The Investment And Strategy Thread. What Does It Take?

[(PSN)Silverback73]

I'm a father who casually plays (comparatively so, anyway) and am learning what it takes to play with my 10 year old son. The key question I'm beginning to contemplate is what it takes, time and power-wise, to be able to compete in Events.

1. I started a bare-bones clan to trade my son platinum but am quickly realizing without an oracle and labs, weapons are hard to come by without outright buying them. Is building a clan cost and time prohibitive? I like the idea of a personalized hall and clan but is that a major investment? Easier to join another clan?

2. I ranked Volt and wanted to stick with him to save time. He's my fave. Bad strategy?

3. How many times am I going to have to forma and potato to expect that I have enough power to complete events? I'm rank 3 with basic weapons and haven't potatoed or forma'd a thing.

4. Odonata will be finished tomorrow. Are resource extractors worth completing all nodes?

5. What rank should I strive for to get to the nice weapons?

6. Best way to counter sniper insta-kills?

7. Best way to spend 500 plat?

8. Syndicates intrigue me. Worth it at this point?

9. Any other advice? Love to play. Limited time, but don't want to miss the best game content...or have to spend hundreds to compensate. I've invested and will further invest but won't spend stupidly or cheat myself out of accomplishment.

10. Love the community support. Thanks!

[ddg92]

3. For weapons at least you usually have to forma 5 times. Usually 3 V polarities and 2 - Polarities.

 

4. Resource Extractors in my opinion aren't worth the time or credits. The time it takes for 1 resource extractor to get some resources you can easily get maybe 2x or more resources in 20 mins if you farm in specific places for specific resources.

 

5. Rank 8.

 

7. IMO Cosmetics, warframe and weapon slots.

 

8. Syndicate augment mods are usually bad but some are really good for coordinated team play. But 2 Syndicate weapons in specific are arguably one of the best if not best guns in the game atm. Vaykor Marelok and Synoid Gammacor. They can be acquired by reaching the highest rank in Steel Meridian and Cephalon Suda respectively.

 

9. This game doesn't really have an endgame. So if you get everything too quickly it'll probably become boring. A lot of the game is about grinding and killing lots of stuff...

 

P.S. Enemy armor is a b***h.

Edited January 5, 2015 by ddg92

[(PSN)AngerMotivated]

1. Building a clan is very time consuming and uses a lot of your resources, joining a clan may allow you to focus on other things, and then you can just invite your sons tenno to your dojo for trades.

 

2. For mastery, not wasting 12p on revives and to learn other play styles I feel having as many warframes as possible to be the way to go.

 

3. Put a catalyst or reactor in any warframes or weapons you enjoy playing. Some weapons only need one or two forma to be useful in tier 4 and tougher alerts while others may require 3 or more forma. A lot depends on your available  mods as well.

 

4. unlocking all the nodes adds mastery, allows you not to depend on a taxi to the places you have not unlocked, and yes placing extractors on planets for resources you are low on does help but not as much as just going out at farming the resources you need.

 

5. Mastery will be important regarding question 8 and if the hubs are added to ps4 like they currently exist in PC. Get as much mastery as you can get, it will also allow to add more gear ie: health ammo energy restores, and throw down more extractors.

 

6. Kill them first lol, depends on your warframe, and team mates. If you are playing volt, throw your shield up or run/sprint for cover and snipe them back.

 

7. Weapon and warframe slots

 

8. Yes because the weapons and mods syndicates give you are awesome.

 

9. Join a casual clan you will find the ability to run with more experienced geared players helps a ton, and some of us that are just grinding syndicate points every day enjoy helping new players.

 

10. AngerMotivated on PSN if you need a hand message me in game.

[Darzk]

1. Of course it'll be easier to join another clan. On top of having the majority of the work done for you, you'll have a group of players to play with. But you wont get any say in personalization, etc.

 

2. Sticking with a single frame will hurt your flexibility and ability to gain mastery, whatever that frame is. Volt also doesn't provide much CC, damage amp, or over-the-top killing skills to a group and is somewhat less desirable for endless missions.

 

3. You can create a single setup of powerful weapons and pull them out when attempting events or hard missions. Generally the events themselves aren't too difficult, only competing for the scoreboards is, and that'll generally require a great deal more investment.

 

4. Don't see the connection. Grats on an Archwing - be aware that aside from mastery progression in Archwing generally means you'll be losing time/resources that could be directed towards the main game. With only 6 missions so far AW is treated like a side/mini-game by many players. Extractors are great, especially for casual players. Clearing the star chart will grant Mastery (per node) and allow you to go on all the alert and invasion missions, which can have very valuable rewards.

 

5. Mastery Rank 6 is Soma/Prime, Synapse, Phage, Penta, the Syndicate sidearms, and two of the best melee, Dakra Prime and Dual Ichors. That's the benchmark rank, imo. 

 

6. Hmm. CC generally, making sure the sniper never has a chance to shoot works too. More shields and health always an option. Depends on the frame, really. You'd have to be at a pretty high level before snipers start to one shot, generally the greater threat is from the heavies.

 

7. SLOTS. You are limited in the number of weapons/frames you can have available, so pick up some extra slots. Beyond that, I'd hold onto it for when you come across a weapon/frame you really like and you can install catalysts/reactors on them (20p per, doubles mod capacity). Beyond that, you might want to strategically invest in boosters when you know you're going to be playing a lot in a short period of time (Warframe weekend!).

 

8. Syndicates are worth it. The investment for the first few ranks isn't too bad. For a new player I'd actually suggest the Perrin syndicate, as early enough on it provides access to T4 capture keys, which can be run pretty safely by a single player, and reward 25000 credits. This can help significantly with credit costs across the board. If you're having trouble with the missions there's always people willing to come along in Recruiting chat.

 

9. You don't have to invest much plat in this game - if you're willing to invest time. The game itself has no real end (or endgame) so you can experience the majority of content without pushing to extremes. Many players like myself prefer to challenge ourselves by facing off against level 100+ enemies, but they don't provide any more rewards than the level 40 enemies do! 

 

Be sure to learn the elements table on this page: http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Damage_2.0 and understand that armor specific modifiers will ignore that portion of armor. On top of that, the Corrosive Projection aura (found from alerts only, or trading), is a huge help against Grineer and Corrupted (Void) enemies.

[CY13ERPUNK]

1 - easiest to join a larger clan of course, but small clans have 'reasonable' costs, ie ghost/shadow

 

2 - volt is a fine frame, like all frames, his dmg abilities fall off later on, but his shields and stuns can be useful forever

 

3 - most gear needs a tater and 2-4 forma to be 'maxed' but many frames and weapons perform fine with only a tater, some even do aight without

 

4 - completing all nodes is something that everyone should eventually do, personally it was my first goal, these days it might be a bit harder, but i would recommend you prioritize it, as it will make anything else you do later on easier ; extractors are totally worth it ONCE you have an overabundance of the materials required to build them, i built 7 since i can have 4 deployed at once, so i always rotate them and never send them out if they arent at 100%, dont expect them to bring back anything but common mats tho, i do ceres/saturn/jupiter/merc and occasionally i see some orokin cells, but mostly its the common stuff

 

5 - current MR8 is the highest mastery locked gear, but atm no mastery locked gear is that great and/or essential

 

6 - use cover/hide/etc, situational awareness, blocking helps too

 

7 - save it for frame slots and/or weapon slots, maybe use it for trades or cosmetics if u really want a color palette or something

 

8 - syndicates are totally 'worth it', but i wouldnt tunnel-vision on them, just pick some, join them, wear the sigil and do their mission and find their medallions once you can, eventually you'll rank up and be able to get some neat mods/augments and the syndicate custom sidearms (might even have melee or primaries by the time you hit max rank if you dont rush it)

 

9 - my personal advice? dont buy plat unless thru the prime access deals, and/or the 50-75% off daily login reward

 

lastly, just play the game how you like, when you like, i find that ppl who tend to get locked into a completionist mentality tend to burn out

 

=]

Edited January 5, 2015 by CY13ERPUNK

[Nazhosh]

I'll answer these in the order that you posted.

1. Building a dojo does take a fair amount of resources to get it up and running. If you build your own dojo you have complete day over how it looks, but you can decorate it after you have the basics down. Clan tech is worth the time, but again another resource sink. Join someone else's clan if you don't want the hassle of doing any of that yourself.

2. Try some of the other frames to get the feel for them. You will find that some games work better for some missions then others. Plus they will help raise your mastery tank which you will need in order to use some of the better weapons.

3. Potatoes are a one time thing on each item you put them on. Don't put any one until you have decided that you want to keep something. Save formas for things you like to use, but until you decide save and keep building them. They should only go into things that you want to keep and make better much like a potato.

4. The additional resources you get from extractors are a nice passive if you plan what you might need. Unlocking the whole area gives you access to any alerts in the area.

5. Mastery rank 8 is the general opinion as that opens everything currently released to you, but the number of extractors and trades are tied to your mastery rank.

6. Not sure what you mean. If you are having issues killing something thin groups out then kill the heavies. Invest some time into leveling up your mods and frame of you dieing too often.

7. Spend plat on warframe and weapon slots. Frame slots are 20 plat each and weapon slots are 12 plat for 2 slots. Everything else can be built or earned thru in game. Potatoes might be considered on a case by case basis but blueprints can be earned via alerts on occasion.

8. Syndicates might be worth looking into, but be aware they do have a cost to progress further thru the ranks with the added cost of having the opposing faction sensing troops out after you. Myself I'd advise to wait a little while longer until you are a little further along before you join one.

9. Events come about every 3 to 4 months with tactical alerts being sporadic. Unless you are trying to be competitive don't worry about placing high in the event as DE clearly lists what you need in order to get the rewards. Do complete events to the highest that you need for all the rewards as well worth the time it takes to earn them. Learn what sells and is available in the trade channel as the market is completely player run. This will help you learn if you are getting a good deal or getting ripped off. Trading is also another source of plat so if you think someone might buy it post it up in trade, but know what it is worth before you do.

[(PSN)Silverback73]

Thank you all and keep posting! To clarify on events, I wanted to know how advanced in general I'd need to be in order to make a serious run at event completions for uniques. It's not about end game, just having an opportunity to compete in time sensitive events without dropping $50 a pop or quitting my job. So much nashing of teeth of Fomorians, insta kills from poisonous everything, and Archwing blowback and I'm not even in that conversation yet, lol.

[Dave851]

1. Joining in on people who already have finished the research is going to be easier. On the weapons, once you unlock most/all of the missions on the map, its really not to hard to buy blueprints off the market for credits and construct them. There is very little point in paying for built weapons when you can generally get all the materials you need to build them in 3-4 hours max. While your also not building things these resources will naturally pile up as well so sometimes you may have everything or just be missing one or two things.

2. Sticking to a single frame is not really ideal. Some frames will fit certain missions better and fill particular roles. Simple example would be frost, when doing excavations you really can't get to far before the enemy's will start to destroy a exposed excavator very quickly. His snow globe will protect it and you can get much farther. Now for a capture mission, he doesn't have much going for him. Here a loki can just cloak, run in and kill the target while still invisible, then just run out with most of enemy's totally ignoring you because your invisible. Frost will be slow and bulky. Once you start to do higher level missions, team composition will start to have a larger and larger impact. I have 6-7 frames I like depending on what I will be doing.

3. Well, depends on the weapon. You only need one catalyst per gun, forma's are a different story. My penta I've built up has I think 5 forma's, it can now pretty much clear groups of anything under 25 with a single shot. 35-ish and up the heavy's start to take 2 shots, this is for grineer/void, it does better against other factions because they are actually a but more squishy(If I place the shot right I can one shot the stalker most times). My paris prime only has 2 forma and while it doesn't have the crowd control the penta does(unless its a narrow space/hallway), it will one shot nearly anything if its a head shot which isn't all that hard to do. Works wonders on level 45+ heavy's. Both have catalyst. It should be noted that some weapons will come with some default polarity slots as well. 

4. Completing all the nodes is a good idea in general. Gives access to all the alerts/invations/ect. 

5. "Nice weapons" is all about the player. Some people like rifles and shotguns, I like bows and explosive/AOE weapons. At mastery rank 8 you should have access to everything. 

6. If your getting insta-killed you are mostly likely not using cover effectively or have really low health/shields. I would say be aware the numbers you are up against, don't get surprised from behind and don't expose yourself more then you have to. You can also add something like a redirection mod, which at max rank gives you +440% shields. 

7. So far only things I've spent plat on are equipment slots and the occasional reactor/catalyst or cosmetic item. This is not a pay to win game, its a pay to avoid grinding game. I don't mind the grind because it gives me time to use new weapons/frames or try something new. 

8. Yes, but I would wait until you really know what frames you will use to see if you can usable augments for them. At either extreme they will also take a fair amount of resources. They will ask for things like forma/catalyst and prime parts. If you end up going below zero be accident, they will ask for another.  

9. There is plenty of things to try in this game. I've over 600 hours and just last night I was playing around with different frost builds because since I came back after a break from the game, they changed him a little and I needed to tweak him. Experiment, fun weapons/frames you find fun to use then keep experimenting. I really only have 3-4 weapons and 4-5 frames that I would consider perfected for me. The rest of them I work on when I get bored of using those main frames/weapons. 

[(PSN)Santar0s]

1. We have room in our clan with all current research complete, I'll mssg you on psn.

2. You are going to want to expand your frame collection. Volt is good but you will most likely want a tank and a healer as well. Trinity and Rhino are easy to come by, I can help you with that.

Mastery rank 8 gets you access to all the locked weapons.

How is your knowledge of the mod system, towers, and the derelict?

Everyone else covered all the other bases.

[fadeinlight]

I can't answer #1, but I can give my opinions on the other questions.

 

2.  If you like Volt and enjoy playing him, sticking with him won't hurt.  The only impression that I get is that other players might not find him a desirable addition to high-level teams in certain endless missions--not because he isn't good, but because he doesn't fit the mold for the prototypical team build.  You might want to consider branching out later on--I'd consider Nova, Trinity, Nekros, Loki, Vauban, Frost, or Rhino for frames that can cover just about any content well.  Rhino is especially good for soloing lower-level content, but tends to lose appeal later on.  Excalibur and Mag are also good choices, although I'd save Mag for last in your case (since she and Volt tend to overlap a bit).  DE has thankfully made it so that all of the beginning frames are viable throughout the game, so long as you mod them correctly.

 

3.  You should only have to potato your favorite frames, and the best weapons.  The free potatoes that are given out via alerts or invasions should be enough to keep you going, as long as you invest them wisely.  I would suggest you potato only the Primed version of frames (and Volt, since you enjoy playing him), as they come with polarized slots.  I would suggest you use the "weapon comparator" over at www.warframe-builder.com to decide which weapons to use, with the caveat that DPS statistics don't tell the whole story.  I would also suggest you get Nekros as soon as possible, since his "Desecrate" skill will help you acquire mods more quickly.

 

4.  I would suggest completing all of the nodes on Jupiter and Saturn, as you can get Neural Sensors and Orokin Cells from those two respectively.  I would also suggest clearing them on Mercury, Earth, and Venus--mainly because they're relatively easy, but also because they will give you access to Nightmare missions (on Earth and Venus, at least).  For the rest of the planets, I've only cleared enough nodes to give me access to every node, without actually clearing every node.  That way I never have to ask for a taxi, and have access to bounties being offered in Dark Sector conflicts.  Regarding extractors:  yeah, they're worth it.  They recover their investment slowly, but over time they easily pay for themselves if you use them consistently.

 

5.  Mastery Rank 6 is about the last rank you need for access to the best weapons, but Mastery Rank 8 will give you access to all of them.

 

6.  The best way to counter on Volt is simply to get higher Health and Shields, and to keep moving.  A Quick Thinking + Flow combination will give you additional toughness if needed.  DE is currently investigating complaints about Ballistas (who knows what they'll find), but the Corpus variety use Lankas which have an innate 5m punch-through--I don't know if that gets through Electric Shield, but if it does then there is little that you can do besides keep moving and eliminate them first.

 

7.  The best way to spend 500 plat is to make more plat by buying cheap and selling higher.  That requires good knowledge of the market, as the circumstances that affect it...which takes time you might not have.  Besides that, the best investment are slots of all sorts, followed by potatoes.

 

8.  Syndicates are absolutely worth it.  They'll give you access to some of the best weapons in the game (useable at MR 6).  I would suggest joining the Arbiters of Hexis and Cephalon Suda in your case, as the Arbiters offer Volt mods and the Cephalon Suda offer the Synoid Gammacor--in my opinion, the best secondary weapon in the game, bar none.

 

9.  Looks like you're taking the right approach to getting the most out of the game.  I'd suggest that you and your son look for a large, established, relatively laid back clan rather than build one yourselves--I'm sure you can find one that will welcome younger players.

 

10.  This community is definitely good :)  Best of luck to you :)