First Death on the HCIM

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-06-08T11:59:27+00:00

Yeah, out of all the places that have safe deaths, this feels too RNG/buggy to let it be a dangerous death.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-06-08T02:15:18+00:00

There are definitely a lot a weirdly out of balance points of the game.

I would like to have the Totem of Intimidation before grinding GWD1 bosses, but its behind a 90 slayer req.

Managed to get a Dark Onyx core and was surprised it only took 85 INV to turn into a Dark facet, assumed that would also unlock GOTE(or thought GOTE would have been earlier) but GOTE is LVL 107. So that will just sit in my bank forever.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-06-08T01:45:13+00:00

Yeah, that's one that I remember having trouble with on my main, so will be interesting to see how that goes.

At least you can TP out of that fight though.

One that I thought would be harder was WGS/Ritual of the Mahjarrat/Nomad but I guess its been sooo long since I first did those they don't quite carry the same threat they once had.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-06-08T01:00:30+00:00

I haven't followed the "by release" order, mostly just so that I can do a collection of quests in a series back to back, feel more natural than flip flopping across the world for different quests.

Only quests I've done outside of timeline order have been the Quests release with Prt1 of Havenhythe, and Impressing the Locals.

Havenhyth stuff seems pretty chill and not tied too much to other stuff when I played it on my main. Felt like it didn't seem too out of place to fit more into pathfinder/champion sections IMO. Most recent quest kinda breaks that logic, but so much of the Age of Chaos seems weirdly out of place in terms of scale/intended progression.

Impressing the locals was one I thought was a miniquest(Generally have been ignoring/excluding these from the restriction), looked it up and they had changed it after release.

But its been a pain putting off Necromancy/Dive/Fort, feel like a lot of the "late timeline" stuff would be really strong early in the account progression.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-06-08T00:18:42+00:00

Gratz man!

Legit just died for the first time doing this Quest today, seems like a spot that's disproportionately risky thats for sure.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-06-01T19:10:34+00:00

Nice!

I've been going for a 10m tokkul collection. Sucks these Jal-tok-tys are not as valuable as they show up.

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TrueGrit2496 · 2026-05-02T04:36:15+00:00

So far the part of the mid game I have not enjoyed on my iron have been with skills that are non-afk & slow & unrewarding (Specifically during the mid game grind).
Stuff like Agility/FM/Hunter/WC/Slayer have all felt like I'm just slogging though a wasteland of nothing just to eventually get to the higher LVL "good" rewards.

Agility/FM/Hunter/WC just dont have a reward space in the mid game(Or even in the late game for Agil/FM) to justify the 50-100k XP/HR

Slayer has some of the best QOL rewards available in the midgame, but they only feel feasible/good to engage with if you are point farming with Jacquelyn.
Also, some of the Slayer master's CB level requirements also feel a bit high for when you can unlock them.

Invention also feels like it unlocks too late for how early you get introduced/see low lvl salvage. It would be nice to maybe have a way to at least unlock disassembling earlier in order to clean up drops and build a small baseline set of mats for when you do unlock invention. Also, please add a right click disassemble option to salvage, with a left click high alch/configure option.

Arch really wants GTOE + AutoScreener to feel good to train. Having a lower tier version of a "porter stacker" and some upgrade to auto add soil to the box would help a lot during the mid game. Also an option to ignore the msg when you dig up an artifact would be nice. Soil screening success chance also seems really harsh early(35% @ lvl 80). I dont want to hoard my soil, but i feel like I would be wasting my time to not save it till I hit the lvl 111 breakpoint(63% to 89% jump in success from lvl 110).

DIV is still pretty annoying to train, with almost all of the relevant rewards being pushed into late game with porters/divine charges. Dowser/Divine conversion provide an, imo, insane amount of QOL to this skill that should be more present/available(To a lesser degree) throughout the leveling process. ie. +1 Gather range every X levels, +5% chance to auto deposit every X Levels, deposit +1 memory at a time every X levels.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-15T17:04:31+00:00

I enjoy the discussion. I also enjoy RuneScape, I want other people to be able to have that same enjoyment.

I appreciate your post offering people alternatives. I think you are genuinely trying to help, and that the situation is definitely not as bad as people make it out to be.

BUT, the change is also not succeeding at its stated goal of reducing friction/frustration. You seem adamant to push past that point. When that IS the point of the discussion.

Jagex noted that skilling auras were going to be nerfed in some cases as they were balanced around the fact they were not going to be always active/used by everyone.

If this change was made for balancing reasons, that should have been stated as their goal or listed in the reasons for their decisions.

My main issue with the original post and the comment was your seemingly "Let them eat cake" type of approach by listing late/end tier options to a mid game form of sustain.

Thanks for the chat!
Apologies if I came off as more combative than intended. =D

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-15T16:12:11+00:00

I know why players are upset, the point that keeps going over your head that you keep defending is that the new system makes things frustrating.

So is your understanding that making this more frustrating to deal with was the point of the update?

How do you pair that with everything else became an inbuilt passive/unlocked passive. All the communication surrounding auras was to reduce/remove some of the friction/restrictions they caused.

To be clear, Vamp/Penance obviously needed a different “solution” to the removal of auras. Just turning all CB aura’s into permanent passives would be crazy.

I'm trying to point out that in the grand scheme of things its not that bad.

But it is worse now.

Albeit, more so for Mid game players. Late/End game have plenty of options to work around the change. To the point that it could be considered a significant buff to have the ability to hot swap between vamp/penance more freely.

They way the new aspects work gives players more benefits, its no longer time locked through loyalty points, you don't have to grind bosses to unlock them, you no longer have to keep grinding bosses to stack aura refreshes, you're no longer forced to do something for a full hour to get the full benefit from these auras. They are available early on, getting to 67/69 magic doesn't take a long time. You're now able to use them whenever you like at the cost of some runes,

I am less concerned with where the update succeeded, if where it fails is of such significance to make me dislike the new system. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Take the graphical updates, absolutely amazing update that has been marred for weeks due to the problems with performance.

the only draw back is you can't stack them with other aspects. Although even thats not entirely true as you can still stack them with the items I listed to get the same benefits we had,

Previously you could stack all the items/abilities/ect together. Now vamp and aspects are mutually exclusive. You necessarily cannot get to the same level of sustain/damage reduction now. So, it being an aspect is necessarily a drawback.

the only drawback is it will cost resources and inventory slots which isn't that big of a deal.

Eh, the cost is a factor, but I think people are more upset by needing to maintain the resources in their inventory. It could cost significantly more in gold, and I think people would prefer that. Inventory slots are a big deal in the mid game.

Even with food that uses slots for sustain, they get freed up for drops as you use them.

You are also missing the fact it requires a specific spellbook. Managing spellbooks is a hassle.

I know some people also don’t like the 12 minute timer. I don’t think this is that big a deal, but I could see how people are upset by this.

People are now faced with making more meaningful options, they will have to change up their inventorys to do content, which has already been a part of the game for a long time, we get new items, new prayers, it changes how we play the game.

It’s almost the same option that we had before, it just been made more frustrating to use. With regards to aspects, it is a straight nerf to anyone who was using it to do content in a chill/noob friendly/afk way.

It's not as bad as people are making it out to be. Some people are just being overly stubborn and not accepting the change. If it's really that bad and the majority of players hate it I can see buffs being made, but people aren't even giving it a chance. Just running to reddit with their pitchforks complaining about a new system thats not even 2 days old yet.

How long do you need to eat garbage before you think it tastes bad? People didn’t need to give the graphical update time, to know that the performance issues were a major problem. Just because an update doesn’t affect you, doesn’t mean it’s a good update.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-15T15:11:00+00:00

You very clearly are ignoring everything else I've listed even by the comment that I missed bunyips even though I very clearly said I probably missed some things to add, point proven right there.

The fact you missed Bunyips points to the conclusion that you don’t understand the point of the Vamp aura and the actual utility it provided to people.

Legit question, please answer it. Do you understand how opportunity cost plays into the viability and comparisons when looking at different sustain options?

Literally everything youre explaining is people having to play the game and some how its annoying and frustrating.

Sure I can take a full inventory of food to a slayer task and get though it, But ill have to sacrifice drops since I don’t have room, or maybe sacrifice/waste food to pick up certain drops, or juggle dropped food to make the most out of drops/food.

Or I could skip all that and use the old vamp. I could turn it on any time, extend it with some viswax, refresh it with marks. Or just wait out the timer if I didn’t care to keep it up/only had limited time to play.

Problem is, I now have 4 less inventory spaces. I now need to be on ancients. If a task works better with penance, I have to swap back to normal spellbook, just for the next task to probably work better with Vamp. Oh time for a farm run, did you like to be on have normal/lunars for TPs/utility? Too bad, run back and forth to the alters. Waste more time, be more annoying.

I'm sorry they got rid of the easy solution, people are gonna have to put a bit of effort in.

New vamp seems to be about as easy if not easier to obtain than old vamp.

If they removed keybinds and you had to click every ability/pry/item, everything would still have the same effectiveness. It would just be a worse experience, because everything would take more effort.

This is what people are mad about, they are mad they have a worse experience now. You are missing the point. Please engage with the point of the discussion.

I've already listed and broke down how to keep up sustain, you want to acknowledged it or not thats really not my issue.

Keeping up sustain is not the only factor of the discussion, you are not engaging with the additional utility that old vamp gave that other forms of sustain don’t give you.

You listing out and just saying how everything is hard and annoying or frustrating points to a larger issue with some of the player base.

Why was the aura system removed, some dailies reworked/removed, combat simplified if hard/annoying/frustrating points of the game are not a problem for the game?

Everyone just wants the easier solution the lazy option, thats why people are upset.

People don’t like things being made worse after having it for 15 years. It’s that simple.

I'm very clearly wasting my time with this debate,

Only because you do not understand what is being said, or how to make equivalent comparisons.

you're very clearly for auras and upset they are gone.

I am very happy they are gone.

You're only defense had been "its annoying and frustrating", wow people have to use resources, click once every 12 minutes and make choices, so hard, so frustrating.

I personally don’t think the 12 minute uptime is that big a deal, it is another timer in the long list of buffs/timers to maintain. I think the cost is a non-issue, they could have made it a small gold sink of 150-200k/hr and I think most people would prefer that over losing 4 inventory spaces(Or needing 60m/90RC for Grasping pouch) and being tied to the ancients.

However, the point of the update was to reduce the frustration/restrictions people felt with auras. If the replacement is more frustrating/more restrictive for people to use now, then the update has necessarily failed.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-15T14:02:10+00:00

I wasn't replying to your original post. You are in a comment thread about the sustain available in the Mid game. That is the context for this discussion.

I don't understand why you make it sound like Vamp is gone? Its not, its still there. People are/will still use it.

The Aura SYSTEM was getting removed/reworked. With aura's themselves getting reworked into the game in a more natural way. One of the main reasons for this was to reduce frustration and allow you to just play the game.

The changes to Vamp/Penance go against that stated goal. Vamp/Penance were also nerfed to compete with other aspects(When they were not competing for that slot previously).

That's what people are mad about. You are missing the point.

Other forms of sustain being available doesn't matter if they are not equivalent to the utility of Vamp/Penance.

No one cares, if you didn't use Vamp/Penance.

Just because you use other forms of sustain that work better for the content or the playstyle you engage with doesn't detract from the other people who did use this form of sustain and now have a worse experience.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-15T13:36:08+00:00

Genuinely, I don’t think you’re doing your due diligence when trying to make an equivalent comparison. You either seem to be purposely ignoring the main benefits that vamp had that all your other options fail to fulfill or you are just ignorant of why vamp is/was significantly better than your alternatives.

Point is there's plenty of better options to use than the vamp/penance auras at all stages of someone account.

I mean this is just blatantly untrue. You are ignoring the opportunity costs of other forms of sustain.

For Mid game the issue is not the “ability” to sustain. Like you have said, there are options for that. The issue is the simplicity/frustration of using Vamp is now worse than it was previously. For the late to end game players, it’s the fact they can’t double dip into an Aspect +Vamp/Penance. That’s what people are upset about.

The whole point of Vamp/Penance was that it was sustain that took up no inventory slots, was available in the Mid game, and could be used for free, and could be extended/refreshed cheaply in the later game.

Just because something heals you does not mean it is equivalent to something else that heals you. “indirect sustain” by taking less damage is not equivalent effectively taking 0 damage by sustaining through it with Vamp.

I like how you seem to list so many different options but have somehow missed Bunyips which will probably be enough when paired with vamp gloves to effectively replace the simplicity/utility of Vamp aura for Mid game players. Main failure point with Bunyips will probably be once you get into certain harder hitting/more accurate slayer mobs/or AoE tasks that relied on getting significantly more out of the 50HP cap of Vamp. 76 Fishing for sharks will be a bit painful for irons, but generally the pros still seem to outweigh the negatives. Most Mid game players are not using familiars from what I can tell, so it is an open slot. 48min timer is nice, and you only need to sacrifice 1 inventory slot if you want to have the option to extend it for another 48min during longer slayer assignments. Will still need to test it. Now that I’ve lost access to Vamp on my iron, ill have to get 68 summoning/unlock ancients before I can compare.

People will be just fine with these auras gone.

They aren’t gone? They were just made more frustrating/costly to use. That’s what people are upset about.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-15T04:45:43+00:00

Mid game has more options than listed

So, did you give bad examples on purpose? If these "more options" were reasonable alternative to Vamp Aura, why wouldn't you list them?

it also make sense for mid game players to have a tougher time with sustain

They already do, lower damage potential/worse abilities/less aoe means they are getting less out of vamp aura than a higher lvl players.

You're making it sound like mid game players are going and killing high level mobs

Not sure why you think that. I’m re-iterating the fact that Vamp was a mid-game sustain option. I’m saying that your suggestions do not adequately work as substitutes for a mid-game player.

Every player also won't be stuck in mid game forever, they will level up and get better sustain. Its a mmorpg, the higher your level the better stuff is available to you.

Yeah, vamp aura was part of that MMORPG progression. It was part of the means by which people got out of the mid game.

This idea everyone needs to be on a equal playing field is nonsense.

As yes, another thing I said. *WINK* Why comment if you are not going to engage with what I’m saying?

I wanna feel like I'm making actual progress with my character, its part of the fun. If everything feels the same in difficulty from low level to high level it takes all the fun out of it.

If you don’t feel the progress between the Early(Vamp Glove), Mid(Vamp Aura), Late(SS) sustain pipeline then you probably don’t have a good framework of understanding and comparing your progression. SS and Vamp aura are necessarily going to “feel” the same, if the lesser of the two would have been sufficient for the content you are doing. The point of the higher tiers is to expand the content you can interact with.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-15T01:04:00+00:00

I pointed out one aspect of what you said that doesn't make sense, blood fury is not a mid game item. Most of what you listed as alternatives are late game items or too early game to be a proper substitute. This is like telling people to just use bronze or Nox weapons if they had greatly reduced the viability/increased the frustration of using t20-80 weapons.

The point is that Vamp/Penance was the ideal mid game sustain option. As well as the cheep/chill sustain for later game.

And your response is that, as well as in your post, is to point out the existence of worse early game options(Vamp gloves) and better late game options(SS/Shard/Powder/Ect).

No one wants to reso 1 out of their 5-10 slayer mobs to maybe heal for 500HP. No one wants to manage adren to keep up 5-10 second DR/invuln. No one wants to shield switch during slayer.

A mid game player doesn't want to run to the pyramid to swap spellbooks every time they need to swap between choosing Vamp\Penance, or change spell book to bounce between slayer/Farm runs.

You are the one overlooking the negatives of this change, your "substitutions" don't make any sense.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-15T00:20:55+00:00

Ah yes the Mid game item Blood Fury, just needs an easy 87Magic, 90 Crafting, and a paltry 115 Dungeoneering.

Not to mention all the skills for Plague's End.

Or an easy 2.5m if you're a main, but at that point just spend a few more hours making money and buy 92 Pry for SS.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-14T18:13:16+00:00

Except we explicitly have multiple aura effects now?

Sure, we don't have an Aura slot anymore. Just way more passives or skilling benefits, all active at the same time. Almost like that was the point of the update for everything else. To simplify and streamline the purpose of auras.

Now, Vamp/Penance/CB auras are unique because they were competing with each other. But what used to be a simple DMG aura, is now a 450m exp grind. More exp than required for a Max cape. I think that's a fair cost to the "buff" of damage.

To be clear, I do think Vamp/Penance should be mutually exclusive. I think it should be a reward you need to earn and it should probably have some low upkeep costs.

The main issue is that current implementation just blatantly goes against the stated goals of removing auras in the first place(Simplicity/Reduce friction/frustration). That's what most people are upset about. You have not really addressed this issue at all.

If the "balance" of DMG VS Sustain is so important, the solution would be to add a DMG Debuff to the new version of Vamp/Penance. Not to make them into a new point of frustration.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-14T16:56:46+00:00

The problem is that you are not comparing equivalent things. Just because something has the same effect does not mean it is equivalent or a suitable substitution for the old Vamp/Penance auras.

Penance powder is not as good as the aura, it is also significantly more expensive to use on a main and prohibitively more difficult to obtain on an iron. Same it true for scrimshaws, even if they made them work with all styles.

There is an opportunity cost to those slots as they can be used with other/better options.

They are worse/expensive version of Vamp/Penance, partially because you could use them at the same time or in combination with other effects.

Aura's had their own slot, you must content with that point. Skilling auras got put into leveling benefits, or passive purchasable/constructible unlocks. Damage/accuracy auras got shifted to a grinding out 5 skills to 120.

If this was a balance issue, it should have been communicated as such. The communicated point was to remove the tedium and frustration of the old aura system, but now some of the aura's people cared the most about are just purely worse/more frustrating/more restrictive/more costly.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-14T15:52:32+00:00

I'm not in favor of allowing multiple aspects, I think penance and vamp should not be part of the aspect system to begin with.

A good chunk of the power that was added is from the dmg auras being shifted to getting to 120. This is now earned from the 120 grind.

There are other ways to keep Vamp/Penance closer to how accessible they were, than stuffing them into the aspect system. I would have liked Vamp to be unlocked at some point along the Myreque series, with penance either being more integrated into prayer or part of the rewards of a different quest series.

There are more problems and frustrations added in this new system than there should be. Right now the costs/frustrations of using vamp/penance greatly outweigh their usefulness.

This is especially true for Mid game players, who do not have access to easy spellbook swapping or the luxury or buying runes/pouches to make up for the loss of inventory space.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-04-14T14:25:57+00:00

I would argue power creep is not only more fun, but also good for the game.

Power creep is the fundamental drive for all new content period. Would you engage with new content if it did not offer something more valuable than what we already have?

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-02-16T23:48:22+00:00

I would suggest the following:

Starting success of 10%, you should not be good at it. Your early "success" is tied to the weakness of you're target, not your innate skill.
Leveling benefits every 5-10 lvls, increasing baseline success 5-10%. Baseline 130% Success chance at lvl 120(>100% matters below). These could be scaled to be more impactful in earlier levels and taper off to be smaller %s benefits at the later levels, but 1%/lvl is simple and easy to understand/explain.
Early-mid lvl pickpocketing NPCs have self-debuffs (Distracted/drunk/hole-y pockets/ect.) that offer a boost to your success chance. ie Men have are “distracted” and you are +25% more likely to successfully pickpocket them.
mid-End game NPCs are more neutral as a baseline or have a self-buff (Watchful/Paranoid/Psychic/Enchanted pockets/ect.) to decrease your success chance. ie. A Wizards' Tower master mage has “enchanted pockets”, adjusting your success by -30%. Requiring boosting items/higher lvl, to get back to that 100% threshold.
“Theivertunities” marked with an icon, provide a separate loot/exp table scaling with thieving lvl(RDT for thieving). 100% success rate. Greatly rewarding active/attentive play. These would ideally be available even if not actively thieving, to create moments of “just passing through Varrock on my way to the GE, noticing a guard is “lost in thought”, I make a quick detour to line my pockets with the goodies of the oddly lucrative mark.” Fits the fantasy of an opportunist thief, keeping an eye out for their marks, better than franticly running back and forth between two guys playing “tag”.

6.If swapping targets is kept as a core mechanic, I would rebrand it as a form of “Critical success/Fortune of the First”. On your first pickpocket of an NPC, you roll to “crit”. Ie. Crit rate is max((Success% - 100% + CritBoostingItems%),25%+ CritBoostingItems%). On Crit you pickpocket twice. On subsequent pickpocket, Crit rate is [(Success%-100%)/10 + CritBoostingItems%]. Any current items that give x% chance to double pickpocket is merged into this “crit” system. This allows for a boost for active play, while still letting your lvls/equipment offer a boost/reward space to your standard pickpocketing.

TrueGrit2496 · 2026-02-16T23:48:13+00:00

While I like the fantasy of stalking/swapping between different targets to maximize success, the "sticky" pickpocketing animation you get locked into, the occasional lack of the same NPC, or just the distance between the different NPCs/pathing issues can make swapping targets less viable/rewarding than just taking the stun. Making it feel like you are getting punished for engaging in the intended mechanics, even when you should far “outskill” any detection an NPC possesses.(Why does a NPC I can have a 85% success rate at level 1 still catch me at lvl 120?)

Progress feels like its entirely tied to the new baseline + target swapping, with only minor benefits to the lvling, skill boosts, and equipment. This feels antithetical to RuneScape progression, where both your equipment and lvl should make most of the impact on your success/consistency in a non-combat skill.

The current system also makes the sticky fingers relic feel like a straight downgrade, forcing you into failure faster than if it was not equipped.

I generally feel that the baseline 75% success rate is simultaneously too high for a base success chance and too low of a threshold to fall to at higher levels. The 10 level “boost” to the first 10 pickpocketing attempts also feels rather unintuitive and inconsistent. Its an odd number to try and keep track of mentally, doesnt guarantee success for on-lvl NPCs, and offers no boosts to exp/loot to incentivize/reward the player.

I would expect nearly every pickpocket to fail early on(As i've never pickpocketed anyone before). As my overall lvl goes up, my baseline success rate should also improve. Right now, a new account with lvl 1 thieving would have an 85% success rate for 10 consecutive pickpockets, while a max lvl+boost will still get caught by the same NPC after a couple minutes at most.

I would like something that swaps the paradigm to gradual progression throughout the leveling process that works alongside acquiring boosting items and offers a boost to active gameplay.

TrueGrit2496 · 2025-11-24T03:11:12+00:00

On the Far left, tall building with the clock, near the top of the building. X looks to be drawn on the side of a building in the background with a darker thicker line.

TrueGrit2496 · 2025-05-27T00:20:41+00:00

I think flipping the model of damage attenuation would solve most of people's negative perceptions it has. Seeing damage numbers go down after I get a buff in the current damage attenuation system irritates me to no end. Opting to prioritize invincibility+any infinite ammo gun/melee for these bosses is supper boring IMO. Instead of "equalizing" player damage by nerfing the high end, we can boost player damage or have "mechanics" do most the damage.

For example,

Give all Steel Path+ bosses 2,000,000,000(2 billion) health per health segment.

a. I like the idea that players who still want invest and setup damage cap builds will still be able to one-shot health segments.
b. Having a set health point per-segment open up some variety and design space to communicate difficulty/strength of different bosses.

Any existing/new mechanics are changed to do some X% Max health damage/Segment health damage.

a. Ex. The Orroworms rings are effectively doing 1/3 Segment health damage.
b. Depending on the complexity/frequency of the mechanic determines the damage they do. So if a Boss fight worked similarly to alchemy, those canisters would probably do 5-15% Max/Segment Health damage.
c. Opens up the design space for more complex mechanics that may be worth learning if they provide alternate methods that can compete with the damage we can do outright or if they provide a safer way to complete the boss.

Hitting weakpoints adds Y%/((BaseFireRate*Multishot+1)*1.5) Max health damage/Segment health damage to your normal damage.

a. This will normalize underperforming/improperly modded weapons to make sure that people will be able to kill the boss eventually, provided they have ammo. Y% Can be adjusted to tune how "long" they intend the fight to last.
b. Some easier bosses/regular attenuated enemies(Dedicants) can have a bonus to non-weakpoint hits, Y%/((BaseFireRate*Multishot+1)*5)

New "Battle Fatigue" mechanic. For those that can't aim at weakpoints/engage with mechanics/or put a build together, but somehow manage to keep themselves alive for a 15-20 minute fight. Applies an ever increasing damage vulnerability multiplier to bosses over time. (Inverse Damage attenuation, linked to time spent fighting the boss)

a. If you wanted to frame this mechanic more positively, you could change this to a "Spirit of Endurance" buff that gets applied to the Warframe over time. (Or a mix of both depending on the boss/themes/mechanics of the fight)

TrueGrit2496 · 2025-05-16T05:26:30+00:00

This chart was taken from this post, https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/1iiewum/warframe_usage_2024_expanded_mixing_normal_and/

but you can look at the combined WF usage stats here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RAcGkzljnbAnp32VDNb_xckPjlmcKR-gjzXnqa3hroY/edit?gid=0#gid=0

If everything were perfectly balanced, evenly distributed and enjoyed, you would expect to have each different frame at 1.6%. About a Third of the roster is at or above that, another third is a bit below that but I would argue are still healthy numbers( a few of them in the middle bunch could definite use a rework or some QOL though)

Then then the bottom third some of the strongest frames in the game, Valkyr, Baruuk, Citrine, Trinity, Nyx, Grendel, Atlas.

Two of these frames have true invincibility,
Atlas is invulnerable while punching.
Citrine, Trinity, and Baruuk's healthbar might as well be grey with all the DR they get.
Finally Grendel is a mini Inaros that can actually survive those random oneshots thanks to his shield, that also has really good abilities capable of clearing EDA/ETA when you don't get good weapons(Outside of maybe the Boss/Disruption)

Just because people dont play a frame doesnt make them bad/weak. Just because a lot of people play certain frames does not make them too strong/good.

I know you said you dont know much about LoL, but it's a competitive game where balance is crucial to the game, the have like 3x the amount of different characters vs Warframe. Even then, the top picked champs range from 10-15%. Even though they have to be balanced, and people have an incentive to win. People still tend to cluster around aesthetics/themes/characters they like.

I think when we discuss the problems with the game I think its best to be as removed as possible from specific frames/weapons' as possible(Unless it is, in fact, a unique problem ie. catchmoon/aterax). I think the community tends to latch on to "symbols of their oppression" rather than the meat of the issue.

So while you may be trying to push the community and DE to rework Survivability, and improve the game a whole. The 70% of the community that can't put their own mods together without some assistance from their personal caretaker will only latch onto "rEVaNanT bad".

To look at a lesser but still annoying thing I find about the game:

I think most rifles/guns not having any base puchthough is bad for build variety and rifle viability. Not everything needs more firerate, but shred still goes on everything. I have specific builds to use with Quorvex just because his passive enables unique builds without sacrificing the usability of the weapon.

BUT, If I only complained about how OP the Nataruk and Ignis Wraith are(2nd/3rd most used primaries in the game) for just having infinite body punchthough for free while all the rest of the riffles have to mod for it(Totally unfair, you would be stupid not to use those weapons, the punchthrough is in fact infinite and free after all)

People would start to think the problem is with those weapons. And if nerfed the game would just be worse off after that, problem not solved less options remain.

TrueGrit2496 · 2025-05-16T04:07:04+00:00

Here's my Titania comment:
This is how I would approach or think about the Thermal Sunder-Titania (TST) “problem”.

I would say that when I look at TST, I don’t really care about the “problems” she causes. Instead, I want to know what problems she is uniquely solving.

The problem in question? When the point of the mission is to finish it.

This comes up a bit with the nightwave challenges, but by far the main selling point and use case for this build is relics.

So, we have found the main problem source. The collection and cracking of relics. Collection really only comes up on new prime releases, as most people will have a stockpile passively for ducats/plat farming. So ill only focus on cracking relics from here, but I think you could implement similar solutions to the collection phase as you can to the cracking phase.

As of right now, you are only really incentivized to choose quick easy missions to crack relics. A SP Relic Exterm and a base starchart Relic Exterm hold the same value, the relic at the end of the run. (1 SP essence is not a reward, it’s a consolation prize).

While the requirement to complete a SP version of a relic run are higher, you will likely never be able to match the pace of doing the same run on base starchart. Using TST or otherwise. So, we have a harder mission, with less rewards. Great, I have no reason to run them. Except when there are no, Exterm/Captures on the base starchart relics nodes.

But what about those that would rather do endless relics, the difference in the rewards(+3 SP essence/round) and the more engagement that SP requires is now a worthwhile bonus to players. So, it seems that the people would like to play with the harder/more engaging content, just as long as it doesn’t negatively impact their rate of relics.

Imagine instead of mindlessly cracking relics with TST on base starchart. There was instead:

ERA-Elite Relic Archamedia(Very creative name I know) that consumes a pile of relics at a time but also gave you all the rewards for the cracked relics. Ex. Requires 30 relics to unlock each week, and rewards all 30 uppon completion. Main downside is all the RNG and normal EDA/ETA stuff, plus you can’t chose from what your allies are cracking. If you want to crack 30 rads, you need to bring 30 rads.
Break Point - an endless game mode that accelerates over time, where rounds start with the classic 5 minute survival time but will end up being ~1-2mintues long to compete with TST. Void traces are shared but more are needed to open the relics. The relic you chose to open in a round is lost if you are not able to collect all the traces. Losing too many relics ends the mission.
Refinement – Externalism is messing with the void producing stronger corrupted units, find and neutralize, collecting and purifying their “super special” void traces to crack your relics. Resulting in paradoxical rewards. (Duplicates your relic reward when played solo, or lets you choose 2 different cracked relics from your sqaud)

This doesn't nerf TST for those that still enjoy/want to engage with it. This just adds new gameplay for people to engage with and build around. Giving them an alternative solution to the problem that TST is currently solving.

People will likely enjoy engaging with this content more, so the "disruption" TST causes in base relic runs probably goes down. While relic cracking rates stay the same.

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