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It appears that some Warframe players don’t want too much of a good thing, and the game’s developers might have noticed. The recently released 56th Warframe, Dante, is apparently too overpowered for the game’s current meta, with a loud part of the community clamoring for a nerf. Such noise hasn’t fallen on deaf ears, and Dante might actually get nerfed sooner or later. Now could be a good time to consider backup mains or favorites in lieu of this Dante drama.
Digital Extremes Devs are Open to Dante “Tweaks”
During the Devshorts #10 livestream on April 2, 2024, Creative Director Rebecca Ford discussed reviewing Dante. It’s not unheard of for Warframes to receive tweaks, buffs, or even nerfs soon after their release, but that might happen earlier for Dante.
Digital Extremes is just waiting for more data from players, most likely player usage stats, to see how to proceed with Dante. However, this early on, they are already talking about the elephant in the room, so Dante might get nerfed a bit.
This is the exact quote from the developers:
Community Director Megan: “Hello! I’m popping my head in here to provide some dev insight related to this conversation.
As Dante Unbound nears one full week since its launch, the team has been reading and collecting feedback in all areas, including Dante himself.
To remind us of our nerfing philosophy, we do not nerf things unless it AUTOMATES PLAY, is DISRUPTIVE to a squad, or is DOMINANT in states.
We are currently happy with how favored Dante is and recognize that nerfs typically have a negative connotation. With that in mind, we are reviewing early stats with an open mind to ensure we don’t leave room for disruptive or dominant play styles. Any tweaks done to Dante will be to ensure he is still performing strongly, just not disruptive or dominant.”
Creative Director Rebecca: “Is DE gonna nerf him? I’m just going to lay it to you straight, here’s what’s happening: We are looking at him and we are reviewing some areas we can tweak down (so a little bit of a nerf) in order to make him not so dominant. That’s it.
At this point in time stats for “dominance” really aren’t the full picture for us [so] it has to be a little bit instinctual [in response to] feedback because everyone is playing Dante. He’s the new, hot, shiny thing and all of his abilities are noticed. We are not doing this with a cavalier mindset. We are going to do a very focused review based on feedback and playstyles and that’s it.
If the community prefers or favors Dante too much over the other Warframes, that’s what likely counts as “dominate.” Dante doesn’t really qualify for other bases as he cannot automate missions. As for Dante’s disruptiveness, that’s up for debate.
If we’re basing it on popularity, however, Dante is undoubtedly dominant in the current Warframe meta. Even so, the Warframe community has its own sentiments on the potential or hypothetical Dante nerfs, and the consensus is that it might be an unfair tweak.
Dante’s Just too Popular, Not too Overpowered
Is Dante really too broken for Warframe? To put things into perspective, his strength is being good at everything while also practically making the whole squad immortal. At the same time, it doesn’t take too much of an investment or effort on the players’ part to make Dante viable for Steel Path or the game’s hardest difficulty mode.
Still, it’s worth noting that other Warframes —long before Dante even arrived, were already trivializing Steel Path. Revenant, Saryn, and Octavia come to mind, and they can even do what Dante does but better and more effortlessly. Some of them can even automate the whole game with a few button presses.
Meanwhile, Dante needs tons of Energy and several Ability triggers to reach that level. Other players even took to defending Dante on Reddit as early as two days from his release date.
Perhaps one of the reasons why Dante is considered overpowered is due to presentation, with his flashy and stylish Abilities. While his Abilities are undoubtedly weaker compared to the aforementioned Warframes above, they are more visually impactful and conspicuous.
Not to mention, Dante is the new kid in town. That’s why players prefer to use him for now and also a good reason why he’s dominating the scene. Digital Extremes will surely need to wait for the dust to settle before they look into Dante’s tweaks or if it’s needed at all.
