Universal "Dreamer's Bond" emboldens a lazy homogenization of modding while undermining all other Auras alongside Aura Forma

[Voltage]

This mod concerned me when I first saw a picture of it, but became more alarming as I read the patch notes.

I understand this mod is half as good as both Energy Siphon for energy regeneration and Rejuvenation for health regeneration comparatively. Having both bonuses under one mod is questionable for what it serves to new players. However, it's not a game-breaking amount of regeneration, even in a full squad (+1.2 Energy Regen/s, +6 Health Regen/s), so I don't really mind that it's being added in the first place. The other skepticism I had was the Madurai polarity. At first glance, this looks odd (instead of Naramon or Vazarin) and reminds me of Cold, Status Chance, and GunCO mods having Vazarin. However, this was cleared up in the patch notes as Mag and Volt possess Madurai Aura polarities (and Excalibur has no Aura polarity). Okay, makes sense, even if a little bit of an outlier.

8 hours ago, [DE]Danielle said:

The intent is to get new players familiar with Aura Mods earlier in the game. Which is also why we have temporarily assigned it the Madurai Polarity, which matches the Aura Slot for our starter Warframes Mag and Volt (Excalibur has an unassigned Aura Polarity).

(Source)

This is what bothers me about this mod: 

8 hours ago, [DE]Danielle said:

We will be changing its Polarity to Universal (can be equipped onto any Aura Polarity to increase mod capacity) in the Dante Unbound update, so that all Warframes can benefit from equipping it!

(Source)

This decision encourages a lazy modding decision for new players for the rest of the game (and to many existing players) and undermines Aura Forma as a meaningful reward for builds (which has already been undermined once before in Saint of Altra (2019) by being added to the Market). Likewise, it resurfaces what we saw for many years (and still today to an extent) with Steel Charge (and eventually Power Donation, although more niche) adding 9 (18 when polarized) modding capacity as opposed to every other Aura adding 7 (14 when polarized).

I mentioned this in feedback 6 years ago, and a portion of it still holds merit today:

Quote

We need Aura mods to give players more freedom and standardize what we have. Auras should all be a new polarity across the board, and players who have forma'd their Aura slot, be granted with a polarized slot. Primed Warframes will have this Aura installed by default, and players who have forma'd a Prime Warframe Aura will be given 1 forma per frame polarized. The Aura polarity could be the same as the mod type as such:

Players can polarize the slot to get more mod points. Instead of restricting themselves to certain polarities, they are free to choose any Aura they want and change them based on mission. All Aura mods will give a bonus of 7 (14 in the polarized slot). All the Auras I mention below will be at Max Rank.

(Source)

To modernize my initial suggestions (given in 2017 we did not have Aura or Stance Forma), this is how I would approach this:

1. Standardize the modding capacity gained from Aura and Stance mods. I mention Stances as these mods function similarly to Auras, and we now have melee Exilus mods as well as Exalted melee lacking the capacity boost. Parity between capacity boosting mods is important.
   1. Add this polarity by default to all Exalted melee Stance slots and Exalted Stance mods.
2. Add a new polarity that is shared between Aura and Stance mods (Plexus/Railjack included).
   1. All base Warframes (with the exception of Protea) will not have this polarity installed by default.
   2. All Prime Warframes, Excalibur Umbra, Plexus/Railjack, and Protea will have this polarity installed by default.
3. Teach new players through the modding tutorial using Dreamer's Bond and one free Aura Forma. Improve the new player experience in a meaningful way by giving the player both Dreamer's Bond and one Aura Forma in tandem while explaining the purpose. This teaches the player more about polarities, the fact vanilla Warframes do not have these by default, add a proper buff to Prime gear, and properly set up players for The New War with their Railjack without robbing them of critical mechanical experience by way of the introduction of Dreamer's Bond. To force this interaction to occur early in progression for mechanical education without creating a massive grind for releveling a Warframe, the player could be automatically leveled to rank 30 on solely their starter Warframe while completing the tutorial, and the player would then be explained Mods, Aura Mods, Aura Forma, normal Forma, polarities, Affinity, leveling, and Mastery Rank at the same time. This would give them a much needed capacity boost in early content while explaining very basic modding choices.
4. Remove Stance Forma from the game and give all melee Stance slots this new Aura/Stance polarity. These were never sold for Platinum, and their usage has always been niche (Dark Split-Sword) or for a completionist checkmark with no real benefit to the player's arsenal. Unlike Aura Mods, there are always best in-slot stances due to forced procs and damage multipliers. Using a stance outside of this purpose has always been for flavor. Players have always matched polarities or reapplied Forma to slot the best stance for the given melee family (such as Sovereign Outcast for Tonfas). I have installed Stance Forma on every melee in the game with the exception of Zaws, and I rather see them removed if it means standardizing modding to reflect a more streamlined user experience.
5. Relocate Aura Forma from Arbitrations to Starchart rotation rewards. This gives all players an acceptable avenue to farm these items. Newer players can install them on their earned Warframes throughout the game within this reward path while existing players have a reliable method of earning blueprints through natural gameplay. Arbitration players would receive an updated drop table that removes this bloat item in favor of more of what Arbitrations offer. Given these were added to the Market for Platinum many years ago, their value as a rotation reward during Arbitrations has been eroded almost entirely.
6. Reduce the Forma cost for crafting Aura Forma from 4 to 2.
7. Reduce the Market cost for Aura Forma from 80 to 60 for a single and keep the bundle unchanged at 150.

A major part of the new player experience is first impressions with teaching mechanics, and adding a starter Aura that lets them bypass the entire polarity system for Auras indefinitely isn't doing them a service long-term. Introducing players to the Universal polarity in the early game (along with the rest of the polarities) through a larger set of changes would give them a healthier perspective to Warframe modding and also benefit everyone else going forward.

Dreamer's Bond soon becoming the only Universal Aura is not only the lowest-hanging fruit for a change, but the proposed encourages the laziest modding perspective for the entirety of Warframe for so many players while completely neglecting why this initial concern had arisen to begin with. Now is the time to address this, and the game deserves better.

Cheers, Voltage.

Edited February 21 by Voltage
Removed numerical detail that raised point of contention.

[Tiltskillet]

15 minutes ago, Voltage said:

Remove Stance Forma from the game and give all melee Stance slots this new Aura/Stance polarity.

I'm undecided on the rest, but melee stances/stance slots always should have been one polarity, or  universal polarity.  Or no polarity plus 10 base capacity to make up the difference.

They should finally fix this, and give some sort of consolation prize to people who've bought stance forma.

[quxier]

58 minutes ago, Voltage said:

This decision encourages a lazy modding decision for new players for the rest of the game (and to many existing players) and undermines Aura Forma as a meaningful reward for builds (which has already been undermined once before in Saint of Altra (2019) by being added to the Market).

I'm confused. What I read is that they are changing polarity of the Dreamer's bond into universal. Do we have mods with universal polarity?

Maybe I understand it wrongly and it's as you think "changing 3 frame's aura's polarities into universal (aura forma installed by default)". If that's the case then "giving free aura forma and teaching new players how to use" is good think.

1 hour ago, Voltage said:

•  
• Remove Stance Forma from the game and give all melee Stance slots this new Aura/Stance polarity. These were never sold for Platinum, and their usage has always been niche (Dark Split-Sword) or for a completionist checkmark with no real benefit to the player's arsenal. Unlike Aura Mods, there are always best in-slot stances due to forced procs and damage multipliers. Using a stance outside of this purpose has always been for flavor. Players have always matched polarities or reapplied Forma to slot the best stance for the given melee family (such as Sovereign Outcast for Tonfas). I have installed Stance Forma on every melee in the game with the exception of Zaws, and I rather see them removed if it means standardizing modding to reflect a more streamlined user experience.

+1

I think Tonfa had few good (enough) stances with different polarities. So those were cases where I would like to use Stance forma.

[Voltage]

10 minutes ago, quxier said:

I'm confused. What I read is that they are changing polarity of the Dreamer's bond into universal. Do we have mods with universal polarity?

Maybe I understand it wrongly and it's as you think "changing 3 frame's aura's polarities into universal (aura forma installed by default)". If that's the case then "giving free aura forma and teaching new players how to use" is good think.

Once Dante's Unbound goes live, Dreamer's Bond will have a universal aura polarity and provide +14 capacity to all Warframes with the exception of Excalibur, Nekros, and Sevagoth getting +7 capacity (because these three Warframes have no Aura polarity at all). This change will highly encourage lazy homogenization of builds where people will not only feel compelled to keep this one Aura on all builds, but even be advised to by other players or content creators (with the exception of some niche cases like Protea who has a universal polarity in her Aura slot by default). You may as well make all Auras the same polarity if you're going to add one that throws the entire polarity system out the window, especially with safe bonuses. It's not like Dreamer's Bond is Pistol Scavenger, it's a reduced combination of Energy Siphon and Rejuvenation which are highly beneficial for the players they are designed towards.

1 hour ago, Tiltskillet said:

I'm undecided on the rest

I'm not a fan of feedback that intentionally ensures all proposed changes are strictly buffs for the player, even when some of the buffs could be offset by some small negatives that would retain some of the reason things are they way they are. Like yeah, some stuff like Universal Vacuum is just an obvious QoL and net-positive for players, but suggesting changes to Aura mods must consider the current costs and the reasons for mechanics such as Aura Forma and polarities. What drove me to write this post begin with is that DE is undermining their own systems to this degree. I know they do it all the time in their past content, but this is just over the top. If this mod just released as a Naramon polarity, I wouldn't have minded really.

Edited February 20 by Voltage

[Nyx.Sunspot]

"encourages lazy modding" lmao A. It's barely even good for new players and B. Maybe try to not care so much about how /OTHER/ people play the game 😂 there's so much stuff in this game that there is literally room for everyone and everything and people acting like anyone has to play this way or that way, especially the "mEtA" are childish and focus too much on others. Literally the way others mod "lazy" or otherwise is none of your or anyone else's business, especially in a game where it /does not affect you personally/. 

[MrDugan]

I can agree and disagree on a lot of this, but my overall stance on the current modding system is that all of this should be moot because it needs an overhaul.  My biggest complaint with your suggestion is changing all auras to 7/14.  This would break builds that I have where I literally cannot fit the build without a 9/18 aura because of crazy high mod drain, needing certain slots unpolarized because of mod differences between loadouts, or because umbra forma is so inaccessible.  

And because of the refusal to acknowledge that the polarity/modding system is outdated and cumbersome, I am absolutely dreading Sevagoth Prime when he shows up eventually, and might just rank and toss in favor of using the base.  Because I am NOT spending another 15 forma on a single frame because of him having 2 extra individual mod screens.  We need a better system.

Edited February 20 by MrDugan

[Famecans]

Great topic. I think the devs are polishing game's progression as casual mobile gameplay is coming. I agree that universal polarity should not exist in mods.

the DE could encourage players to use Aura Forma at this stage. In short, upon completing Venus Junction, the player receives Dreamer's Bond and Aura Forma as a reward and is required by the tutorial to use them in any Warframe.

I hate tutorial games but in this case it seems fair that the junctions between planets encourage players to new progression systems.

[ominumi]

It's a bandaid apporach. The other option is to put in innate regen for health and energy baseline for all warframe. 

[Voltage]

47 minutes ago, Sol.Morningstar said:

"encourages lazy modding" lmao A. It's barely even good for new players and B. Maybe try to not care so much about how /OTHER/ people play the game 😂 there's so much stuff in this game that there is literally room for everyone and everything and people acting like anyone has to play this way or that way, especially the "mEtA" are childish and focus too much on others. Literally the way others mod "lazy" or otherwise is none of your or anyone else's business, especially in a game where it /does not affect you personally/. 

In isolation, yes, I can absolutely see why this would be a silly thread to make. When I made my initial thread about Auras in 2017, I looked at them in isolation, and I ended up writing rather terrible feedback that makes me look way too concerned about what people are picking instead of how it affects the general game. However, this is not that thread. You're looking at this as if my only concern with the upcoming change is how it affects choices right now. No, my concern is that this further encourages players down the road of using something extremely cookie-cutter because the game rewards you for doing so. This same concern is why Revenant usage was so high in 2023 (among many other examples over the years that led us to the way current content functions). High levels of time-gating seen in things like The Circuit, Archon Hunts, Veilbreaker and Netracells are absolutely related to the overall concern this thread is speaking to. When the behavior of players is encouraged this way, you end up with the general community leaning heavily towards reducing inputs. Whether that's in their arsenal or their missions doesn't matter, it affects other players. We saw this with capped Steel Essence purchases from Teshin for Kuva and Relic Packs.

Whether these changes I drafted are implemented or not, I would see no difference to my experience with Aura/Stance Mods. I own every Warframe (including vanilla when I own a Prime), I have applied Aura Forma to every Warframe (including those vanilla Warframes), I own atleast one copy of every weapon in the game, and I have applied Stance Forma to every melee with the exception of Zaws. I am completely removed from direct affection by these changes. What does potentially impact me is what DE's proposal speaks towards the health of the game as a whole, dramatically prioritizing a new player boost over the mechanics of the entire system and their associated rewards later in the game.

Warframe modding is about customization as well as trade-offs. This Aura Mod is a "you can have your cake and eat it too" mod for capacity on any Warframe. Is that game-breaking? Not in the slightest, but it undermines several layers of modding as well as long-standing precedent with how modding behaves that is the very reason we haven't had a Universal Aura as a core mod in almost 11 years now. There are better ways to add this mod and help new players than to give it a Universal polarity.

I could have easily just written the title and asked for DE to make the Aura one polarity. At that point your comment would be fitting towards the thread. That's just not the feedback I wrote though. I do not care how other players engage with Warframe. What I do care about is when changes are made that serve a demographic that harms the health of the game for everyone else. Mobile users have been getting plenty of bones over the years, the crown going to Void Sling. This Aura is a fine addition. The universal polarity attached to it is unnecessary and glosses over several problems that led to them picking that in the first place.

45 minutes ago, MrDugan said:

I can agree and disagree on a lot of this, but my overall stance on the current modding system is that all of this should be moot because it needs an overhaul.  My biggest complaint with your suggestion is changing all auras to 7/14.  This would break builds that I have where I literally cannot fit the build without a 9/18 aura because of crazy high mod drain, needing certain slots unpolarized because of mod differences between loadouts, or because umbra forma is so inaccessible.  

A modding overhaul is just not within the scope of this thread, and I personally don't have the motivation to try and tackle that. At the end of the day, most of the modding issues in this game are what make it Warframe. That's also something that needs to be weighed as well.

I definitely understand your gripe, but that could either be solved with standardizing Auras at a higher capacity, or doing a proper mod audit, especially in terms of capacity drain. I removed the 7/14 proposal since it's a minor numerical detail that isn't critical to the overall point of the thread. Thanks for the feedback there.

24 minutes ago, ominumi said:

It's a bandaid apporach. The other option is to put in innate regen for health and energy baseline for all warframe. 

I'll agree that DE proposed a bandaid, but your proposed powercreep of innate regeneration is no improvement in that department.

Edited February 21 by Voltage

[DrivaMain]

2 hours ago, Voltage said:

Remove Stance Forma from the game and give all melee Stance slots this new Aura/Stance polarity.

Honestly, I would prefer if we could change our melee stance on the fly in missions like the Teshin portion of The New War quest. Think of the potential combos we can pull off if this system is a reality. 

Then again, I am an opponent of the polarization system in general because of its anti-flexibility nature. No, building copies of the same item is NOT the solution. The Circuit determines items based on forma count. I am locked to my "Cookie Cutter" builds because I can't select the item that has the build I wanted. Hopefully, this will motivate DE to rework the polarity system so that we don't resort to this impractical and costly method.

[Emwue]

10 minutes ago, Famecans said:

the DE could encourage players to use Aura Forma at this stage.

Yeah, DE should *absolutely* not do that. Setting aside the fact that no newbie at this point will be able to use forma(aura or otherwise) at this stage, simply because their starter frame will be about rank 8-10 at this point, since you know, newbies fight low-level enemies and affinity scales with level, the very idea of any item resetting their warframe's capacity back to 1-2(mr and potato dependant) at this point, when they do not have access to any node to level it back again fast, is laughable.

You might as well just delete their account while you at it, because one thing is for certain, they will not be playing after that - if anyone or anything would've reset my starter Mag back on Mars(so like 4 planets later than said Earth-to-Venus junction), when I finally got her to rank 30, I would simply quit the game.

While I understand Voltage's concern(and frankly share it to a degree), the only realistic other solution than universal mod polarity it to give Volt, Mag and Excal a universal aura slot polarity, like Protea has(and maybe some other frames, not super sure) while keeping this aura mod a madurai, because any solution that involves forma is a non-starter when it comes to new players.

[Voltage]

15 minutes ago, Emwue said:

Yeah, DE should *absolutely* not do that. Setting aside the fact that no newbie at this point will be able to use forma(aura or otherwise) at this stage, simply because their starter frame will be about rank 8-10 at this point, since you know, newbies fight low-level enemies and affinity scales with level, the very idea of any item resetting their warframe's capacity back to 1-2(mr and potato dependant) at this point, when they do not have access to any node to level it back again fast, is laughable.

You might as well just delete their account while you at it, because one thing is for certain, they will not be playing after that - if anyone or anything would've reset my starter Mag back on Mars(so like 4 planets later than said Earth-to-Venus junction), when I finally got her to rank 30, I would simply quit the game.

While I understand Voltage's concern(and frankly share it to a degree), the only realistic other solution than universal mod polarity it to give Volt, Mag and Excal a universal aura slot polarity, like Protea has(and maybe some other frames, not super sure) while keeping this aura mod a madurai, because any solution that involves forma is a non-starter when it comes to new players.

I addressed this in my post, but I went ahead and elaborated to make it more clear.

2 hours ago, Voltage said:

Teach new players through the modding tutorial using Dreamer's Bond and one free Aura Forma. Improve the new player experience in a meaningful way by giving the player both Dreamer's Bond and one Aura Forma in tandem while explaining the purpose. This teaches the player more about polarities, the fact vanilla Warframes do not have these by default, add a proper buff to Prime gear, and properly set up players for The New War with their Railjack without robbing them of critical mechanical experience by way of the introduction of Dreamer's Bond. To force this interaction to occur early in progression for mechanical education without creating a massive grind for releveling a Warframe, the player could be automatically leveled to rank 30 on solely their starter Warframe while completing the tutorial, and the player would then be explained Mods, Aura Mods, Aura Forma, normal Forma, polarities, Affinity, leveling, and Mastery Rank at the same time. This would give them a much needed capacity boost in early content while explaining very basic modding choices.

I shared your concern when initially writing the thread, but it may not have been super clear at first.

Edited February 21 by Voltage

[Aldain]

...I really don't think this is a big deal, the mod itself is mostly just "Early Game life support" more or less and I find it unlikely that they'd make any more Aura mods actually have that universal polarity.

It doesn't help that most Aura mods are basically just used for extra capacity, with only the rarer ones actually being noteworthy part of builds (see Power Donation on Nova for example).

[Hexerin]

45 minutes ago, ominumi said:

It's a bandaid apporach. The other option is to put in innate regen for health and energy baseline for all warframe. 

Giving all warframes a standardized innate health and energy (especially energy) regen would be a game-changing... change. It's also one that I think would greatly improve the game as a whole, especially for the new player experience.

Having innate regen would help mitigate the "early growing pains" of players who are new to the game, and don't necessarily have the practiced/established skill to play skillfully (taking hits that could've been avoided, using abilities too often, etc). That was the goal with this aura mod, so DE has shown they're interested in the idea. However, making it require a mod limits build creativity, which is especially bad for newer players as it stifles the desire to experiment.

The innate amounts should be small, however. Something like 2 HP/s and 1 EP/s would be plenty. This would let warframes trickle heal away chip damage, and allow the usage of the first skill every 25 seconds even if the enemy drops are being stingy with energy orbs. This innate regen should also be incapable of being influenced by anything that would normally increase such effect. For example, Nourish should not interact with the innate energy regen.

[Voltage]

29 minutes ago, Aldain said:

...I really don't think this is a big deal, the mod itself is mostly just "Early Game life support" more or less and I find it unlikely that they'd make any more Aura mods actually have that universal polarity.

The strength of the mod itself isn't relevant or overpowered in any way. I opened the thread discussing that.

29 minutes ago, Aldain said:

It doesn't help that most Aura mods are basically just used for extra capacity, with only the rarer ones actually being noteworthy part of builds (see Power Donation on Nova for example).

This is why I made the thread. It's more about the signal this planned addition has towards the landscape of Auras and the behavior it caters to (which can be argued as damaging the game in other areas). I wanted to make feedback as early as possible, not wait until it's already out and likely forgotten for years like Orokin Eye not consuming charges was.

To me, this Aura having a universal polarity falls into the same category as Void Sling and Heirlooms. It's just another thing eroding part of the game to implement something that really doesn't have to be added given the "intention" behind the addition. I infrequently disagree with DE's intentions, but I'm often disagreeing with execution. There's a large difference there that I feel is lost on some people. I'm aware that I'm a minority of player that isn't a consideration within the scope of most changes, but I would like to give my perspective on those intentions and provide a solution that is more healthy for the game in the future. It's like this; I understood and don't mind that Status Immunity/Knockdown Immunity negates personal staggers. However, I knew from then on it would lead to a stale experience with the way many gear options are approached for years to come. I've always had that same feeling towards Void Sling. Slowing down the player with more controlled usage of an Operator dash is perfectly acceptable to me. Void Sling is still horrendous though. No matter how much I am used to it, I know we've had (and can still have) better.

This Aura is likely a nothing-burger right now, but I'm sure it will have the consequence of being yet another catalyst for stale build choices, especially community advertised ones. Players optimizing will quickly grow out of this mod. It's the game overall rewarding players to lean into a lazy mindset that I take issue with. It's why we have things like damage attenuation. Undermining core mechanics of Warframe or applying bandaids to attempt at bridging this gap is only corrosive to the game's identity long-term. We're still playing a very fast-paced looter-shooter with space ninjas, but the drive to frequently make changes in this way and in this direction has honestly divided the game into pre-2020 and post-2020 Warframe.

Edited February 21 by Voltage

[PHOSPHATIDYLETHANOLAMINE]

Nightwave exists, it's super easy to get Energy Siphon.
This mod will only trivialise already latent early game where all you have to do is get to extraction on time lightyears behind rare cache and relic farming fanatics.

I case of low hp, run away, wait. Repeat.
Total toddler blitzkrieg feels like.

[MrDugan]

2 hours ago, Voltage said:

modding issues in this game are what make it Warframe

For the record, when I said "modding" i only meant the process and the polarity system.  Not mods themselves.  We need a more modular, adaptable system with forma.  

[ominumi]

2 hours ago, Hexerin said:

Giving all warframes a standardized innate health and energy (especially energy) regen would be a game-changing... change. It's also one that I think would greatly improve the game as a whole, especially for the new player experience.

Having innate regen would help mitigate the "early growing pains" of players who are new to the game, and don't necessarily have the practiced/established skill to play skillfully (taking hits that could've been avoided, using abilities too often, etc). That was the goal with this aura mod, so DE has shown they're interested in the idea. However, making it require a mod limits build creativity, which is especially bad for newer players as it stifles the desire to experiment.

The innate amounts should be small, however. Something like 2 HP/s and 1 EP/s would be plenty. This would let warframes trickle heal away chip damage, and allow the usage of the first skill every 25 seconds even if the enemy drops are being stingy with energy orbs. This innate regen should also be incapable of being influenced by anything that would normally increase such effect. For example, Nourish should not interact with the innate energy regen.

Dreamer's Bond should work out considering it's from Venus Junction. Very early game. My worry is how dependent new players are going to be to the mod. How long will new player keep that mod slot in until s/he has better ways to gain energy back. Let alone health.

[Hexerin]

4 minutes ago, ominumi said:

Dreamer's Bond should work out considering it's from Venus Junction. Very early game. My worry is how dependent new players are going to be to the mod. How long will new player keep that mod slot in until s/he has better ways to gain energy back. Let alone health.

When I was newer, I used either Regeneration or Energy Siphon (depending on frame and what I was going for) for a very, very long time. I imagine most new players will be the same, which leads to my note about how it'll likely stifle experimentation. Losing that regen over time in either stat still sucks to this day, but thankfully I have lots of other tools that can provide more gains than those now.

[Xylia]

Am I the only one sitting here going "Why on Earth would I want this Aura Mod on my Warframe, when Energy Nexus exists?

Well, granted, Energy Nexus isn't the easiest thing to get ahold of, but once you do, I can't think of a single reason why you'd go with anything other than Rifle Amp or Steel Charge personally.

Edited February 21 by Xylia

[Binket_]

On 2024-02-20 at 6:12 PM, Voltage said:

A major part of the new player experience is first impressions with teaching mechanics, and adding a starter Aura that lets them bypass the entire polarity system for Auras indefinitely isn't doing them a service long-term.

I read the whole thing-- but MAN, does this specific part ring true the most!

It's not just an Aura problem either, the entire game is riddled with this ideology.
At a certain point? There is going to be ZERO difference a player who has been playing for 10 years and a fresh install.
I don't mean that in a parity way either, I mean there will be literally NOTHING for new players to go out and bother getting because they will have everything they need right out the gate. Not even a preference thing for that matter, they will outright have the best gear and have no reason to swap off of it.

Back when I was a newbie some odd 5 or 6 years ago, I was looking forward to making some progress at a certain pace.
If I started today? I'd drop the game because it's not only boring as hell _{(people legit nuke the entire room with Sundertania, leaving nothing for others)}, but there's nothing to really do. There's no reason to improve or goal in mind. Why would I bother getting 80% or more of the gear or mods in this game when it quite literally provides me nothing?

Outside of that? They are told "Figure it out, lmao. (:" and that's it.
That doesn't work these days, DE.

 

I really do hope people won't just dismiss this post as "Look at this elitist, I want my buffs and ONLY buffs!"
... because this community has a bad habit of demanding excessive powercreep without thought for the longterm, which DE seems to share in some extent.

[Pakaku]

It's a junky aura mod that looks like it only serves as an early-game crutch for new players, who lack aura mods that are better in two ways: the effects, and the extra capacity. Once you get better auras, forma, and ways to stay healed/energized, you'll stop using this one. In that case it does its job just fine, so I don't see a reason to be worried

[(PSN)Syko_909]

I haven't been paying attention to most updates in this game as anything new loses its glamour after the first hour or two. This game isn't really for people who have played it for years. Back to the point, Solo players are now screwed in terms of the Aura Mod slot as I would say 90-95% of all Aura mods only benefit squads. Not the individual warframe itself. It seems they are really focusing on playing in full squads vs people playing by themselves. Yes, I have a Zaw that will allow me to have stacking energy regeneration but that means nothing in Duviri. The frames I had energy siphon on don't benefit anymore and it seems I need to farm a new mod just to recover that and it's going to change entire builds as its not an eximus or aura mod. Why mess with something that didn't need to be fixed and already worked if you wanted to play solo or with squads? 

[Birdframe_Prime]

On 2024-02-20 at 10:12 PM, Voltage said:

This decision encourages a lazy modding decision for new players for the rest of the game

Pfft...

1. Game is lazy.

2. Players be lazy.

3. This argument is lazy.

Players in Warframe, when starting out, have absolutely no clue how this works, and having an Aura mod that encourages 'lazy' modding choices is nothing more or less than the lowest possible attempt at a tutorial on how they work.

Since DE have, so far, made the decision to not put in a more in-depth guide on how to use the modding system, with actual tips on what you're trying to achieve with it, and how mods interact... any small attempts at addressing the idea are welcome.

[Xylia]

5 hours ago, Birdframe_Prime said:

Pfft...

1. Game is lazy.

2. Players be lazy.

3. This argument is lazy.

Players in Warframe, when starting out, have absolutely no clue how this works, and having an Aura mod that encourages 'lazy' modding choices is nothing more or less than the lowest possible attempt at a tutorial on how they work.

Since DE have, so far, made the decision to not put in a more in-depth guide on how to use the modding system, with actual tips on what you're trying to achieve with it, and how mods interact... any small attempts at addressing the idea are welcome.

What is there to teach?

Each mod tells you exactly what it does, and you put little cards on until you can't afford to put cards on anymore, you rank them up, etc. IIRC the newbie tips already tell you how to do all this.

Now, what mods to put on your Frames and weapons, well....

I don't think you're going to cover that with any in-game guide. The problem is, that they made damage and enemy defenses way too complex for the average player to ever understand, and they put in way too many misleading mods and/or misleading stats.

The whole modding system is just too over-complicated and way over-bloated. The # of different mods in the game is just mind-boggling, and it's kinda like the talent tree system in World of Warcraft -- THOUSANDS of possible combinations, but there's only a handful that are ever going to be any good.

Mods end up being a barrier to entry and if you're missing certain high performing mods, then mods just end being a barrier to you overcoming harder content. You can have the frames, and the weapons, but if you just can't get some 0.01% chance mod to drop, you're SOL if it's a key mod that changes everything.

For example, I mentioned Energy Nexus above. It's a really powerful mod. I was amazed at just how good this mod is compared to Energy Siphon. Not only does it regen energy like twice as fast, maybe almost three times as fast, but it ALSO allows you to put Rifle Amp or Steel Charge on, instead which means you ALSO do more damage.

Now, I got the mod by pure chance and I didn't know it existed, and while I was typing that post earlier, I looked it up on wiki and... yeah.

It's like a 1% drop chance from some of the hardest enemies in non-Steel Path.

There are plenty of other mods like this, that drop either from rare mobs, or difficult mobs with 1% (or less, IIRC) drop chance. I remember trying to farm my first +Warframe Power mod (it was called Focus then, I forget what it's called now). It took literal months because it refused to drop for me, and without it, several of my frames' performance was rather poor while everybody else was just smashing stuff.

And then, there's just pure, unadulterated bloat. Even with the mod type filters, it can take ages trying to find mods. For some strange reason, mods are NOT in alphabetical order half of the time and with there being no button to automatically sell unranked duplicates of normal mods, it's a pain and a hassle to find the mods you want while you're modding your gear, having to scroll through a ton of useless crap that you keep "just in case you might need ammo drum someday" to find the ones you want.

I think we just need a mod rework or something. Cut some of the useless chaff out, refund players for any endo/credits spent on such mods, or what-not, I dunno. But it's just getting absurd.

 

EDIT: Really now? It's 2024 and the forums STILL don't support BBCode... /eyeroll

Edited February 23 by Xylia