Xaku: The Toxic Tricap Meta Antidote We Needed

[(XBOX)DarknessZeref]

Let me premise this by saying I have no horse in this race. The things talked about here could stay exactly how they are and I'd still be perfectly fine. If things change, I still probably won't capture more eidolons unless helping others. In my experience, players rarely capture more than 125 Hydrolysts. Personally have 197 and the highest I've seen are folks like crazyhieu or Stringhermix with 2,106 & 5,627 respectively which are utterly ridiculous numbers by all standards.

The reason players rarely capture more than 100 is because you'll max out Quill Onkko standing and probably have a few maxed focus schools if not all (if you focus farm elsewhere). There's simply a half life on Eidolon captures for a multitude of reasons. You gain focus at an alarming rate, access to arcanes and amps then once you have it all you're done. The motivation to reach a number as high as 200 was primarily to finish the rarest arcanes, Grace and Energize. Since the release of Scarlet Spear, you have seasonal access to easier arcanes in greater quantities that you can choose- which spits in the face of tricapping at all.

Xaku brings Xata's Whisper and with Xaku came Helminth. We all know where this is going, right? The devs noted they'd scale back void damage initially to monitor things, and not effect the Tricap meta. I'm here to tell you why it's a phenomenal idea to fully activate Xata's Whisper capabilities as a void buff accessible to all frames through Helminth.

What is a META?
Most Efficient Tactical Approach

How is the Tricap META toxic?
I began tricapping not as early as possible, since the initial one was quite tough and amps literally just came out, incentives were bare at best. Once the other two dropped is when the toxicity started. You must run Madurai x3 and Unairu Shooter, no exceptions. You have 50 minutes in a night cycle and no one wants their time wasted so don't you dare come in here as a Zenurik Ember or we will drop you. This continues today. Even with new amps introduced and whatnot, people have the audacity to ask if you have 300 hydrocaps to be successful with them and you really get what you're doing by hydrocap 25(although your focus school progress/capabilities don't match the experience). 

How can Xaku change the Tricap META?
Xata's Whisper, his first ability imbues your weapons with Void Damage. Your amps have Void Damage. Using Void Damage, you can damage Eidolon Shields and attack their weak points for direct health damage. You are currently unable to affect the shields while imbued with Xata's Whisper. This ability can be given to other Warframe via Helminth. In a perfect world, you could simply bring your Zenurik Ember into a Tricap while infused with Xata's Whisper to deal direct damage to the Eidolon's shield. This is major, because it allows a relatively new player to bypass the focus farming system to compete against Eidolons earlier utilizing what they CAN get, mods for their guns and better guns.

Why should the Tricap META change?
As mentioned earlier, I haven't tricapped in 2 years. It hasn't been relevant in a long time once you're done doing it and the only time I think about doing it again is when I invite a new member to my clan or a new player to the game and they eventually ask "Wow, how can we do that?" and I have to be toxic... "You need to focus on Zenurik first because it's more helpful to you more often times, but to do this you need Madurai and eventually Unairu to shoot." and they realize something they saw on day 1 is 200 days out from being possible in the most elite of "this is my alt" vibes possible. Being completely new? Seems like something we'll never get to and many players don't- or cap 2-4. Newer players need easier ways to access focus farming and Eidolons are by far the best way to do that- necessary even to unlock waybound passives. It should change to allow all players more ways to play this game type to get the things they need without adhering to the traditionally strict META.

[Vespilan]

So the TL;DR of this is "Let Xaku's Xata's Whisper affect frames so theres no need to use operator at all and Chroma can just two-shot them"?
Yeah, no thanks. 

[Jangong]

Quite sure this is just another unintended bug and it should be fixed soon

[RobWasHere]

Easier solution would be removing the time limit, like Profit Taker. Without pressure people could just kill them in their own time.
I'd be glad to able to remove the shields with my Redeemer instead of kiddo, I feel Eidolon fight in general could get use a rework, like ability to damage the shields without amps at all and less visual clutter.

[Katinka]

17 minutes ago, RobWasHere said:

Easier solution would be removing the time limit, like Profit Taker. Without pressure people could just kill them in their own time.

If there was just a little more time I could comfortably solo them to my heart's content.  If taking up a Bounty (Profit Taker style) let me have an instance of night time for as long as was needed that'd be great, even if the Bounty could only be started during night it'd take that little bit of pressure off. 
I've only captured one or two Hydrolysts, I think, as I generally play solo or 2-player and my friends aren't that into the Eidolon fights, but Scarlet Spear got me most of the Arcanes I wanted and Teralysts and Gantalysts have given me enough for my Focus schools to mostly be done, so it's really just the Riven Transmuters I want to be able to pick up.  I have a vast pile of unwanted Rivens that I've been storing with intention to Transmute because it seems a waste to turn them into credits/endo and I can't be bothered trying to find buyers for them!

[(XBOX)DarknessZeref]

29 minutes ago, Vespilan said:

So the TL;DR of this is "Let Xaku's Xata's Whisper affect frames so theres no need to use operator at all and Chroma can just two-shot them"?

Yes. Operator is slated for some unknown changes that'll probably mean upgraded amps to compete at a higher level anyway. Why not get ahead of it and give players a chance at them without being forced to Chroma/Harro/Trin/Volt. The same way you say Chroma two taps is the way Volt, Oberon, Rhino, Ivara, etc mains say "two tap". If the premise is to let us use whatever, this would allow that in abundance.

[(XBOX)DarknessZeref]

3 minutes ago, Katinka said:

If there was just a little more time I could comfortably solo them to my heart's content.  If taking up a Bounty (Profit Taker style) let me have an instance of night time for as long as was needed that'd be great, even if the Bounty could only be started during night it'd take that little bit of pressure off. 
I've only captured one or two Hydrolysts, I think, as I generally play solo or 2-player and my friends aren't that into the Eidolon fights, but Scarlet Spear got me most of the Arcanes I wanted and Teralysts and Gantalysts have given me enough for my Focus schools to mostly be done, so it's really just the Riven Transmuters I want to be able to pick up.  I have a vast pile of unwanted Rivens that I've been storing with intention to Transmute because it seems a waste to tuen them into credits/endo and I can't be bothered trying to find buyers for them!

 

14 minutes ago, RobWasHere said:

Easier solution would be removing the time limit, like Profit Taker. Without pressure people could just kill them in their own time.
I'd be glad to able to remove the shields with my Redeemer instead of kiddo, I feel Eidolon fight in general could get use a rework, like ability to damage the shields without amps at all and less visual clutter.

Elegant compromise

[(XBOX)DarknessZeref]

23 minutes ago, Jangong said:

Quite sure this is just another unintended bug and it should be fixed soon

Would love if that were true. They did see this conversation coming when building Xaku and preemptively announced the capability loss. Personally if it doesn't make the shield go BWEWP, it ain't Void Damage to me.

[Lutesque]

4 hours ago, Vespilan said:

So the TL;DR of this is "Let Xaku's Xata's Whisper affect frames so theres no need to use operator at all and Chroma can just two-shot them"?
Yeah, no thanks. 

Why would you still Use Chroma ?

Granted he's fast but he's not the only DPS Warframe out there....

I personally would just Stick with Ivara (Glaive Edition). She is the Queen of The Hunt after All...

[Major_Crash]

Meta is word in a dictionary and not a goddam abbreviation.

[Althaline]

Wouldn't allowing Xaku's Void damage to hit the Eidolon Shield just make an even more toxic meta? I can see it now: "LF Chroma w/Xata's Whisper 3000 Tricaps only 30x3"

17 hours ago, (XB1)DarknessZeref said:

What is a META?
Most Efficient Tactical Approach

No, meta is shorthand for referring to the idea of a "metagame", the game played outside of the game itself. It's the theorycrafting and optimisation side of things, but it usually results in a "most efficient approach" that people just brainlessly copy-paste onto their own gameplay, so people use "meta" to refer to the most popular and effective setups. Most people aren't willing to engage with the metagame, and so they wait for their content creators and speedrunners to do it for them.

[(XBOX)DarknessZeref]

9 hours ago, Iamabearlulz said:

Wouldn't allowing Xaku's Void damage to hit the Eidolon Shield just make an even more toxic meta? I can see it now: "LF Chroma w/Xata's Whisper 3000 Tricaps only 30x3"

Well as expected most are thinking about how it affects those who already sweat Eidolons and not the majority who can't piece together taking down one. The idea with this change is to get more people from 0 captures to 1 by way of using their guns to shoot off shields before they get better amps to do it with. Naturally it'll speed up the top end, but it'll always be limited by time and machine speed. 

Plus with Scarlet Spear there's an easier and faster option to getting arcanes. An MR 29 I know has 22 Hyrodcaps because that was literally the bare minimum he needed to max all focus schools and he hasn't touched it since. 

We're not protecting some holy grail of loot farming here by keeping the meta as strict as it currently is. We're just continuing to make things complicated and non-linear for new players with no explanation and it's frustrating for them to turn around and hear "gO fOcUS FaRM" just to do it and see "REQUIRES EIDOLON SHARD" then use their mote amp to tickle it a little bit. I could see my noob self already thinking "OH BET XAKU!" after reading about VOID DAMAGE, BUYING HIM, then being MASSIVELY DEVASTATED when the VOID WARFRAME'S VOID DAMAGE doesn't do VOID DAMAGE to SENTIENT EIDOLONS.