Get ready, Tenno. (Warframe)

[rhoenix]

The new Staticor sidearm weapon research project (in the Corpus lab) has now been started, and should be finished in 3 days. It appears to be a non-silent throwing star type of weapon with a large clip, does 80 Radiation damage base (and no physical damage) per shot, throws & reloads quickly, and has a blast radius when it hits. More importantly, this blast radius doesn't appear to affect you at all.

It can also make a charged shot, which does twice the damage of a regular shot and has a much larger blast radius.

According to its stats, you can use it to spread status procs around effectively. Personally though, I'm going to add a couple forma in order to use the full power elemental mods for as much damage per shot while maintaining accuracy as possible. And its going to be delicious when it's done.

[B4UTRUST]

What's the base status chance % or is this like atomos/nukor/etc with 100% guaranteed status chance but very very weak base damage? Just trying to see if I need to mod further for status chance or if I can concentrate on pure elemental fuck you.

[rhoenix]

It has a 10% crit chance with 200% multiplier, and a 25% base status chance.

Even though it does pure Radiation damage baseline, making it a full-on elemental damage build seems completely viable. The only issue is with the charged shot. It apparently travels very, very slowly, and takes a few seconds to charge to full. Both of those things can be mitigated by mods, but not by the same mod.

I've seen suggestions about using Gunslinger to increase the fire rate (and therefore reduce the charge time), and/or using Ruinous Extension for faster bolt travel time (which appreciably helps the charged shot's speed). However, in my mind, a full elemental build requires Ice Storm for the added cold damage and increased magazine size, so if I use Primed Heated Charge along with the two elemental mods (which I'm definitely planning on doing), then I only have one slot remaining for either faster fire rate, or faster projectile travel time.

Additionally, Zephyr with Jet Stream is confirmed to increase bolt travel speed.

I'll have to test to decide, frankly.

EDIT: Videos I used for info:

Spoiler: show

Overview:
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Saiyan Overview:
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Multiple Forma Build (3):
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Multiple Forma Build (5):
[youtube][/youtube]

[rhoenix]

So, a bunch of new Augment mods came out, all of which are available from the various Syndicates, as before. That I've seen, they're augments for Equinox and Atlas.

The one I want to talk about though is the Calm & Frenzy Augment for Equinox. How it works is that if you kill an enemy while they're affected by Rest or Rage, the ability is automatically recast using that slain ability as the center of the radius while the duration lasts. The range of both abilities however is pretty short, so even with Overextended and Stretch equipped, it will only have about a 12 meter radius each time.

What this means is that Equinox with this Augment in Night form can be a stealth frame, despite the range limits, and this is no small thing. In Day form however, this has the potential to have a similar effect as a Nova's Molecular Prime specced out for speed, which can be great for clearing out crowds of enemies.

[B4UTRUST]

After going through my frame list and finding I only have a few left to level(Volt P, Nezha and Wukong) and only 1 I don't have... I need more in this game><. Also, Wukong is The. Worst. Frame. EVER. Okay, maybe not the worst frame ever, I mean it does something better than another frame right... hmmm shit I'm drawing a blank. Seriously. I can't think of any practical use for Wukong other than mastery fodder. It's definitely on my list of god awful frames that serve no real purpose. There's not many on that list, honestly... Atlas, Oberon and Wukon. Chroma at least does elemental damage and some CC, Atlas can do some CC and tank, Oberon can at least heal.... Wukong turns into a fluffy cloud and does craptastic melee damage...

Gods, grinding out affinity to finish leveling him is tedious...

[rhoenix]

Baro definitely has some stock this week. His selection actually gives me a small bit of hope for the future.

Not only does he have some cosmetic items (armor pieces), he also has Affinity and Credit boosters, and the Primed Reach melee mod. At the very least, if you don't already have Primed Reach - even if you don't use melee much - GET THIS MOD. Srsly.

Not to mention he's selling guaranteed Marks for the Stalker, Zanuka, and the Grustrag 3. If you haven't yet gotten all the loot from these three, this is a good way to do so.

I haven't logged in for a few days, so I'll give my quick reviews of the Staticor and Sidon weapons once I do. I have a feeling the Staticor is going to require some Forma investment before I call it done.

[rhoenix]

As a followup to the Beacons from Baro, here's a tip video on how to use one most efficiently, courtesy of QuietteShy:

[youtube][/youtube]

[rhoenix]

So, the Staticor.

It comes with a single - polarity, and I ended up putting five forma into mine, for a total of 4 V slots, and 2 - slots.

I did this because I ended up liking the raw damage build of it far more than a status build, particularly with the charged shot.

My mod setup is Hornet Strike, Barrel Diffusion, Lethal Torrent, Ice Storm, Convulsion, Pathogen Rounds, Primed Heated Charge, and Lethal Momentum. This adds Corrosive and Blast to the base Radiation damage each bolt does, both of which are rather handy in their effects when they proc their status effect, and improves the bolt flight speed for both charged and uncharged shots.

The main decision was whether to make the charged shot fly faster, or charge faster. In the end, I chose for it to fly faster, since I typically use charged shots only when I'm not surrounded. Additionally, if I jump on Zephyr (which has the Jet Stream augment), the charged shot will fly quite a bit faster as well.

The charged shot mechanic for the weapon works pretty well, actually. It still makes me want to have an AoE radius increase mod for sidearms, like there is for rifles - but overall, it does good damage with an impressive radius for what it is.

The biggest downside is that though mechanically it works like other thrown weapons (hikou, despair, etc), it isn't silent - so this isn't a weapon for stealth missions.

Also, the Sydon is... not that great. If it was in its own weapon category, with a unique stance, then ok - perhaps then it would make more sense. Every aspect of the weapon feels wrong to use, despite its fairly impressive stats.

[rhoenix]

Since Focus caps per day are now much higher (100k now, instead of 75k), Focus farming is now a thing.

Lens conversion of Affinity to Focus is a bit different now, and makes more sense. Regular Lenses will grant 1.25% conversion of Affinity to Focus (giving you a max of 2.5% conversion with both Frame and Weapon), while Greater Lenses grant 1.75% conversion (for a total of 3.5%).

The most stress-free way I've found is the Grineer Exterminate mission Ludi, on Ceres. Strap on Loki (or Ash), and a good melee weapon with long reach, and away you go.

My personal favorites for this are the Orthos Prime (massive range to clear out a group of enemies at once, and pretty good damage) Tonbo (almost as much reach as the Orthos Prime, with more damage), and the Redeemer (for its charged attack being a silenced shotgun). With the Focus beacons that appear now, you can rack up an impressive amount of focus per mission.

Alternatively, you can certainly use Ivara - but you'll be finishing a given run much more slowly than with Loki or Ash. The doubled loot may be nice, but it's not doubled Focus. Another option is Equinox, particularly with the Calm & Rage augment - but you'll have to move through a mission more slowly, due to the necessity of recasting Rest on enemies to remain undetected.

EDIT: Saryn Prime and the Nikana Prime were just released today. Happy Hunting.

[rhoenix]

New Prime drop locations:

Saryn Prime Blueprint: T3 Exterminate, T4 Exterminate
Saryn Prime Helmet: T1 Mobile Defense
Saryn Prime Chassis: T3 Survival Rotation C
Saryn Prime Systems: T2 Exterminate

Nikana Prime Blueprint: T3 Exterminate
Nikana Prime Blade: T2 Survival Rotation C
Nikana Prime Hilt: T2 Exterminate

Spira Prime Blueprint: T4 Mobile Defense
Spira Prime Blade: T3 Mobile Defense
Spira Prime Pouch: T3 Capture

[B4UTRUST]

Yay, more shit on the T3E so I have no shot in hell of getting my last Nyx piece.

[rhoenix]

Yeah, especially with the plethora of possible rewards for Void missions now, receiving a possible reward more than once per run would be very helpful.

EDIT: Of the new pieces, I only have the Nikana Prime blueprint yet.

[rhoenix]

For what it's worth, I'd actually recommend putting some time into the Naramon focus school as early as possible, purely for the bonuses you'll get when focus farming later.

First, the Naramon school isn't great because of it's active ability - it's awesome because of the passive bonuses you get after it becomes active. You can get up to an additional 30% critical chance with melee weapons for the remainder of the mission, which couples with gaining 10 seconds of invisibility every time you get a critical hit with a melee weapon. Lastly, and most importantly, you can get an additional 25% affinity for all melee kills for the remainder of the mission.

By using Loki with a Tonbo or an Orthos Prime and going on an Exterminate mission on Ceres, you can get a massive amount of Focus XP by doing slide attacks to murder Grineer en masse. By waiting 3 minutes at the start of the mission, you get a maximum additional bonus of 25% affinity, on top of the massive bonus to XP you'll get for stealth kills.

With 4 runs of an Exterminate mission on Ceres, with Greater Lenses on both Loki and Tonbo, I can get my daily focus cap of 85k. With Lesser Lenses, you'll likely have to do 5 or 6 runs, but that's still not very much time. By that point, you'll also have received your daily Syndicate rep for the day as well.

After maxing out the relevant nodes in Naramon, you can then keep it as your primary school for bonus affinity from melee kills as you work on other Focus Schools, which is the takeaway here.

[rhoenix]

Update 18.5: Sands of Inaros dropped yesterday. There's some fun stuff this update.

[youtube][/youtube]

- new Sands of Inaros quest added (see Baro Ki'Teer in the Relay to get the quest)
- new warframe, Inaros added (you're welcome to guess where you get him)
- new weapons, like usual (though the sidearm and the melee weapon have interesting mechanics; the sidearm gains fire rate and damage with headshots, and the melee weapon gains attack speed with status procs)
- HD graphics overhaul of the entire game (yes, this is why this update was so massive)

There are many subtle graphics updates this time, but they are impressive nonetheless. The quests are getting better and better each time - this one was clearly inspired by The Mummy, though with the idea that The Mummy was a protector of the people. That's kind of awesome actually.

[rhoenix]

Inaros as a frame is a great progress report for how DE's process is working. He is also lore-wise the first canonical frame that played a direct part in protecting and defending the innocent outside of the Orokin Empire, which is kind of cool.

He is unique amongst the other frames with an interesting set of passives, and very unique in that he has no shields whatsoever. Putting a Redirection on him will do exactly nothing - he will always only have Health, and not Shields. While this may sound like a tremendous downside, Inaros is well-equipped to handle having no shields.

Additionally, when he's bleeding out, he'll entomb himself instead of just lying there as the others do, and you can siphon away health from enemies you highlight with your reticle. If you fill the meter before you bleed out, you can auto-revive yourself. You can also be revived as normal by an allied player, but being able to auto-revive yourself if there are enemies around is a nice touch. Amusingly enough, the rate at which Inaros drains health is increased only by the Provoked mod, showing that there's at least one (debatable) use for that mod.

Inaros multiplies his base health by 3x, instead of 2x, as the other frames do. This makes sense, considering that he relies strictly upon Armor and Health to survive. His passive allows him to drain health when he kills an enemy with a melee finisher - no Life Strike required.

His first ability, Dessicate, is a conal AoE ability that damages enemies with a bleed proc, and blinds them for a short time, allowing Inaros to perform melee finishers on them. Keep in mind, he gets life back every time he kills an enemy with a melee finisher.

Inaros' second ability, Devour, will trap an enemy in quicksand for up to 30 seconds base. It can be used in one of two ways: first, just tapping 2 with the enemy highlighted will trap the enemy in place and force them to flail helplessly for the duration. Once you get close enough, you can press X to begin eating their life force. Second, you can hold down 2 to drag the enemy toward you, trapping them at your feet and beginning to eat them once they are. Enemies killed by Devour will also spawn a Sand clone of themselves to fight for you for a short time.

The third ability for Inaros is Sandstorm, which is a constant energy-drain ability that pulls in all enemies within 15 meters (base), trapping them and dealing 500 damage per second to them. Sandstorm will also trap item pickups while active. While Inaros' movement speed is halved while this ability is active, and Inaros can still be damaged with Sandstorm active, he will also automatically eat all enemies with the Devour effect on them.

Inaros' ult is Scarab Swarm, which is useful for both defense and crowd control, depending on how you use it. Pressing and holding down 4 will immediately begin draining Inaros' health and converting it into bonus armor (at a rate of 29 health per +1% extra Armor, to a maximum of +100% armor, at a cost of 2900 health). Pressing 4 again will release a portion of your bonus armor as a Scarab swarm, immobilizing all enemies in its path, and all damage it does to enemies will be granted to allies as recovered health within a 15 meter radius.

Playing him is a little different than playing the other frames, but I have to admit, playing him is a huge amount of fun. He's certainly viable even in Sortie missions, and he benefits amazingly well from mods, in particular the Rage mod. The quest to get him is genuinely fun to play, and doesn't feel like climbing Grind Mountain to complete. I'd certainly recommend the quest, and I'd certainly recommend getting the frame itself.

My one and only complaint about Inaros is that his Exilus slot comes with a polarity. If you don't have the Orokin Moon Exilus mods, you'll probably just shrug and toss Rush or Master Thief in there. If you have the Orokin Moon Exilus mods though, this becomes an irritation very quickly, and will require another forma to remove the polarity, as you cannot simply move it elsewhere.

[rhoenix]

After my last MR test, my Mastery Rank in Warframe is now old enough to legally drink alcohol in the United States.

In weapon coverage, the Dex Sybaris is amazing, full stop. The Azima (the pistol you get for logging in for 100 days) is fun for most of the game, especially with being able to use the rest of the clip to make a temporary turret, but it falls off in efficacy toward higher levels.

Inaros is still the best frame they've released yet. The downside to all these new and amazing frames though is that they all tend to make the earlier frames kind of lame by comparison.

[B4UTRUST]

Inaros is still the best frame they've released yet. The downside to all these new and amazing frames though is that they all tend to make the earlier frames kind of lame by comparison.

Trin Master Race 4 Lyfe

[rhoenix]

Inaros is still the best frame they've released yet. The downside to all these new and amazing frames though is that they all tend to make the earlier frames kind of lame by comparison.

Trin Master Race 4 Lyfe

Trin's still extremely useful, don't get me wrong - but as far as powersets go, the newer frames all have more interesting and synergistic powersets than the older ones do. This is despite (especially in Trin's case) still being useful, but they just don't feel as evocative or interesting to use.

Then again, this could be turned around - the earlier, more "basic" (read: dependable) frames are all the ones with Prime versions - you could easily see them as the mainstay of the Tenno forces, with some wild duck ones off to the side for specialized things, such as Chroma, Ivara, or Inaros. By that line of thinking, it's doubtful we'll ever see a Chroma Prime, but it is likely that we'll see Primed versions of all the basic ones eventually.

But seriously, get your hands on Inaros. Yes, you'll probably have to forma away the polarity in the Exilus slot, since that's dumb - but otherwise, I think you'll not only enjoy the quest to get your hands on that frame, you'll enjoy playing the frame itself. Maybe even as much as Trin. ;)

[B4UTRUST]

I've had Inaros since it came out. So no worries there. It's a fun frame, but honestly some of the newer frames have felt kind of half-assed and sloppy. Atlas and Wukong come to mind. Nezha is only kind of 'eh' to me. Ivara has some good use, Inaros is at least interesting in terms of gimmicks and it is a definite go-to frame for nightmare missions. But I don't like the newer frames nearly as much as some of the older stuff.

[rhoenix]

I've had Inaros since it came out. So no worries there. It's a fun frame, but honestly some of the newer frames have felt kind of half-assed and sloppy. Atlas and Wukong come to mind. Nezha is only kind of 'eh' to me. Ivara has some good use, Inaros is at least interesting in terms of gimmicks and it is a definite go-to frame for nightmare missions. But I don't like the newer frames nearly as much as some of the older stuff.

Even though some of the newer ones have been more hit or miss, they at least try to capture some interesting themes. The weapons they're releasing lately aren't all that exciting honestly. Some of the weapons still stand out, but lately it's basically comparing quality levels of the same type of weapon without it really being official.

At a certain point, I roll my eyes and just think we should have the usual types of quality levels for weapons as MMO's do. I appreciate some of the creativity shown by some weapon's mechanics, but still.

[B4UTRUST]

The weapons they're releasing lately aren't all that exciting honestly. Some of the weapons still stand out, but lately it's basically comparing quality levels of the same type of weapon without it really being official.

At a certain point, I roll my eyes and just think we should have the usual types of quality levels for weapons as MMO's do. I appreciate some of the creativity shown by some weapon's mechanics, but still.

There's a reason the Tonkor is still a, if not the, top tier weapon in the game. The Vaykor Hek is up there in terms of usefulness and a few others but most of the newer weapons are very meh indeed.

[rhoenix]

[youtube][/youtube]

EDIT: Or, less sarcastically:

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[rhoenix]

DE's added a Rocket League-like game mode for team play already, which is cool. They're apparently working on a Shadows of Mordor-type Nemesis system, wherein you have to do missions to uncover info about a particular named enemy, isolate that boss from resources, and then take them down.

So, more stuff to do. Not bad.

[Hotfoot]

DE's added a Rocket League-like game mode for team play already, which is cool. They're apparently working on a Shadows of Mordor-type Nemesis system, wherein you have to do missions to uncover info about a particular named enemy, isolate that boss from resources, and then take them down.

So, more stuff to do. Not bad.

Not sure either of these things work well within Warframe, but we'll see. I looked briefly at the Lunaro gameplay and it seems...okay, I guess? I mean I get where you're comparing it to Rocket League, but it's really a superficial comparison at best. Warframe's very clunky (even when reworked) movement system does not make for a fast paced or intuitive sports experience

As for the Nemesis system, well, that's just a horrid idea. Shadows of Mordor managed to make it work, but the concept has some fundamental flaws, not the least of which is that once you're good enough at the system, you start abusing it to groom more powerful enemies to fight for better rewards. In Warframe, this will likely result in throwing the fights until the rewards get good enough, then wasting the nemesis at one's leisure. In a level and gear dependent system like Warframe, especially one with as bad scaling as they have, you're either going to win or you won't.

[rhoenix]

Balls.

[youtube][/youtube]

(Or: Warframe DevStream 89: Abridged to 5 minutes)

Again: balls.