Retune *all* The Frames! (11/19: Wildfire)

[Archwizard]

In a perfect world, all Warframes would be competent at their role on their own, but capable of great feats of synergy beyond any one frame together. All of their abilities would be useful, mesh together and make sense in their hands (rather than just putting emphasis on spamming the "most useful" button); all of their themes and archetypes would be recognized and done justice. Gimmicky mods would be minor gameplay improvements, not requirements to get a frame off the ground. While not all stats would be necessary or useful, no stat would be actively detrimental to improve (and of course, Corrupted mods would actually have trade-offs rather than double-dipping in benefits).

This... is not that perfect world.

Numbers can be hotfixed at any time, but faulty mechanics have proven to be slower and more stubborn to change. Once a frame is released, the damage is already done – and course-correction is accused of being a “major revamp” that threatens to make the frame unrecognizable, or otherwise creates a backlash. Sometimes though, part of the original vision can just be wrong; a frame could be overspecialized, or focused on gimmicks over gameplay, or have abilities spread far too thin to stand on their own feet in completing their role. There were droves of players who felt penalized by Update 15's changes to abilities, as they forma'd away most of their ability slots! With issues like these, drastic changes are called for.
Today, I would like to look at what I think Warframe would be like in this hypothetical “perfect world”. Below is a list I’ve compiled of changes to frame behaviors and roles – not just “buffs”, but gameplay-altering adjustments to abilities.

Don't skim the list! This post is a frequently-updated compilation of months of feedback and brainstorming, and I already simplify the suggestions as much as I can. At least check that your suggestion for your favorite frame isn't already listed!

The List

Spoiler

General Gameplay Changes

Spoiler

AI overhaul: Mind Controlled enemies, Shadows of the Dead, Specters and Kubrows approach and focus on enemies or locations you zoom in on, will ignore cover, and will follow you when enemies are not within their range of notice. Unless prompted by the focus command, they will prioritize enemies most damaging to their master, followed by those closest to their master - until their main target is killed in all cases, unless a higher priority interrupts.

Sentinel/Kubrow mods added to dictate behavior: Vacuum now is a universal Warframe passive. Additional mods added to program focusing on cameras, shooting at traps, shooting containers, etc.
--> Carrier's Vacuum changed from “pick up loot” to Onihikage's "Pack Mule". Implemented! Kinda.
--> Shade's Ghost breaks X sec after initiating an attack, affected by rank.
--> Helios' Investigator scans faster based on mod rank, faster than a normal Codex scanner at max rank.
--> Dethcube's Vaporize cooldown inversely affected by mod rank.

Damage tables reworked:
1) Radiation more effective against Infested Flesh than Robotics, Magnetic more effective against Ferrite Armor than Infested Flesh; Bleed damage is reduced on shielded targets, Toxin status can only bring you as low as 1 HP (on its own)
--> Magnetic status also disables the non-weapon abilities or auras of afflicted targets for the duration.
2) Sinew removed (all Ancients classed Fossilized), universal Robotic modifier shared between Grineer/Corpus tech (Grineer machines having Ferrite armor while Corpus machines utilize Shields), no more than 2 Flesh types in all (one for Infested, one for everyone else)
3) Armor types between factions are more unified – Infested Chargers have residual Ferrite Armor from their days as Grineer soldiers, Corpus Crewman have Ferrite Armor modifiers on their helmets, Mutalists have Robotic modifiers, etc.

Shield Gates: As suggested by EmptyDevil, damage that completely depletes shields cannot overflow into health, unless the damage partially ignores or has unique interactions against shields.

General ability changes: 
1) All "First Precept" skills (Sonic Boom, Null Star, Soul Punch, etc.) no longer have an animation lock and can always be cast while moving
2) "Hitscan" skills with precise targeting (Mind Control, Venom, Soul Punch, etc) can auto-target the nearest enemy to the player's cursor if within line of sight or a certain range of the player's focal point – more forgiving targeting Implemented!
3) Damage-focused abilities will deal additional damage equal to a percentage of the targets' maximum health (scaling with Power Strength); this damage is still affected by resistances and armor. For example, Fireball could do 400 damage plus 5% of a target's HP. (Does not apply to abilities that already scale damage like Shield Polarize or Antimatter Drop, utilities that deal incidental damage as a secondary effect like Bounce or Decoy, damage effects with unique utilities such as Molecular Prime or Rhino Stomp, or Finisher assaults like Bladestorm or Tentacle Swarm.) Coefficients vary per ability; the more theoretical targets affected per cast, the lower the coefficient.
4) Effects that heal allies will always heal companions for the same amount, so long as its owner is a viable target for the healing, at no additional cost.

Energy generation changes: In order to reduce "spiky" energy generation and ability spam in lootcaves -
1) Enemies now drop health orbs in place of energy orbs, and energy orbs now drop from lockers and crates at the frequency of health orbs.
2) Power Efficiency on all abilities mimics the manner in which Power Duration scales on toggled skills - instead of +50% Efficiency reducing the cost by 50%, it now increases the number of casts you can fire on the same amount of energy by 50%. (Combo effects, ie Landslide, still function as normal.)
3) All frames now have a base amount of energy regeneration. As with Energy Siphon, these effects are disabled while hard-toggled abilities are active.
4) Consumables now have a cooldown per player.

Augments (Rant)

Spoiler

When augments were announced, the idea players were presented with was that each augment would shake up your playstyle; while fitting the name by not taking anything away, they could put an extra emphasis on a secondary function of an ability to encourage players to use it differently.
A powerful nuke like Antimatter Drop or Shield Polarize can become a method of defense; a crowd control like Undertow or Banish can become a backup support tool; a defensive skill like Link or Iron Skin can become a way to debuff enemies. New toys that players would gladly swap even a staple mod for, to expand their kits.

There's just one flaw with this design: abilities that don't do anything to begin with.
The difference between adding a support skill to Loki or giving that same skill to Ember, is that Loki has plenty of others to devalue this; Ember has none, but understands the value quite well.

What we need to focus on is that little word: "none".

On 12/13/2014 at 2:08 PM, Archwizard said:

Several of the changes in the OP [are] designed to give each ability unique scaling functions (or failing that, scaling damage) within each Warframe's kit - synergistic crowd control, self-buffs or enemy debuffs for damage or mitigation, etc. The goal [is] that, as level increase, each ability [will] still maintain a function other than "something to tap while reloading".

Well, the functions of an augment appear to be much the same, but with a catch: there's a reputation gate to get them. This appears to be irrelevant to Scott, much as there is a grind wall for other rare mods like Continuity, but it's quite relevant to the player (especially as it's notably longer for augments, and there's a difference between improving an existing effect and adding a necessary one).
Let's say you grind out Sargas Ruk for an Ember, you rank her to 30 quickly in Dark Sectors due to her high output but find she's less useful beyond that point due to her low utility; now there's a month of grinding Red Veil to get her augments for that very utility.
On the other hand, you have augments such as Curative Undertow: you don't feel the need to grind them. It's exactly the sort of minor boost that the devs were hoping for.

So what's the difference? The ability being augmented already has a utility (or at least a way to scale with levels), and a very different one at that.

Several changes suggested in the OP or in other threads have been turned into augments. I'm not upset with that.
What's upsetting is that the abilities still don't have functionality without them. I would be totally fine with Ice Wave creating a frozen patch with its augment - I would have put it in the OP myself had I not heard the DC was going to be discussing further augments - if Ice Wave itself had some knockback (it would be much easier to rank one effect up than the other, after all). I would be fine with the Eximus effect becoming Fire Blast's augment, if Fire Blast could reliably lock down enemies trying to get in without.

TL;DR: One of the first stated goals of this thread was that each frame should be fun and viable without the need to put gimmick mods on them. Augments are exactly the kind of gimmick mod I was referring to.

So what does this mean?
Focus on building the foundation before you bring in the furnishings. Augments should never be used to bandaid fix a frame's problem; that's what Updates are for. If an ability is all but useless without an augment, that speaks toward the ability's designer, not the augment's.

Never use add-ons to 'fix' gameplay.

Ember

Spoiler

Ember has always been something of a problem child. If you look at her kit on paper - an energy and ability-boosting passive, a projectile attack, a damage boost and a radial knockback - she has all of the basic fittings of a caster. Every single one of her abilities deals damage that scales with Power Strength, and Accelerant even allows them to double-dip into it. By all means, she should be able to substitute gunplay with pure ability casting, which is a deceptively rare archetype in Warframe as level increases. However, she carries some major issues that defeat this design:
First, her ability damage rapidly diminishes as enemy level increases. Three of her abilities deal flat damage, and spam a status proc that cannot stack; the last improves damage to only a single damage type - one which is generally underused bar Ember's own abilities, and oft transmuted into other damage types. Between these, and in spite of the aforementioned Power Strength scaling, her kit retains several redundant vehicles for the same method of crowd control once the damage falls off, where one ability would suffice. Not helping matters is that her passive only gives her a singular boost to Power Strength and energy, in the event that she manages to get hit by a Napalm without dying. Her in-game description declares that she's supposed to be a "nightmare for light-armored targets", but virtually every frame fits that description due to extreme armor scaling versus the more linear scaling of raw health, leaving her unremarkable in that designation.
Second, her ultimate ability completely upends any would-be caster design. World on Fire is an artifact of her original release with Overheat, when she was meant to play more like a suicide bomber than a caster. World on Fire became a purely toggled ability in Update 17.5, but all this accomplished was turning her into a two-trick pony; while this allows her to walk through low-level missions and passively cut down every enemy she blinks at (and often simply killing enemies she doesn't see), the only purpose it serves at higher levels is to act as a vehicle for passive crowd control, and completely diminish the already-limited value of her other attacks.
The goal of this rework is simple: give Ember scaling, and a reason to use all four of her abilities - preferably without forcing an interaction like Oberon and Saryn must.

Suggested changes:
- Fireball's Heat proc will increase in damage based on a percentage of the target's current health.
- Accelerant also increases the damage of Heat-based combination elements (Gas, Radiation, Blast).
- Fire Blast's ring of flames also blocks enemy line of sight (but not pathing), compelling enemies to enter the ring of flames to attack a player or objective within; enemies will no longer attempt to avoid the ring of flames (a la Bastille or actual fire hazards).
- Fire Fright also causes Fire Blast to deal damage over time throughout the entire circle of flames, in addition to the status increase.
- World on Fire replaced with “Wildfire”: Ember channels a large circle of cinders around herself. Every second, status-afflicted enemies within the cinders have a chance (affected by Power Strength) to refresh all status ailments on their person and spread all of their status afflictions to nearby enemies. Damaging status effects spread in this manner will share equal damage to the original status proc, and statuses afflicted by any means within this field will innately stack with (rather than overwriting) other instances of the same status.
- Firequake will now knock down targets each time Burn status spreads from them.
- Passive replacement: Instead grants bonus energy generation and Power Strength for each enemy she has ignited, up to a cap.

Let's get it out of the way: World on Fire needs to change. As much as the playerbase requested it, allowing Ember to press one button and simply charge through every Exterminate alert without any other input is the definition of imbalanced, and has only been let slide for so long because it's only applicable up to a certain level. The "Wildfire" ability suggested here attempts to kill two birds with one stone: forcing players to give Ember more input (lighting the match, as it were), while resolving the issue of Heat procs failing to stack (by allowing them to for Ember, for an energy cost). It also gives her an additional group utility at higher levels that she sorely lacked.
Fireball, meanwhile, actually addresses that issue with her description - the best way to become a nightmare for low-armored targets is to have a special bonus against health. Used in conjunction with Accelerant (to give it some Power Strength scaling) and Wildfire (to supplement the low area of Fireball), Ember can spread powerful Burn procs from heavy units onto weaker enemies, and then continue to chain those burns from one enemy to the next.
While Fire Blast's knockback already gives Ember reason to use it separately from her other skills, the fire ring currently has limited use due to the small area it covers and the in-built behavior of enemies to simply walk around the flames. By making the flames block line of sight, it can be used in conjunction with the knockback to create safe zones for Ember to cast from, while also provoking enemies to charge through the flames and receive additional burns.

Equinox

Spoiler

Equinox is potentially the most complex Warframe we’ve ever had. She’s a unique hybrid whose ability to “mode-shift” into specialized forms gives her a large amount of variety; in terms of available utilities, her kit is “just fine”.
In terms of implementation, however, she has her issues.
For the most part, players who use Equinox will build her to specialize in one form and ignore the other. Some of us focus on Maim builds, some on Rest builds. We ignore the capabilities of the opposite mode of her kit except in dire circumstances, and we ignore the other abilities within the same mode because they’re considered situational or overpriced. Despite her entire theme focusing on “balance”, we end up with two completely separate frames, each reduced down to one button; not “the light in the darkness” offsetting “the darkness in the light”, but “the darkness” versus “the light”.
(The hilarious irony, in my mind, is exactly how the two polarized playstyles actually function: the “Yin” aspect of Taijitu represents passivity, yet players spam defenses in Night form in order to attack; the “Yang” aspect represents activity, yet players walk through missions in Day form bleeding people without even looking at them as their primary defense.)
Part of the problem, of course, is that Equinox is actively discouraged from switching by the mechanics of her powers. Her ultimate requires you to stay in one form as long as possible in order to charge up; her transformation skill has a lengthy cast time and forces you to start over. It’s understandable that she should have a “hybrid tax” to prevent from outpacing other frames, but the current implementation just penalizes switching at all. Even her Peaceful Provocation augment seems to push the same “stick to one form” agenda.
The goal here is to not only turn each “side” of her kit into a more cohesive single frame’s playstyle, but also to make switching between forms more compelling and worthwhile. Each side isn't simply a half of a whole, it's a complement.

Suggested changes:
- Transitioning to Day Form features a permanent increase to base speed, while Night Form has a permanent increase to base armor, but neither are affected by Power Strength.
- Metamorphosis now grants a diminishing bonus to speed when entering Night Form and a diminishing bonus to armor when entering Day Form. Swapping to either form also grants diminishing energy regen to Equinox. No longer cancels the effects of Equinox' toggled abilities; instead, each toggle remains active and swaps to the opposite form's version at no additional cost or cast time, but the benefits are suspended for the animation. Transition time reduced, and affected by Natural Talent. 
- Rage also jams affected targets’ weapons, momentarily stunning foes then disarming them for the duration. Rest instead creates a 5-meter wide stationary circle of moonlight at the target location, which will put any enemy who enters to sleep while the circle persists or until they receive enough damage; limit 4 circles, affected by rank.
- Calm & Frenzy reworked: Allies who linger within Rest's fields will be healed over time. Rage effect remains the same.
- Pacify instead applies a damage reducing debuff to enemies within range, affected by Duration; energy is only consumed each time an enemy receives the debuff, and its effects no longer fall off at range. 
- Peaceful Provocation replaced with “Hide & Heckle”: Provoke increases Equinox’ threat against enemies, while Pacify reduces enemy awareness of Equinox.
- Mend & Maim will each produce a stationary sphere when deactivated, splitting continuous instant healing or damage between occupants, up to the leftover maximum health absorbed or a period affected by Duration; limit 1 sphere at a time. Completing Metamorphosis will transfer the accumulated health pool to the opposite form, and instantly change the active sphere to the opposite form's iteration for the remaining duration/health pool. Maim no longer inflicts bleed, but health pool accumulation in both forms is also affected by damage taken by allies within range of the toggled effect.

The current idea is that the player is not penalized for swapping between support and offense, but rather encouraged to swap between the two forms to make up for each one’s flaws. The Day form is encouraged to beckon enemies close with Rage (and the replacement augment for Provoke) in order to cut them down with Maim, and has a stronger defense that requires Equinox to do more than bat an eye at the target, while still not being “perfect” to leave room for Night form. The Night form is less penalized in terms of cost efficiency, and more effective as a passive defender, whether she’s in the fray herself or amongst recovering teammates; the ability to place effects prematurely also means the Night form can be used to amplify the Day. Combining the two forms also allows you to lure enemies into traps or rapidly respond to changing circumstances.

Side note: Anybody else think Hydroid and Equinox's drop locations should be switched? It makes more sense for Equinox to drop from the planet with day and night cycles (so that Day Form parts drop during the day and Night Form parts drop during the night), especially since it can take actual dozens of runs to build her with the eight parts you'd need to collect. Being able to limit that pool just a smidge would help a lot. The primary downside being Vay Hek himself... who could use significant retuning anyway so he telegraphs his magnetic beam attack better and doesn't have invulnerability for 90% of the encounter.

Hydroid

Spoiler

Hydroid is one of what we call "the RNG frames". While his skills are thematic to his element and Undertow itself is unique, he suffers from having unreliable skills, particularly where his allies are concerned; generally, nobody can hit victims of Undertow itself, or enemies latched by Tentacle Swarm. This leads to him having dull gameplay and enforcing it on his team, where the challenge is primarily in waiting out the Duration timers of his abilities. While he's praying that his tentacles actually manifest under his target this time, his allies are praying his tentacles are out of their way.
Part of his problem is that he doesn't have a well-defined gameplay "theme". While he is aesthetically a "pirate" (in the same sense that Oberon is a paladin, Nekros is a necromancer, Ash is a ninja, etc), outside of a seafaring game, it's hard to translate piracy into unique a gameplay archetype. Necromancers summon and control hordes of undead minions, paladins support their allies while smiting evil, ninjas evade attacks and assassinate foes, pirates... wield cutlasses and pistols? If he had been made to just summon storms or mythical sea beasts, that would have been one thing. With the new multi-wield system in place after U21, however, Hydroid at least has some options there.
Ultimately, the final nail in the coffin for Hydroid is that he has no room for a skill ceiling because every tool in his kit competes for the same job: area denial. It's most blatant with Tempest Barrage and Tentacle Swarm, which both function as the same skill with different stat weights. While I don't wish to impose on his given niche, he only needs one strong tool to hold down a chokepoint. Outside of knocking down enemies in a huge radius, all he has is damage (which doesn't scale), mobility (which is weaker than parkour), and an invulnerability tool (which prevents his allies from attacking foes near him, and him from attacking at all). He needs some changes not only to be more reliable as a team player, but to bring more to the table in general.
With Hydroid up for a rework anyway... let's talk about his options.

Suggested changes:
- Tempest Barrage has an increased Duration. Hold-casting the effect will cause the spread radius to shrink, with a minimum radius equal to the size of individual cannon blasts.
- Tidal Surge and Undertow combined into “Sea Legs”: Hydroid assumes a liquid form while toggled active. While moving, Hydroid will leave puddles along the ground (similarly to Fire Walker) which will knock down foes that attempt to pass over; parkour maneuvers have increased velocity and will damage and ragdoll enemies he passes through. When stationary for a minimum period, Hydroid melts into a pool of water, causing enemies to slip and suffer knockdown as they pass through the area while providing Hydroid with invisibility and damage immunity until he moves or attacks again.
--> Retains Undertow's augment.
- Tentacle Swarm is downgraded and no longer summons tentacles at the targeted location; instead, the tentacles will protrude from and follow Hydroid, latching onto enemies Hydroid passes near and dragging them alongside while active until each target is slain. Tentacles with enemies attached will strangle foes and bring the ones his camera faces into melee range; hold-casting will spin the tentacles around Hydroid, altering his selection. When Hydroid is in puddle form, tentacles will spread into formation around Undertow. Allied damage dealt to a tentacle will damage any enemies grappled by it.
- Pilfering Swarm is now limited to the creation of orbs, ammo and life support/batteries.
- New ultimate - “No Quarter”: Hydroid manipulates water pressure to create a pistol and cutlass, putting him into multi-wield mode. While active, damage dealt by Hydroid will splash onto enemies near his target, while damage dealt to Hydroid will splash onto enemies near him. Pistol shots will knock foes back.
- Passive replacement: Damage dealt by Hydroid will also Soak enemies, amplifying the Strength, Range and recovery time of Status effects dealt to the target. (ie Cold will Freeze targets, Knockback pushes farther, Knockdown has longer recovery, Corrosive removes more armor, Electric has increased damage, etc.)
--> Note that with Damage 3.0, Soaking could simply improve all status effects inflicted by one or more ranks.

The idea here is to create a bit more of a focus on area damage as payoff for his area control. Tempest Barrage continuously holds enemies at chokepoints, giving him freedom to use his other skills to move around a bit or catch up to the chokepoint. No Quarter and Tentacle Swarm combine to allow him to deal continuous damage to enemies within melee range of him, on top of Sea Legs' ability to get him in range of foes; meanwhile, he also has significant ranged potential between his chokepoint control and the pistol shots.
Ultimately though, he becomes more of a pirate in general, controlling the open sea, taking what he wants and leaving no survivors.

Side note: Anybody else think Hydroid and Equinox's drop locations should be switched? Earth may be the blue planet, but in Warframe, Uranus is the wet one.

Limbo

Spoiler

Update 20 included a massive overhaul to our favorite top-hatted Warframe. It aimed to resolve the long-standing issue players had with him: that he had very little power beyond putting enemies into and out of the Rift, and was virtually powerless within compared to other enemies. It came with some appreciated quality-of-life changes (like being able to pick up loot within Cataclysm) which had been a long time coming, and resolved the debate over how to make a passive incentivize the Rift without requiring an energy cost - but it introduced a few issues of its own. Following Update 20, Limbo's trolling potential was amplified, such that not only can he be trolled by other Limbos, but by allies within the same cell under fairly common conditions. Nobody in the party enjoys having their gameplay be dictated by another player, even if it's ultimately to the whole group's benefit.

Suggested changes:
- Banish once again has a single-target effect when tap-cast, but will affect nearby enemies as now when hold-cast (a la Quiver). Banish may once again affect targets on either side of the Rift regardless of Limbo's state, and hold-casting will only affect units who share the target's faction alignment and Rift status. Banishing hostile units who stand within Cataclysm will expel them from Cataclysm. Enemies within the Rift may not use control panels or environmental objects which remain outside of the Rift.
- Stasis is now a channeled ability with an upkeep cost increasing per affected target (a la Equinox's Pacify). No longer affects projectiles.
- Rift Surge causes affected targets to detonate upon death, dealing a portion of their damage taken during Rift Surge to surrounding enemies on both sides of the Rift, but no longer banishing nearby enemies.
- Cataclysm also draws in all control panels and environmental objects, allowing players and enemies to interact with them from within the Rift. Exiting or detonating Cataclysm will no longer remove Limbo from the Rift. Cataclysm's detonation damage scales inversely with its remaining duration, dealing maximum damage when it expires naturally.
--> Cataclysmic Continuum also causes Cataclysm's size to increase based on the appropriate size for its current duration, but cannot extend Cataclysm's duration beyond its initial modded duration.
- Passive changes: Instead of leaving a portal behind whenever Limbo rolls, allies within Affinity Range of Limbo may now enter or exit the Rift at will by rolling or holding crouch for 2 seconds without moving.
- Being inside the Rift also removes collision against entities outside of the Rift, and switching Rift states will damage/ragdoll any objects or enemies you "materialize within" on the destination plane.

Many of these changes are intended to take the advantages Limbo had pre-rework and rectify them with his current state. The changes to Banish and Rift Surge are ultimately about giving him more control over his own actions, which he will need to mitigate the higher penalties on Stasis. Rift Surge in particular also grants Limbo more incentive for fighting within the Rift, while providing increased synergy with Stasis.
As for the rest of these changes, most are quality-of-life fixes that were not granted to Limbo in his rework which remain relevant now. The change to his passive is the result of several requests I've seen for Limbo to be able to enter the Rift without moving, while Cataclysm includes one to prevent other Limbo players from interfering with him.

Nekros

Spoiler

It finally happened. After 3 years, Nekros' Desecrate was altered for the first time (no, adding an automated limiter to spam behavior so you won't waste energy when there aren't corpses doesn't count), upgrading him from a mindless 3-spamming drone to a semi-functional Necromancer, closer in essence to the archetype that he was advertised to fulfill.
However, Desecrate still has one major flaw: its effectiveness is still determined entirely by RNG. This isn't to say that other abilities within this game aren't, but it is one of the only abilities in the game that has a chance to fail in spite of your actions. I'll save the rant on reward-influencing abilities breeding toxicity for another day, but Desecrate is fundamentally built on the fact that it cannot ever be made to have a guaranteed effect, as that would keep it up longer and cause players to be passively rewarded for no additional input.
The rest of his toolkit was only lightly altered to accompany the modding changes the would bring about; many of his original issues remain. Minion AI has been cut down so much that Shadows’ most reliable use is as a mass Decoy, rather than a form of scaling damage. Terrify as a CC does its job, but makes it difficult to target enemies under its effects and take advantage of the armor debuff without applying the augment. Soul Punch is a blatant gimmick, a telekinetic blast for a frame who has no reason bearing one in the first place, far surpassed by Smite; it's unreliable in how many targets it can affect at once, and is reduced to a mere ragdoll as enemy level increases.
I agree that Nekros should be a support class, because the necromancer archetype has always been an unconventional one; whatever skills they have unrelated to raising the dead are typically geared towards debuffing enemies and increasing the effectiveness/survival of whatever they raise from the dead, each of which can splash over to their living allies. Their main form of output comes from whatever damage their minions deal (rather than spamming an attack key), which is great for a game like Warframe where enemy scaling can get truly ridiculous.

Edit 1/24/14 – TL;DR:

Spoiler

Ten problems that Devstream #45 did not address about Nekros:

1. The “soul cache” mechanic on Shadows of the Dead forces Nekros players to restrict their killing blows to certain targets in order to make their Shadows worthwhile. Addressed in Specters of the Rail U2.1.
2. Shadows need an AI overhaul. They aren’t “dumb” so much as too smart for competence, seeking cover when they should be aggressive and patrolling areas their summoner has already left.
3. Shadows of the Dead, as a body-blocking tool, is a two way street; Nekros and his allies cannot see or shoot through Shadows, which just means they create clutter on the battlefield.
4. Despite being his “Oh S#&$” button, Nekros is locked out of casting Terrify an additional time while active, leaving him defenseless if another wave of enemies approaches. Addressed before release.
5. Of the many ways to decrease enemy armor, only one cannot approach 100% on its own within current Power Strength constrictions or be stacked to that point: Terrify. Addressed before release.
6. Enemies under the effects of Terrify sprint at full-speed toward the nearest exit, synergizing poorly with the armor debuff and making it harder to clean the slate for a second cast. Bandaged in U18.14 by the Creeping Terrify augment.
7. Soul Punch has virtually nonexistent area-effect compared to an ability like Smite or Pull, and does not provide sufficient benefits (without the augment) to justify being single-target like Banish or Rip Line. It's just a knockdown at high level, which each of those have and more.
8. Desecrate’s reliance on RNG forces it to be spammed for maximum effectiveness; this spam locks Nekros players out of using his other abilities or attacks, and makes it difficult to build the “soul cache”. Altogether, this promotes boring backline gameplay. Addressed in Specters of the Rail U2.1.
9. Desecrate does not synergize with the rest of Nekros’ kit; despite Shadows making him the one frame who can justify having a team to support even in solo mode, they can’t benefit from the loot his “support” provides (nor approach it if they could).

Finally, but most importantly,

10. Desecrate’s metagame benefits make the loot it provides more important to players than any other skill in Nekros’ arsenal; it doesn't even provide a strong benefit in the mission, but players tear each other apart over it because of the benefits it provides once they leave (many a group has fallen apart because someone didn't want to play a Nekros when the host was hunting a rare mod). Any changes to his other skills won't matter so long as he has to spam this skill, or build exclusively Power Range for the benefit of this skill alone.

Suggested changes:
- Soul Punch damage increases as the target's health gets lower. If cast directly on a Shadow minion, the minion detonates, dealing damage in a radius.
- Terrify staggers all affected targets upon activation, and slows them for an amount based on rank. Can be prematurely cleared by recasting the effect. 
- Creeping Terrify is now “Mask of Terror”: Nekros emits an aura after casting that causes nearby enemies to flee.
- Desecrate replaced with “Siphon Life”: Deals instant Viral damage to enemies in a cone in front of Nekros, then releases a pulse of radial healing from Nekros to allies (including minions and companions) based on accumulated damage dealt. High proc chance.
- Shadows of the Dead minions can be seen and shot through by players, a la Hall of Mirrors. (See "AI overhaul" under General for further details.) 
- Energy pool increased to 150->225.
- Passive update: Instead grants energy whenever an enemy or ally dies within range, rather than health.

With 18.5's release of Inaros, the idea of Nekros having a life drain effect is something of a hot button topic: Inaros can summon minions, and as Nekros was originally planned to have a life drain, this creates a noteworthy overlap. The way I see it, Inaros is intended as a front-line tank whose minions support him; a necromancer's role should be as a back-line support whose minions defend and damage for him. Inaros' life drains are intended to be a self-healing effect that happens to heal allies; Nekros' should be as an allied-healing effect that happens to heal him. So long as the effects serve entirely different functions in practice, the overlap is negligible.
"Why Viral damage?" Because it’s more effective against living enemies than Infested or Robots, and its proc gives the effect of actually sapping the target’s life force. Thematically, it also marks Nekros as the opposite of Oberon, a healer and defender of the weak - Nekros, the disabler and manipulator of the strong.
"But isn't this a bit drastic?" Yes, that's sort of the point. You'll also note that abilities like Fireball, Silence, Hysteria and the entirety of Ash, Rhino, Trinity and Mag's skillsets have been reworked as drastically in the past over several iterations, to the point you would not even recognize them compared to their releases – the same abilities in name only. I'm simply speeding things up and dropping the pretense.

Trinity

Spoiler

Trinity has a sordid history when it comes to reworks.
When initially introduced, Trinity was the only support frame available, with no immediate plans to introduce more; she was just there to fill a necessary niche, without terrible concern for balance. At the time, she could provide infinite health and energy, reflect incoming damage, and provide the entire party with sustainable damage immunity.
As more healers have begun to pour in, however, her monopoly over the role has been a point of contention. When Link and Blessing were reworked to provide mitigation rather than invulnerability, the "Better nerf Trinity" meme was born; since then the meme has stagnated, shutting down discussion of the frame herself. What makes this problematic is that the utilities she still provides also overshadow every other healing or energy-restoring ability in the game - and she does so peripherally, requiring only a mere button press for each skill with no further interaction, and negligible cost to herself.
She provides such high amounts of energy with Energy Vampire that she single-handedly enables most loot cave compositions and obliterates the intended penalty of energy costs; the ability also reaches its maximum effect by means of reducing her stats. The only way she ever runs out of energy with Vampire is by having a horde of Parasites come in, and even then she can negate their auras with fast enough casting. Meanwhile, Blessing not only overshadows Well of Life (by means of providing mitigation and instant healing which allies do not need to seek, at no penalty so long as she has EV), but every other healing Warframe in the game by means of its immediate and infinite effect; no matter how much you buff every other healing ability, the default healing choice will always be Blessing.
Tennocon 2017 was a time of exciting reveals, but it also invited discussion of Trinity - however briefly. From it came two points that I have always agreed with, but bear re-iteration to assuage the fear of change amongst the community: 1) that Trinity is not in such immediate need of a rework as to supercede other Warframes, although she affects game balance to the point where she must be in line for another rework eventually, and 2) that this is not a call to "nerf Trinity" or impact her effectiveness as a supportive frame, merely to make her work harder for it so that she doesn't make the game... boring.

Suggestions:
- Well of Life no longer requires allies to attack the target or has a healing cap. Instead, the target will receive damage equal to a percentage of its health (affected by Power Strength) for every second the effect is active (affected by Power Duration), and emit healing pulses throughout a radius (affected by Power Range) based on the damage dealt. If the target is successfully incapacitated, any damage dealt to the target by Tenno will be stored and dealt to it at the end of the effect, a la Mind Control; Well of Life can be canceled prematurely by recasting the effect on the same target. Limit one target per rank (maximum 4).
--> Augment: Standing near a Well of Life target will cause allies to Link to the target, transferring a portion of their damage taken to the target.
- Energy Vampire no longer restores energy in pulses. Instead, damage dealt to the target will restore energy to the attacker, up to a cap per ally, affected by Power Strength. Additionally, the target will periodically release pulses of electricity, stunning nearby enemies. No longer has a Power in Use error, but still can only be active on one target. (See Energy Generation Changes under General.)
- Blessing no longer provides mitigation or healing. Instead, all allies within affinity range gain damage and status immunity for 4 seconds, and a portion of damage taken by all allies during this time (a la Covenant) will contribute to a damage absorption shell (a la Iron Skin) on all targets for up to a period affected by Power Duration. If the shell breaks before Duration ends, allies will have extended bleedout timers for the remainder of the duration. Will return Power in Use while duration remains.
--> Augment: Trinity sacrifices her health to revive fallen allies within affinity range.
- Passive update: Trinity is twice as effective at reviving allies as other Warframes.

First and foremost: yes, Blessing is no longer a healing tool. The primary goal with Blessing was to give her room to use Well of Life - and as stated above, no matter how much you buff a healing skill, it can't beat infinity.
The previous iteration of Blessing took it into the direction of making it an emergency survival tool; if you use it when the party is in direst straits, you will receive the greatest boon from it. The problem with it was that the gauge for using it was based on damage taken, which could easily be manipulated by means of self-damage in order to maximize the effect at-will and maintain a constant 99% mitigation field for the party, while still offering an on-demand healing effect superior to all others. The idea here was to maintain the spirit of the emergency tool for attacks that were too strong to heal through, while providing an effect that could not be gamed, nor be worth gaming.
To summarize the changes to Well of Life and Energy Vampire... I switched them. Now Well of Life is the totem of passive healing (fitting, as healing should be her primary defense) while Energy Vampire requires allies to seek out the victim and work for their energy. Not only is Trinity equally efficient as a support frame (as the numbers for her have not actually changed, the execution is similar to what it was before, and she actually gains crowd control), but the requirement for all allies to seek out targets of her energy will significantly impact loot caves. It also creates new synergy among her skills: Well of Life protects victims of Energy Vampire to last long enough for her allies to drink their fill, and deals damage to the Vampire victim allowing her to reap her own energy passively. Blessing allows her to maximize the benefits of her passive in order to reap immortality.

Zephyr

Spoiler

While a “Hawk” frame had always been on the infamous Design Council poll that spawned Nova, Nekros and Valkyr, Zephyr was originally inspired by a fan concept by the infamous Volkovyi. About midway through his thread, Volkovyi revamped Zephyr’s abilities with one emphasis in mind: air support. Volkovyi's Zephyr had an almost perfect kit for the role, everything from free flight to create distance, to rooting projectiles to constantly rain down fire on foes, to barriers against the ballistic attacks that could reach her – several of which were translated, in some form or other, when the gender-swapped version was officially released.
So why does DE's Zephyr disappoint? Some will say that it’s because an air support just isn't viable in certain indoor structures, since it gives her very little room to maneuver, but I completely disagree. In truth, it’s because she focused more on being maneuverable than on actually spending time in the air; her utility ends up taking a backseat to personal speed as a result. For Zephyr, as with Nekros above, I think we should take a step back and look at the presented concept, to remember what exactly what so inspiring about the class.

Suggested changes:
- Tail Wind no longer deals direct damage to enemies struck; instead, it now leaves a stream of hostile winds along Zephyr's path for a Duration, inflicting Slash damage to enemies who pass through. Effects merged with Dive Bomb: Aiming in a 90-degree cone beneath Zephyr while airborne will cause her to drop upon the targeted location at high speed.
- Dive Bomb replaced with “Wind Tunnel”: Zephyr continuously fires a cylinder of wind in front of herself, dealing low Impact damage with 100% status chance. Enemies to reach the end of the "beam" will be ragdolled out, while headshots will also inflict knockdown. While active, Zephyr cannot move and is immune to gravity (similar to Absorb), but can turn the beam with the camera.
- Turbulence no longer reduces enemy accuracy. Instead, the inner radius has a X% chance to harmlessly deflect/negate any projectiles, and an additional Y% chance to aim deflected projectiles at enemies within the outer radius. Both chances affected by Power Strength.
- Tornado no longer summons cyclones at randomly determined locations; instead, pressing Tornado will allow Zephyr to change the formation and behavior of cyclones summoned during the next cast (ie advancing wall; orbit current location; path outward and back a cross formation; or follow Zephyr from the ground), activated by holding the button, a la Quiver. In addition, enemies struck will be trapped inside each cyclone for the entire duration rather than ragdolling out of the top, and physical damage dealt to a cyclone is instantly split between all enemies inside of it.

First thing's first, Dive Bomb. It has long been called one of the most redundant skills in the game, giving her an additional gap closer when she already has the free-aimed Tail Wind. It takes her out of her element to use it, which wouldn't be such an issue if she had any trouble getting down in the first place, when her issue is really the opposite - not being nearly “floaty” enough to continue firing from the air. The addition of aim-gliding helps this some, but only for so long. Wind Tunnel can instead allow Zephyr to remain airborne while active.
Now, since I’m writing this (but not the above suggestion itself) up after Update 15.5, I'm also aware of another issue on the mind: Yes, Turbulence is awfully similar to Shatter Shield. You can read Volkovyi's thread to understand why the similarity, of course, since it long predated Mesa. Turbulence as it is now limits Zephyr to fighting within a set range from enemies – which just won’t do if she is to do any air-sniping.
The other changes are designed to bring more synergy to Zephyr’s kit. For example, Tail Wind’s ability to damage enemies in flight, while derived from Slash Dash, could also be transferred into her Tornado to deal damage to those she renders airborne

Everyone Else A-M

Spoiler

Note: This section primarily consists of minor tweaks, and revamps I didn’t consider terribly substantial. If you have more to say about your favorite frame being in here rather than up above (or off this list entirely), feel free to complain below.

Ash
- Shuriken gain a stealth modifier against unalerted enemies, and inflict a stagger. Number of blades thrown is affected by Ash's melee combo multiplier.
- Smoke Screen also causes stunned enemies to suffer reduced accuracy for the duration.
- Teleport can be cast without a target, moving the player as close to the targeted location as Power Range allows. If a non-friendly target is selected, casting Teleport automatically begins a hastened finisher on the enemy - skip the elaborate weapon draw, and double the animation speed of the strike.
- Blade Storm reworked, now an Exalted weapon: Ash flicks forward his wristblades and fights with a modified Claw weapon stance. Attacking a target beyond melee range will automatically teleport Ash to the target. Additionally, Shuriken is empowered while Bladestorm is active, summoning clones to attack each affected target.
- Passive replacement: Ash gains an attack speed bonus whenever he kills an enemy with a melee attack.

Atlas
- Landslide may now be used on a Bulwark, causing it to detonate without moving. Each cast of Landslide grants any of Atlas' active Rumblers a single use of an equal Landslide effect.
- Tectonics' Bulwark is now a physical object that can be climbed/stood upon and parkoured off of by Tenno; players can still run/roll/slide through the side of the wall as now. Bulwark size is affected by Power Range. Damage dealt by the Bulwark is affected by the Bulwark's health.
- Petrify no longer reduces the user's movement speed while active or prevents the use of his other abilities. Atlas is healed for an amount each time an enemy is fully petrified. Bulwarks and Rumblers will receive healing for every second Atlas channels Petrify on them.
- Ore Gaze replaced with “Fossilize”: Allies within the affected area of Petrify receive an increase to base armor, including Bulwarks and Rumblers.
- Rumbler attacks increase Atlas' melee combo count, threat towards the Rumbler, and the damage of their death-explosions. Damage taken by Atlas while Rumblers are active will be split with them (granting 66% mitigation with two up, or 50% with one up). Rumblers lose health every second they remain within Nullifier bubbles, rather than detonating immediately.
- Titanic Rumbler replaced with the Rumbled Conclave augment; outside of Conclave, the augment instead provides Atlas with bonus Armor while active, and attacks scale with equipped melee weapon mods.

Banshee
- Sonic Boom's damage now increases if enemies strike obstructions (a la Snow Globe), and can be cast without interrupting reloads.

Chroma
- Spectral Scream is treated as a weapon (a la Peacemaker) for the purposes of Vex Armor, Shooting Gallery, etc.; cone length and width increased by 50%. No longer slows Chroma or prevents him from jumping or aim-gliding. Effigy's attack speed is increased each time Spectral Scream deals damage.
- Afterburn reworked: Every second which Spectral Scream strikes a surface, it lays down an elemental patch dealing (25/50/75/100) additional periodic damage for (3/4/4/5) sec.
- Elemental Ward range increased to 20m, and now affects companions.
- Vex Armor also grants the user stagger resistance while active. Overshields allow stacking of Scorn.
- Effigy only consumes additional energy when it attacks; sentry's attack rate increased, and gains Decoy-level threat. Effigy may be used while airbone, and the sentry will continue to hover in place. Effigy will also receive the benefits of Vex Armor and act as an additional source of Elemental Ward while active.
- Passive update: Chroma's wings extend whenever airborne, granting an additional air-jump and innate Patagium effect. This effect is disabled whenever Effigy is active.

Excalibur
- Radial Javelin is now affected by the combo multiplier, which is also reset by this skill.

Frost
- Freeze Force affects anyone in Freeze's initial blast radius.
- Snow Globe can be penetrated from the front by friendly weapons with Punch Through. The globe appears to crack based on what percentage of health it has left, and a shattering cue can be heard if it breaks prematurely.
- Passive replacement: Frost resists any form of slow, making him unable to drop below his base running speed.

Gara
- Shattered Lash's uncharged attack now fires as a projectile with Punch Through.

Harrow
- Thurible, while being channeled, also provides Harrow with stagger immunity and inflicts Impact status on nearby enemies.

Ivara
- Quiver's Noise Arrow will cause alerted foes to target or chase after the location it strikes as if it was Ivara's last known location, if no Tenno-allied targets are visible.
- Prowl can only pickpocket orbs, ammo and life support/batteries from enemies.
- Artemis Bow now fires a horizontal spray when quickfired, and charging will narrow the spread of arrows with decreased gravity. Additional functionality needed to scale with Shotgun mods.

Inaros
- Desiccate interrupts all target animations in progress, and no longer prevents targets from receiving Finishers upon taking other sources of damage.
- Devour Augment: Devour can also be applied by Sand Shadows, equal to the remainder of their duration.

Loki
- Switch Teleport can target Explosive Barrels and Arc Traps. Enemies will continue shooting at Loki's original location as if he entered stealth; hostile targets can receive friendly fire during this period.
- Radial Disarm disables the abilities and flight of Mutalist Infested, Grineer Regulators and Hellions (as with Corpus Ospreys); additionally, all Grineer Machinery, Corpus Robotics or Mutalist Infested are damaged and stunned for a brief period.

Mag
- Pull no longer ragdolls and flings enemies, but instead knocks them down and attempts to drag them to the caster's feet. Casting Pull on a Magnetize sphere will supercharge the sphere's enemy-suction effect for a brief period, unaffected by Power Duration. Attempting to Pull enemies through Magnetize spheres will deposit them into the sphere.
- Greedy Pull replaced with “Disarming Pull”: Pull now has a chance to rip weapons away from affected enemies.
- Magnetize's suction effect can be overcome by player weapons on aimed shots.
- Polarize guarantees an extended Magnetic proc on affected targets, but calculates damage based on their non-procced Shields.
- Crush throws nearby enemies and shrapnel into any Magnetize spheres within range, and compels the spheres to automatically detonate as if their target died.
- Passive replacement: Mag has increased status resistance when shields are active.

Mesa
- Ballistic Battery benefits multiple shots within a short duration (affected by rank only) after activation, with a weakening bonus on each successive shot. Can be charged by blocking attacks with melee.
- Shooting Gallery also increases fire rate for primary weapons and sidearms.
- Peacemaker allows the user to move by rolling at an additional energy cost per roll (a la the Mesa's Waltz conclave augment). Alternate fire while Peacemaker is active will toggle Ballistic Battery.

Mirage
- Sleight of Hand causes access panels to explode as soon as the enemy tries to use them, and renders the panel permanently unusable by enemies. Explosives (ie rockets) and traps placed by enemies will become inert towards Tenno and damage or seek enemies. Grineer Sensor Bars have the same effects as Corpus Laser Doors.
- Prism cast-time reduced.

Everybody Else N-V

Spoiler

Note: This section primarily consists of minor tweaks, and revamps I didn’t consider terribly substantial. If you have more to say about your favorite frame being in here rather than up above (or off this list entirely), feel free to complain below.

Nezha
- Fire Walker's width is affected by Range mods. 
- Blazing Chakram's base healing radius increased. Excess healing is rolled over onto shields.
- Warding Halo's absorption period begins at the start of the cast animation rather than following.
- Divine Spears will impale flying enemies to the ground, a la Freeze effects. Canceling Divine Spears is now a one-handed action.
- Consideration: Blazing Chakram damage scales with melee mods.
- Consideration: Blazing Chakram's number of bounces is affected by Strength, flight distance is affected by Range and speed is affected by Duration

Nova
- Null Star staggers targets on every hit.

Nyx
- Psychic Bolts reworked: First activation will mark enemies, a la Blade Storm. Second activation will fire homing bolts at each marked target, dealing Slash damage and throwing them backward with telekinetic force; enemies who make contact with terrain will receive damage equal to a percentage of their health, a la Snow Globe. Energy cost scales with the number of bolts fired, and is refunded for each target slain prior to launch.
- Absorb grants immunity frames to Nyx during and for a short period following its release animation.
- Passive replacement: All attacks against enemies within 10 yards of Nyx are treated as headshots.

Oberon
- Hallowed Ground also provides bonus armor to allies within the field, increased based on the level of any enemy that dies within the field. Visual effect reverted.
- Renewal's base drain is increased, but is no longer increased based on the number of affected allies. Armor bonus to allies is based on a percentage of Oberon's maximum armor at the moment of casting.
- Reckoning reworked: Oberon emits a fast-expanding wave of holy fire. Enemies struck by the wave receive Radiation damage and status, and are Blinded for a duration. Blinded enemies will draw threat away from allies and have a chance to drop a health orb if slain while active.
- Passive replacement suggestions:

Spoiler

• Oberon receives energy for each blocked attack.
• Oberon receives 2 energy each time he applies a status effect.
• Oberon has innate ranks of Rage.

Octavia
- Resonator no longer prevents enemies from attacking Mallet.

Rhino
- Roar also compels enemies alerted to his presence within range of the effect to attack Rhino.
- Arcane Vanguard Helmet reduced from +25% Speed to +15% Speed.

Saryn
- Spores will now pop at least one spore if the target receives Toxin damage.
- Venom Dose applies its effects to all allies in a radius around a friendly target.
- Molt inherits Saryn's maximum health, armor and shield values and adds them to its own.
- Toxic Lash no longer has any effect on blocking with melee weapons. Instead, Saryn gains damage mitigation (armor?) at all times while Toxic Lash is active, regardless of equipped weapon. Additionally, Toxic Lash will restore energy to Saryn if Spores are popped by any means while active.
- Contagion Clouds now causes Saryn to emit a cloud of poisonous gas while Toxic Lash is active, dealing radial Toxin damage to nearby enemies.
- Miasma has a 100% status chance per tick against targets affected by Toxin and Viral procs. Damage per-tick halved, total number of ticks doubled.

Titania
- Tribute now has a lengthy Combo timer to reduce its energy cost. Thorns and Entangle values increased.
- Razorwing has an innate item vacuum, and Archwing boosters. Diwata base damage and supplemental stats increased.
- Base energy increased to 150->225.

Valkyr
- Rip Line casts against the environment cause Valkyr to knock down enemies she passes through (ie dive kick).
- Warcry also compels affected enemies to attack Valkyr for the duration.
- Paralysis stun duration doubled.
- Prolonged Paralysis no longer affects stun duration; augment renamed.
- Hysteria no longer provides mitigation or deals damage to the player when it ends, but instead causes damage taken to be staggered into damage-over-time, at a maximum rate of damage per-second reduced by Duration, and lasting until all damage is dealt or the player dies.

Vauban
- Tesla staggers on every hit.
- Minelayer's Bounce grenades only proc for allies upon jumping on/into them, rather than instantly flinging players.
- Passive replacement: Vauban restores 1% of ammo for nearby allies every second.

Volt
- Shock can be amplified by hold-casting the effect, increasing its cost by 50%, multiplying its damage (as well as Electric Shield and subsequent bursts from Discharge) based on Power Strength, and ragdolling enemies near the first target.
- Shock Trooper allows Shock to chain through allies who have not yet received its buff.
- Electric Shield no longer costs the player energy per-meter traveled or reduces player speed when carried, and the cost over-time is reduced; however, the cost will increase whenever the player Sprints. When electrified, the Shield has a 100% status chance on the first damage tick against a target.
- Discharge's damage cap is no longer reduced by mitigation. Arc damage from other affected enemies or Shock will not count towards the damage cap, only damage from a single instance of the effect.
- Base armor increased to 65, energy increased to 150->225 (to bridge the gap with Volt Prime).

Changes Successfully Pushed

Spoiler

14.5.0: Oberon
"- Smite deals Radiation/Puncture [...] status chance increased to 100%. 
- Hallowed Ground is summoned under Oberon's feet and grants (stackable) damage reduction to allies standing in it. 
- Renewal is now a Toggled aura [...] Activating Renewal also instantly purges status effects from allies within range (but only on the first pulse) and increases recovery time."

15.2.0: Nyx
"- Mind Control prevents the target from receiving damage from Tenno while active, THEN deals the accumulated damage the target would have taken from Tenno when the effect ends."

15.9.0: Excalibur
"- Slash Dash increases Excalibur's melee combo count by 1 per enemy hit."

16.10.0: Rhino
"- Rhino Charge ragdolls affected targets, pushing them out of the way."

17.10.0 + 17.10.1: Saryn
"- Venom spores are more responsive to [..] melee attacks, and any unpopped spores on an enemy will detonate for additional damage upon the target's death." (Note: Melee synergy accomplished through "Toxic Lash".)
"- Debuffs can be transferred to Molt. When the Molt fades or is destroyed, explosion damage is increased by total damage it received." (Note: the former is accomplished through "Spore", while the latter is accomplished through both Spore and Miasma.)
"- Contagion [...] grants damage mitigation to the caster, and is capable of popping Venom spores.
- Reducing Power Duration for Miasma no longer increases damage dealt."

18.13.0: Volt
"- Electric Shield can be cast [...] to instead allow Volt to carry it, a la Odonata's Energy Shell."

Specters of the Rail 2.1: Nekros (Note that Nekros was one of the most iterative discussions in this thread, so it draws from a long history.)
"- Shadows of the Dead no longer have a maximum Duration; instead, Shadows lose a percentage of health every second, at a rate reduced by Duration. [Nekros also gained the ability to heal his minions, although this is not as a result of any change to Desecrate.]
- Toggling Shadows of the Dead active while minions from a previous cast remain active will summon additional minions from the soul cache up to the cap, scaling the cost accordingly.
- On suggestion from Taiiat: Recasting Shadows will summon all active Shadows to you."

20.3.0: Oberon
"- Renewal [...] releases healing pulses over a distance affected by Power Range while toggled active. Allies within range also gain a flat amount of bonus armor from a percentage of Oberon's own, and are purged of all status effects. No longer has a maximum Duration, or ceases to affect players at maximum health."

21.4.0: Hydroid
"- If Undertow is active, Tempest Barrage will automatically center itself on Undertow.
- Tidal Surge collects and continuously drags enemies caught in it for the remainder of the duration, only releasing and ragdolling them during the Slash portion. Can be cast while Undertow is active to relocate the puddle and all enemies inside.
- Other abilities may be cast by Hydroid while Undertow is active, and ability damage fired into the field [...] will deal damage to all enemies within.
- If Undertow is active, tentacles will spread into formation around Undertow and toss snared foes inside after a period of strangulation, then seek out new nearby targets."

Change Log - Update 22

Spoiler

Nov 19, '17:
- Significant changes to Ember following much discussion. (Page 134-135, and throughout)
- Slight updates to Atlas' Landslide, Petrify and Rumblers descriptions. (Page 135)
- Added a quality-of-life note for Nyx's Absorb on suggestion from Svygor. (Page 135)
- After brief discussion, added Gara to the lower lists. (Page 134-135)
- Revamp to Limbo's Stasis, and a slight change to Limbo's passive.

Jul 15, '17:
- Replaced Mag's passive in light of Harrow.

Jul 14, '17: Update 21
- Significant updates to Hydroid in preparation for his impending rework. (Page 127)
- Slight updates to Atlas' Tectonics and Petrify descriptions. (Page 128)
- Pending further discussion, Trinity has been moved to the upper lists with significant updates. (Page 129)
- After brief discussion, added Harrow to the lower lists. (Page 129)
- Made a note for Limbo's Stasis to include a UI element visible to allied party members within the Rift while active.

May 20, '17:
- Cleaned up Atlas' Tectonics suggestion due to being outdated.

May 19, '17:
- Altered mechanics of Rising Phoenix suggestion for Ember, under numerous suggestions. (Page 119)
- Numerous changes to Limbo belated in response to his rework. (Page 120-121)
- Smaller list of changes to Oberon in response to his rework, and a temporary move to the lower lists. (Page 122-123)
- Added a single change to Octavia to the lower lists.
- Changes to Ash's Shuriken and Bladestorm, inspired by discussions on Reddit.
- Added a quality-of-life addition to Nezha's Divine Spears on suggestion from moon.boots. (Page 123)
- Replaced previous Telekinesis suggestion for Nyx with a conservative alternative for Psychic Bolts. (Page 124)
- Replaced passives for Nyx, Vauban and Ash, with suggestions from Aquasurge and Azamagon. (Page 124-126)

Nov 19, '16:
- Following much discussion, Nyx' Psychic Bolts have been replaced with Telekinesis. (Page 111-115)

Oct 27, '16:
- Updated Tempest Barrage on suggestion from Azamagon. (Page 109-110)
- Expanded the effect of Tentacle Swarm, and clarified Hydroid's revamped passive.

Sep 05, '16:
- Following some initial review, Titania has been added to the lower lists. (Page 104-105)

Aug 21, '16:
- Partially reverted change to Calm & Frenzy augment, on suggestion from ChronoEclipse. (Page 104)

Aug 19, '16: The Silver Grove
- Following much discussion, all of Equinox' abilities have been altered, and she has been moved to the upper lists. (Page 101-104)

Aug 10, '16: Specters of the Rail U2.1
- Removed the "Verbose" tag from Nekros' section and updated Shadows of the Dead's description, as well as peripheral abilities.

Jun 08, '16:
- Additional changes to Volt's Discharge.
- Replaced new Terrify augment.

Jun 05, '16:
- Updated notes for all of Volt's abilities.
- Updated Trinity suggestions for Blessing and Well of Life again. (Page 94)

May 30, '16:
- Modified Nyx's passive, and Psychic Bolts to synergize with the new effect.
- Modified Magnetize for quality of life.
- Changed suggestions for both Pull and Crush to interact with Magnetize.

May 29, '16:
- Added some additional notes for Mirage's Prism and Sleight of Hand.
- Increases potency of Trinity's passive.

May 28, '16:
- Altered or added passive suggestions for Ember, Hydroid, Mag, Nekros, Nyx, and Vauban.
- Removed Silence change in response to Banshee's passive.
- Added quality of life notes to Speed and Electric Shield.
- Clarified range changes to Blessing and Well of Life.

May 27, '16:
- Added Polarize to Mag's section in response to Update 18.13's stealth nerf. (Page 92)
- Modified earlier suggestion to Blessing in response to last-minute additions to Update 18.13.

May 26, '16:
- Altered suggestions for Trinity's Well of Life and Blessing, and Oberon's Renewal. (Page 92)
- Removed suggestion for Vampire Leech.

May 17, '16:
- Added two additional Passive suggestions for Oberon, one suggested by RunningTree3. (Page 91)

May 15, '16:
- Re-added status chance to Smite.
- Altered Hysteria to stagger damage instead of providing immunity. (Page 90)

May 14, '16:
- Updated descriptions for all of Oberon's powers, including reversion of Divine Intervention and replacement of Hallowed Ground. (Page 90)
- Updated description for Zephyr's Tail Wind. (Page 90)

Apr 05, '16:
- Moved Mag and Volt down from the upper lists, ahead of their upcoming reworks.
- Added suggestion for Artemis Bow, on suggestion from Azamagon. (Page 83)
- Added a translation for Rumblers' Conclave augment into a PVE augment, as a replacement for Titanic Rumbler. (Page 84)
- Emphasized taunt capability of Rumblers.
- Invested Peacemaker's Conclave augment into its PVE functionality. (Page 84)
- Removed suggestions for Shatter Shield, partly in accordance to the above.
- Added functionality for Ballistic Battery during Peacemaker.

Apr 03, '16:
- Modified suggestion for Equinox' Mend. (Page 82-3)
- Modified suggestion for Equinox' Pacify on urging of tnccs215. (Page 83)

Mar 25, '16:
- Added note for Warcry to taunt enemies.

Mar 15, '16:
- Following some initial review, Inaros has been added to the lower lists. (Page 78)
- Added a note to the General Ability Changes for group-healing effects to benefit companions.
- Given some discussion on the impact of Fleeting Expertise, consumables, and general ability spam on the design of the game and lootcaving for rewards/progression, a new section has been added under General: Energy Generation. (Page 77-79)
- Trinity's Energy Vampire has received some changes in accordance with the above. In accommodation, Greedy Pull has been replaced. (Page 78)

Mar 07, '16:
- In accompaniment of the former changes, an additional note was added to allow Soul Punch to clear Shadows of the Dead.

Mar 06, '16: Update 18.5
- Added passive suggestion for Nekros, updated Shadows of the Dead suggestion and additional phrasing.

Mar 02, '16:
- Added Rumblers and Titanic Rumbler suggestions to Atlas.

Feb 26, '16:
- Added some Effigy-centric synergy to Chroma's entries.

Feb 22, '16:
- Added passive suggestions and tweaks to Limbo and Hydroid, and additional tweaks to Saryn.
- Please excuse the current formatting, the recent Forum changes broke some formatting. Back in business.

Feb 15, '16:
- Re-added an old prioritization mechanic to Soul Punch, on request from ChronoEclipse. (Page 74)
- Tweaked Supercharged Speed, on suggestion from ChronoEclipse. (Page 74)
- Switched the effect of Supercharged Electric Shield with its baseline interaction of Speed.

Feb 13, '16:
- Modified notes on Tempest Barrage, Undertow, Tentacle Swarm and Pilfering Swarm. (Page 74)
- Added replacement augment for Curative Undertow and suggestion for a future Tempest Barrage augment.
- Modified note on Ivara's Prowl to be consistent with Pilfering Swarm.

Jan 31, '16:
- Following much discussion, Oberon has been reworked and moved to the upper lists. (Page 71-72)
- Replacement augments for Tentacle Swarm and Petrify have been added.
- Updated effect of Mend to include health orbs. (Page 72)
- Replacement augment for Toxic Lash has been added on suggestion by Azamagon. (Page 73)

Jan 22, '16:
- After much discussion, a replacement for Volt's Overload has been added, and Volt has been moved to the upper lists. (Page 71)
- Removed suggestion for Electric Shield augment in favor of making it a baseline interaction.
- Added EmptyDevil's "Shield Gating" mechanic to the General Changes section, with link to the original thread, in full support of his suggestion.

Jan 15, '16:
- Modified Oberon's Hallowed Ground to taunt enemies.

Jan 11, '16:
- Modified Oberon's Renewal in light of recent discussions. (Page 70)

Jan 02, '16:
- Nezha has been added to the lower lists, inspired by suggestions from Mogamu. (Page 68)
- Expanded on notes for Atlas' Tectonics and added Petrify after much discussion. (Page 69)
- Added passive suggestion for Chroma and expanded on notes to Spectral Scream and Effigy. (Page 69)
- Added passive suggestion for Trinity.
- Modified suggestion for Zephyr's Tornado to be more predictable, inspired by Ivara's Quiver.
- Cleaned up some redundancies in Excalibur and Hydroid's suggestions.
- Expanded on suggestions for Mag's Pull, Bullet Attractor and Crush.
- Added stagger to Limbo's Cataclysm and augment suggestion for Rift Gate.
- Expanded on note for Limbo's Banish for AoE targeting, following a suggestion by Uzenvard.

Dec 12, '15:
- Moved Mag to the upper lists, complete with blurb to highlight her main issues.

Dec 07, '15:
- Added a note about Ivara's Noise Arrow, on suggestion from taiiat. (Page 68)
- Added a note about Ash's Smoke Screen in light of ongoing discussions.

Dec 06, '15: Update 18
- Removed the note about Iron Skin in light of Rhino's update.

Nov 05, '15: Update 17.10
- Saryn's section has been altered and moved to the lower lists following her rework.

Oct 11, '15:
- Following his buff in 17.6.2, Atlas has been added to the lower lists. (Page 63-64)

Oct 02, '15: Update 17.5
- Updated notes concerning Hysteria, Mend, and Tempest Barrage.

Sep 23, '15:
- Altered suggestions for Hallowed Ground and Renewal. (Page 63)
- Added replacement augment suggestion for Hallowed Eruption.

Sep 16, '15:
- Altered description for Limbo's Rift Gate suggestion.
- Changed note for Sonic Boom to deal damage along the levels of Snow Globe.

Sep 04, '15:
- Added suggestion for augment to Siphon Life. (Page 62)

Aug 29, '15:
- Added note for Equinox's Pacify, on suggestion from FelisImpurrator. (Page 61)

Aug 23, '15:
- Added augment suggestion for Saryn's Allure.

Aug 21, '15:
- Created a section in the upper lists for Hydroid, to highlight flaws within his kit.

Aug 19, '15:
- Upon careful consideration, Equinox has been added to the lower lists. (Page 59-60)
- Added EchoesOfRain's suggestions for Zephyr. (Page 59)

Aug 01, '15: Update 17
- Frost moved to the lower lists while his recent changes are evaluated.
- Chroma's Toxin Ward note removed.

Jul 25, '15:
- Added Azamagon's suggestion for Shuriken. (Page 57)
- Added FelisImpurrator's suggestion for Spectral Scream. (Page 57)

Jul 09, '15:
- Added suggestion for Shield Polarize to detonate off allied shields.
- Added suggestion for Bullet Attractor to be toggleable, as well as aimed.

Jul 01, '15:
- Added "fire patch" and stacking damage to Fireball's description, on par with suggested changes to Freeze.
- Un-simplified note for Fire Blast (Jun 25 revision); Blasting Zone reintroduced.
- Added early suggestion for Elemental Ward's Toxin effect replacement post-Stamina removal. (Page 56)

Jun 26, '15:
- Altered Tornado's note to follow enemies instead of the previous suggestion to be aimed.
- Altered Tentacle Swarm's note to create a consistent formation on-cast.
- Added a new Passive suggestion for Frost.

Jun 25, '15:
- Added a note to Hysteria to be affected by mods in the same manner as Exalted Blade. (Page 55)
- Simplified the note for Fire Blast.
- Removed Rhino Charge note in response to his rework.

Jun 17, '15:
- Updated Excalibur's section in light of the release of his rework.

Jun 12, '15:
- Expanded Limbo's section and added it back to upper echelons.
--> Introduced Rift Gate replacement of Rift Surge (merged with Rift Walk).
--> Increased CC potential of Banish and Cataclysm.

Jun 06, '15:
- Added a note about threat to Ember's Rising Phoenix.
- Updated Nekros description.

May 22, '15
- Added a suggestion by FelisImpurrator for Bladestorm. (Page 53)
- Added a note about Tentacle Swarm's targeting. (Page 54)

If you have any adjustments of your own to add to the list, or would like to argue about what's already there, feel free.

If you think "everything is fine as it is", this is clearly not the thread for you.

Edited November 21, 2017 by Archwizard
Introduced Gara and added updates to Ember, Atlas, Nyx and Limbo

[TheStag]

Loki is perfect

Rhino needs to not have Loki speed under any circumstance

 

Excal is good.

 

All other frames need fixed.

 

Synergy is needed.

Edited March 21, 2014 by TheStag

[LukeAura]

I'm going to look through all the changes you suggest to each Warframe, but I had to thank you right away for making this post. 




Edit: All really nice ideas. Not necessarily what I would pick in all cases, there are some ideas I like better for a couple skills, but you definitely have a great idea for every frame down. I would however disagree a little further over a point in Frost though.
Ice Wave is far too much a positional necessary skill for a Frame who has trouble reaching positions due to lack of mobility, and an ability that can fortify even a bad position so he doesn't need to try and reach better ones. Your idea gives it better synergy with Snowglobe, but is still lacking in terms of being the 'bread and butter' offensive tool for him it should be. It needs a little more modification. Just my recommendation as I've been working on the idea and possible solutions, but it could be made in it a form of 'Arctic wind' that staggers/pushes back in a semi-tight cone, centred around the reticule, which would give it increased vertical tracking and less reliance on position.
Other than that,
I'd say the only thing really missing in here is some casting flexibility improvements for just a few skills. Smokebomb in particular, the laggy start ups and wind downs of Excalibur's offensive skills. Radial Disarm could use a little more flexibility IIRC. 

Edited March 21, 2014 by LukeAura

[Xorpheus]

If this was accompanied by an ability combo system for support abilities and buffs/debuffs. I would be so happy, i intend to write a similar "suggestion" thread about xp/forma rework which will probably contain ideas about a system which encourages use of buffs and de-buffs over spamming 4..

Edited March 21, 2014 by Xorpheus

[ensignvidiot]

I love these idea pitches, but like Xorpheus, i would love Direct Ability Synergy between frames.

 

+1

[Scherhardt]

Hopefully after Melee 2.0. +1

[cloudyDev]

Wow. Big undertaking. HUGE. But something has to be done about frame abilities not making friends.

 

And ASH NEEDS ATTENTION.

 

FREE AIM TELEPORT.

 

And remove bladestorm. Something else please.

 

:D

[kaboomonme]

This was what I wanted out of Warframe that I never got. Advertised as a co-op game, I waited 6 updates and still nothing. 

One of these updates... maybe. Is there hope for the future?

[FrostBittenHero]

I read this with a smile.  Someone knows what there talking about.  Sadly all we can do is hope that at least some of these ideas are implemented. 

 

+1

[7.T.]

Awesome job. I'd be cool with most if not all of these ideas. +1

Edited March 21, 2014 by 7.T.

[Archwizard]

Loki is perfect

 

Admittedly, he's probably the only one on the list who's there just for fun.

[LukeAura]

Admittedly, he's probably the only one on the list who's there just for fun.

Fun should always be considered with frame abilities. 

It's probably the only thing missing from his kit, that feeling of satisfaction when using abilities.

[kaboomonme]

Even in the context of Loki being perfect, giving Radiation proc on enemies that attack the Decoy sounds perfect as well, for a trickster based around Radiation-based shenanigans.

Keep it up good sir.

[spiralmenace]

had i not read the rest of the post, the loki changes alone would have earned my +1. as it stands, this is really well put together and i hope DE has a good long look at it

[Annon5150]

 

Couldnt help it.

Edited May 21, 2014 by Annon5150

[Archwizard]

 

Couldnt help it.

 

Actually what I was going for with the title.

Sadly, can't do too much with the caps.

Edited May 21, 2014 by Archwizard

[Annon5150]

I saw that your question about this got answered in the devstream. Congrats! Maybe under developed frames will get some lovin.

[SALE94]

Loki is perfect

Rhino needs to not have Loki speed under any circumstance

 

 

No why are people so worried loki is better solo survival frame can beat longer, survive longer.

 

Why rhinos speed hurts you this much. i love both of them.

 

Rhino will still die more fast usualy.

 

Loki is not flash, loki is invisible predator.

 

And rhino is stereotype fatass mussleguy who gains speed after drinking magic potion(or in this case wearing helmet with less metal and antenas with wifi)

Edited March 21, 2014 by SALE94

[notionphil]

Very nice suggestions, and all done with a general enough direction that it's actually executable.

 

Nice.

 

Also +1 on the hands-down, best Mind Control suggestion I've come across, far better than any I've thought up.

[Archwizard]

Rhino needs to not have Loki speed under any circumstance

Why rhinos speed hurts you this much. i love both of them.

 

Rhino will still die more fast usualy.

 

Loki is not flash, loki is invisible predator.

 

And rhino is stereotype fatass mussleguy who gains speed after drinking magic potion(or in this case wearing helmet with less metal and antenas with wifi)

 

It's the fact that with one helmet, Rhino Prime has zero trade-offs.

Loki's trade-offs for his mobility and CC are his low survival and lack of direct-damage skills, but Rhino Prime gets all of the above compared to him.

Rhino's explicitly stated to be the heavy frame, not a nimble one.

 

I wish I could say I expect stat separation on helmets to have some effect on this, but given the stance they presented on that in today's stream, the best that can happen is they tone down Vanguard's speed by about 10%.

[Azamagon]

Wow! Quick and easy changes that would improve most big flaws of the abilities!

Great job!

 

Now, to thorough feedback >:)

(NOTE: If I don't give feedback on something particular, I like it as you suggested it!)

 

Sentinel mods:

So you mean, all Sentinels can have the "Vacuum" mod, while Carrier's unique precept would be Nekros' old ability? If so, sounds awesome! But maybe not let Carrier's "Desecrate" have another chance at mods? Otherwise Carrier would STILL be the go-to Sentinel... If it is just ammo and energy orbs (why not a small chance for health orbs too?), it'd be a nice support-Sentinel.

 

Damage table reworked:

Another thing to add: Corrosive and Magnetic procs are far too niched against Grineer and Corpus respectively, being useless on non-armored and non-shielded targets. Having some armor and shields in all factions (even if just a little) or making the procs have something else to them that works on any faction would be splendid (Examples: Corrosive = Armorreduction and minor damage-amplifier. Magnetic = Shieldreduction + stuns/immobilizes the main target very briefly and pulls in very closeby enemies (stagger-like pull) towards the affected target)

Also, how about making Cold effective on Infested (so you can combine it with Radiation, so you have actual alternatives to building Corrosive+Heat/Blast or Gas+Electric)? Toxic, Viral and Magnetic being their main resistances on them sounds good. More stuff like that for the other factions too please! :) We need more diversity like that!

 

Generic/universal ability mods:

I'd rather the ability to cancel previous duration abilities early by activating/casting them again rather being a base part of all the skills, rather than necessitating a mod for it.

Same for the stealthloot, that shouldn't require mods to work like that, it should work like that baseline!

 

Now the the Warframes:

 

Ash

BIggest issue: He scales really poorly (ignoring Smoke Screen, a GREAT skill). That's his biggest problem

* Your ideas solve that nicely, except for Bladestorm. If it procced Viral BEFORE he dealt his damage, he'd be quite useful on higher levels for sure! Also, allow him to cancel it early (like all other "duration" skills).

* Freeaim Teleport sounds great, but it should not have any animations either, it should be very agile, flow well and be uninterruptive, but could have a minor cooldown so you can't abuse the mobility too much.

* Note of worry. Only thing I don't like about him having critbuffing abilites is that it would make him rely on luck. Assassin archetypes shouldn't rely too much on luck imo. If Teleport gave you a 100% melee critical chance for a brief moment after using it (regardless if aiming at an enemy or not), I'd like the suggestions far more!

 

Banshee

YES! Great ideas! Soundquake doesn't really fit her. Your Acoustic Mine gives a perfect compromise: It keeps Soundquake for those that want to keep it, but also makes her mobile and gives the ability a more sniperlike feeling. PERFECT!

However, how about making each target in the acoustic field stunned in a more stationary fashion (say, by resonating sounds or something), rather than affected by constant staggers, to not mess up your aim? That'd give it better synergy with Sonar.

 

EDIT: How about taking it one step further to fit her as a ranged character? This is what imagined:

* Rename it Acoustic Bomb or Resonator Bomb

* Upon cast, a ball of condensed sound is launched in the direction of your cursor (just going straight forward, not guideable like Antimatter Drop). The ball moves kind of slowly.

* Upon landing on any surface (enemy/wall/whatever), the ball sticks to it. Once stuck to something, THEN it functions like your described the mine, activating upon enemy proximity etc.

* On top of that, pressing the ability again causes it to detonate early, even doable in midair!

* The sound of the lasting detonation, to fit with her theme, could be some kind of bassy humming, which would make some more sense of my idea that it is using resonating soundwaves, and could also make it entirely silent to non-affected enemies, further making it fit her intended stealthy style. Animationwise, it could look like it distorts/vibrates the air in its area too, fitting to its theme even more!

Doing all that ^ would make it fit into her "Stealthy Sniper" kit so much!

 

All in all though, GREAT fixes for Banshee!

 

Ember

* Accelerant could also boost all Heat-combined elements, but just by half, or even less than what it buffs Heat-damage.

* Fire Blast idea sounds neat, but only if it also dealt some damage to all targets inside it. It should also knock down targets caught by its explosion, while the 100% chance to proc fire (and thus stunning the target(s)) should be on Fireball imo.

* I'd also give Fireball a bigger aoe and a quite big lingering firepatch in the area it explodes, giving it a nasty synergy with your Fire Blast idea.

* Giving World on Fire some minor utility, such as a bit of runspeed to synergize with itself, wouldn't be bad either.

 

Frost

* If Freeze has no shatter-damagecap, its duration needs to be lowered a bit. Maybe also consider making it dealing next to NO damage, like before. It would be almost purely for ranged CC, which sounds perfect for him.

* Knockback (quite a lot) on Ice Wave sounds perfect. If it could leave an icepatch behind which autoprocs Cold on enemies walking on it and allowing allies to slide on it without loss of momentum (alleviating Frost's mobility issues very slightly), it'd be golden!

* Avalanche needs to freeze for a couple of seconds again (affected by Pow Dur), like it did in its bugged version, but 100% reliably! That was a much more fun playstyle on it than its current "just for damage and a VERY brief halt" niche. A compromise for its damage could then be that it deals half of its total damage instantly, then the other half when they unfreeze?

 

Nekros

Have nothing else to say than that all of those ideas sounds AMAZING! He needs to be a minion-master, not a farmer, that's for sure!

Questions:

1) Soul Feast would heal Nekros himself too, right?

2) What the heck do you mean by this: "And using said generic mod could destroy a whole mission’s worth of minion collection, which would be cruel"? I really don't grasp how that would destroy the collection...

* About Necrosis, I think it should be recastable whenever you want, but doing so would completely remove the effect from the previous victim. Maybe Necrosis could also stagger the target upon cast, to retain some minor CC? Not necessary, but just an idea to sate the loss of the ragdoll effect on Soul Punch...

 

Nyx

* Mind Control should also stun the target when the duration ENDS (or when you cast it on a new target, which would remove the effect from the previous target and thus stun the previous target), not at the moment when you cast it on them. The ability to cast it on a new target to swap which target your control is pretty much necessary, otherwise you have to wait for the entire Mind Control duration to end before you can recast it (what if you miscast it?), since you can't kill it fast yourself anymore with the suggested allied damagedelay...

* Overwhelm would potentially be quite overpowered. Stagger a bunch of targets, then a radial stagger damage BASED ON DAMAGE DEALT? If based on damage dealt, make it a quite a low percentage! Love the idea of exploding their heads though :D

* Absorb could go with the ability to cancel it early. Like I said before, this should be an innate part of EVERY durationbased ability, it should NOT be reliant on a bandaid mod!

* All the other details are great!

 

Oberon

Lovely, lovely and highly fitting ideas here! Could maybe have some numerical balancing on the new ideas to not make them overpowered, but the concepts and synergies here are AMAZING! Only thing I want to add:

* Reckoning shouldn't rely on getting the kill to spawn orbs. Instead, make it enemies targetted by Reckoning are instantly debuffed for a short moment (say, 10 seconds or so) and if they die while they still have the debuff on, they have a chance to spawn a health orb. Would make the ability more flexible.

 

Saryn

This is the only rework I actually don't agreed with. It's not a bad rework, but I think her style should be different: ELUSIVE kind of tank, with a mix of melee/ranged/caster feel over her. Here are some of my ideas for her abilities (too much stuff to write here).

Short comments on your ideas:

* Contagion (old Venom) needs to be made more fitting for the fast gameplay. Juggling spores back and forth is simply not worth the time, really. What should be done though I dunno. But something most fastpaced at least.

* Molt removal should be a complete no-no. It's one of her best skills! Being able to evade damage entirely is better than mitigation! If anything, also make it clear away debuffs from her. If you really want Gas-damage in her arsenal, make the explosion of Molt into that type instead.

* Venom (old Contagion) could be renamed further to Venom Shroud and instead of becoming a teambuff, it could offer the damage mitigation for her alone instead. Melee toxin bonus only, even as a teambuff, would still leave it underpowered. Synergy: Molting after using Venom Shrouds also leaves the Venom Shroud's damage mitigation bonus on it!

* Miasma should leave a line-of-sight obstructing cloud behind as well, to fit with her elusive tankiness.

 

Valkyr

Nice ideas here! Very fitting her intended Berserker theme!

* Warcry having the healing effect instead of Hysteria, at the cost of losing the armorbuff, sounds MUCH better!

* Paralysis could become more brutal-looking too imo. Make it more like a huge energyslash-sphere around her, and up its energycost and damage. Maybe rename it into Rage Slash or something like that? Considering her lore, this ability would be like a brutal pain-payback :P

* Ripline could use a utilitybuff: If you drag a target to you, any target it collides into on its way towards you should be staggered. And vice versa, if you pull Valkyr herself to a certain point, any enemy getting in the way should also be staggered. That'd make missed Riplines a bit more forgiving, plus it would make the skill feel a bit more ruthless, fitting the Berserkery nature.

* I'd allow Valkyr to use both the Claws AND the equipped melee weapon of choice during Hysteria. Claws should have flat damagevalues attacking in an aoe-like slashy blastwave (visual effect already there!) which staggers and deals damage, while using the equipped melee weapons is what would allow the ability to scale, without needing wonky math-mechanics like currently!

Claws are then for good baseline damage on lower levels or for aoe CC on higher levels, while the equipped melee weapons are there for scalable damage!

 

Excalibur

* Slash Dash should stagger all targets too

* Super Jump could cause an aoe knockdown/stagger at the location he jumps away from

* Radial Javelin should be MUCH faster to cast too, at least the after-animation. Give it some punchthrough too so it can deal with Shield Lancers and enemies behind mild cover.

 

Loki

* Radial Disarm needs a use on Infested. Anything to help out here, really

* Switch Teleport could also forceproc Radiation on the target, if it is an enemy

 

Mag

* Bullet Attractor should also provide you with punchthrough from the edge of the sphere all the way towards the center of the sphere (which is where the BA target is, obviously). Thus Bullet Attractor means: YOU ALWAYS HIT THE TARGET, and it would also provide it with some form of "aoe"-effect to it in a more fitting manner.

* Crush could also be changed to be a mix of Puncture and Magnetic damage imo. Puncture is stronger on Grineer and robots, which are both highly metallical-covered units... A cool little utility for it could be that if you aim during Crush, you move all Crush-affected enemies towards that spot (very limitted range though). Would synergize well with Bullet Attractor

 

Nova

Agreed with these ideas, except:

* Instead of "Power in Use" on the ultimate, make it so that if you cast it again, all previously debuffed targets are cleared of their debuffs right before the new cast takes place. That'd be a better middleground-nerf.

 

Trinity

All her abilities need some rework, AGAIN! Energy Vampire and Blessing in particular are both overpowered. More feedback for her will be added later.

 

Vauban

Sounds good i guess. Tesla stagger might be slightly overpowered, but it certainly needs some utility.

 

Volt

I'd rather make the shield only a thing for Volt: Press once = Make it the floating and following shield for Volt, following the cursor etc. Press again while floating = Place it in a stationary faction, just like it does now. Also, make its size be affected by Power Range perhaps?

 

Zephyr

On top of your ideas, I'd actually change one further thing:

* Tail Wind should ONLY be a "fly to where you aim" skill, making it guideable even while on the ground (and useable as a form of Slash Dash). The superjump-thing while on the ground can instead be moved to when you use Dive Bomb on the ground! This superjump blastoff from a ground-activated Dive Bomb could include some damage and stagger in an aoe from the liftoff position (less damage done than a Dive Bomb from the air of course). Dive Bomb could need a new name for it with that change though.

 

Now... time for me to go to bed.... Zzzzzzz ... tiiiired -.-

Edited March 22, 2014 by Azamagon

[Archwizard]

@Azamagon: Since your post is kinda... intimidating... I'll just be answering a few of the points here for now (anything I don't reply to here should be considered answered with a decisive and resounding "maybe").

 

Sentinel mods:

Wouldn't giving Carrier a chance to heal you STILL make it a go-to sentinel?

 

Generic mods:

Honestly, if I thought they could put a toggle on abilities, I think they'd have done it already. For now though, all of the abilities currently without one have a built-in disadvantage of being a bit slow - which isn't always a bad thing, in the case of abilities like Chaos, since the Power In Use prevents the ability from being too overpowered; having the mod NOT be built in encourages caution and intelligent use of certain abilities, rather than just spam. Adding it as an ability mod adds a trade-off, like Corrupted mods: You can make your whole skillset a little more flexible, but you also have to drop an ability to do so. 

 

Banshee:

For starters, acoustic mines are a real thing (they don't do THAT precisely, but they're a real thing). I thought about making it a ranged attack, but she already has Sonic Boom for something directional, and it feels more fitting for her to have a little bit of trapper in her.

 

Ember:
That's why Fire Blast does Blast damage: combine it with Accelerant, everyone's knocked down. It would also burn anyone who runs into the "walls" trying to escape.

 

Frost:
I don't think Freeze's duration would need to be nerfed if the target limit was still reasonably low (say, 4 at max rank, moddable). That way it would be equally cost-efficient as Bastille in terms of targets affected, while still being a bit shorter.

 

Nekros
1) Of course.
2) Any active minions summoned by Necrosis would be cleared by the effect, since they are - indirectly - affected by Power Duration. The point of them losing health and Nekros gaining a health drain is that he can potentially sustain a limited number of them throughout the whole mission.

I like the idea of Necrosis being just a little slow and unwieldy, as a balancing mechanism. It forces players to be more careful (read: picky) about what enemies they add to their menagerie.

 

Nyx:
You do know that Psychic Bolts only deal about 200 damage a hit, right? Which makes Overwhelm anywhere from a quarter to an eighth as effective as Molecular Prime. The limitation to Overwhelm's damage is the very balancing mechanism you're talking about, when you could just say "based on the damage the target received between Overwhelm and death".

 

Saryn:

The "elusive tank" doesn't really work too well in this case; you either take a hit or you don't, and "elusive" tanking roles are more about narrowly dodging hits (like Turbulence) than completely misdirecting them (which is more of a Loki thing). More importantly, Molt doesn't really do anything to encourage melee play (other than have an immediate blast radius - in which case I'm sure Mag/Frost/Oberon/Ember/etc. would agree that's enough to make a melee).

 

Valkyr:

I don't really think Rip Line needs much more utility. No, it's not an AoE attack, but at the same time it's the most mobile 1 skill outside of Tail Wind and can be used to pull downed allies closer to you or living allies out of harm's way.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Archwizard

[Soulrift]

What about adding some synergy to Saryn: Whenever a player with the Venom melee buff hits an enemy with the Contagion spore and breaks with a melee weapon, the Venom buff increases and a few seconds are added to the duration: so as long as you keep going around slashing spores, your melee buff keeps getting better?

[Azamagon]

Answers are bolded and underlined:

@Azamagon: Since your post is kinda... intimidating... I'll just be answering a few of the points here for now (anything I don't reply to here should be considered answered with a decisive and resounding "maybe").

 

Sentinel mods:

Wouldn't giving Carrier a chance to heal you STILL make it a go-to sentinel?

Why would it? Wyrm and Dethcube offers CC, Shade offers Stealth. Carrier would MAYBE heal you a bit. (Djinn and Helios just suck). Since I mostly solo, yeah, I might use Carrier the most, but the first 3 would also be great options, all depending on the character I choose to use.

 

Generic mods:

Honestly, if I thought they could put a toggle on abilities, I think they'd have done it already. For now though, all of the abilities currently without one have a built-in disadvantage of being a bit slow - which isn't always a bad thing, in the case of abilities like Chaos, since the Power In Use prevents the ability from being too overpowered; having the mod NOT be built in encourages caution and intelligent use of certain abilities, rather than just spam. Adding it as an ability mod adds a trade-off, like Corrupted mods: You can make your whole skillset a little more flexible, but you also have to drop an ability to do so. 

I wouldn't make it toggle. More like: Cast again = You do cast it again, but old effects are removed right before it is recast. Losing all old effects plus potentially wasting energy due to an early recast is penalty enough.

 

Chaos is only overpowered because it has no target cap, unlike Terrify, thus being able to affect a huge chunk of the map with enough Power Range mods. If it had a target cap affected by Power Strength like Territy, making it recastable at the loss of old affected targets would be just fine.

 

Honestly, I hate abilities that get the "Power in Use" message. That error-message should be destroyed asap! Everything should be recastable at any time. I'd hate to waste a whole frikkin modslot for something as niched as that. The whole modding "diversity" that DE and lots of player want is quite unnerving, a lot of stuff should be fixed as a BASELINE, enough with these bandaid "fixes"! Ingame variety is more fun than modding "diversity". I can't predict how situations are gonna be like while modding...

 

Banshee:

For starters, acoustic mines are a real thing (they don't do THAT precisely, but they're a real thing). I thought about making it a ranged attack, but she already has Sonic Boom for something directional, and it feels more fitting for her to have a little bit of trapper in her.

Sonic Boom is a closerange emergency skill, we don't need her ultimate to be the same. Making it ranged would also make her one of the few Warframes with a true ranged ultimate (only Ash, ironically enough when being a melee-oriented character, has a ranged one. Maybe Zephyr could be considered having a ranged one too, but to a much lesser extent).

 

Ember:
That's why Fire Blast does Blast damage: combine it with Accelerant, everyone's knocked down. It would also burn anyone who runs into the "walls" trying to escape.

You said Accelerant increases status chance, but not that it GUARANTEES procs... So Fire Blast still wouldn't be guaranteed to knockdown its targets with the blastwave. And having abilities reliant on luck sucks. They are supposed to be your reliable back-ups. We have weapons for RNG.

And what if your targets don't move inside the trap? Then it'd be pointless to use, really. Just because it would work the best against Infested doesn't mean it should ONLY be good against Infested. That makes for terrible Warframe diversity.

 

Frost:
I don't think Freeze's duration would need to be nerfed if the target limit was still reasonably low (say, 4 at max rank, moddable). That way it would be equally cost-efficient as Bastille in terms of targets affected, while still being a bit shorter.

If it lasted as long as it does now, it would make heavy units and bosses far too easy to deal with imo. You have 12 seconds freeze baseline. With durationmods that can go WAY higher. You could say something similar about Nyx's Mind Control, but she can only take out one target at a time like that, and it only stuns bosses briefly. At least she has some restrictions on it. Frost would just spam on Freeze on every heavy unit / boss he sees, making them ALL harmless. At least reduce it to 8 seconds max or so, and maybe have some damage cap at least when used on bosses.

 

Nekros
1) Of course.
2) Any active minions summoned by Necrosis would be cleared by the effect, since they are - indirectly - affected by Power Duration. The point of them losing health and Nekros gaining a health drain is that he can potentially sustain a limited number of them throughout the whole mission.

I like the idea of Necrosis being just a little slow and unwieldy, as a balancing mechanism. It forces players to be more careful (read: picky) about what enemies they add to their menagerie.

But still, why would that make it clear out the minions? That makes no sense. Being able to cast Necrosis on a new target (which is what that "mod" would do) and wiping off the previously debuffed target has NOTHING to do with the summons you already have taken a hold of...

 

Nyx:
You do know that Psychic Bolts only deal about 200 damage a hit, right? Which makes Overwhelm anywhere from a quarter to an eighth as effective as Molecular Prime. The limitation to Overwhelm's damage is the very balancing mechanism you're talking about, when you could just say "based on the damage the target received between Overwhelm and death".

Umm, even more the reason why it would be overpowered! It would only take away a tiny bit of their health, then after that, their remaining health's would give you 5 smaller Antimatter Drops (which is what it is mostly similar to), which would give you an equivalent to 1,25x of an Antimatter Drop (since it shoots out 5 daggers and AMD has a 4x damage multiplier). And AMD is already grossly overpowered, Overwhelm would make for an even more flexible and easy to use version than AMD. In fact, Overwhelm is like a mix of AMD AND a lesser Molecular Prime combined... We really don't need a skill like that.

Either that, or I'm not understanding your power at all xD

 

Saryn:

The "elusive tank" doesn't really work too well in this case; you either take a hit or you don't, and "elusive" tanking roles are more about narrowly dodging hits (like Turbulence) than completely misdirecting them (which is more of a Loki thing). More importantly, Molt doesn't really do anything to encourage melee play (other than have an immediate blast radius - in which case I'm sure Mag/Frost/Oberon/Ember/etc. would agree that's enough to make a melee).

I think you are too hung up on her being Melee-oriented just because of Contagion. Venom encourages ranged weapons. Molt is unbiased towards any specifc weapon use, it just makes her elusive. Miasma is just another radial nuke in the form of a DoT. She is a jack of all trades, really: Elusive (Molt), caster (Miasma), ranged weapon user (Venom) and melee (Contagion).

In all honesty, I just thought an elusive caster/melee tank sounds like a more interesting niche than being just another female caster of sorts / female facetanker like Zephyr and Valkyr. Making her focus on elusiveness, but not direct invisibility or mitigation would make her more unique, both among the females AND all Warframes. But I dunno, she just needs A role first I guess? *shrugs*

 

Valkyr:

I don't really think Rip Line needs much more utility. No, it's not an AoE attack, but at the same time it's the most mobile 1 skill outside of Tail Wind and can be used to pull downed allies closer to you or living allies out of harm's way.

It's also a really risky skill to use, even for being a Berserker. If you miss a target with the Ripline, you might drag yourself in to a horrible situation. Giving it some leeway with the stagger makes it slightly more forgiving, but still with its risks anyway.

Even if it is mobile, so is, say Rhino Charge. But it at least allows Rhino to move with far less risk due to the aoe-damage and CC. Ripline is single target only, with far more risk involved using it. Just doesn't feel fair in comparison

[Varzy]

I can't get behind the proposed Oberon changes. Part of it is that Guardian's Oath looks like it would scale horribly, being overpowered at low levels and irrelevant at high levels. Beyond that it's too similar to Link, and in the whole I don't think changing skills whole cloth is a direction to be taking when his existing skills still have potential. I'll have a think about it.