Inaros Rework Ideas (in time for prime)

[Amasu]

First off, these aren't my ideas, just my input on a recent video that I have seen, I will provide a link at the end of this post. The video was on December 11, and I've personally been hyped for the coming Inaros Prime. Yes, I know it is still a ways off, and there will probably be Titania and Nezha first, but that just gives DE time to look at, fine tune, and change or make the rework happen.... or who knows, even have the rework be presented AS his prime releases.

I know not all would like Inaros to be reworked, and I, as an Inaros main, would want his core stats and playstyle to stay fundamentally the same... but I DO have to admit that after the hundreds of hours playing him... he is very... dull. My main love for him comes from his tankiness and utility. I love that he can blind a large area, I love that his HP is THROUGH THE ROOF, I like his natural armor as well as healing based upon percentages of his HP. It all ties into the base that a well built Inaros is basically unkillable in NORMAL play. I'm sure everyone here already knows all this information, so as I said, now come my opinions.

* Passive: Absolutely terrific. Makes him playable, and keeps him engaged and using his abilities both strategically and commonly. The regen based upon finishers and his next ability opening enemies to finishers is simply divine. That being said, the second part of the passive is basically trash. Post level 50 enemies, it does almost nothing. The video suggests an aoe for the sarcophagus which would allow for a "revive meter" to fill faster and make his self revival (without having teammates kill the linked target) actually somewhat relevant. If not adding this mechanic, I'd vote to just strip that half entirely in favor of something else.

* First Ability: Plays into his passive by opening up enemies in a decent radius to finishers. Basically his bread and butter core gameplay. Blinds enemies to help teammates and buy them time, lockdown groups of enemies, heal himself, etc. Easy to use with great benefit. The video states to not change it (despite it's garbage damage and healing factor), and I agree.

* Second Ability: Garbage. The devouring, just as his passive, becomes all but completely useless at later levels. The healing is great... but his passive+#1 combo is more than sufficient for that. Locking down enemies? More like a waste of energy, as you can only lock down one at a time, may as well use your #1 for a larger aoe AND enable finishers. The time is less, but you can spam it more and finish enemies, overall, just a useless ability when you are being swarmed by the large number of enemies that endgame gameplay usually brings. The video suggests removing this entirely in favor of an ability to create and buff his sand shadows. I ABSOLUTELY love this idea. I never use his sand shadows. They die too fast, do almost no damage, and the effort required to kill a level 50+ enemy by devouring them is just atrocious. Check the video out for more info on specifics, but I absolutely love the idea.

* Third Ability: Also trash. Once again, the amount of damage it actually inflicts is abysmal for the energy cost. The range is exceedingly small, even with decent range mods on, you sacrifice too much tankiness just to make this ability semi-viable. Even in providing the elemental sandstorms to strip armor and make the damage worth it.... you sacrifice mod slots that you would otherwise need for other things, so I would vote to do away with it entirely in favor of.... ANYTHING else. Once again, just my opinion. In all my time on Inaros, I use this one even LESS than his #2. It is literally just a waste of time and energy. The video suggests a localized sandstorm around Inaros AND his sand shadows. This would do little damage, but stagger and reduce accuracy of enemies (similar to the Zephyr ability) as well as shred armor to make it viable later on. ALTERNATIVELY, the video suggests making it an area-targetted ability, so similar to Hydroid's #4 or Frost's #3 where it places a sandstorm with the previous effects in an area to help shut down corridors and slow down enemies, or help defend points, revive teammates, etc. Overall just a BETTER and more useful ability.

* Fourth Ability: Once again, just as his #1, it is a bread and butter, so not much, if any changes at all. Gives him armor to make his effective health better as well as the great healing factor to help teammates PLUS the spreading factor to lockdown groups. It is super fun to watch it spread, and great for utility (even moreso with the augment). Basically leave this as is, or tweak it slightly to play into his sand shadows somehow.

* Stats: As an Inaros main... I play him for these ALONE. For the love of all that is holy, I would never suggest removing or altering these, even if it means the rework never happens. So up them? Sure, lower or remove to make other abilities better? NO. We already have many other frames that require patience and fortitude to keep their damage and tankiness high. I love Inaros for his simplicity.

 

Overall End Analysis: This rework would basically keep him as the tank he is, but introduce his sand shadows into the mix by removing his current 2 and 3 in favor of large buffs and enhancements to the creation of his sand warriors and making them relevant whilst allowing his to still be useful in new ways other than literally just standing there until someone needs to be revived. This rework would allow him to still feel like a god in REGULAR play, whilst giving his abilities the oomph required to make a difference in high tier play or endurance runs (High tier where his tankiness ACTUALLY falls off 130+ enemies). Of course the tweaking and balances to cost, damage, range, etc. of course left to DE. I mainly just know that I play a LOT of Inaros... and he is indeed badly in need of some form of rework to make his gameplay more... spicy. Two of his 4 abilities are useless, his other two abilities help him survive, and half of his passive is just plain useless unless you have a teammate kill the things you are aiming at... which is hard in such a hectic game where you are constantly on the move. So he is literally a wall that can't be a wall in 130+ enemies... AND has no abilities to contribute past that. My thoughts may be garbage, but that's just my 2 cents after playing him so much. I DO NOT want to lose his current playstyle... but would KILL to have it gain something with more flare.

 

* Video * Here is the video that I watched. These ideas are not mine, just something that I agree with, and do believe would be a fun and interesting rework, PROVIDED that he is still just as much of a meat wall. Warframe: Inaros Reworked - Revenge of the Sandshadows

Edited January 2, 2020 by Amasu

[divi_india]

I play Inaros alot since I am a solo player. I have some ideas.

Ability 1: press to win. Hold to keep winning.

Ability 2: press to win. Hold to keep winning.

Ability 3: press to win. Hold to keep winning.

Ability 4: press to win. Hold to keep winning.

Passive: never lose.

[(PSN)Vexx757]

If I were to revisit him. here is what I would do;

 

Inaros:

Passive:

·       Increase the damage dealt to enemies when reviving while he is in his sarcophagus over time. Aiming at head will increase damage x2.

·       Change it to a wave to capture multi enemies instead of one.

 

2nd ability:

·       Holding the ability will pull multiple enemies.

·       The time of sand shadows` duration is 20 seconds and can be increased by duration mods.

 

3rd ability:

·       Increase movement speed.

·       Movement speed can be increased by sprint speed mods.

·       The more energy he loses the slower he moves, picking up energy orbs can also increase its movement speed.

 

4th ability:

·       This is now a three-stage ability. First you charge the ability like normal, then you mark enemies, then you cast the ability.

·       One enemy marked will cost 5 energy.

·       If the enemy dies, the scarabs will form into a pile for enemies to walk into for 15 seconds.

·       Enemies affected by this will store up damage that is indicated on the top right corner of the screen.

·       Synergy: The damage accumulated can be used for all abilities.

[Azvalk]

I love Inaros too, and I recently play a lot with him.
And, after some testing, I came to the same kind of conclusion.
The passive is great, but the revive mecanic become uneffective at high level.
- His 1 and 4 are his best skills.
- His 2 and 3 are his worst.
- Devour has to change a lot, and Sandstorm need more damage, energy efficiency, speed.

My reasoning is as follows.
It's Inaros °-°
In his story, he is considered a God.
His theme makes him a mummy, an old pharaoh.
He must be impressive, both in his visuals, in the effects he deploys and the damage he causes.
He must be a real scourge on the battlefield.

So, Sandstorm being his most visually impressive ability, it is the one that should do the most damage.
To not just make a cheat skill, much of its damage must come from synergy.
I suggest that Sandstorm be amplified by maintening left click, which consumes its scarab armor. This allows a reduction of the energy cost ^^
Range, damage, speed, everything increases at this time.
To involve the sand clones, I suggest to generate other tornadoes, by sacrificing the clones one by one by right clicking during the use of sandstorm. (no need to target them)

Regarding clones, I am also of the opinion that they should take up more space in Inaros' gameplay.
As a scourge of the desert, it should be much easier for him to use his clones.

For this, Devour must change. ( Not difficult, it has no augment mod ^^ )
As it stands, this ability is useless.
It is used to heal after having formed the scarab armor isn't it ?
Whether by melee finisher, or operator arcane, or by someone on the team, there are many ways to heal Inaros without resorting to this boring skill. <.<

To stay in the mummy theme, I suggest a curse.
Sand Curse:
- Single target, it curses the target with a sand blast and a shout.
When the target is killed, it is converted into a sand clone, in an explosion of sand, which spreads into aoe to curse nearby enemies. ( decent radius please )
This way, Inaros can quickly produce clones, up to a cap of 3. Well, with 3 clones.. we can allow this number to be affected by strength I think, it won't go super high..
Cursed and killed enemies, who have not been converted because the cap has been reached, produce an explosion of sand with increased damage, which don't spread the curse any more.
The duration of the clones must be consistent from base.

- That said, the single target skill, if used in the heat of the action, in co-op, we see it coming, the initial aoe could very well not touch anything because the enemies around can be killed very quickly by the team.
I therefore suggest a version without target, on the use by maintaining the ability. Inaros would throw his sand all around him, 360°, with a shout of curse, this way, for a slightly higher energy cost, why not, he guarantees his success and does not bother to target an enemy in the crowd that is well placed.

Of course, to have real utility, these clones should have a fine treatment.
The AI should kept them near to Inaros, 25m around for the gunners, 40m for the melee ones.

Optionnal idea:
The cursed ennemies, killed but not converted because the cap has been reached, feed the clones to reset or increase their duration and increase their damage and resistance.
Each clone can be fed a certain number of time, maybe affected by strength.
The strength of tornado produced by sacrificing clone during sandstorm could depend on the strength of the sacrified clone.

2nd optionnal idea:
Clones could be sacrified by right click during Inaros bleedout state to help him revive.
Say for example he needs 3 clones lvl 0 (not fed), he could be revived by sacrificing 1 clone lvl 3 (a clone fed 3 time).

Here is which should raise Inaros to the level of scourge corresponding to his theme.
No more stopping for an unnecessary skill that wastes time, and no more ridiculous air flow.
Cursed army, and mummy plague, that's what we want, that's what he deserves.
Currently he is only "the character who resists everything", and it's just sad that he is just that for people.. u.u

Edit:
Augment mods:

Desiccation's Curse:
75% chance of summoning a Sand Shadow with a finisher on blinded enemy.
The chance to summon a Sand Shadow is not affected by Ability Strength.
There can be a maximum of 3 Sand Shadows at a time.
The Sand Shadows last 15 seconds and they are not affected by Ability Duration.

What is this horror.. <.<
75% ? not affected by strength. It's just.. sad.
3 max ? Why ? Afraid that 5 or 7 unit with no damage output makes Inaros a god ? °-°
15 sec ? Not affected by duration..
This is the most ridiculous demonstration of mummy anger one can imagine. 3 ephemeral sandmen.. their existence is just impossible to perceive.

I suggest:
100% chance.
The base cap is at 3, but it's affected by strength.
The base duration at 15sec, affected by duration.
True augment mod, that can deserves to take a slot °-°

Elemental Sandstorm:
50% chance of inflincting status..
It take 200% power strength to up it to 100%... No one, build Inaros with 200 strength.. And if someone does, then he had sacrified a lot, for quite nothing.. '-'

I suggest:
75% chance, affected by strength.
And maybe 100% when using the amplified sandstorm I suggested in the rework.
True augment mod, that can deserves to build Inaros with strength °-° ( better if the rest of the rework is applied ^^ )

Negation Swarm:
Perfect '-'

Edited January 3, 2020 by Azvalk

[Amasu]

Very nice suggestions. I love Inaros and the thought put into his lore, as well as the reworks suggested here. Honestly, I'd love any of these to take place, and I just hope DE will give him a good lookover before the prime is released, I'm saving an Umbra forma specifically for that. I mainly want a tanky boi that doesn't just become useless once his tankiness wears off at much higher levels. Other frames like Saryn, Octavia, or Gara have infinite stacking damage that lets them kill even level 9999 enemies by hiding in a frost bubble or some other well placed strategic location, others like Ivara or loki can basically just stealth, Valkyr has true immortality with her 4 that lets her rake in damage as well (and a phobia of bubbles), rhino, nezha have invulerability that takes enemy damage and builds that into tankiness (I've gotten MILLIONS of health on Nezha many times), yet what does Inaros do post level 200 when they start to drain his health? Blind a group and perform a finisher only to die from a snipe, then sit there and laugh as your pitiful passive inches down their healthbar literally a HALF pixel at a time? This isn't saying he is bad at all, not by a long shot, just I wish he had something more to his kit that would make him do something more. Better sand shadows to really damage later levels, lockdown sand storms to control points and areas, armor stripping or debuffs on enemies to really crank down on higher level enemies, buffs to himself or allies to keep them in the fight... something other than just blind/heal/drop/blind/heal/drop/etc.

TLDR; I love the suggestions, and just wanna see my tanky boi have a good rework that leaves us original fans STILL loving hiim, but adds some spice to the gameplay, like the new Ember rework, that thing is amazing and fun, as well as a positive change in near every regard.

[NinjaZeku]

I just (re)posted my thoughts on Inaros tweaks in another topic, so might as well also plop them in here I guess 😛

Devour: make the target invincible (to anything other than the Health drain damage).
Have it store weapon damage to be unleashed upon the duration running out (see Nyx etc),
if this kills the target it would also spawn a Sand Shadow (it's just a short-lived decoy after all).
Maybe add a glowing icon above the target or something, to make it easier for Squad members to recognize.

Darude Sandstorm: lower the activation and / or per-second cost, maybe increase the range a bit.
Definitely remove that weird camera lock where you're restricted in how far you can tilt your view.
Some more movement speed would be nice, maybe allow casting Devour during it, even.

Scarab Swarm: with invincible Devour targets, you could set up an enduring Scarab trap, that'd be nifty.
I also would welcome it if the targeting was changed to a simple "impact AoE" like Rest & Rage for example.

[PsiWarp]

I see a lot of good ideas here. Personally, I would love it if his healer role was expanded on (more reliable health stations from Devour, and Scarab Swarm healing not being diminished by armored enemies).

Also his passive becoming a core part of his gameplay experience. Maybe allow Scarab Swarm's hold function to continue draining HP even at 100% Scarab Armor, to trigger the Sarcophagus, then allow Inaros to cast other abilities to help his team and help himself revive.

[Azvalk]

il y a une heure, PsiWarp a dit :

Personally, I would love it if his healer role was expanded on

I just had an idea for that.
Authorize the use of Scarab Swarm during Sandstorm.
Each enemy caught in the tornado will be affected by Scarab Swarm, and will therefore become a source of heal when released by the tornado.
Each will be a trapped area for new enemies passing nearby.
( The cost could be 25% scarab armor + ??% per enemy.)

Edited January 7, 2020 by Azvalk

[Redfeather75]

I really like his 1 and 4. I use them so much and they feel really weighty and essential part of his kit.

His other two abilities are not that interesting and the 3rd is arguably the least useful.

[Shaburanigud]

What I mainly see in Inaros (Or what he lacks) is on his sand shadows and sandstorm.
If used well, it could very much fulfill his fantasy of being a Immortal Egyptian Sand God. 
And since we got the Immortal(tank) and Egyptian(looks) done, we should focus more on the Sand.

What I personally like about is his lore. On how he protected the people of Mars till he died.
I think it would be great if we used that mechanic more towards his kit.

• Undying: Scaling this is a delicate matter. If done wrong, it would break him. I propose that it stays mostly as it is. BUT if there are enemies affected by his 1,2 or 4, Inaros will siphon more life from them allowing him to revive faster.

• Sandshadow(2): Instead of needing to drain an enemy completely, now Inaros may summon a sandshadow immediately at the cost of a portion of his health. Will follow you and constantly taunt enemies, and It will fight until it dies. It will summon the last enemy you devoured. (Will not work if you haven't devoured an enemy at all)
  Dmg is affected by Ability Power, duration is affected by Ability Duration, Taunt range is affected by Ability Range. Max count is 5.

• Sandstorm: Sandstorm will now consume health instead of energy. The lower health he has, sandstorm gain more range/speed/dmg reduction.
  Any allies who are inside sandstorm will share dmg reductions and armor buffs from Inaros. All allies(including Inaros) will share health/energy regains while inside sandstorm.
  Enemies who are within sandstorm range will be sucked to the center and immobilized in ragdoll state. releasing Sandstorm will throw them toward where Inaros is looking.
  Inaros CAN kill himself through this move.
  This is where we get to the lore. In lore, he used sandstorm to protect the whole planet from infestation until he died. So, I propose this as well.

This way Inaros can now contribute to his teammates much more then just 'not dying'. Sandstorm will still be less useful when you play solo, but it will grant a lot of protection and synergies if you play as a squad. Sandshadows will be excellent meat shields as well as a source of dmg when you're trying to revive. Undying, if used with precaution, will now be much more reliable as long as you use your abilites frequently.

I really like Inaros. He was the reason why I started Warframe in the first place.
And because he is such an easy frame to become super OP, I think pulling a bit of a trade-off based on his lore would make him much more fun and interesting then he is now. 
Fulfilling his fantasy/lore and fun at once.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Shaburanigud

[forkyeah]

A. No prime, I like to think of Inaros as one the first to rebel. 

B. More deluxe skins, themed helmets and matching syadanas instead of prime. The Ramses set is the standard. My expectations for the Ra set is sky high.

C. Inaros has the solo tank down, with the below abilities Inaros will transition into a real team tank with a small amount of control and healing.

Abilities:

Passive: Honestly just remove downed state from Inaros, or on death Inaros explodes into a more powerful version of his 4 ability              , or he turns back into an urn until revived or dies. Shouldn't be dying as Inaros anyways.

1. No changes. 

2. Ability becomes one handed and toggled. Inaros targets an enemy and pulls them to him and holds them up by the neck in front of him for 30 seconds (or until released). Scarabs drain the life out and replenishes scarab swarm (with no health cost) to Inaros each second (maybe 1%/2%/3%), the attack does a percentage damage each second so after 30 seconds the target will die unless their meatshielding causes them to die sooner. Inaros is still able to use secondary and melee (kind of awkwardly). Strong enemies will either resist or break free after a short time.

3. Ability becomes a toggled/drain ability. (x) amount of enemies in (x) radius are caught in Inaros' sandstorm, they do not see anything but Inaros and will attack only Inaros. Enemies have (x) increased fire rate and (x) negative reload speed. Enemies killed while under the taunt affect drop. 

4. The cast part of the ability can be cast while 2 is active has increased effect while holding an enemy. 

[Ham_Grenabe]

Sandstorm is thematic and visually neat, but I like the idea of a sand wave - sort of like Hydroid's ability - that engulfs and dessicates / strips armor. Or Inaros himself exploding into sand, covering and debuffing all enemies in the explosion radius, before reassembling at the second press. It could still be called Sandstorm; it's just not the tornado of sand. 

[-Kittens-]

Nah to any of that other than a scaling passive. All garbage or copypasta from another frame which is just another kind of garbage.

3 provides instant disruption and while you can make limited case for scaling since it already auto procs via augment, that's about it because a cone or vortex is just Nidus and Nidus is already Nidus.

2 provides holding power in +500 content, which you've never done obviously otherwise you wouldn't be making the statement you have

Also flat ass no to button smashing busy work. ramming 1141414141414141414141 on Saryn isn't content or "enhanced gameplay" it's rote repetition, and so is smashing 243243243 on Ember.

You want a frame where you just smash buttons over and over, go play Gauss, that's literally his mechanic motif, smash and never die.

I guess slight kudos for not making MAKE SARYN WITH A PENIS thread #454495894 but again Nidus and Gauss already exist and so does Grendel and these ideas are literally that. Nah.

 

Quote

(High tier where his tankiness ACTUALLY falls off 130+ enemies)

This tells me pretty clearly you may play him a lot but you haven't bothered to actually put time or effort in that play or your build or both, which definitely doesn't help your case at all.

 

Quote

sand shadows

This like every other copy frame outside of Nekros actually interrupts and slow down map progression and play-through, which is why it's a completely junk idea, and making the shadows armor sponges or bombs or power proc tic boxes is already done by other frames, in two cases more than one.

"make inaros into other frames" simply isn't worth considering.

[Razhius]

I love using Inaros. Been using a daikyu/nikana prime setup with the daikyu amalgam mod, all 3 umbra mods, along with adaptation and his skill 4 augment mod. Overkill healing and defence, I know lol... but it makes the arbitrations a cake walk. 

There are though, a few changes to his skills I would change. Mainly his 2 and 3. 

Skill 2 is redundant. As 1 does a better job and if you setup for a healing weapon setup like mine or hirudo or using heavy attack/life steal, or even with a 100% status/healing return build, You will mostly never use his 2 as it's slows your DPS to a crawl, when you can easily keep your hp at full just by non stop attacking. 

I'll be honest though, I have no idea what to replace in this slot. Unlike skill 3 where I have a great change idea for that.

Skill 3 - create a quicksand whirlpool around you that drags enemies down and towards the centre. (Size of circle affected by range,  but not too extreme). Once they reach the centre of the whirlpool they take slash damage as long as the whirlpool persists. ( slash damage, thematically as the sand shards are spinning around and slashing their bodies, or because theres 100s of scarabs at the centre feeding on their bodies). This would make great cc/dmg.