Kuva Lich + Requiem Relics + Thrall Feedback

[Pizzarugi]

I just want to start right off the bat by saying I'm glad DE is finally giving us something challenging. If you can look past the ridiculous amount of grind, fighting level 60-100 enemies based on lich level means you raise the average level of content you'll be playing which has always been a criticism I've had. Players have so much access to power, but the average missions before this update meant you trivialize the game and make everything around you fold over by sneezing at them. The Old Blood is a step in the right direction to give players challenging content. That said, I do have some suggestions to help polish this content up.

1. Make Requiem Relics have 100% drop chance for Kuva Siphon missions
The biggest issue I, and a lot of other players have, is that combating Liches is RNG stacked on top of RNG. Seeing as Kuva Floods are the only way to get a guaranteed relic which only comes by hourly, most of your time will be spent grinding regular siphons. Once you do get the relic, you then have to hope it drops the Requiem mod. This doesn't even cover the amount of trial and error you have to go through in order to find the right combination to defeat the Lich. It would be nice to alleviate the grind by making the relic drop 100% of the time in Kuva Siphons, perhaps dropping extra for floods.

2. Always have Lich influence on Kuva Siphon/Flood missions
Seeing as your most powerful adversary was reborn and is fueled by Kuva, it makes sense that they should oversee and secure its production. Considering that is how you get Requiem Relics, a smart Lich would make sure you don't get your hands on them. If we go with my suggestion of having siphons drop relics 100% of the time, having a couple of them stolen wouldn't be as painful as they are in the current state of the game. Have you done a Kuva Flood in a planet owned by a Lich? Losing that guaranteed relic on a per-chance basis is pretty unnerving. By having siphon/flood missions under a Lich's influence, where levels are determined by their rank with the exception of flood, it also makes it easier to grind for those Requiem Murmurs by having thralls spawn in the mission. You get your relic (sometimes) and you get Murmurs. It helps ease the grind!

3. Add some more incentive to rank up your Lich
As far as I've seen, all that you get from ranking up your Lich (failing to execute them with the correct Requiem mod order) is that they get better element resistances and their influenced missions get higher difficulty levels. That's it! All you get is a higher risk, but not an equivalent reward. I would lose literally nothing if I chose to avoid ranking up the Lich and defeating them at rank 1. Perhaps have their rank determine the elemental bonus percent of their gun, give them a significant stat buff if you choose to convert, maybe have ranks determine "interest" value of resources stolen when you have them returned with +0% at rank 1 up to +20% at 5. These are just a couple ideas off the top of my head on how to make it more worthwhile to rank them up.

4. Lich finishers should not outright kill the player under normal circumstances
I only did a public mission once in a Lich-controlled mission. It was fun having to fight tons of level 100+ enemies in an otherwise normal Excavation run. However, I became aware of the consequences of trying to Mercy kill a Lich during a public session, and found out I still get killed outright for failure. This adds to the issue other people have where they're blocking each other's Liches from spawning. Besides there being no reward for ranking them up, players aren't willing to eat a revive just to remove their adversary. In public missions or if you have a pet capable of reviving you, you should instead be brought to a bleedout state when failing to Mercy kill them.

5. Please buff converted Liches
Now that I have a total of 2 Liches converted, the first was my first ever created Lich and the second had a duplicate gun and element with a worse modifier, I had time to see how they played. I was expecting them to behave like the same Liches I fought when they were hostile with me, utilizing abilities to suppress me and keep me on my toes. They didn't. The only actions my allies performed was using their guns on the enemy and nothing else. Converted Liches should have their full potential unlocked as allies, using abilities to hurt and suppress enemies, and teleport to the player if they get too far just like specters. If abilities can't be given to them, then buff the stats of their weapons so they pose a constant threat to your enemies no matter how high leveled they should be.

I'll add more ideas as I come up with them.

Edited November 12, 2019 by Pizzarugi