I think Nova needs some changes

[Souchira]

Silly titles aside and before you flood this post with heated comments hear me out.

Nova is one of the best frames in game for the simple reason that she can speed up enemies and thus allowing you to kill more in less time. She is basically a walking affinity/credit/resource booster for her team.

I have no intention of changing that, better yet I think it's time her ability to speed up enemies becomes officially part of her kit. Originally using - ability strength on her to speed up enemies was a bug or unexpected side affect of her ability that  DE decided keep, which is cool.

But it's obvious her kit was not build to facilitate this and that is what I would like to see changed.

Option One:

One of her abilities need to go and the worst one by far is her 3.

And before you respond with “But I love her 3!” all I can say no you don’t. I’ve played with plenty of Nova’s and 99.9% of the time her wormhole will either jam you into a corner or launch you into a pit. Most of the time it's simply faster to avoid her portals and just bullet jump wherever you're going then trying to unstuck yourself from a corner. As for it  being useful in the open areas like PoE and Fortune, it really isn’t since you have access to Archwing where even if you don’t use Itzal’s teleport, which you should, it's still nowhere near as fast or as easy to use.

Now we got that out of the way and we have a free slot to use for a new ability I’d like to use a similar mechanic to Equinox's metamorphosis. Allowing Nova to switch between a positive and negative antimatter state.

Option Two:

Similar to Limbo switching between the rift and regular dimension rolling could toggle her between a positive and negative state.
This way non of her abilities need to be removed while still achieving the same result.

 

The effect of this on her 4 is obvious, depending on the state you will either speed up or slow down enemies. Her other two abilities will need to reworked to have two functions each as well.

This way you don’t have to leave a mission, swap out your mod layout just to speed or slow down enemies. It will bring her entire kit together, make her more versatile and and easier to pick up for new players.

Well, that’s all if you actually read the entire thing before commenting, thank you and let me know what you think of this rework suggestion.

Edited December 2, 2018 by Souchie
More ideas!

[CalculatedMurderMachine]

*teleports behind u*

 

 

I  do like the switching antimatter idea, but I don't think swapping out the third is a way to shove that in..

[Souchira]

Just now, CalcualtedMurderMachine said:

*teleports behind u*

 

 

I  do like the switching antimatter idea, but I don't think swapping out the third is a way to shove that in..

How would you add this into her kit? 

[(PSN)XxDarkyanxX]

Wasn't wormhole one of the most used ability in raid speedruns?

I mean, you don't use it, but plenty of people do in their own niche way.
I understand that you dislike the idea of needing to avoid a portal because you personally don't know where it goes, but that's something that can be worked on instead of completely removed.
I certainly love her 3, I naturally don't use it as much as her other ability, but it's there and filling it's purpose.

That said, the idea of polarization seems kinda... I wanna say lacking?
The idea itself doesn't make the third ability any better, it just makes it change the other powers, which could literally be done like Vauban's trap or Ivara's arrow by just holding the power button and offer a different interaction.

[Rawbeard]

12 minutes ago, Souchie said:

Silly titles aside and before you flood this post with heated comments hear me out.

no.

Edited December 2, 2018 by Rawbeard

[AndouRaiton]

As mentioned before you don't have to get rid of the teleport but rather have the switching polarities as par of the 4, or some other ability, that on hold toggles between the two modes. Further, by making it part of the 4 you don't have to affect the other abilities.

[HIGHDAMAGE]

Wormhole one of most useful abilitys u just don't know that yet 😉

Maybe u played with wrong novas all the time 

[Ghost23d]

The should tweak novas portals to allow anti matter drops to port through them.... cast portal -> cast anitmatter drop-> charge drop and special delivery it thru the portal... Synergy

 

[(PSN)BlitzKeir]

(Boldened for speed readers.)

I've criticized Nova a bit in the past as well. Wormhole and MP being the abilities that need attention. They serve their purpose, but they could serve it a little better.

Wormhole
It's great for rapid traversal if you don't care where you end up. This could be addressed with a visual overhaul. Instead of a door and a string, it could be a crazy Stargate tunnel. I'd also like an additional function when the button is held. Instead of generating a door and moving instantly, the alternate function would cause Nova to collapse and travel at rapid speed (think Atlas' 1, maybe faster) for as long as the ability is held, or up to 10sec, or until you collide with terrain. Then Nova pops back into existence and leaves a two-way tunnel that spans the distance she traveled. Entering this tunnel from either end will cause rapid movement toward the other end, but you can eject yourself with a melee attack or roll. It has 3x the number of uses as a conventional wormhole and the same duration. Enemies in the path of the tunnel during creation will be jailed, but still able to turn and fire. This allows you to escape or flank when enemies have you walled off, without having to leave the ground, and without having to worry about how your range is modded.

Molecular Prime
The aim here is not to add functionality so much as improve what it does already. Put simply, slow/speed would increase/decrease, respectively, based on proximity to Nova. The vulnerability debuff is untouched. At the maximum distance of the ability spread, speed would have normal functionality. But within a certain range of Nova, say 50m, the effect is reduced by 15% per 10m proximity to a minimum of 45% effectiveness at 20m. Slow would be the opposite; it would begin at 45% effectiveness, and increase to 100% effectiveness as enemies approach Nova. For clarity, the ramping effectiveness is based solely on position, not a timer. (Effectiveness zones would need to be carefully positioned and not moddable. If linear from Nova to the edge of the spread, the ability's current performance would suffer.) This allows Nova and the squad to stay a bit safer in speed, and allows slow to prime in defense and survival without slowing down kills/life support as much. There's one big downside to this: slow's performance in interception would be lowered in a squad, and significantly lowered in solo. Which sucks. To some, that's not worth the tradeoff, but I'd take it.

(Note: Percentages are of the change in enemy movement speed; not strength or percentage of base enemy speed. That would be ridiculous.)

Also, let Nova's balls self-feed again! :( C'mon, DE. They'd still have the damage cap. Other frames have similarly powerful abilities now, it's not that crazy.

[Joustice]

Is this an out of season April fools joke?