Tower Iii Defense Missions Are Too Darn Long!

[Konnivar]

TL/DR:

Tower III defense missions take too long for the reward given and are way out of the league of other Tower III mission types.  This needs to get attention and get fixed!

 

 

Not only are tower III defense missions too long taking on average 1 hour 20 min to finish, but the enemies are nowhere near Tower III average difficulty. 

 

Just about the highest level enemy you will find in any Tower III mission is a level 100 which is a long way off from the level 100s at 4 waves left for the tower III defense missions.  I'm not so much complaining on the difficulty of this as I have completed two Tower III defenses in the past two days, but only because my friend and I were using Frost Prime and Nyx.

 

If I am not mistaken DE have made it their goal to make all the warframes relatively balanced with one another; in the current state a group that is trying for a Tower III defense HAS to have certain warframes in their group in order to beat it.

 

On top of the absurd level of enemies in Tower III defenses there are also 20 waves that have to be completed.

 

I generally have a lot of free time to goof off and play video games, so 1 hour 20 min isn't anything to me, but I understand that there are people who don't have that kind of time to commit to a single sitting.

 

 

There are two ways that I can see this getting fixed:

 

1.)  The difficulty is changed and the # of waves reduced to 10 with the enemy levels getting jacked up faster than in the current 20 wave format.

 

2.)  The difficulty stays the same, but more rewards are given at the end of the match (ex. Two or Three random Prime pieces/blueprints vs. one)

 

 

In its current state it really isn't worth me spending the time to run a Tower III defense when I could run 5 Tower III Captures or 3 Tower III Mobile defense missions in the same period of time and have the same chance at virtually the same rewards, with about half the stress I get from running a Tower 3 defense.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Konnivar

[Namacyst]

Ya... 20 Waves don't make it harder.. it just makes it take longer to kill the enemies because of increasing bullet-spongeness. Higher starting level, only 10 waves would be ok.

 

Same goes with the Defense Alerts. 15 waves of boredomness instead of 10 waves of fun. Make it shorter with higher starter level.

[LalaLuck]

 

But seriously, it's a defense mission at TIER 3. What do you expect?

Edited July 18, 2013 by MiNDBREAKz

[Chronodroid]

1h20? 

 

Well, get a geared team maybe :) 

 

We did three runs in that time yesterday, but with a setup that was suited for it.

Frost, Nyx, Nova, Vauban.

 

Variety of top tier weaps (flux, despair, ogris, torid, acrid, boltor) and ofc the nice new auras.

 

I mean, it's just a matter of how you approach this ENDGAME content as for now. This is not something you play with PuGs...

[Konnivar]

 

 

But seriously, it's a defense mission at TIER 3. What do you expect?

 

 

I expect all of the Tower III should be on the same level of difficulty and take about the same amount of time to complete.

[Namacyst]

 

But seriously, it's a defense mission at TIER 3. What do you expect?

10 waves of breathtaking, challenging and difficult entertainment instead of 20 waves of long, boring, all-the-same repeating waves.

[Boomstick720]

I expect all of the Tower III should be on the same level of difficulty and take about the same amount of time to complete.

I'm sorry what?

 

Isn't this like saying that all defense missions or mobile defense missions should be just as easy as raids because it would then have comparative difficulty

[Konnivar]

Xini up to 10 waves has relatively the same difficulty and takes about the same time as Nimus on Eris.  Why should the tower missions be any different?

 

Also I'm not playing with a PUG group, I play with one friend and we mostly duo things pretty easily.  The point is, sure it would take us a while to finish it even if it was 10 waves, but it would take us much less time than it currently does.

 

In addition, having faster mission turnover or extra rewards doesn't effect only me, it would also allow your endgame group to obtain a larger reward or to get through missions faster.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Konnivar

[CeePee]

If it takes you 1 hour 20 mins for T3 defence, you're not using a good setup.

 

You can do 20 waves under 40 mins, which I think is perfectly reasonable. T3 defence is supposed to be the ultimate challenge, which it is right now and it's still very easy to do.

 

We were using: Frost, Nyx, Trinity, Saryn

 

Main weapons: Hek, Latron Prime, Supra

Secondary: Kunai, Hikou, Despair

[Konnivar]

What I'm asking for is more along the lines of better balancing for smaller groups, I prefer to play with one of my friends and not do PUG groups or anything like that.  I would like the Tower 3 defense missions to scale a little bit better so that we don't have to grind though the same amount of enemies as a four man group (at least it feels like the same number).  As I said above its not impossible its tedious vs. doing other Tower 3 mission types.

[Mainabi]

wait what? 1h and 20min?

my team does t3 defense in 20-35min..

 

edit: using, nyx,vauban,frost,saryn

Edited July 18, 2013 by SeiraSunmin

[Konnivar]

wait what? 1h and 20min?

my team does t3 defense in 20-35min..

1 hr 20 min is the time to duo it, the only way I play warframe.  The Tower 3 Defense seems poorly scaled compared to other Tower 3 mission types.

[Mainabi]

1 hr 20 min is the time to duo it, the only way I play warframe.  The Tower 3 Defense seems poorly scaled compared to other Tower 3 mission types.

if you duo it then it's normal that it takes long... I don't see any problems with it at all o.O

[Halp]

its out of whack right now. 15 waves of zzzzz then 5 waves of hard if you dont have a nyx at least. i dont want to wait around for 30 mins for the hard part.

[ZyloWolfzan]

I like it, it's long, grueling, and crazy tense. As it should be, it's T3 Defense, it's basically the hardest thing out there short of Pluto Nightmares. Besides, you don't get many T3 Defense keys(At least I haven't.) so you use them for special occasions when all your friends are on and have enough time to burn for it.

 

signed I say keep them as is.

Zylo the Wolfbane

[Liminal]

Ya... 20 Waves don't make it harder.. it just makes it take longer to kill the enemies because of increasing bullet-spongeness. Higher starting level, only 10 waves would be ok.

 

Same goes with the Defense Alerts. 15 waves of boredomness instead of 10 waves of fun. Make it shorter with higher starter level.

I agree with that. Defense alerts with set wave numbers are extremely boring.

[RoboDoge]

T2 is 20 mins with 3 people. And T3 is around half an hour if you know what you are doing. But having 1h20 mins, my dear friend try remoding your frame ( you and your friends ) because you are lacking in damage department.

[Eirshy]

If you think 10 waves would be able to be more challenging you're kidding yourself. Even if they ramp up the scaling...

 

The first 4 waves are always jokes in EVERY defense mission.

Waves 5-9 are always just *slightly* more difficult

Waves 10+ are where it actually starts getting fun.

 

It has nothing to do with levels, it has everything to do with enemy rush makeup. Until wave 5 it's just light trash. Until wave 10 you don't get the "fun" enemies.

 

And I'm fairly sure that's hardcoded into the defense mode mechanics, because ALL defense missions work like that regardless of planet.

 

 

Anyways, I do agree it should have a little higher reward because of the commitment for it. And having the option to go another 5 waves for even more prizes would be *awesome* as wave 20 was some hardcore S#&$ when we did it- and we all wanted more of it XD

 

Mod Drops do help though, as it's by far the best way to farm void-exclusive mods.

 

 

Party was Nova Frost Rhino and I was on Banshee. One Hek, two Latron Primes, I had my Snidal, and all four of us had Despair. Nova had Zorens, I had an Orthos, dunno what melee the other two had (I was the only one with melee kills at the end). Took us I think half an hour. Took my shee from lv25 to lv29 XD

Edited July 19, 2013 by TheBlueJelly

[DKage]

Agreed. Didn't read everything cause of what time it is where I am, but quite frankly these defense missions are too damn long. I deal and do them anyway, but what really &!$$es me off is when the hosts internet craps out on us at the last wave and we don't get ANYTHING. We just wasted a S#&$ load of time and for what? NOTHING. That crap agitates me like no other. I thought tower keys progressed in difficulty not in length. It being longer isn't what makes a mission harder. Just makes it annoying and tedious. I already know I can do it, just now the strategy becomes how the eff do we finish this faster so we don't waste our time here in this hell hole.

Edited July 21, 2013 by DKage

[Kuhrasu]

The problem is that you play for an hour just to get "lucky" and have a forma BP which has a 1.01% drop rate, instead of a Paris Prime BP with a 7% drop rate, which refuses to drop despite many tens of missions. DE, kindly un-f*ck your droprates please.

[Ss3trnks2]

I don't think that they should be shortened at all, but I believe that the rewards should be buffed for doing it. Like having 2 garuntee'd rare mods in addition to whatever the normal reward table and enemy drop rates are. If not that, boost the frequency of things like mod drops for the mission. Keep it at the same difficulty, but make it more worth while.

 

Edit: I also know that the few times me and a few of my clanmates have done it, we we're facing mobs that we're at least 112 and I want to say even hitting 121, but that's stretching my memory a bit. 112 for sure though.

Edited July 21, 2013 by Ss3trnks2