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Dev Workshop: Nezha Revisited


[DE]Connor

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Hail Tenno!

On our last devstream, we gave players a sneak peek at the fiery Nezha Deluxe skin, which will be available in the coming weeks. As the office’s #1 Nezha enthusiast (sorry Megan), I’m very excited to announce that the deluxe skin release will be accompanied by some power kit changes!
 

[DE]Pablo has been working hard on tweaks, with two primary goals in mind:

  • Making Nezha feel smoother and more fluid in gameplay
  • Increasing Nezha’s power overall by giving him added team support value and internal synergies

With that said, let’s break down the changes in order!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

  • Increased max rank health from 225 to 375
  • Decreased max rank shields from 225 to 150

 

FIRE WALKER

  • Changed from a channeling ability to duration-based.
    • Why? As a channeled ability, keeping Firewalker active would block all energy regeneration. Making the ability a single cast with a long moddable duration solves that problem, encouraging more frequent use.
  • Cast animation changed to a small hop that doesn’t restrict movement.

firewalker.gif

 

BLAZING CHAKRAM

  • Cast animation has been sped up, and no longer restricts movement.
  • Enemies hit by the disc are “marked” for a moddable duration, greatly increasing the damage they take from all sources. Marked enemies have a chance to drop energy orbs.
    • Why? Adds great team value to Nezha’s kit - increasing damage taken helps all allies, and energy orb drops enable frequent recasting.

chakram1.gif

  • Killing enemies while they are marked will now produce healing orbs, instead of the current healing pulse.
    • Why? The current radial heal is invisible and very small, usually only benefitting players in melee range - most players don’t even know it’s there! Health orbs make the result more visible, while introducing other mod synergies.
  • Increased the number of targets the disc will try to hit before recalling, and improved some cases of faulty lock-on targeting.
  • Added a charged throw, causing the Chakram to fly straight forwards and backwards, dealing extra damage to enemies in its path.
    • Why? For a consistent flight path unaffected by lock-on targeting, use the new charged throw. Great for hallways!

chakram2.gif

  • Teleporting will no longer cancel Fire Walker.

 

WARDING HALO

  • HUD now shows a custom counter, indicating how much damage absorption is left, instead of a simple numeric percentage

haloUI.PNG

  • Warding Halo now only blocks 90% of damage taken. Will still block status effects and other procs.
    • Why? When considering Nezha’s revamped kit, he is excellent at mitigating enemy damage - Firewalker and Divine Spears offer great area/crowd control, Blazing Chakram offers healing and self-sustain, and his outstanding movement can make the player a hard target to hit. In this context, Warding Halo’s 100% damage resistance was completely overshadowing his other options - why heal or CC when I never take any damage?
      With 90% damage resistance, Nezha is still very capable of tanking, but encouraged to rely on his other tools to avoid getting overwhelmed. Taking minimal health damage allows for synergy with Blazing Chakram’s health orbs, not to mention new modding avenues like Equilibrium, Health Conversion and various Arcanes. The change also allows us to improve survivability in other ways, such as the increased health pool, and major Warding Halo quality-of-life buffs listed below.
  • Damage absorption invulnerability phase now begins as soon as you cast the ability. Cast animation also sped up.

halo2.gif

  • Increased incoming damage multiplier during invulnerability. Damage absorption multiplier also now scales with power strength.
  • When the health of the Warding Halo runs out, it will do an AoE heat status effect and give you a short period of invulnerability.
    • Why? This gives the player precious time to react, helping survivability while controlling the enemies immediately around you. Your next Warding Halo can be recast during this window to ensure you’re always protected!

halo3.gif

(Brief aside: as a Nezha main, I was originally skeptical of the 90% damage resistance change, and I suspect many readers will be skeptical too. However, playing the rework myself quickly changed my mind. The various buffs really outweigh the negatives, making Nezha much more capable in a supporting crowd-controller role. If you doubt just how potent 90% damage resistance can be, try out Gara’s Splinter Storm at 130% or more power strength!)

 

DIVINE SPEARS

  • Sped up the casting/slamming animations, while removing the mandatory slam at the end of the Spears’ duration. (slam can still be triggered manually)
  • Hitting a speared enemy with Blazing Chakram produces a second Chakram, which fires at a nearby enemy.

 

On top of all that, Nezha’s sounds have been remastered, adding new auditory cues for important moments, like Blazing Chakrams returning to the player, or Warding Halos running out of health!

Keep in mind that everything listed above is subject to change prior to release - with that said, we are interested in hearing your thoughts on what we have so far. We are aiming to have this rework released next week, along with the Deluxe skin bundle. Thanks for reading, and we hope you look forward to Nezha Deluxe!

Warframe0916.jpg

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1 hour ago, [DE]Connor said:

Changed from a channeling ability to duration-based.

I like this change.

1 hour ago, [DE]Connor said:

Warding Halo now only blocks 90% of damage taken. Will still block status effects and other procs.

This change makes absolutely no sense and feels like forced synergy much like Atlas. Reducing the damage reduction from the Halo will be quite awful for Sortie rescue missions. This change does not open modding and/or Arcane avenues. Arcane Pulse will not see any real use as Guardian and Energize are already being used. While I understand more options are nice, Equilibrium will most definitely be worthless here. Health orbs are a niche that really only function for Nekros. Oberon and Well of Life Trinity cannot even use health orbs effectively.

If you want to achieve synergy between abilities, do not force it on the player. Atlas is a clunky mess because of this trend. I would rather see Halo have 100% damage reduction. Nezha is a fast caster, not a healer. He is also not a tank. Halo was already worse than Iron Skin, and now it is further lowered in effectiveness.

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You guys have cleverly cloaked a buff in the veneer of a "nerf" with that 90% damage reduction...

Now that Nezha can actually take damage, and a lot of it while still being in the 'safe zone', Nezha will be able to effectively use Rage/Hunter Adrenaline. Very clever. Nezha is one of my top frames, and I'm very excited for these changes. I'm glad Blazing Chakram got the most attention. 

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Just now, Glyphicality said:

You guys have cleverly cloaked a buff in the veneer of a "nerf" with that 90% damage reduction...

Now that Nezha can actually take damage, and a lot of it while still being in the 'safe zone', Nezha will be able to effectively use Rage/Hunter Adrenaline. Very clever. Nezha is one of my top frames, and I'm very excited for these changes. I'm glad Blazing Chakram got the most attention. 

And Arcanes that proc on damage. And Equilibrium, and Health Conversion...

Some people think it's a straight nerf. Some people don't seem to play Nezha in sorties.

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Quote

Hitting a speared enemy with Blazing Chakram produces a second Chakram, which fires at a nearby enemy.

So if the chakram which I throw hits 5 enemies down a hallway they will each spawn another chakram? That would be amazing if that's the case

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5 minutes ago, Voltage said:

No. Do not make this change. You may as well nerf Iron Skin with a change like this. It does not make sense at all. Nezha will never be a tank. He is a quick Warframe that needs the 100% damage reduction. It seems that Warding Halo will become a slightly better Bless for only Nezha. 

Did you not see how the rest of his kit got changed? All of his animations have been greatly sped up, and his skills are now much more efficient at what they already do. His health has been increased, and him being able to take damage while still being tanky means he can now properly use rage and hunter adrenaline to cast cc to avoid taking fatal damage. His warding halo augment making others tanky instead of rendering them invincible is an amazing change for the frames who need to take damage in order to gain energy as well, no longer disrupting gameplay for those teammates. This change is absolutely for the best.

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still feels like he lacks offensive scaling capability aside from cc / heal / tank aspect.
considering atlas, gara, and khora's 1st abilities uses mods equipped on melee, or oberon's 1st or trinity's 2nd that scales off the enemy health pool.

good change on fire walker and chakram, chakram synergy with divine spear is also nice.

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Just now, -TSA-Swaggi said:

Sound nice but the 90% dmg reduction... im still supect about that xD

Don't be.

Damage reduction is plenty enough, especially with all the other benefits in exchange. The damage reduction is arguably a significant buff, as Nezha will now be able to use Hunter Adrenaline and Arcanes that trigger on damage like Arcane Avenger. I play Nezha a lot, and I can tell you for a fact that this will be nothing but a buff. 

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18 minutes ago, [DE]Connor said:

When the health of the Warding Halo runs out, it will do an AoE heat status effect and give you a short period of invulnerability. 

If this is a thing for nezha, please fit it to zephyr as well.

 

I like the idea of making his health skill better, but I disagree on health orbs. Would you prefer Trinity to drop health orbs instead? Is there no way of doing a overly flashy health effect with your super particle engine? Please, let nekros have health orbs, no one else wants them.

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