Balancing some weapons and small intro on Miscalculations

[Triplinster]

Hello, I'd like to take some time to talk about some weapon balancing and the state of some weapons. 

First of all, I'd like the readers of this post to refrain from talking about topics irrelevant to the subject (Weapon balancing). Limit the discussion to weapon balancing. Thank you.

For now, the purpose of this post is not to achieve perfection or even near perfection in balancing. But to balance weapons that are currently seriously overpowered or under powered.

1. SNIPERS



Above you can see the stats for the snipers. Looking at this you can easily tell which snipers are lacking or seriously overpowered.

a. Vectis
Currently the Vectis has a fire rate of 1 and a total damage of 110. It's very lacking compared to other snipers. And deserves some form of buff. 
The effective head shot multipliers at both zoom levels are also laugh-able. (1.4*1.3=1.82 at base scope) and (1.4*1.55=2.17 at max zoom). 

I have been using the Vectis at max zoom and aiming for headshots, even then the max zoom headshot damage is so low that it only 1 shots lights-super lights (1.2-1.1 mobility).

 Changes for Vectis:
Base damage increase 110 > 120
Headshot multiplier 1.4 > 1.53
Allow Vectis to use mod "Emergent aftermath"

b. Rubico
Changes for Rubico
Base damage decrease 110 > 100
Remove "Ambush Optics" mod.

Reason for this change:

Rubico is currently the best sniper in the game. It's mod "Ambush Optics" allows Rubico to have scope zoom levels of 1.75 base and 3 max. It's no longer a sniper with this mod. 
It also has the fastest fire rate of all snipers (2.67) with a magazine of 5. It deserves to be toned down a bit. The new change will still keep it in the 3 shot range till there's a better solution for balancing Snipers.

c. Snipetron
Base damage decrease 132 > 110
Increase reload speed 3.5 > 2.5
Headshot multiplier 1.4 > 1.53

Reason for this change:

Snipetron got a massive unintentional buff recently. It needs to tone down a bit in total damage. And deserves some buff on the reload speed and headshot multi side.

d. Snipetron Vandal
No change to base damage.
Decrease reload speed 2 > 2.5
Headshot multiplier 1.4 > 1.53

e. Vectis Prime
Base damage increase 106 > 115
Headshot multiplier 1.4 > 1.53

f. Vulkar
Increase base damage 101 > 110
Headshot multiplier 1.4 > 1.53

g. Vulkar Wraith
Headshot multiplier 1.4 > 1.53


h. Lanka
Electric 120.8 > 140
(Quick shot) 46 > 70

Reason for this change:

Lanka is the most under powered Bow/Sniper/Hybrid in conclave. It never was able to use "Lie in Wait" but it still got nerfed some time ago when it desperately needed a buff.




2. Some other weapons (and miscalculations)

First i'd like to give a small intro on miscalculations. Currently in Warframe, there are many weapons at some damage levels that deal unintended damage (Observed damage ≠ Intended/Calculated damage). This problem is more visible in PVP than PVE. Me and a couple of other players (Theroxenes and SevenLetterKWord) have been testing weapons for miscalculations and found many weapons in PVP dealing unintended damage. This deserves a separate post for discussion, but I needed to bring awareness to this issue before going forward with the weapon changes. As some of these weapons deal high/low unintended damage.


a. Lex Prime



Above you can see the damage values for Lex Prime. Lex Prime is one of the most strongest secondaries in game. It does unintended high shield and health damage at stock.

Aside from the high unintended damage. It's also very strong on paper compared to Lex.



Almost twice the fire rate of Lex, while having 75% of it's damage. It needs to be toned down a little.

Changes for Lex Prime:
Base damage decrease 78 > 70


b. Kraken

Kraken is the most underrated overpowered weapon in the game. Even though not many people use it, it's still very overpowered and benefits greatly from miscalc.



174 shield damage in one click. This weapon is enough to 2 click most warframes at a very high fire rate.

Changes for Kraken:
Base damage decrease 60 > 55


c. Sybaris series

  

Sybaris weapons are really solid on their own. Their fire rate of (Sybaris 3.98 - Dex Sybaris 4.17 - Sybaris Prime 4.72) is already solid. They shouldn't need "Sudden Justice" mod. That just takes them to a whole new level of broken.


Changes for Sybaris series:
Remove "Sudden Justice" mod.



d. Viper series

 

Viper is currently the most powerful weapon in the game. Insane accuracy, rifle levels of damage and insane fire rate. It's like a pocket gorgon with no spool up.

And the mod that just takes this weapon to a whole new level:



If you do the math for both vipers. If you land a headshot and trigger this mod you get:
Viper: 14 mag + (2second*14.38 fire rate) = 42 Mag
Viper Wraith: 20 mag + (2second*14.38) = 48 mag

That's absurd amounts of damage in a short amount of time. Also after the skull shots end, you can land another head to trigger. 
Aside from that, they also have insanely low reload speed (0.8-0.7) and high accuracy.

Changes to Viper series
Viper Wraith
Base damage decrease 25 > 22

Viper
Base damage decrease 27 > 24



e. Daikyu

 

Recently the Daikyu got an unintentional buff to it's charge rate which carried over from PVE. The charge went from 1.75 to 1.00. A huge increase.
For this reason, it's become insanely powerful now specially since it takes advantage of this mod
 

For now, the Daikyu should either be unable to use this mod, have decreased over-all base damage, or get reduced fire rate with the use of "Spring-Loaded Broadhead" mod.



So far these are the changes I believe should be made. There are other weapons out there that also deserve a nerf/buff. But I'm unsure on how to balance those weapons. So far the weapons I talked about above are the weapons I believe that need to be looked at the most.

Edited February 14, 2018 by Triplinster
Intended > unintended