Baruuk Feedback

[ION-SilverCrow]

The point of this post is to give my opinion about the new frame and what, where and most importantly why he should change where i think he should, without actually changing much of the abilities besides a few numbers and speed, so those who already like him as is could still play him the same and those who feel like he is underwhelming, myself included, can build and play him another way.

Baruuk has... problems, not being just that "he's not meta", it's more like he feels really underwhelming for being so far in progression, he is after max rank Fortuna, and you have to get him from Vox Solaris, in my opinion anything that far in progression should have a higher standard in terms of performance. 

Yes, he is supposed to be a frame that's the total opposite of the others, one that does not want to fight but can, and i actually think that IS a great idea, if executed well.

For what i have seen and read about Baruuk, his mechanics and theme, with a few tweaks, could make for one of the most fun and stellar general use frames in the game, good ways to survive in the form of his 3 first abilities + passive, and an ultimate ability that is meant to represent all his capacity for violence when he gets pushed to the edge(tons of damage)... well at least in concept.

So starting with his first ability, Elude, while on paper seems completely amazing, in practice it feels dull, not being able to attack while you use it is much more of a downside than it seems, yes even when you use his other ability so its easier to both build your restraint and attack with your 1 active, for a simple reason, you HAVE to in order to keep up, besides if you use your 1 and 2 its a bit counterproductive since you build restraint from getting shot but your 2 makes it so you do not get shot so you can shoot the enemy but if you shoot the enemy your 1 goes down and if enemies shoot you you don't get restraint, it feels like a hiccup to use.

The change that i initially came up with would be to just give him 90% DR at all times instead of having to not attack to get any defense, but that is too simple, too boring and little interactive, so instead of that what about instead of not getting any defensive when attacking you only get half, meaning you only dodge 50% of attacks so you you only get 50%DR and build restraint half as fast, this would allow a more aggressive option for those that want to play the killing game while also playing Baruuk without having the worry of getting hit and not getting any restraint nor the hard punishment of turning off a great defense and cool ability. 

Now to his 2, Lull, besides the interactions i mentioned above, it just feels slow to wait for the enemies to fall asleep, either halving it making it insta-sleep everything in range an line of sight with the lingering AoE also sleeping enemies that get in range, it is not really complicated, just speeding him up a bit.

So, his 3, Desolate Hands,by itself, works a bit backwards, you want it to stay on so you get DR and you want it to go to allies so you can help them out and give some extra protection, you also want it to go to enemies that represent a threat to you... not the enemies that are charging your restraint by shooting your 1 nor the ones that are not a threat because your 2 put them to sleep, also the "synergy" you have with your 1 is much more of a detriment in most case precisely because of the issue i just mentioned, it gets spend way faster on enemies that aren't a threat, so what do i propose, make it so each charge activates on "hit" when you would actually take damage, it would disarm only those enemies instead of wasting charges and in turn energy on enemies that are pointless to use them on (i.e. sleeping enemies), it also feels a bit weird you have or would have a group of enemies charging your restraint by hitting your 1 but they aren't because your 3, your ability that you are encouraged to use with your 1, disarmed them even tho they didn't do anything and would have been better if you just let them shoot for a while and then killed . In short either make it so it prioritizes threats and ignores everything else but allies, either that or you could make it so the daggers go to where you aim, that wait you have more control over what is charging your restraint and what isn't. Also it fits better to just disarm enemies that are a threat than everything indiscriminately.

Okay, before jumping to his 4, i have been talking about his restraint meter a lot, it has the same problem that his 2 does, too slow, and the changes to his 3 i proposed would make it even slower, so i would recommend increasing the rate at which you gain it, say 1% for each attack dodged with his one, 1.5% or 2% for each enemy affected by his 2, and 2.5% or 3% for each enemy hit by his 3. This could very well allow to get it at the same rate if playing a bit more passive or if you want to play a bit more aggressively to accelerate the your gains then well you can.

Now his 4, as it seems the opinion is a bit divided on this one, some say it does not do enough damage and others say that not being able to insta kill heavys is still good enough, it does kill the more regular enemies, and enemies with high armor always give problems to a lot of frames, and you are not likely to encounter those enemies most of the time, but this is an exalted weapon one that requires the use of the rest of the frames kit to even be able to activate, it should be able to easily kill heavys in 1 to 2 combos, if it already can kill everything else, well those heavys have to die, just let the damn exalted weapon be able to kill them faster, if there is "no difference" just let him have the option that can do more, this ability is SO DAMN COOL but is like one step short to feeling like the consequence to pissing off the quiet guy that is quiet for a reason, and that step is status chance, about 30% should do the trick, it would allow you to remove armor with corrosive, half health with viral, cc more with radiation, etc. Condition overload would be an option, since it also has an even spread of ips you could use a slash mod to tip the balance and boom bleeds, it already kills most enemies fast enough, just give him the damage to kill the heavier units fast enough as well.

I believe that all this changes together would not really change the ways you can play Baruuk but rather add more options for him and put him more in line with the standard i believe a frame so far in progression should have. 

I would appreciate any and all feedback, please take in consideration i can make mistakes, so if there is something i got wrong of there is something i should have considered please let me now.