Another Vauban Rework idea

[xZeromusx]

Seeing as everyone's posting Vauban Rework ideas, I'll repost one I made a while back to give some further ideas. This is a historically accurate Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban concept.
 

Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban

 

So, for those that might not know, Vauban seems to be heavily based on Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, a 17^th century military engineer. Vauban was known for two things in his day, his offensive doctrine and his defensive doctrine: Siege warfare and Fortifications respectively. Currently, I think most people would agree that Vauban’s (the warframe) current ability to create a strong fortification isn’t bad. It doesn’t exactly hold up to frames such as Gara who can absorb enemies into her wall, Frost who can boost his globe’s health for those initial few seconds, or Khora’s ability to actually inflict damage with hers while also suspending enemies. And as far as the current frame’s offensive ability (siege warfare) we don’t honestly have ANYTHING that does Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban justice. So, here is my suggestion for a Vauban rework to REALLY create Comte de Vauban.

 

 

Stats: I don’t care to rework Vauban’s stats. They are honestly a non-issue, and not really significantly out of place amongst the rest of the frames in the game. Where he feels lacking is in his abilities, so I am going to focus specifically in that area, going over his current ability, then the changes I would make to it.

 

Current Passive: Reinforce: Vauban deals 25% extra damage to enemies that are incapacitated and unable to move.

 

Suggested Passive: Reinforce: Vauban’s armor affects his shields and health.

 

Reasoning: First, let’s discuss the name of the passive: Reinforce. What about that makes one imagine a damage increase? By that name alone, it should be a defensive passive, increasing his survivability. As most know, shields in the game have no damage mitigation from armor. If ANY frame should have the unique ability to break with that trend, and have their shields “reinforced”, it is Vauban, based on a man KNOWN for stronger fortifications that made use of what was known as “crumple zones” that are used in modern cars today in order to absorb and mitigate the impact of enemy fire.

 

 

Current 1^st Ability: Tesla: Launches a grenade that holds an electrical charge, zapping enemies that come within range. 25 Energy

 

Suggested 1^st Ability: Heavy Artillery: Vauban equips his signature grenade launcher to launch explosive rounds. 25 Energy to equip / 10 energy per shot (Affected by Ability Efficiency)

 

Damage: 100/200/300/400 Blast Damage (Affected by Ability Strength and no self damage)

Base Crit Chance: 10%

Crit Multiplier: 1.5x

Base Status Chance: 20%

Fire Rate: .75 rounds/second

Explosive Radius: 1/2/3/4 meters

No self damage

Mutlishot Effects: Additional explosive projectiles

Projectile flight speed: 30m/s

No reload time

Polarities are at DE’s discretion

 

Reasoning: Tesla is one of Vauban’s skills that makes the least amount of sense to me. A warframe based on a man from the 17^th century when the common practical use of electricity didn’t occur into at least a century later? This skill definitely needs to change. In siege warfare, Vauban was famously known for the “siege parallel” where he made 3 parallel trenches around Maastricht in 1673 and brought heavy artillery into the trenches which then allowed them to target the base of the walls of the fort. His motto for siege warfare was “more powder, less blood” meaning more heavy artillery weapons, more gun powder, big blasts. This is going to be a theme, to REALLY create Vauban a siege and fortification expert, the frame KNOWN for blast damage as well as his defense capability.

 

 

Current 2^nd Ability: Minelayer: Cycle through four deployable trap mines: Bounce, Trip Laser, Shred and Concuss. 50 energy.

 

Suggested 2^nd Ability: Grand Battery: Vauban calls down artillery on enemies at his location, inflicting blast damage on enemies for a time. 50 energy. (Affected by Ability Efficiency)

 

Strength: 100/200/300/400 blast damage (Affected by Ability Strength)

Radius: 5/7/8/10 meters (Affected by Ability Range)

Projectile Blast Radius: 1/2/3/4 meters

Status chance: 100%

Duration: 8/10/12/15 seconds (Affected by Ability Duration)

 

Reasoning: Vauban, currently, has another skill that I feel makes little to no sense in the theme of a 17^th century military engineer. Magnetic, lasers, bouncing? Pretty much the only thing I find in theme is the Shred mine… which inflicts blast of all things. Vauban, the historical figure, was also known for a siege tactic that later became known as “Grand Battery” where several siege engines would target the same location to weaken it quicker. In a large map area of the game, a 5/7/8/10 meter radius area is what I’d call a single location for a number of heavy artillery to target. I also largely imagine Hydroid’s Tempest Barrage skill, but inflicting Blast rather than Impact. Further, this skill is largely tailored to be able to work on its own, but as well as pair with my ideas for Bastille.

 

 

Current 3^rd Ability: Bastille: Creates an energy-based containment field in which captives are held suspended in stasis. 75 energy.

 

Suggested 3^rd Ability: Bastille: Creates an energy-based containment field which holds enemies that contact it while absorbing enemy gun fire and damaging captured enemies for the amount absorbed. Enemies inside the Bastille are ejected outwards. 75 energy (Affected by Efficiency)

 

Base damage: 25/50/75/100/s impact damage (Affected by Ability Strength)

Damage multiplier: .25/.5/.75/1 enemy fire converted to additional impact damage (Affected by Ability Strenth)

Radius (indicated via the red circle): 5/7/8/10 meters (Affected by Ability Range)

Duration: 8/10/12/15 Seconds (Affected by Ability Duration)

 

Current Shape

 

New Shape

 

Reasoning: So, this skill, and basically the reshaping of it, are based on the Bastion Fort design, which Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban conceptualized, to absorb artillery fire using “crumple zones”. In the same way, this Bastille would help absorb enemy gun fire. I purposefully specified enemy gun fire, as the purpose of a fort is to not hinder ally gun fire while protecting from enemy gun fire. Further, as enemies become held by the wall, the gun fire from their allies cause damage to them, as if they are a part of the wall’s defenses that the enemy is trying to damage. I also chose impact damage, as opposed to blast, to be as if they are being held against the wall and taking artillery fire. Also, this ability helps pair well with the revised 2^nd ability, which drops blast type artillery fire on enemies in the same radius, this way enemies on the wall take both enemy fire as well as blast damage from Grand Battery.

 

 

Current 4^th Ability: Vortex: Creates a whirling mass of energy that violently attracts nearby enemies, crushing their atoms into a tiny spec of matter. (100 energy)

 

Suggested 4^th Ability: Artillery Turret: Erects an auto-turret that Vauban can take control of. (100 energy) (Affected by Ability Efficiency)

 

Ammo: 200/400/600/800 rounds (Affected by Ability Duration)

Damage: 200/400/600/800 per shot (Affected by Ability Strength)

Fire Rate: 10 rounds/second

Base Crit Chance: 5%

Crit Multiplier: 1.5x

Base Status Chance: 10%

Explosive Radius: .5/1/1.5/2 meters

Turret Health: 2000/3000/4000/5000 (Affected by Ability Strength)

Protection Angle: 120 degrees

Number of Turrets up at a time: 1

 

Details: So, since this would be a new ability that the game hasn’t really seen yet, I thought I would explain a bit about how it would work. The turret would essentially be a lot like the mountable turrets you see on Grineer maps, with a set amount of health, but only Vauban can use it. The ammo does not regenerate, like the Grineer turrets, if you stop firing, instead it has a limited number of shots indicated on the skill’s UI. The turret would protect Vauban when he is using it from enemy gun fire in the direction it is facing, with a 120 degree arc, and that protection angle would be unaffected by any mods. The turret would take damage rather than Vauban. When all the rounds have been fired, or the turret takes its health in damage, it despawns. The turret will fire automatically on enemies, similar to the auto-turret deployed by the Xyphos landing craft, but only when Vauban is not using it.

 

Reasoning: This is the coup de grâce skill, a turret that belongs on a castle wall, that if Vauban wished, he can climb behinds its shield to protect himself while firing off explosive rounds. How a frame based on a guy that was a savant of his time for both tearing down defenses as well as constructing them never had a turret in his kit to begin with, I’ll never know.

Edited June 29, 2019 by xZeromusx