Update 9 Difficulty In The Eyes Of A Newb

[AlchemistMute]

Hi everyone. I was really excited for Update 9. If you think about it, all the hype! New, easy way to equip artifacts! A new Frame! So much more lore! Many more Prime weapons! Oh man, so amazing!

 

But while all this stuff is cool.. there's no easy way for anyone to do it. Especially a newb/middle game player. I'm not necessarily a newb, but I only have a potato'd Ash with no special mods. I can't bother to farm for Multishots and Fusion Cores, so I just try to do the bland campaign.

 

Yeah.. what the heck is this difficulty? I am lucky to have gotten CMs for Ash and Nyx before U9. Even with my Ash, I can't possibly survive the environment of the Neptune missions. It shouldn't take 2-3 charge attacks/an entire Braton clip (these are potato'd) to kill these enemies. Meanwhile, they are removing our shields instantly. Hell, I don't want to take Nyx in there. She's not even level 30, but she'd just die instantly with such low armor anyway.

 

The main way to get to "elite" status in this game is by watching the alerts for potatos, picking good weapons you play well with, and getting a defense frame to farm you all the required Multishot mods and Fusion Cores.  But how does one do that when getting a good Defense frame is nearly impossible with just a starter frame? This scares newbies...

 

Also, I tried going on Ceres today. Doing one of the missions I haven't completed. Oh look, high-DPS bullet sponges. This definitely turns on my brain and forces me to think. It looks like for newbs, they just die to these enemies. For elite players, they do need to actually use their skills, but that's not too hard.

 

As for Auras. Well, the idea was good but executed poorly. A newb can't easily farm Forma and polarize their Aura slot for whatever they want to use and hope to have a chance at playing. I was trying to play the game with no constant energy recharge because I can't fit it without it taking double space. Oh god..

 

Next. So say you manage to get BPs for some good frames! Oh man, miraculous! That's all good.. except for the fact that right now, Ferrite is as rare as CMs pre-U9 and we're going to drown in morphous solids. What the heck is that? All the common resources are Rubedo, but worse. A low-drop material that rarely appears. But with Rubedo, it took some time but it was handle-able. With the common resources now.. oh my god. Horrifying. How will a new player make some good frames?
 

Somehow, I made good frames and weapons. Lucky me. Now.. where do I level them up? Being a co-op game, I'm going to try leveling with my friends on a Defense mission. Wait, their frames are still cooking and they'd have little space for skills like me. So I guess I'll have to ditch them and join a PuG with some high-level players? Freeloading doesn't feel quite interesting...

 

Man, they're all level 30 and can fit some okay mods now. That took some work and an endless grind in Earth. Now, let's try grinding for necessary mods.. such as Stretch, Streamline, Focus, Multishot, Damage Mods, e.t.c... oh wait, that's near impossible to do without Elite frames.

 

I give up. Digital Extremes, please address the huge difficulty spike at some point. I still love you.

 

TL;DR:

 

The difficulty spike is in areas where you find the mods necessary to survive said areas. If you somehow manage to get the "common" materials needed to make some okay weapons before you drown in Neurodes, you still won't be able to level easily without losing your life. This scares new players.

 

But it's clear that resources are so rare so we can buy them instantly. It's clear that to use Auras, you need to buy Forma. Otherwise, grind your life away.

Edited July 13, 2013 by AlchemistMute

[MetalGerbil]

the difference between low level experience and high level experience is minimal. the biggest difference is that you fight more things. but by that point you kill faster too.

this means you can just do more low level ones to compensate and still level pretty fast.

because mods are a problem at first weapon selection is vital. it makes a big difference to take the right wep. even if you dont have the mods for it. getting the kunai is vastly different than using a braton on grineer. if you go for grineer first and take the right wep, and just do them for a while you will get all the really core mods you need for doing damage. after that you should have the normal mods you need for defense as well.

like any other game where you have a core progression system it just takes time. you arent supposed to fly from one map to the next doing missions only once. its also worth nothing that rare mods start dropping at 20 and over. and technically below that but at a lower chance.

game isnt that hard. just take your time and get what you need. if you take it slow you wont have any issues.

[SnowedEarth]

Guess what? I was about to make the exact same post (Well, maybe a bit shorter). The difficulty is far higher than before. You said pretty much everything, so I don't have anything to add.

 

Hotfix incoming!

[FemaleSniper86]

Well, to be honest we were a bit spoiled with the artifact cards.

When I started playing we didn't have those artifacts what I can remember, it came with a later update. So now that its changed, and maybe you don't want to use the artifacts due to the Changes, it feels like going back to when we began.

 

I am both pleased and displeased to be honest.

Pleased because Trinity now serves a purpose again besides being a boss-killer (as so many likes to call her).

 

And displeased that the artifact cards, the Auras, now requries a polarity.

Coz I Always had either energy syphon or rejuvenation on Before, now they have a different polarity than my warframes aura slot. And I have not spared any Points when I upgraded my cards. That means I now have to re-do some of those just to make room for the Aura.

 

I can understand the Point-cost. But I do not understand the Polarity.

 

Its like they are telling me that my Trinity should go out with a Physique card on, coz that's the correct polarity for her.

Come on. That the cards cost to put in - fine. But why have a decided polarity on the warframe? Why polarity at all on the auras?

[Khranitel]

Two hours ago I solo'ed Raptor with level 9 Mag with level 25 Braton and Kestrel. Mag was potatoed, no forma used.

This game became more difficult, thats for sure. Difficult to a point where you have to actually think what you're doing, and not steamroll whole map. Is this a bad thing?

Edited July 13, 2013 by Khranitel