Soloing With Leader-Type Enemies.

[Snixpix]

Ever since leader type enemies have been added I have found less enjoyment in playing defence and survival missions, especially while soloing. Now the Ancients themselves have abilities akin to leader-types making all the enemies almost immune to corrosive or blast damage? This is too much, especially for a solo player such as myself. 

 

The immunities to certain elemental damages and the ability to keep my energy at zero are making this game almost annoying to play. I haven't been able to solo past 30 minutes in a t3 survival in a while due to lack being able to use abilities without first deploying a team energy restore, and even then if there is a parasitic enemy type around (which there seems to always be), that too becomes useless. I find myself trying to build around frames that use less and less energy since I never seem to have any, and this is becoming very old very fast. 

 

I'm all for a more difficult enemy, having to shoot weak-spots or use a certain damage-types to kill certain enemies too keep things interesting, but whole groups of enemies immune to damage types and enemies that don't even have to be in the same tile to render my abilities useless are beyond annoying and break the game for me. I like the difficulty Artic, Arson, Blitz, Leech/Sanguine and even Venemous leader types can offer, but Parasitic types are just god-aweful for a solo tenno surviving for any length of time.  

 

Maybe take a look at the new ancients and the parasitic leader types again? Decrease the spawn-rate of parasitic types for sure and wind the ancient's area of effect way back? 

 

For the love of all those who can't play a game without getting disconnected or miserable lag, please improve solo-play. 

 

Tl;dr Make soloing possible again by taking a look at parasitic leader-types and ancients effecting their underlings. 

[immolator1001]

I haven't been able to solo past 30 minutes in a t3 survival

So soloing is totally possible.

[Renegade343]

I agree with Eximus units needing a rework, but your reasoning behind it is flawed. 

 

You said you cannot survive in solo, yet you can survive in T3 Survival for less than thirty minutes. 

[fatpig84]

Still waaay doable. You just need to pack an accurate heavy hitter for taking out the big boys, instead of  blindingly stacking AOE damage.

 

Otherwise use Amprex.

Max damage on ancient, the rest of the little guys go belly up.

Edited July 29, 2014 by fatpig84

[Snixpix]

I agree with Eximus units needing a rework, but your reasoning behind it is flawed. 

 

You said you cannot survive in solo, yet you can survive in T3 Survival for less than thirty minutes. 

Seeing as an hour was not out of reach for me before parasitic leader types were introduced, I do see this as a problem. Getting to 30 minutes now is almost impossible and I end up dying several times trying to get back to extraction. Long-term survivals and defence missions are how I enjoyed this game. 

[Renegade343]

Seeing as an hour was not out of reach for me before parasitic leader types were introduced, I do see this as a problem. Getting to 30 minutes now is almost impossible and I end up dying several times trying to get back to extraction. Long-term survivals and defence missions are how I enjoyed this game. 

You still survived in solo if you can play T3 Survival for < 30 minutes. You survived for probably around 20-25 minutes. 

 

But I just feel Eximus units are rather bland, to be honest. They do not provide the 'Oh crap!' factor that I think DE(L) wants to give them, and thus shake up player tactics. 

[Snixpix]

Still waaay doable. You just need to pack an accurate heavy hitter for taking out the big boys, instead of  blindingly stacking AOE damage.

 

Otherwise use Amprex.

Max damage on ancient, the rest of the little guys go belly up.

The amperex can only do so much, mine is forma'd 4 times and it's ability to kill a crowd with a single clip ends about wave 15 on t3 def and 20 minutes on t3 survival. The Amperex, Marelok, and Dual Zorens ar my weapons of choice for long-term missions.

[Hexagoros]

There really was no reason to give Ancients a Pull in addition to their knockback.

 

There really was also no reason to add a couple of 'staggers,' plus an outright knockdown to the common energy drain guys. 

 

That does feel like a bit much.

[notionphil]

Seeing as an hour was not out of reach for me before parasitic leader types were introduced, I do see this as a problem. Getting to 30 minutes now is almost impossible and I end up dying several times trying to get back to extraction. Long-term survivals and defence missions are how I enjoyed this game. 

 

Honestly, the fact that you had to play a scaling "difficulty" mission for an hour to get to a point where it started becoming hard is poor game design. Now you can find a challenge faster. This is a GOOD thing.

 

I do agree with some of your points such as the over spawn rate of aura enemies, and the aura mechanics (instead of dodgeable projectiles/attacks etc) being overused/cheap. We need to keep giving DE feedback on these to get tweaks.

 

However, my point is its good to find challenge without having to "wait" an hour. If you want less of a challenge, one can always play a lower tier mission.

[Snixpix]

You still survived in solo if you can play T3 Survival for < 30 minutes. You survived for probably around 20-25 minutes. 

 

But I just feel Eximus units are rather bland, to be honest. They do not provide the 'Oh crap!' factor that I think DE(L) wants to give them, and thus shake up player tactics. 

Having to fight tooth and nail to get to 30 minutes is not my idea of fun, and you are right, parasitic leader types are boring. Using abilities is what makes fighting in warframe so fun. I would want the reason I leave to be that I can't kill a heavy gunner without putting 3 clips of marelok into it's head, not because I can't even make it down a hallway without killing over because there is one ancient buffing the rest of the underlings making it impossible to move forward. 

[Renegade343]

Having to fight tooth and nail to get to 30 minutes is not my idea of fun, and you are right, parasitic leader types are boring. Using abilities is what makes fighting in warframe so fun. I would want the reason I leave to be that I can't kill a heavy gunner without putting 3 clips of marelok into it's head, not because I can't even make it down a hallway without killing over because there is one ancient buffing the rest of the underlings making it impossible to move forward. 

Fighting tooth and nail could actually provide a legitimate and fair challenge to players to see if they can continue on, if the mechanism is done correctly. 

[Snixpix]

Honestly, the fact that you had to play a scaling "difficulty" mission for an hour to get to a point where it started becoming hard is poor game design. Now you can find a challenge faster. This is a GOOD thing.

 

I do agree with some of your points such as the over spawn rate of aura enemies, and the aura mechanics (instead of dodgeable projectiles/attacks etc) being overused/cheap. We need to keep giving DE feedback on these to get tweaks.

 

However, my point is its good to find challenge without having to "wait" an hour. If you want less of a challenge, one can always play a lower tier mission.

You're right, most of my angst comes from enemies with auras that just outright strip you of all your defences. I bet I would find the same joy in defence and survival if I had my abilities to keep me alive.

[Snixpix]

Fighting tooth and nail could actually provide a legitimate and fair challenge to players to see if they can continue on, if the mechanism is done correctly. 

I think I worded that poorly, the more posts I read on this thread I realize that it's the fact that I never have energy to use my abilities that annoy me. Having no abilities really just strips you down to how tanky your frame is, which basically just leaves rhino. 

Edited July 29, 2014 by Snixpix

[Renegade343]

I think I worded that poorly, the more posts I read on this thread I realize that it's the fact that I never have energy to use my abilities that annoy me. Having no abilities really just strips you down to how tanky your frame is, which basically just leaves rhino. 

I think parasitic Eximus are alright, if only the drain rate is vastly lowered and once within the parasitic Eximus's aura, said Eximus will be shown on the minimap for players to pinpoint and target against. 

[notionphil]

 I would want the reason I leave to be that I can't kill a heavy gunner without putting 3 clips of marelok into it's head,

 

That sounds like a very boring reason to leave a mission - because you've hit the artificial scaling cap.

 

There has been a large amnt of player feedback opposed to this sort of bullet sponge enemy, it's often referred to as "fake difficulty".

 

 

  [i dont want to leave a mission] because I can't even make it down a hallway without killing over because there is one ancient buffing the rest of the underlings making it impossible to move forward.

 

However, this second reason is actually a skill based reason to leave. In this example, you are not effectively target prioritizing, and you've hit the "skill cap" (or attention cap) and thus can no longer progress.

 

In reality, you're probably a quite skilled player, but the point is in this example you're not applying that skill to the mission.

 

With a system like this (if done well) players would progress until they hit their "skill cap" instead of some arbitrary limit based on whether they equipped the most uber gear and had an extended power build. I'm not saying it's perfect now, bc it's not.

 

But when your skill at target prioritizatio is more important than whether you have a Marelok vs a Lex, we're moving in the right direction.

[notionphil]

You're right, most of my angst comes from enemies with auras that just outright strip you of all your defences. I bet I would find the same joy in defence and survival if I had my abilities to keep me alive.

 

 

I think parasitic Eximus are alright, if only the drain rate is vastly lowered and once within the parasitic Eximus's aura, said Eximus will be shown on the minimap for players to pinpoint and target against. 

 

These are both really good feedback. The over-reliance on energy drain and shield bypass is very frustrating to players, and DE treats those mechanics as "regular issues" instead of a big deal which is on a rare enemy.

 

I also think spawn rates of aura stackers are a big issue.

 

We need to keep this feedback coming and get more attention to it. +1 guys

Edited July 29, 2014 by notionphil

[TangyBlueBerry]

My issue is with how effective the bloody healers are now, if there is one nearby all nearby infested straight up become like 80% resistant to damage or more. My 4 forma Penta hitting for 14k a shot was doing 1k. Thats just not balanced.

[D3ST]

Couldent agree more with OP.

these super de-buffing Eximus units are ruining the game enjoyment for me too..