 hours ago, EmberStar said:

I finally had time this evening to try the Exploiter Orb fight.  And... it sucks.  Yet another battle where none of our powers work, fighting an enemy that is basically immune to all damage most of the time.  Oh, and she still has her rapid fire, near insta-kill homing laser, so that was fun too.  Having Zuud shout "shoot her footing" every few seconds at the start of the fight was fun too, especially since nothing seems to take any obvious damage.

And if anyone feels like trotting out "Oh, it's so easy for me," don't.  Because I'm not you.  I tried it with the most durable Warframe build I have, and a Lanka build that would supposedly be adequate for fighting Teralysts.  (No Riven, because I'm not throwing thousands of platinum at a weapon I don't particularly like.)  I ran out of self-revives before I even managed to destroy all the vents.

Nothing about the fight was fun, interesting, or challenging.  Getting blown to scrap everytime I step out from under an overhang isn't "challenge," it's just an invincible enemy god-moding and throwing "no saving throw" death at me.

I did it solo on my second run solo...takes quite a lot of time, but it's doable. And #*!% the Lanka, I did it with my twin grakatas and a saw ..not even primary. Of course you're gonna need a durable/tanky/godmode frame...as any boss fight [DE] designs.

Anyway...back on topic....it's ok if a part of the content is not for you, nobody is forcing you to like it

[-CdG-Zilchy]

1 minute ago, Qmiras said:

Of course you're gonna need a durable/tanky/godmode frame...as any boss fight [DE] designs.

You really don't, you just need to stay mobile and not take dumb risks. I can do it on a squishy nova and plenty of other light armoured frames.

[Qmiras]

Just now, Zilchy said:

You really don't, you just need to stay mobile and not take dumb risks. I can do it on a squishy nova and plenty of other light armoured frames.

I've done profit taker with S#&$ frames that doesn't means it's not out of the question that you get instagibbed for no reason....

[-CdG-Zilchy]

Just now, Qmiras said:

I've done profit taker with S#&$ frames that doesn't means it's not out of the question that you get instagibbed for no reason....

Yeh sure it happens, the boss does lethal damage. But you don't have to get hit, just avoid it. Void mode is a wonderful thing.

[Enialyx]

3 hours ago, EmberStar said:

Recruit chat is an elitist cesspool. If I can't do it solo, then it might as well not exist.

 

I've been forming quite a few Exploiter Orb killteams from the recruit chat. Usually takes less than a minute to get a group. Zero problems.
It's really not as bad as you make it out to be.

What puzzles me is that you're a founder, yet still think this. Did you try recruiting years ago, found it wanting, and now refuse to recruit at all?

[Alpha-Dave]

5 hours ago, EmberStar said:

I finally had time this evening to try the Exploiter Orb fight.  And... it sucks.  Yet another battle where none of our powers work, fighting an enemy that is basically immune to all damage most of the time.  Oh, and she still has her rapid fire, near insta-kill homing laser, so that was fun too.  Having Zuud shout "shoot her footing" every few seconds at the start of the fight was fun too, especially since nothing seems to take any obvious damage.

And if anyone feels like trotting out "Oh, it's so easy for me," don't.  Because I'm not you.  I tried it with the most durable Warframe build I have, and a Lanka build that would supposedly be adequate for fighting Teralysts.  (No Riven, because I'm not throwing thousands of platinum at a weapon I don't particularly like.)  I ran out of self-revives before I even managed to destroy all the vents.

Nothing about the fight was fun, interesting, or challenging.  Getting blown to scrap everytime I step out from under an overhang isn't "challenge," it's just an invincible enemy god-moding and throwing "no saving throw" death at me.

I had to kill it about 70-80 times before I get everything I wanted from it. My setup was simple:

Warframe: Nezha
Primary: Strun or ANY Shotgun (Vents explode in 2-3 hits)
Secondary: Vandal Lato or ANY Hitscan secondary (Quick instant damage to the specific area in the last Phase)
Melee: Zenistar (For the little spiders)

I tried doing it solo at first, it took me about 30 minutes. Then I found a party and was able to do it consistently within 10-15 minutes per run. I believe you'll have a similar experience if you try using my setup. Hope this helps! 🙂

[Kaotyke]

1 hour ago, EmberStar said:

I shot the rocks at her feet.  For two minutes (and a death for me) before she finally fell down.  Was I hitting the right spot?  Was I doing any damage at all?  Absolutely no clue.  There was no FX feedback at all, no sparks or rubble to indicate I was hitting a spot that was any different than any other random wall. 

The area glows like a container. And numbers appear when you damage it. Unless you have damage number disabled or have a visual bug, you were hitting the wrong spot.

1 hour ago, EmberStar said:

I threw the canisters at the vents.  She did the same thing as the ospreys, where by an *amazing* coincidence she moved just as I threw it nearly every time.  Even when I did line it up and shoot it properly, it only seemed to count every couple of throws.

This is just timming, and you need 2-3 throws on the same vent for it to fully be un-iced. Depends on how close the explosion was. If you were throwing the moment you egt close and she moves, thats on you. She has a patern in her movement.

1 hour ago, EmberStar said:

Meanwhile, spending more than a few seconds anywhere I could throw it was getting me hammered by the homing bullets from her laser cannon.  Inaros doesn't get a significant amount of healing from Sand, and the tiny spiders seem to be pretty much invalid targets for finisher attacks.  I got as far as her climbing up on the ceiling and summoning coolant raknoids before I finally ran out of revives.

Use the Operator, you can throw the canister while in Void Mode and if you have a long range Amp like the first 2 Prisms from Onkko or any of the Vox, you will hit the canister. And Inaros doesnt get a lot of healling there with his 1,2 or finishers. You use your 4th power since there are so many Raknoiditins.

[Kontrollo]

1 hour ago, Qmiras said:

I did it solo on my second run solo...takes quite a lot of time, but it's doable. And #*!% the Lanka, I did it with my twin grakatas and a saw ..not even primary. Of course you're gonna need a durable/tanky/godmode frame...as any boss fight [DE] designs.

Anyway...back on topic....it's ok if a part of the content is not for you, nobody is forcing you to like it

You don't need a tank. I just killed her solo again, this time with my standard Nyx build, to make sure what I wrote was accurate.

It didn't go entirely smoothly, I miscalculated the cold proc. But I also tried to avoid using Assimilate as much as possible, just to make that point (used it maybe 4-5 times both stages combined).

Just dodge a lot and use your Operator, and the fight can be done with any Warframe.

 

Spoiler

Edited March 24, 2019 by Kontrollo
pic

[SilentMobius]

6 hours ago, EmberStar said:

I finally had time this evening to try the Exploiter Orb fight.  And... it sucks.  Yet another battle where none of our powers work, fighting an enemy that is basically immune to all damage most of the time.  Oh, and she still has her rapid fire, near insta-kill homing laser, so that was fun too.  Having Zuud shout "shoot her footing" every few seconds at the start of the fight was fun too, especially since nothing seems to take any obvious damage.

And if anyone feels like trotting out "Oh, it's so easy for me," don't.  Because I'm not you.  I tried it with the most durable Warframe build I have, and a Lanka build that would supposedly be adequate for fighting Teralysts.  (No Riven, because I'm not throwing thousands of platinum at a weapon I don't particularly like.)  I ran out of self-revives before I even managed to destroy all the vents.

Nothing about the fight was fun, interesting, or challenging.  Getting blown to scrap everytime I step out from under an overhang isn't "challenge," it's just an invincible enemy god-moding and throwing "no saving throw" death at me.

So, contrary to most people here I believe the Exploiter Orb fight is:

• Poorly explained and telegraphed
• A complete departure in telegraphing and explanation level compared to the rest of the game and it's own containing event.
• Buggy, like anything newly released, making it difficult to recognize poor telegraphing compared to simply mechanical failure due to bugs.

I have no problem with a puzzle boss if it made clear that there is a puzzle and that the boundaries of the puzzle are made clear, the exploiter orb breaks it's own event rules without comment making it IMHO a very bad example of a "puzzle boss"

However,

Once you know the mechanics (via explanation, wiki, video, teaming osmosis) The fight is trivial and very quick to complete, and the characterization of the Orb character is a lot of fun.

I have completed it solo (Using Chroma) enough time that I never have to touch it again (I don't care about ephemera). So i believe you can too.

The lesson here is don't do brand new content until people with a higher tolerance for annoyance have put the details in a youtube video because DE do not seem to be committed to consistency with the mechanics.

[Vox_Preliator]

I do agree that the canisters aren't well-telegraphed, my first try I eventually alt-tabbed to the wiki to find out that the canisters in phase one are just kinda around, but not by the machine you initially activate.  That and because the coolant is marked but the thermia isn't, I sealed dozens of fissures and didn't realize that I was supposed to do anything further until I tripped over a pile of glowing canisters.  Also, her attacks seem to not exactly be "projectiles" so Mesa's Shattershield seems to straight-up not work while other frames with damage reduction such as Gara or Nezha work fine.

Everything else, though, is fine and 100% on you. 

[GPrime96]

2 hours ago, Qmiras said:

 Of course you're gonna need a durable/tanky/godmode frame...as any boss fight [DE] designs.

Not really:

Btw, i could’ve done a better job on this fight

Edited March 24, 2019 by GPrime96

[KnossosTNC]

Just did it again a moment ago. I've been soloing her once a day so long as I get a double resource boost (the Lazulite Toroids are a nice big ole' "Skip" button on the Vox Solaris Standing grind). Mixed it up a little: Zephyr + Corinth + Sicarus Prime. Worked pretty well, though I did run out of ammo a couple of times.

Recap: the OP came in complaining that a boss fight is too hard and didn't understand what to do, but instead of asking for help, complained that it "sucks." Cue some light ridicule, but also earnest attempts to help, including from myself. The OP only responds to the ridicule, doubles down, and plays victim.

At this point, I have exhausted my sympathy. This should be my last reply to this thread.

Edited March 24, 2019 by KnossosTNC

[DoomFruit]

I lean more towards the OP's view than the rest of the thread, but I did solo it, the only "guide" I saw was a very annoyed thread I started about the complete lack of indication as to how you actually start the damn thing (https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1071260-is-there-supposed-to-be-a-new-boss-fight-neither-the-game-nor-the-staff-have-said-anything-about-it/ - my attitude towards the boss softened very slightly after a few hours, but only enough to run it enough times to get all of Hildryn's parts)

My loadout:

-Max duration Loki Prime (my first choice for absolutely everything that's not defence, intercept or MD). Survivability comes from not being seen and from bullet jumping around like a maniac. Quick Stagger is equipped for those moments of "oh crap". I don't have Adaptation, I don care enough about arbitrations to try and get it.

-Corinth and Arca Scisco, both hybrid crit/status builds (rad/viral on Corinth, corrosive/cold on Arca). This was later changed to Sancti Tigris and an infinite ammo slow-firing crit-based rattleguts (explained further on). Melee wasn't relevant here at all, but I used my beloved Tonbo.

My end results:

-I killed the boss just enough times to get Hildryn's parts (5 times in total - I was extremely lucky) and I have no intention of going back there again. I don't have the ephemera or poseable action figure and I don't care. Invincibility phases, your equipment and abilities being almost pointless and inconsistent behaviour from the boss (heat level dropping randomly for no apparent reason) does not appeal to me. All runs were done solo.

 

To address your points one by one:

• Footholds. Damage number popups helped me a lot here. I started shooting at the points below the orb's feet when I got the radio transmission and saw numbers flying out. The game's trained me over many years to keep shooting when numbers appear. I don't recall seeing much shine, a healthbar or a name (crates exhibit this, for instance) from the foothold rocks, but I did tend to blow them up rather quickly. My choice of weapons (shotgun) would, however, have made hitting them easier even by accident. This could definitely have been made more apparent - some cracks on the wall where the orb is supporting its immense bulk would have been useful. Otherwise it does indeed look like any other piece of non-destructible terrain.
• Laser fire. The orb will only shoot if its belly turret sees you, but it will continue firing the entire burst regardless of your visibility state. Its shots, once fired, will continue to seek you even if you turn invisible, break line of sight and change direction completely. They don't have fantastic tracking ability, so it's quite possible to dodge a burst by judicious use of monkey-on-crack parkour. I did this a fair bit when my invis ran out at just the wrong time.
• Vents. Being invisible helped me a lot here. Things are so much easier when you're not being shot at. The annoying part was being required to shoot the canister in mid-air while it's close to the icy vent, with the stupid spider randomly swerving and ramming the canister. It was also never apparent when I had actually done any damage to the vent itself.
• (Weapon choice 1) Neither the vents nor the footholds take crits, hence my swap from Corinth to Sanctigris.
• Spider rain from the ceiling. This final phase is extremely annoying, because the orb will stick itself way up high with pretty much no way to even see the remaining vent unless you bullet jump and/or void dash high enough that you'd expect the game to have teleported you back down (to your inevitable death when it steals your active powers and stunlocks you for a few seconds, long enough to absorb a full volley) again. I expect that DE will fix this "exploit" of being able to get up high enough to actually see the damn vent at some point soon instead of fixing the utterly broken melee system, but I don't care. I'm not going back there again.

My observations on the second phase will likely not interest you, since you never got that far and don't care to see it again, but here they are for completeness.

• The ultraspider no longer has its homing laser. It gets a much weaker and shorter ranged flamethrower weapon on the underbelly turret instead.
• It's so inconsistent - not only with previous game mechanics, but with itself.
• You're supposed to put coolant canisters into magic space fire cracks in the earth, then take the spent coolant from that and splatter it over the orb. On first glance, this is utterly insane. You were required to do this previously in order to get some magic space resource to start the boss fight. This needed you to do a mobile defence with 4 terminals, each of which took ~3.5 minutes to complete. If I'm in a boss fight, the last thing I'm going to think of doing is "let's start this 15 minute mission which requires this one object to not get shot at". Instead, this now happens instantly with no reason given. WTF, DE.
• You get these canisters by shooting some rather skittish spiderbots BEFORE they can get close enough to the giant spider. They approach from all sides and when they get close enough, they launch a glob of blue spooge that's supposed to reduce the ultraspider's heat level. Except that sometimes the heat level doesn't go down when the blue glob hits, and sometimes the heat level goes down even when there are no smaller spiders around. The baby spiders will completely ignore you until they've shot their load. They might try to stab you at this point, but their health drops incredibly quickly after they're empty and so they pretty much all just shrivel up and die before they get anywhere near you.
• Controlling these smaller spiders is incredibly difficult solo. When I got frustrated with the spent coolant (see below), I tried hovering above with my archwing and shooting the coolant spiders before they could reach the giant spider in order to try and starve it out, but I couldn't manage to hit them all (that said, my right arm is injured at the moment which might be partially to blame).
• Orb heating. The ultraspider's heat level will constantly rise of its own volition, suggesting that it's possible to just lay siege to it and let it die that way. However, you're supposed to take spent coolant (from putting tinyspider brains into the glowing pits of death), toss it near the orb and shoot it when it's close enough to cause the orb to overheat. This wasn't immediately apparent, because you've already blown off all of the vents and nothing's iced over. There are further problems with this.
• The coolant canister sometimes decides that its planet needs it and that it would rather break orbit. Seriously. I'm lining up a throw at the orb and NOPE, it just goes flying up into space.
• Exploding the coolant canister over the orb is incredibly inconsistent. Most of the time, it doesn't seem to do anything at all to the orb's heat bar. It's a bit like the small spiders, except even less reliable.
• (Weapon choice 2) When the orb finally overheats and falls down, you approach it to jump on its face and rip off some kind of object (this is not explained anywhere), thus exposing 1 of its 3 exposed magic weak point things which can be shot at once the orb gets up again. These *are* vulnerable to crits, hence my choice of infinite ammo crit rattleguts, which is also useful for dealing with the minispiders. I have no idea whether the ultraspider will get up again if left long enough while vulnerable, nor whether it'll regrow that object if ignored.

But in any case, and with all of that done, it's still a 20-25 minute fight. It's long and frustrating due to the inconsistencies and apparent ineffectiveness of anything you do. Even Profit Taker was a better fight, because your actions at least had some effect on the boss. I got Hildryn's parts in 5 runs, and was incredibly lucky that it "only" took that little time. I didn't get any of the "special" bits (ephemera, action figure), and I have absolutely no intention of trying. Hell, I haven't even built Hildryn yet because I have this compulsion to keep exactly 1024 alertium in stock (shieldrhino chassis needs 2x to build), so I need to find some gear which requires exactly 3 more before I can allow myself to buy a 5x bundle from nightwave and craft the lot immediately.

Come to think of it, the only reason why I even bothered doing it another 4 times in the first place is because I triggered the invincibility glitch on my first run through, figured out immediately what caused it and used it for the rest of the runs. If the boss gets invincibility phases, then so do I.

Edited March 24, 2019 by DoomFruit

[Althaline]

The first time I ran this fight, I was completely caught off guard. Literally just went into the cave to progress story, and BAM, Exploiter attacks! Fortunately, I had my Rubico Prime and infinite ammo Catchmoon, so I could actually kill things when I needed to.

The rocks at the start were obvious once I realised that there was literally nothing on the front legs, but I didn't realise on my first run that there was more than one Thermia dispenser, so that stage took a while (for those wondering, it's 4 direct hits per vent to melt them). Playing Vazarin definitely helped with the constant stream of walking slash procs Mite Raknoids, so I had no issues with sustain (highly recommend Vazarin, especially for Garuda players).

Phase 2 is a slog, regardless of your build. Just keep throwing Thermia at her, she'll eventually heat up enough to die (I'm pretty sure that the coolant reduces heat by a set amount, but throwing Thermia increases the rate of heat buildup, so you'll eventually win as long as you just keep throwing stuff at her).

Overall, somewhat annoying but not awful. Certainly a better fight than Profit-Taker.

[HugintheCrow]

1 hour ago, DoomFruit said:

If the boss gets invincibility phases, then so do I.

lol