Warframe Abilities: Are We Too Dependent On Them?

[Zareek]

I asked myself this question earlier today, when I had the fortunate experience to group up with another Ash during a mobile defense. I asked if he planned on using the augment mod for the Hek he was running around with, and he said:

"I don't use weapons, Ash is very powerful". A fair statement. I see many people spam their 4th abilities, especially Ash. not my kind of gameplay though, it seems rather boring to me.

 

Anyways. We have a lot of mods to modify our ability usage. Some prefer powerful, some prefer high duration, and some prefer efficiency. Personally, I like efficiency on my Ash. My stealth lasts 3-4 seconds, but I have all my abilities ready to use whenever I need it. it also means that, on rare occasions that I'm able to use 1 bladestorm after another, like during a tight situation.

 

So, my question is: Do you think we are too dependent on our Warframe abilities, when we can totally neglect our weaponry?

 

My own opinion is that I honestly don't know. We are not FORCED to use them. A great example is the contrast between my playstyle, and the bladestorm spamming player's that I mentioned above. We can choose to use our abilities, and we can choose not to. I guess an alternative would be more powerful/useful abilities, but more expensive and/or with timer?

 

I would like to know what the rest of you think

[Nitresco]

Part of what makes the Tenno a powerful-enough threat to beat their enemies is the abilities of their Warframes themselves. I don't think being ability-reliant is such a bad thing.

[Gemellus]

Yeah I would agree with you. I feel like we really need cooldowns for abilities.

[TrashSpider]

It honestly depends on the warframe were talking about though. But I say yes. 

 

I only use warframe abilities when the situation demands it, such as a mob of Corpus + Osprey. I prefer to blast away my enemies with my primary anyways. 

Edited November 30, 2014 by Aeronomatic

[noveltyhero]

We are not dependent on them but the bigger problem is the grind.

 

It gets so repetitive, we begin to spam our abilities in order to progress faster because it is just so boring :S

[(PSN)MoRockaPDX]

  This is funny to me, because I know plenty of people running around who barely use powers at all.

[Kthal]

There was a Corpus enemy, which made it into U15.5 before being ninja removed in 15.5.4 which had some very nasty traits...

 

Suffice to say, that if DE plan on making more of those things, abilities are not going to deal with everything.

 

 

- Nullifier Crewman -

Edited November 30, 2014 by Kthal

[achromos]

Some people play warframe for the warframe abilities and the guns are their 'secondary' thought for offense.  Personally if I wanted to use Guns first before ever considering abilities I'd play any other generic shooter.  The abilities are the draw for me, the fact that people can choose to either use guns or Abilities primarily and still have fun is awesome.

 

Some people are too dependent on abilities and their gameplay suffers in higher levels/difficulties, however it isn't that bad...

[Vesiga]

I only use my powers when I'm surrounded and guns wont cut it. 

In example. I was soloing the mutualist infested survival with Saryn, 40mins in, theyre everywhere. I can't shoot them all down in time. I drop two large energy restores at different time intervals to spam the heck out of Miamsa to clear the room and run to safety to shoot some more. 
 

[Zareek]

Some people play warframe for the warframe abilities and the guns are their 'secondary' thought for offense.  Personally if I wanted to use Guns first before ever considering abilities I'd play any other generic shooter.  The abilities are the draw for me, the fact that people can choose to either use guns or Abilities primarily and still have fun is awesome.

 

Some people are too dependent on abilities and their gameplay suffers in higher levels/difficulties, however it isn't that bad...

Yeah, the fact we can choose our playstyle is definately a good thing in my opinion.

[SheakZarnn]

I think that's everyone's personal choice of playstyle.

For me, ability usage depends on a Warframe. If I am a Trinity in defence mission, then I will rarely shoot at all, cause all I am doing is keeping my teammates healthy and full-powered. As a Valkyr, on the other hand, I rarely use my abilities and rely more on my weapons. being Zephyr is a mix of both - abilities for mobility, better positioning, and CC and weapons for taking down tough guys (yes, I prefer a sniper rifle on Zephyr).

[SquirmyBurrito]

Yes. I realized this back when people acted like zero ability builds were unplayable. Apparently the average warframe player relies on their abilities so much that they're (seemingly) incapable of imagining having to play without them... which doesn't make sense as there are plenty of situations where you're unable to use your abilities.

[NeoTachyon]

I think the specific case you are describing is kind of problematic , as i've noticed a huge increase in the usage of ash lately who most of the time just spam bladestorm.

Now for your question , well after some point you are gonna have to depend on your powers , especially the cc ones.

In general i don't think it's a bad case (except stuff like bladestorm)  since (at least for me) that's what separates warframe from the likes of halo and mass effect.

[Thaumatos]

This is one of the better side-effects of playing an underpowered frame like xcal.  You CAN'T rely on his abilities because they're not powerful enough

[Tsukinoki]

I don't see a problem with using your abilities consistently and leaving your guns to the side if that suits your playstyle.

Its one of the things that separates warframe from other generic TPS games.

And it depends on the frame.

With Limbo I'm using my guns a lot while sending heavy enemies to the rift along with an ally to take care of them while I handle the lighter mobs.
With Trinity I'm using my abilities non-stop with little gunplay.
With Oberon I'm using my abilities a lot to support allies and disable enemies in a few ways.
With Loki I use my abilities to gank enemies with my guns better.
With Rhino I'm spamming roar all day to buff everyone.

So I dont see relying on abilities a bad thing at all.  Makes warframe different than other shooters.

[SheakZarnn]

Yes. I realized this back when people acted like zero ability builds were unplayable. Apparently the average warframe player relies on their abilities so much that they're (seemingly) incapable of imagining having to play without them... which doesn't make sense as there are plenty of situations where you're unable to use your abilities.

But imagine you having those abilities in real life. Would you actually hold them all the time in same situations, where 1 misstep could cost your life? I doubt it to be honest. And of course having a situation when you can't use your abilities would cripple your battle potential alot.

[011100110110000101101101]

I rely on my Lex Prime as my primary weapon in most scenarios  If I need to I'll use Venom for Viral procs or Molt to get out of trouble.

 

But, for the most part I use my Lex.

 

The people I play with pretty much spam their ultimate constantly though... until they get drained by an Ancient Disruptor and die because they couldn't use their weapons effectively.

 

I think some are completely dependent on their abilities, and I think that it's an issue when you lose them and cannot function properly.

 

There's also the issue of not knowing how to effectively use your abilities if you generally only use guns too, but that's probably the lesser issue.

[Snydrex]

I don't know, man. I usually end up neglecting my abilities in favor for weapon procs....

[xRufus7x]

I can't think of any build I have that doesn't utilize weapons to some degree, and some warframes don't have powers that have the damage output to actually kill consistently. Loki and Vaubaun both come to mind.

[Kthal]

The trick to being powerful is to be able to use both your weapons and your abilities, and if you are able to use both, then you are likely more effective when using them.

 

It makes perfect sense that a player is at their strongest when using all available assets, and intentionally gimping yourself by using a build which prevents full utilisation of everything is a waste.

 

 

I use frame powers, primary, secondary and melee (full and quick) weapons in almost every mission. The powers are good for controlling or thinning a crowd or getting around, depending on frame, and then I use my weapons to clear things up depending on situation, and using this strategy I often find myself out of energy.

 

Utility abilities are where DE are rightly steering things, as they encourage a mix of power usage and gunplay.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Kthal

[perfectStranger]

Yes, mainly due to the existance of Fleeting Expertise

[Terrence_Knight]

  I'll add in my 2 bits saying I use abilities a great deal, the more I can use them the happier and better off I am, some people like myself have rather poor hand eye coordination and in my case cannot hit moving things for the life of me so I need abilities to even the playground, also in my case with tunnel vision they really help even the odds  when I enter a larger room and simply cannot find enemies hiding in various nooks and crannies. Honestly if I couldn't use abilities as regularly as I could now I'd have to stop playing the game.

[Zareek]

  I'll add in my 2 bits saying I use abilities a great deal, the more I can use them the happier and better off I am, some people like myself have rather poor hand eye coordination and in my case cannot hit moving things for the life of me so I need abilities to even the playground, also in my case with tunnel vision they really help even the odds  when I enter a larger room and simply cannot find enemies hiding in various nooks and crannies. Honestly if I couldn't use abilities as regularly as I could now I'd have to stop playing the game.

I don't think it will ever be changed. I also appreciate the fact that i have control over what I want to do. Gunplay, ability spam, or a balance of both. I think that's how the majority of Warframe players prefers it.

[Guest]

im too dependent on super jump

[Travisk]

I think cooldowns would be a really good way to balance ability usage and weapon usage.