Re-Building Vauban - a Vauban rework suggestion thread

[Zoh_Veldae]

It's no news to anyone that has played this game for at least a week that Vauban is unanimously considered the most unused warframe in the game. And for good reason. His kit is supposed to revolve around traps of varied effects to control the battle. Unfortunately, these effects are mostly sub-par, some are even considered "trolling" and actually negatively affect gameplay. 
Many have asked DE for a rework, as Vauban really has no relevant role in the current game state, but the most we got was an uncalled for charging mechanic and a rather mediocre new passive.
And I'm pretty sure many have created threads like this, detailing their own ideas to rework Vauban into metagame relevancy. And while this thread itself may not garner as much traffic as, say, other more famous and social players, I'm still going to make it and leave my two-cents on the matter publicly available to whom it may concern.
Now, finishing up introductions, let's start with the suggestions for the rework:

Current Passive Ability: Reinforce
Vauban deals 25% more damage against enemies incapacitated or immobilized by his abilities

This is the new passive ability granted by the recent tweak to Vauban's kit. And honestly, I'll give it a reluctant pass. It's increasing damage dealt, it'll be relevant at all times, so it should be functional enough. But I'll be honest and say that my approval of this ability is not inherently from how good it is, but instead by how good it is compared to the previous ability. Were this Vauban's initial ability, I'd still point it out as mediocre and still want something better. However, the only suggestion I can make is simply to bump the damage bonus up a bit, maybe to 30% or 50%.

1st Ability: Tesla Mine
Deploys an electric mine that shoots out arcs of lightning at nearby enemies, afflicting them occasionally with shock status. Can be charged before tossed to increase the damage and status chance. Lasts a fix number of detonations.

And this was the only other thing that was changed for Vauban alongside his passive ability. And everyone can probably agree that the charging mechanic adds absolutely nothing of value to the ability. It's still the same effect, but with slightly bigger numbers.
And here is where I'll leave my first, drastic suggestion for a change of this ability. I would like to suggest something silly: swap Vauban's Tesla Mine for the Grineer's Arc Trap. Very silly, yes, but bear with me, there's a reason to it. Grineer Arc Traps function by constantly zapping nearby targets when they come close and, when destroyed or the charge is used up, explode further dealing more damage around itself. The main suggestion here being to have the Arc Traps instead work like Vauban's current Tesla Mine: shooting singular arcs of lightning at nearby targets. Meanwhile, have Vauban's Tesla Mine work like Arc Traps: have it deal a continuous stream of electric damage for a second or so, pause to re-arm, then trigger again when an enemy approaches. And when all charges are used up, despawn by exploding into a final electric blast. The charge mechanic can be left as is, it will really not affect the new ability that much, but the main purpose of this change is to make Tesla Mine into an actual damage dealing ability, working in a similar fashion to an Amprex. The numbers should be tweaked a bit as necessary to not make it TOO overpowered as to rip through level 150+ in a single charge, but not too underpowered as it is now, where it barely tickles enemies level 30+.

As an addendum, I will also suggest a change to this ability's Augment Mod "Tesla Link". The current effect granting every 2 nearby Tesla Mines a connecting beam that deals slash damage to enemies that pass through it. This rarely ever happens because the enemies are already getting stunned and shot at as soon as they come near the Tesla Mines themselves, so the slashing trip rope never becomes a factor in fighting them. Instead, I suggest keeping the connecting beam, but instead of dealing Slash damage, empower all mines connected for each mine linked. The linking beam will just be aesthetic to show the effect is on, keep it on so players can still make drawings with them.

2nd Ability: Minelayer
Deploy one of four selectable mines with unique effects.

Now, this one will be a long paragraph because of the multiple effects of each mine. Currently the 4 mines work as follows:

Bounce Mine: Deploy a repulse pad that bounces any entity (enemy or ally) upward. Enemies will be damaged, knocked down and afflicted with Magnetic status. Lasts a fix number of uses with a cooldown between each use.

Trip Laser Mine: Deploy a mine that extends into a laser rope that trips passing enemies. Lasts a set amount of time before despawning.

Shred Mine: Deploy a mine that explodes when enemies walk nearby, dealing Blast damage and reducing their armor while blowing them away. Lasts a set amount of time before despawn and has a cooldown time between detonations.

Concuss Mine: Deploy a mine that explodes when enemies walk nearby, stunning them and deafening them to any gunfire sound while afflicting them with Radiation status. Mines last a set amount of time before despawn and have a cooldown time between detonations.

Now that we know what they do, here's how I suggest them changed:

Bounce Mine: This is the main ability that makes Vauban a "troll frame" occasionally. Reason being that Bounce Mines ALSO affect allies, and many take advantage of this to create "bouncy rooms" where players will get tossed around constantly. To remedy this, I suggest having the bounce mines work similar to Titania's passive ability that creates areas where Bullet Jumping goes further: have the players gain the high jump effect ONLY if they jump while on a Bounce Mine. To make the ability ACTUALLY useful, however, I suggest changing the bounce pad to instead be sloped, facing a 45% degree angle away from Vauban's direction and change the status proc to Radiation instead. This is to make the mine actually repel enemies away AND also afflict them with a relevant status to the situation: after being thrown back into their allies, enemies will now be attacked by them and fight among themselves, providing an extra layer of control. Raising the number of uses for this mine and making so allied use doesn't spend the mine will also be good additions.

Trip Laser: The effect as is looks fun on paper, but in practice it's just... needless. Feels more like a prank than an actual trap. To keep with the theme of laser lines, I suggest changing this to a Trap Laser. Instead of deploying a rope to trip enemies, this mine should impale nearby enemies in laser spikes that jute out of the mine, just like Nezha's ultimate ability. The damage dealt by it should probably be minimal, as the main point of the ability would be to stop enemies and prop them for an easy kill. Maybe also have it cause a guaranteed Puncture status effect, so even if we don't reach the enemies to kill them while neutralized, they will still be debuffed and be easier to take care of. The mine will also need to have a "number of uses" limitation attached to it.

Shred Mine: This is possibly the most used of the Minelayer mines, as armor shredding is always on demand in this game. However, I'd like to suggest that effect be moved to the next mine and have this mine instead cause Slash status to enemies while also launching them upward instead of just scattering them around. Also, to standardize this ability's parts, this and the next Mine should both also receive the "number of uses" limitation.

Concuss Mine: This mine in particular is, in my eyes, a conglomeration of contradictory effects. Why does it deafen enemies if they're just going to be alerted anyway due to the Radiation status making them enemies to each other? Why does it have a Radiation status if it's going to stun and waste some of the status duration, stopping enemies from actually fighting among themselves? Instead I suggest have this be the ability that removes armor, a nod to "armor denting" via concussive force, and also afflict Magnetic status instead, so it can deal with not only Armored enemies but also Shielded enemies. The stun can probably stay, now it'll be more useful since it'll actually hold enemies in place while they're most vulnerable.

3rd Ability: Bastille
Deploy a mine that expands a suspension field that holds all enemies within helplessly in the air.

This is one of two abilities that people mostly spam away when playing as Vauban (WHEN they play as Vauban). And quite frankly, it's pretty good as is. Or at least it would be if it weren't for ANOTHER warframe having an ability that is essentially this, but better in every conceivable way. I'm talking about Khora's Strangledome ability. Not only it also holds enemies helplessly in the air, it ALSO drags them from further away, makes other enemies focus damage on the affected targets AND shares damage dealt via Khora's abilities to all affected targets. I'm not saying to scrap the ability entirely, but instead to make it truly unique in the game and not just a mediocre copy of another. Well, not exactly a copy, since Bastille came before Strangledome, so it would make the better ability the copy instead, but I digress. 
This is where the "re-building" part of this thread comes full force. THIS is the main change that will make Vauban truly unique and relevant. I suggest having Vauban's kit be based around Bastille, to be a customizable fortress that Vauban can adjust to whatever situation.
More specifically, have all the OTHER abilities impart an effect onto Bastille when tossed inside it. In more direct terms, Bastille will be granted 5 "slots" of sorts to it's effects: 1 slot that can be filled by tossing a Tesla Mine, 3 that can be filled by tossing the Minelayer mines and a last one to be occupied by his ultimate ability Vortex. Below I'll specify each effect imparted by each mine:

Tesla Mine: Electrifies the Bastille, increasing the critical chance of all allies within (similar to having shots pass Volt's Electric Shield). Only 1 can be active

Minelayer: Only 3 Mines can be slotted in. Multiples of the same mine can be used for cumulative effects.
    Bounce Mine: Adds a chance to reflect enemy attacks from outside the Bastille back to the enemies. Multiples of Bounce Mine increase the chance.
    Trap Laser: Enemies that enter the Bastille are immediately cut up and afflicted with Slash status. Multiples of Trap Laser will increase the Slash damage.
    Shred Mine: Grants a damage reduction to allies within the Bastille (it may seem weird, how is a shrapnel mine going to give defense? I like to think it as using the shrapnel shards as reinforcement like little shields). Multiples of Shred Mine will increase the damage reduction.
    Concuss Mine: Enemies that die within the Bastille will be forcibly ejected as an Impact damage projectile towards outside enemies (think Nekro's Soul Punch turning an enemy into a projectile). Multiples of Concuss Mine will increase the Impact damage.

Vortex: Extends Vortex's area of effect to a bit outside the Bastille, pulling enemies in, but slowing down the pull force.

Adding to all this, the Bastille itself should be reduced to a 1 deployment limit. This is to allow the player to better manage their Bastille. Should they mess up the mine combinations, just toss another Bastille to erase the previous and create a fresh new one.

With this, Vauban will be free to customize his Bastille however the situation requires. Creating a personal fortress to better tackle any type of mission. While many will argue to just give him a sort of turret or sentry gun, I get the feeling that DE wants to avoid that to keep a theme of "traps". With this, it won't diverge from the theme of trapping and instead add a theme of building, with the traps being the building blocks that the french engineer will design his fort with!

As for Vauban's last ability, Vortex, I say keep it as is. Don't fix what isn't broke, right? Even if it has a few slight bugs here and there occasionally atomizing enemies somehow, it's still a good ability and should stay as is. The only change being the compatibility with Bastille.

With this I leave here my suggestion to make Vauban a better, more useful warframe. After quite some time of contemplating and thinking of a way to make Vauban better without changing his theme too much, this is the conclusion that I reached.

I hope it makes sense to all, I truly want Vauban to be a good warframe to use. Not because I'm some fan of him or his aesthetic in particular, but because I personally feel that all warframes should have a use in the metagame and not be left behind or replaced.

Thank you for your time, have a good one!

[Kcyu]

The very idea of enemies suspended by bastille being slowly dragged into the vortex is a great one and it makes sense. While suspended in the air there’s barely anything to stop enemies from the gravitational pull of the vortex with the pull growing stronger as enemies near it. This way you can effectively set up traps and create kill zones. Granted some of his other abilities will still need tweaking but this is one change I would love to see happen.

Edited March 2, 2019 by Kcyu