Weapons with Area of Effect

Update 32.0 (2022-09-07)

AREA OF EFFECT (AOE) WEAPON CHANGES

Area of Effect (AoE) weapons are a pretty dominant aspect of Warframe gameplay, especially affected by the removal of self-damage a few years ago. We want AoE weapons to feel impactful, but we feel their current state needs adjustment.

Before we get into the specific ‘WHAT’ of the changes to AoE, let’s talk about the broad ‘WHY’ of these changes. There are 3 core reasons:

1) “Can this be automated?” Currently, some explosive weapons and playstyles remove the need to aim, or otherwise care about your surroundings. This doesn’t fit the “automated” category perfectly, but we want such impactful weapons to require more consideration and tactical decision making than currently exists.

2) “Is this overly dominant?” Warframe is a game full of very powerful tactics, but problems arise when players feel ‘forced’ to use specific choices. The top 5 most popular weapons are all AoE, accounting for 47% of all weapon usage at high Mastery Rank AOE usage stats. In situations where efficiency is important, some would say you aren’t playing ‘correctly’ if you’re not utilizing these choices, which some players don’t necessarily find fun.

3) “Is this playstyle disruptive to other players?” A majority of sessions are played co-op, so ideally everybody gets a chance to play. We’ve reached a point where players are asking us to change these weapons, because they leave so little for others to do.

With our motivations clear, we can now get into specifics. We approached this change in a multitude of ways:

1. Ammo Changes

a. Ammo Pick Up

b. Holster Speed Buffs & Mod Changes

1. Headshot Damage Changes
2. Primed Fulmination and Primed Firestorm Rebalancing
3. New Steel Path Missions: Void Fissures

1. Ammo Changes

We understand the power fantasy of these weapons is very popular for some, so our first approach was to keep them powerful, but limit how often they can be used by making changes to ammo pick-up.

1. a) Ammo Pick Up

Ammo drop types have been simplified to Primary, Secondary and Heavy ammo. We have eliminated the Sniper and Shotgun ammo types. ‘Ammo Pickup’ is also a new property on every weapon, it indicates the amount of ammo you get when picking up an ammo box.

We also increased base ammo pickup values as follows:

• Primary - from 60 to 80
• Secondary - from 20 to 40

We also increased the alt fire ammo requirement per projectile:

Fulmin:

• Increased Alt fire ammo requirement from 10 to 15.

Bubonico:

• Increased Alt fire ammo requirement from 3 to 9.
• Faster regen rate from empty for 2 secs.

Tenet Tetra:

• Alt fire is no longer a toggle, and doesn't require a full mag to fire.
• Total damage is now based on ammo in mag on fire.

Ammo Pickup Overrides The following weapons now have ammo pickup overrides, meaning they gain less from picking up ammo. This mostly applies to AoE weapons, in hopes that players will become more deliberate with their aim to make the most of their Ammo pools. The following lists the specific ammo pick up overrides per weapon category.

Primary Weapon Ammo Pick Up Overrides 1 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Kuva Bramma
• Kuva Ogris
• Kuva Zarr
• Lenz
• Proboscis Cernos

3 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Tonkor
• Kuva Tonkor

4 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Tenet Envoy

5 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Carmine Penta
• Penta
• Secura Penta
• Ogris

9 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Zarr

10 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Torid

15 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Arca Plasmor
• Catchmoon (Primary)
• Cedo
• Cernos
• Cernos Prime
• Corinth
• Corinth Prime
• Daikyu
• Dread
• Drakgoon
• Exergis
• Felarx
• Hek
• Komorex
• Kuva Chakkhurr
• Kuva Drakgoon
• Kuva Hek
• Lanka
• MK1-Paris
• MK1-Strun
• Mutalist Cernos
• Paris
• Paris Prime
• Phantasma
• Rakta Cernos
• Rubico
• Rubico Prime
• Sancti Tigris
• Simulor
• Sporothrix
• Sporelacer (Primary)
• Snipetron
• Snipetron Vandal
• Sobek
• Synoid Simulor
• Strun
• Strun Prime
• Strun Wraith
• Tenet Arca Plasmor
• Tigris
• Tigris Prime
• Vaykor Hek
• Vectis
• Vectis Prime
• Vulkar
• Vulkar Wraith

20 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Tombfinger (Primary)

40 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Acceltra
• Aeolak
• Alternox
• Astilla
• Astilla Prime
• Boar
• Boar Prime
• Gaze (Primary)
• Ignis
• Ignis Wraith
• Kohm
• Kuva Kohm
• Miter
• Opticor
• Opticor Vandal
• Stahlta
• Tenet Tetra
• Vermisplicer (Primary)

60 Ammo per Pick up:

• Amprex
• Javlok
• Scourge
• Scourge Prime
• Trumna
• Zhuge Prime

Primary Weapons with Ammo Regen Rates Overrides:

• Basmu: From 42/s to 10.5/s
• Bubonico: From 9/s to 4.5/s
• Flux Rifle: From 40/s to 24/s
• Fulmin: From 30/s to 20/s
• Shedu: From 28/s to 3.5/s

Secondary Weapon Ammo Pick up Overrides:

3 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Angstrum
• Prisma Angstrum
• Kulstar

4 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Castanas
• Sancti Castanas
• Pox
• Talons

5 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Akarius

9 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Kuva Seer

20 Ammo per Pick Up:

• Akbronco
• Akbronco Prime
• Atomos
• Brakk
• Bronco
• Bronco Prime
• Catabolyst
• Catchmoon (Secondary)
• Cyanex
• Detron
• Epitaph
• Euphona Prime
• Gaze (Secondary)
• Kohmak
• Twin Kohmak
• Kompressa
• Kuva Nukor
• Kuva Brakk
• Mara Detron
• Nukor
• Pyrana
• Pyrana Prime
• Sepulcrum
• Sporelacer (Secondary)
• Sonicor
• Staticor
• Tenet Detron
• Tombfinger (Secondary)
• Twin Rogga
• Vermisplicer (Secondary)
• Zakti
• Zakti Prime
• Zymos

Many weapons have also had their maximum ammo capacity adjusted.

Primary Weapons:

• Arca Plasmor: From 48 to 50
• Corinth: From 132 to 135
• Gaze (Primary): From 400 to 200
• Kuva Zarr: From 15 to 5
• Kuva Ogris: From 30 to 7
• Kuva Tonkor: From 60 to 11
• Miter: From 72 to 80
• Proboscis Cernos: From 9 to 7
• Sporelacer (Primary): From 130 to 60
• Tenet Envoy: From 24 to 16
• Tombfinger (Primary): From 540 to 120
• Vermisplicer (Primary): From 226 to 90
• Zarr: From 84 to 60

• Secondary Weapons:
• Epitaph: From 60 to 40
• Gaze (Secondary): From 400 to 200
• Vermisplicer (Secondary): From 226 to 90

Secondary Weapons with Ammo Regen Rates Overrides:

• Cycron: From 40/s to 20/s
• Tenet Cycron: From 40/s to 20/s

We also reduced the frequency of ammo drops from enemies and made them scale with squad size.

• Used to drop from 70% of regular enemies and 80% of Open World enemies, now they drop less frequently, with smaller squads getting more drops
  • 1p squad = 45%, or 60% in Open Worlds
  • 2p squad = 37.5%, or 52.5% in Open World
  • 3p squad = 30%, or 45% in Open Worlds
  • 4p squad = 22.5%, or 37.5% in Open Worlds

On average you’ll be getting Ammo drops half as often, but most weapons with the aforementioned increase of pickup values receive twice as much.

Eximus will now have a guaranteed drop of either Primary OR Secondary Ammo in addition to existing base enemy ammo drops.

• Increased the chance of a Riven Sliver dropping from Eximus Units.
  • Steel Path Eximus: changed from 1% to 2% drop chance
  • Regular Eximus: changed from 0.5% to 2% drop chance
    • Note that Riven Slivers still only have a chance to drop from Eximus level 30 and over

Made the following changes to Mods/Arcanes in light of the above ammo changes (stats shown at max rank):

• Rifle Ammo Mutation: Now converts Secondary ammo pickups to 50% of Ammo Pick Up.
• Pistol Ammo Mutation: Now converts Primary ammo pickups to 50% of Ammo Pick Up.
• Shotgun Ammo Mutation: Now converts Secondary ammo pickups to 50% of Ammo Pick Up.
• Sniper Ammo Mutation: Now converts Secondary ammo pickups to 50% of Ammo Pick Up.
• Primary/Secondary Merciless Arcane: Removed its +100% Ammo Maximum bonus.
• Vigilante Supplies Mod: Now converts Secondary ammo pickups to 30% of ammo pickup.
• Mirage’s Explosive Legerdemain Augment: Increased damage dealt from proximity mines created from Ammo and Orbs pickups from 500 to 1000.

Deployable Ammo Restores now restore 1x (for small), 2x (for medium), and 3x (for large) Primary and Secondary Ammo Pick up amounts every 15s for 60s.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on how these ammo changes affect specific weapons’ performance and popularity. Expect more tweaks to these values in future updates!

1. b) Holster Speed Buffs & Mod Changes

These changes to Ammo encourage swapping between weapons, so we’ve taken the opportunity to dramatically increase the swapping speed between Primary and Secondary. The real purpose of your Secondary weapon is for it to be a backup to your Primary, but with the holster speeds the way they were before that vision was not realized - until now!

2. Headshot Damage Changes

During playtesting, the ammo changes alone weren’t enough to significantly change things for AoE weapons. So instead of tightening these values to be overly restrictive, we chose to address other factors that make these weapons so strong, such as headshot damage.

Our approach here is two-fold, to reduce the impact of headshots for AOE weapons, but to also make precision headshots pack a larger punch overall.

• Radial damage no longer gains extra headshot damage or triggers headshot conditions.
  • This is primarily targeted at the Ignis Wraith - as a “flamethrower” weapon, it’s hard to imagine a blanket of elements being precise enough to target weak points specifically. Explosive projectiles themselves can still land headshots, so there is still a reason to aim with most weapons for maximum damage.
• Increased the base damage multiplier on headshots from 2x to 3x.
  • This means precision weapons are more rewarded for skillful usage, leveling the playing field even further!

3. Mod Rebalancing and Changes

Finally, we’ve changed the effects on a few specific mods that increase explosive radius.

The mods Primed Firestorm and Primed Fulmination both offered a 66% increase in explosive radius, which is being reduced to 44%, matching the increase offered by other Primed mods. Primed Mods traditionally offer around double the value of the base Mods, but these two offered tripled value. This change is reflective of the Primed Mod standard.

We were also seeing an influx of players using the Furax with the Amalgam Furax Body Count mod as AoE weapons have become more and more prevalent. So we removed its +20% Blast Radius on Specialized Launchers and replaced it with +45% Fire Rate for Secondary Weapons.

4. New Steel Path Missions: Void Fissures

While evaluating AoE, we found another angle of consideration: mission design. Specifically Fissure missions where AoE lethality is common and problematic. For each new Prime Access, we ask players to revisit these lower level missions to open Relics - in Lith missions it can be difficult to even earn Reactant if you kill too quickly! Which leads us to the following addition of Steel Path Void Fissure Missions.

If you are an experienced Warframe player, you are extremely familiar with the Void Fissure mission flow: Select Relic and blitz through enemies to crack it. It is obvious that where Void Fissure missions are, they are far too easy and can be completed with little to no friction (looking at you Lith). Ultimately, this makes the Prime content not as engaging as it could be, while also leaving new players behind in the dust as the experienced rip through enemies before they can get to them.

The solution: Steel Path Void Fissure missions.

When enabling Steel Path in Navigation, Void Fissure missions in the World State Window will now have the usual Steel Path flare apply (Acolytes, difficulty modifiers, etc.). To make it worth your while, 1 x Steel Essence is also awarded for every Relic you crack.

As you can see, we’ve evaluated the problem from many different angles, and are hopeful that these changes will lead to a healthier gamestate overall. As part of our comprehensive AOE review pass, we focused on weapons with Ammo Pools. We are aware of the way Glaive/Thrown Melees behave and are reviewing closely to see if their dominance will require a revision pass as well. But as always, we’ll be watching for your feedback. So bring your AoE weapons into a mission and get a good feel for it (with all of the above in mind) before you share your thoughts.

Hotfix 27.2.2 (2020-03-06)

AoE Weapon Radial Fall Off Changes:

• Arsenal Stats now show Radial data and fall off when viewing a Weapon!

Reduced the following AoE weapons Radial Damage Falloff from central impact that were all previously 90%:

Primary:

• Mutalist Quanta: 50%
• Kuva Chakkurr: 30%
• Opticor: 60%
• Opticor Vandal: 60%
• Battacor: 40%
• Acceltra: 50%
• Ogris: 80%
• Kuva Ogris: 80%
• Penta: 50%
• Secura Penta: 60%
• Simulor: 60%
• Synoid Simulor: 60%
• Tonkor: 70%
• Kuva Tonkor: 70%
• Zarr: 50%
• Ferrox: 40%
• Javlok: 30% / Alt Fire 60%
• Scourge: 30% / Alt Fire 60%
• Astilla: 30%
• Phantasma: 50%
• Komorex: 40%
• Zhuge Prime: 30%
• Lenz: 70%
• Shedu: 60%

Secondary:

• Kuva Seer: 30%
• Cyanex: 20%
• Angstrum: 40%
• Prisma Angstrum: 40%
• Kulstar: 40%
• Stug: 30%
• Akarius: 70%
• Staticor: 30% / Alt Fire 90%
• Castanas: 40%
• Sancti Castanas: 40%
• Talons: 50%
• Pox: 50%

Kitgun:

• Tombfinger: 30%

Arch-Gun:

• Grattler: 50%
• Kuva Ayanga: 50%
• Larkspur: 60%

Operator Amp:

• Granmu Prism: 30%
• Shraksun Scaffold: 40%
• Phahd Scaffold: 40%
• Exard Scaffold: 30%
• Dissic Scaffold: 60%
• Propa Scaffold: 70%

Glaive:

• Cerata: 50%
• Falcor: 50%
• Glaive: 50%
• Glaive Prime: 50%
• Halikar: 50%
• Kestrel: 50%
• Orvius: 50%
• Pathocyst: 50%

Corinth and Kuva Bramma remain unchanged.

Update 27.2 (2020-03-05)

Self Damage Changes:

We are getting rid of Self Damage and replacing it with something else: instead of Self Damage, it’s now ‘Stagger’. This change completely removes the chance of killing yourself, and instead now creates scenarios where you will interrupt yourself - or ‘Stagger’ - to varying degrees if you aren’t careful.

The degrees of Self-Interrupt start with a small stumble all the way to full knockdown depending on how close you are to the center of explosion. Any Mods referring to Self Damage will be converted to acknowledge Stagger.

With this Self-Interrupt system, we have added dozens of new recovery animations that harness a ninja-like recovery experience. By pressing ‘Jump’ at the correct time, you can execute a ninja-skill-based knockdown recovery to ALL in-game knockdowns. This ninja recovery window is indicated by a glowing FX on your Warframe.

In addition to Self Damage being removed, some of the more powerful AOE weapons without Self Damage presently will have the Stagger added, but it should only be noticeable in cases of extreme inaccuracy on the player’s part. The Weapons include:

• Kuva Chakkurr
• Opticor
• Opticor Vandal
• Battacor
• Simulor
• Synoid Simulor
• Ferrox
• Astilla
• Shedu
• Kuva Seer
• Cyanex
• Staticor
• Pox
• Tombfinger
• Granmu Prism
• Exard Scaffold

In the original Dev Workshop, we said:
As a result of this overall systemic change, Weapons with Stagger will be getting approximately a 20% buff in Damage, with any weapons with AOE receiving a 50% Radial Damage Falloff from central impact.

This is no longer accurate after continued testing. What we are doing now is:

No damage buffs have been added, but any weapons with AOE are receiving ~20% increase in Radius. Additionally, AOE weapons are receiving a 90% Radial Damage Falloff from central impact. This means on the very outer section of the explosion Radius 10% of the Damage will be dealt. Tactics will be deadly - aim true, Tenno.

Why: Several players brought up the history of the Tonkor and we want to make sure we ship this change in a place that’s conservative in its starting point from a balance perspective. The complete removal of Self Damage does change the pace of destruction with some of the game’s most powerful weapons, so we want to make sure we can iterate upwardly instead of releasing a bonanza of explosions with no other choices.

SELF-DAMAGE REMOVAL / STAGGER FEEDBACK MEGATHREAD

https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1171900-warframe-revised-removing-self-damage-stagger-megathread/