Why I Don't Think Every Warframe Needs A Universal Defensive Capability.

[Aspari]

Don't get me wrong here, for this is just a personal opinion. I don't think every single Warframe needs to have the exact same types of defenses. By that, I mean everything has shields and armor. But why? Grineer can't have both. Corpus can't have both. Infested can't have both. Why do Warframes and the Stalker have both?

 

What I'm trying to get at is consistency with theme here. It makes sense for Rhino and Valkyr to have stupidly high amount of armor. Just by looking at Rhino you can tell how durable his body is. When you look at what Valkyr can do you can see that she augments her chassis with the effects of Hysteria. Either that or the adrenaline is so high that she shrugs off most things that would leave even the most battle-hardened warrior crying like a baby. 

 

It makes sense for Volt to have shields because his entire power theme is electricity and energy. High shields at that. Volt's a special case, though, and I'll probably talk about him in another thread. It makes sense for every "caster" (a frame whose biggest source damage is their abilities) to have some sort of shielding. But not armor. And for the speedster types I don't think they should have either. The shield units weigh down their most useful attribute which is speed, and having armor does the same thing. An assassin/mobility archetype's best defense is simply not getting shot, and their best offense is striking when the enemy has little to no time to react. 

 

 

 

tl;dr I feel that Warframe stats and interaction with mechanics are thematically lacking/non-existent, and shielding and armor are one of the biggest attributes that are lacking in that department.

[Cynaris]

Erm, we are talking about energy shields here, not a massive 100 pound steel shield they are carrying with themselves. How does that slow down anyone?

 

This ain't Medievalframe.

[Aspari]

Erm, we are talking about energy shields here, not a massive 100 pound steel shield they are carrying with themselves. How does that slow down anyone?

 

This ain't Medievalframe.

Assuming shield modules are physical and aren't being produced by the Warframe's biochemistry (and I find it unlikely that shielding is innate to begin with since Infested don't have it and Technocyte made both of them) those modules have weight to them. Equipment malus = slower movement. 

[Adaptor-Face]

and most casters in the game have an insignifcant amount of armour, our health is flesh(i think, at any rate we take extra toxic damage to health)

[Stormandreas]

Assuming shield modules are physical and aren't being produced by the Warframe's biochemistry (and I find it unlikely that shielding is innate to begin with since Infested don't have it and Technocyte made both of them) those modules have weight to them. Equipment malus = slower movement. 

well your theory is bust as all energy and powers the Tenno use THEY GENERATE THEMSELVES. Therefore, their shields are generated from their own bodies, so all warframes should (MUST) have shielding.

As for armour, frames like Zephyr, Loki, Volt etc. (fast, mobile frames), have low armour values, where large ones like, Rhino and Frost, have high armour, which is also reflected in their design.