Ember - Making Her More Pyromanical!

[Azamagon]

As I was looking over my big Warframe thread, it always bothered me that I couldn't seem to give good suggestions to Ember. She has always been the Warframe giving me the most headache on how I would make her more viable, and with her own unique niche.

 

But now I think I finally thought of some pretty neat ideas. Good enough to even do a seperate thread about it!

Note that these ideas aren't my final thoughts or anything like that, more like a good starting point upon which she can be expanded in more interesting ways!

 

Here it is, quoted from my thread:

 

EMBER

Archetype: World Burner (Meaning: Leaving DoT effects ALL OVER THE PLACE!)

Ember, while decently capable of dealing damage (although, not so much lategame), certainly falls short in terms of utility. 3 abilities are all about damage with minimal side-effects and makes her very bland and non-versatile. Damage should still be her focus, but some utility certainly wouldn't be bad. Also, the synergy is very lacking. Probably the most problematic Warframe for me to tweak. Even more so, since she doesn't have a very distinct niche of archetype.

 

So, that said, I wanted to change her quite a lot - By giving her a new, more unique niche - World Burner. Just an experimental idea to give Ember a new style, something no other Warframe does in the same way: Leaving damaging areas all over the battlefield, and then spreading that fire like a true Pyromaniac!. Think of it as a more damageoriented and a bit less CC-oriented version of Hydroid. With that, she doesn't NEED to have much survivability from her kit >:)

 

* Lingering Fire - This is something that occurs with most of her abilities. It is simply a patch of fire left on the ground, which deals 50 Heat damage per second and has a 0% proc chance. Duration and size depends on the ability. Not directly affected by any modding. These patches of fire can stack in their damage.

NOTE: Remember that I said that I'd like Heat procs to be stackable? For Ember, this is particularly important.

 

* Fireball - Deals 150/225/300/400 Heat damage in a 7 meter radius, with 100% heat proc chance. All enemies within a 4 meter radius from the impact point are also knocked down. Direct contact with the fireball deals an additional 100/150/200/250 Blast damage to the target. In the 7 meter radius, the "Lingering Fire" effect is added, lasting 7/8/9/10 seconds.

Power Strength - Affects damage

Power Range - Affects radius (both damageradius and knockdown radius)

Power Duration - Affects Lingering Fire duration

 

* Accelerant - Still stuns enemies, but now only amplifies the damage dealt by her abilities (including Lingering Fire patches), by 25/50/75/100%, rather than all Heat damage. As (a massive) compensation, it causes enemies affected by Accelerant to have a 100% proc chance from Lingering Fire patches (This means it can deal a CRAPLOAD of damage to enemies that remain in these patches, due to Heat Procs being able to stack now). Furthermore, enemies suffering from Accelerant will spread all their heat procs (but only from her abilities though) to other enemies, if they walk close to each other. This spreading radius is 1/1,5/2/2,5 meters. Enemies that die while affected by Accelerant and DoTs can still spread their current DoTs while they lay as charred corpses...

Power Strength - Affects ability amplificationdebuff

Power Range - Affects accelerant wave radius and spreading radius (NEW!)

Power Duration - Affects debuff duration

 

* Fire Blast Icarus Dive - Changed up quite a bit: Upon activation, Ember sets herself on fire and travels in the target direction with a speed of 30 meters per second at all levels (invulnerable meanwhile). Upon activating the ability again, or upon hitting the environment, or upon reaching the maximum distance (25/30/35/40 meters), Ember stops and lets loose a fiery blastwave (graphics like the Arson Eximus' Fire Blast) with a 18/20/22/25 meter radius, pushing enemies back 5 meters, and leaves Lingering Fire as it expands, (Lingering Fire lasts 5/6/7/8 seconds in a 23/25/27/30 meter radius, so enemies pushed back always land in the fire patch). Enemies coming within 2 meters of Ember while she travels are ragdolled with a slight pushback and suffer 50/100/150/200 Heat damage (0% proc chance). Enemies hit by the blastwave are ragdolled far away (but never beyond the Lingering Fire radius) and are dealt 200/300/400/500 damage, dealt 50/50 as Blast and Heat (0% proc chance). Still costs 75 energy.

Power Strength - Affects damages

Power Range - Affects touch radius, blastwave radius and Lingering Fire radius (NEW!)

Power Duration - Affects maximum travel distance and Lingering Fire duration (NEW!)

 

* World on Fire - Now is purely a toggle ability, its direct buff-duration unaffected by modding. Proc chance is now ALWAYS 100%. Each individual explosion now has a 3 meter radius and leaves a Lingering Fire patch for 8/10/12/15 seconds in the same radius. Also, while active, leaves Lingering Fire patches every second in a 3 meter radius around Ember herself, each with a 3/4/5/6 second duration.

Power Strength - Affects damage

Power Range - Affects radius (explosion's targetting radius and individual explosion radius, thus also the Lingering Fire radius)

Power Duration - Affects Lingering Fire durations (both from explosions and those around Ember) (NEW!)

 

This gives all abilities a simple synergy - They spread Lingering Fire in various ways, while Accelerant makes these Lingering Fire patches very, very deadly:

* Fireball spreads it from a safe distance, as well as knocks enemies down to keep them in the fire patches

* World on Fire spreads it closeby, stacks it very rapidly, and in a powerful manner, albeit a bit randomly

* Icarus Dive grants mobility (further good synergy with WoF), and grants a massive patch of fire, as well as some pushback and CC upon landing.

* Accelerant makes the world burn far, far more intensely...

 

*** Augments ***

* Fire Frenzy - Any ally (including Ember herself) caught in the initial explosion radius gets the damage boost!

* Fire Fright - Needs a revamp, thinking of what to do with it.

[Phyrak]

I dig it +1

[IfritKajiTora]

Frost Slowing enemies and freeze the whole AoE
Mag damaging them with Fire everywhere AoE and set them randomly on fire and they panic.

[Azamagon]

I dig it +1

Thanks :)

 

Frost Slowing enemies and freeze the whole AoE

Mag damaging them with Fire everywhere AoE and set them randomly on fire and they panic.

I... ummm... what? Oo

[Terrornaut]

Some of the abilities do too many things, but generally would be fun. Fireball would have to lose either the guaranteed heat proc or the knockdown(Banshee's 1 could really use a buff).

Icarus Dive needs a smaller blast radius, otherwise its a room clear CC and major mobility tool...which isn't a bad thing at all, it just goes beyond the fairly linear function of most abilities, excusing m prime anyway. I'd lose the ragdoll passing by and leave it to the end blast itself, with a larger lingering flame field created.

I like the functionality of lingering flames replacing fire blast. Its a much more interesting way to deploy potential CC without the point blank danger requirement. Accelerant I feel like should just spread heat dots regardless of source, spreading the highest damaging one to either nearby enemies, or just applying the highest active dmg dot to accelerant's radius. Either way, creating a hazardous battlefield full of potential fire could be pretty fun.

[Azamagon]

Some of the abilities do too many things, but generally would be fun. Fireball would have to lose either the guaranteed heat proc or the knockdown(Banshee's 1 could really use a buff).

Icarus Dive needs a smaller blast radius, otherwise its a room clear CC and major mobility tool...which isn't a bad thing at all, it just goes beyond the fairly linear function of most abilities, excusing m prime anyway. I'd lose the ragdoll passing by and leave it to the end blast itself, with a larger lingering flame field created.

I like the functionality of lingering flames replacing fire blast. Its a much more interesting way to deploy potential CC without the point blank danger requirement. Accelerant I feel like should just spread heat dots regardless of source, spreading the highest damaging one to either nearby enemies, or just applying the highest active dmg dot to accelerant's radius. Either way, creating a hazardous battlefield full of potential fire could be pretty fun.

Thanks for the constructive criticism, I'll keep your suggestions in mind! :)

What effects abilities directly do could always be changed (such as removing the ragdoll when touching Ember during Icarus Dive, reducing the blastwave's range etc), of course. But I think she really needs some decent and reliable CC (such as the knockdown on Fireball), as she doesn't have any way direct survivability other than the indirect one; by staying aggressive.

 

About how Accelerant spreads Ember's various dots and such, well, that I'm not entirely sure of how they should work exactly, but I'm glad that you find the concept of creating fiery hazards all over the place interesting, as do I. That's kind of the main point with those suggestions, changing her so she actually FEELS different, rather than just being a kind of generic nuker (just like Limbo certainly feels very unique, for example).

 

A little further note: If I make changes to these Ember suggestions, they will be done in the linked thread in the OP, not in this thread.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Azamagon

[Azamagon]

If anyone liked my ideas here, then be sure to check this out. That guy also suggested something similar, but in a far more interesting way and better scaling way.

Edited February 1, 2015 by Azamagon

[Reaver_X]

Personally, i think making WoF both Toggleable AND still have duration is really really dumb, u try getting the best of both worlds but instead get the worst. Seriously pick one or the other. Honestly DE should just turn WoF into a Toggle only and get rid of that duration. It'd make ember a massive DPS beast. The Beast she deserves to be.