[Ash Needs Some Loving.]

Regarding Ashs' character design, I think the biggest eyesore about it is the duck lip mask... Looking at Mynkis concept art I feel like the mask should have been more flush to the face contours, looking more like an actual mask, similar to having a bandana tied around your face like a cowboy and tucking the bottom into your shirts neck line. Or a ninja mask in general.

[Ash Needs Some Loving.]

I wouldn't say that he's weaker then Loki. 

 

He's just different tactics.

 

He has better shields, health, armor, and is only marginally slower then Loki. (1.6 vs 1.4 run speed. Not much of a massive difference.)

 

Shuriken is best used as a point-blank get-away-from-me power.

 

Smoke Bomb's only problem is that you, the player, can't see Ash. Secondly, it's best to pop it before you head in and murder everyone.

 

Teleport has more use then teleporting to mobs. You can also teleport to players who are down too. It's a great get-away move too. 

 

Bladestorm's nice thing is that where you start it is where you end up. So if you see a cluster of guys and use it at long range - you murder them and then reappear where you began. 

 

 

He's just got different tactics then Loki. He's a more pro-active character type. And most of his abils are aggressive where Loki's are more defensive.

 

I used Loki for a bit to blitz missions - then I got Ash.

 

I've not used Loki since. 

The problem with shuirken isn't the damage perspective, no one is arguing that it doesn't do damage, the problem is functionality, reliability as well as visual effect.

As stated before after a few meters the aim is completely off, 2nd why should I even be prompted to use Shuriken when my Maxed Paris does the same thing for no energy cost and is more reliable and for the 3rd point is more visually compelling than Shuriken to use.

As far as teleport is concerned, I'd like to see it as a "point and click" interface rather than a "lock on" tyoe of ability. For instance rather than teleporting to a mob, how about using it in a I need to escape situation.

The only real gripes I have about BS is the fact that its LoS based and the intiation. Both Limit its use and can make BS into a 100 energy 1 kill useless abilitity if other enemies decide to take cover or break LoS.

[Ash Needs Some Loving.]

When he shoots his shuriken he actually shoot it up, the travel path has an incline, so you have to compensate when aim or else you are not going to hit. Smoke Screen has a stun so it's not really truly just a invis ability so comparing it to Loki its really not working to work. With teleport he doesnt actually appear in front of the enemy he seems to just shoot forward while unseen because i have ended up hitting a corner stopping my teleport so you have to have a clear path or else you are in trouble. Blade Storm is fine but i seem to have trouble starting it some times, i hit and nothing happens or there is some delay where i get hit before it starts.

Thats the point though. That Lokis abilities while not directly correlated to damage function and function well.

For the shuiken ive seen some go off target and even one, though probably a one time glitch follow a target like it hit him and stuck but did no dmg.

The LoS teleport is a pain, and despite what they say in the realease notes you end up in front of an enemy not behind him.

Bladestorm is also LoS based so even though you can get a max of 8 targets on the 1st tier if enemies take cover behind a box and break Los the ability ends. I've had it end with only one kill ONE! a hundred energy for ONE kill is absurd. Again even to initiate Ashs' BS (yes im calling it that because the more i use it the more i feel it really is Bull) you must have a target in your reticule. If by some miracle a dev sees this PLEASE take these as contrsrtuctive criticism.

Again even then its hard to even tell the effective range and the range required to initiate BS. It is also incertian whether Reach, Continuity have any effect on his abillities at all. So far i know Smoke Screen is but BS is only effected by its level and is capped at a max enemy count to target. Why not make it time based like other Ultimate abilities? Nyx's ability is only limited to who actually hits her, Mag is only limited by AoE size, as well as Frost, and the rest. Excalibur is the odd one out as the Radial Javalin appears to have no real limit to area and even works well in conjunction with Mags bullet attractor power.

 

[Ash Needs Some Loving.]

And then your Iron Skinned Rhino didn't look where he steps and a simple Nauseous Crawler will freeze you place :(

Iron skin rhino vs Ancient Toxic...Rhino wins not one thing can even touch the rhino in iron skin, no knock backs, no freezes, just pure invincible melees.

[Ash Needs Some Loving.]

Hands Down Rhino is the best frame. Put a scindo with max mods, Iron Skin, Flow, Streamlined, Redirection, Vitality, and Continuity. and you can go do any boss solo. Iron skin invincibility for 1min+ and a scindo with sundering strike, molten strike, fury, killing blow and reflex coil.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that his polarites for health mods means that even without a orokin reactor he can put max Redirection and Steel Fiber on and not eat a large portion or mod points.
 

[Ash Needs Some Loving.]

The problem with bladestorm is it's unreliability. being Line of Sight (LoS) based it makes it incredibly underpowered imo. Even with LoS i can use it on a group of 5 enemies clustered together and only 2 teleports (the intitial teleport to 1st target and the subsequent 2nd teleport to the 2nd target) and not even touch the other 3. While at other times it will kill 4 osprey and a cameras. I don't mind the osprey but there needs to be some priority list.

Say 2 Shockwave MOAs, 2 MOAs, 2 Ospreys, and 2 Corpus charge in. Dealing with the Chock MOAs should take piority over the others as it has larger health and is the biggest threat then MOAs, Corpus, and Ospreys. Another terrible part about Bladestorm is the need to aim at an enemy for the attack to begin. I cant think of any other ultimates that require an aim to initiate. Since for the most part most would use an ultimate in a SHTF moment when your shields are down and your health is low. Those few extra seconds to take the time to aim at an enemy vs just intiating the attack can be the difference between pulling that attack off or dying.

[Ash Needs Some Loving.]

  I was thinking it might look interesting to give those "blank" parts a synthetic muscle plating look, and instead of smoke clouds on one of his arms, whispy strands of smoke emitted from both arms.

As far as the Shuriken ability, it would be interesting if instead of one shuriken he threw a fan of four shurikens that would ricochet off walls, and pierce armor/enemies for a small distance (the ricochet could perhaps make them home in on the target a bit). This ability would deal the same maximum damage that the current does, so each shuriken would deal less damage proportionally, but could lock onto targets so that they do in fact hit.

As first abillities go Ash once again is pretty underwhelming. Either multiple small shuriken being thrown for a single hit or a large glaive type shuiken to be be thrown through a hoard of enemies. Similar to Slash Dash in function only thrown. So the basic mechaninc would be a weapon that passes through multiple enemies over a a long distance. This way Ash can deal with a crowd much faster than his current single, unruly shuriken.

It should be noted Ashes back has great detail. Overlapping bands and a few energy lights as well as the spinal protector from the head down the back. Continuing that to the front of him would definitely add to his frame.

[Ash Needs Some Loving.]

I feel like as far as character design Ash feels undewhelming in comparison to other frames.
His arms and legs have great detail but when you get to the main body its just BLANK, its a big empty space with few details to it.

Looking at a Loki frame or a Frost which has great details, even the Excalibur is simple but it has a few layers to it to give it a good look.
A type of light armor overlay would be noce rather than just a blank chest.

Another thought on overall customization is Blacks are not black enough. At best they are grey. A good example is try and make you're frame all black and then look at that in comparison to a Stalker. A jet black instead of a gray would be nice for all frame customiztion.