To those who play Warframe

:-< TBH Ivara was the one I wanted to get.

"

Vipermagi wrote:

I'm going to talk about Ember first, she's awesome. Scatter-shot thoughts here we go!

Wow. Thank you so much for the awesome response!

Volt sounds like a lot of fun. Might try properly modding Ember and gitting gud™. Rhino sounds like what I was after, but now I’m wondering if starting off on such a tanky frame would teach me bad habits, whereas a squishier one might make me a better (if more frustrated :P) player.

On ps4, I went Excalibur first and then funbucked Mag and Volt, since they're also starting frames and I figure that's hardly pay to win. The rest of my one-off injection of cash went to palettes and storage. Done and done. Finished my rhino on there, also scored a Frost Prime with a Soma Prime and a Scindo Prime from one of the many promotions DE runs. I'm also not far off a Vauban, which apparently you can only get by doing random limited-time missions. To offset this simpler setup, I somehow also have the Dread bow from The Stalker (a rando who will pop up now and then trying to kill you after you killed some bosses), which is utterly beast. I also potatoed (used an Orokin Catalyst) my two favourite weapons so far, the Galatine two-handed sword and the Twin Grakatas -- dual wielding machine guns never not fun.

Of my Ps4 frames, Excalibur is easily the strongest but Mag is potentially the most fun. Her ability to pull groups of enemies seems straightforward but if you use heights smartly you can shove enemies to their deaths quite effectively. Volt is boring. Rhino is tank.

My two friends are running Gara and Valkyr. They're recent acquisitions so we haven't yet figured out good synergy.

On PC things are a bit more complicated. I went Volt first, and actually don't have Excalibur. To compensate for that, I bought a warframe pack the moment I got a discount, which included Trinity (eh, not my style, yet), Mag (as mentioned) and my target frame, Ember. Ember is, at the moment, pretty much a win button but apparently that falls off after level 30 or so. She's due a rebalance soon wherein her ultimate, a fire-and-forget AoE, will be much less fire-and-forget, but I'm sure she'll still be beastly. She's the frame I pull out when we're doing tougher content.

The GF runs a mixture of Saryn and Oberon right now. Saryn is just disgusting with her abilities, able to take out masses of enemies from quite a ways away. Oberon is more about utility. And our friend runs Nydus, which...er...summons grotesque tentacles and space bunnies. Not sure really, but it's filthy powerful.

For me the real variety comes down to the weapons. It's hard to tell exactly what a weapon will do until you equip it (or look up the wiki) but it's not just a case of guns shoot things, melee things hit things. Right now I'm slinging a shotgun that ramps up its fire rate the longer you hold the trigger down -- one shot does nothing, twelve can hose a room. Typical Grineer engineering. And weapon stances for melee weapons dramatically change both the damage output and the playstyle. I have a chained whip thingy that does piss-all damage if I have my guns out (you can always melee attack), but if I holster those and switch to the weapon itself with the stance up, every attack has a significant multiplier, even the basic combo.

That's just my take on things.

Brain dump:

I too started off with Excalibur and bought Mag. TBH I don’t get Mag, really, but I also haven’t looked at her abilities too closely. Pull is fun around cliffs, and Polarize is sweet in a pinch. I picked her up because of Magnetize, though, and I’m underwhelmed by it (probably need to build differently for it). Duration on it is too long, and most enemies die before it pops. It doesn’t seem to work on bosses, I don’t know if it’s just a graphical glitch or what, but it just disappears and doesn’t seem to pop.

I went back to Excalibur, having never really looked at his abilities either, and (re?)discovered Exalted Blade. This ability is stupid fun. Drains energy over time to summon a blade of light that attacks super fast, normal attacks fire a blade projectile that slices through obstacles out to 40m, and auto casts radial blind on spin attacks. I don’t have any “leech” (or w/e it’s called) mods yet, but with just efficiency and duration it’s pretty much infinitely sustainable so long as you keep killing stuff. Exalted Blade benefits from frame mods just like all other abilities, but unlike other abilities, this one also benefits from melee weapon mods. I threw a catalyst on my Galatine (doubles mod slots) so I could do a config-b just for this ability—crit chance & damage, weapon damage, speed, & elemental mods. It’s helped me push +5 waves on infested defense missions, and makes noobs think you’re some kind of super elite veteran player XD Particularly funny, because I don’t have any of the good mods yet.

I have everything needed to craft Rhino next, except the control module. I just haven’t pushed far enough for them to start dropping yet.

I’ve partied with an Octavia twice, and looked into what was making the music. I assumed it was a premium companion, and was surprised to learn of all the shit they did just for that one frame. I very nearly bought her, but decided against it as I felt it would cheapen the experience of earning her for myself. That’s still a long ways off, though.

If you're not running around screaming EKUSU-KARIBA! whenever you do Exalted Blade you're doing it wrong.



(bonus: I pulled this from the Warframe forum.)

Yeah, World on Fire will now have to be toggled more carefully, but hit harder.

And I've paid very little attention to the Gara. She does her thing, my Rhino does his. I've no intention of involving myself with the game or its community beyond my immediate groups, so I don't think about balance or the like. Not my monkey, not my circus.

I got a 50% off coupon from today’s daily log in.

I’m kind of interested in a new weapon, but can’t settle on anything... I am also looking at either a stealth or ability nuke frame; any suggestions? Is there anything non-craftable that’s worth getting at 50% off?

Everything is craftable so it's more a case of what you can craft vs what you can't at this point. The wiki makes fairly clear what each item takes, and then tells you which planets yields that stuff. Nano spores, for example, don't drop at all before Saturn but once you hit Saturn, they're common as. Argon crystals drop primarily in The Void, which you can get to after Phobos, but only stay in your inventory for 24 hours. Nitain Extract is from alert missions only I think. And so on.

What I'd be looking at buying if I were to buy would be clan dojo items. Unless you get into a clan or grind your own, some of that stuff is going to be out of reach for ages. I was going to funbuck an Amprex, a full-on lightning gun, but now that we've hit Saturn we're churning out nano spores, which are essential to clan crafting.