LauraGambler

Hello :) Ember is one of my favorite frames of all time, but she is in an undeniably bad state as of today. Her damage reduction ability comes with a downside, which is unique among warframes, her fire blast has issues with line of sight, as well as being fully dependant on her heat bar while simultaneously reducing its effectiveness when used. And then there's Inferno, with its incredibly low damage relative to other caster frames (2.5k is less than one tenth of Dagath's Rakhali's Cavalry, and it is equally spread between impact and heat, meaning the resulting DoT is only based on an 1,250 hit). Even at max heat (which comes with a 10 energy/second drain), it still only deals 5k damage. This makes it so Ember has one of, if not the, biggest energy demands in the entire game, all while many energy sources are all but unavailable to her due to Immolation's energy drain deactivating energy regen sources (such as Zenurik's Wellspring or Xata's Invocation). She constantly has to spend energy just to turn off her immolation energy drain, or risk fully running out. At the time of her rework, she was fantastic, and her in-kit synergy is great, but the game has evolved a lot since, and left her (and many others, like Chroma) in the dust. So, here are a couple of tweaks I'd suggest to improve her quality of play: Attributes: Shields lowered to 125-225 (125-225). Health increased to 200-300 (250-350). Armor increased to 250. Energy increased to 200-250 (250-300). By shifting some of her status towards health and armor, she becomes slightly more viable as a health tanking frame, making her benefit more from mods such as Archon Vitality as well as her own Healing Flame augment. The increase in maximum base energy should also greatly assist with her energy economy on its own. Passive: Changed to grant 5% power strength per heat proc caused by her abilities rather than per enemy burning in range, but capped at +150% extra power strength. This strength lowers at a steady 5%/second rate - decay rate begins after 2 seconds without applying a heat proc. This makes it so her passive doesn't just work while enemies are alive and burning, making her friendlier to play in squads while making the bonus itself more consistent. The restriction in her passive (only triggering by heat procs caused by abilities) serves to emphasize her role as a caster frame. Abilities: Fireball: Holding the button repeatedly charges and releases fireballs at max charge. While held, fireballs come out with a 1 second delay between casts rather than a 0.5s, meaning tapping the key lets you fire them more often. Chain time now scales with duration. Immolation: Generates overguard while in overheat, at a 20 overguard to 1 energy burned rate, affected by strength and efficiency. Has a delay of 2 seconds before generating more overguard if hers were broken. Fire Blast: Fire Blast gains a base energy discount based on her heat bar, making it cheaper to cast as you approach - or reach - overheat. This reduction is independant from efficiency, and at 100% heat it is free to cast regardless of your efficiency. If used while in overheat, Ember cannot enter overheat again for the next 5 seconds (scales with duration). Now affects bosses, acolytes and others at reduced effectiveness (25%) Inferno: Fully benefits from Fireball's chain increasing damage, but resets the chain when cast, provided at least one enemy is targeted. Damage is now 100% heat with guaranteed impact proc on hit. This shifts her to a more combo-oriented playstyle, where you build up fireballs (and, in the process, her passive) to create a massive, literal inferno. At 8x, Inferno deals at base 20k damage - but reaching 8x combo using your fireballs require 8 casts (25 energy at base, or 200 energy total) in rapid succession, while also requiring at the very minimum 4 seconds of fireball lobbing due to the 0.5s cast delay between fireballs. The interaction between Immolation and Fire Blast is largely unchanged, but the overheat prevention that Fire Blast now gives, coupled with the cheaper or even free casting from it, makes her energy economy much fairer. Immolation generates overguard now, which is fantastic - calculation is 20 * (str + eff - 1), so at 243% power strength and 45% efficiency (with blind rage and umbral intensify), you'd make roughly 38 overguard per energy burned with it. With a maxed passive, that would be around 67 overguard per second. With primed flow and the increase in energy, you'd possibly generate 38k overguard if you burned your entire energy pool on immolation, which isn't all that much. This version of Ember is much less about spamming 4, and much more about building up for a massive, room-clearing 4, while also keeping the previous "spam 4" playstyle alive and well. Augments: Healing Flame and Purifying Flames augments are combined, and the status immunity from Purifying Flames now applies to herself. Purifying Flames replaced by "Imploding Blast" - enemies caught by Fire Blast are pulled in rather than knocked away from Ember. Can now be acquired by Red Veil and Steel Meridian, like her other augments. Exothermic Blast: Energy drop chance is now affected by power strength, capped at 40% (reached at ~266% total power strength). Fireball Frenzy: Fires smaller fireballs (50% reduced damage, 25% smaller explosion radius) in addition to providing the heat weapon buff, keeping the "fire while held" change. Healing Flame is, like mentioned, now more viable since Ember's stats now support a health-tanking playstyle better. Combining both augments give her some squad support and frees up her exilus from the bane that is Primed Sure Footed. Imploding Blast gives her a powerful grouping ability that sinergyzes well with Fireball and Inferno. Fireball Frenzy was changed to preserve the quality of life change added to her 1 and make it slightly stronger. And finally, Exothermic Blast was improved to scale with power strength, making it comparable in effectiveness to her other options for energy economy, and much less reliant on extremely expensive arcanes like Energize. I'm hoping this rework will bring Ember to a newer, stronger position, more in line with more recent frames.

Sold.

I really like the spotlight idea! It fits with Mirage's trickster/jokester theme, too. Stand in the light and you perform to the best of your ability, stay out of it and it's like you're not on scene, so you shouldn't be noticed.

Ooooo, new frame! Sign me up :D