I'll try to make this as simple but complete as possible. Chroma has officially lost his identity in warframe. A game about the mystery of space and the fantastic wonder of the many creatures and places we will encounter. Somehow we get an elemental dragon character, that exemplifies neither the elemental nor the dragon lore of his own origin. Claimed to be "An elemental frame", yet the abilities he has at his disposal appear to lack nearly all of that flair.
Here we have my point of understanding, I understand making him a dragon soldier type character, but that truly leaves a couple things out of place, this is also due to the nature of the game currently. I can here explain how to solve it. I will break down the changes to the abilities this warframe holds, which it needs not only to reinvigorate its viability in the general meta of the game, but also in delivering on the promise of a lore rich character.
These suggestions are in the idea that vex armor remains the focal point of his kit, as it is currently.
Spectral scream:
This ability is of the right idea but of the wrong manifestation, if he truly is an elemental soldier type then spectral scream should be...a weapon buff. Yes its simple, and it should of course be scaled down (doesn't need to double dip like a sayne toxic lash due to elemental choice) but additional elemental damage pumped right into his kit, doing what he does best, fighting with his amped weaponry (and freeing him from that unhelpful animation lock). The damage in my opinion should scale with his ability LEVEL but the status chance scale with power strength, allowing him to make use of the ailments at his disposal.
Elemental Ward:
This ability is great for what it's worth, minus one caveat, it's a little redundant, due to vex armor being survivability based as well. Mainly this solution depends on the outcome of Vex armor so take your pick here. If vex armor stays the same, make this health bonus from the heat buff into health regen instead. This gives him another viable element to utilize, respects the fact chroma needs hp in his build anyways due to needing to take HEALTH damage for his buff, so having raw health on a timer doesn't make sense anyways. Or if you make the change to vex armor I'll put that in that section.
Vex Armor:
This ability was top tier due to its old damage calculations, and with the nerf to its raw power, I think due to the current state of the game it needs a change. The current state of the game meaning the later content that requires 200+ level enemies to start off with. NEEDING to take health damage with such little survivability isn't ideal and modding for self damage just forces him to require more specific mods just to play, which is bad for end users.
If the buff relies on damage taken without forcing mods on him, then it promotes a bland "wait till i take enough damage before playing the game, and possibly die doing it" vibe to the character. And since we know for a fact that the development team is against boring automated gameplay, then make the buff scale off status ailments dealt by Chroma.
Many items, abilities, mods and such function in this manner so the code exists, chroma has four innate elements, and his kit allows him to utilize multiple if ever he needed a reason too. This solidifies his elemental warrior/soldier archetype he's been giving off.
Making it so once the ability vex armor is activated he has 0% of his buff, and each element he deals within that duration (wether from his weapons or abilities) increases its power by 25%, meaning at just four status procs applied, he will be at full fighting capabilities.
(The elemental ward change)
Basically if his vex armor worked in the function described above his ward would be good, but probably a little too strong being he doesn't need to take damage to get his buff anymore, I'd simply reduce its ability strength by 10-20% to compensate for his other sources of increased status chance and the easier path to power. (Thought I'd give more buff here? Silly goose, I believe in balance)
If this isn't changed to do something of that nature, then I recommend that the ability be based off of total damage taken, removing the HEALTH requirement entirely and increasing his base armor, because valkyr whom is invulnerable shouldnt have more base armor than a dragon.
Effigy:
This ability is SO COOL looking, that one would be drawn to use it. But after watching it perform one would feel silly for thinking such things. To make this one simple, it just needs to reduce less armor, have a larger stream radius, NOT throw enemies when it errupts (a mini impact proc would be cool) and chain up to 5 enemies at max level. Honestly the damage can stay the same but grant it the same scaling status chance on ability power as the first ability (referred to in spectral scream section).
And the armor reduction can start at 50% for its first unlock, but should be down to 10% by the time it hits lvl 3, because even 10% at higher levels is a punishment when Chroma needs armor to survive, or even better, make the armor reduction only apply when outside of the effigies radius, giving players the option to stay safe or risk sporadic movements. All much much more fun situations and just loosing half of the armor you worked to build up for a lack luster ability to rob you of it.
Passive:
Honestly if everything else is fixed this can stay the same and I'm sure no one would really care, however I can suggest something cool.
Make chroma erupt (similar to eximus or justice effect) with an elemental status wave, every 500 damage he takes, in a 10 meter radius, on a 30s cd.
This would just be once again, diving deep in the chroma elemental dragon warrior/soldier feel but it doesn't need high status to be fun and interesting.
Summary:
In conclusion, these changes address the many complaints with chroma and his position in the game, due to his reliance on receiving health damage after Self damage was removed, his fickleness at high level content, mirage becoming a much easier access for similar power with far less drawbacks and his overall lack of cohesiveness in feel and expression.
I hope what I've written here is complete to the reader and received by the community at large. I hope this is another step in making Warframe one of the greatest games to ever exist.
Thank you for your time.
