Pc Psa: Covert Lethality + Exalted Blade Changes

[(PSN)j232000]

What level enemies do you have to get to for a stealth finisher with fully modded, potatoed dagger not to already do lethal damage to anything you see?  Is there any place to find enemies of that level that isn't also filled with enemies that will break your stealth constantly anyway (nullifiers, manics...)

[Flamingfighter]

 

We appreciate that this will remove certain fitting strategies however we feel that those combos were not the intention of the ability and want to avoid making it so that you only want to play Excalibur with one or two specific weapons.

 

 

Doesn't Excalibur's passive promote using only a specific type of melee weapon?

[weirdee]

 

Next week we intend to limit the Melee mods that work with Exalted Blade strictly to generic mods (ie: Pressure Point, Molten Impact, etc) but not weapon-specific augments. We appreciate that this will remove certain fitting strategies however we feel that those combos were not the intention of the ability and want to avoid making it so that you only want to play Excalibur with one or two specific weapons.

 

 

I agree with the nerf to the mod (and this is consistent with the snowglobe change), but you're never going to have a wide enough range of viable weapons for this to be not true, and since the people making the syndicate mods did this with the intent of applying a bandaid instead of adjusting them to be viable past the small period of time that people can obtain them when they would still be useful (there's only so much denial you can go through before you leave Africa and hit the ocean), all of those weapons will now be disregarded when considering what to use, thereby narrowing the selection in direct opposition to your intent.

 

Developer intent is about as useful as a pool noodle a mile west into the desert, from denial.

Edited August 14, 2015 by weirdee

[(PSN)immanks102]

I agree with the covert lethality changes to excal but not being able to apply bright purity seems like a bit much, personally.

[(PSN)immanks102]

Doesn't Excalibur's passive promote using only a specific type of melee weapon?

To my understanding the passive doesn't apply to ultimate.

[Erelas]

Next week we intend to limit the Melee mods that work with Exalted Blade strictly to generic mods (ie: Pressure Point, Molten Impact, etc) but not weapon-specific augments. We appreciate that this will remove certain fitting strategies however we feel that those combos were not the intention of the ability and want to avoid making it so that you only want to play Excalibur with one or two specific weapons.

 

We hope that you will agree that this is better for Warframe balance and makes conceptual sense for how you would expect the power to work.

 

 

Could you clarify if this means augment mods related directly to Exalted Blade?  For example, Bright Purity is meant for the skana, which is in fact the weapon used in the Exalted Blade form, taking this away would severely limit the point of using the skanas in combo with Excal as well.

Edited August 14, 2015 by Erelas

[Void_Vis_Vires]

WAIT WAIT WAIT,

 

I am TOTALLY fine with covert lethality nerf that was ridiculous no argument there

 

HOWEVER does this mean that bright purity wont work for exalted blade?

 

Because that wouldnt make sense AT ALL! His energy sword is a skana/skana prime.

 

DE.......for the love of god....DO NOT DO THIS.

 

As a mastery rank 20 mostly solo Excalibur main being able to combine bright purity with my skana prime is one of the things that keeps me playing. It took me a long time to get to a place where I could reliable make use of the prime versions of all the starter weapons and if you take that away one of my main builds will go away with it, which means my time spent playing this game will also go away with it. Seriously DE, please I am asking you to reconsider this choice. That is if you intend to take away the syndicate effect from single swords on Excalibur. Its one of the things that makes a melee focused play style work and makes him unique when compared to valkry. 

[Bestfly]

 

also: "Why avoid making excal players only use one or two weapons?"

This is basically the reason coptering was taken out. Weapons that couldn't copter weren't ever used.

It's about leaving your weapon choice up to you, not up to whatever ridiculous mod combo is brokenly OP right now. 

 

Exactly as I saw it no one who had prisma skana or dual cleavers were using anything else with excalted blade because of the syndicate mods. Which coincidently made EB broken as hell. I honestly appreciate this change, for one it'll make it so people stop relying on Prisma Skana or Prisma dual cleavers with their syndicate mods to use exalted blade even without those mods it should still do fine dunno why people are so salty over this.

 

As for the covert lethality change that is kinda disappointing with the fact that stealth finishers do take awhile to do, If anything making so it couldn't be used with EB would have been fine.

[MEsoJD]

 So I can't use bright purity with exalted blade anymore?

[Nosferagon]

awesome. now can we speed up finisher speed? i mean most of them are uber slow and involve so much wasted movement its annoying. (looking at you, 360 spin dagger throat cut -.-)

 

Edit: I forgot. will that mean bright purity will no longer work on exalted blade? cause that means i no longer wanna use excal. i love that i can use a skana as his melee weap, and the aug makes the skana worth it. ya know. roleplaying and stuff

Edited August 14, 2015 by Lone.Hunter.99

[Fomiru]

Excalibur's passive already promotes the use of certain weapon types.  Not to mention, Exalted Blade is one of the best scaling abilities in the game and is a ton of fun to use.  The fact that it works with syndicate mods is why its so brilliant, you can swap out that weapon depending on what might interest you.  I really liked the Red Veils effect, but also enjoyed New Loka's.  It allowed for Excalibur to scale really well, and be such a fun Warframe.

 

Reading these changes breaks my heart, because suddenly a few of my weapons now don't have much of a use.  Now, I am stuck using swords on Excalibur for the passive.  What a shame.

 

Covert Lethality was broken though, definitely needed some changes.

[Lokime]

Will exalted blade still be fun and kill all the enemies?

Yeah, so I don't really mind.

[Erelas]

I agree with the covert lethality changes to excal but not being able to apply bright purity seems like a bit much, personally.

Exactly my thoughts as well.  Covert Lethality should be a stealth modifier by all rights, not a blinding modifier.  But going through and nerfing everything else--especially Bright Purity--which is intended to help Excal's skana based attack is just ignorant.  I would love to discuss this with whoever is coming up with this unreasonable change.  (Especially if it does indeed apply to the Bright Purity mod)

[NyxCrab]

To my understanding the passive doesn't apply to ultimate.

from what I've heard if you use a longsword/dual swords/nikanas, they get a 10% damage and attack speed buff, and that buff is then transfered to the ultimate when you use it, so if you use a dakra prime it gains 10% damage and attack speed, that damage buff is applied to Exalted Blade.

[agentXshadow]

Covert definitely needed a nerf, but due to how rare of an instance a stealth-finisher can occur, even with Loki or Ash (without one of those two it's as likely seeing a double rainbow three days in a row, imo), this mod will, as I understand it, be pretty useless unless stealth receives a much-needed overhaul.

[agentXshadow]

Would this mean that ash's teleport would no longer trigger that instakill? Or is his considered a stealth takedown?

I believe this does not count as a stealth takedown.

[(PSN)immanks102]

from what I've heard if you use a longsword/dual swords/nikanas, they get a 10% damage and attack speed buff, and that buff is then transfered to the ultimate when you use it, so if you use a dakra prime it gains 10% damage and attack speed, that damage buff is applied to Exalted Blade.

I thought the same thing till I was corrected.

[rohver]

Maybe you should consider every possibility thoroughly before releasing a mod DE. Seems like everything you release gets nerfed sooner or later these days. 

[BrazilianJoe]

(disclaimer: this post is serious, no sarcasm; it sucks to even have to put this  disclaimer but I want to avoid misrepresentations)

 

CONGRATS FOR THE PSA!

 

It's a nerf. I rarely applaud those. Exalted Blade was too powerful though, and was mowing down enemies too hard. 

 

But you are doing it right this time: You are being upfront and clear about what you intend to change BEFORE it happens. 

 

This is right communication and I commend you for that. 

 

This thread is also a magnet for all feedback, good or bad, and will make monitoring feedback easier, hopefully. 

 

I think these changes are on topic, nothing out-of-place.

 

 

Still waiting for my 'Exalted Glaive' augment which makes the waves ricochet between enemies though. 

[Glitchesarecool]

Why not just negate its interaction with EB? Wouldn't that solve the brokeness problem? That way it wouldn't be able to affect swaths of enemies which is were the real issue lies.

Edited August 14, 2015 by Glitchesarecool

[NinthAria]

Eh. I can live without the syndicate procs on Exalted Blade. Maybe now I'll actually have to turn it off and use my actual weapons every now and then.

[EmptyDevil]

Will exalted blade still be fun and kill all the enemies?

Yeah, so I don't really mind.

 

This.

 

I'm baffled by all the whining because syndicate procs won't work with his ultimate. I get the fact that it was a nice bonus but i was still wrecking face for 60mins in T3S without the need of a syndicate mod.

[Fari]

Covert Lethality should be a stealth modifier by all rights, not a blinding modifier.

Covert Lethality should be a stealth modifier, but not a stuck in horrible animation modifier. That's my huge beef with this. I'd be okay with Covert having 0 synergy with abilities, but having normal stealth hits from a dagger on an enemy who's never looked at you... why can't it just be that as it already was for me? That's the only scenario that makes this worthwhile. This mod is completely useless now since any finisher can one shot in reasonable content. And it'll still be 100% blind reliant anywhere that enemies are strong enough to not die without this mod, nothing changes at ALL there.

The one thing it had going for it was one shots without needing to do a clunky locked up animation, with properly placed slashes, or slide melees.

[(PSN)Cerata_]

Wait, but....but...the syndicate mods were fun. Exalted blade didn't really need any of them for damage, but the utility they provided was nice. Covert Lethality was hilariously OP with exalted blade, but removing the syndicate mods (after you didn't allow them in the first place and then changed  your minds and then changed them again now it seems, unless I'm mistaken) is just a really unnecessary change. Modding your weapon for exalted blade ALREADY limits your choice of weapon to something that benefits from the same things EB does. 

 

The syndicate mods aren't an unbalancing factor for the power, they're not necessary to get good performance out of the weapon, they're not easy to acquire in the first place. But they're really nice additions, and it would be a shame if you cut them in what appears to be a bit of an overreaction. 

[(PSN)Pengu_Imperialus]

I'm completely amazed at anyone who didn't see this coming.