Dev Workshop - Revisiting Augments

[SilverBones]

Swazdo-lah, offworlder!

As we re-look at systems within the game, there is one aspect that we haven’t touched in a while, and those are the Augments. As new Augments and new gameplay systems make their way into the game, the older Augments need some attention, and so the team has been assessing what we have and how they can possibly change.

It should be noted that some Augments are tied to abilities that see very little use (such as Pool of Life), however, these will be looked at later on when those same abilities are considered for a rework. For now, this Workshop only covers Augments that we felt we could improve fairly without major overhauls of the base ability as well. They are 'Augments', after all! 

This Dev Workshop is to go over the various Augments we are looking at and our considered changes to each one. So, without further ado, let's take a look at what is under the microscope! Keep in mind, all changes here are impacted by other Mods, this is just the proposed changes to the Augment’s themselves! 

Hysterical Assault - Hysteria Augment - Valkyr

• Let invulnerability linger for half a second when aiming to prevent getting downed immediately in high-damage areas 
• Increased Range 

Rising Storm - Blade Storm Augment - Ash

• Attacks by clones will raise the combo counter 
• Include a passive benefit to extend the combo counter by a duration

Titanic Rumbler - Rumblers Augment - Atlas

• Increase to damage and speed 
• Re-triggering the power will activate the taunt, as well as cause a knockdown effect

Hallowed Eruption - Hallowed Ground Augment - Oberon

• Additional passive ability that triples base duration

Furious Javelin - Radial Javelin Augment - Excalibur

• Increase duration and damage on the buff

Tidal Impunity - Tidal Surge - Hydroid

• Increase the duration of the immunity buff

Magnetized Discharge - Magnetize Augment - Mag

• Include a passive benefit that increases power range for this Ability only 

Muzzle Flash - Shooting Gallery Augment - Mesa

• For kills made by a player (self or ally) with Shooting Gallery activated, generate a blinding AoE when threshold is met

Explosive Legerdemain - Sleight of Hand Augment - Mirage

• Increase damage and status chance when triggered

Total Eclipse - Eclipse Augment - Mirage

• Increase range on the buff to other players

Piercing Roar - Roar Augment - Rhino

• Allow Roar to be recast when equipped
• Increase debuff duration based on equipped Mods
• Generate a stagger effect on enemies when the Roar hits

Contagion Cloud - Toxic Lash Augment - Saryn

• Allow buff to activate when enemy is killed by damage over time effects
• General increase on range and damage

Transistor Shield - Electric Shield Augment - Volt

• No additional energy drain when a shield is picked up by another player
• Increase damage conversion %

Target Fixation - Tail Wind Augment - Zephyr

• Remove buff after 2 seconds of being on the ground, instead of immediately
• Damage increase per target hit

Fireball Frenzy - Fireball Augment - Ember
Freeze Force - Freeze Augment - Frost
Smite Infusion - Smite Augment - Oberon
Venom Dose - Spores Augment - Saryn
Shock Trooper - Shock Augment - Volt 

• Holding the casting button will send out a wave (much like similar, expanding Warframe Abilities) giving the elemental buff to every player it touches, including the caster

Please be aware that during this process, tweaks and changes will be made to these alterations provided. We are always open to your feedback, so if you have any thoughts on the proposed changes above, we would love to hear your comments in this forum thread! Please make sure to keep your feedback constructive and concise, so we can better compile your thoughts!
 

[Aeon94]

Nice :D

[--Q--ualityContent]

Very nice touches in general, maybe also make a few of the PVP exclusive augments also PVE compatible, as some of them are very unique and could potentially change the way some frames are played.
 

[LittleLeonie]

21 minutes ago, [DE]Bear said:

Fireball Frenzy - Fireball Augment - Ember
Freeze Force - Freeze Augment - Frost
Smite Infusion - Smite Augment - Oberon
Venom Dose - Spores Augment - Saryn
Shock Trooper - Shock Augment - Volt 

• Holding the casting button will send out a wave (much like similar, expanding Warframe Abilities) giving the elemental buff to every player it touches, including the caster

yes!

[(PSN)OmegaSlayer]

Cool! Thanks 🙂

[Morisabeau]

We've waited for oh, so long. ;w;

 

edit: Duality augment for Equinox, as I think, needs some attention too, because it is basically the same as Wukong's 1st entire ability now.

[DeMonkey]

What about Enveloping Cloud? It's virtually worthless when attacking decloaks an ally, leaving it with a niche use of providing allies with stealth capabilities, something only really useful for Spy missions.

In any situation where it would be useful to buff allies ready for a spy vault, I'm just going to go and do the Spy vault myself because I'll be faster.

If this augment is considered okay and thus not receiving changes then I'm sure you can think of a single in-game situation in which it could be considered worthwhile to equip it, and if you can't, why is it not getting changed? Don't half-arse these changes, if you intend to revisit augments to bring sub-par ones up to scratch then do so, but do all of them. Anything less is... well, silly, because you'll just have to come back to it later after leaving it in a terrible state for multiple years.

[Koldraxon-732]

Speaking of augments, could Exalted Weapon augments be possibly moved to the Exalted Weapon itself as to allow for more build variety?* This would require a lot of new Exalted Weapons to be created though, like with Chroma's Spectral Scream.

Edit regarding more Exalted weapons: A lot of weapon-like abilities are under-performing in comparison to others. Some of the most obvious ones being a LOT of first abilities, with major examples being Volt, Frost, Nekros, Ember and Chroma's breath.

 

Edit. *This could turn those augments into Exalted Stances which alter the ability's function, but nothing else. I also agree that more room for more mods (slots and capacity, that is) would be nice.

[Brawlatron]

25 minutes ago, [DE]Bear said:

Transistor Shield - Electric Shield Augment - Volt

• No additional energy drain when a shield is picked up by another player
• Increase damage conversion %

Awesome.... but can this apply to Volt himself too? With Gauss literally being the Speed Frame, a little effort to accentuate Volt's other abilities would be appreciated.

[PerishedFraud]

The number one issue with augments is simply finding room for them.

As it stands, you cannot really afford to augment any but the strongest abilities without seriously impeding your build. Ember is rolling in her grave.

Kindly consider an augment slot. Not given to us for free or anything. if it were an unlockable much like the aura forma or umbra forma, it would be optimal.

A thanks in case this is ever actually considered.

[NotWhoItSeems]

some of those change I really like:

Total eclipse, it had to have it range tuned up.

Piercing roar, allows roar to be recast, this is a godsend.

Transistor shield, nice tweek, makes it more usable.

elemental buff 1s -> self casting, that's great!

[Gene_Freak]

28 minutes ago, [DE]Bear said:

Hysterical Assault - Hysteria Augment - Valkyr

• Let invulnerability linger for half a second when aiming to prevent getting downed immediately in high-damage areas 

So, let me see if I have this right.

First, you guys broke Valkyr by making it so that when she aimglides she loses her invulnerability, because you made the choice to remove manual blocking without considering the ramifications across several frames, weapons and mods that rely on the established mechanics. Then, to compensate for this, instead of actually addressing the problems created by auto-block and expanded upon in a fifty page, nearly half year long thread that has not seen a single dev acknowledgement, you're making it so I have to slot an augment in order to gain back one half of one second of the functionality Valkyr had before you broke her.

I feel embarrassed for being hopeful.

[DeMonkey]

6 minutes ago, Koldraxon-732 said:

Speaking of augments, could Exalted Weapon augments be possibly moved to the Exalted Weapon itself as to allow for more build variety?

This would reduce build variety as far as I'm concerned. Mod space is far and away more limited on my staff than on my frame.

In point of fact, this would be a nerf. I'll have to remove a mod that I desperately need on my staff in order to use Primal Rage, and in return I get a slot back on my frame that absolutely cannot make up for the loss of the melee mod.

[(XBOX)YoungGunn82]

1 hour ago, [DE]Bear said:

Muzzle Flash - Shooting Gallery Augment - Mesa

• For kills made by a player (self or ally) with Shooting Gallery activated, generate a blinding AoE when threshold is met

😯Will range mods effect this? And will the blind open enemies to finishers? 

If so DADDY GONNA LOVE DIS!

[Neightrix]

46 minutes ago, [DE]Bear said:

Rising Storm - Blade Storm Augment - Ash

• Attacks by clones will raise the combo counter 
• Include a passive benefit to extend the combo counter by a duration

Seeing as clones already add to the combo counter, does this mean you're planning on taking that away and making it exclusive to the augment. If so I'd prefer not.

Not included but I feel it's worth mentioning is Eternal War. It would be great if the augment also let you recast for half the energy cost to apply Warcry's slow effect on new enemies, otherwise you're locked out of slowing enemies when using the augment as intended. (It would also be nice if the strength required for maximum slow on enemies was reduced, but of course that's separate from the augment itself.)

[--PV--Arc]

Rhino is one of the frames that needs to have 2 augments in his builds to make him good with his ironskin. Can his Ironsharpnel augment become a part of his kit ? It really is an augment that people use just for making him recast his ironskin and not for the Puncture damage the augment gives.

[Revanx]

i guess its more interesting?

41 minutes ago, [DE]Bear said:

Fireball Frenzy - Fireball Augment - Ember
Freeze Force - Freeze Augment - Frost
Smite Infusion - Smite Augment - Oberon
Venom Dose - Spores Augment - Saryn
Shock Trooper - Shock Augment - Volt 

• Holding the casting button will send out a wave (much like similar, expanding Warframe Abilities) giving the elemental buff to every player it touches, including the caster

[OmegaVitae]

any internal talk on making Energy Transfer innate and applying the transferable charge effect to Equinox's 3 as well? she's really lacking fluidity when you have to either treat her like 2 seperate frames, or sacrifice a mod slot on a frame whose buildspace is already very tight.

[daExile]

33 minutes ago, [DE]Bear said:

Hysterical Assault - Hysteria Augment - Valkyr

• Let invulnerability linger for half a second when aiming to prevent getting downed immediately in high-damage areas 

And here was I, hoping that this garbage feature of Hysteria allowing to pull the gun out and basically lose hysteria (but still spend mana on it, awesome!) was just an overlooked newmeleeupdateyay outcome to be fixed whenever you guys decide to take a look at its problems.

Guess I'll never glide without losing invul and getting rekt asap again.

 

Opt out of hysteria allowing guns please.

[Nasair]

Showing the old stats with the suggested changes would be helpful to the conversation.

[--N--]

5 minutes ago, NotWhoItSeems said:

Piercing roar, allows roar to be recast, this is a godsend.

Too bad you have to waste another mod slot in addition to Iron Shrapnel just to get recasting on the ability (because that's the only reason you'd want to use those augments).

[Cebian]

Fireball Frenzy - Fireball Augment - Ember
 

• Holding the casting button will send out a wave (much like similar, expanding Warframe Abilities) giving the elemental buff to every player it touches, including the caster

this sounds nice and all, but what about flash accelerant, currently that also grants A heat damage buff also, so any plans to take a look at that, since fireball frenzy grants a way bigger buff than it does

[Malziel]

38 minutes ago, [DE]Bear said:

Hysterical Assault - Hysteria Augment - Valkyr

• Let invulnerability linger for half a second when aiming to prevent getting downed immediately in high-damage areas 

Piercing Roar - Roar Augment - Rhino

• Allow Roar to be recast when equipped

Transistor Shield - Electric Shield Augment - Volt

• No additional energy drain when a shield is picked up by another player

These changes in particular seem far, far better suited to base ability buffs more than anything else. Tacking quality of life onto otherwise meaningless augments is just about the worst way possible you could make them better.

This is all the more exacerbated with Rhino. He already has two augments that are basically always required. Requiring players to give up three mod slots, two of which would only offer quality of life, seems a bit outrageous if you ask me.

As for Valkyr, this should also honestly be built in to her 4. The way things stand now with new melee, the threat of dying to accidentally aiming, or god forbid trying to use a hold combo, means that you're better off just never pressing 4 in the first place.

Volt... just needs all the help he can get, and this augment ain't it chief.

[LeTigreVolant]

I feel like Volt should not have an energy drain when move his shield around, considering he is the fastest frame (at least for now)

[Asdryu]

44 minutes ago, [DE]Bear said:

Fireball Frenzy - Fireball Augment - Ember
Freeze Force - Freeze Augment - Frost
Smite Infusion - Smite Augment - Oberon
Venom Dose - Spores Augment - Saryn
Shock Trooper - Shock Augment - Volt 

• Holding the casting button will send out a wave (much like similar, expanding Warframe Abilities) giving the elemental buff to every player it touches, including the caster

I can't imagine how devastating Saryn will become if this is what I'm thinking and Volt is gonna make every corrosive build a piece of cake to make