[JARI: Vauban Rework - Proficient Engineer]

The Pseudo Rant

I have really been enjoying using Vauban in a variety of missions. Especially Kuva Survival and daily Sorties. He offers above-average utility and decent comfort in defense type missions. Makes sense since this is what his kit really is geared towards. But, survivability is such a pain. I originally thought it was fantastic how well I was surviving with him, but then I realized I was just panic spamming Op Mode with Magus Elevate. Though I know people are sitting in the forums thinking Primed Flow and Quick Thinking or Arcane Energize and etc, I still think its absurd how much is required to make the Frame really push the survivability. If I try to use frames like Loki or Nova, it is quite straightforward with building duration then efficiency and so on. Also, I find it difficult to find any practical need for Tesla with its weak damage. Minelayer is more or less a gimmick tool that exists as a fun factor. That leaves Bastille and Vortex which are fantastic with a medium range, high duration, and high-efficiency build. Lets you control chokes in Kuva Survival and large rooms for defense missions.   

TL;DR: Good defensive utility and zone control with expensive survivability. I want to suggest a change.

VAUBAN REWORK

The percent values chosen throughout this rework concept are placeholders for dev testing. Personally, I believe that testing and development should take place under extreme cases to stress test and capture the environment’s response. With this in mind, I have tweaked up the values to make Vauban feel much stronger than I truly believe he should be.

PASSIVE

After casting an ability, gain a proficiency stack (max: 5). Each stack of proficiency grants +4% efficiency and can exceed the efficiency cap. Lose half stacks every 30 seconds passed with no abilities cast (i.e. stack timer resets on ability cast). Additionally, receive +160% efficiency on energy draining effects at max stacks.

Notes

Yes, integer division on half stacks. With the chosen values, Vauban can attain 95% efficiency for 30 seconds which can be easily kept alive through ability usage. I think these stats are slightly strong, but not overpowering. I do agree it would be one of the strongest passives the game has yet to see.

The idea here is to give Vauban a passive that can incentivize ability usage. Ideally, this would be reinforced by lowering the timer from 30s to 15-20s. Additionally, this creates an opportunity to skip on one efficiency mod for some other mod of choice, be it utility, defensive, or offensive. However, the last part needs a bit of explanation. The efficiency bonus is applied only to draining effects on energy. This tweak is to address his synergy with Quick Thinking (QT) and enforce it. Currently, armor and health are modes of increasing EHP. Even Nidus has his own mechanics to sustain himself. However, if you were to compare QT to other methods of survivability, it comes up very short only offering roughly 58% additional damage reduction. Most abilities in the game offers 95% damage reduction which is effectively like having around 5700 net armor value. I would make the argument that caster and damage frames should not have absurd survivability, but both Nova and Mesa can attain 95% damage reduction and, in some cases, use Adaptation to increase their EHP even further. To put into perspective, a rank 30 Mesa Prime with shatter shield active and no Vitality has approximately 8100 EHP (calculated using Wiki equations). This was also calculated without armor being a factor. My suggested change offers Vauban ~75% damage reduction in the event the player chooses to acknowledge the synergy.

Here are some EHP calculations with 100 Base Armor:

• Rank 30 Vauban Prime w/ QT
  • NHP at 225 Energy * 2.40 = 765 HP + 300 HP (Base HP) = 1065 NHP
  • EHP = NHP * (Net Armor + 300)/300 = 1065 * (100 + 300)/300 = 1120 EHP
• Rank 30 Vauban Prime w/ QT + Primed Flow (Using same calculations)
  • At 618.75 Energy and 1785 NHP = 2380 EHP
• Rank 30 Vauban Prime w/Max Proficiency Stacks + QT (Using same calculations)
  • NHP at 225 Energy * (2.40 + 1.60) = 900 HP + 300 HP (Base HP) = 1200 NHP
  • At 225 Energy and 1200 NHP = 1600 EHP IMPROVED
• Rank 30 Vauban Prime w/Max Proficiency Stacks + QT + Primed Flow (Using same calculations)
  • At 618.75 Energy and 2775 NHP = 3700 EHP IMPROVED

ABILITY #1: Tesla Empower

Energizes currently equipped primary and secondary weapons. When equipped, the current weapon has

• -100% recoil
• +150% accuracy
• +100% projectile speed
• +100% magazine size
• +15m range to beam weapons
• +50% fire rate to bows only

Holstered weapon effects:

• Reloads magazine over weapon's actual reload speed time (Similar D2's auto-holstering mechanic)
• Fills ammo reserve from any excess ammo type picked up.

Drains 5 energy/s while active.

STRENGTH & RANGE HAVE NO EFFECTS, DURATION & EFFICIENCY AFFECT ENERGY COST, ONLY APPLICABLE TO VAUBAN

Notes

Not every ability has to be appealing. But, sometimes smoothing out gameplay can introduce new combinations and styles that should be encouraged in a primarily PvE game. Vauban is an engineer, right? Ok, lets give him a way to tweak the weaponry he has to work with. He can fully take advantage of builds with Heavy Caliber/Magnum Force and utilize projectile based weapons more effectively. Having these bonus stats are to have a separate more refined experience only found on an expert engineer like Vauban. Remember we have almost 255% efficiency on drain abilities with mods + proficiency bonus, so the drain is not as horrifying as it appears because of its inherent synergy with passive. We also give a unique advantage to holstered weapons that give Vauban more flexibility with his weapon usage and mitigating the need to constantly reload. Flexibility was also one of the key strengths of the French Military engineer that Vauban is named after.

ABILITY #2: Aficionado

Cycle through and throw one of four utility grenade types:

• Guard: Gives +100 armor to allies in area (Re-engineers Ally Armor)
• Tactical: +75% chance to not consume an ammo on fire to allies in area (Re-engineers Ally Ammo)
• EMP: Disable all robotics for 5 seconds in area. Reactivate them with same grenade to function as allies. (Re-engineers Robotics)
• Proximity: Detonates on entering 10m radius range. Deafen enemy and reveal location while lowering armor by 50% for 5 seconds. (Re-engineers Enemy Armor)

Costs 50 Energy

STRENGTH AFFECTS BUFF VALUES, DURATION AFFECTS GRENADE TIMER, EFFICIENCY AFFECTS ENERGY COST

Notes

COME GET YOUR ARMOR. Most of us were thinking it and it needed to be said. No grenades are stackable with self. So, you cannot receive +200 armor or over 100% chance to not consume ammo. I will elaborate a little further. The first two grenades are self-explanatory giving team-based utility buffs. Every squads needs an adept engineer like Tor… Vauban. The duration and range of these buffs should scale with mods. The EMP grenade functions to take control of robotics in the area and is particularly chosen to complement the newly released Fortuna content that are heavily populated with Corpus robotics. It does require a two-part activation, one to disable and one to reactivate. This obviously can be worked around with a simple hack type grenade, but I wanted to enforce his need for grenades which DE seems to favor for Vauban. My ideal iteration had the robotics having free will and attacking anything nearby to attribute to Vauban's plunge into mayhem as mentioned through lore. However, I cannot fathom the coding implications. Finally, the Proximity grenade is a buffed version of the current Shred land mine.

ABILITY #3: Bastille

Creates an energy-based containment field in which captives are held suspended in stasis.

Costs 90 Energy.

STRENGTH AFFECTS ENEMIES TRAPPED, DURATION AFFECTS TIMER, EFFICIENCY AFFECTS ENERGY COST, RANGE AFFECTS RADIUS

No changes here except an increase in energy cost to balance out the efficiency changes. This ability is bread and butter to Vauban and the augment makes it just bearable. I would prefer strength not affect any of Vauban's builds and rather it depends on efficiency altogether. However, this will be highly unlikely due to the different design philosophy. Although, it should have a flat amount of enemies picked up. 

ABILITY #4: Vortex

Creates a whirling mass of energy that violently attracts nearby enemies, crushing their atoms into a tiny speck of matter and sapping 5 energy/s per enemy caught.

Costs 100 Energy.

STRENGTH AFFECTS ENERGY SAPPED PER SEC, DURATION AFFECTS TIMER, EFFICIENCY AFFECTS ENERGY COST, RANGE AFFECTS RADIUS

Only one big change here. Essentially, enemies caught by Vauban will refuel his energy pool. This ability will no longer do damage and strength mods will directly affect the amount of energy recovered per second. Without any efficiency, this ability breaks even at a mere 4 seconds of 5 enemies snared, a tad on the absurd side. An ultimate should showcase the strength of the Frame. At lower level missions, Vortex will be inefficient to use since as enemies will die far too quickly. However, when rooms of enemies cannot be wiped instantly, you have a zoning tool that helps you sustain your energy pool which indirectly buffs survivability. Being alive means more abilities to cast and so on.

 

The suggested changes have been done taking into consideration: his current abilities, his background/lore, and through playtesting. I had some augment changes, but some of them are very peculiar and need tweaking. I hope to hear some feedback, primarily on the major changes.

P.S. I would like to continue suggesting more ideas here, but typing these take a good chunk of time. Feedback would provide the necessary fuel to continue working on these. Also, how do I differentiate this from the other non-serious rework suggestions?

[Coming Soon: Devstream #45!]

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Rhino->why run tank when you can do Zephyr/mirage combo with eclipse and turbulence two frames that work well and have good amounts of crowd control and offense stats

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