Warframe Concept: Delphi, Master Of Foresight [Feedback Appreciated]

[TethysGrim]

Delphi is a prophesy-themed Warframe best suited for team support and sniper role. She contains the most advanced suite of sensors and analysis equipment in the system, enhanced with Void energies, and can analyze a situation down to the quantum level, and accurately predict the outcome of a battle.

 

1- Demise Foreseen

Delphi has seen the moment and manner of an enemy's next mistake. Her next ranged attack will aimbot to automatically hit whoever she aims at (if she's at least close, say within 10 degrees of a hit) and the target is flinched the moment the shot is fired to prevent moving out of the way of a non-hitscan attack. It will be a guaranteed crit and proc, and will bypass all defenses (read: finisher damage). Demise Foreseen's damage is based off of the weapon used and only benefits one projectile, so it naturally rewards heavier single-shot weapons such as sniper rifles and bows. Enemies killed with Demise Foreseen-buffed attacks will yield affinity for the Warframe, not the weapon used.

 

2- Clairvoyance

Delphi grants herself and her allies the ability to see the battlefield clearly, getting the ability to see through fog, smoke, rain, and darkness with perfect clarity in a cone in front of them. Enemies gain a glowing aura to allow them to be seen easily, and their locations are marked with a red dot on the minimap. Finally, she and her allies gain a small bonus % to ranged damage for the duration. Clairvoyance is a toggle ability with a very, very slow power drain.

 

3- Prediction

Delphi foresees attacks against her, and analyzes the best manner to avoid them. She gains a unique form of auto-parry (which I'm calling "auto-dodge") which protects from all directions and does not interrupt actions such as reloading or firing her primary weapon. She enters into a zen dodge stance and starts dodging bullets basically-- though the animation is cosmetic, and since the game can't possibly know how to dodge the bullets, basically either enemies suffer a crippling accuracy debuff when targeting her or shots clip through her. She is still susceptible to area of effect damage such as from a Bombard or Mutalist Osprey, but is immune to crowd control effects for the duration.

 

4- Augure

Delphi analyzes the quantum state of the room and learns of a simple action she can take that will cause a butterfly effect throughout it. By stomping along just the right line of stress, or by shooting a pipe, or similar, she causes pandemonium throughout the room. Enemies suffer a random combination of the following effects: knockdown, flinch, paralysis (if they were struck by the arc off of a control console or light, similar to Volt's ability), blindness (if sprayed by erupting gas from a pipe or a fissure), confusion, and/or impact damage (or whatever anyone else can think of for this).

 

I know I would play Delphi, but that's because she meshes so perfectly with my sniper playstyle. What do you guys think? Any suggestions for her physical design?

Edited November 18, 2014 by DarthCloakedGuy

[(PSN)jwernecke]

The number 2 ability concept is very awesome IMO.. Not that the others aren't cool but that one hits home..

[TethysGrim]

Thanks jwernecke! I appreciate knowing I'm not a total moron for thinking this was a good idea.

 

Do you have any other thoughts? Maybe something you -don't- like that I can work on fixing?

Edited November 8, 2014 by DarthCloakedGuy

[-BrokenBear-]

dude tbh I hate how much i like this idea XD. I am a sniper myself, like literally always use a sniper. even in PvP i am the type of person to bring a sniper to a soma fight. I have no complaints about this concept but i would love if one of her skills increase fire rate and travel time of bullets for a short time, being a constant lanka user i can testify to how hard it is to hit targtets that are far waya from you

[TethysGrim]

Increasing fire rate would just make Soma-jockeys that much happier, Z-Sync. :)

 

But read carefully what Demise Foreseen does. It flinches the target (read: predicts when they were gonna flinch anyway ;) ) so they won't be able to move out of the way of your Lanka shot, and ensures they're struck dead. ^_^

Edited November 8, 2014 by DarthCloakedGuy

[JetPhox]

An interesting idea for a support machine. I imagine playing this one would be a bit like being a Jedi. The powers seem like they could be excellent supportive measures for your own playstyle, too, kind of like Loki and how he doesn't /directly/ attack enemies, rather making himself or his riends more lethal. If you made the ultimate cataclysmic, I think it would work great.

[JackCroc]

Hmm, these abilities have a neat concept (I can see some similarities to Banshee, Loki, even Volt), but each power is deserving of a response.

 

Demise Foreseen:

This seems useful for sniping builds, and I can see someone getting a lot of use out of this (Dread user). I don't know how well the "flinch" mechanic would work, since it could easily be spammed by efficiency builds to prevent an enemy from attacking (-70% energy brings the cost down to 7.5 energy/cast. A lot of people would love to use that to tie down bosses who aren't immune to CC (includes Lephantis, Ruk to an extent, and a few others) also a guaranteed critical that does finisher damage seems excessive (Dread would be an obvious reason why that is a problem. Considering how cheap 25 energy abilities are, what if it gave Delphi's weapon a flat (read as "after all modifiers") bonus to crit. chance? This would be very beneficial to most sniping weapons, with the right build would guarantee a critical, and since it's added after all mods it wouldn't be exploitable with mods like Point Strike and Critical Delay. Instead of a stagger what about a 50% movement speed penalty that lasts for say, 1-3 seconds? That would be plenty of time to land a shot, and would also bee very useful for teams.

 

Clairvoyance:

This definitely reminds me of Banshee's Sonar ability. Her damage multiplier is pretty high for that, but it looks like you are going for more situational awareness than you are for a damage boost. This seems pretty balanced for a 50 energy ability honestly, and a great contribution to solo play or working as sniper support for a team. It will have some overlap with the Aura mod Enemy Radar, and the Dash Polarity mod Enemy Sense, but on the other hand this does give the team a physical marker to see on screen as well as on the map, so it sets it a part. I'm not sure if I would stick with a toggle function, but that could easily be just a long duration if push came to shove.

 

Prediction:

This seems pretty powerful for a 75 energy ability. Only a few warframes have invulnerability, and immunity to crowd control (such as a Shockwave MOA's stomp) seems a bit much. Perhaps if it had a very limited timespan, On the other hand when compared to say, Loki's invisibility, I can see some tradeoffs here. Enemies can still see and track you, and you are hardly immune to AoE's (those seem to be major killers at high levels, combined with knockdown). Overall I would be skeptical about this being as cheap as it is, but maybe if it were vulnerable to Crowd Control and immune to direct damage that would be fair. After all, if you can't really be hurt then it doesn't matter much if you get knocked down (Bombards aside).

 

Augure: 

This one actually offers something that I think a sniping build could really use: something with crowd control. In fact it wouldn't be incredibly difficult for DE to code because Mirage can "trap" nearby items, and Volt has an ability to do additional damage if he hits electrical devices like ceiling lights or alarm panels. I would add a slight amount of damage, similar to Loki's Radial Disarm so you can do a small amount of damage to Osprey with this. Other than tinkering with how long the debuffs last or the radius I don't see much wrong with this.

 

Overall I would say Delphi offers a lot of abilities that snipers would want, without becoming difficult to balance. I did recommend some tweaks, but overall this could be a great Warframe to add to the Lotus' army.

[motorfirebox]

For #1, how about a damage bonus related to how close your reticle is to the target? So if you're waving your weapon in the general vicinity of the target when you use your Demise Forseen round, you get no bonus, but if you're sighted in for a headshot your total damage is increased by 10%.

 

Also, I don't know where you could fit it in, but it seems like this frame would be perfect for a cheap 3-second AOE slow. Essentially, Delphi uses her predictive abilities to provide the entire team with advanced targeting information, giving everyone a short burst of bullet time. Maybe that could be a syndicate augment for Demise Forseen?

 

Also, her #1 power (maybe all her powers) need to not interrupt aim.

[TethysGrim]

Thank you for your thoughts regarding her powers. I didn't realize there was an assumed 25-50-75-100 progression for the powers! (since none of the Warframes I have have that specific progression).

 

What about looks? What should our oracle look like?

[TethysGrim]

Shameless bump. My apologies.

 

I've imagined some sort of cowl for her, perhaps some large ornament in the middle of the face. The trick is to not end up looking like Lotus...

[motorfirebox]

Maybe a hood, like the N7 Fury. Maybe also eyespots on her hands, like Excal Prime and Nyx Prime, except that she'd actually user hers in her power animations. Definitely three eyespots on her head, as a "third eye" visual reference. Maybe when using one of her powers, she puts her hand up to her head, palm outward, synching her "third eye" with one of her palm eyes? For other powers, her third eye opens up and glows or somesuch?

 

Another possibility, her hood actually hangs down over her face most of the time, concealing it. One or more of her power animations involves pulling her hood up to reveal her face, or pulling the hood all the way back to reveal her entire head.

Edited November 10, 2014 by motorfirebox

[TethysGrim]

Hm... an idea is coming together... I might be able to draw this after all. Thank you motorfirebox! I appreciate the input.

[TethysGrim]

Alright, I've drawn my concept. I'll post it as soon as I have access to a scanner.

[TethysGrim]

Argh, still haven't found a scanner.

[TethysGrim]

So I just bought a scanner from a friend.

 

...it doesn't work.

 

badluckbrian.png

[Grunni]

You gonna ever keep developing this one? I think this has great potential. Her powers are original, cohesive, and support a playstyle that doesn't currently get enough love.

[JadePhoenix917]

I enjoy the offbeat feel of this Warframe. It has a sense of the unusual without being unfamiliar, strong in multiple situations and capable of multiple roles as a Frame. While I can't offer much in the way of tweaks and adjustments, I'm sure the community will help you. All I can say is that this is a great concept.

[Muroidea]

Fiddling with a bunch of Warframe ideas myself, so I started flipping through the Concept Index real quick. Mostly just skimming accross those without art, (I'm an art student, what can I say) but this one made me look twice.

 

I just love this idea. It's simple, unique, and the powers make sense. Augure also has so much potential, with different effects for all manner of tilesets. Definitely a concept that needs a bit more attention.

[TrashSpider]

Number 2 is definitely eye catching after reading it, I rather get this class after sniper/shotgun rework though since their not really up to par with certain weapons today.