Lately for me it's been Cyte-09. Back in my early days I would ALWAYS run the Rubico/Prime cuz I loved Snipers.
In recent years I haven't been able to use Snipers much cuz I need to deal with hordes, but Cyte having a Ricochet Exalted Sniper just makes me feel like I'm hanging with an old friend.

Things like the Galvanized mods from Arbitrations and Incarnon weapons like the Laetum from the Zariman can help with managing SP. Also there's daily SP Incursions you can do in pubs for quick essence and easy matchmaking.

Lua Spy would always give me the most trouble by FAR. There was a point where I practiced to get good at em- and for a bit, I was- but it's been so long since then that whenever I have to go back I feel so damn lost in most of the vaults. Pain.

Have an over-the-top Excal

Oh yeah tell me about it- been helping a lot of new players through the game and Rising Tide always feels like a massive slog. By component 4 they'll usually ask, "Is this the last one?" And I have to try not to make them go insane with my response.

I am still so glad that they heavily tuned down the Railjack crafting times. Because originally each part took like 6 whole hours to craft and it required much more resources. Took nearly a whole week to get that set up back then.

Ah that's rough. I don't know if it's just bugged on your end but you're supposed to be able to jump off the part you're grappled onto and then aim for a nearby node on the Orowyrm. Hopefully the rest of your Duviri runs in the future play out smoothly!

A nice little tip is that the energy balls that the Orowyrm shoot at you in the air can be hit by Teshin's Orvius Glaive. It leaves behind a pocket of air that MASSIVELY speeds up your Kaithe, including the quick dash, for a brief period of time. Makes it easy to catch up to the Orowyrm.

You can very easily still do that. The account level (Mastery) doesn't really dictate the lvl of enemies you can fight or anything like that. You can be MR 9 and use one build for most endgame content fairly easily if you wanted to go that route.

The frame you remember using was likely Excalibur! His ultimate ability is Exalted Blade, a sword of pure light that sends out energy waves that goes through enemies and walls! As for frame viability, DE have been very good with reworking older frames to be viable in the current state of the game.

Waframe's definitely added A LOT in those 8 years, yeah. It will seem very daunting- but it's not goin' anywhere. Take your time with it and ask around if you need help. The community's always willing to help out new/returning players.

There's no paid expansions in Warframe. You'll just have to get to the latest quest in the Main Story to get access to the Romancing.

Also forgot to mention that I ALSO got all the Apex Tank Accolade Glyphs!
Definitely a good challenge for someone who enjoys the movement and doesn't mind things getting a bit messy. Will I go get the Murmur Accolades? Likely not. I just REALLY liked fighting the Tank for these ones.

I also love seeing the sheer amount of people getting into Warframe BECAUSE of 1999. I got friends into it who watched Tennocon and were IMMEDIATELY hooked- seen content creators flock to it.
It is truly incredible to see and I hope they all love it as much as I do :3