MogFlintlock
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Posts posted by MogFlintlock
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You forgot 'Screw elementals, pure slash with Weeping Wounds and possibly Buzzkill' 😛
I've personally been experimenting with a bunch of stuff and, while it could definitely use the boost, I've at least encountered a couple of places where Cold might work. Cold's pretty decent from a pure damage type perspective and I've actually been using Corrosive/Cold on the Dark Sword as an extra CO proc, as well as to cover as many targets as possible (Cold vs shields, Corrosive/Puncture vs ferrite, Radiation/Puncture/Cold vs alloy). Corrosive/Cold might also be a viable option on other weapons aiming for raw damage, especially those that can potentially use Radiation (the Kuva Tonkor springs to mind).
As for other damage types, the Quanta Vandal seems to go best with Viral/Electricity (with Stormbringer and High Voltage to boost the proc damage and weighting) and Daggers actually seem best built for pure Toxin when combined with the Argonak augment (allowing them to be one of the few remaining weapons that can completely shred armour).
That said, the weaker status effects definitely need some help atm, given that the cases I've brought up are so niche.
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On 2020-03-06 at 10:13 AM, SpringRocker said:
Ever since the last patch (27.2.0) momentum from the dagger stance "Stinging Thorn" no longer propels the player forward. The move advances a set distance and immediately stops now.
What this means is that using "Stinging Thorn" melee-forward-aim's first move no longer launches the player off of ledges with momentum, effectively covering large amounts of distance quickly. This was a way I (used) to get around other than using a combo of Archwing and Void Dash when inside PoTE and Vallis 😢 😢 😢 .
I know it sounds silly, and honestly that's exactly what it is. However I really liked it and it's fine if it doesn't come back, I just wanted to say that I noticed it's removal 😢 .
So, funny thing, there's another version of the 'Travel Dagger' (what I've classically called the Balla-Copter) which also got nerfed, but is still mostly functional. The Single Dagger's spin attack previously allowed you to perform the sling-shot without a ledge...And it still kinda does. Previously, you could launch yourself with a single well-timed spin, but you can still get a similar amount of speed by spamming multiple spins in a row with a certain rhythm based on attack speed, since the brief boost is still very quick. On occasion, I've even been able to achieve the same sort of slingshot function, though I've yet to find the specifics of re-creating it (I think it has to do with somehow cancelling the momentum-stopping portion of the attack with another attack and also maybe negative friction mods).
You can also get a speed boost by performing the first three hits of Stinging Thorn's forward combo (the spin that makes you shoot forward a tiny bit) and essentially cancelling it into a spin attack.
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(Caveat: The following opinions are made without the knowledge of how the changes to the procs that don't stack atm will go and those could radically alter how status shotties are considered)
Crit/Raw Shotguns: The Corinth, Pyrana Prime and all the bad shotguns like the base Strun got strictly buffed, even in the worst case scenario of 'all shotguns got triple status chance and that's it'. The Hek/Vaykor Hek also come out ahead in most scenarios, unless you decided to invest in a status chance riven, for some reason.
Corrosive Shotguns: Will likely suffer a sizable nerf if DE blindly triples the status chance on all shotguns, but it shouldn't be instantly destructive. The Strun Wraith and Kuva Brakk likely pivot towards crit builds supported by viral (as does the Redeemer, though that's already mostly the case). The Boar Prime, Sobek and Twin Rogga won't be happy, but will still probably function. The Akbronco Prime and Mara Detron might potentially be gutted.
Slash Shotguns: Unless DE changes how shotguns work with slash procs (atm, the damage is based on the triggering pellet) or DE gives it way more than 90% status, the real loser of the changes is the Tigris Prime, which will essentially completely lose its ability to consistently viral/multi-slash a target with every shot. Kohm series depends on how the spool-up interacts with status chance. Kuva Drakgoon pivots towards Viral/Crit like a status shotty. The Exergis, with its three pellets per shot and ability to reach and exceed the previous cap of 100% status per pellet, is laughing. The Euphona's alt-fire was already not worth using.
Slug Shotguns: Unlikely to get touched at all. If they get the triple status, ALL HAIL THE ASTILLA, YOUR NEW LORD AND MASTER.
Beam Shotguns: Likely business as usual for the Phantasma and Phage...
As for the Convectrix?
Maybe it's good, this time?
I know people have said that about the Convectrix every time it's had something affect it in the past, but this time for sure!
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10 hours ago, Yuukale said:
So, this is a rather straight-forward question: is the heavy attack wind-up time of a zaw based off its category or its speed?
The base wind-up is based on the weapon category and is unaffected by the weapon's 'natural' attack speed (i.e. the number you see when looking at its stats), so it's unaffected by the zaw's non-strike parts. It's also unaffected by Primed Fury, Quickening or Gladiator Vice. On the other hand, it IS affected by Berserker (plus Killing Blow and Amalgam Organ Shatter, naturally).
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Just going to chime in here regarding Cleave Whirlwind and Broken Bull.
The way it works now is that the spin combo powers up as you use it. The first two spins have a 1x multiplier on two hits. The third spin has a 1x multiplier, followed by a 2x multiplier. The fourth spin is two 2x multipliers. The fifth spin is two 4x multipliers (AKA what every spin prior to the changes). While is this something of a nuisance, it isn't actually all that different to what it used to be, since you had to prep the spin with the two normal attacks that started the combo anyway. That said, if you choose to treat it like a generic 'run around and smack guys' combo rather than committing to the full five spins, you're going to get damage appropriate for that.
EDIT: Also, regarding some of the other listed weapons, I've found Rapiers still do high damage if built crit, but yeah, I really dislike the feel of them now. On the other hand, I don't get the Nikana stance criticism. Blind Justice and Decisive Judgement both seem very strong and decently easy to use. -
Halfway through my first attempt at an arbitration all the lights went out. This has followed me back to my orbiter.
Update: Restarting fixed it, but I still had to abandon the mission it triggered in.
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12 hours ago, Zimzala said:
All this angst and drama over the _possibility_ that a few virtual items, that _might_ have had the rough equivilent value of $40 USD when traded, will no longer work as well.
No one had a sport/hobby item break?
No one ever lost a few Magic cards to an errant glass of liquid, or get replaced by a new card type?
No one ever invested in an MMO that shuttered?
As the saying goes, there was less drama when my world-wide comany changed healthcare providers.
This rallying cry of 'but DE will anger/lose players' is just silly. Salty people are salty.
Anyone leaves over Riven changes based on what I have read, as a 14 day player, I say good riddance, because they either need a break for mental health, or they are not the kind of people I wan to play games with, honestly.
>Talking about Magic Cards
My apologies, but would you be interested in learning about the Reserved List? It's basically WotC's capitulation to the MTG equivalent of riven traders after they ruined the value of a bunch of rare cards. Just because people are 'salty' doesn't mean a company should kick the hornet's nest. Considering the absurd amounts of platinum required to buy/sell rivens (and how many justly believe that rivens have remained stable for so long BECAUSE of how profitable they are), DE probably doesn't want the process to just suddenly go away. Warframe probably won't lose too many players from such a change, but the massive spenders will probably be far less extravagant in their spending after such a shock. -
1 hour ago, Dragazer said:
Yeah I think people are still going to realize whats going on when their 1000p+ riven is trash tier after a couple weeks/months.
Simplest is to just exempt Rivens obtained before the patch from dispostion changes and the new ones use the nerfed disposition.
While it could be done, doing so would exacerbate as many problems with rivens as it would solve. If you think Tiberon and Sicarus rivens are expensive right now, just wait until they become effectively 'limited items'.
Personally, I think the best (?) solution would be to give a 2-3 week warning, then snapshot every riven that currently exists in its current stats, with the warning that trading or re-rolling the riven will cause it to be re-statted for its current disposition. Doing so would allow anyone that went out of their way to 'trade' rivens a little time to offload their stock and avoid getting burned; while I don't particularly like the way riven trading 'works', I think it'd be best if riven trading suffered a contraction rather than a crash. That said, doing something like that could easily go wrong just on a technical level.
Alternatively, the far 'simpler' (though also less effective, IMO) solution would be to adjust rivens more frequently, but also gradually. For instance, rather than instantly dropping the Tiberon's disposition down to the ~.75 it probably deserves all at once, maybe lower down to ~1.25-1.3, then do another drop in another three months, and so on? -
13 hours ago, SpaceSheepie said:
Sorry this took way too long for what it is, I had a bit of a block but I managed to put together something I think looks quite neat.
Okay, that’s a way more interesting and visually relevant concept for a design than I had. I don’t suppose I could have your permission to add that picture to the opening post?
And absolutely no worries about any delay; I’ve been distracted from working on Astra in the meantime anyway.
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On 12/2/2017 at 1:05 PM, SpaceSheepie said:
I love the idea of her passive, I could give drawing her a go. I've always wanted a star based warframe, it's at the top of my wishlist (along with a sleep themed frame)
Thank you for such kind words. Again, any sort of art to supplement my own lack of skills in that guard would certainly be appreciated.
6 hours ago, (PS4)dening123 said:I Swear, I was going to make an astral warframe just like this.
I don't doubt it :P . While it's not quite 'Chrona/Chronus, the time frame', the idea of the cosmic/star frame isn't exactly unconventional. Originally, some of Astra's kit was intended for a ghost/phantom frame, and I decided to switch to her current theme. I felt it'd be less off-putting, considering she's meant to be available to newer players.
Anyway, I've added a tiny bit of additional text to Astra's 1, plus a tiny bit of the summary for her quest. I intend to continue writing this/finish this hopefully over the next couple of days (assuming no interruptions).
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34 minutes ago, Jem991 said:
Cancer give +10% radiation because we nede the cure cancer :D
So, re-reading this made me realise that Warframe represents weakness to a damage type as '+% damage' and a resistance as '-% damage'. I have adjusted the text accordingly, plus added a small clarification in the explanation.
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Just now, -Mandachordian-Tenno- said:
This is cool and all, but
Cancer should have -10% radiationAppropriate. Swapped Cancer and Virgo's resistance debuffs.
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So, I've been working on this concept for a couple days, inspired somewhat by the existence of Gara as a newbie friendly frame (I may elaborate on my reasoning behind Astra's design a little later). As a result I decided to create Astra; a support that's more focused towards newer players (which, it should be noted, isn't necessarily the same as being an 'easy' frame to use, though I'd like to think that Astra is forgiving, if nothing else).
Astra
This is Astra, the fortunate, the stargazer.
Astra manipulates fate itself. Her victory is written across the night sky, Tenno.
Codex: With ineffable cosmic power at her fingertips, even causality itself bends to Astra’s will.
Appearance:
(All credit goes SpaceSheepie, for both the drawing and design)
Stats (Base / At Level 30)
Health: 75 / 225
Energy: 150 / 225
Shield: 100 / 300
Armour: 65
Sprint Speed: 1.05
Polarities: Aura Polarity -
Other Polarities - 
Abilities
Passive – Sidereal
Astra aligns herself with an Astrological symbol with appears on her chest and when she uses Celestial Omen. All enemies suffer additional damage from a certain damage type(s) based on the symbol chosen.
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Default symbol based on user’s birth date. This symbol can be changed in the Regalia tab.
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Sidereal is calculated additively with the base resistances/weaknesses of the target; Aries, for example, would increase the damage Ferrite Armour takes from
blast damage from 75% to 85%, and enemies with Fossilised health from 150% to 160%.
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Sidereal is applied retroactively to all enemies if Astra joins a session in progress.
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Sidereal does not stack, but multiple Astras with different alignments may be active at once.
Symbols and respective damage types are as follows.
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♈ (Aries): +10%
Blast Damage
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♉ (Tauros): +10%
Impact Damage
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♊ (Gemini): +10%
Heat & 
Cold Damage
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♋ (Cancer): +10%
Radiation Damage
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♌ (Leo): +10%
Slash Damage
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♍ (Virgo): +10%
Viral Damage
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♎ (Libra): +10%
Electric Damage
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♏ (Scorpio): +10%
Toxin Damage
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♐ (Sagittarius): +10%
Puncture Damage
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♑ (Capricorn): +10%
Gas Damage
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♒ (Aquarius): +10%
Corrosive Damage
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♓ (Pisces): +10%
Magnetic Damage
Cosmic Collision [1]
Drop a meteor on your enemies. Deals blast damage in an area, plus massive impact damage to enemies hit by the meteor itself.
Cost: 25 Energy
Astra summons a micro-meteor to strike the ground at target location after a 1.5 second delay, dealing 100 / 250 / 400 / 600
Blast damage to all enemies within 6 / 7 / 8 / 10 metres.
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Damage is affected by Power Strength.
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Has a 35% Status chance (affected by Power Strength).
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Area of Effect is affected by Power Range.
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Energy Cost is affected by Power Efficiency.
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Delay is affected inversely by Power Duration. (Higher Duration = Shorter delay)
Enemies hit by the meteor itself take 200 / 500 / 800 / 1200
Impact damage plus 20% of their maximum health and are forcefully ragdolled.
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Flat damage is affected by Power Strength.
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Meteor % health damage does not scale with Power Strength.
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Meteor is 1.5 metres in diameter, unaffected by Power Range.
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Enemies hit by the meteor are also affected by the blast damage of the base ability.
Constellation [2]
Transform into a living constellation, bolstering nearby allies.
Cost: 15 Energy
Astra converts her physical form into a living constellation, becoming invulnerable to damage and untargetable by enemies. Astra and any allies that come within 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 metres will regenerate 30 / 40 / 50 / 70 Health and 5 Energy each second for 10 seconds.
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Health restored is affected by Power Strength.
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Effect duration is affected by Power Duration.
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Energy cost and drain is affected by Power Efficiency
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Application radius is affected by Power Range.
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Energy Restoration is unaffected by Mods.
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Does not restore energy to channelling allies.
Constellation drains 12 / 10 / 8 / 4 energy per second, and will remain active so long as Astra has energy. Constellation will end if Astra runs out of energy or if deactivated by pressing the ability key again (default 3).
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Energy drain is affected by Power Duration and Power Efficiency.
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While Constellation is active, Astra will be healed by its effect, but is locked out of the energy regeneration. Upon ending the ability, she will receive the benefits of the energy regeneration.
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While Constellation is active, Astra cannot access her weapons, can’t interact with consoles and can’t collect items (though Vacuum will still be enabled).
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While Constellation is active, Astra may still activate her other abilities and may revive downed allies.
Shooting Star [3]
Teleport to an ally, granting invulnerability to your target and damaging nearby enemies.
Cost: 50 Energy
Astra teleports herself to the nearest ally in the direction she’s looking.
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Energy Cost is affected by Power Efficiency.
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Maximum range of 100m, unaffected by Power Range.
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Does not require line of sight.
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While Constellation is active, Guiding Star’s duration is increased by 50%.
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Can target Spectres and Rescue/Sortie Defence targets, but can’t target Cryopods or Mobile Defence Terminals.
Upon arrival, she grants 2 / 3 / 4 / 6 seconds of invulnerability to her target and deals 100 / 200 / 300 / 500 [Symbol Type] damage to all enemies within 4 / 5 / 6 / 8 metres.
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Damage is affected by Power Strength.
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Has a 50% Status chance (affected by Power Strength).
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If the Gemini symbol is selected, damage will be split evenly between Heat and Cold.
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Area of Effect is affected by Power Range.
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Invulnerability duration is affected by Power Duration.
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If cast without a viable target, Astra will remain in place and perform the damage portion of this ability.
Celestial Omen [4]
Summon a mysterious symbol that jinxes enemies. Slaying affected enemies will grant a boon to your allies.
Cost: 100 Energy
Astra invokes the symbol of her alignment, creating a symbol that persists for 6 / 7 / 8 / 10 seconds. Each time an enemy within line of sight fires their weapon or performs a melee attack, there is a 40% / 50% / 60% / 80% chance for their weapons to jam or that they will be stunned respectively, for 1.5 seconds.
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Jamming/Stun chance is not affected by Power Strength.
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Light Duration and Stun/Disarm duration are affected by Power Duration.
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Light will be created 5m away in the direction of the crosshair. This is affected by Power Range.
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Debuff has a maximum range of 100m, which is unaffected by Power Range.
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Energy cost affected by Power Efficiency.
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Astra may only have one symbol active at a time. Re-activating this ability will remove an existing symbol.
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Jamming/Stun occurs before the attack, cancelling the attack in the process.
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Most bosses are unaffected by Celestial Omen’s jam/stun effects, but will still grant the effects listed below..
If an enemy dies under the effect of Celestial Omen, allies within affinity range will receive 10% Power Strength and Weapon Damage, which decays at a rate of 2.5% a second (increased to 5% a second above 30%). Subsequent kills will add to this buff, up to a maximum of 20% / 30% / 40% / 60%.
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Power Strength and Weapon Damage per kill are affected by Power Strength
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Cap is not affected by Power Strength.
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Decay Rate is affected by Power Duration.
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Affected enemies grant 50% bonus Affinity (unaffected by Power Strength).
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Decays at a rate of 45% per second when the target is nullified (unaffected by Power Duration.
Quest: Fall of the Gavel
Requirements:
Completed Vor’s Prize
Completed Tolstoj
Summary
Prelude: Orbiter
After completing Tolstoj, you will receive a message from the Lotus, explaining that you now have a quest available, which is accepted from your Codex.
Upon accepting ‘Fall of the Gavel’ from the codex, the Lotus contacts your Tenno. The Grineer have uncovered Vor’s secret cache of Orokin technology and are sending an armed vessel to raid it. Though her own agents were able to pre-empt the Grineer and have already extracted a sizable number of artefacts, it’s become obvious that they won’t finish before the Grineer are upon them. Lotus instructs you to travel to Pantheon and stall the Grineer by distracting them as they try to board.
[UNDER CONSTRUCTION]
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Immediately after logging back in after patching, I attempted the test for Mastery 20 (selecting option while in the orbiter). After the initial loading screen, I immediately segued into another loading screen and found myself back in the orbiter, without even a 'Mission Failed/Abandoned' screen. Despite this, my mastery test was still put on 'cooldown'.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the presence of mind to screen shot this process, so I don't believe there's any immediate evidence.
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So, I was mulling over a mini rework to Saryn, when I realised I could probably just suggest an augment for the main effect I was considering instead.
(Toxic Lash still probably needs work on the basic ability)
Fumigate
Maximum Rank: 4
Cost: 6 / 7 / 8 / 9
Polarity: Zenurik
Miasma Augment: Miasma removes the Viral effect from enemies after each tick, but reduces the amount of current health recovered by 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%.Functionally, while this makes it much harder to keep up the 200% damage multiplier on Miasma, it's basically allows you to 'stack' viral procs. While potentially very powerful against high level enemies, I feel like Saryn's lack of CC or hard survivability make her naturally weak to enemy scaling regardless, and this would help her abilities keep up into higher levels. Against lower level enemies, a single viral proc will often be more than enough. That said, it's possible that removing 100% of the health regained might be too much; what do you guys think?
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So, I ran into two separate bugs today, on the same map/mission; the Void Fissure on Mantle.
The first seemed like something of an edge case where I was trying to squeeze in an extra attempt in the last 30 seconds of the fissure being active. This resulted in me entering the mission with the void key + the reactant sidequest, but no fissures actually spawned, rendering it impossible to actually collect the reactant required.
The second bug seemed more of an issue. I attempted to complete the same mission and, while I collected the reactant and received the void traces, but I received no actual prime part. The first time, I thought it might've just been delay or something, but I tried a second time, with the same relic (Lith A2) and got the same result (see below; the item reward hidden above is the credits for completing the mission).
Spoiler
EDIT: Just tested my ability to obtain rewards with a different fissure; after completing Roche, I received my reward just fine.
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2 hours ago, Stratego89 said:
Your rework isn't half bad, however I must give my personal opinion on Hydroid here. It's simple but something I absolutely insist must be done.
Yarr harr if ye plunder me matey's first skill from his arsenal I'll sink ye down to Davey Jone's locker.
In english: I don't want Hydroid's 1 to be touched. At all. It's great. It's one of my favorite abilities in the game and the rest of Hydroid's kit that makes him nearly unplayable in a serious manner is the only reason I don't use the hek out of him. I seriously pull him out on rare occasions JUST to use his 1 for fun. If that goes away, I will cry.
I've seen a bunch of conflict over whether it's Hydroid's 2 (Tidal Surge) or his 1 (Tempest Barrage) that's the good one and the other is terrible.I honestly don't mind either; the main reason I switched stuff up was because having an ability that can manipulate enemies' positions seems like it's necessary with where I was intending to take him.
If you want some alternatives to Tidal Surge, so that I can add back Tempest Barrage, I have a couple of concepts that I pushed aside. If I think up any others, I'll add them.
Flash Flood [2]
Cost: 50 Energy
Hydroid summons a wave that begins 5 / 6 / 7 / 10 metres behind him and travels up to 20 / 24 / 28 / 35 metres forward, capturing any enemy it comes into contact with and carrying them with it. Captured enemies take 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 20 Slash damage for each metre travelled. The wave has a width of 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 metres.Comment: Hydroid loses access to any mobility effects, but in exchange, the damage potential on this is pretty high since it scales with two different power stats; range and strength.
Riptide [2]
Cost: 50 EnergyHydroid transforms into liquid and surges forward up to 15 / 17 / 20 / 25 meters. Enemies that pass within 3 / 4 / 5 / 7 meters of him take 200 / 300 / 400 / 600 Impact damage and are captured and dragged along with him. At the end of this range, Hydroid returns to normal and deposits all enemies he carried on the ground.
Comment: Mostly the same as Tidal Surge, but with an alternative crowd control.
Whirlpool [2]
Cost: 50 Energy
Energy Drain: 5 s-1Hydroid pulls all enemies within 7 / 8 / 10 / 12 metres towards him, dealing 50 / 75 / 100 / 150 Impact damage. Holding down the ability key (Default [2]) will pin trapped enemies to the ground, dealing an additional 50 / 75 / 100 / 150 Impact damage each second and increase the pull radius by 10% each second (up to a maximum of 100%). Energy drain is doubled whilst submerged.
Comment: Perhaps a little too much like current Hydroid when used whilst submerged (i.e. non-interactive), but ideally, it's a repositioning tool instead of a CC/Damage tool, due to its high cost. Might alternatively be better as an ultimate.2 hours ago, Sziklamester said:I haven't so much problems with his abilities I would like touch instead some stats there to be more viable. The first ability of him is useful sometimes, the second ability could be more useful but it reminds me one of the morphling ability in dota2 and useful as flee ability if u are in danger. The undertow would be fine with the ability to move when u are in that form like how you can move in the air as wukong. The ulti is mostly okay just static and need for you to camp on a place but this mechanic similar the chroma and many other frames ultimate. These designed for camp and defend a point.
On statwise the hydroid have fair enough hp and shield maybe i would like to give him more shield and a little more armor. The armor rework on frames sometimes needs because these armors made in a time when the game was different and now need to follow this changes and other hand a little more survivability on higher level is useful.
Don't know his passive but i can agree some minor tweak needs on him but not full reworks.
Unless your warframe's name is Inaros (and even he's backed up with his 1 and 4, even if you use nothing else), stats do not make the Warframe and 300 extra effective health is not going to suddenly make Hydros top tier, or even 'decent'. The competition for 'guy who sits on a point and locks it down' is horribly, horribly competitive and Hydros doesn't hold a candle to Frost, Vauban or even some of the more generically potent frames like Nova.
Personally, I would posit that, even if you could move whilst doing it, Undertow would still be a bad, mostly unused ability. You lose access to your weapons and the rest of your abilities. On top of this, Tentacle Swarm is probably the least useful of the AOE CC ultimates, even just on a conceptual level; it's probably worse than Stomp, Molecular Prime, Prism, Vortex, Divine Spears and Radial Disarm due to how unreliable the tentacles are. Actually, I'd argue it's even less useful than Radial Blind.
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So, I think a lot of people will agree that Hydroid's not in the best spot at the moment. That said, compared with Limbo or Volt, I haven't seen nearly as many people attempt to do a fan rework of him, so I decided to try my own hand.
First up, there's an important question.
What is Hydroid’s identity, mechanically?
Well, the flippant answer would be ‘being a useless waste of space’, but that would A. Be needless conflict mongering, since I’m aware that there are people who like him and B. Not really true. Hydroid has an identity; one that isn't even necessarily that redundant. He's defined by a lack of utility and middling crowd control, but he's also perhaps the only mage frame with a 'true' invulnerability ability.
Unfortunately, the execution of Hydroid’s abilities leaves something to be desired, most notably with Undertow.
So, I’m going to try and highlight the points that I’m going to try and focus on with this rework.
- Hydroid is a mage frame with low damage and low team utility, but has mobility, crowd control and survivability in recompense (albeit, without any of these in overwhelming amounts). I have tried to maintain these specifics.
- Hydroid’s ‘durability’ is derived from crowd control and invulnerability effects, thus I am giving him no personal durability effects excepting Safe Harbour
- Hydroid is not subtle. All of Hydroid’s abilities are big and ‘flashy’ (for a given value of the word with Undertow). As a result, I’m keeping Hydroid away from generic buffs/debuffs or general utility stuff.
Things I’m trying to move away from.
- ‘Faceroll to win’. Undertow and Tentacle Swarm both encourage non-interactive gameplay. Hopefully, the replacements for these two abilities, Safe Harbour and Shipwreck, are less problematic in this regard.
- ‘Why not Ember/Frost/Saryn/Nova/etc?’ Hydroid’s current ability set does a little bit of everything, mage-wise, but doesn’t excel in any specific regard and doesn’t bring anything unique (unless you count the bonus loot from Tentacle Swarm). The rework focuses Hydroid specifically on crowd control, but in a somewhat different way to the usual ‘give everything in the room a kick to the nuts’ standard that’s been set by Prism Mirage, Slow Nova, etc.
So, without further ado, here are my suggested abilities for a potential Hydroid rework.
Deluge [Passive]
Hydroid gains 20% Power Efficiency on his next ability cast upon picking up an Energy Orb.
Comments: Wanted a situational boost to power without rewarding spam, so I decided to go with something in the vein of the new Energy/Health siphon mods. Since Hydroid is highly reliant on his abilities regardless, the potential of getting a discount when really low on energy is probably quite relevant. That said, this is probably the most disposable ability of the set and I'd willing to hear other suggestions.
Drench [1]
Costs: 25 Energy
Hydroid shoots a spray of water towards the HUD's targeting reticule that travels 8 / 10 / 12 / 16 metres, dealing 50 / 75 / 100 / 150 impact damage to all enemies it hits and pushing them backwards. The spray has a width of 2.5 metres.-
Damage is affected by Power Strength
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Enemies affected are staggered and pushed back to the end of the travel distance; enemies in point blank would be pushed the full 16 metres, whilst enemies at the very edge would be nudged backwards.
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Travel distance is affected by Power Range.
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Can be cast while airborne, and the cast animation cannot be interrupted.
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Enemies immune to knockdown effects will not be pushed.
Comments: Not the most exciting ability ever, but this effect gives Hydroid the ability to manipulate enemies into the AOE of Safe Harbour and Shipwreck.
Tidal Surge[2]
Costs: 50 Energy
Hydroid transforms into liquid and surges forward, increasing his speed to 20 / 25 / 27.5 / 30 meters per second over a duration of 1 second. Enemies within 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 meters of the wave take 100 / 200 / 250 / 300 Impact damage as the wave travels and 100 / 200 / 250 / 300 Slash damage as the wave breaks at the end of the duration.-
All damage is affected by Power Strength. The Slash damage component diminishes with distance and is affected by body-part multipliers.
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Enemies affected by the travelling portion of the wave are ragdolled and pushed forward or to the side.
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Enemies affected by the wave breaking are knocked down.
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Speed is affected by Power Duration, while duration is not.
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Striking radius is affected by Power Range.
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Hydroid will immediately submerge if he ends Tidal Surge inside a Safe Harbour pool.
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Can be used to pass through Laser Barriers unharmed in most cases.
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Hydroid is immune to damage while in liquid form.
Comments: Tidal Surge has been left mostly the same, with the exception that the second portion of the ability now knocks enemies down, to help synergise it with Safe Harbour.
Safe Harbour [3]
Costs: 50 Energy
Hydroid creates a pool of water at target location with a radius of 4 / 4.5 / 5 / 6 metres. Enemies that wade through the pool move and attack 20% / 25% / 30% / 40% slower. Enemies knocked down whilst in a pool take 120 / 150 / 180 / 240 Finisher damage each second until they stand up.
When crouching in a pool, Hydroid submerges himself, becoming invulnerable to all forms of damage and untargetable to enemies. Hydroid can have up to 4 pools at a time-
Base damage and slow magnitude are affected by Power Strength.
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Enemies that enter the pool will sink down half way.
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Airborne enemies are unaffected by Safe Harbour's slow.
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Enemies begin 'drowning' (i.e. finisher damage DOT) at the start of the knock down and ends about half-way through the stand-up animation.
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Pool radius is affected by Power Range.
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Enemies affected by Blast Procs or knocked down via Ragdolling will begin drowning in addition to effects that specifically apply 'Knock Down'.
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Jumping, rolling, sprinting or attacking with/firing a weapon will cause Hydroid to immediately resurface. He may cast abilities without resurfacing.
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Hydroid's Companion will also be submerged.
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There is a 0.25 second uninterruptable animation when Hydroid re-surfaces. He remains immune to damage until the end of the animation
Comments: Safe Harbour is my attempt at making Undertow more interactive and less restrictive/terrible. On one hand, it no longer has absolute crowd control, nor can it naturally damage enemies, but I'd say the added flexibility more than makes up for it. Safe Harbour is more about giving yourself breathing space between instances of Crowd Control, rather than pressing a button and alt-tabbing for a couple minutes while you wait for something to eventually die.
Shipwreck [4]
Costs: 100 Energy
Hydroid summons a storm at his current location with a diameter of 10 / 12 / 14 / 20 metres. Torrential rain bombards the area for 10 / 15 / 20 / 30 seconds, reducing the accuracy of all enemies standing in it by 60% / 70% / 80% / 100%.Reactivating Shipwreck will reduce the duration by up to 5 seconds and blast the area with water, dealing 200 / 250 / 300 / 400 Impact damage to all enemies hit.
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Damage and accuracy reduction are affected by Power Strength.
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Enemies affected by the water blast are knocked down.
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There is a 0.5 second minimum delay between water blasts.
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Maximum duration is affected by Power Duration. Water blast duration cost is not,
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Storm diameter is affected by Power Range.
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The can only be one storm active at a time per Hydroid.
Comments: So, I personally find Tentacle swarm to be weirdly out of character, considering Hydroid's other abilities and I think this might be a suitably flashy replacement. Shipwreck can be used as either an AOE pseudo-crowd control, since its effect at max level basically prevents enemies shooting at you whilst inside it, or you can reduce the duration for damage and hard crowd control (plus the potential of finisher damage with Safe Harbour). -
Seeing the title of this thread immediately brings to mind the Simon & Garfunkel song. I was kinda hoping the Tower would have an ability called 'Deep and Mighty', but hey.
As for the rework itself...
Stuff I like
Track of the Relic
Reading over Relic a couple of times has made me like it more and more. The track has a nice balance of offense, defense, team play and solo power. It feels a little weird flavour-wise, but that's a bit of a nit-pick. Redoubt is perhaps a little strong when used with Mag or Frost Prime, but considering it's a straight durability increase rather than an immortality effect of some kind, I don't see an innate problem with it. Pylons and Retribution are both cool, if a little weird. Prismatic Network might be stepping into Vazarin's territory, but it fits the theme regardless. That said, a 7k or more overshield for Frost Prime might be a little much.
Summit's Wind & Volcanium
Both are cool effects that fit well with both Unairu as a whole and the Mountain path's concept. Volcanium might encourage a weird game play pattern in endless missions, though. Also, it's probably broken with Nekros.
Rock Hail
This seems like a cool effect. Part of the problem with Basilisk Flare (and Petrify) is that the inability to attack whilst it's active means you waste a bunch of the duration. This feels like an interesting way to get around the problem.
Stuff I don't know about
Basilisk Flare's Adjustments
I'll be honest here, I really dislike Basilisk Flare as it is, and whilst the changes make it more unique as an effect, I think they also make it a little too close to Vazarin.
Peak Camp
This one's just... Really weird. I don't know what to say about it.
Stuff I don't like
Track of the Tower (Minus Rock Hail)
The Tower doesn't feel like it belongs in Unairu. United Front feels like it only exists to be broken when used in conjunction with specific frames, especially ones with toggle-able buffs, since I assume that United Front doesn't cause energy drain from other frames. Gates is cool, but has a massive delta of power between frames that have no durability or healing effects (e.g. Atlas) and those who can abuse that invulnerability period (e.g. Trinity); I'm assume that, if you get damaged past a gate, the gate only kicks in after the damage has been taken, rather than preventing excess damage past the gate. Great Wall feels really weird, but in kind of a bad way; it feels like the power in it is only locked away behind the clunkiness of the ability. Bond feels similarly weird, but more in a 'I can't really evaluate this without seeing it in action'. In general, the track has this really overt 'build around me' feel that makes its effects arguably broken if you can engineer a situation to abuse them.
Side Note: The series of reworks you've written up has actually inspired me to try my hand at my own reworks of the focus schools.
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qft.
More contenders in the second definition: Exhalted Blade, Shield polarize. The second is an endless scaling "kill faction" button which shouldn't exist while EB is just OP and braindead all around while lasting pretty much forever but most of all also SO ANNOYING... Mission start: *SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH..." ad infinitum. Ew.
There's an argument for Shield Polarise due to how great a chasm there is between best and worst case scenarios, but really, Exalted Blade is overtuned, rather than actually broken as an ability. EB probably needs a nerf to the base damage on the projectiles, but as an ability the only real problem I have with it is that it's very rarely going to not be Excal's best choice for damage; infinite range and high damage plus punch through. Which, again, can be remedied with numerical nerfs.
Hysteria, Defy and Blessing (addressing the post quoted) are symptoms of how warped the Energy economy of Warframe is. Defy is only broken due to the existence of Rage, Blessing is on the same kit as Energy Vampire and Hysteria is really just too easy to discount down to no cost, since the biggest 'cost' comes when you deactivate it.
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Nekros's Desecrate.
Bear with me on this one.
Note that the question posed by the OP isn't 'Least useful' or 'Statistically worst' ability. It's 'worst ability' in general. Most of the abilities that have been mentioned so far are simply 'useless' or 'annoying'. Whilst it may sometimes be annoying that a frame you like has a waste of 25 energy where an ability should be, they aren't necessarily harmful. I was tossing up between Desecrate and Energy Vampire for which one I consider to be more harmful as a whole. I decided to go with Desecrate, since, whilst the community might be addicted to Energy Vampire and it hurts balance as a whole, at least it feels alright to use (plus, energy restores exist), plus it only does nasty things to balance when paired with other warframes. On the other hand, from my understanding, most people who play Nekros don't do it because he's fun. Playing Nekros is either an obligation you have to speed up farming, or an appreciation of his aesthetic that overpowers his degenerate playstyle. There's plenty of more experienced people than I who have articulated why loot drop mechanics are damaging to the game, and Desecrate is the most overt example of it.
Sure, Bounce Pad might irritate you now and then, but I would posit that the chronic disappointment people have when thinking about Nekros as a direct result of Desecrate (and the effect it has on his kit and how DE balances him) makes it the 'worst' ability in the game.
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Reworked his 2 and 4.
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If I had a Nickle for every "Darkyst: The Better Than You." I see on these forums.
Will be honest; I kinda skimmed over the lore after I read the name of the frame and abilities. It's kinda built into the concept of the frame, so I didn't want to comment. Still, there's technically nothing specifically wrong with an 'edgy' frame. There's a market for it. Mechanics, on the other hand, are something I can comment on with more confidence.
(PS: With current knowledge, if it could be changed, rather than transporting them to a Dojo room, Darkyst's [3] should totally go to Draco).
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Did some minor modifications, plus I added the quest that allows you to obtain Bellicose.
(I swear, I'm usually decent at writing, but I wanted a semi-quick summary of events).
Split Flights, typo or cruel joke?
in Players helping Players
Posted
"Split Flights turns bows into a semi-automatic Kohm"
That frankly sounds terrible.
I will say, I don't hate Split Flights in its current incarnation. IMO, we need more niche mods that aren't either 'replaces a mod slot on every weapon that can use it' or 'completely useless joke mod'...but on the other hand, Bows are already a niche weapon class and Split Flights is already banned from every bow that would really make use of it, so yeah, it could do with a buff to its usability at the very least.
ATM, Split Flights is a situational mod on two not especially popular weapons (because even on the two weapons that like it, you also kinda need to be in a mission where you can reliably keep the buff running). Even if it was buffed to 10 seconds+, I'm not even sure that the other bows would want it that much; the Cernos Prime and Mutalist Cernos are also the two available bows least fazed by the accuracy drop.