EldritchSyzygy

Rework Idea for Hydroid:

Of all the warframes that exist, I honestly believe that the least usable one is Hydroid. Unfortunately for me, he's also my absolute favorite, and has been since he released in Update 13.0. To that end, I've decided to theorycraft a rework that would make him more appealing. The choices I made range from barely changed to drastically different. But as of right now, all of his abilities miss the mark and largely punish you for using them, while also having almost no synergy. So bear with me. Passive: as is, it has almost no effect. It has a small percentage to proc on a melee maneuver that isn't commonly used, and doesn't do much damage/CC when activated. I believe that we need more shield tanks, and imo it fits thematically with a being made out of water, so I would change his passive such that he has no health (programmatically, he would have 2hp), but his armor mitigates damage to his shields, and toxin cannot bypass his shields. 1 - Tidal Surge (was 2) - 25eng: Its movement capability is disorientating, hard to control, and is landlocked meaning that it catches on almost everything. So I would scrap its functionality as a movement ability. It also would no longer sweep enemies around. I understand the intent is to "group them up", but it's inconsistent, hard to use effectively, and makes enemies harder to shoot. Instead, this ability would send a wave forward from Hydroid's feet. Any enemy hit takes some impact damage and is debuffed with 50% damage vulnerability, similar to sevagoth's reap. Duration would affect distance traveled and speed of wave, Range would affect wave width, and Strength would increase the debuff. Augment: No longer lowers energy cost, but otherwise acts the same (hydroid and allies hit by wave get a status immunity buff, affected by duration) 2 - Undertow (was 3) - 25eng + 5/s: As is, it disables you, hobbles you, hides enemies from your allies without doing much damage to them, and generally is not worth using unless you're in a public match and your microwave just finished cooking your chicken nuggets. Instead, I would change this to a movement ability. You would no longer go down into the pool you spawn and you would no longer suck enemies into your pool. You would take on an aqueous appearance and gain a fixed 90% DR for as long as you channel (or maybe some lower amount that scales with strength). I'm not sure the easiest way to code a movement ability, so I'm flexible on the form it takes, but I would prefer something like Yareli, Wukong, or Volt, where the movement is useful and more controllable than the current iteration of tidal surge. Efficiency and Duration would affect the energy burn, while Range affects the radius of the pool. Augment: Keep the "30% heal to allies every 1.5s" but take out the self heal, both for my new proposed passive, and because the self heal was never good, so just lean into it being a supportive augment. Maybe add in a "removes the shield recharge delay on self" to give solo players a reason to use the augment. 3 - Tempest Barrage (was 1) - 75eng: As it is, it's incredibly inconsistent and suffers badly as it requires a two and a half second charge for maximum "effectiveness". Even when it does hit an enemy in the radius, it knocks them down, which is a terrible form of CC, as it makes them harder to hit cleanly. Instead, it should spawn a circular field. The rain can be whatever visually, but the ability would apply its effects evenly to everyone in the field. Enemies in the field lose 10% of their maximum movement speed per second, up to a maximum of 50% movement speed reduction, while gently being pulled into the center of the circle. Strength affects maximum movement slow (up to 95% cap) and slow per second, Duration affects the lifetime of the ability, and Range affects radius. Augment: Was "enemies hit by a blast are painted by a corrosive proc". I would change it to enemies in the field are afflicted by 1 corrosive stack per 1.5s, affected by Strength (2 per 1.5s at 200%, etc) 4 - Kraken (was Tentacle Swarm) - no eng: Unfortunately, Tentacle Swarm is maybe one of the least effective abilities in the game. Deals very low damage, doesn't consistently grab enemies, has to be charged to cast at full strength, and even when it grabs enemies, it flails them about, making them incredibly hard to deal damage to. As a lover of Hydroid, I honestly can't think of a way to keep this ability as it is while also making it an ability I would choose to cast. Even as a lootframe, there are easier and more effective choices. So, I'm electing to scrap Tentacle Swarm, and replace it with an exalted form called Kraken, similar to Sevagoth's Shadow. This ability would build up like Baruuk's Serene Storm, accumulating charge as his other abilities affect enemies. Activating it would increase Hydroid's size and maybe replace his legs with tentacles or water, but instead of giving him an exalted weapon, it would buff his other abilities. His new 1 would receive a Strength buff, making enemies even more vulnerable to damage. His new 2 would receive a Duration buff, lowering the energy burn. His new 3 would receive a Range buff, catching more enemies in the slow/whirlpool. These buffs would encourage using his other abilities and vastly up his synergy. Strength would empower the ability buffs, Duration would affect how quickly the charge burns out, and Efficiency would affect how quickly his other abilities build charge. Augment: Change to "Enemies who die while wet (affected by some 1/2/3 ability) have 25% chance to drop more loot, affected by Strength So that's all the changes I would make. Honestly, I just want Hydroid to be in a place where his abilities actually support his gameplay, and you have a reason to cast them. Feel free to suggest alternatives to anything, and if DE is somehow here, feel free to steal any or all of this, if it means Hydroid is actually getting a functional rework. Thanks for reading, I just needed to get the Hydroid love out of my system. 🌊

+ I've been trying to do Boreal solo with Hildryn P, Phenmor, and Panzer Vulpa Scream-sphere makes it invincible. The overguard cannot be broken and it pushes me back perpetually. I just have to sit and wait while it's blinding me, screaming, and pushing me back. As soon as that ends, Boreal either spawns Aerolysts, making itself invincible until I painstakingly kill them, or does the pyramid, making itself invincible. As soon as I finally clear the horrible spawns, it goes back into the scream-sphere. This goes until enough ads have spawned that they knock me down. Then I get to retry again. This is one of the most unbearable bugs I've ever encountered in wf. Which is saying a lot. I'm getting tired of all the stupid, buggy mechanics they're introducing to "balance" boss fights. It only ever makes them take longer and feel like a chore.