My Voruna

I technically started playing Warframe in 2013, at least according to my account creation date. Back then, the game didn’t quite click for me, so I dropped it. Despite getting tempted to pick it up again while reading Medic’s FashionFrame articles (I do love character customizations), I had always just been content to read about the game instead.

That is, until some time in the middle of February where a bunch of my online friends were talking about Warframe. I asked if there was a melee Frame and they mentioned Voruna.

I downloaded the game right after.

Voruna’s crafting materials are only available on specific missions on Lua, which requires you to progress quite far into the game’s story to unlock. I happened to have a lot of free time then since I was waiting for my new job to start, but it still took me weeks to complete the story mission to unlock Lua. Then again, I did spent a lot of time grinding out a few things to try, including my eventual main Valkyr and various other assorted Frames and weps.

Farming Voruna’s blueprints and materials took me another couple of weeks, so by the time my Voruna is sitting in my Foundry, Voruna Prime had been announced. And man, her announcement made quite a splash. A lot of splashes and sprays of blood in fact. The trailer is so gory, it’s age-restricted on the official channel.

So I leveled Voruna, fed her to the Helminth, and prepared to grind for Voruna Prime. Axi V14 was the bane of my existence, the best mission that drops that relic took 7-8minutes each round for about 1/8 chance of it actually dropping. The grind for her took forever, and it made the actual crafting and leveling of Voruna Prime felt like it took a minute at most. After I equipped her to the best of my abilities then, I took her to a mid-level mission for a test run and got plastered immediately.

Turns out, I’ve built up some bad gameplay habits and assumptions.

I intended to play Voruna as a melee Warframe, more specifically a melee heavy attack Frame with the Sampotes. But back then, my most-played melee Frames are Rhino and Valkyr, and these frames are innately TANKY due to their base kit and stats. In comparison, Voruna is sculpted out of a single layer of damp papier-mâché. Besides, Voruna’s main survivability tool is her invisibility. She is meant to stalk her prey, out of sight, and strike.

I started from square one again with building and playing her, and had to restrain myself from falling back into bad habits. A couple Steel Path Circuit runs actually helped set me right, since I can’t count on my usual weapons and the more powerful enemies tolerate less mistakes. I am now more comfortable playing her in higher-level content, and I’ve grown to love playing her more.

Right now, I am settling into a melee and caster build. I still need to get the Mecha mod set and a Huras Kubrow for some more status-based damage, but I am getting there. At the very least, I’ve finally learnt to play her as she is and not what I assumed her to be.