Warframe News and Info

[Firuthi Dragovic]

So I'm going to try to keep these posts down to one a week, maybe one every two weeks if not a whole lot is happening in-game or on my end. Other than responses of course. I don't even have plans to edit posts relentlessly like I had been doing during my blitz.

I'll probably have more to say on game status when Nidus Prime lands. I DID hear some people suggest it shouldn't be Hema/Hirudo Prime, but instead Gazal Machete Prime and Djinn Prime, that ship off with Nidus Prime. We'll have to see. Whatever it is, I'm sticking with the relics on that one and going with my original plan of waiting to buy a Prime Access until Harrow Prime drops (which I THINK may be next after Nidus).

Anyways, I've hit MR 28 and Nekros has officially been inducted into my stable proper. He's for use when I need mobility in a farm task (such as recent Toroid farming to level Vox Solaris), whereas Khora's there if I can just chokepoint the enemy.

My real task this weekend that encouraged me to get another 3-day resource booster was a bunch of weapon blueprints that have been sitting in storage too long. I know Tatsu and Plinx are among them, but forgot the rest. Anyways, I have REALLY bad luck with the Profit-Taker bounties as I've gotten Atmo Systems instead of Gyromag Systems more than I'd want (I swear, the item's rarity is just a suggestion), and the actual fight with Profit-Taker in my experience has just been "pray you have enough lives, nothing you can build will give you needed survivability".

Harrow gives me 10 seconds to live.

Trinity barely nulls any damage even with the maximum reduction on Blessing.

Rhino I don't have time to charge up a decent Iron Skin.

And even Necramechs don't survive long because I can't follow the sheer amount of chaos enough to dodge ANYTHING.

I am REALLY tempted to try Nova to slow down all the minions, but that doesn't solve Profit-Taker itself.

There's actually a mod I'm trying to get off of Profit-Taker, called "Ammo Chain". Beyond that, Toroids are the only reason for me to keep coming back to Profit-Taker in a group scenario, so I may actually prefer to farm normal Toroids even though I'll need some Crisma for Larkspur and maxing Vox Solaris. I can only hope Exploiter Orb isn't nearly as crazy.

Also, I only got 1 Seriglass Shard so far. I'm in reach of all three of the weapons that will need one, so I'm going to have to do a LOT more tasks for Grandmother in the Necralisk, BUT at least I can wait to pick that up because they don't need Argon and Seriglass at the exact same time in the process. (Unlike one weapon that required Argon and Gyromag Systems in the same recipe.)

I still don't know how many more weapons and equipment pieces I'll need for MR 29 or even MR 30. It can't be all that many honestly. Though I AM going to have to do much more Lich/Sister stuff in the process.

 

[Attaman]

The best option I've found for durability against Profit-Taker is Zephyr, of all things.

There's a bunch of funky weapons / attacks around that nullify Turbulence (plus you still need to worry about Nullifiers), but Turbulence funnily enough does work on Profit-Taker's missiles and a number of other attacks as well as Tailwind making it relatively easier to avoid the force-field attack.

Now, in return if anyone gets in melee range of you you'll melt because Zephyr has no armor whatsoever and their panic buttons tend to be energy expensive. But they can buy you some breathing room with Turbulence, Tailwind, and Whirlwind. Just, uh, don't expect to have a fun run if the entire party's Zephyr because you want at least somebody giving some flat damage buffs.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

The best option I've found for durability against Profit-Taker is Zephyr, of all things.

There's a bunch of funky weapons / attacks around that nullify Turbulence (plus you still need to worry about Nullifiers), but Turbulence funnily enough does work on Profit-Taker's missiles and a number of other attacks as well as Tailwind making it relatively easier to avoid the force-field attack.

Now, in return if anyone gets in melee range of you you'll melt because Zephyr has no armor whatsoever and their panic buttons tend to be energy expensive. But they can buy you some breathing room with Turbulence, Tailwind, and Whirlwind. Just, uh, don't expect to have a fun run if the entire party's Zephyr because you want at least somebody giving some flat damage buffs.

I... would have considered your idea in the event that Nova's slowing effect didn't do enough.

After some testing, I found that Nova upped my survival (and from what I can tell, the team's survival) considerably. With the adds slowed down, I can actually focus on the Profit-Taker. Combine the Necramech, the terrain, the Archgun, and my stack of health/shield restores when things get REALLY hairy, and I actually contribute reasonably well to fights now. With a Vectis set to Radiation (a holdover from the Eidolons), my Magnetic Diplos set to Viral, and the Voidrig's Heat/Blast ultimate, I cover enough elements that I feel pretty safe overall in that fight. The elements covered don't all have to be all-stars, they just need to be able to reasonably contribute (the Voidrig's ult pretty much changes the shield INSTANTLY it's that powerful. The rest put enough numbers that if I had to do the final timed phase myself, I have a shot at it).

I will consider Zephyr if I need to up my game further with that fight. I think I get tons of loadout slots at MR 30, at which point I can probably spare one for Zephyr.


I'm in the process of building Larkspur now, and I got rank 3 with Vox Solaris - I can still consider doing the Phase 2 mission on days when I don't have a booster, but when I do, my time's better spent against Profit-Taker. I'm probably going to try earning the parts for my Gravimags first, and then when I hit rank 4 and have all the Amp parts, buy up the rest of the stuff I need for Gravimags then. (I think I'm going to need like 5-6, since apparently the Entrati weapons come with them already?)


By the way, I've totaled up the weapons coming in... and before factoring in things like Lich weapons, if I max everything I have and everything I'm currently building (this includes Lavos), I will JUST make it to MR 29.

If I get every Kuva/Tenet weapon (including the four that require Holokeys) I'm missing and at least get them to 30, I'm either going to make it to MR 30 or get REALLY close to it.

I may start going after Lich weapons again very soon. As far as leveling things though? Want to wait for a Double Affinity weekend, at which point I will grab a booster and do a leveling spree.


I am still going to have to deal with Steel Path at some point before long. THAT is when I will worry about meta-tier damage and builds (what was it, Heat/Viral/Slash is the last I heard outside of stuff like Condition Overload?), although I feel like CC is going to be super-important.


....oh, and I may have come around on Helminth, if what I've heard is true that 1. A subsumed ability only affects one configuration of the 'Frame and not all of them, and 2. it's reversible.

Reversible changes are VITAL to this. I've actually got a few non-Primed versions of 'Frames I'll want to subsume first, and I may have to farm a few old 'Frames, but none of that would have mattered if Helminth's changes to the recipient can't be undone.


Oh, and Yareli will be building soon. If I can get a second blueprint from Simaris, she may actually be one of the first 'Frames I subsume.

 

[Attaman]

The thing with Zephyr is that they specialize in nothing (except, arguably, Index runs as a bot killer), but they’re also terrible in nothing but Stealth and Eidolon Runs.

Tornado can be a surprisingly effective crowd controller (when the Tornado AI doesn’t fuck you over by choosing utterly inane enemies to drop the whirlwinds on), which is what you use your Nova there for. Turbulence with a stretched Range will usually keep you safe from non-Beam ranged attacks (and even some of them: The game isn’t particularly consistent), their 2 power (name escapes me ATM) is good for ragdolling enemies (it’s this and Turbulence that make them vicious in Index), and Tailwind remains one of the best (if finicky) mobility powers in the game. They also have good base shields and health which makes them ironically more durable against certain status effects (specifically, Slash). Turbulence has the added bonus of being super versatile for non-Infested Defense, Mobile Defense, and Extraction missions BTW. Plus Tornado in anything where more crowd control never hurts.

As said: They do nothing perfect, but are pretty much tailor made for “Running with Pubs” since you can at least partially plug most holes in a squad layout.

For Steel Path, that sounds about right. Also consider Warframes with Finisher-based powers as most Finishers still ignore armor which is the main bottleneck against Grineer in Steel Path.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

Noted about Zephyr. I actually plan to give her a tryout next week.

Y'see, I've been blitzing Liches/Sisters. In addition to the Impact Tetra that Rhino spawned, I got Loki to spawn a Radiation Chakhurr (at I think 53%) with an Ephemera, my Atlas spawned a Toxic Karak at 58%, and my Chroma spawned a Heat Drakgoon. The Drakgoon's Lich is worth mentioning because she stole an Ayatan Sculpture, which I did not know they could do.

Needless to say, she's one Nemesis that felt like a personal vendetta.

Now I've had Saryn spawn a Sister with a Detron. Only 29%, but I will get another Ephemera.

I actually have it planned out which 'Frames are going to spawn my first set of weapons. I've planned it so that they cover the rest of my stable, with any further ones being handled by Nezha, Nidus, Zephyr, Limbo, Equinox, Garuda, Lavos, and Yareli. Most of them will be fighting the Lich/Sister themselves, just for style. This will not hold when I have Equinox and Limbo spawn Nemeses though.

I think I'm going to have Zephyr try spawning an Arca Plasmor when I pick up on this next week and facing that Sister will be her tryout as to whether I can learn her. However, I won't have time this weekend to do anything and I won't be near a computer anyhow. (Also why I'm doing the weekly post a bit early this time.)


Anyways, weekly stuff... new Nightwave just dropped. I'm seeing a few decent goodies, including the wings from Star Days and a special Ephemera at the top of the list. I must admit I used my Creds from the first rank of the Nightwave to get Wolf Beacons - as I don't have the Wolf Sledge yet.


UPDATE: Next Prime Vault was announced, and it looks like Nyx and Rhino. Weapon-wise, this WOULD mean Hikou and Scindo Prime, but there's enough availability of those relics thanks to Nyx Prime's place in Railjack. Ankyros and Boltor Prime, on the other hand, would become available again.

I have all that, though.

The cosmetics look nice, but the only real benefit I'd get from these packs is the primed Distilling Extractor. And I really am not diligent with those as it is.

Probably a pass from me. PROBABLY.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

So.

Back from my break. Let's update my list of goals:

• Get all the Lich/Sister weapons. One part of this will be easier when they update Corrupted Holokeys to drop more, which they are working on.
• Get one of every basic 'Frame for my Helminth. I can pace this one up until I get the Unbound Subsume perk, at which point I'll probably blitz it.
• Max standing with Entrati. A few bounties in a row can fix this up.
• Max standing with Vox Solaris. I will be re-buying boosters in the next few days for this purpose.

I will say that as far as the Lich/Sister weapons... I don't have plans to convert a Lich or Sister before that's done.



UNLESS I get one with a really good name. Like the one time I saw a male (well, okay, assigned a male body) Lich named Miss Horr during those missions. (Someone else's Lich, naturally, else I'd have gone on about it by now.)


UPDATE: Tenet Detron lady is no more. Current lich has a 50% Heat Kuva Kraken.

As far as Operator goes... one more day of maximum standing on Quills and I will max Magus Husk, so any further focus on Arcanes can be the Virtuos variants. That, and the only prism I need to level for Mastery is the one I can't reach until rank 4 with Vox Solaris. I have determined that I will keep 3 amps besides my basic Mote Amp (that I can't discard as is): 6-2-3, 4-6-7, and 7-4-7. I actually like the Dissic Scaffold (the 6 in the 4-6-7), it just won't work on an Eidolon-hunting build (which is what the 7-4-7 is meant to be). A 4 prism on the 4-6-7 was meant to make the Operator be like an assault rifle with a grenade launcher, but this could also be useful on the Profit-Taker now that I think about it. The 6-2-3 is strictly if I need to use the Operator in a mission.

I have resumed the arduous process of ranking up weapons, as well. I'm getting the worst out of the way immediately by dealing with the four Kitguns I never got ranked, then I'll proceed with the other guns. It was even slower because I was fixated on the Amps, but that's mostly done.



And as far as Nyx/Rhino Prime.... yeah, I'm definitely passing on those for the time being, and likely to pass them up fully. I'd only care about the accessory packs and they're not worth $40+ together.



UPDATE 2: So, as far as Ephemera go, I actually HATE the Eros Wings one. It blocks most of my screen on all reasonable viewing angles. I only dared it because I'm done leveling Prime frames for the moment and moved on to Garuda - which is named for an avian in Hinduism as I recall.

I will probably not keep that one on her. I have the full Prisma Avia armor as is.

Also, regarding Kitgun chambers, which I am leveling first because I had to do those twice. I already have Vermisplicer and Tombfinger because of Rivens. Knowing that, Rattleguts and Gaze will only serve as MR fodder until I get a Riven. Catchmoon is interesting as a punch-through shotgun-type weapon, and Sporelacer... I wish I had put better parts on the Sporelacer as I would seriously consider keeping that one even without a Riven to match it.


I also forgot.... we have Thermia Fractures available this weekend. I will have to do those eventually (probably during this round while I have the booster active) to get the resources to face the Exploiter Orb someday because Hildryn's acquired that way. (I'll have to do this more than usual as I'll need the Lazulite Toroids to build TWO Hildryns, because Hildryn's ability from the Helminth isn't exactly trash.)


UPDATE 3: I grew more tolerant of the Eros Wings, mainly because they fade out when in combat.

Anyways, I've maxed a few more 'Frames and weapons, and MR 29 is now mine. That test was brutal - after about four failed practice setups, I wound up using a Trinity modded for defense (enough Strength and Duration to make Link work, etc.), a Bubonico (for most enemies), a Kuva Brakk modded for Corrosive/Heat (for the Heavy Gunners and the last 10-20 enemies), and my Cyath Zaw.

I will want to get used to Lavos as a 'Frame. He actually seems fun to work with. Garuda... jury's still out on her, honestly.

Also, I've built my last couple of Amps. I will need to get more Quills rep for gilding them, but that's for later.

I may put off Entrati and Vox Solaris because of the whole Thermia Fractures thing. I want about 15-20 Diluted Thermia for the sake of Exploiter Orb. Even if I don't need that much to make two copies of Hildryn, the extra Toroids will help for Vox Solaris standing.


UPDATE 4: Getting mighty tired of the Rivens I get from Sorties and elsewhere being ALL about melee. I'd REALLY appreciate a gun Riven about now.

Anyways, tried Thermia Fractures for the first time. It's a bit more intense than I expected, but I'll make it priority this weekend because it turns out boosters count for the Diluted Thermia you get at the end.

Also, Heat Kraken acquired. I specifically chose to go after a Magnetic Nukor for the next weapon, and after a few runs Lavos was able to get one. I can fix the fact it's a measly 27% later. I may do the Impact Arca Plasmor right after this, we'll see.


UPDATE 5: Vox Solaris and Entrati are now maxed.

Invigoration segment installed, and it came up Valkyr, Atlas, and Mirage as my first three. I forget the exact infusions.

Magnetic Nukor, and an Electric Zarr that my Excalibur spawned, have also been acquired.

I am having bad luck getting the Impact Arca Plasmor. Zephyr can do this alone with the Xoris, sure (regular rank 2 when I'm not trying 100%), but the only different weapon I spawned was one Spirex and that's not what I'm after this time. Been repeats otherwise. I MAY have to grind somewhere for Zenith Crowns.

And perhaps I should try harder and attain the Protea piece and Stropha stock while I'm at it.... (I don't need Stahlta because I got the Unreal weapons pack.)

I do know my next 5 Frames to have Liches/Sisters after Zephyr will be Nekros, Khora, Ivara, Limbo, and Equinox. That will leave one 'Frame per element, aside from Impact, which is being closed out here with Zephyr. Nezha for Heat, Trinity for Cold, Volt for Elec, Nidus for Toxin, Garuda for Radiation, and Yareli for Magnetic. Nezha I know I want to send to the Void for a Sister weapon, but I don't know if I should hit up another one with the sequence of 5 that I just mentioned.

We're also close to a Balor Fomorian being launched. That'll be my next post here.


UPDATE 6: Well, that was the INTENTION. I still think Balor Fomorian's gonna happen this weekend or next week sometime - and I REALLY want that Imperator Vandal as I think that's the only Archgun I have left.

I did eventually get that Impact Arca Plasmor, and the Ephemera to match (antics included a comment from another player that said Sister was actually T-posing on me at about the point where she retreated to Railjack territory). Toxin Kohm is the next one I got.

I'm closing in on a full set, at which point I can worry about their respective percentages - and clean up on the Ephemera I didn't get.

Regarding Granum Void, I think I can in fact farm the whole thing without assistance if I use the Xoris - I hit a full clear on it at least once during my attempts to get the Arca Plasmor. Zephyr's got just enough defense and speed to pull it off. I think she's a keeper when I get the big batch of loadout slots.

I think that aside from Conclave, the only syndicate where I'm not max rank and won't screw things up by maxing it is Ventkids. That is basically going to involve me spamming the K-Drive races.

Rapidly closing in on Steel Path being one of the few things I have left.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

Hoo boy, a LOT went down since we last convened.


First off, Nidus Prime landed. And the weapons he got are.... Strun and Magnus?!? Funny thing is, Strun (at least its Wraith variant that I'll have until I secure the Prime) is actually still a passable shotgun. Are there any other shotguns with partial reload in this game?

I plan on getting the pieces for three Magnus Primes because I predict Baro will have an Akmagnus Prime relic in the near future.

Nidus Prime's access has a Necramech skin, but I don't think I will be picking it up. That skin is not worth $50 and I'm already trying to wean off relying on boosters 24/7, at least for a little while.


I have good reason to believe the next access will be Harrow and you'd better believe I'm buying THAT one full-tier.


Speaking of boosters, they're running alternating credit and affinity booster weekends up until New War lands. More on the boosters in a bit.


Operation Plague Star returns for the rest of the month. In addition to what it's had in the past (now's the time to get the Infested Zaw strikes and grips if you want them), you can get the parts for a power saw that... is quite frankly a novelty. Still, if you can get the right groups or have tons of Phylaxis and Catalysts, you can actually get enough Operational Standing for one fully-built Forma PER RUN.


I was able to secure every Tenet and Kuva weapon in some form. Even have a converted Kuva Lich:

Spoiler: About my Kuva Lich

While I was farming weapons to fusion I got a Lich with an Impact Grattler... and the name of "Cudd Ompiss". I'm sorry, but a name that ridiculous HAD to be the Lich I spared. I will eventually spare a Sister of Parvos to get that sigil but I'm probably not going to get as epic a name.

After tagging along with a clanmate for a Nightwave, I am a LOT more confident in doing Steel Path. A Vermisplicer primary and a Redeemer Prime kitted for Condition Overload and Radiation (or Corrosive against Infested) as a finishing strike works WONDERS.


I've also mostly finished the Ventkids syndicate. Still planning on a couple boards for mastery, one "final board" that will be my permanent keeper, some mods, and Kompressa, but that's because I waited until I hit Logical to even go after any of the proper drops. Taxman's Curve is probably the best "standing per minute" race - if you can't get that, go for a high-end race like Lord of the Board.


And by abusing the affinity booster weekend, getting all my Kuva and Tenet weapons to their first Forma, and being aggressive about missing parts.... I actually got to and completed the ball-bustingly difficult MR 30 test. So now I've hit True Master and can do Relay blessings whenever I remember to do it. My secret was the two weapons I described above in the Steel Path entry, plus my ESO Saryn Prime build (which has unusually high efficiency for an ESO build because I don't trust randoms) with Sevagoth's Gloom in place of Toxic Lash. I did deploy my Lich around wave 4 for good measure, but the real point of the test is to kill as fast as you can and keep killing even when the bosses are out. You NEED a lot of the tiny life support packs to make it through that, and you need them to drop in a manner where you're not instantly grabbing them.

Naturally, there's likely to be a lot of players who laugh at the test being difficult, but I never got around to learning the nuances of Mesa's kit and how to not instantly get murdered every time I try to use the ultimate. Oh well.

 

[Attaman]

For reference, it’s approximately 7-8 maxed out runs of Plague Star to get the full saw (BP, Components, Stance). Which is a bit grind-y but also a given since we don’t know if Nidus Prime BP will chiefly be Plague Star or not yet so people are going to farm the event anyhow.

I’m doing better on Steel Path since farming some Arcanes and swapping out my Vectis Prime load out, but I still lack confidence in anything past Venus without a squad or actually digging into the weapon meta. Which is a pain as the weapon meta simply isn’t fun IMO being reliant about multi-maxing either Kitguns or Kuva weaponry and I swore “never again” back in like 2016 when I multi-Forma’d a Synapse.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

For reference, it’s approximately 7-8 maxed out runs of Plague Star to get the full saw (BP, Components, Stance). Which is a bit grind-y but also a given since we don’t know if Nidus Prime BP will chiefly be Plague Star or not yet so people are going to farm the event anyhow.

Yep, about 8 runs is what it took. I basically used it and the affinity weapon to grind for Necramech and Archgun levels (both are on their last Forma now).

.....revealing in the process that the one Archgun weapon for which I got a Riven (yeah, I decided to pick up an Archgun Riven while I was getting the Grendel parts) is in fact absolute crap. (There were TWO weapons I didn't want - Corvas and Cyngas - and I got a Corvas Riven. It's a gun that just doesn't fit good Necramech or ground weapon uses.)

Y'know, while I mention Grendel, I now can easily bring Revenant into my B-squad at minimum (I will organize my squads this weekend, though I know that Nova, Trinity, and Saryn are locked into A-squad on merit and Excal may make A-squad purely due to the unobtainable Prime) because I outright solo'ed the last two Grendel piece missions I needed thanks to abusing Enthrall.

I’m doing better on Steel Path since farming some Arcanes and swapping out my Vectis Prime load out, but I still lack confidence in anything past Venus without a squad or actually digging into the weapon meta. Which is a pain as the weapon meta simply isn’t fun IMO being reliant about multi-maxing either Kitguns or Kuva weaponry and I swore “never again” back in like 2016 when I multi-Forma’d a Synapse.

Funny thing is, I don't fully know the melee meta. I only know that the common firearm meta is Heat/Viral/Slash, mainly due to their status effects - Viral to increase the raw damage dealt and Heat/Slash for damage over time (and I THINK Slash bypasses armor and shields).

I had a Lich resist two of those (I THINK Heat and Viral) and my clan was pitying me when they found out. Too bad said Lich had an Electric weakness so it basically wound up moot.

My own Vermisplicer uses Ramflare for the high status procs and Brash because range matters more with a status gun than raw damage.

I also know that Radiation hits Grineer boss armor and to a lesser extent Corpus boss armor really, REALLY hard. Not so much Infested, though - more of them are weak to Corrosive. (I think the Hemocyte from Plague Star is weak to BOTH to some degree.)


Pretty much the only fun that can be derived from the meta damage builds is the sheer number of kills per second. I find myself suddenly wondering if I could clear the base Star Chart with nothing but an Embolist pistol (the one I sometimes call "the perfume gun" because of how weak and short-ranged its stream is) and a non-offensive Frame.

(I multi-Forma Kuva weaponry for the mastery as-is, so that's not as big an issue. Though I HAVE had my own woes with meta builds - using up 6 Forma on the Amprex is overkill and I THINK I got away with only 2 on the Vermisplicer, maybe 3, and only 1 on the Redeemer Prime.)

 

[Attaman]

Yep, about 8 runs is what it took. I basically used it and the affinity weapon to grind for Necramech and Archgun levels (both are on their last Forma now).

.....revealing in the process that the one Archgun weapon for which I got a Riven (yeah, I decided to pick up an Archgun Riven while I was getting the Grendel parts) is in fact absolute crap. (There were TWO weapons I didn't want - Corvas and Cyngas - and I got a Corvas Riven. It's a gun that just doesn't fit good Necramech or ground weapon uses.)

Being fair, a lot of Archwing weapons have ceased to be particularly good over time. I remember when Grattler use to be one of - if not the - best Archwing gun, and now it's generally put at the bottom of everything that isn't low-level Archwing (and even only then due to the built-in AoE). Even so, ouch. Arbitration has somehow become even less fun to grind over time, so a shame to lose out on an expense there.

... I say somehow, but I know how: Vitus was made into a much bigger pain to farm.

Y'know, while I mention Grendel, I now can easily bring Revenant into my B-squad at minimum (I will organize my squads this weekend, though I know that Nova, Trinity, and Saryn are locked into A-squad on merit and Excal may make A-squad purely due to the unobtainable Prime) because I outright solo'ed the last two Grendel piece missions I needed thanks to abusing Enthrall.

Excalibur is amazingly solid in general, if only because solid base stats and the fact that abilities that blind / stun are stupidly useful for almost everything that isn't a boss run. Excalibur is how I did most of my Isolation Vault runs because Warframe has spawn limits so if you park your ass on an objective and keep spamming Blind / Howl you can just tourist frame for 4/5ths the defensive stages' timers.

Funny thing is, I don't fully know the melee meta.

Use to be "Blood Rush and / or Condition Overload". Now my understanding is it's "Blood Rush". Which sounds simplified, but seriously even post so many nerfs that mod turns a ton of weapons into blenders. If you really want to get fiesty throw a Riven on top.

Melee eventually runs into issues due to never quite scaling quite as high as a lot of guns on individual attacks (even with super Red-Crits), but unlimited ammo and various other melee mechanics can do a world of hurt.

... Alternatively just open people up to Finishers. Finishers melt everything that isn't a boss (Finishers aren't to be confused for Mercy Kills, BTW) since they get huge damage multipliers and outright ignore armor (as well as stacking with everything else). So you can do stuff like hypothetically run Steel Path with a Skana if you have the right Finisher openers / a couple good mods. You just have to deal with the whole "Getting close enough to stab somebody" part.

I only know that the common firearm meta is Heat/Viral/Slash, mainly due to their status effects - Viral to increase the raw damage dealt and Heat/Slash for damage over time (and I THINK Slash bypasses armor and shields).

Slash doesn't bypass shields anymore, but if you lose your shields (which is trivially easy and only applies to one faction anyhow) it still does a world of hurt.

I also know that Radiation hits Grineer boss armor and to a lesser extent Corpus boss armor really, REALLY hard. Not so much Infested, though - more of them are weak to Corrosive. (I think the Hemocyte from Plague Star is weak to BOTH to some degree.)

The best thing about Radiation is that if it Procs you generally don't have to worry about who it Proc'd on for at least a few seconds. Sometimes it's a nice breather to just melt a quarter of an encounter with Radiation Procs and run away during the distraction. Less useful in missions where your goal is killing, but if just looking to not die / buy time solid either way.

Pretty much the only fun that can be derived from the meta damage builds is the sheer number of kills per second. I find myself suddenly wondering if I could clear the base Star Chart with nothing but an Embolist pistol (the one I sometimes call "the perfume gun" because of how weak and short-ranged its stream is) and a non-offensive Frame.

Embolist melts Corpus and also, back when Dark Sector use to be a thing, Tenno too. Its one real weakness is the fact that, even post buffs, it has a range only marginally further than a RAID can. Which makes it compete with the melee meta.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

Being fair, a lot of Archwing weapons have ceased to be particularly good over time. I remember when Grattler use to be one of - if not the - best Archwing gun, and now it's generally put at the bottom of everything that isn't low-level Archwing (and even only then due to the built-in AoE). Even so, ouch. Arbitration has somehow become even less fun to grind over time, so a shame to lose out on an expense there.

... I say somehow, but I know how: Vitus was made into a much bigger pain to farm.

I actually decided to give it another try, after a 25-wave Arbitration Defense where I got as many Vitus Essence. My second Archgun Riven... was for the Morgha, a gun I don't have yet (neither it nor Cortege), but one I'm actually kind of excited to try.

I only intend to hold an absolute maximum of three Archgun mods at a given time and those are the weapons I use (kit one for actual Archwing, one for ground, one for Necramech). I'm hoping at least ONE of those is either Ayanga or Grattler or Mausolon, but Morgha is at least a viable keeper unlike what Corvas was.

What I'm thinking in that regard is this:
-Anything other than Cyngas (the one Archgun I outright won't even consider using again) will work for the actual Archwing. Corvas, Dual Decurion, Fluctus, or Velocitus would ONLY work here as I could not get Velocitus to work too well on Profit-Taker and most of the other stuff is too slow to work elsewhere (Prisma Dual Decurion just doesn't have the magazine size needed to work outside Archwing).
-Most of the automatic weapons would work as a ground gun, but Ayanga, Larkspur, or Grattler is what I really want here. I know exactly how much I can lay waste with those three.
-I generally want an explosive weapon for a Necramech. The only thing preventing me from locking Mausolon here... is its absurd reload delay and having a consistently bad disposition. Morgha's probably best here.

Must remember to bring a Smeeta Kavat to those missions as that's the only thing besides paid boosters that help Vitus Essence drops. No Nekros there.

And I probably will run boosters consistently once I really need to farm Vitus Essence.

Embolist melts Corpus and also, back when Dark Sector use to be a thing, Tenno too. Its one real weakness is the fact that, even post buffs, it has a range only marginally further than a RAID can. Which makes it compete with the melee meta.

....I actually wound up getting an Embolist Riven shortly after our little discussion on it. So I wound up trading an old relic for the Ruinous Extension mod (to make the Embolist usable outside melee range - I only traded the old relic because the game forced me to trade SOMEthing) and we'll see how much use it can get.

It already does surprisingly well on first- and maybe even second-stage Sorties. With its disposition and a little work I would not be surprised if I could somehow use it reasonably on Steel Path.

 

[Attaman]

I'm hoping at least ONE of those is either Ayanga or Grattler or Mausolon, but Morgha is at least a viable keeper unlike what Corvas was.

Ah, right. Forgot Kuva Grattler was added recently. While still bad in actual Archwing missions, it does work reasonably enough on the ground.

Must remember to bring a Smeeta Kavat to those missions as that's the only thing besides paid boosters that help Vitus Essence drops. No Nekros there.

And I probably will run boosters consistently once I really need to farm Vitus Essence.

IIRC, current Vitus drops go:
Something like 1-3 just for running the mission.
Something like a 5% drop rate from Drones.
Low chance of appearing on the cycles. I know at higher rotations in bundles, but don't recall if starting at Rotation A or only once up to B or C.

A shame as, while originally Arbitration was a lot less forgiving (no revive mechanic, no loot unless somebody got out alive, only loot Rotation rewards you were alive for if you died at any point), it spat out Vitus as well as had lower costs for everything. Understandable why some of the changes were made (Everyone ran Rhino or other "Can cheat damage / death" frames, which locked the mission type to only a half-dozen Warframes), but one should not have a 25-wave Defense or 30 minute Survival that runs the potential of less than 5 Vitus drops.

....I actually wound up getting an Embolist Riven shortly after our little discussion on it. So I wound up trading an old relic for the Ruinous Extension mod (to make the Embolist usable outside melee range - I only traded the old relic because the game forced me to trade SOMEthing) and we'll see how much use it can get.

It already does surprisingly well on first- and maybe even second-stage Sorties. With its disposition and a little work I would not be surprised if I could somehow use it reasonably on Steel Path.

Good Disposition will work wonder with a lot of weapons. I have gradually migrated from Lex Prime -> Vasto Prime -> Lato Prime because I've had some scarily good Rivens for the latter two that mean switching out to Kitguns has been relatively moot at the levels I run. It also helps that an Embolist starts with a base Toxin element, which allows it to easily build up Viral (for non-Corpus factions) or Toxin + Dual Combination (for Corpus factions).

That said you will want that range increase. Paradoxically the low crit chance means you're a little better off with loadout too as you don't need to worry about a Crit roll on the Riven or the usual Crit Tax of "Primed Target Cracker and Pistol Gambit". The weapon might work relatively well on a Warframe like Zephyr since Turbulence makes "Getting close enough to use it" a relative non-factor.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

I have gradually migrated from Lex Prime -> Vasto Prime -> Lato Prime

Time out for a second. Lato Prime was a Founder exclusive, and Grand Master only.

Based on this comment:

Kudos for being a Founder. I've played long enough that I probably should have made that investment, but c'est la vie.

I'm led to believe you didn't actually get any of the Founder packs. So Lato Prime's out.


The only other "Prime" at those dispositions is the Bronco Prime, which is better than Vasto Prime disposition-wise, and the "Lato" available is Lato Vandal, which IS available from Elite Sanctuary Onslaught and has the same disposition as Vasto Prime.

Please clarify.

 

[Attaman]

Time out for a second. Lato Prime was a Founder exclusive, and Grand Master only.

Based on this comment:

I'm led to believe you didn't actually get any of the Founder packs. So Lato Prime's out.


The only other "Prime" at those dispositions is the Bronco Prime, which is better than Vasto Prime disposition-wise, and the "Lato" available is Lato Vandal, which IS available from Elite Sanctuary Onslaught and has the same disposition as Vasto Prime.

Please clarify.

My bad: Lato Vandal. I managed to grab it before it was RNG (back when it was handed out to Beta players). Without a Riven it would have been... well, still a Lato Vandal. But the large magazine, passable Crit and Status chances, and decent Riven have made it... in some regards worse than a Vasto, but then I was usually dumping that thing's whole magazine into people's faces at higher levels anyhow.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

Alright, so with MR 30 and very few things to actually retrieve and level (I have three 'Frames left as I've gotten Xaku now... plus maybe a dozen total weapons, two of which are time-gated and two of which have blueprints selling for WELL over 500 platinum)... I'm now in the process of reclaiming old 'Frames so subsume into the Helminth.

One of the best subsumes is sadly one of the three 'Frames I still need to attain (Protea to be specific). I already have Rhino and Oberon (a Smite Trinity is my plan to eventually solo a full set of Eidolons) subsumed, and Harrow's not getting subsumed until the Prime version comes out (easy access to shields + CC can be dangerous sometimes)... I think the only other REALLY potent one might be Chroma?

Yeah, this is mostly for 100% completion.

Ash is going to be the most painful to do, but there are a DISTURBING number of these where I have to use Simaris reputation. Out of the ones I have left, I count four WHOLE 'Frames remaining (Titania, Inaros, Mirage, and the aforementioned Chroma), plus four core blueprints (Atlas, Octavia, Protea, and Revenant), that can only be attained with Simaris reputation.

Still think this'll be a less tedious slog than Arbitrations.

 

[Attaman]

(Savage) Silence is actually extremely good as a Subsume ability. You generally want it on Warframes who don't have Range for their build, but "Easy access to Finishers + General Stun" can make a world of difference when plowing through Steel Path or other higher level content. Main drawback being that it's +1 for a lot of Warframes' already limited mod spaces.

Radial Blind (/ Finish) is also pretty good for much the same reason, with some perks (and disadvantages) over (Savage) Silence. LoS required, but the stun tends to last a tad longer, but you can still draw aggro, but you can reapply as needed.

Savior Decoy obviously remains a "Hey, watch this, [Does dumb shit]", which can be a bit hit or miss sometimes so might not be the best default power but I could see use for in certain missions / events.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

While I use this weekend to get a few odds-and-ends leveling things done like 'Mechs and K-Drives (I already have the drives maxed, I want to build one as general-use and I actually need to Forma it believe it or not), some other news dropped recently:

Nights of Naberus starts October 6th. Instead of the plagued Zaw stuff, it's supposedly going to have Scarlet Spear's drops - meaning Basmu and/or Ceti Lacera becomes available again.

Another wing Ephemera involved too. I THINK it's bat(/demon/dragon) wings.

Another charity campaign.

An interesting quality-of-life change to how Forma works in 'Frames, Archwings, and 'Mechs. Depending on your MR, you actually keep your abilities when you use Forma. So I'd keep all of them at full strength and... I think in your case you'd keep them all, but only the first ability would be full strength?

Hildryn and Protea getting deluxe skins - and Protea's will reskin the Tonkor apparently?

A bunch of tech stuff.

....and apparently something about werewolves and whether Sevagoth paves the way for more non-traditional Warframes in the future? If they DO make a werewolf-themed Warframe, I propose the name Gizotso, which if I'm not being trolled is the Basque version of the werewolf myth.

 

[Attaman]

Those bat / dragon / demon wings are going to very quickly become a thing in the community. I can see it now. Particularly with Banshee (courtesy of their Bat Tennogen helm) and Chroma (for obvious reasons).

Also I presume you saw the Crumb bit from yesterday's stream. Good times.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

Phew.

So, after a sortie gave a resource drop booster, I went on a blitz this weekend.

I now have a whopping 9 'Frames building at this time. Including both Nidus Prime.... and Hildryn. Dunno if the first one is my Hildryn or the one being served to Helminth.

Pretty much the rest of it is the 'Frames from the boss nodes. Those 'Frames, their normal versions are ones I discarded WAY before there was a Helminth to consume them.

Regarding Hildryn, I can actually solo the Exploiter Orb fight with the Smite Trinity. It's more important to snipe Coolant Raknoids than dump Thermia on the boss I've noticed.

I will eventually have to farm those little guys for Wise Razor.... but I'm told it's better to go with the free-roaming version of Exploiter there, not the boss one.

My throwing arm sucks though.


(As for why I'm working to get all these? I made a vow that Helminth must never eat Platinum. The biggest violation of the vow is going to be when it's time to eat Harrow, as I've sunk 5 Forma, including an Aura Forma, into the original version.)


UPDATE: Oh damn. +200% Ability Strength and +75% Ability Efficiency on Volt. I guess I'm doing ESO every day this week for Zenurik focus.

With this setup and just building for max range, I get 200k focus on 8 waves. WITHOUT boosters.

It is frankly psychotic and another stern reminder that Warframe is NOT for people with photosensitive epilepsy, as I'm pretty sure there'd be too many flashing images even with a very dark energy color.

UPDATE 1.1: Oh, and I actually bought a veiled Archgun Riven off a player with Platinum. Did the mission... it was another Morgha.

I used a Riven Transmuter on it and a few other Rivens I had lying around (I have 90 slots and only use about 45, I am NOT throwing out any Rivens anymore) and got another Archgun Riven. Finished this one... it was Phaedra.

I can work on getting better Archgun Rivens later, for now I can use Corvas in the actual Archwing, Phaedra on the ground, Morgha in the 'Mech.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

Weekly check-in on this.

So I was doing the ESO runs and people were talking about having all their Focus farming done. I mentioned that I was way behind, having only most of Unairu maxed and a bunch of Way-Bounds unlocked.

Someone insisted I should be done by now, as an MR 30. They also said "just do Eidolons you'll have it done in a month".

While rude, I have been meaning to work on it for some time now, and now that I'm confident enough to fight the full set of Eidolons regularly, I can run some numbers.

So, I found an online spreadsheet that calculates these things.

A few starting figures:
My current Focus pool at time of post is 81, with the goal target being about 177 (as I think you can equip every maxed ability in your tree plus all Waybounds at the same time with that).
I can get 400k a day due to my Mastery rank. (This will be dubbed "full ESO" as outside of booster days I'm not getting Focus that fast any other way.)
Completing the triple Eidolon challenge yields 3 Brilliant Shards and 2 Radiant Shards.
Brilliant Shards give 25k, but I have to discard 4 of them total for future Waybound unlocks.
Radiant Shards give 40k.

Thus, a 2x3 (two sets of three Eidolons, I have done this in a single Plains night more than once but that's my limit with randoms so far) yields 310k Focus, which is a little over 75% of an ESO day.

Let's say I do full ESO and 1x3, as that's pretty reasonable if I want to do other things besides Warframe on a given day. That's 400k for the full ESO, 75k for the 3 Brilliant Shards, and 80k for the Radiant Shards, for a total of 555k.

This only works reasonably for Vazarin (using Saryn) and Zenurik (using Volt), though. For Madurai I will need to piggyback with Trinity or MAY be able to make Octavia work. And as for Naramon... I thought I needed boosters or to induct a new 'Frame, but then I realized I set Khora to that Way during a lens binge and apparently a build based on Accumulating Whipclaw and max range (if I ever say "the Devo build" THIS is what I mean) might work.


Running my current unlocks through the calculator, and not giving any regard to certain trees (like there's one ability you're not supposed to max on Madurai because it hinders Void Strike), I got the following numbers for how much more Focus I need to attain:

Madurai: 4,296,096
Unairu: 3,582,812
Vazarin: 4,325,373
Zenurik: 6,413,039
Naramon: 7,043,481 (no, I have basically done nothing with this school at all)
Focus Pool (any school): 9,920,162

Now, when I divide this by the 555k figure, I get the following:

Madurai: 8 days
Unairu: 7 days
Vazarin: 8 days
Zenurik: 12 days
Naramon: 13 days
Focus Pool (any school): 18 days (!)

Grand Total: 66 days

If I change this up to full ESO and 2x3 on four nights, just ESO on one night (there's one night a week I have a LOT less time), and full ESO plus 8x3 on each weekend day (most of the time I can conceivably hit multiple Plains nights in a real-world day when work's not an issue), I get the following:
Weekday Focus: 710k
Gameday Focus: 400k
Weekend Focus: 1320k
Average Focus per Day: ((710k*4)+400k+(1320k*2))/7 = 840k

Madurai: 6 days (actually about 5.12)
Unairu: 5 days (actually 4.26)
Vazarin: 6 days (actually 5.15)
Zenurik: 8 days (actually 7.63)
Naramon: 9 days (actually 8.39)
Focus Pool (any school): 12 days (actually 11.81)

Combining the actual Focus totals into one number and dividing by the average Focus number yields 42.1 days - so about six weeks - before I max everything.


Eidolons are a HUGE timesaver here, but "have it done in a month" is unrealistic if I want to do anything else at all.

I will probably do most of my Focus pool work (I want to get up around the 130s, which will let me equip all the Waybounds plus most of Unairu) before going to work on the rest of the Waybounds, and then I'll pick the rest off as I go because of how much I've already done with Unairu.

I'm not going to worry about THIS calculation, but we're looking at a couple of weeks, tops. One of those weeks is the Focus requirement alone.

 

[Attaman]

Honestly the main way I've made Focus Farming tolerable is considering it Arcane farming with Focus a side thing. But even that's something I have to do in moderation as gods above is it a pain maximizing Arcanes.

That said if you stop paying attention it adds up stunningly fast. Likewise upgrading to Eidolon Lenses, though I tend not to do much farming via Lens' just because it isn't worth it outside a handful of game modes. Most of my Node completion has been upgrades to my Operator so that they aren't such a wet tissue for the "Operator Mandatory" parts of recent events / plot points.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

Honestly the main way I've made Focus Farming tolerable is considering it Arcane farming with Focus a side thing. But even that's something I have to do in moderation as gods above is it a pain maximizing Arcanes.

That said if you stop paying attention it adds up stunningly fast. Likewise upgrading to Eidolon Lenses, though I tend not to do much farming via Lens' just because it isn't worth it outside a handful of game modes. Most of my Node completion has been upgrades to my Operator so that they aren't such a wet tissue for the "Operator Mandatory" parts of recent events / plot points.

Upgrading the Operator's durability was pretty much my main focus with the Focus stuff at first. Unairu, the health Waybound in Vazarin....

I started off with Unairu back when focus trees were fresh, never bothered to do much with the Operator before the last couple of months, and now I see little need to deviate from Unairu (I even use the Unairu Wisp thing for Eidolon hunts). Hence the fixation on the Waybounds.

However, I will still do ESO every once in a while as I still have the Braton Vandal and Lato Vandal to attain.

Mesa works well for ESO by the way, long as I build her for duration and efficiency. Give enough space between uses of Peacemaker that Simaris doesn't care and you can still rely on it.

Regarding Arcanes, the one that's irking me so much that I want done is Nullifier, as even with the second-to-last rank I am STILL getting procced in Eidolon hunts too often to pull Trinity's role well.




Focus is probably going by the wayside this week as I've got a bigger goal.

I spent several hours in the Granum Void yesterday and no longer have to do either of the lower tiers. I only have one of the two Systems from the final tier at this time though - and my first Protea is building.

Even if I'm likely feeding the first Protea to the Helminth, that leaves Gauss as the only 'Frame I have never approached. It requires me to farm a specific Disruption node. I'm HOPING I can get enough blueprints for a full one in the next couple days as it should allow me to finish building the full thing by Friday and then I can blitz the Mastery during the next Affinity weekend.

I will still be hitting up Granum Void for the other Protea Systems later, and I need to attain 50k Simaris reputation for another main blueprint. Simaris is easy as long as I actually pay attention to him though.

 

[Attaman]

Of note: Naberus was announced to be starting really early this year. As in: This Wednesday. So there's plenty of time to get the new wing item that I'm sure won't see plenty of use at all on certain frames or in various pieces of fan art.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

.....and I pretty much knocked loose everything I needed from Naberus in a couple of hours. I expect the price of the Basmu and the Ceti Lacera on the Warframe Market, which was well over 500 Platinum at one point for each one, to plummet since one tier 5 Deimos bounty easily buys you one blueprint, so I have no plans at getting extra blueprints.

Should this not hold by the end of the month, I will make sure to farm up a few.

No luck on Gauss because I've been taking this week kinda easy due to a case of gaming shoulder. In fact, I still have to deal with most of my Nightwave stuff.


Also... I give up on not running boosters. The sorties are throwing them at me like candy - as of the past month I think I've gotten 7-8, which is probably not unusual but it's getting to the point where I've gotten more boosters than Riven mods from sortie stuff. So I may wind up getting the Prime Accessories pack after all. Gonna wait a couple weeks as I JUST used a coupon for Platinum yesterday.

 

[Attaman]

A lot of people really underestimate how much Mother Tokens you get with a T5, likewise how... easy, those are to run with a good team. Particularly a good team that knows what the words "Do" and "Don't" mean. I specify this as I'm sure you've had a few "Mesa spends 15 minutes complaining about mission being bugged, all the while actively disregarding the notifications popping every five seconds telling the team to wait until the Infested are inside the bubble before killing them" runs before to as much amusement as I.

I don't think I've ever got anything larger than a Catalyst from Sorties (excluding Rivens, if somebody wants to argue them 'better' at least), but that's still fairly worthwhile and also how I have a cache of something like 120,000 Endo in the bank in the form of Ayatans.