Nerthiril

Not just this. Voruna exists. The suggested change would just be a worse voruna 2. As you can easily spread status upon enemy death to groups while still chaining abilities together instead of this new chroma ability forcing you to stop for a moment. I am 50/50 on cold. I feel like it should be a lower but multiplicative bonus to armor or VA needs to be multiplicative because cold at the moment is only useful when you are trying to stack Scorn as when you got 1200%+ additive armor. The 400% isn’t going to do much. Agree on heat and electric, 100% agree on toxin. This tbh. Mirage mains getting their change slightly reverted now made chroma the worst damage buff on top of being the hardest to stack (being unable to obtain stacks currently unless they get damaged to hp) at least previous eclipse was unreliable. (Roar is just bs as it’s a single button press for one of the highest buffs in the game). chroma is only really good now for nieche things like Grendel runs (pair with harrow for inf energy). Or to use stuff like shotgun vandetta/longbow sharpshot/multiplicative gunCO. Which sure I like being able to use those stuff effectively. But there is no need to spread VA to Allies because it’s guaranteed they are using primary merci/serration/deadhead so the buff is just meh to not needed. Honestly they should get rid of Effegy. It gives you an armor decrease in exchange for movespeed… on a tank frame. On top of Effegy being an energy hog and dealing no damage. I do like the suggested change but feel like chroma would benefit a lot more if we just threw it out like hydroid’s puddle. Not sure if it is possible due to being a part of their identity, but if not throw out completely, just completely change how it works.

I don’t think most are saying that he is bad per say. Just he is outdated. His 1 and 4 have no use even being there and I’ve done 99% of my missions with chroma without even touching Effegy. (Only times I did was it was a mistake and didn’t leave it up for long). His 2 is barely useful and if you get wisp on your team his heat ward doesn’t work, and same with hyldren and electric. Cold is additive so it’s only truely useful when trying to get scorn stacks. After that it’s a very minor buff not really worth the energy investment. Then toxin no one really talks about because no one uses. Then finally 3. His “best most defining ability”. It can be replaced by any other damage ability and be better. Only truely good if you are using gunCO with a gun that is multiplicative, or longbow sharpshot. It does free up mod slots and arcanes. But most builds aren’t even so tight that you can eke out extra damage by replacing serration/merciless with Vex armor. You get more damage from roar or eclipse with serration/gunCO/merciless. Still fully usable in any content you want. Just overwhelmingly mediocre.

I’d give it a hard 1.5. At least half of Elemental ward is useful (if you don’t have a wisp (overwrites heat), hyldren (elec is just bad but Hyldren overwrites it), Max scorn stacks (Cold is additive with VA so basically does nothing when you easily get 1k armor from VA), and who uses Toxin (Toxin is probably the least used one chroma has))

To start off I agree that overguard should honestly be removed and we should have never been given access to it. It now makes it impossible to make any mode actually challenging when all you need is like one Dante or one Sty to instantly make the entire team seemingly immune from death but to get back onto chroma They honestly should. Tho they aren’t properly a dragon. They just slayed a dragon like sentient. They could instead lean heavily into a Paladin style for them. Tanking and supporting their team to prevent them from dying. Removing overguard would make this role also more achievable tbh. But it already seems like DE is trying to push for that with the introduction of GA augment. But they haven’t gone all the way. Ele ward is also a team buff. So he has 2 team buffs and 2 useless abilities. Why not make him have 3 buffs (nourish is already one of the best anyways and what I use on them so I already run 3 buffing abilities) and maybe a damage one on 4 somewhat like wisp (except the 4 is actually useful) maybe like a panic button if things get tough. I did suggest a Paladin style croma. Tho it was unfinished missing a passive and 4th. This would not only tie into their theme but also keep VA. Instead of replacing all 4 abilities to fit dragon. ps. On the upcoming changes they are 100% bandaids alongside the augment which only patch chroma up. I bet the stacks on kill won’t be useful outside of having a Dante on your team. He is desperately in need of a rework. He’s gone through so many indirect nerfs. (From VA “fix” to self damage removal, to overguard) and everything they’ve done is just bandaid fixes. It’s honestly not enough

This is kinda another gripe I have with chroma despite wanting so desperately to main it. A frame shouldn't be defined by a single ability of their kit. it should all work in tandum, does that mean every warframe should have 4 op abilities? or even 4 abilities that are useful 100% of the time? no. But no warframe should have 2 easily replaceable abilities in the helminth. (3 if you count VA, the most defining part of their kit, being easily replaceable by any other damage buff in the game)

Its been announced next patch that chroma is going to be able to generate fury with ranged kills and scorn with melee. which imo is a bit of a bandaid fix as it will only really matter if you have an overguard frame in your team. And rage/adren will be able to work through overguard if you have no shield. Agreed. Even with GA he still feels kinda eh and the fun you have is not really with their kit, but the guns you use. which you can use any other frame and the same gun just subsume roar for a better time. It feels like de is trying to get chroma to be a support tank and not selfish like theyve been for years. Chroma's VA is not just a self buff, nor is EW. But everyone had to go narrow minded to get VA duration to a point it is usable. Now with GA removing the need for that chroma is a bit more of the support tank it seems like he always was meant to be. But without a full rework looking over his kit (in particular 1 and 4) he will always be alright. in between good and bad and most importantly, dated. VA was not meant to keep up with SP enemies, with them able to easily kill you through scorn before you get enough fury stacks unless you have at least 300% ability str which is kinda the biggest issue with chroma, going max ability str should be a choice, not a requirement to make serviceable. basically knocks away any other potential build due to how bad going anything but str is in high level play.

Thank you. I was looking for basically anything to fit it. and innate adaption would fit both the sentient aspect of lore and also help chroma cause adaptation is nearly universally used on them, freeing up a mod slot.

Ok it is currently 2:30 am so this may not be my best work but I just want to get it down for feedback purposes and so I don't forget by tomorrow. As we probably all know by now chroma has been getting more and more obsolete as the years go on and patches come out that indirectly nerf them (Removal of self damage, overguard frames) and while luckily the second part is getting fixed somewhat next week (Finally something good for chroma for once). And the first got somewhat fixed by Guardian armor (Which should honestly be baked into the ability at this point. But at least its an augment worth the mod slot and energy). Chroma still is in the iffy place of not being bad per say. Like it doesn't draw the eyes of DE to fix them, but chroma just isn't worth playing when there are so many other frames that can easily beat it out in every category it once held claim to. So I have the idea of instead of trying to make it fit into already existing categories, why not make it fit into its own category, Paladin. Paladin for those who don't play DnD or fantasy games with classes are a class that's a hybrid between a tank and a support, often with powerful buffs to make their allies last through the fight. With guardian armor augment he is already on the path to becoming a proper paladin instead of a selfish self buffing dps/tank hybrid. No longer needing narrow minded for duration he can now actually buff allies within a decent range and take their allies damage onto themselves with guardian armor. Now that's Just Vex armor, the rest of their kit doesn't really flow into the paladin style game play in particular the 1 and 4. So my goal is to suggest some changes that will make their kit actually flow starting with passive: Draconic protection: The current ability feels like a placeholder, like DE couldn't come up with anything else but since the passive was getting removed they had to do something. Just an extra jump isn't doing much. It doesn't even fit the elemental dragon theme they previously had going on. But as I was thinking over how to make chroma more fitting as a paladin and how their current playstyle may fit a dragon's selfishness, the paladin idea can be them viewing their allies as their hoard to protect. Currently no idea of what to make this due to the Guardian armor augment's existence being basically what I'd want as the passive, but moving that augment to their passive could work Spectral Scream: Lets be honest, if this ability didn't also hold the most identifying part of their kit (swapping elements) it would be the one to go over even effigy, at least that has merit in PT with credit doubling. Low damage, low range, locks out of non melee weapons. this is the peak of useless abilities. So lets change it into something both chroma and their allies benefit from: Chroma lets out a roar infused with elemental might staggering and inflicting status on enemies caught in the blast. Secondary effect changes based on what element is equipped: Heat: A flash of fire Blind enemies for 3 seconds Electric: Electric tendrils latch onto nearby allies instantly starting a boosted shield recharge Cold: Instantly Freezes nearby enemies (Currently a placeholder as cannot think of what else better to add) Toxin: Toxin drips from chroma and enemies hit by the blast creating toxic pools underneath them. This addresses some of the main issues I've been having with chroma, they are a tank but have no form of CC at all. Heat and Cold will allow that. Electric allows them a minor buff on their 1 to supplement the additional shield on elec ele ward. And toxic is just added aoe which due to this change taking out the only form of ability damage they have, it would be nice for them to still have something. I've always liked elemental ward and how it changes in effect based on element and feel like the 1 holding the swap but 2 being the only one that actually changes (other than just element damage) is weird. This will make it so 1 actually has a reason to be the one swapping elements instead of just moving it onto 2. Elemental Ward: One of my favorite abilities previously crippled by the dedication to needing to watch over VA. Now with GA being here we can finally reliably keep Elemental Ward up for as long as we want. My personal only change is just making this recastable, there is no reason not to, just makes chroma feel clunky to play when you have to wait an extra second to let ele ward drop before casting it again. But I'll bring up a change supplied from EmperorBlastoff 's post as I feel like it is a pretty decent change if you want to go further with it instead of a simple recast "Second Ability Changes: The second ability Elemental Ward at first seems like a decent survivabilty and support tool but in practice its pretty overwhelming for Chroma. First you cant recast the ability like on other support abilities, so your force to wait till the duration to end to recast it. Two you can only use one buff at a time so you can't use it at its full potential. Three most of the buffs kinda suck., for example the heat buff only gives you extra health but no healing. Which isn't good especially in steel path because extra health with no healing, armor, and Shield gating isn't gonna mean S#&$ to a Steelpath enemies. While the cold and electric buffs are decent, but like I said you can't use two buffs at the same time, and the worst of them all is the toxin buff. Having extra reload and holster speed is situational and most Chroma players rarely use it, unless they are using it in Eidolon hunt. since Elemental Ward is Chroma's subsume you can just slap it on other frames like Wisp or Trinity and get better results than on Chroma. I would keep Elemental ward but make some changes like making it recast able and being able to use two buffs instead of just one. I will also give changes to the buffs by giving them special effects. The Heat Buff will give Chroma extra health and also extra healing like Wisp's motes. The Electric Buff will give extra shields as well as extra energy regeneration, The Cold Buff would still give extra armor but it will also give out a slow moving aura similar to that of Sevagoth's gloom, and finally the Toxin Buff will give extra ammo and ammo capacity to guns. You can only use two buffs at once, but just having just two should be enough survivabilty." (EmperorBlastoff) Vex Armor: This ability is a bit controversial about what to do with it but in my opinion these are the two best for this version of chroma 1: Keep as is, it works perfectly fine and has synergies with stuff like Longbow sharpshot and guns/melee that have Multiplicative CO 2: Turn it back into Multiplicative with the expectation that it will get nerfed to be not even close to the power it was before. I personally am in favor of keep as is, it allows different arcanes to shine like longbow and shotgun vandetta that fly under the radar due to merciless and deadhead being so prevalent. Those arcanes barely see much use due to merciless/deadhead being the best way of getting base damage onto a weapon, allowing for more optimization with mods no longer needing serration. Chroma has the unique opportunity of being a warframe that can directly benefit from those lesser used arcanes and I don't want to take that away. Effigy: This is the ability im most unsure about. I know it needs to be taken out of the picture completely it is so bad, especially with blind rage, have fun running out of energy in seconds. So I'll be taking feedback on what this slot could be that would fit into a paladin or dragon theme, all I will ask is that it isn't a buff, the frame with these changes already has 3 buffs (though only one affects damage, so it wouldn't be out of line) putting a 4th one will run the risk of making this a support frame or just being too timer focused All feedback is appreciated, all I'll ask is if you take issue with a proposed change, to supply some other way the ability could be changed instead. Criticism is more than accepted as long as there is constructive merit to it as well.

After reading more posts someone mentioned how Vex armor’s range was horrid especially compared to guardian armor meaning you can’t reliably protect your team. And with most range mods to actually make them a support frame taking away from tankyness or power str they suggested that Vex armor should be aff range too. Meaning no need to slot overextended or stretch to get enough range for it to be worthwhile on anything other than a defense mission. Which would be a very welcome buff to VA cause a lot of time it’s me running around trying to follow people so they don’t outspeed the VA buff and wind up suddenly nuked by their massive drop in armor. This can also be applied to elemental ward too. Would maybe make a good passive in combination with something else. But better if it was baked into the abilities

I’m 50/50 on this fix idea. It does have merit but there are edits I’d do. Going down the list: Completely agree with you on the passive. It feels like something you’d slap on just as a filler passive while you fix something that was broken or to hold it over till you give the frame the proper passive. Yet chroma has it and still has it for years. Status retaliation is nice when their primary ability relies on getting damaged. This is another good point but it’s also where my ideas start to differ. I don’t like the idea that their ability only will effect melee. We already have multiple melee frames (like kullervo as mentioned and voruna) and the second issue is turning it into another melee frame will unless it brings something different (which it doesn’t) will leave it in the same place it is right now. People will just use Kullervo for crit and raw damage melee, and voruna for status and CO. Chroma is special because its buffs are universal. Buffing their guns and melee alongside their abilities damage. Making the first ability just a melee damage and status buff would just not stand out. Also it’s treading on the toes of larvos with the combined elements. Chroma should be the master of (base) elements. While larvos the alchemist should be the master of combining them. Tho don’t have as much issue with this as spectral scream. Another issue is no frame has more than one damage buff ability. That’s why you can only replace eclipse with roar with vex armor. You are prohibited from replacing any other ability. Giving chroma 2 damage buff abilities would make them stand out. In a bad way. People will complain at de asking why chroma can get 2 damage buffs. Maybe instead of spectral scream as it is it can be this: Spectral Scream: Chroma lets out a roar infused with elemental might staggering and inflicting status on enemies caught in the blast. Secondary effect changes based on what element is equipped: Heat: A flash of fire Blind enemies for 3 seconds Electric: Electric tendrils latch onto nearby allies instantly starting a boosted shield recharge Cold: Instantly Freezes nearby enemies Toxin: Toxin drips from chroma and enemies hit by the blast creating toxic pools underneath them. With chroma’s new guardian armor augment they now have a nieche as a Paladin (Support/Tank) this will also augment that role giving them some desperately needed CC (Cold and heat), some desperately needed aoe damage (Toxin), and another means to support the team (Electric) also makes it so it works more like elemental ward in that it isn’t just a change of elements. But it’s actually a change in effect too. This is the first I’d say is actually fine. No comments here just a good idea to make Ele ward more useful and consistent. Honestly this is the change I have the biggest gripe with. With guardian armor existing solely to make getting VA easier (And the confirmed change that now ranged attacks will stack fury and melee for scorn) this change is no longer needed. I’d even protest the change without Guardian armor existing. It just turns it into another roar/eclipse style buff of cast it for full effect. And honestly if this change went through it’ll get nerfed guaranteed. Making it in an even more sorry state than it is rn. Especially since you can just keep recasting the buff once you have it at max. Also guardian armor can’t kill you. Only drop to 1 hp. Meaning if you stay out of sight from the enemies but have like Vaz focus for more aff range you can easily get max fury in seconds without risk of dying. Honestly a better change in my opinion since I keep mentioning it so much. Make guardian armor part of Vex armor. It’s such a crucial augment for chroma in high levels if you want to not die trying to stack VA. Ig it does kinda make sense for such a strong power to be costing a mod slot. Another very valid point. Effegy is usually the subsume unless PT farm. But I do take issue with the edit. Once again it’s exclusively for a single type of weapons. This time guns. Titania can fly and has both guns and melee so why can’t chroma. And I do like the edit to one to compensate for the lacking melee weapon but feel like chroma should at least be able to claw or use melee weapons too. They are basically a dragon afterall. But before I get ahead of myself like I just mentioned. Titania. This is very similar to their 4 except with a chroma twist. I personally cannot really think of one myself at the moment but I feel like chroma should start to lean into the paladin style of gameplay they are adopting. all in all these are pretty nice changes but not really what chroma needs for the most part. Feel like if he became a Paladin frame he would see a lot of success as the first one of that type. Most are either support or tanking (often with a bit of dps to help compensate so they don’t fall off in high level play (rhino)) Chroma being a Paladin would mean they can get into content that other supports can’t due to being too squishy. Or relying on their teammates too much.

Agreed. They’ve fallen so far from ultimate eidolon hunter to just being there for PT credit doubling. I even think people just subsume over VA when doing that so basically no one even uses their abilities when doing PT as chroma anyways. Voruna yah. But I don’t think they need a rework. Maybe just a tweak. Reworks I’d save for ones whoes most of their kit just doesn’t work in the current system of which 1-3 all work flawlessly and really pair well together with the melee playstyle. 4’s main issue Imo is that it isn’t statstickable. If you could use a stat stick for it that would definitely increase its potency

Yah agreed but a few things of note. 1st ability is the worst by far but de made it even worse by locking the swap ele on that Ability meaning it doesn’t even have a place as an ability that you can replace. 2: His 2nd is the elemental ward, third is vex armor. And yes only heat and cold are used. Toxin doesn’t have a place on it and elec is only used on like hydren when subsumed onto them but we shouldn’t take how useful it is on other frames into account as it doesn’t effect chroma. And yah 4 is horrid mainly because of its double credits ability. That gives people the idea that chroma is good for something (credit farming) without them realizing that most just subsume roar/eclipse over it and thus is it even chroma anymore? You don’t use the 1, 2 is only half an ability, 3 is often subsumed for a better buff and 4 is only for the double credits. If that 4 didn’t double credits I would have no doubt that people would just not use chroma for PT either and completely shut them down from having a nieche at all. (Imo he still doesn’t. Sitting there and doubling credits for everyone isn’t a nieche. Unless you plan on farming PT for hours for credits he won’t save you that much time by just standing there with 4)

The fact Vex armor is bad for a damage buff isn’t my main concern with chroma. It’s the fact that Vex armor is their only good ability and that’s only compared to their other ok to downright bad abilities that’s the problem. 1 is useless, 4 is only for credits, and their only half decent ability is useless in 2/4 modes.

Yah, it’s a shame how much they’ve fallen. Volt is for eidolons and people just use chroma with eclipse over VA for profit taker. And that’s only due to double credits. Which I wouldn’t say is healthy for a frame. Not only do people just subsume a better damage buff over vex armor. Chroma’s previous claim to fame, and still is his only actually “good” ability. If you can call it good post nerf. It’s just a replacement to additive damaging on weapons. So yah. Using an ability for an extra mod slot. And Elemental ward is still only half an ability. Cold and heat wards are the only ones used. Electric is only used in very nieche builds where they subsume it onto a different frame. And toxin is never used at all because if you want reload speed you just put it on your weapon and don’t rely on ele ward. I used chroma for most of my time on warframe but it just kept leaving a sour taste in my mouth with every patch trying to “fix” them doing basically nothing (congrats spectra scream deals 400 more damage, we can change elements (people still only use cold or heat), and now we can triple jump. That’s all we need right?) or outright making them worse (see aforementioned VA nerf) they became less and less appealing to play.

Yah an Odachi definitely fits the theme. Haven’t really used one before but if it came with the set I’ll definitely try to build around one.