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Titania, and Changes She Needs


BioFrequency
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Yes I understand there are other Titania topics present (even on the front page) But I find them lacking incredibly important details and I wanted to be very comprehensive on the topic.

So here I go writing for the next few hours, please be gentle. 

Vanilla Titania 

This Topic will assume you have a full understanding of Titania and her abilities. And we will judge Titanias and her abilities based on its attributes without modes. 

Spell Bind

The Good

  • Cheap and easy to cast
  • Provides a otherwise fragile frame with easily accessible Crowd Control and on-demand Status Immunity for herself and teammates. 

The Bad

  • Rather infamous for how unreliable the Crowd Control actually is. Targets will oftentimes rag-doll and float away in very inconvenient or even sometimes counterproductive fashion. 
  • As a target based cast ability, its rather slow and clunky when used for providing Status Immunity for teammates. Trinity and Oberon are examples of Warframes with support abilities that are more accessible to teammates. With Oberon's Renewal channeling over a period of time, and Trinity's Blessing activating in a wide radios around the user. By comparison Spell Bind is neither channeled nor wide in effect, meaning Titania will require multiple casts to cover the entire squad. 

Tribute

The Good

  • Tribute provides Titania a series of buffs that when maintained can improve survive-ability , damage output/resistance, or additional CC.

The Bad

  • The buffs provide their respective results in what I consider to be indirect and less than desirable ways.
    • Dust reduces enemy accuracy (up to 50% in a 30m rad) which is nice, but accuracy debuffs usually have little/no effect on AoE attacks or explosives which are incredibly threatening to Titania. And if Titania is ever in a situation where removing enemy accuracy is important enough to be considered useful, her other two abilities which are BOTH forms of Crowd Control can resolve the threat of focused gunfire more reliably.
    • Thorns "Thorns is a terrible buff. You should test it. Enemies at level 100+ deal about 30 damage to themselves and can easily have 100k+ HP. I've let enemies hit me for the full duration of the buff and they barely took half their own HP."~ixidron92
    • Entangle slows enemies in a 10m rad up to 25% movement speed.... Considering how small the radius is, and how 25% slow is very soft CC when Titania has two other abilities with much harder forms of CC built in mainline there isn't much to benefit from this
    • Full Moon increases companion damage up to 75% within 30 meters. The problem with Full Moon is that it requires your teammates to essentially ALL have damage related companions to be worth anything, they must remain within 30 meters, and worst of all Titania loses her Companion while channeling Razorwing. So Titania herself can't benefit from this buff half the time. 
  • One of Tributes biggest problem is you need to think about it too much. From monitoring/maintaining buff duration, effective radius in relation to squad and enemy locations, and ensuring you are getting exactly the buff you want...... Its too much work.
  • Tribute buffs can be a hastle to collect when in Razowing form. This is a problem primarily created by the nature of how Titania's Arch-wing like flight controls work. But Tribute suffers from it none-the less.

Lantern 

The Good 

  • As crowd control goes, Lantern is both interesting as an ability and effective as a long term distraction.....

The Bad 

  • Or at-least it would be if the Lantern wasn't worse than Spellbind in terms getting the Lantern to float where you actually want it too. 
  • The extreme unreliability of the CC's positioning is further exacerbated by the high energy cost. Who wants to spend the 75 energy on a ability that doesn't work half the time? 

Razorwing

I'm gonna skip The Good because Razorwing needs no such introduction. Its Titania's bread and butter, and I honestly would have never touched the warframe if she didn't have it. Its fun to use, is effective in combat, and has no unreasonable restrictions or costs. 

The Bad

  • The Razorfly drones are incredibly ineffective at end-game content. They don't deal much damage and die quickly. 
  • Razorwing flight controls use outdated Arcwing controls and thereby experience similar problems and bugs. My most notable problem being that the "teleport" experienced from using your melee in Razorwing will rapidly accelerate Titania. And should Titania collide with an object while "teleporting" she will sustain massive collusion damage, This problem is worse so than it was with Archwing, because Titania does not enjoy the freedom of literally open space and will collide more often. 

Passive Ability

Titania's passives problem is that its just doesn't make any sense. Sure providing teammates with improved bullet jumps sounds nice. But it requires A; your teammates bullet jump from exactly the same location you did, which isn't something either player should really even need to think about. B: It doesn't last very long, so your teammates had better be very close-by if they want to benefit from it. And C; Even Titania herself doesn't benefit from her Passive while in Razorwing. Any passive ability that doesn't benefit a warframe while they are using their signature channeled ability is a major contender for much needed change. 

Summery Comments

Titania's Kit consists of a lot of unreliable CC, and a lot of unnecessary work. One of my biggest issues being how little synergy Titania abilities have with her Razorwing form. Razorwing should be all about enjoying freedom of movement in flight, but Titania finds herself grounded and restricted by her other abilities. Spell Bind forces Titania to essentially babysit her teammates if she wants to keep everyone benefiting from Status Immunity. Tribute is the worst offender in that Titania needs to actually fly and pick the buff off the ground, and retain a position that benefits from whatever buffs she got's effect radius. To put what i'm stress more directly, Razorwing should be about flying wherever you want, But Spell Bind and Tribute her otherwise most frequently usable abilities chain her into micromanaging them and her own movement. Which isn't the least bit fun. 

It also doesn't make sense to me why she has this much CC> Spell Bind, Tributes Entangle, and Lantern are all CC. And are either underwhelming or unreliable because of wonky rag-dolls. The role of CC for a Warframe like Titania should be delegated to one ability and have other abilities more focused on either support, damage, or survival related roles. 

BUT WAIT, THEIRS MORE

So that's everything I gotta say about "Vanilla" Titania. But we know the reality is that players are obviously are using mods. So I want to discuss what effects mods have on Titania and her abilities. And how that relates to her balance and design. 

How I built my Titania and why
Here are two pictures for the Mods I used, and their results on Titania's abilities.

So lets make some agreements on mods that are MUST haves for Titania. 

  • Umbral Vitality and Umbral Intensify - Health and Damage
  • Razorwing Blitz - Its STRONG. Only Titania build that shouldn't use this augment is one that doesn't intend to use Razorwing. And if that's the case, Titania is not for you...
  • Streamline and Fleeting Expertise (Rank 4) - If the player wants to maintain Razorwing for extended periods AND cast her abilities. You need 175% ability efficiency. 

Now, Ignoring Aura and Exilus Mod slots. The player has 3 remaining mod slots available. 

The first and foremost requirement is to solve the -50% ability duration Fleeting Expertise gave the player. For this there are two options available

  • Primed Continuity - Leaves the player with 105% total duration and doesn't sacrifice ability Range
    • Pro: Ability range is extremely important to all of Titania's abilities outside of Razorwing. So if you're that dead set on using them, you need this. 
    • Con: Despite how important ability range is too Titania outside of Razorwing. Its extremely hard to justify sacrificing mod space for Stretch of Reach. So even if you DO care about ability range, you're not going to get it much high than the default 100%
  • Narrows Minded - You get an extra 44% more ability duration than Primed Continuity, But ability range drops to 34%
    • Pro: Ability Duration is almost if not more important than Range. Longer duration means longer lasting Spell Bind CC's and Buffs, longer lasting Lanterns, and because Razorwing Blitz scales with Ability Duration. Titania becomes more energy efficient as Blitz stacks last much longer. 
    • Con: Spell Bind and Lantern essentially become useless for CC'ing more than 1 target. Forces Titania into a play-style where she only uses Spellbind for building Blitz stacks and giving herself status immunity. (But becomes more efficient at doing that)

Now Titania only has two mods slot left..... What are you going to use them for?

  • Primed Flow seems obvious, but an argument can be made against it for players that don't intend to use Titania and Razorwing for extended period of times (Long missions will require it both for channeling Razorwing and for spending energy keeping up Blitz stacks.
  • I use Energy Conversion because its very easy to apply that extra 50% ability strength to Razorwing. Thereby increasing weapon damage AND the strength of Razorwing Blitz (Which also scales off Ability Strength)
  • Redirection could be a good choice if Titania's fragility is really hurting. She doesn't have any means to self-sustain while in Razorwing (Other than consumables) so having better shields can help.
  • Stretch and Augur Reach if you're REALLY that dead set on getting Titania CC's working well. But I just don't think that CC is worth alternative options. The Opportunity Cost of that extra range is far too great in my opinion. 

The end result is you will feel like FULLY optimizing Razorwing means sacrificing her other abilities. Sure this is true about many other warframe, but I think Titania should have abilities that function well in, and out of Razorwing. Rather than being split between building for one state or the other. 

You also probably noticed I didn't give any details to these mods effect on Tribute. And the answer is simply because I stopped using it all together. Like I mentioned on Tributes The Bad section, its too much thinking and too much work. I enjoy my Razorwing experience much more when i'm not wasting time with it.

So What Needs to Change?

I'm not gonna spin ideas for a complete overhaul of Titania. I trust the developers to be more capable of something like that. But I do have some suggested changes.

Changes to Spell Bind
This ability doesn't really benefit from enemies floating around. Would perform better if enemies floated in a fixed position. 
Spell Bind is terrible in terms of a delivery system for Status Immunity. And should be removed from it entirely. However, Spell Bind should still retain an alternative support related feature, but as to what is debatable. Whatever the effect is it should encourage the player to use it on allies, AND the effect should automatically apply to Titania too if she does choose to use on an Ally. Because the less an ability restricts Titania's positioning the better.

Changes to Tribute
The Tribute buff should be faster, more effective, and easier to grab, To achieve this the casting speed should be greatly increased, the buff you/your allies receives needs to be more meaningful, and they also need to make the "soul" of an enemy float (similar to Latern) so that they are move accessible to Titania while in Razorwing. And you shouldn't need to think about what type of enemy your using the ability on to get what you want, remove that feature and just limit the buff to one or two central choice. Like I have said a bunch of times using Tribute is too much thinking and too much work as it is now. 

Changes to Lantern 

Much like Spell Bind, Lantern needs improvements to its floating physics. A start would be finding a way to prevent 3rd party elements(Other players, hostile Ai, etc) from influencing the Lanterns position. I also don't believe Lantern should Pacify enemies in a ranged area. Instead, it should MASSIVELY increase the floating targets threat level. This would increase Lanterns effective range, and improve its performance for my next suggestion. 

Lantern should apply a Buff when shot by allies, and Debuff when shot by enemies. Again, much like Spell Bind what these buffs/debuff actually do is totally up to debate. But it would make Lantern very attractive utility outside of just CC, and therefor increase its use. 

Changes to Razorfly

Update Flight Controls
Give the Razor Drones a much needed buff. In high end content they die too quickly and do too little. Maybe make the Razor Drones level scale with the enemy? Just an idea.

Changes to Passive
My best suggestion this would would be to give Titania two different Passives. as for her original, a huge quality of life improvement would be greatly increasing how long the "Trampoline" lasts, so other players who might no be nearby at the time can still use it. 

But Titania should also have a passive that has some impact in Razorwing. As too what, I don't know. 

Any and all criticisms are appreciated. Please be aware I might update this in the future

 

 

Edited by BioFrequency
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Thorns is a terrible buff. You should test it. Enemies at level 100+ deal about 30 damage to themselves and can easily have 100k+ HP. I've let enemies hit me for the full duration of the buff and they barely took half their own HP.

This is interesting, lately there's been an increase in Titania rework threads. there are like 4-5 on the main page right now. I've also made a more in depth analysis about her abilities and the myriad of problems Titania has. If you want to check it out.

 

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I think the strong points in your post is the description of the current state and its problems, plus the suggestions for change. I would actually consider lifting out the whole section on modding since it distracts from the main points and is less informative with regards to what changes needs to be done. How to mod is also a much more "subjective" issue. All in all, good job! You have thought carefully about this and did a nice write-up.

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11 minutes ago, (XB1)AlingsasArrende said:

I think the strong points in your post is the description of the current state and its problems, plus the suggestions for change. I would actually consider lifting out the whole section on modding since it distracts from the main points and is less informative with regards to what changes needs to be done. How to mod is also a much more "subjective" issue. All in all, good job! You have thought carefully about this and did a nice write-up.

I can agree that the modding section is less relevant to suggest changes. But its not intended to distract from the main points, its intended to be a point itself. Mods can drastically alter warframe abilities and how they are used. I suppose the primary point I was trying to get across with the Mod section was that optimizing Razorwing can further neuter Titanias already under-performing ability. And re-evaluating what design changes should be made should consider what Mods are being used on her to avoid this problem persisting after the changes. Hence my suggestion of swapping Laterns radial pacify with a Threat Level increase. As the Threat Level mechanic is less dependent on Ability Range and the Ability would perform better in Titania builds that either sacrifice ability range or don't invest into it. I will try to re-write/format it later to make it more clear. 

Edited by BioFrequency
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Let's admit it, the only reason we use Titania is for razorwing, nothing pixie about those damn pistols that melts sortie level enemies with ease. So even though her first three abilities are useless and needs a rework I'd be more than happy if they just removed collision and added a vaccum to her 4....and maybe let us use aviator mod on her 

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1 minute ago, (PS4)Equinox21697 said:

Let's admit it, the only reason we use Titania is for razorwing, nothing pixie about those damn pistols that melts sortie level enemies with ease. So even though her first three abilities are useless and needs a rework I'd be more than happy if they just removed collision and added a vaccum to her 4....and maybe let us use aviator mod on her 

Abandoning her other abilities outright is just bad Warframe design. Why can't she have Razorwing AND a series of abilities that are fun/useful while in it? 

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6 minutes ago, BioFrequency said:

Abandoning her other abilities outright is just bad Warframe design. Why can't she have Razorwing AND a series of abilities that are fun/useful while in it? 

True but then there are other frames like poor Hydroid that should also be reworked because of only one viable ability, atleast razorwing is fun unlike tentacle porn swarm. All I'm saying is until DE finds some good ways to rework her kit they should atleast make her one good ability less irritating to use

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1 hour ago, BioFrequency said:

Changes to Passive
My best suggestion this would would be to give Titania two different Passives. as for her original, a huge quality of life improvement would be greatly increasing how long the "Trampoline" lasts, so other players who might no be nearby at the time can still use it. 

But Titania should also have a passive that has some impact in Razorwing. As too what, I don't know. 

I would suggest adding a 40 or 50% damage reduction while air born this combined with Aviator would give her 80~90% damage reduction while either bullet jumping which she wants to do anyway while not in razor wing or while she is in razor wing flying around. And if mesa and the new nezah rework are any indication 90% DR is pretty solid for staying alive in high level missions. 

 

1 hour ago, BioFrequency said:

Changes to Spell Bind
This ability doesn't really benefit from enemies floating around. Would perform better if enemies floated in a fixed position. 
Spell Bind is terrible in terms of a delivery system for Status Immunity. And should be removed from it entirely. However, Spell Bind should still retain an alternative support related feature, but as to what is debatable. Whatever the effect is it should encourage the player to use it on allies, AND the effect should automatically apply to Titania too if she does choose to use on an Ally. Because the less an ability restricts Titania's positioning the better.

I would say this ability is just bad and needs to be replaced entirely. It is a worse version of her 3 plus a very mediocre support ability. I say swap it out for something that is either a DPS boost or a full blown support ability that is worth casting as we she doesn't need more CC if her 3 is fixed to be worth using. My preference would be something like a razor fly swarm that would basically be a mid sized aoe ability but that is just me. 

 

1 hour ago, BioFrequency said:

Changes to Tribute
The Tribute buff should be faster, more effective, and easier to grab, To achieve this the casting speed should be greatly increased, the buff you/your allies receives needs to be more meaningful, and they also need to make the "soul" of an enemy float (similar to Latern) so that they are move accessible to Titania while in Razorwing. And you shouldn't need to think about what type of enemy your using the ability on to get what you want, remove that feature and just limit the buff to one or two central choice. Like I have said a bunch of times using Tribute is too much thinking and too much work as it is now. 

What if they made her Tribute work more like Ivara's arrows were you tap the ability to change which buff you want and hold it to cast?

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1 hour ago, ixidron92 said:

This is interesting, lately there's been an increase in Titania rework threads. there are like 4-5 on the main page right now

She's definitely seen a surge of popularity - I play her pretty often and extremely rarely see anyone else doing so, but it's definitely increasing. 

I think in part that's due to Exalted weapons - syncing both your main and melee was a PitA, but as their own weapons you can build amazing Dex Pixia DPS (Diwata less so, it needs a load of crit IMHO).

Tribute needs to be useful in Razorwing, Lantern usable as CC, and ton of QoL and synergy issues (seriously, buffing bullet jumps she doesn't do and a companion she doesn't have?)

We need @[DE]Pablo on this one, his reworks are the best 🙂

Maybe something will happen with her delux skin (err, next?) and her prime (maybe 2019, after Mesa?)

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2 minutes ago, TheKazz91 said:

I would suggest adding a 40 or 50% damage reduction while air born this combined with Aviator would give her 80~90% damage reduction while either bullet jumping which she wants to do anyway while not in razor wing or while she is in razor wing flying around. And if mesa and the new nezah rework are any indication 90% DR is pretty solid for staying alive in high level missions. 

 

I would say this ability is just bad and needs to be replaced entirely. It is a worse version of her 3 plus a very mediocre support ability. I say swap it out for something that is either a DPS boost or a full blown support ability that is worth casting as we she doesn't need more CC if her 3 is fixed to be worth using. My preference would be something like a razor fly swarm that would basically be a mid sized aoe ability but that is just me. 

 

What if they made her Tribute work more like Ivara's arrows were you tap the ability to change which buff you want and hold it to cast?

1: The Primary problem with damage reduction while airborne is that  it actually doesn't work while she's in Razorwing.(This includes Aviator). If this fact was changed, I could see it being a viable option, My only complaint being it seems somewhat thematically inappropriate for a "Pixie" warframe to be super tanky.  

2: Honestly, I agree. I don't like Spell Bind at all. But my changes where more focused on what could be done to make our current options better. A total rework of the ability is an entirely different monster.

3: That doesn't solve the problem of all 4 buffs being trash. Maybe if we had considerably stronger or different buffs, but the ability needs to be significantly more user friendly. 

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hace 17 minutos, (XB1)KayAitch dijo:

She's definitely seen a surge of popularity - I play her pretty often and extremely rarely see anyone else doing so, but it's definitely increasing. 

I think in part that's due to Exalted weapons - syncing both your main and melee was a PitA, but as their own weapons you can build amazing Dex Pixia DPS (Diwata less so, it needs a load of crit IMHO).

Tribute needs to be useful in Razorwing, Lantern usable as CC, and ton of QoL and synergy issues (seriously, buffing bullet jumps she doesn't do and a companion she doesn't have?)

We need @[DE]Pablo on this one, his reworks are the best 🙂

Maybe something will happen with her delux skin (err, next?) and her prime (maybe 2019, after Mesa?)

there are nyx and limbo deluxe skins too, we don't know for sure if she's next.

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1 minute ago, BioFrequency said:

1: The Primary problem with damage reduction while airborne is that  it actually doesn't work while she's in Razorwing.(This includes Aviator). If this fact was changed, I could see it being a viable option, My only complaint being it seems somewhat thematically inappropriate for a "Pixie" warframe to be super tanky.  

2: Honestly, I agree. I don't like Spell Bind at all. But my changes where more focused on what could be done to make our current options better. A total rework of the ability is an entirely different monster.

3: That doesn't solve the problem of all 4 buffs being trash. Maybe if we had considerably stronger or different buffs, but the ability needs to be significantly more user friendly. 

Yeah I guess I should have added that her razor wing needs to count as airborne. Also as far as the thematic relevance goes, have you ever hit a bug like a fly or mosquito mid air just to have it fly off like nothing happened? Same basic concept because she is small and floating in mid air she is more likely to be pushed than she is to be damaged this is also why I would lean more towards 40% rather than 50% because if Aviator is the only suitability mod you stick on her I am pretty sure she still dies if she gets hit with a 100+ bombard rocket even with 80% DR

Also yes her current buffs are not good and the buffs them selves need to be signifcantly improved/replaced (ie full moon buffing a companion that despawns while you use your signature ability) this suggestion is more to address the usability issue and the fact that it take way too much mental effort as it is right now. I figure managing duration times and stacks is one thing and I am ok with that mental tax but then adding the complication of having to target/seek out specific enemy types which may not even be present on the map when you need to refresh your buff is just too much. If you could cycle through and actually chose the buff you want then you still have the duration/stack management with out the RNG aspect of is the right enemy around me right now. 

As one other note one thing you did not mention in your assessment is that casting her abilities halt her movement which can feel very clunky. Going from a bullet jump into razor wing brings to to a sudden dead stop and is very jarring and when you a flying around in razor wing and cast her other abilities you keep moving in the direction and speed you were moving when you started and are unable to change direction/speed until your cast is finished. Which is something that needs to be addressed.

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1 hour ago, ixidron92 said:

nyx and limbo deluxe skins too, we don't know for sure if she's next

Hence the question mark 😉

Limbo's just had some tweaks, but Nyx needs a rework more than anything ('cept maybe Vuban) - Titania's an awesome mess, but Nyx is outclassed in her entirety by a status radiation AoE weapon.

Still, I'd rather see Titania first 🙂

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Razorwing controls are fine. They’re better than archwing.

Agree with casting times being bothersome.

Razorwing also needs QOL with a vacuum radius. I hate having to slam to the ground then fling myself back to “eye height” or higher for energy and loot or scooting around the battle field at ankle level.

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9 hours ago, (XB1)Aquarii Ptosi said:

All an all I think you've got a good idea on what should be changed... but can I just say... Umbral mods are in no way or means a "MUST" that part made me giggle a little. But to each his own. 

I haven’t put them on or many frames beyond umbra. Its not like any content warrants it. I’ll wait to see what DE does with the polarity type first before sweatimg it much.

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