Limbo Re-Revisited

[Ikusi_Prime]

I love Limbo. Seeing his kit and what he can do is what made me decide to start playing Warframe. I’m gonna be blunt, his kit is kinda bad. It’s very similar to pre-rework Vauban: All CC, no threat. What’s worse, he forces squadmates to play around him.

Despite his many changes, Limbo remains one of the most despised frames in the game. People rage when they see you’re playing Limbo, admonishing you for doing what makes Limbo fun. Negative range builds where you just leave your Cataclysm on the objective to protect it is the standard “nice guy” way to play Limbo, but that’s highly restrictive and not as fun. Limbo shouldn’t have to adjust his build for teammates or stick to strictly solo play.

He trivializes some missions but gets absolutely crushed in others. Nullifiers wreck his day, as does anything that can’t be stunned by Stasis or drains his energy. The fact that he slows down combat means he can’t really do high-level Survival missions, and hurts his team’s chance of winning them as well.

So let’s fix that.

The main complaints I see about having Limbo in your mission is:

1) Stopping combat. Limbo takes enemies out of the fight completely and makes it hard for his allies to deal damage.

2) People hate, hate, HATE being put in the Rift. It doesn’t matter that they’re getting energy, they are invulnerable, they can still use their abilities, and “yOu CaN juSt RolL”, people can’t stand being put in a state where they can’t deal damage for any amount of time. There’s also troll potential here, as you can keep interrupting allies or even prevent them from completing the objective by blocking off consoles.

3) Fighting at the edge of a Cataclysm feels terrible. As enemies keep running into the shrinking edge and getting frozen, you need to step back and forth to hit them or else a good portion of your attacks miss.

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TL;DR

• Limbo can’t force allies into the Rift. Instead, he gives them permission to deal damage to enemies in the Rift without preventing them from doing damage to other enemies, while also granting them a huge decaying damage resist against enemies in the material plane.
• Enemies are totally in the Rift for a shorter duration, but then have a long duration where they can be damaged by players in both planes.
• Limbo’s slide doesn’t make tiny portals. Instead, Banish can make a big one, and people can shoot through them to hit enemies in the other plane.
• Cataclysm no longer has a clean edge that causes enemies to rapidly flip between dimensions, so they’re easier to damage.
• Limbo is less squishy. He takes a portion of the Rift’s protection with him wherever he goes, so he is able to peek his head out of his dimension briefly without instantly exploding.
• Tons of QoL changes. Cataclysm is no longer an eyesore, consoles can be used in a Cataclysm, Limbo's slide doesn't interrupt reloads, etc.

Passive: Rift Walk

• The influence of the Rift Plane is now measured in Rift Energy, from 0-100%.
  • If a unit reaches 100% Rift Energy, they enter the Rift Plane for 10 seconds (Limbo has no max duration), locking their Rift Energy at 100%, and take transition damage if they are an enemy. After that 10 seconds or if their Rift Energy falls below 100% by another means, their Rift Energy begins to decay at a rate of 5% per second. For all instances of decay, Rift Energy decays by this amount. Rift duration, transition damage, and Rift Energy decay are not affected by mods.
  • If a unit has less than 100% Rift Energy, they are in the material plane, but interact with other units differently, as detailed below:
    • Units in the material plane gain damage resistance from other units in the material plane equal to their Rift Energy minus the damager’s Rift Energy (min. 0%)
    • Units in the material plane can deal/take a percentage of damage to/from units in the Rift Plane equal to their Rift Energy.
    • Units in the Rift Plane can deal/take a percentage of damage to/from enemies in the material plane equal to the Rift Energy of the entity in the material plane.
  • Limbo’s minimum Rift Energy is 25%. Dashing while in the material plane gives him 100% Rift Energy. Dashing while in the Rift Plane brings him down to 50%, which then begins to decay. Dashing no longer leaves behind a portal (see Banish changes for more info).
• Warframes gain 0.02 energy per second for each percentage of Rift Energy they have (up to 2 per second)
• Warframes gain 0.1% increased movement speed, increased slide, and reduced friction for each percentage of Rift Energy they have (max 10%)
• Limbo’s slide/roll no longer interrupts reloading.
• Allies with Rift Energy can roll to reduce their Rift Energy by a flat 50%.
• Limbo has enemy radar for all enemies in the Rift with unlimited range. While not in the Rift, those enemies’ mini-map markers are translucent.
• Transition damage changed to (50 + (5% of the target’s maximum HP)) * (Rift Energy difference) as True damage.
• “Black flames” visuals of the Rift removed.
• Enemies with Rift Energy appear translucent, tinted with Limbo’s energy colors, with the transparency scaling with the Rift Energy difference between them and the viewer.
• Units with 100% Rift Energy no longer collide with enemies that have less than 50% Rift Energy. If an enemy unit in the Rift Plane is sharing a space with an entity in the material plane and they fall below 100% Rift Energy, enemies involved are knocked down and away from each other, taking Rift transition damage.

Comments:
The addition of the Rift Energy system is the biggest change to his kit, and serves to make the Rift less binary. It seems complicated on paper, but functionally, it’s very simple. To summarize, this system allows units to be partially in the Rift, so Limbo and his allies can enjoy the protection of the Rift without being restricted by it so severely. They gain a portion of the energy regen as well, plus the new functionality of increased speed and reduced friction.

Having the Rift work in this way means that Limbo and his teammates are able to deal damage to enemies in all dimensions. He no longer restricts his allies by putting them in the Rift. Instead, he allows them to deal nearly full damage to the enemies he has in the Rift, and never stops them from dealing damage to enemies in the material plane.

Limbo’s minimum Rift Energy is 25%, which means he gains a fair amount of damage resist to most enemies. The additional passive energy regen doesn’t matter as much, since he spends most of his time in the Rift anyway, but the added tankiness helps offset the fact that these changes make him slightly less safe and give him more room to move around. Allies who exit the Rift also keep a portion of the damage resist for a short time. He can also affect enemies in the Rift at any time.

This change also causes transitioning in the Rift to deal True damage that scales with the target’s health, and scales with how much their Rift Energy changed. This means that the damage is significant across the entire starmap, but enemies being ground up by the edge of a Cataclysm don’t die instantly.

There's also a lot of QoL changes here. The enemy radar helps Limbo track down enemies that would otherwise be stuck frozen in a corner of the map. The increased mobility while in the Rift offsets the fact that he can't use his roll to get around the map without exposing himself, and the fact that the roll no longer interrupts reloads makes his gunplay smoother. Removing unit collision helps him get around a crowded battlefield easier, and the new visuals make it easier for everybody to distinguish who they can deal damage to.

1: Banish

• New functionality: Limbo launches an expanding wave of energy as a very fast projectile, traveling 15m/20m/25m/30m. All enemies (not allies) on Limbo’s current plane that are hit by the wave gain 100% Rift Energy if they are in the material plane, or lose 100% Rift Energy if they are in the Rift Plane.
• Allies in the material plane that are hit by the wave gain 90% Rift Energy, which begins to decay. This effect occurs regardless of whether or not they share a plane with Limbo. Additional casts refresh their Rift Energy.
• As a hold-cast, the effect is the same, except when the wave reaches its maximum range of or strikes a surface, it creates a vertical portal with a 5m radius facing perpendicular to the direction Limbo was facing when cast. When the portal is formed, it applies the wave’s effects in a 10m radius around the portal’s center. Portal size is NOT affected by range mods, but the explosion radius is.
  • Only the portal’s edges are visible (to reduce visual clutter) and it remains active for 10/15/20/25 seconds. Only one portal may be active at a time. Limbo and allies in the material plane can walk through the portal to gain 100% Rift Energy, or can enter it in the Rift Plane to lose 50% Rift Energy, which then decays.
  • Gunfire (ally and enemy) that passes through the active portal is also affected, able to damage enemies on the other side that are in the opposite plane as the shooter. Looking through the portal reverses the transparency visuals of Rift Energy, to better indicate which enemies you can damage.

Comments:

With this version of Banish, Limbo can never force his allies into the Rift. Instead, he gives them Rift Energy, allowing them to deal partial damage to the enemies he has in the Rift and gaining damage resistance from virtually all enemies. They can also choose to shoot through the portal to deal full damage to enemies in the other plane or step through it for the Rift’s protection.

This also gives Limbo the option of creating a window for himself to shoot OUT of the Rift Plane. Simply look at the ground while casting, and the portal is spawned right by you, giving you the protection of the Rift from all sides except the front. He can keep himself safe and contribute without getting in anybody else’s way.

2: Stasis

• New functionality: All enemies and enemy-owned projectiles lose movement speed and attack speed equal to their Rift Energy.

Comments:

This makes it so that Stasis behaves much like it does now, freezing enemies who are in the Rift, while also letting Limbo slow enemies outside the Rift after their Rift Energy begins to decay.

3: Rift Surge

• Surged enemies in the material plane have a minimum of 50% Rift Energy, and pass the surge on to a different enemy within range in the material plane when killed (without resetting the duration).

Comments:

By having surged enemies gain Rift Energy, this gives Limbo a way to influence enemies that are outside the Rift even while he’s inside it. He can deal 50% damage to those enemies while they’re outside the Rift, though he can take damage from them as well.

The other change here prevents allies from screwing up your Rift Surge when they are doing what they love and killing every enemy they can see, as the mark will chain around the material plane.

4: Cataclysm

• Radius reduced to 7.5 / 9 / 10.5 / 12m, from 10 / 12 / 14 / 16m. This is the “inner radius”, and causes all units inside to be in the Rift Plane. When a unit leaves the inner radius, their Rift Energy begins to decay.
• An outer radius extends an additional 7.5 / 9 / 10.5 / 12m from the edge of the inner radius, which causes units to have minimum Rift Energy, scaling from 99% to 1% along the outer radius.
• Visuals change: the boundary glows during the cast, then fades to a barely-visible swirling shimmer. Players in the radius get a slight screen tint in Limbo's energy color.
• Consoles inside the Cataclysm may be interacted with.
• When Limbo rolls out of the inner radius of a Cataclysm, he remains in the Rift Plane.

Comments:

Tuning the visuals is long overdue. Limbo shouldn’t need to run a black or nearly-black energy color to see through his own ability.

These changes reduce the radius of total protection, while creating a larger zone that is partially in the Rift. This gives Limbo more coverage and removes that sharp edge he and his allies needed to dance around to keep dealing damage. With Stasis active, enemies approaching would be gradually slowed until they reach the portal’s edge instead of starting and stopping, so the damage they take from allies in the Cataclysm fluctuates between 100% and 99%, instead of 100% and 0%.
 

Augments:

Augment: Haven

• Removed. Replaced with Rift Gate

Augment (Exilus): Rift Gate (new)

• Allied gunfire that passes through a Banish portal deals full damage to enemies in both planes, and gives enemies in the material plane Rift Energy equal to 2/3/4/5% of the damage dealt.

Comments:

Haven was basically never picked because, again, people HATE being put in the Rift, and Limbo is usually played solo anyways. This augment lets Limbo create a window of opportunity for his teammates to unleash their damage on anything they feel like while helping him pull enemies into the Rift. It’s also very useful for solo play, letting you use a portal to pull enemies into the Rift with your weapons, even at ranges you normally wouldn’t be able to.

Augment: Absorb Momentum (new)

• While Stasis is active, Limbo’s fire objects in the Rift are frozen in place, but he gains +5/7/9/11/13/15% additive status chance and critical chance for melee weapons while in the Rift.

Comments:

A cool new augment to bring back some of the old Limbo’s gameplay without imposing it on his allies, with the added twist of the new portal mechanic: Limbo can set up a huge volley of gunfire in the Rift, make a portal, then end Stasis to launch all that stored gunfire in one huge burst out of the Rift and into his enemies. Fun stuff.

The bonus status and crit chance for his melee weapons gives him a substantial boon while fighting in the Rift, but having it be additive makes weapons behave strangely, with the greatest benefit to weapons that have low base stats, which I feel is a fitting effect for the Rift to have.

Augment: Rift Torrent

• Limbo also gains a percentage of the Rift Torrent damage bonus for charged enemies in the material plane equal to their Rift Energy.

Comments:

Just a small update to the mod so that it synergizes with the new Rift Energy mechanic.

Augment: Cataclysmic Continuum

• Killing an enemy in the Cataclysm also reverses the shrink rate of the Cataclysm for .3/.5/.7/1 seconds, causing it to briefly expand instead of retract.

Comments:

A much-needed buff to an otherwise garbage mod. I’m not sure how this made it past the devs recent augment pass. Before, having the duration increase without stopping the shrinkage means you are left with a uselessly-small Cataclysm, making the augment virtually unusable after a certain point as it’s too small to keep enemies inside. This change let you maintain a large Cataclysm for an extended duration.

Alternatively, remove it and replace it with:

Augment: Unstable Dimensions (new)

• Recasting creates a new Cataclysm instead of canceling at half the energy cost, but Cataclysm radius and duration are reduced by 71/64/57/50%.

This is a much more interesting mod than Cataclysmic Continuum. It gives you the benefits of a negative range build (a small Cataclysm to protect an objective) without needing to sacrifice that range for Banish or Rift Surge, while also letting you continue to use Cataclysm to contain enemies and protect yourself elsewhere. However, you can't cancel it anymore to control which enemies are in the Rift Plane. I’m a fan of augments that change how an ability functions rather than just making it better.

 

Edited October 22, 2019 by Ikusi_Prime

[Zelmen]

1) allow people to shoot out of the bubble
2) reduce max range
3) make everyone pass a test to prove that are not an A$$

 

I mean... yay, rework....

[EinheriarJudith]

36 minutes ago, Ikusi_Prime said:

 this system allows units to be partially in the Rift, so Limbo and his allies can enjoy the protection of the Rift without being restricted by it so severely. They gain a portion of the energy regen as well, plus the new functionality of increased speed and reduced friction.

when i read this i was sold.

[Ikusi_Prime]

23 hours ago, Zelmen said:

1) allow people to shoot out of the bubble
2) reduce max range
3) make everyone pass a test to prove that are not an A$$

 

I mean... yay, rework....

There's no real way to enforce an "I'm not a jerk that will grief your game" test, and being able to shoot out of the bubble wouldn't solve his problems. He needs changes.