Xoris Interactions With Warframe Abilities & Exalted Weapons

[GhostRyderz]

 

[Alejandrokek]

 

Ditto

[Kodo1408]

 

[OP-R8R]

You nerf the Xoris... good... but then at least do your job and bring the exalted weapons in line with the Melee 3.0 meta.

Right now exalted melee weapons in this game suck because we are not allowed to use the mods which we can put on normal melee weapons. Why would I waste energy on an exalted weapon when an ordinary build on a normal melee weapon does the same or even a better job. Xoris was a great way to compensate that flaw.

 

Tell us the reason why we can't use mods like weeping wounds or blood rush on our exalted weapons. What is the point of normal melee weapons being able to use these mods while the exalted weapons are not allowed to use them? Whats the point and in literally downgrading these warframe abilities and therefore even these warframes?

 

I want to understand it why it is more important to you to nerf a weapon than to bring the exalted weapons in line with the melee 3.0 meta. Either keep the Xoris the way it is or for gods sake finally allow us to use ALL the melee mods on the exalted melee weapons.

Nerf the Xoris and you will have plenty of angry players but the fundamental problems with the exalted weapons remain. The issues with the missing mods remain, the issues with people using other methods to achieve exactly the same the Xoris was able to do remains.
With the decision as it is you are not going yourself a favor here @DE.

[eXotic]

Hey @[DE]Megan, i don't know if y'all knew this.. but..

you can do the exact same thing the xoris did, WITH RIVENS.. i used the DUAL ETHERS with a really mediocre riven and still got the same outcome..

At this point i just feel like y'all are nerfing it because it affects the riven market, either that or y'all really don't know how your game works, no offense.

 

[Linx51804]

Why do u people always do this anything that is fun to use or makes life easier u guys just #*!%ing strip away without thinking that those hard asses out there that don’t like us stealing their kills aren’t the only people with opinions take the bramma yes it caused lag but what made it so much fun was spamming it and now because of this nerf I’m not even gonna be able to use my favorite bow in the game or my new favorite melee weapon I’m confused how come every time something becomes popular u guys nerf it like what the hell and just saying the combo counter does not affect the power of a weapon all it does is increase the CRIT which it doesn’t even do if u don’t have blood rush or the gladiator mods so what’s next de you gonna take our favorite mods because we are “too powerful” this is a load of S#&$

[SpentCasings]

1 hour ago, eXotic said:

Hey @[DE]Megan, i don't know if y'all knew this.. but..

you can do the exact same thing the xoris did, WITH RIVENS.. i used the DUAL ETHERS with a really mediocre riven and still got the same outcome..

At this point i just feel like y'all are nerfing it because it affects the riven market, either that or y'all really don't know how your game works, no offense.

 

They dont min max. They just nerf.

[SpentCasings]

8 hours ago, DreadWarlock said:

Lol, Mesa Prime will fall off incredibly fast in Steel Path. She's only good on normal missions because armor increase caps at level 75.

 

I was murdering before the armor changes. Are the steel path enemies going to have more armor than before the armor nerfs?

[(PSN)primusmark10]

what the hell?

On 2020-07-01 at 9:25 PM, [DE]Megan said:

The first issue: The Xoris’ infinite Melee Combo Duration directly amplifies the Damage output of certain Warframe Abilities that won't reset/decay unless you detonate the Xoris manually using heavy attack, or if you die. Thus scaling with Warframe Abilities that are amplified by your Melee Combo multiplier (Ash Blade Storm, Atlas Landslide, and Khora Whipclaw), and even more so when equipped with Blood Rush or Weeping Wounds.

 

that is not what happens The Xoris’ infinite Melee Combo Duration does NOT directly amplifies the Damage output of those certain Warframe Abilities. those damage numbers have always been there, what the xoris did do was remove the over reliance on naramon and combo duration mods allowing MORE freedom to play around and use other focus schools and mods not

On 2020-07-01 at 9:25 PM, [DE]Megan said:

and the conversation of ‘Xoris or you’re doing it wrong’ is greatly restrictive in terms of player choice. This was our oversight, our mistake, and we apologize for the time it took to formulate a plan and address this. So let’s break down our plans:

it does NOT restrict player choice, as mentioned above, it in fact does the opposite

On 2020-07-01 at 9:25 PM, [DE]Megan said:

The interaction with the Xoris and Gladiator Mod Set for Warframe Exalted weapons. The Gladiator Mod Set bonus is being carried over from the equipped Melee to the Exalted Warframe weapons such as Baruuk’s Serene Storm, Excalibur’s Exalted Blade, Valkyr’s Talons and Wukong’s Iron Staff.

How is that a bad thing? it actually lets exalted weapons have an actual punch to them that justifies the energy drain. Without the combo crit/stat bonus most exalted weapons are essentially cheap gimmicky versions of regular weapons. The Venka easily outpaces Valkyr’s Talons, the Lesion and Orthos prime can put Wukong’s Iron Staff to shame and even the poster boy Excalibur’s Exalted Blade can be outpaced by a Broken War as well as a Skana of all things (provided the latter with a riven) .The only exception being Baruuk as his is powerful regardless of the xoris or not as the reactive storm augment balances out the lack of combo mods.

Allowing combo mods to affect exalted melee weapons via stat sticks like the Xoris actually lets them actually live up to their hype so to speak and actually become weapons worth draining your energy into in comparison to regular weapons

[(PSN)primusmark10]

I'm sure others have linked this video but

this explains everything perfectly

[---Swaggi---]

That sth is convenient doesnt mean it is OP 😛
If the spawns werde made properly there would be no need for such a weapon to be used as a stat stick.

[---Swaggi---]

On 2020-07-01 at 5:55 PM, [DE]Megan said:

and the conversation of ‘Xoris or you’re doing it wrong’ is greatly restrictive in terms of player choice.

Thats just wrong! It actually expanded the pool of weapon of choices. Before that the best weapons for abilities like this were Amphis, Mire or Jaw sword since they have max riven dispo. But with the Xoris there came a additonal QoL weapon.
Your decision to nerf it now is just the result of misunderstanding the whole situation.

Combo duration has nothing to do with dmg output! The fact that we are using it as a stat stick and using its infinite combo duration is just because of the screwed up enemy spawn mechanic or the fact that eg in defense missions, we dont want to build up our combo multiplier every stupid wave (Because again enemies take too long to spawn and take too much time to come close enough)

If u gonna nerf it now thats not that big deal for us. We just return to our old weapons and do the same thing as before just better. With more Damage! 
The Result of this nerf will be that the xoris is gonna be a forgotten weapon that had once a good purpose in the game but then it got removed and then got covered in dust while staying in the locker since it‘s also just a moderate weapon and not viable for higher enemies...

My advice: Just let the Xoris exist as it is or remove the Ability that Riven Stats also counts for Abilities such as Whip, Landslide etc.
Because otherwise you guys change literally nothing.

[LifeupOmega]

This is straight up a terrible change that just forces us back into optimal stat stick territory for any frame with an exalted or pseudo-exalted ability. Xoris wasn't good, but it gave quality of life. Jaw Sword, Mire? Those are good. The best even. But they don't have QoL. Instead every 30 seconds I needed to cancel my exalted, punch an enemy, and then go back to my exalted to retain combo. I got more damage out of it too in the long run because of riven disposition and an additional mod slot because of that riven.

All this does is reduce choice, and shows a massive misunderstanding of mechanics by the team who implemented them in the first place. 

[LoneTonberry]

As many have already said, the Xoris isn't the issue. It might look like it is because of a sudden usage spike as people who were getting by with these abilities with whatever rivened stat stick they had or were avoiding using these frames because they didn't have a good stat stick for them suddenly started using them. Numbers wise the Xoris doesn't give any actual damage benefit. It just makes it easier to maintain that damage. Now there can be an argument about whether or not you should be able to maintain that damage forever and how much "work" should be required to do so but that's not the discussion being had here. The discussion is being framed as if the Xoris is some godly damage stick that is breaking these abilities when that just isn't true. I played Whipclaw Khora before and after the Xoris and I've even gone back to it since the Xoris to make sure I wasn't misremembering and even with my mediocre Dokrahm riven and a similar build I saw way higher damage with my Dokrahm. For me and I'm sure many others what the Xoris did was allow me to be more flexible in my play style, and incorporate more utility into my build without feeling like I'm dragging the team down by being inefficient.

What I personally would rather see is some TLC given to these exalted abilities. My own personal preference for the equippable exalted melee weapons would be to decouple them from their respective abilities in a sense. Much like you already do with frame specific cosmetics turn the exalted melee into a frame specific alternative melee that the frame can equip and let us just use it normally. Or do like you do with Garuda where her Talons are her default melee as long as she doesn't have a melee equipped. Then, the ability itself becomes the buff portion of the current ability maybe with an added buff if you're equipped with the exalted melee. Take away any benefit from stat sticks and let them be modded with the Acolyte mods.

So in the case of Valkyr let us equip her talons as a base melee weapon. So then when Valkyr casts Hysteria, have her equip the exalted melee over her current melee as it does now if she's using a different one. Maybe give it a buff in damage if she actually has the talons equipped as her melee weapon.

For Excalibur, you could tie the energy waves and the blind on slide attack to having the energy from his ult imbued into the blade but let him just use the sword normally the same way, summoning the sword over his equipped melee if not equipped and perhaps increasing its power if you do have it equipped.

Exalted abilities are a little trickier because they require a decision about their design philosophy. Are you okay with stat sticks for these abilities, or aren't you? The answer to that has massive implications in how to move forward with them. If you aren't okay with stat stick weapons then just like you did with the other exalted weapons I don't really see a way around them being separately moddable without massive buffs to the damage of these abilities and how they scale. If you're okay with stat sticks then either way Rivens and other weapon augments/passives need to be excluded from the calculations. With the talk of wanting build diversity allowing these things to affect these abilities destroys that because it's either "you're stuck with what you've got" or "heh, 5/5 dispo weapon with augment/passive or you're doing it wrong" which the perception that it's become "Xoris or you're doing it wrong" points to that mentality also being unacceptable. But we can't just remove riven interactions because then it just changes what weapon is the "or you're doing it wrong" choice. If you just remove riven interaction but keep the combo counter stuff and allow Blood Rush to affect the abilities then it actually does make Xoris the only "optimal" option if its infinite combo duration is allowed to carry over.

So what do we do? Either way, I don't think the current proposal of making these abilities reset the counter if you're using the Xoris is the correct one because it also does damage to build diversity because it makes the Xoris actively worse than any other option. "Xoris or you're doing it wrong." just becomes "Xoris? You're doing it wrong." What I personally think should be done I'm not sure it's possible is that these abilities should have their own internal combo counter and not run off the melee one. This separate combo counter should not be affected by mods in the weapon and should either be already infinite, or have a much longer duration than the standard melee combo counter. You can then have Blood Rush/Weeping Wounds in the weapon calculate based on this combo counter and not the standard melee counter based on the ability's own internal crit/status chance as well as the other equipped mods like you already do.

I really hope this feedback helps. I don't really comment on the forums much but I've really enjoyed this game since Closed Beta and want to see it do well. Cheers and stay safe.

[Handy_Handerson]

Yep, time to patch fun again. We can't have that now, can we...😕

[SpentCasings]

12 hours ago, Xaiken-EN- said:

I'm sorry but you have completely misunderstood why the Xoris was popular. It did not amplify our damage, it made our already achievable damage convenient. ANY melee weapon can reach 12x, but they are inconvenient because combo duration is not fun to manage. Venka Prime is objectively better because it can reach 13x. Any stat stick (Amphis, Jaw Sword, Mire, etc) with a Riven is objectively better by giving us Riven level stats on top of 12x combo.

What the Xoris gave us was convenience. The convenience to not worry and micromanage. The convenience to not worry about rolling that nigh impossible Riven "slot machine" for a god roll. The convenience to not fork over hundreds of dollars in plat to "pay-to-win" that god roll Riven from another player. 

The Xoris GAVE us options. What options? Ash, Atlas, Baruuk, Excalibur, Khora, Valkyr, and Wukong. Primaries, Secondaries, Melee, Mesa, Saryn, Octavia, etc left these Warframes in the dust. The Xoris was the "convenient option" to bring these Warframes back up to speed and be competitive when the whole name of the game is to "kill fast" whether you like it or not.

The Xoris lets me and others like me play these frames again because we didn't want to do something inconvenient and unfun, because we didnt want to play the slot machine, because we didn't want to fuel a system that is just a loot box in a different coat of paint. The only thing this nerf says is that those are our only options

Balancing based on "popularity" misses the whole point of what needs to be balanced. When something is popular, the first question is "Why?" not "How do we nerf?" and you don't stop asking why.

Why do we like the Xoris? Because it's convenient.

Why? Because we can get 12x with ease, and we are not playing Devil may Cry or FIFA loot boxes.

Why? Because we want to use these Warframes' abilites.

Why? Because we want to have fun with these Warframes but their abilities are too weak on their own.

OH LOOK! The actual problem! These Warframe abilities that benefit from combo are inherently WEAKER than all our other options. I believe in being constructive so here are some solutions. They may not be the best, balancing a game is hard, so more ideas floating around never hurts:

1. Leave Xoris alone. The numbers stay the same as they were pre-Xoris (cause Xoris never increased the numbers, just made them convenient and consistent) and we have a fun weapon to band-aid our frames with.

2. Leave Xoris alone, remove Rivens working on abilities, and buff base combo duration to 10s. Here combo still affects abilities but we remove the highest level of the power level problem you are so concerned about. And I would like to ask a very important question while I'm here. You said you would never make Rivens for Warframes, yet Melee Rivens have a direct, palpable, and undisputable affect on Warframe abilities. Why have you not fixed this?

3. Leave Xoris alone, remove Rivens from affecting abilities, prevent abilities from benefiting from combo multipliers unless they are true exalted where they will benefit from only their own combos, and BUFF the abilities, that relied on combo to be competitive, to be competitive inherently. 

Please don't be so shortsighted and hypocritical. Please ask "Why?" and keep asking. And when you're done asking yourselves why, ask us, the players, "Why?" You might be surprised to see what we see. I love you DE. I love Warframe. But sometimes I have to ask, why?

Edit: Grammar and some small things.

Can I like this post twice please? Someone post this on twiiter. Since they seem to read that more. lol

[Sylonus]

12 hours ago, DreadWarlock said:

None of the things you cited has ever been in the meta. Also Magus Lockdown nerf was also warrated, A CC ability shouldn't cause that much damage. Otherwise why even use the other arcane which was made for damage? Covert Lethality was overrated, daggers can now be used on combos to cause damage, so it was a fair tradoff, Maiming Strike fully deserved the Nuke, as it fostered cancerous gameplay that ignores melee systems.

What are you talking about? Ember, Chroma, Catchmoon, Maiming Strike, Many of the AoE weapons That got nerfed recently, Exodia Contagion (Though not specifically the pairing with Limbo), Covert Lethality, Magus Lockdown, and Loot Ability Stacking were all quite meta for a long time.

Self-Damage Trinity, and specifically combining Contagion with Limbo were only ones I listed not in the meta, and the original statement was they didn't ever nerf anything that had been around for a long time, and I was just pointing out that that was a hilariously off base statement.

I agree that Covert Lethality was overrated, but only because nothing in the game at the time called for it, and you'd be better off doing aoe damage, it would be more useful now potentially in the steel path, but, frankly nobody uses daggers now at all (At least after the Rakta Dark Dagger Nerf, but I didn't mention that because it was -kinda- the new hot thing at the time due to shield gating changes), so I'd call it a bad tradeoff.

I definitely disagree with Maiming Strike, yes, it let us ignore melee systems we didn't like, guess what, we still do, we still use either all heavy attacks or the same 1-2 combos we like on a weapon, and nothing else, it's not very different from just using spin attacks, it's now just one less option, my personal "fix" would've just been to allow Maiming OR Bloodrush on a weapon, and not both.

I do agree that Lockdown probably deserved a nerf of some sort, but I do feel they were too strict with it, never cared about the damage, but it was kinda the most theoretically worrisome in "infinite scaling through walls on any warframe" , but the amount of mines limitation is pretty rough, I don't even use it anymore, though I may give it a shot again with Steel Path, we'll see, my personal fix would've been to remove the damage altogether, and leave the rest.

[SudoSamurai]

Just came across Brozime's video on this. You can roll your eyes and dismiss if you want, but based on the fact that you guys make changes like this in the face of perfectly reasonable takes like his is why I generally side with the content creators like him.

The tl;dr I wanted to put up here is this is why I basically stopped playing Warframe. You guys spend time putting new weapons and frames in the game when you should be creating a more cohesive story, new player experience, and giving us more to do that isn't fodder like Railjack. But then you have these wild takes that go completely against the fun or convenience experienced by the player base, making it not only a waste of time for you, but also for the players who Forma'd the Xoris and invested in builds.

Nighwave intermission sat for what, 150 days or somesuch? And after you guys promised it would be less chorey things after season 1, it's all the same stuff. Meanwhile, the gameplay loop for games like Phantasy Star Online 2 (which have similar systems, loops, and even harsher monetization structures in some cases) is more fun and rewarding. And it's been out since 2013. It's cool, though, cause you guys released Protea with a feature people have been asking that Vauban have since before his first rework.

There's just too much clear cut nonsense in your decision making process that really makes it seem like you guys are looking at this game from an entirely different perspective than the players. Which is misguided at best. Time and again, you ignore existing problems in favor of new dumb garbage grinds like Railjack or pumping out new Warframes and weapons and Prime Access packs. It really seems like you guys lost your way from the vision you had and the people you were.

Far be it from me to suggest that Brozime's analysis and take are the ONLY relevant data around. As a new player, watching him damaged some of my perspective on the game as he doesn't openly advertise that he's mostly interested in end-game level content, so when he says something is "garbage" he usually means for that. So, for a long time, I played the game from the wrong perspective for the level of content I was going though and only later discovered I could have fun with all the stuff he said was bad. HOWEVER, the man knows what he's talking about AND he represents and important part of your player base, along with other high level content creators.

This game is still in a place where, if you don't look up content for it on YouTube, you're not going to have fun. Every time I tried to get friends to try this game out, the ones who did constantly ran into issues of feeling like they had no effect on enemies and stuff took forever to kill.
"Farm this mission to get this weapon, then use these mods on it"
"Where does it tell you this?"
"Nowhere in game. This is a build from YouTube"

They felt the content was repetitive, there's no interesting story to speak of because it's not brought to you in any kind of interesting, cohesive way to get you hooked and keep you going.
"Go check your codex for quests"
"Why doesn't it tell me that? Why isn't there a clear story path? Why should I care about what's happening in this game?"

Farming things is supposed to be the gameplay, but what happens when you get the thing you want or maybe you've played for awhile and you get everything? A well made game rewards you for playing and makes you feel like playing more will yield more rewards, thus motivating you to continue. Warframe doesn't even tell you what to get or how to get it. Your starer frame choice can VASTLY change your experience, the weapons you either farm or choose to spend platinum on (cause the game presents you with an easy-to-get-to storefront but doesn't really say "you can go farm this here") can vastly change how effective you are or how easy it will be to scale up to higher levels. When I started, I had no idea how to proceed until I went to YouTube, then I was in the blender of high-level content creators and their tier lists and telling the friends who were playing with me at the time "ok, go for these frames, these other ones are garbage" (only later, after they had lost interest, realizing I was negatively shaping their experience as well).

And then, back when you did have me hooked with the loops you had created, you start branching off into weird stuff like Railjack and making it such a pain in the ass grind that it's not even really worth it. It's not fun, no matter how cool and shiny it is. You have content creators coming out in droves talking about how busted it is, but that doesn't matter and doesn't get your attention. I did the things, farmed the ship, and I'd be happy if I never did another Railjack mission ever again. I'd be happy if the base gameplay of Warframe got to where it was fun and rewarding again. The very fact that Scarlet Spear didn't make you guys take a serious pause and rethink your approach to content and this game is telling in that you really don't know what you're doing or how you want to do it.

And now at MR 26 with a lot of time invested, I just don't have reason to care anymore. Even the new frames aren't reason enough to come back. And the new weapons? Well, that circles us right back to where we started nicely, doesn't it? You put a weapon in the game everyone could easily get. A way to reward them for doing new content. You waited forever for it to get popular and for people to Forma and use the hell out of it, then you told them you're taking away the reason it was so fun and convenient. Please explain to me which player tier I need to be at where that wouldn't bother me? A new player would be devastated for the time and Forma lost, and an old, tired player like myself is justified in every reason I've just given for staying away from the game. If I had jumped back in for the cool new weapon, it would've been a complete waste of time.

The fact that you're willing to completely gut something you JUST PUT into the game that performs a function similar to other things the game has had forever, meanwhile you're leaving your lucrative Riven market intact, really shows your true intent, even if you won't come out and say it yourself. And the problem for you is that even if you genuinely aren't trying to make sure people are still pushed in that direction, that's how it seems. That's how the player perspective will see it. Only people giving you the benefit of the doubt, like Brozime, will see it as genuine knee-jerk nonsense, which isn't really any better.

I'm at the point now where I don't even want to spend more time formulating my thoughts better or editing this post to make it more cohesive and organized, because I know it won't matter anyways (ironic, right?). I'm tired of the amount of work I have to put in for the very little fun I get in return. There are other grinds I can participate in that have much better ratios in games much better designed and executed than Warframe. If you guys want to keep this dream alive, you need to take a step back, look at yourselves, and really try to get back to things like "we changed movement in the game because of this one weapon build people could use to slingshot across maps, because people were having fun with it." That's the DE that was making legendary, breathtaking stuff. That's not who you guys are, anymore.

[sirz_benjie]

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I just don't think that this change is the appropriate way to handle the strength of Xoris.  While it may be true that Xoris allows for convenience for these abilities, this change just means that instead of xoris no longer being one of the better options for these weapons, it is now hands down the worst option.  Why make the combo meter decay completely?

There are other issues with how this interaction works that are being ignored.  This approach does not seem like a solution.  It doesn't seem like a band-aid either.

So now you build up combo to 12x and you attack once with Valkyr's talons, and you have to deactivate the ability to build the buffs back up? Why?  The infinite duration doesn't really add any power at all, especially for those abilities for which it was truly a problem.  For Khora's whipclaw, what is it to just press E once every 15s (assuming body count)?  Keeping the combo up at 12x infinitely was really just a minor convenience. 

 

This post makes it seem like the Xoris added unmatched strength, whereas it techncially added no strength to a weapon.  If anything, Venka adds more strength because it can scale the damage up one more time by getting its combo multiplier to 13x.

 

While I apprecaite posts like this, especially ones that contain the perspective of the developers, I feel that the developers should be engaging more with the community on their reasoning for changes, as well as how their solution addresses the problem that is trying to be fixed.

This post outlines a problem, (and in my opinion, overemphasizes the extent to which it is an issue) and then poses a solution.  However, there is no discussion as to why this approach is the one being chosen.  I believe the mindset of developers here needs to be more transparent.

[xXHappyCrasherXX]

On 2020-07-01 at 9:03 AM, HerrowBot said:

Okay so for once I must say, I like this cause when this weapon got into the game the meta was only that and the mass amount of damage you could use so it became very narrow in what choices you had while using specific frames, I can't speak for everyone here but as someone who plays Limbo quite regually now, this doesn't effect me much but I'm thinking of those that use those specific warframes mentioned

You really didn't have any freedom in what you did cause you know, the Xoris is so op in their capabilities and honestly it bough my joy down seeing how busted it was and made me move away from playing wukong all together but once this update drops, I'm looking forward to this and see how the meta will slowly get back to where it was and enjoyable from personal experience.


TLDR: I like this change as now more melee's can be used with the specific warframes other then only xoris, if you don't like it well than it's your personal opinion and this is mine.

yeah no, it was for utility, it was not ultimately busted, infact any garbage weapon with a 5 riven desposition can outperform xoris by miles. Xoris was just something I and many others liked to use because we didn't have to worry about some stupid combo timer all the time, this change is awful, and it just takes an amazing tool away from the community. It didn't restrict what you could use at all, in fact it wasn't even close to the best, it was mediocre, but it had an awesome quality of life change.

It's honestly kind of funny how the devs don't know how their own game works sometimes. Honestly a better choice would just be to make xoris rivens have like a 2 disposition.

 

[xXHappyCrasherXX]

On 2020-07-01 at 8:55 AM, [DE]Megan said:

Greetings, Tenno!

Within The Deadlock Protocol Quest brought the Xoris: a Glaive weapon capable of chaining Melee Combos infinitely. The design intention behind the infinite combo mechanic was predominantly added for the Granum Void’s charged throw moments, to allow you to retain your charges until you were ready. This mechanic opened up new avenues for Melee builds to maximize this infinite Melee Combo Duration, which is great! 

However, the overwhelming Damage output of certain Warframe Abilities was not our intention with an infinite Melee Combo weapon, and the conversation of ‘Xoris or you’re doing it wrong’ is greatly restrictive in terms of player choice. This was our oversight, our mistake, and we apologize for the time it took to formulate a plan and address this. So let’s break down our plans:

Our plan is not to nerf the base powers of the Warframes involved, or the Mods that amplify the issue (Blood Rush / Weeping Wounds / Gladiator Mod Set), as doing so isn’t fair as it’s a reaction to a single weapon. In turn, we have planned to only change the interactions with the Xoris directly. 

The first issue: The Xoris’ infinite Melee Combo Duration directly amplifies the Damage output of certain Warframe Abilities that won't reset/decay unless you detonate the Xoris manually using heavy attack, or if you die. Thus scaling with Warframe Abilities that are amplified by your Melee Combo multiplier (Ash Blade Storm, Atlas Landslide, and Khora Whipclaw), and even more so when equipped with Blood Rush or Weeping Wounds.

The second issue: The interaction with the Xoris and Gladiator Mod Set for Warframe Exalted weapons. The Gladiator Mod Set bonus is being carried over from the equipped Melee to the Exalted Warframe weapons such as Baruuk’s Serene Storm, Excalibur’s Exalted Blade, Valkyr’s Talons and Wukong’s Iron Staff.

The solution: The change coming with The Steel Path Update is to have the affected Warframe Exalted Abilities / Exalted weapons reset the Melee Combo Counter ONLY if the Xoris is being used. What you’ll see now is the Critical Chance bonus applying to the first hit on abilities that are intended to scale with regular Melee Combo Multiplier, but then the Melee Combo is reset by the Ability, and does not apply to subsequent hits unless you build it up again with Xoris itself. Exalted Melee ultimates will reset the Xoris' Melee Combo Counter at the time of cast. As stated above, we are doing this because restricting your choice to a single weapon for indisputable best performance invalidates all others and such an interaction does not warrant changes to base Warframes as a whole. 

In conclusion, Warframe Abilities / Exalted Warframe weapons affected by this are:

• Ash Bladestorm
• Atlas Landslide
• Baruuk Serene Storm
• Excalibur Exalted Blade
• Khora Whipclaw
• Valkyr Talons
• Wukong Iron Staff

 

Special note: Gara’s Shattered Lash will now scale with Melee Combo Counter, to be consistent with Khora Whipclaw and Atlas Landslide. The same Xoris restriction will still apply.

TLDR: Certain Warframe Abilities and Exalted weapons will reset the Melee Combo Counter only if the Xoris is being used.

We’ll be continuing to observe how the Xoris interacts with the above when The Steel Path Update arrives in your hands, and our apologies again for the wait. 

Thank you!

"ONLY if the Xoris is being used.", well after this update it won't be used, it didn't amplify damage it just made it so we don't have to panic every 10 seconds to find something to keep our combo multipliers up, there are SOOOOO many better alternatives to using this weapon, the xoris was just fun and convenient, taking away a useful tool like this is awful, why not do something similar to when coptering was removed, and make it into some sort of mechanic, I thought DE's policy was to not take away the fun in a glitch that everyone loved, but to make it into something that can be more broadly used and lest restrictive on the arsenal.

[xXHappyCrasherXX]

Gladiator mods should work with exalted weapons, all of em, it's wack that they don't.

Honestly, everyone complains about not having endgame stuff, and when we make endgame builds which are build to work without flaw, you rip away the ability to use gladiator mods on exalted weapons and the ability to not have to maintain a combo multiplier. 

[xXHappyCrasherXX]

On 2020-07-01 at 9:15 AM, [DE]Megan said:

Giving the Xoris combo duration kills the intended design for the Granum Void, which in turn affects The Deadlock Protocol quest. The idea of an infinite combo duration weapon opens the door for some cool builds, but we don't want the Xoris to be the only way to play.

It's not the only way to play, its not even the best it's just fun and convenient, read some peoples replies and look at what the community is telling you, look at brozimes video. 

All this does is protect the awful and stupidly expensive riven market we have in game.

We wouldn't need to care about what melee we used for this akward stack stick system, if you just allowed gladiator/bloodrush and weeping wounds to work with exalted weapons. Instead of restricting everything, open it up, let people get creative, and have a functional melee when using an exalted weapon.

Almost every time the community finds an awesome and powerful build for exalted weapons it just gets ripped right out of our hands, it's not fun, especially to people who spend a lot of time and effort finding the best build possible. 

I've got about 2k hours logged over about 4 years, and seeing something like this happen again is just painful.

[Muad.Dib.]

On 2020-07-01 at 6:15 PM, [DE]Megan said:

Giving the Xoris combo duration kills the intended design for the Granum Void, which in turn affects The Deadlock Protocol quest. The idea of an infinite combo duration weapon opens the door for some cool builds, but we don't want the Xoris to be the only way to play.

Xoris is not the only way to play and never will be. Why are you doing this?
Xoris as of now, is a very good weapon that DOES NOT add "overwhelming damage output" to certain exalted weapons. It's a good QoL/convenient and fun to play with. There are ways to add more overwhelming damage output by using rivens on high disposition weapons - which makes Xoris less better choice in terms of numbers. Nevertheless people want to play it like this because it's good.
Why?

[TheTodesfall]

"The Xoris’ infinite Melee Combo Duration directly amplifies the Damage output of certain Warframe Abilities" this is not true the xoris build in tactical potato's and brozime's videos can be done with rivens before the xoris was a thing and will be a thing after this "fix" xoris just added the comforrt of not looking at the anoying timer on the combo if you are using naramon it's the exact effect but but almost nobody does that why it's anoying to not have zenurik for most people your game is a power fantasy knora had and will have after this "fix" the best 1 out of the bunch

• Ash Bladestorm
• Atlas Landslide
• Baruuk Serene Storm
• Excalibur Exalted Blade
• Khora Whipclaw
• Valkyr Talons
• Wukong Iron Staff

the other ones are useless they are not worth the energy consumed to cast it.