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Like it says, I've been testing out Warframe. I'm not a big fan of random PuG-ing, so I do a lot of it solo. But so far, I'm really impressed with what I've seen.
Anyone else tried it?
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Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.
I play it off-and-on. I rather like their F2P model, given it's not terribly restrictive and money-grabbing. I like the gameplay variety, and the fact you can do everything from shooter gunplay to acrobatic action melee. It's hard to think of another online game where I can put headshots into enemies at extreme range, then when my weapon runs dry, break into a wallrun to close the distance, and come off the wall leaping into a sword slash of awesome.
I find there's nice variety in the warframe abilities themselves as well. The basic combat is very engaging, which is what really matters.

This isn't to say the game is without issues - there really do need to be more maps, more mission variety...but that's not really something we can blame the devs for, given that this game is only about a year old. The concept art and design stuff dates back to Dark Sector, which was over a decade ago...but they only started development on this version of the game in 2012. So all we have, they've done in about a year plus. That's pretty massive, and it speaks well as to the game's future development.
-- Acyl
I've been playing it solo, so I haven't had any issues with lack of stuff to do. Just clearing the Mercury map was a Herculean task, and I've started making short forays out into Saturn and Venus. Just enough to scavenge enough materials to build the Paris compound bow I wanted.
The pay material is mostly not bad, although it's nice to see that most of that can be obtained in-game if you're just a little patient and persistent. It doesn't unbalance the game, it just offers you a chance to get your cool toys sooner. The power cell boost to the weapons and armor is almost a necessity to get the most out of it, but even in that case, it's cheap enough to put $5 to upgrade a handful of weapons and an armor or two, and then farm the mission that awards you power cell recipes later on.
So far I'm pleasant surprised. I built up a "Mag" armor, which gives some magnetic power-related abilities. Although I found that if you're playing solo, you fiddle less with the superpowers, and concentrate more on the Halo-style combat. But that's fine. I tinkered with the color scheme so that it looks vaguely Quarian. If a Quarian had an armor based on Unit Guyver, that is...[Image: 109364291fc3cad88519bd63804a3ab9c611ec75_r.jpg]                       [Image: 8f836c561cb1c8aa87e3b1ff8a6137e9819e269d_r.jpg]
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Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.
I split my time between solo and team play depending on mood. The trouble is Warframe does use peer-to-peer connections rather than dedicated servers, so finding a hosted game that isn't lagged to hell is somewhat hit-and-miss. Even with regional filtering. I am in a clan, though it's J. Random Internet People whom I can't really vouch for. I was asked, so I joined, it's pretty much simple as that.
You can quite reasonably solo most of the present content...depending of course on your skill with action games and the quality of your guns/mods. I say this as someone who's unlocked everything save the latter half of Pluto (the highest level planet), and that's only because there's a defence mission in my way; I could solo the initial Pluto content (albeit, when solo you get fewer and lower-level enemies).

I love this game because of its style. It's space opera with SPACE NINJA fighting evil empires, nanotech plague zombies, corporate evil robots and all sorts of craziness, combined with a very distinct Evangelion-Guyver aesthetic for the hero armour. 

You can flip out and do crazy acrobatic melee attacks, you can go in two-guns blazing, you can do all sorts of awesome things.

With that said, it is ultimately a gear-based shooter/melee game with some RPG elements, so there's a mix between stats and skill one has to consider. I'm happy with the balance, but how well that works for someone else...I recognise mileage may vary.

The game ultimately does boil down to shooting or stabbing/slashing, not power usage. Maximum energy bar is limited, even with max capacity mod (Flow) and the Energy Siphon artifact (regenerates energy over time).

On top of that, while you have powers at your disposal, power damage is static and does not scale based on your level. This means a power that one-shots enemies at low level is...going to be rather underwhelming when you're fighting on the later planets. The ultimate 'nuke everything' powers are fine, their base damage is high enough even for the later content, but other damage powers are sort of weak (with some exceptions, such as Excalibur's Slash Dash).

This does mean that the best powers really are utility ones, not direct damage. Which is why I think you made a good choice with Mag, because she's all about utility. Well, her ultimate is a nuke, but as I said, nukes are okay.

So you shoot. And you stab. But that's okay, because those things are awesome.

EDIT: I realise, I never said what I play. I mostly play Nyx (mind control powers, confuses enemies to fight on your side) and Rhino (invincibility, close-range crowd control). I'm trying to level Loki, and I can see it becoming one of my main 'frames. I also have Saryn, Ash, Excalibur and Volt unlocked, but I don't like those nearly as much. I intend to go farm for Trinity, Mag and Frost at some point, but it's not really a high priority.
-- Acyl
Just started playing this myself like 2 days ago, I'm rather enjoying it other than the frustration of the Mastery tests so I'm stuck at Rank 1 untill my next attempt tonight at the Sidearm test, due to my slow reflexes and visual disability spotting and shooting all the enemies is....rough. Also I may have to look into getting a game pad *grin* This game certainly seems like it would feel alot less akward with one.

Failing the mastery test wouldn't have even bothered me that much if it wasn't for the fact the 2 things that I -Really- want to use are XP locked behind Level 2, the Rhino and the Warhammer, Currently I'm stuck with an Excalibur suit using a couple plat purchased weapons. Burstor rifle, Twin boltor pistols and the Glaive.
Edit:Game name is Terrence_Knight for anyone who plays.
I used the Securis pistol for that challenge. It worked, but you might have better luck with a full-auto pistol with a good reload speed. That way, you just need to hose the target to put it down. Smile
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Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.
Consider the Bronco for that test - that's the pistol that thinks it's a shotgun. It only has a two-shot magazine and it's not very accurate past mid-range. But the reload's lightning fast, and it does so much damage that it should pretty much one-hit everything even on a body shot, if you have mods. Worse-case scenario, a quick double-tap should do it.
With that said, the Akbolto that Terrence already has - the twin Bolto pistols - is actually a good choice. The fire rate's insane and it chews through Grineer very easily because it ignores their armor. The only problem is the reload time.

If you're considering a full-auto pistol, most people feel the Viper and Twin Viper are better than the Furis and Afuris.

Some general tips for the rank tests. You don't need to stay inside the circle, you can and should run around. Especially since sometimes enemies will hide/take cover behind pillars - and you have to kill each wave within the time limit. 

If you're an accurate shot, it's possible for an Excalibur to take a sniper approach to the handgun test (by super-jumping on top of a pillar, giving you a vantage point)...but that shouldn't be necessary. Running around is probably the best option for most people.

Further Edit: Regarding the Rhino, it's rank 2 locked, but it used to be that if you purchased with plat it would still unlock at Rank 1. It's possible that's been patched, though - I have no idea. With that said, the Rhino is also one of the most expensive warframes with plat, while being relatively easy to acquire via in-game farming, so I'm not sure buying it would be the best idea.

I also prefer the Scindo (axe) over the...whatever the hell the hammer is called, I can't even remember. The hammer's main party trick is that it ignores armor, but all charged melee attacks ignore armor anyway. So the hammer's only advantage is that it ignores armor on regular light melee swings - but the Scindo does more damage.
-- Acyl
I managed to pull off the test with the Akbolto's and now am using the Rhino bought with plat just because plat weapons and Frames come with built in Orokin Reactor/catalysts.

Currently I am using the hammer to good use, primarily opening up with a jump charge attack which does a aoe knockdown shock wave and its kinda hilarious with the multiple elemental damage I do, and given I do use regular melee attacks quite often (which also do knock back) The hammer is a good choice for zerging in and causing hell. Oh man the knock down is absolutely wonderful when dealing with waves of infected dogs and chargers.

The Rhino's invulnerability is pure gold when the poop hits the fan and has saved my life a few times.
Yeah, I use the Scindo axe for pretty much the same thing - the massive radius on the jumping strike is a lifesaver. I tend to go for the charged attacks rather than light melee strikes, though. The heavy melee weapons in general are all very solid picks. 
I'm rather underwhelmed by most of Rhino's powers, but Iron Skin is definitely worth it alone. 

If you like that, maybe check out Trinity for a future warframe. Basically Link is very similar to Iron Skin, with shorter duration, a somewhat more unreliable resistance to knockdowns/knockbacks (it resists some, not all)...but damage reflection on enemies. Trinity's other powers are healing and energy regen stuff, but they work on you as well as the team. 

(Disclaimer: I don't have Trinity. But it's next on my list of things to pick up.)
-- Acyl
So, I've been playing this based off of these recommendations, and it is surprisingly fun, even if I'm not entirely sure exactly what the Tenno are fighting for.
I'm also not sure I should have started out with the Loki, it's just a little under armored.  Perhaps it will perform better if I stop trying to solo everything.

Anyway, thanks for pointing this out.  I'm off to carve a path out to Sedna to pick up the parts for a Syran blueprint, and there's a lot of Infested in my way.

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When in doubt, lead trump.
The Tenno fight to be awesome. That is all.

On that note, whats your game name? I'll add ya to my contact list if your interested. Terrence_Knight to add me, we could run some missions sometime.
I can accept that.

Imaginatively enough it's Firvulag.  I'll keep an eye open for you.
-- 
Fortunately he didn't manage to configure it enough to send any mails
at all anyway. So he came and asked me how to do that. Now he knows the
meaning of "spam relay". Also the meaning of "severly pissed-off
sysadmin with axe". -- Jenny Holmberg
Quote:Firvulag wrote:
I'm also not sure I should have started out with the Loki, it's just a little under armored.  Perhaps it will perform better if I stop trying to solo everything.
The Loki is the squishiest warframe. However, it's also the fastest, and you have Decoy and Invisibility to take heat off you, plus what's IIRC the best base power meter capacity in the game. You need to leverage those advantages. 
It's worth noting that - as previously mentioned - warframe abilities that do direct damage don't scale very well, as the powers do a fixed amount of damage, but enemy shields and HP increase at higher levels. This means utility powers are generally preferable, and Loki's packed full of them.

Depending on what you like from Loki, you might want to look at Ash or Saryn as alternative warframes to craft or purchase. Ash has teleport and invisibility. Saryn can cast a decoy (molt). Both have much higher base durability than Loki. On the other hand, having said that, I have all three, and much prefer Loki over Ash. Saryn I'm on the fence about.
-- Acyl
Kitted out the Saryn's toxic damage attacks are exceptionally good at clearing enemies even on high level planets but otherwise I have to agree with Acyl that utility powers are your friend. Trinity is also chalk full of pure awesome for utility powers so that may be another suit you may want to look at.
Trying this out myself, for the next little while at least. Name's Honorbridge, and I've gotten through Mercury so far.
Quote:The Loki is the squishiest warframe. However, it's also the fastest, and you have Decoy and Invisibility to take heat off you, plus what's IIRC the best base power meter capacity in the game. You need to leverage those advantages. 

Decoy and Invisibility have helped me pass more than a few defense missions.  I've just got to leverage the powers a bit better.  Thankfully, I've got enough energy that I can slot all four abilities now.
I've got the Saryn blue prints and thanks to some help from Terr and friends am on the march to Sedna to get the parts for it.

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"You cannot hide forever!"
"You'd be suprised what cowardice has done for us so far."
   -- Lich King and Red Mage in 8-bit theater
Quote:Terrenceknight wrote:
Kitted out the Saryn's toxic damage attacks are exceptionally good at clearing enemies even on high level planets but otherwise I have to agree with Acyl that utility powers are your friend.
It's worth noting that Saryn's Venom and Vauban's Tesla can stack - meaning you can drop a ton of Saryn's spores on an enemy and pop them for stacking DoT AoE. Or cover them in a metric ton of Tesla grenades. I think Ember can have multiple Fire Blast (the ring) out as well, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
-- Acyl
With the latest warframe update dojo's have been added and I'm lookin to start a Clan so I can start a dojo. Now what i'm askin for is a good clan name. I'll be inviting all of the friends that play Warframe to it once I have it constructed (except Acyl as he's already part of a clan Smile). This is pretty much the equivalent to a SG base.
...I demand you call it the Dojo of the Immortal White Tigers!i may not play but you know you want to.
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In the epic rage of furious thunder
legends create their tales
when the twilight calls and the dark lord falls
our glory will prevail

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You should totally play it >.>
Edit:Went with Knights of the Good because I play with my DDO friends over teamspeak regularly and I'm apart of that guild over there and their a close knit group of folks whom I've known for a couple years now and most of them play warframe with me so it works.
 I will say this..it looks nice inside the main hall of the Dojo and oh man its going to be a while to make anything with a small clan but at least we can make progress over time and I'm ok with that. If anyone who plays Warframe here wants to join just lemme know here and I'll invite you when I see you in game Smile. Anywho anyone who's apart of the clan will have full privs as they will all be people I know and trust.
Currently Building:A reactor. Because Power.
Once that is made I'll look into the very bare bones so we can research new equipment, this will be a long work in progress *grin*.