A change in Excavation

[(XBOX)VanguardReed]

I honestly think this game would be better without this mission type. Like at higher levels, the drill is dead the moment it spawns. Especially when the only way to heal the drill is with power cores that may not even spawn for sixteen drills. Archon Hunt is a great example. The amount of times I have to replay a mission cause it takes 40 minutes just to get close to the end cause none of the drills last long enough. This has happened in three separate tries and I was just fed up with this crap. Really the only time I didn't hate playing this mission type was only on Earth where the drills can actually last.

Now I get that I may be letting my anger get to me but, I still think a change is needed. Maybe a better way of keeping the drills alive other than relying on spawn rng. Like having it so kills could heal the drill rather than needing to search for a core. I just think this mission type really needs some work. 

[Pakaku]

Is anyone on your team protecting them, at all? Frost globe, Limbo bubble, Gara glass, etc.

[(XBOX)VanguardReed]

We try. So far, the closest we got was when we had a Mag Prime, a Khora, me as Sevagoth and a Frost Prime. The issue is we have to literally wait five hours for a core carrier to spawn only to then get 20 seconds before it dies. It's literally a battle of attrition and with how the enemies progress in level, it's easier to just let them destroy the drill because then at least we'll get something. Issue then though will come down to not getting downed cause once like a 100 or so cryotic is harvested and someone's dead, you have to redo the mission in its entirety. Dark Souls is nicer than that.

Calming down, I really think they just need to change the power system for the drill and make it far stronger in end game stuff. The mission type is just too much of a grind where enemies are bullet sponges and your objective isn't. It should be like mobile defense where the objective has a lot of health for when literally a hundred enemies are in the area and all focusing it. Maybe even add defenses like for the Zariman missions. There needs to be something more than just relying on certain warframe abilites and rng in my opinion. 

[(PSN)IdoThea]

40 minutes ago, (XBOX)VanguardReed said:

Especially when the only way to heal the drill is with power cores

Protea's shield satellites actually also restores shields for drills.

 

But in higher levels nothing really helps these poor drills to get destroyed. So better tactic is to run from drill to drill even though it's tedious.

[RLanzinger]

To @(XBOX)VanguardReed,

Since it rework in 2020, the Main problem is :

1. Despite being a machine, the Excavator has Flesh-type health (sla+, toxin++, viral++). It's FRAGILE !!!
2. Healing capped at 100 HP/s ie 500HP for 5s non-stackable (2 healers like trinity + wisp is USELESS)
3. Damage reduction is capped at 50%. It will stay FRAGILE eternally.

Also I don't know if health are scaled like enemies levels but as it have no armor it is pretty useless anyway. Having a bit of armor and another type of health will really help at higher level (80+ / Archons Hunt) but won't change much in lower ones.

 

Remind that Excavators can respawn ie they are not mean to be protected by healing ie the way the dev conceive the mission imply :

1. You need to wipe out the map of any enemies
2. You need to prevent any incoming damage (like with Zephyr wind Shield)

 

If you compare basic excavators with Thermia Fractures's excavators you an guess what could make the difference : The thermia's ones does not start as soon as you approach, you have to trigger it which mean you can prepare yourself !!! No more surprise drop of excavators on your head, destroyed cause their are tons of ennemies and all you allies are away...

Even without changing the health-or-Damage-reduction, just being able to activate it at will could give a whole better strategic dimension to the excavation mission. Just that !

[gamingchair1121]

3 hours ago, (XBOX)VanguardReed said:

we have to literally wait five hours for a core carrier to spawn only to then get 20 seconds before it dies

is someone on console hosting? excavation takes like twice as long with a console host because of the reduced spawn rates

[(XBOX)VanguardReed]

8 hours ago, gamingchair1121 said:

is someone on console hosting? excavation takes like twice as long with a console host because of the reduced spawn rates

Is that an actual thing?

[gamingchair1121]

18 minutes ago, (XBOX)VanguardReed said:

Is that an actual thing?

yeah console spawns are pain

no joke one time I was doing an excavation and there was two khoras in the squad. just assumed they were trapping every enemy in their 4 but no, the host was on console. it was like every ten seconds an enemy came in instead of the usual two every second.

[(PSN)FunyFlyBoy]

19 hours ago, Pakaku said:

Is anyone on your team protecting them, at all? Frost globe, Limbo bubble, Gara glass, etc.

None of which stops a Leech Eximus, or Eximus in general. Whom, I might add, can attack the extractor before you're even aware they are on the map. Having to play hide-and-seek to protect Extractors gets very annoying. 

7 hours ago, gamingchair1121 said:

yeah console spawns are pain

no joke one time I was doing an excavation and there was two khoras in the squad. just assumed they were trapping every enemy in their 4 but no, the host was on console. it was like every ten seconds an enemy came in instead of the usual two every second.

Sounds like Switch specifically was a host. They have an even more reduced spawn rate than current gen consoles.