An analysis of the Nyx rework, and my suggestions for improvement (with video)

[Krakyn]

Hi! I enjoy playing Nyx and was very much looking forward to her rework. Overall the changes are definitely an improvement, but I believe further changes are ideal. Everything below is just my opinion, I welcome you to disagree/share yours. All links are short videos that I recorded.

I hope that somebody from DE reads this and that they take this feedback into consideration with the team. That would be incredible.

 

Skill 1: Mind Control

The following changes were good:

1. Cast time reduced
2. Can be cast whilst moving

The following changes were well-intended but need tweaking:

1, Target now absorbs damage within 4 second window, amplifying damage output. Issues include:

• See Mind Control in action here to understand points below. Note that I'm using a 6 Forma Lanka with Riven.
• Within the initial 4 second damage absorb period, targets have an erratic movement (head bob) which makes dishing out damage more difficult. This movement is unpredictable and varies between targets.
• Mind controlled targets do not deal anywhere near enough damage.
• Even against unarmoured targets, the damage is still mediocre. 15 seconds for a mind controlled target with multiple Lanka shots to kill one unarmoured target is sad.
• These issues persist with low level enemies (level 40).
• Damage is unaffected by power strength, discouraging warframe build complexity.

Possible solutions (implement a combination/selection of these):

• Prevent enemy movement in the four second duration.
• Incorporate power strength into damage formula.
• Increase base damage increase/damage scaling.
• Give mind controlled targets the ability to ignore some enemy armour/protections. The % ignored could be affected by power strength.
• Give targets a movement speed/attack speed steriod. This could be affected by power strength.

2. AI tweaked to better follow Nyx and attack enemies. Issues include:

• Harder to record this, but I have noticed that mind controlled targets tend to take cover/hide. This is unideal because they are invulnerable to damage - should be attacking the whole time.
• AI will often just stand still/not attack.
• AI is stupid/has bad accuracy just like any other enemy.
• Mind controlled targets can be affected by ally CC. I've seen this happen with Baruuk's Lull. Not sure if only isolated to this ability.

Possible solutions:

• Give them AI similar to Excalibur Umbra. He's actually a pretty smart dude.
• Make mind controlled targets immune to ally CC.

To summarise:

The problem right now is that Mind Control is not worth using whatsoever. There is no incentive for me to take the time to use Mind Control (4 seconds) and wait for my target to kill one enemy that I have manually armour stripped with my 2 (this will take 5-30 seconds per enemy depending on level/enemy type). Meanwhile I can kill the enemies myself near instantly. **A mind controlled target should be as potent/valuable, if not more valuable than an Excalibur Umbra with well modded weapons. Otherwise there is no point wasting the time to cast this ability.**

Also, the following QoL changes should be made:

1. Mind control should end automatically if target is the last enemy remaining in a defence wave.
2. The appearance of mind controlled targets should be more distinct from standard enemies. Quite often in games my allies (including high MR players), will try shoot my target for an extended period of time. See what I mean here - hardly noticeable during chaotic fights.

 

Skill 2: Psychic Bolts

The following changes were good:

1. Changed to strip armour/shield/auras. Note that my Lanka has Split Chamber & multishot riven removed (for testing consistency). The % removal scales with power strength.
2. Introduced a great targeting system. Even when aiming to the side, bolts home to hit targets. Note that the maximum 6 enemies are hit.
3. Very generous range on this ability.

The following QoL changes should be made:

1. Currently, ability cannot be recast if affected enemies are still alive without first cancelling ability (hold down 2). Please just allow the ability to be recast at any time, with the condition that targets affected by the previous cast are no longer affected (but can be re-affected by the new cast). It is clunky to have to pay attention if targets are still alive and then cancel your 2.

The following changes are not really necessary but would be nice:

1. Increase the max number of targets from 6, scaling with power strength (you decide the max, maybe 8), and decrease with -ve power strength.

All in all, the changes to the ability are absolutely incredible. Well done DE, and thank you.

 

Skill 3: Chaos

No changes, since it worked well before. This ability really makes Nyx. However, in my opinion the ability effects are really quite lacklustre (no GPU particles at all + really dull/boring Nyx outline on enemies). It would be nice to see this redone. I'm particularly hopeful that DE will redo the effects for the upcoming deluxe skin, which I'm very much looking forward to.

 

Skill 4: Absorb

The following changes were made, but are not very useful:

1. Absorb damage type is now based on the damage it absorbs. Issues with ability include:

• Does absolutely no damage even after absorbing a lot.
• Even against unarmoured targets, does very little damage.
• Ranged enemies will usually walk backwards from you and not attack whilst you are using Absorb.

The problem with Absorb is that it does very little/negligible damage. It's survivability (obviously) and knockdown upon reactivation are the only useful components.

What can be done to improve it?

• Keep damage invulnerability/immortality.
• Remove the damage to enemies component (hear me out).
• Add a sucking/vacuum mechanism whereby for the duration nearby enemies are sucked toward Nyx.
• Upon reactivation, enhance the knockback/crowd control effect depending on damage absorbed.

These changes would enhance crowd control upon deactivation, allowing Nyx to run to cover/survive - furthering the ability's usefulness as a survivability tool. This could be further enhanced by a change to Nyx's passive (read below). The vacuum mechanism would also ensure more nearby enemies are affected by the CC. Furthermore, the vacuum changes would also satisfy Nyx players who enjoy using the augment mod Assimilate (which allows you to walk at 50% speed and use weapons whilst using absorb), since enemies would be sucked within melee range. Melee is what Assimilate users already use because of the forward mobility it provides, so this is an ideal change.

 

Passive: Used to be called Relinquish prior to update (not sure what it's called now)

Prior to the update, enemies affected by Nyx's abilities had a chance to be disarmed. This conflicted with skill 3 (Chaos), since you want affected enemies to shoot each other. The update changed her passive to "enemies have a chance to miss Nyx" (miss attacks). I haven't really noticed this in action at all, which is to say something about it's usefulness. In Warframe, if you are going to die, you die from a lot of damage. A few bullets missing won't save you when there are hordes of high level enemies shooting at you.

What can be done to improve it?

• Scrap current passive completely.
• Change passive to "At the moment of death, Nyx activates Absorb (Ability 4) at a dramatically increased energy cost".
• Absorb should automatically activate provided you have enough energy. No energy = no activation = standard death.
• When activated by the passive, Absorb has the same initial energy cost (25), but drains energy at x50 the normal rate (can balance/tweak this enhanced drain rate). This only allows Absorb to be active for a few seconds. Consider that the mimum normal Absorb drain with efficiency mods is 1/s, so this would be 50/s when activated by passive = about 6 seconds if at max energy with Primed Flow.
• As per normal, Absorb ends when energy depletes or can be ended at any time by the user.
• Rename to 'Predicted Future' or 'Introspection' or something else that fits.

I believe this passive still fits Nyx's psychic theme, since she can "sense" her moment of death and activate Absorb in time. This gives Nyx, who is traditionally a squishy frame, impressive survivability provided that she properly manages her energy to ensure that she always has some spare reserves. It's also not completely imbalanced, since passive activation of Absorb would dramatically drain energy, likely preventing reactivation any time immediately afterwards. DE could tweak the enhanced energy drain as they see fit.

 

Anyway, thanks for reading through all this. It makes the time I spent in the Simulacrum and writing up this post well worth it. Looking forward to reading your thoughts/comments. To DE, good job with the changes so far! I'm particularly appreciative of the changes to Psychic Bolts and the new audio for all of Nyx's abilities. It would be amazing if you take my feedback onboard.

[XenMaster]

Hopefully during devstream they would talk about your feedback

[ArcKnight9202]

17 hours ago, Krakyn said:

Prior to the update, enemies affected by Nyx's abilities had a chance to be disarmed. This conflicted with skill 3 (Chaos), since you want affected enemies to shoot each other.

I have to address this. I see a lot of people saying this. This is even more apparent now. Especially after the bonuses to Mind Control produce, still, laughable results.

After the update, it shows just how good her old passive was. Enemies deal absolutely terrible damage to each other. This is regardless if they are shooting or swinging a melee weapon. However, prior to this change, the disarmed enemies would run towards(ideally) their allies and start to strike them. This kept their targets directly in front of them. Not 20 meters away and still firing. When everyone keeps their guns, they just slowly move away from one another. They move in the direction of objectives, teammates, and Nyx herself. This causes more fire to be taken overall than previously and highlights how terrible the new passive is in practice. They need to be engaged with each other more than they need to be dealing damage.

In my opinion, the disarm passive was one of the strongest parts of her design. She just doesn't work well without it. I'm not sure I like the new passive you propose either. It's certainly better than the current one, though, haha.

***

I really think Absorb needs to be completely scrapped. There are a lot of things that they could do with it but I doubt they'll do any of them.

As for Psychic Bolts: the ability to strip enemy resistances really falls away after the player acquires better weaponry. I have literally no reason to ever use this the way it is. Even if it could literally strip all armor, I wouldn't ever use it. It needs something else. The radiation it had was so good!

Overall, thanks for giving feedback. I do like seeing other people's ideas.

Edit: Actually, I just thought of a fun idea for Mind Control. Maybe if you power up the unit, they have a chance to inflict fear in the enemies. They are all juiced up and completely crazy with bloodlust after all, haha.

Edited December 21, 2018 by ArcKnight9202
Idea