Let's talk about new archon shards.

[Dubstep_Samurai]

So, we gonna get 3 new types of archon shards with the next update, which is good. Though it seems the only way to get em is to merge 2 old type shards together to get a single new type shard. Considering rather slow rate of obtaining shards in general this is kinda brutal.

At this point, it wouldn't even be cost efficient to combine 2 basic shards to get 1 tauforged shard (if this system would exist) since its only a 50% performance boost, but with new types of shards - you combine 2 basic shards of old type to get 1 basic shard of a new type, which has unique stats yes, but the same level of performance. So the end result is even less beneficial, since you literally throw away 1 shard in the process. Bad enough with basic shards, twice as bad with tauforged shards, since those drop a lot less frequent and wasting one is even bigger sacrifice.

Ofc it's early to judge before we see actual bonuses, but, IMO, the only way for this to work is to make new shard types really, REALLY good, to justify the time and resources costs. Or there should be a way to farm em directly, not instead, but alongside with old types. Otherwise it sounds pretty bad to me.

What's your thoughts?

[Dubstep_Samurai]

Originally posted by mrunuick:

Originally posted by Dubstep_Samurai:

Considering rather slow rate of obtaining shards in general this is kinda brutal.

I believe the devstream said that Whispers in the Walls will have a way to earn archon shards as well.

Originally posted by Kawalorn:

Originally posted by Dubstep_Samurai:

So, we gonna get 3 new types of archon shards with the next update, which is good. Though it seems the only way to get em is to merge 2 old type shards together to get a single new type shard. Considering rather slow rate of obtaining shards in general this is kinda brutal.

According to devstream, both normal and merged shards will be farmable in new content.

If it's really the case - great news! Maybe i missed this statement somehow. Chill pill taken.

[Shogun Gunshow]

Originally posted by neock:

yellow shards have like 2 uses, and those uses only benifit speedrunners or zepher.
that said, more shards would be nice. the stockpile of 40 blue and 27 crimson (normal and touforged) need a new use. bulk stockpiling 2 a week gets old when youve mix and matched what frames can actualy use them to the best...

Yellows are also useful for casting speed on several frames/abilities. Sometimes it's useful to have a tauforged yellow so that you don't have to slot a Natural Talent to make those frames feel more comfy. And then you can use that mod slot that would have gone to Natural Talent for scaling - scaling more valuable than a single shard would have been worth.

[Quasi-Bad]

Originally posted by Khanwolf:

Originally posted by Flamboyant:

I dare u to play garuda without any casting speed mods or shards, shts just painful and causes brain damage. And its just one of the many examples. Shards dont really give power, they give comfort and do that pretty well

there are 2 types of Players, MinMaxxerls and Steel Path only Players to have an enjoyable game with acceptable income... and there are people, who simply play this game until a certain point, then they turn around and stay on the Beginner Star Chart forever.

Eh, if you enjoy the game then you will at some point go to steel path. Steel path is essentially a good quarter or at least half the endgame. But steel path actually requires you to learn the mechanics of the game and soloing it is just a extra layer of difficulty. They should really up the rewards, like credits at the very least so that doing more steel path is worth it so vets will help out new players.

Grinding 95% of steel path alone, was not a empowering experience if I am being honest. Thank god I was able to get some public lobbies on the hardest boss fights. But even then I had to solo some of those alone too.

[DeAlph]

Originally posted by Shogun Gunshow:

Originally posted by tv:

yellow shards desperately needed a use

Yellow shards are useful, though?

yellow and red are both useful, but blue does not really do much. I use red for +strength +duration +melee critical damage and I use yellow for +energy effectness +maximum energy on spawn +casting speed but blue? I don't know if I lack of yellow/red shard then I just fill the empty slot with blue and just randomly +max energy or +hp regen.

[Firefrye]

I love how every time I hear people talking about different shard types, different people will come in and say that each one is useless or needs a better use. To me that's a sign that they're all in a pretty good spot because different people have found different things to do with them.
Personally I am always running out of Yellow because I love cast speed on basically everything. Blue is my 2nd most used because I tend to stick 1 armor shard into most frames and maybe 1 health regen just for comfort. Meanwhile reds? I almost never use. I swap between primaries and secondaries too often, and enjoy swapping which specific weapons are in those slots as well so the weapon class buffs don't appeal to me. And the Strength/duration are relatively low values. I know they're useful for reaching specific breakpoints when min-maxing builds, but I rarely every go that deep into a build (when I do, they're perfect, but it doesn't eat my stock very quickly).

The new shards might be more interesting to me and I look forwards to seeing their full spread of stats. I also equally dread the grind to farm extra shards and the arbitrary limits DE will put on that farm to make sure Archons and Khal missions "don't lose their value". Personally? I'd love to see Tauforged shards show up in the Khal shop randomly and further boost the drop chance of Tauforged shards from Archon fights themselves. Then make those the only sources of Tauforged shards. Let us infinitely grind regular ones, but lock the "special" ones behind Hunts and Khal's syndicate