Focus 1.0 (Because We All Know It Is Not Even There Yet)

[DrBorris]

I guess I should apologize for the snide title, it was not intended to be negative, but as a positive notion that we can agree Focus needs work. Whatever though.

 

I am pretty sure we can all agree that the Focus system has Beta if not Alpha written all over it. Thus, I would not even give what we have now enough credit to be a 1.0 system, it is a 0.8 at best.

 

Background

Focus is said to be “end game,” right? Now, if you ask most veterans out there I would think a fancy fifth ability is not necessarily what they are looking for when trying to optimize their kit. We have 20 Warframes, all with their own abilities, why would we want to limit ourselves to just one fancy ability on a massive cooldown when we have the massive amount of abilities from the Warframes themselves that can adapt to any mission? This is why I think we should focus (heh) on the passive aspect of Focus. The abilities themselves will be largely useless 95% of the time, but those passives can be quite nice.

 

Another problem with the Focus system is that it has an “end.” If DE wants a system for players to grow for the entirety of their Warframe life, it can’t have a “congratulations, you finished.” Also, you should be rewarded for sticking to one Focus School rather than spreading yourself amongst many (hypocritical statement because I am ranking three atm, but this may be a bad sign of the Focus system.).

 

So I began ranking Vazarin, the Focus I chose through the Quest. But at some point I came to the conclusion that I would be gaining better rewards if I was putting my Focus affinity towards other Schools. Once I got the Insta-revives and the invinci-bubble it felt like ranking any higher would hinder me more than assist me. I eventually just removed the invincibubble because it was more useful to have less time between casting for more revives/healing. Why? Because of that stupid cooldown. For me the best part of Vazarin is those revives. And if I want to rank up stuff further, I would have to increase the time between getting those revives. So… I stopped ranking and moved on to Zenurik. This is bad, very bad. The system that was meant to be end game literally stopped me from playing it because the more effort I put in, the less powerful it made me feel.

 

The Rework

Let’s get started. First of all, no more increasing cooldown as you add new abilities. However, to compensate for this change the base cooldown should be increased to 5 min. This is actually probably much lower than what people are running with atm and you would still be able to decrease the cooldown.

 

Focus Gain

Note: When I say a percentage of an enemies focus affinity, I am referring to the 2.5%/6.8% of Focus affinity gained from an enemy’s total affinity. Just use common sense.

 

I don’t like shared affinity, it just asks for leaching. Sure, in some cases it could be better than what we have now, but in some cases it will much, much worse.

 

Affinity gained with a weapon does NOT get split in half and distributed to the Warframe anymore. Now before you all go “but that would make lenses on support frames useless”, hear me out.

 

Here are some new classifications for Warframe abilities that will correlate to new ways to gain affinity to a Warframe.

Killing an enemy: with an ability works the same as it does now, 100% of the affinity that enemy is worth is calculated into focus gain.

 

Warframe altering abilities: These are abilities that boost some aspect of your Warframe, if that is a damage boost, damage reduction, speed increase or etcetera. Warframe altering abilities will have 50% of the total affinity of killing an enemy put towards your Warframe. This 50% does NOT take away from any affinity gained by the weapon, it is an additional amount.

 

Team buffs: Does it increase some statistic of your team mates? Then it is a team buff. Any enemy your ally kills with your team buff active will net you 20% of the total Affinity the killed enemy was worth.

 

Crowd Control: If an enemy is killed that has any type of crowd control on it, 20% of the affinity from that enemy will go towards the person who CC’d the enemy.

 

Other: Some abilities like Desecrate or the healing/energy regen abilities need their own rules. Like for desecrate maybe 10% of the killed enemy’s total affinity per additional drop from a body. Blessing, Energy Vampire, and Renewal are harder though. In order to make them un-exploitable but still have them scale with enemy level is a challenge.

 

So, if you are invisible with Loki (only Loki has a lens) and you kill an enemy worth 100 affinity, you will have 50 affinity go towards Loki. Or, a more complicated example, if Ivara is in Prowl and uses Navigator to kill an enemy with her Artimus bow, she would theoretically get 200% of the total affinity of the enemy put towards her (full affinity of the enemy because it was killed by Ivara’s ability, 50% because Navigator is altering Ivara’s damage, then another 50% because she is in prowl).

 

Will this be a hefty buff to Focus gain? Yes, yes it will. I would actually recommend cutting Focus gain to 75% of what it is now to compensate, and I am pretty sure with the above changes we would still be gaining focus at a much higher rate.

 

No More Mutual Exclusiveness

I should not need to have Chimera Breath active in order to use Dragon Fire. I would go out and say the Focus “Tree” should die. We should be able to work on what we want and use what we want, not be forced to have/use things we don’t want. More on that below.

 

Rework the “Tree”

When you open Focus you would see all of the different additional aspects you can add to the base ability along with an icon for the base ability. No more lines connecting the new aspects. If you want to unlock Weight of Justice without unlocking Crushing Force, you are free to do so. You unlock the abilities in the same way you do now, with a large sum of Focus Affinity. But you no longer rank up an aspect in the same way. For example, if an aspect has a damage portion and duration portion, you would rank those two up separately. So if you were ranking Umbra Lance, once you selected the aspect three more icons would pop up. One for the damage, one for the range and one for the duration. You would be able to rank these up in any way you wish, so you could go all in on damage and duration while leaving the range small or maybe just have a huge range and duration for a more nuke like ability. That is not the only change with ranking up abilities though…

 

Unlimited Ranking

No more dots. Once you unlock an aspect the different portions of it just become a sink for you to dump your Focus Affinity into. How this would work is you would simply feed Focus Affinity into the part and it would increase the potency of the ability point by point. So rather than steps it would be more of a continuous curve. This curve would have diminishing return, so you would gain benefits must faster at first than later on, but you would be able to rank up a part into infinity.

Okay, because I am too lazy to come up with a fancy equation, here is a picture.

Picture not to scale in the least.

So, as you put in more affinity, the amount that the stat increases per affinity diminishes over time. However, you could technically keep adding affinity forever.

 

More Passives Please

First of all, Passives no longer require you to use the ability first. I have no idea why this was put in in the first place, all it does is encourage us to hide in the deploy area of a mission until we can use our Focus.

 

Madurai

-What if it made your shots more impactful? Just add a passive that adds a chance to trigger an impact proc for any weapon. Don’t diminish the power of this, imagine being able to perma-stunlock entire groups of enemies with your weapons.

-Add a Vex armor like passive (but only shields). You get extra damage to everything for every loss of shield and a massive boost when shields are at 0%. (you would rank those up seperatly)

-So we have the +physical damage passives already, lets add a +elemental one. Also, all of these should be made into one aspect, the moar damage aspect, but of course they would all be ranked separately.

Vazarin

-Why the hell does this school not have a Rejuvenation knock off? Just… yeah, give it some sort of Rejuvination.

-Also, what about a weak Life Strike? All strikes with melee replenish a small bit of health for how much damage done (very weak in comparison to life strike, but still useful).

Naramon

-Madurai got the impact proc chance, Naramon gets a radiation proc chance.

-Eh, Naramon already has two of the bet passives, we’ll stop here.

Unairu

-I know there is already a Heavy Impact mod, but wouldn’t it be cool if this was a passive for the rock school?

-Honestly the other Passives are pretty good, they just need buffs (which I will get into later).

Zenurik

-Knowing where the enemy seems to be a trend, so why not Enemy Radar.

-Increase movement… stuff (you can increase wall latch, aim glide, bullet jump, run speed and roll speed seperatly).

 

 

Reworks of All the Other Ability’s Aspects

Just as an fyi, the base numbers for a lot of this stuff should be nerfed. In one day of Focus grinding you can become way too powerful. So, while in the end these reworks will leave Focus more powerful than it is now, it will probably be a nerf for someone who has just started.

Madurai

Phoenix Gaze: Now does finisher damage… ta da, end game. When you click on this to rank it up you can rank the damage, range and duration separately.

Phoenix Gaze Mastery: Basically the same, just with the infinite ranking stuff.

Blazing Fury: This, Searing Wrath, and Burning Rage will be combined into one aspect. When you unlock it you basically get +5 damage. However, when you open up this new aspect you rank up the physical and elemental +damage separately. This means you can rank +Slash and +Elemental without ranking +Impact at all.

Searing Wrath: See Blazing Fury

Burning Rage: See Blazing Fury

Phoenix Flash: Make this an aspect of Phoenix Gaze (when you click Phoenix Gaze, you can increase your movement speed). However, remove the range reduction.

Rising Ashes: 1000 damage? You have got to be kidding me. Base would be 8000 damage with a 100% blast proc (make em fly). Range and damage can be ranked separately.

Chimera Breath: Adds two beams to the sides of the original that deal 15% damage (so the original beam till does the same damage as originally). It will start off at base with the range of these beams as pretty short. Range and damage of the beams are ranked separately.

Hades Touch: Eh, with the fire rate of Phoenix Gaze 5% is pretty high, so I’d just buff it to 10% (but remember, things can be ranked to infinity). But as a little addition make the damage from the fire proc be separately ranked, starting at 500 damage per second. Chance to ignite and damage ranked separately.

Meteorite: Rank up the percentage of damage it does to nearby enemies and the range separately.

Dragon Fire: This one is fine, just have the damage and duration ranked separately. Maybe also add a range aspect to it, increase the range of the fire patch.

Vazarin

Mending Tides: The duration, waves per second, range, and amount healed per wave is ranked separately.

Minding Tides Mastery: Basically the same, just with the infinite ranking stuff.

New Moon: This one can’t really be ranked forever due to its nature, so it would stay exactly as it is now.

Disciplined Approach: Eh, fine as it is.

Retaliation: Rank the damage reduction and damage reflected separately.

Mending Shower: Make it a part of Mending Tides sans the reduction in effectiveness.

Polluted Waters: Sigh, what dingus came up with this? Just pop into Mending tides, pop out, and use your instant revives instead of trolling everyone. Now how this works is rather than instantly reviving it just starts the revive (so it takes time). The range of reviving and speed of revive are separately ranked.

Protection Ward: Add the stun from Commanding Words into this and call it a day.

Commanding Words: merge with Protection Ward.

Strengthened Defenses: Make it a radial massive Shield regeneration boost rather than waves. So like 100 shields regenerated per second (plus over shields). Range and effectiveness are affected separately.

Guardian Presence: Add the stagger from Commanding Words.

Naramon

Mind Spike: Range, width, burst per second, duration of stun and duration of confusing ranked separately.

Mind Spike Mastery: Basically the same, just with the infinite ranking stuff.

Mind Blast: Combined into Mind Spike, but without the range nerf.

Traumatic Redirection: I don’t know exactly how this works, but it seems pretty cool in concept. I can’t give a good opinion on this with the knowledge I have.

Tactical Strike: Eh, seems fine, just rank up the duration and critical buff separately.

Reveal Weakness: This one is fine too.

Sundering Blast: This one is also alright.

Cloaking Aura: Wow, 4 in a row that seem decent.

Strategic Execution: This school is honestly not that bad.

Deadly Intent: Synergy? Check.

Shadow Step: Okay, this needs a nerf. Not a nerf to its potency but a nerf of its ease of attainment. 4 seconds of invisibility from one day of Focus cap is OP, don’t try to defend it. All this one needs are for the affinity required to rank it to be increased… by a lot.

Unairu

Basilisk Flare: Range, speed of stoning, duration stoned, and duration of ability are all ranked separately.

Basilisk Flare Mastery: Basically the same, just with the infinite ranking stuff.

Stone Shape: Sigh… DE, why you do dis? Make it an additive armor bonus, base of 100.

Medusa Skin: This one’s fine, just rank the duration of stoning and chance seperatly.

Mighty Blows: Turn this into a real passive, so no more duration. Or… maybe have it remove like 50% armor (base) for a duration. Up to DE.

Scorched Earth: Range, duration and damage affected separately.

Lasting Judgment: No need for it as you can rank up speed of stoning separately in Basilisk Flare.

Crushing Force: Make it finisher damage and we have a deal, probably needs a damage buff though.

Weight of Justice: Again, Finisher damage and this is alright.

Stone Armor: How about +100 armor at base? Then rank up duration and armor amount separately.

Eroded Defenses: 10%? Sigh, more like 40% base. Actually, make it 100% armor reduction while petrified but down to 40% if they un-petrify.

Zenurik

Void Pulse: Range, width, pulse per second and duration ranked separately.

Void Pulse Mastery: Basically the same, just with the infinite ranking stuff.

Time Stream: No, just… no. It increases speed for a certain duration, no BS downsides. It should also increase you to a ludicrous speed and affect all movement (Bullet Jump, roll, running). The speed increase and duration are separate.

Temporal Storm: Same as Time Stream.

Energy Overflow: Eh, this one is fine, maybe make the affinity required a bit higher though.

Systemic Override: This ability is honestly fine. Having it duration based is pretty cool, think of it as a massive spam fest. So… have this ability ignore the 75% rule, be able to rank up the efficiency and duration, and I would say it is a pretty potent ability.

Energy Spike: This one is fine.

Energy Surge: 2 energy per second? What? A base of 5 energy per second at least. You can rank duration, energy per second and range separately.

Rift Sight: Make the base duration 10 seconds and be able to rank up the range and duration separately and we have a deal.

Umbra Lance: Make it deal finisher damage every .25 seconds (so 1000 damage per tick at base) then be able to rank the damage, range and range separately.

Magnetic Aftershock: This one is fine, just be able to rank the range along with duration.

 

Alright, that’s it from me for now. I would love to hear as much feedback as possible because I am sure there are ways this could be made better. 

Edited January 23, 2016 by DrBorris

[Sirabot]

I'm not even going to read this post because the title was SNIDE.

(Because We All Know It Is Not Even There Yet)

 

OH, you don't say! That's why it says every-single-time you open the focus menu in-game that the feature is a beta.

 

Edit: I MIGHT read it.

Edit2: I read the first sentence. Why yes, actually it does have beta written all over it. *I'm leaving now*

Edit3: You have a lot of typos and at least one incomplete sentence. You should probably reread this and fix the errors.

"First of all, Passives no longer require you to use the ability first. I have no idea why this was put in in the first place, all it does is make" Example of a sentence you didn't finish.

 

And honestly, I don't see a complete overhaul in the way the focus system functions as of yet. I'd rather them just leave it alone for awhile, tweak it as needed and work on other stuff for awhile and then come back to it. It's too early for an overhaul or any drastic changes.

 

Edited January 23, 2016 by Sirabot

[Arrectius]

I posted something similar some days ago, but you have way more stuff added, also we had the same ideas in some of the schools, i agree with almost all of here. To be honest i didnt think unairu had a way to be saves but doesnt look that bad when i read what you posted (I recomended a total rework on this school and make the passives increase power strenght, power range and power duration by 10% at max range).

 

I completely agree with the passives being active all the time since the start of the mission. Where we stand right now, those schools are only limited for endless missions.

[DrBorris]

I'm not even going to read this post because the title was SNIDE.

(Because We All Know It Is Not Even There Yet)

 

OH, you don't say! That's why it says every-single-time you open the focus menu in-game that the feature is a beta.

 

Edit: I MIGHT read it.

Edit2: I read the first sentence. Why yes, actually it does have beta written all over it. *I'm leaving now*

Edit3: You have a lot of typos and at least one incomplete sentence. You should probably reread this and fix the errors.

"First of all, Passives no longer require you to use the ability first. I have no idea why this was put in in the first place, all it does is make" Example of a sentence you didn't finish.

 

And honestly, I don't see a complete overhaul in the way the focus system functions as of yet. I'd rather them just leave it alone for awhile, tweak it as need and work on other stuff for awhile and then come back to it. It's too early for an overhaul or any drastic changes.

 

Well, there is a first for everything.

 

I am sorry your great perfectness, we are not all able to be of your grandeur. The "snide" title was a reference to the "Focus 1.0" part because A) I knew someone would say that it was a 2.0 because Focus already exists, so I got that out of the way and because B) in these forums you need something at least a little snide to catch a person to read your post. Have you not noticed that the mellow titles seem to have fewer responses than the exaggerated ones? Sue me for wanting some feedback (It's not like I said "Nerf X"). It is also not as snide as you allude. Have you not seen the many threads that bash Focus as if it is a finished system and is exactly as DE wishes it to be? Sure, those people are often corrected, but it is a good opener to a post about reworking Focus and some people may need reminding. I am acknowledging the general feeling of the community and of DE that Focus is not finished yet. I don't see why this got your panties in such a jumble.

 

I am sorry about that, yes, it did somehow make it past my proofreads. I am actually really confused about the sentence though, I remember finishing it (must've been the computer gnomes. I will go ahead now and fix it, thank you for pointing it out, but you know you could have said that I forgot something nicely, right?

 

Did I call it a "complete overhaul"? Where exactly did I say that? This is a .8 to 1.0 suggestion, not a massive redo of how Focus works. I am trying to suggest some polish, is that not enough for you? Is it only go big or go home? Wait... but then you say tweak it? What? This is tweaking? I am confused....

 

I'd love some feedback on the contents of my proposal though, you seem to think things through a lot (I am not trying to sound like a $&*^ here, this is serious) so your feedback on what is proposed would be pretty good.

[Sirabot]

Well, there is a first for everything.

 

I am sorry your great perfectness, we are not all able to be of your grandeur. The "snide" title was a reference to the "Focus 1.0" part because A) I knew someone would say that it was a 2.0 because Focus already exists, so I got that out of the way and because B) in these forums you need something at least a little snide to catch a person to read your post. Have you not noticed that the mellow titles seem to have fewer responses than the exaggerated ones? Sue me for wanting some feedback (It's not like I said "Nerf X"). It is also not as snide as you allude. Have you not seen the many threads that bash Focus as if it is a finished system and is exactly as DE wishes it to be? Sure, those people are often corrected, but it is a good opener to a post about reworking Focus and some people may need reminding. I am acknowledging the general feeling of the community and of DE that Focus is not finished yet. I don't see why this got your panties in such a jumble.

 

I am sorry about that, yes, it did somehow make it past my proofreads. I am actually really confused about the sentence though, I remember finishing it (must've been the computer gnomes. I will go ahead now and fix it, thank you for pointing it out, but you know you could have said that I forgot something nicely, right?

 

Did I call it a "complete overhaul"? Where exactly did I say that? This is a .8 to 1.0 suggestion, not a massive redo of how Focus works. I am trying to suggest some polish, is that not enough for you? Is it only go big or go home? Wait... but then you say tweak it? What? This is tweaking? I am confused....

 

I'd love some feedback on the contents of my proposal though, you seem to think things through a lot (I am not trying to sound like a $&*^ here, this is serious) so your feedback on what is proposed would be pretty good.

I know I sounded like turd, I was just kidding around, the truth is I was angsty from a different thread and brought it over here. Sorry about that.

I don't actually have any feed back on the focus system as of yet other than Unaru is just bad, and Naramon is probably super OP for Excalibur. I haven't had time to fully explore the focus system as of yet. So I can't really agree to changes yet outside in house Developments. I will say you're right about one thing for sure though, Focus having an "End" point kind of defeats the purpose but I don't really see how they can make it last forever and maintain any kind of balance.

[(PSN)Crimson_Judgment]

i had an Idea that instead of a cooldown for the focus ability it drains X energy /sec and upon deactivation disables Warframe abilities (and maybe energy gain) for X amount of time

 

opinions? would this be better or worse?

[Feallike]

I am on a fence about focus on how good passives should be. On one hand you could have them be very good with tradeoffs on the other hand they can be meh with no trade offs.

 

I would personally love Madurai to be glass canon focus tree focusing on damage damage damage, speed, and a bit of tankiness through passives. Due to it being the tree for the Tenno on the frontline It would make sense for them to be fast, strong, and tankish. \

 

I like your changes, though I am contemplating how strong a Focus passive should be as its endgame, but strong needs a tradeoff and not just be a direct upgrade.

 

Such like I would love for Madurai to have as passive that increased all damage for weapons damage, and elements but in return reduced intake of energy from every source.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Feallike

[Davoodoo]

OH, you don't say! That's why it says every-single-time you open the focus menu in-game that the feature is a beta.

Beta is testing phase, product is feature complete and goal of beta testing is to remove bugs.

If it was called alpha, yea maybe i would believe it if not for de history of 3 year beta label doing nothing that beta should do.

 

Focus atm needs complete redesign.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Davoodoo

[Inmemoratus]

Can I just keep my ridiculous energy regen? I don't want an interesting or well designed focus system. I just want to spam.

[Azamagon]

OP - I think you polished up focus pretty nicely :)

 

Time for some thorough feedback!

 

Things I agreed with:

 

"First of all, no more increasing cooldown as you add new abilities"

Yes, I can totally agreed with this. There are a few designchoices one could make in regards to nodes vs cooldown:

A) Cooldown choices - All nodes add to the cooldown, but the nodes are all pure improvements

B) Ability choices - No nodes add to the cooldown, but the nodes either have small bonuses, or big bonuses along with minor detriments

C) Pure improvement - No nodes add to the cooldown, and all nodes are pure improvements (your suggestion)

D) Downsides galore - All nodes add to the cooldown AND they either have small bonuses, or big bonuses along with detriments (*shudder*)

E) A mixed mess - All nodes add to the cooldown, some nodes are pure improvements, some are just small bonuses, while some bonuses come along with detriments. (which is what we have right now)

 

Of those choices, you suggested C, which is the most "rewarding", and the one I'd recommend too, considering the effort you need to put into focus and all that.

What DE chose to do with focus was option E. But that came to no surprise, really, as that is how all augments mods are implemented too :/

 

I'd even be somewhat ok with option B (if handled well). As long as unlocking a node doesn't add to the ability's cooldown, because, as you said:

"And if I want to rank up stuff further, I would have to increase the time between getting those revives. So… I stopped ranking and moved on to Zenurik. This is bad, very bad. The system that was meant to be end game literally stopped me from playing it because the more effort I put in, the less powerful it made me feel."

That's very well put, and I feel exactly the same. The very name of the system, Focus, acts against itself: Focus more on one school, and you get less and less use out of it... woot?

 

"Focus gain"

Seems quite interesting and anti-passive-leeching, nice ideas here. Though I personally don't mind the "leechy" style that's incoming either. Regardless, your ideas would promote a more active playstyle overall, so that has my thumbs up as an idea to think about :)

 

'No More Mutual Exclusiveness / Rework the “Tree” '

I like this. Gives your Focus-specialization a stronger feeling of being a more personal choice rather than forced "roads" of options. If a choice is very powerful (some of those that are currently at the "end of the road" so to speak), just make it costlier.

 

"First of all, Passives no longer require you to use the ability first. I have no idea why this was put in in the first place, all it does is encourage us to hide in the deploy area of a mission until we can use our Focus."

An atlernative to that wouid be that the focus ability is ready to use at the start of the mission. Either way, I agreed.

 

"More passives"

I dunno about all of those passives you suggested, but I like the Vazarin ones (Lifesteal and Rejuvenation), Zenurik ones (Enemy Radar and Movement boosts) and Unairu seems fine (Heavy Impact). I dunno about Madurai and Naramon though, I think they already have pretty decent passives (especially Naramon).

 

 

Things I'd like to correct / don't agreed with:

 

"Unlimited Ranking"

I'm not sure if I can agreed with this one. Giving all nodes a very high amounts of "dots", with diminishing value for each additional one, sure. But UNLIMITED "dots" (so to speak)? That just begs to totally break something one day.

 

"Reworks of All the Other Ability’s Aspects"

I agreed with nearly everything here (with my limitted personal / wiki knowledge of the nodes' benefits and such). But there are a few things here I'd like to point out:

Finisher Damage - Purely changing the damages to Finisher damage would probably be a tad strong. If it came with toning down the numbers a little bit, then sure, no complaints.

Retaliation - Afaik, there is no damage resistance. What it does is that you still suffer full damage taken, but you ALSO reflect back X% of damage taken towards the attacker.

Rift Sight - This still needs huge buffing. It only provides vision from the enemies you directly hit with the ability... it totally stinks. Make it a duration-after-using-the-ability kind of aura and it'd be... well, still a bit meh, but at least not 100% crap as it is now.

 

And that's all I can point out :)

Edited January 24, 2016 by Azamagon