Saryn Ability Rework

[HoopleDoople]

I've always enjoyed Saryn but even after the minor buffs she's received her abilities overall just don't hold up. Here's my take on how to change them to ensure Saryn is a fun, useful, and balanced frame:

 

Venom

 

First and foremost we're renaming this to Contagion. This has been suggested by countless others for obvious reasons - it fits the ability far better than Venom does. Next we're going to make Venom useful for all enemies by giving it two separate effects:

 

1) When an enemy afflicted with spores dies it deals viral damage to all nearby enemies. The damage will scale to the number of spores that were on the killed enemy - more spores equals higher damage. Note that the viral damage will NOT be allowed to proc and spores can NOT be spread this way. This is intended to make Venom useful against weak enemies who die quickly to anything. The damage should be set so that it can kill low level enemies, deal reasonable damage against average leveled enemies, and be fairly useless against high level enemies. For the sake of balance it is important to make it so that chain reactions aren't particularly feasible against all but the weakest enemies.

 

2) When a spore is popped it not only spreads spores to nearby enemies it also deals a special viral proc to the original enemy. Rather than a one time 50% reduction to max health, this special proc will inflict a stackable 25% reduction to current max health. As max health decreases each additional proc becomes less effective. And when Venom expires, either because the duration has run out or all spores are popped, the procs expire. This caps the maximum number of procs to 6; thus max health can never be reduced below 17.8%. This allows Venom to scale infinitely and will be our primary means of keeping Saryn viable against high level content.

 

Because these two effects are so powerful, Venom will no longer deal damage over time.  Enemies afflicted by Venom will not be allowed to have the spores or duration refreshed by popping other enemy spores or recasting. Only once the duration has expired or all spores have been popped (thus ending Venom and removing the special viral procs) will the enemy be fair game for a new round of Venom. Power strength will affect the viral damage but NOT the procs.

 

Molt

 

While I like Molt's concept the execution needs some work to make it a viable defensive skill.

 

1) Molt's health is now equal to Saryn's and is increased by armor (in addition to power strength).

 

2) On casting any enemies that were targeting Saryn are forced to target the decoy. However, the enemies can use their AI to choose a new target whenever it sees fit.

 

3) Molt has a minimum duration of 3/3/4/5 seconds. The decoy can take damage during this time, but will not be destroyed. During this minimum duration Saryn is immune to knockdown and status effects, including drain.

 

4) Any enemy that melees the decoy is proced for toxin.

 

The removal of procs on cast and the toxin cloud upon expiration/destruction of the decoy remain the same.

 

Contagion

 

As we renamed Venom to Contagion, Contagion will now be called Noxious Cloud, a name that will fit the new ability. When cast, Saryn will be surrounded in a low lying cloud of gas. Enemies entering the cloud will be proced for gas damage based upon Saryn's melee weapon. This proc will be unable to stack and will benefit from channeling. If possible, the melee multiplier should also be applied to the gas proc. The duration will be the same as the old Contagion. This ability will no longer benefit from power strength.

 

Miasma

 

Overall this ability is in good shape other than its wonky damage calculation - reducing duration should not increase damage. This ability should deal a fixed amount of damage per tick, with duration mods simply adjusting the number of ticks. Then if the ability proves too weak the damage can be increased. But a slight nerf here should hopefully not be too big an issue with buffs everywhere else.

 

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Please let me know what you think about these ideas or share your own thoughts on how to improve Saryn.

Edited August 13, 2014 by HoopleDoople

[RSITH]

I agree with molt and contagion but not miasma and venom

[SaiyanRatchet]

i like it :)

[PeanutMonster]

Experienced Saryn user here

 

 

I personally agree with everything, especially with Miasma. I have used Miasma with decreased duration all the time, and what I hate about that, is that it makes all the other abilities useless, since they all rely on duration. But then again Miasma is crap with increased duration, since increased duration also decreases the damage!

Edited August 12, 2014 by PeanutMonster

[quietcanary]

Your changes to contagion are pretty boring. What you're saying is turn it into a player centered aoe damage ability?

[PeanutMonster]

Your changes to contagion are pretty boring. What you're saying is turn it into a player centered aoe damage ability?

 

Nothing is more boring than what Contagion currently is.

[HoopleDoople]

 

Experienced Saryn user here

 

 

I personally agree with everything, especially with Miasma. I have used Miasma with decreased duration all the time, and what I hate about that, is that it makes all the other abilities useless, since they all rely on duration. But then again Miasma is crap with increased duration, since increased duration also decreases the damage!

 

 

With my change increasing duration would increase total damage, though the damage per tick would remain the same. If the damage proved too low increasing it would be a simple change. The important thing is to not force players to choose between Miasma (decreased duration is currently better) and the other abilities (increased duration is better).

 

Your changes to contagion are pretty boring. What you're saying is turn it into a player centered aoe damage ability?

 

My goals with ability were to try and make it melee oriented and Gas based (so Saryn can hit the Toxin quadfecta). It would become a player centered AoE that could have its strength increased through channeling or increasing the melee multiplier. I'll be the first to admit it's not the most exciting ability ever, though hopefully a useful one. Considering Contagion needs to be enitrely scrapped I'd love to hear some alternate suggestions, melee oriented or otherwise.

[Soulden]

Venom.

Removing it's damage over time seems harsh at first glance, but once you think about it, it would make it a nice ability that forces you to interact with it, just like other frames abilities do. That would be a welcome change.

 

Molt

Like it's current state, but have to agree with something. Melee attackers should be inflicted with toxin.

 

Contagion

A melee gas aura? Interesting. 

 

Miasma

Enjoy it's current state, but have to agree about it's damage mechanic.

At this point I believe it is the way it is intended to be.

 

Don't forget, most frames have multiple built's based on their different skills/play style choices.

Saryn is not an exception. 

[Ryouhi]

I just want Spores to get proper hit detection, so i can actually pop them with any weapon loadout.

Also i wish Miasmas stun duration was affected by Ability Duration, this would make actuall CC builds possible for her.