[Warframe Concept] Caliburn, The Sword Master

[Shion963]

Design Concept:
A Warframe similar to the Excalibur, but geared more towards offense rather than mobility. Its ability/playstyle is more towards a DPS/Damage Dealing-role with some CC/Stun capabilities, centering around melee.

 

Description:
"A master of melee weaponry, CALIBURN utilises an array of lightning-fast sword techniques to devastate his opponents."

Stats:
Health: 150 (300 maxed)
Shield capacity: 100 (250 maxed)
Shield recharge: 22.5
Power: 150 (225 maxed)
Armor: 50
Sprint speed: 1.0
Polarities:
4 scratch (=)
1 V
1 Dash (-)    

Abilities:
Strong Arm - 35 power

"Caliburn charges the capacitors on his arms, drastically increasing melee damage"

 

-Causes 1/1/2/3 blue orbs to appear on Caliburn's right forearm (Pre-U7 mod 'spheres' texture) for 10/10/20/30 seconds.
-Tapping melee does an instant charge attack that deals an added 50/50/60/70 armor-ignore damage, and uses up a 'charge'.
-Cost: 2/3/4/5
-Affected by Focus and Continuity

This power is balanced by the weapon itself: Glaive/Kestrel requires you to wait for the weapon's return, so the rate at which charge attacks can be pulled off is essentially "regulated". Weapons with longer reach usually takes more time to swing, and vice-versa.

Sonic Slash - 50 power

"Executes a flurry of blows that create stunning pressure waves"

 

-Does a little jig where Caliburn swings/punches 3/3/4/5 times for 100 35/40/45/50% armor-ignore damage each hit (uses standard attack animation, but not and weapon's speed). Can crit based on melee weapon.
-Generates one 2m wide wave that stuns and damages (50dmg, armor reduced) with each move.
-Wave travels for 8/8/10/14 meters and goes through objects/enemies.
-Does not lock user in place, waves travel in a horizontal plane in the direction that Caliburn is facing.
-Cost: 4/5/6/7
-Affected by Focus and Reach (wave travel distance)

For all intents and purposes this skill is aimed somewhat like a 2m wide 'beam' where the terminus is 8/8/10/14m from Caliburn, to wherever the reticule is pointing. A skilled user can pan it side to side to deal with a wide line of enemies, or focus on one enemy for moderate damage. Being in melee range deals weapon damage, added armor-ignore damage, the staggering wave's damage. Balanced by risk of being in melee range for high damage, or moderate range for moderate damage.

Changed flat damage to percent-based, and also uses the weapon's attack animation and speed. Mastery of a weapon will lead to increased power of the user.

 

Indomitable Will - 50 power

"A wave of force bolsters allies and intimidates enemies, weakening their defenses"

-Unleashes an AOE wave with a radius of 7/7/8/10 meters.
-Applies a debuffs to enemies, making them more susceptible to attacks for 10s.(50% bonus damage from guns, 75% damage from melee).
-Any teammates in range (self included) would trigger a one-time 5m staggering wave, that knocks down enemies within 2m radius.
-Cost: 6/7/8/9
-Affected by Reach (initial wave, ally triggered wave is constant) and Continuity (debuff duration)

Created with Banshee's Sonar in mind. Intended to be a co-op promoting team CC/buff for coordinated use to for taking  the initiative against a large number of enemies, or for rescuing downed teammates. Sounds more 'fitting' now that Rhino/Volt's skills are AOE buffs instead of selfish buffs.

Cleaving Strike - 100 power

"Caliburn locks his opponent in place and delivers a deadly leaping strike. Nearby enemies are dispatched in quick succession."

-Targeted AOE, similar to Ash's Bladestorm. Target must be in sight within 15 meters
-Stuns targeted enemy, does a forward-leaping animation (similar to an Infested Leaper) that ends with downward slash/punch on target. All nearby enemies in a 12/12/15/18 meters are damaged by illusionary/holographic Slash-Dashing Caliburns (radiates outward from inital target)
-Deals 1000/1000/1000/1000 armor-ignore damage on initial target, 'secondary' attacks deal armor-reduced damage.
-Cost: 10/11/12/13
-Affected by Focus (intital strike, and phantom's Slash Dash) and Reach (phantom Dash radius only)

...what else do I say about it? It's an Uber. ;p

The 15m set range requirement and armor-reduced secondary damage is to prevent Caliburn to be a "Ult-frame". Any enemy that didn't die (i.e. Ancients) would probably whomp a reckless ult-spamming Caliburn into the ground.

Added armor-reduction on secondary 'phase'.

Thanks for reading, any comments and constructive criticism is welcome! \o/

 

EDIT: Removed the "Suggestion" from title as it's already moved to the fan concepts forum.
EDIT 2: Some rephrases and changes, added spoilered "design notes".

 

Edited July 14, 2013 by Shion963

[hakma1]

Nice like rice with infested chunks on it and a jackal fork to eat it with and a bowl made of grineer rollers cut in half.

[Shion963]

Nice like rice with infested chunks on it and a jackal fork to eat it with and a bowl made of grineer rollers cut in half.

Thats... really nice...?

[ShAd0wF1AmE]

While I would like the idea of an offensive melee frame, Excalibur kinda fits the bill. Also:

1) First ability is fine, except it should cost 25 energy. I also wouldn't mind a better name, but whatevs.

2) Sonic Blade is a great skill as is, I think it's fine.

3)Indomitable Will, as is, is overpowered as ****. Here's what I think it should be:

War Cry - 75 Energy

"[description]"

-The AoE range is fine

-Casting this will automatically buff you and teammates in range to deal 5% bonus gun damage and 20% bonus melee damage. Enemies in range are instead debuffed to take 10% extra gun damage and 30% extra melee damage. These bonuses are allowed to stack, and the duration would be 5/5/7/10. The melee/gun boost ratio is greater since this is a melee frame. Also the 50/75 bonus is just WAAAAAYYYY too much. You could kill bosses in seconds.

-The "stagger wave" is removed

-Everything else is fine

4)This sounds like a cool ultimate, but the leap would cause problems in tight spaces. I can't think of much here, but it could use some reworking.

But once again let me remind you: Excalibur is DE's answer to this.

[Shion963]

1) First ability is fine, except it should cost 25 energy. I also wouldn't mind a better name, but whatevs.

2) Sonic Blade is a great skill as is, I think it's fine.

3)Indomitable Will, as is, is overpowered as ****. Here's what I think it should be:

War Cry - 75 Energy

"[description]"

-The AoE range is fine

-Casting this will automatically buff you and teammates in range to deal 5% bonus gun damage and 20% bonus melee damage. Enemies in range are instead debuffed to take 10% extra gun damage and 30% extra melee damage. These bonuses are allowed to stack, and the duration would be 5/5/7/10. The melee/gun boost ratio is greater since this is a melee frame. Also the 50/75 bonus is just WAAAAAYYYY too much. You could kill bosses in seconds.

-The "stagger wave" is removed

-Everything else is fine

4)This sounds like a cool ultimate, but the leap would cause problems in tight spaces. I can't think of much here, but it could use some reworking.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

The name, like all of my suggestions, is just tentative. I'm more towards the concept/role rather than design, moniker, or aesthetics.

I am aware that Excalibur is well suited for Melee, but it's skill is geared more towards mobility rather than standing there and slashing stuff without being a tanki. The drive to create Caliburn came from Dragon Nest's  Sword Master class, which focuses solely on sword skills, whether it is a single high-damage slash, or shockwave generating slashes. The Sword Master isn't exactly a static class, just that it doesn't have Mobility skills.

 

On to the powers:

1) I put it as 35 because IMHO making it a 25 power ability would make it so spammable, there's not really any incentive to use the other three.

 

3) I built this power solely around teamplay, much like Banshee's Sonar which I use extensively, so the values are aimed to make it 'Caliburn's Sonar'. The 50%gun/75%melee buff is quite reduced to Sonar's 4x to all damage, balanced around the fact that Sonar requires you to aim for the weakspot. I put it as 1.5x/1.75x since it's a 'whole body' debuff, and requires less skill to trigger, therefore less rewards. The scaling duration is a nice suggestion, btw!

 

The stagger wave is a further encouragement towards teamplay, as cells with Caliburn amongst them would benefit more staying together loosely, always in assistance range. Someone about to be downed by three Ancients, and everyone else is occupied by Chargers and Leapers? Use this skill to give everyone in range some breathing room.

The knockdown/stagger radius could use some nerfing, as 2m for knockdown would be quite a large radius.

 

But I could see how having both crowd-control AND damage boost qualities in one skill would be overpowered. Perhaps it needs to be two skills, one CC and one buff. :/

 

4) I apologise if I was unclear, the 'leap' is more like Excal's Super Jump, which is a straight leap forward with very little verticality to it. Making it like a FF-esque Dragoon jump would be too much, since most of the game is indeed in relatively low ceilinged corridors.

 

 

And yes, Excalibur is the melee warframe. But he's not the answer to my question. I'm one of those morons that prefers to use normal slash attack because it's cool and fun, rather than build my Gram for optimum damage output with Killing Blow and Reflex Coil. :/ Maybe I'm just an idiot looking for a swordsman or warrior in a ninja/spellcaster game.

[VoidWraith]

for some reason when i saw "Sonic Blast" and the description of the skill you gave it, i just imagined someone doing quick draws in succession with the sword like in those samurai movies....

[Shion963]

for some reason when i saw "Sonic Blast" and the description of the skill you gave it, i just imagined someone doing quick draws in succession with the sword like in those samurai movies....

 

It's basically the anime-esque "sword pressure waves" skills ^^;

[X3Evanescence]

Awesome Idea!

[Shion963]

Updated the OP with some skill tweaks and additions.

[-Data-Reaper-]

can i have permission to start mking art for him? i love the idea!

[Shion963]

can i have permission to start mking art for him? i love the idea!

 

Please do! As far as design goes I only have a slightly more armored and less mobile Excal in mind when creating his stats. Like Ash's layered plate armguard on some parts of Excal.

 

I just hope that DEvs see that there's an interest in something other than "elemental" 'frames.

[Archwizard]

Just to nitpick but... you are aware that the name Excalibur is derived from Caliburn, right? So basically you just named the frame Proto-Excalibur.

 

There are quite a few other swords and sword names you could have gone with- Tyrfing, Durendal... I would've gone with Masamune, just because it's recognizable.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Archwizard

[-Data-Reaper-]

Please do! As far as design goes I only have a slightly more armored and less mobile Excal in mind when creating his stats. Like Ash's layered plate armguard on some parts of Excal.

 

I just hope that DEvs see that there's an interest in something other than "elemental" 'frames.

hey dude i made a couple concepts for you but can you tell me you emil or something so i can send them to you? its easier for me to do that. also if you have anymore request for the frames (fixes etc.) then just lemme know!

[-Data-Reaper-]

btw sorry for late reply, i wasnt notified that you replied until today.