...and Then The Guy Was Level 30 For No Apparent Reason.

[OricSharp]

So, I don't know if this is something that happens often in these 'tactical alert' things, but...well, here's about what I said/thought:

 

Alert sighted: "Oh, a tactical alert. That's nice. I guess I might - oh, it gives potatoes. Yeah, I guess I might as well. Oh, it's only level 10-12? This shouldn't be too bad."

 

Mission starts: "Okay, these guys are slightly higher-level than the thing was saying. That's...odd, but okay. Is that normal for these? Eh, not really a big deal, though I can't say I like not being able to trust the interface. Be nice to have known to bring a ranked gun, not one I'm working on."

 

First capture target spotted: "...what the hell, why is this guy level 25? Is that something I was supposed to know about?"

 

He proceeded to kill me once, because seriously, if this is normal, it'd really be nice to have known that I wasn't getting into what I thought I was getting into - then I wouldn't have brought a Rank 20 Ash or a level 12 Synapse, thinking it'd be fine. Anyway.

 

First capture target caught: "Okaaay. That's...that's one, I guess. Good thing he didn't bother running while I was reviving. ... Oh, huh. Guess he had, like, three ospreys or something, and they spawned funny. And one of them's an eximus? I'll just kill that one fi-wait, they're all-...and they're level 30. That's...that's real nice. Bye, ammo. Nice knowing you, but it's either you or I have these bloody things following me through the mission."

 

Second capture target spotted: "Oh, for the love of - those were supposed to be on him? I have neither the ammo nor the time to whittle this crap down."

 

Everything after that: "Nope, can't do this. If I could corner him, maybe I could stunlock...? Wait, where's my energy gone, nothing's even - great, there's a bloody parasite I can't find because I have to chase the guy I'd actually like to use abilities on, that's nice. Oh, he ran into a - ah, bugger, he got away. Screw this." Alt-F4, I'll reboot it and do it with Rhino or something in a minute.

 

In short: I don't know if enemies in tactical alerts are often going to be difficulty spikes, as the last one I did was against the Hyena pack - and that one honestly wasn't bad, just repetitive, which is why I haven't done any of the others - but it would really be nice to have had any kind of opportunity to know that the mission level thing was complete bollocks. If I'd known I'd be fighting up to level 30 enemies from the get-go, or known that there were going to be several guardian eximus/i on each level 25+ target, I would've brought something completely different. I don't mind an occasional surprise (for example, the eximus squads that get sent for syndicate stuff - the Stalker just cheats too much, he's no fun), but this kind of bait-and-switch is just...not even fun in the loosest sense.

 

Now that I know, of course, I'm going to go back through with a frame and build far less anemic, rather than expecting to get any kind of experience for my lowbie gear. Still won't really have fun, but at least I'll be able to get the damn potato.

[Kthal]

Tactical Alerts are nasty missions with a Conclave limit and an over-abundance of Eximus units.

 

In other words, a challenge; fun.

 

 

In this one, the three Ospreys are actually not normal Eximi. The Capture Target is completely immune to damage until all three have been destroyed, and, on top of this, all three also drain energy over a large range, and restore each others shields. They are also immune to Mag's Shield Polarise.

 

They are basically a Guardian Eximus, Leech Eximus and Lynx Drone rolled into one nasty little, tricky to hit package. (DE, please give us uber-Rollers next?)

 

 

The tactic I found worked was a Boar Prime with 100% status using Shock and Blast to keep the Target stunlocked (that Supra hurts), while my teammates were able to annihilate the relatively stationary drones. I used Zephyr with Turbulence keeping me protected, casting it before the drain could cripple me.

Edited November 14, 2014 by Kthal

[Archistopheles]

Fool you once, shame on DE. Fool you twice, shame on You.

[XenosInfinity]

Fool you once, shame on DE. Fool you twice, shame on You.

 

Does not apply when a single unit marked as a capture target is also a mass-radius Parasite Eximus, surrounded by three drones that should be marked as Invulnerability Osprey. Misinformation is the problem here, the capture target does not have their effect label and the ospreys are just tagged as standard Guardians.

 

And the level doesn't help, either, that's just plain stupid. Explains why it took me an entire Boltor Prime clip to take one down to half health, though.

[OricSharp]

Tactical Alerts are nasty missions with a Conclave limit and an over-abundance of Eximus units.

 

In other words, a challenge; fun.

 

 

In this one, the three Ospreys are actually not normal Eximi. The Capture Target is completely immune to damage until all three have been destroyed, and, on top of this, all three also drain energy over a large range, and restore each others shields. They are also immune to Mag's Shield Polarise.

 

 

The tactic I found worked was a Boar Prime with 100% status using Shock and Blast to keep the Target stunlocked (that Supra hurts), while my teammates were able to annihilate the relatively stationary drones. I used Zephyr with Turbulence keeping me protected, casting it before the drain could cripple me.

 

Oh, a challenge, I'd be on board for. Bunches of eximi? Sure, I'll kill 'em, they're not really that big a deal, just HP sponges with fancy effects. Getting 'oh, and the enemy is some magical bastard living fortress' dropped on my head, when I started the mission under the impression that it would be a level 10-12 thing, only to run into aforementioned living fortress...that's not a challenge. That's not even worth considering a challenge, it's just 'oh, and we didn't feel like actually telling you what was going to be going on. Oh, aren't we just wildcards.'

 

Now that I know what I'm actually getting into?

I'm not going to need a strategy, because it's honestly probably not a difficult mission at all, if you don't come into it with an underleveled, relatively fragile frame and similarly underleveled, relatively weak gear.

 

Also: He's not immune to damage. The first one, I captured before even seeing the osprey eximi, because they got hung up on something; he ended up outside their range, I guess.

 

Archistopheles: I have no idea what your point is even intended to be; I didn't know, because I had no way of knowing, what was going to be in the mission - seriously, it's listed as 10-15 on the star chart. They also, as mentioned by Xenos, don't even have accurate listings for what they do, instead having mechanics obscured by simple omission.

 

Edit: Okay, it's 10-15. My bad.

Edited November 15, 2014 by OricSharp

[Kthal]

~oh, and we didn't feel like actually telling you what was going to be going on.~

 

Point taken.

 

Being told it was a Capture mission (so we know it is going to be some tricky variant at least) would have been helpful, and the level difficulty outright lying was a bit dodgy.

 

 

I was unable to get him out of range of the drones, it was simpler for me to just kill them, but I am confident that they do make him invulnerable while within range.

[UFOLoche]

Tactical Alerts are nasty missions with a Conclave limit and an over-abundance of Eximus units.

 

In other words, a challenge; fun.

 

 

In this one, the three Ospreys are actually not normal Eximi. The Capture Target is completely immune to damage until all three have been destroyed, and, on top of this, all three also drain energy over a large range, and restore each others shields. They are also immune to Mag's Shield Polarise.

 

They are basically a Guardian Eximus, Leech Eximus and Lynx Drone rolled into one nasty little, tricky to hit package. (DE, please give us uber-Rollers next?)

 

 

The tactic I found worked was a Boar Prime with 100% status using Shock and Blast to keep the Target stunlocked (that Supra hurts), while my teammates were able to annihilate the relatively stationary drones. I used Zephyr with Turbulence keeping me protected, casting it before the drain could cripple me.

 

I wouldn't mind the challenge if we were given some clear warning.  I glanced through the email but all I read were "snipers", not "Guy who's invincible to my poison for no reason and drains my energy for no reason."

 

After I realized that the 10-12 mission was really more around 25 and that this guy apparently has shields better than mine, it was actually pathetically easy.

[Zarlockk]

At stage 3 They are LVL57+, so fun fun. 

[OricSharp]

Oh, joy, bigger HP numbers to deplete over an irritatingly, artificially elongated period of time.

It does turn out that the guy's invulnerable only when within range of his drones, which may or may not be useful - I doubt Limbo can Banish him out of the radius, but it'd sure be funny.

 

Also: Yeah, now that I know what's going on? I'm just going through with Rhino, Strun Wraith modded for Magnetic Damage (think it's supposed to be good against shields), and it's...yeah, it's easy. Just annoying. And, as expected, tediously repetitive: Find the guy. Shoot the drones. Shoot the guy.

 

At least the Hyena alert had variety. Actually running into different configurations of the pack was neat, and far closer to an actual challenge than this interminable repetition.

It also, interestingly enough, didn't punish you (as far as I can recall) for choosing an ability-reliant frame; it's seeming more and more like DE just really doesn't know how to balance around frames with abilities, and instead of figuring out some kind of creative, interesting method, they've resigned themselves to just going "Nope, no abilities for you, you're too close to the guy you're here to kill, and he's got an artificially-enhanced boatload of HP! Wouldn't want you to miss the pulse-pounding experience of picking Arcane Vanguard Rhino for yet another mission that should actually be interesting but isn't!"

Just...every single time they do any kind of special event, it involves some way to lock powers out of the important parts, whether it's 'the targets are all unannounced Super-Parasite Eximi,' 'yeah, none of your frame stuff will carry over except for tank stats, energy-pool stuff and maybe speed,' or 'all your stuff decreases as you progress, there aren't any frames overly dependent on using abilities, right?'

 

You know what? Screw this alert, screw the potato, and screw the layered artificial difficulty.

This isn't even fun, shooting these stupid drones. Having everything scaling up as I do the event would be nice if it didn't mean 'okay, let's just tack fifteen levels onto the targets and their invulnerability guards.' At this point, I'm dying because...well, I certainly can't use my crowd-control stuff on the horde of dudes shooting me while I chase down the fleeing capture target without energy, can I? Even when the guy stands there and lets me shoot him, or leaps off a cliff for no apparent reason aside from 'yolo shortcut' (which, by the way, pretty much puts him permanently out of range of his ospreys), I'm just going to get killed due to not having any kind of crowd-clearing ability that isn't, well, an ability.

Playing solo (for whatever reason - in my case, my internet is bad and will not improve for the foreseeable future) is just as unappreciated by DE, it seems, as actually using the abilities that set frames apart.

Edited November 15, 2014 by OricSharp

[Mogwhi]

Stage 4 they are level 70, with the right strategy it can be done. Its annoying when you are trying to chase him and are getting caught on every peice of ice that just happens to be in your path.

[OricSharp]

Oh, I'm sure it can be done. Solo? Maybe. At this point, it's just more trouble than it's worth. It's not even fun, just an exercise in artificial difficulty and lazy ramping - why bother balancing around powers? Take them away. Why bother figuring out how to handle speedrunners, or high-damage-output builds, or what-have-you? Just crank the numbers up.

[Ceres666]

Oh, I'm sure it can be done. Solo? Maybe. At this point, it's just more trouble than it's worth. It's not even fun, just an exercise in artificial difficulty and lazy ramping - why bother balancing around powers? Take them away. Why bother figuring out how to handle speedrunners, or high-damage-output builds, or what-have-you? Just crank the numbers up.

^ I'm likely skipping the catalyst, that last mission level is not fun at all.

[Archistopheles]

Explains why it took me an entire Boltor Prime clip to take one down to half health, though.

You poor thing... One, whole, entire, Boltor Prime clipazine?

You're right. I should never expect an enemy to be so tough that Boltor Prime cannot kill them in less than one clipazine. DE should be blamed harshly for this.

[DSpite]

Does not apply when a single unit marked as a capture target is also a mass-radius Parasite Eximus, surrounded by three drones that should be marked as Invulnerability Osprey. Misinformation is the problem here, the capture target does not have their effect label and the ospreys are just tagged as standard Guardians.

 

And the level doesn't help, either, that's just plain stupid. Explains why it took me an entire Boltor Prime clip to take one down to half health, though.

 

Yes it does. If by now people are not aware that "Tactical Alerts = Extreme Hijinks will ensue" they have no right going into the Alert in the first place.

 

Protip: "Tactical Alerts = Extreme Hijinks will ensue"

 

If anyone is surprised for the NEXT Alert, then well ... can you READ?

 

http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Tactical_Alert

 

Tactical Alerts are special Alert missions that feature unique challenges and enemies compared to traditional Alert missions. While Tactical Alerts appear for a limited time like normal alerts, they occupy their own unique mission node within a planet, and disappear only once their designated duration has expired, making them more similar to Events.

 

Unlike traditional Alert missions, Tactical Alerts can contain non-standard enemy compositions such as large numbers of advanced units or even multiple instances of boss units that make the opposition deadlier than usual.

 

... DEADLIER THEN USUAL ...

Edited November 16, 2014 by DSpite

[DSpite]

Additional Notes, did some testing. Level 22 Loki with a 2 Forma Penta and a Kestrel.

 

Did the one for the Badge just 1 time out of 3 tries, but yea, it's called "Endurance".

 

Cold 4 ENDURANCE:

 

Did a few run through to the first target only to check paths. I was just go into to let the target run to the Escape as I know you still get 1 point anyway, and the idea behind this was that I did not want to "waste" too many energy restores to fill up to get to the next target with Invisibility.

 

Invisibility run to target 1 (some cleanup was needed for a few stragglers), I had to pop 1 Energy when I forgot how close I was once. Kestrel ragdoll shot, spam Penta's. Dead. did take me a full 20 clip once.

 

Cold Revenge 3:

 

Straight run to target. Became visible. Did not care. Spam Penta. Drones pop, he pops. Did this run 2 more times just to see solo mechanics.

 

Thoughts on the whole thing:

 

* Enemy Radar 30m might as well not work. Twisty passages with open areas that produce random cover everywhere, I kept being line of sight to SOMETHING I could not spot on radar, and could not see by spinning (my eyesight not great)

* Enemy units spinning in place everywhere.

* Random spawning mechanics making enemy units constantly appear off radar but with perfect LOS to me because of straight corridors.

 

If i had to change anything, I'd tweak spawns in some way, not to turn solo runs into long marathons. Yes, solo is annoying, but then, Catalyst, so well, incentive.

[Phyrak]

'Twas a fun event IMO

I used the Torid as my weapon of choice modded for viral

The by passing of shields along with the reduction in hp made it very viable