Mage-Based Frame Idea

[GladiatorDragon]

So, I know I'm late to the party, and I should have put this out about a week ago, but I have an idea for a frame based on fantasy mages.

Low health, high shield, low armor. 200 Max energy capacity.

Passive:

Scholar of the arcane: Ability 1 and 2 draw from a separate "mana" bar that refills over time. Base recharge rate at max level: 2/Second, and the max level capacity is 200. 

Mods affect the Mana bar in the following ways:

Capacity mods will increase the max amount of Mana.

Duration mods increase the energy recharge rate (None of the frame's abilities are affected by duration, so this is a substitute).

Range mods will increase the maximum range of the spells.

Efficiency mods and Power mods work how you'd expect.

Notable gimmick: Ability 1 and 2 can be changed based on a selection of options in loadout. You can select the attack type and damage type in these menus.

Damage types are limited to Heat, Cold, Electricity, and Toxic.

Ability 1: Mystic Projectile.

Four projectile types: Exploding sphere, shattered shards, piercing bolt, and short-range wave. These deal damage based on the type of projectile (shattered shards deals the most total damage, but primarily for single targets, while exploding sphere, short-range wave, and piercing bolt deal less, but with potential to hit more enemies). 

Cost: 25 Mana

Ability 2: Lingering Spell.

Four types of attack: Acid floor (not limited to toxic damage, deals low damage at a high rate to those who walk on it), elemental spike (Single hit, but can apply effects to enemies that get near it), raging flame (deals less overall damage than Acid floor, but does damage in a larger burst), and striking smite (somewhat damaging on initial hit, but leaves lingering damage).

Cost: 50 Mana.

Ability 3: Absorb Mana. 

Energy cost: 75.

This works similarly to how Mend/Maim works on Equinox, however, instead of healing or damage, it recovers mana based on the weapon damage you deal.

Ability 4: Arcane Rampage.

Energy/Mana cost: All/All

Consume all energy and mana in one massive attack. It increases in range depending on the energy consumed, and it increases in power depending on the mana consumed.

 

Is this probably an overall bad idea? Perhaps. This is why I'm posting it here.

[keikogi]

The core gameplay loop of converting weapon kill on AOE skills works well. The fact that this frame a energy source that can't be cheated with energy restores is a wise decision. 

So it is a fine addition to warframe, needs a bit of polishing but the core works well.

[GladiatorDragon]

On 2020-03-30 at 6:55 PM, keikogi said:

The core gameplay loop of converting weapon kill on AOE skills works well. The fact that this frame a energy source that can't be cheated with energy restores is a wise decision. 

So it is a fine addition to warframe, needs a bit of polishing but the core works well.

Thanks! My personal inspiration behind that system was how the fantasy mages that this was inspired by, of course, use spells as their main weapon. I wanted to sort of emulate that, but I didn't want to make it so that both weapons and energy are completely irrelevant, so I decided to award weapon damage with more uses of the main spells. 

[majorchord96]

This seems to be almost as modular as the concept of zawframe, a notorious topic. On top of that, the abilities often draw from a pool of rapidly regenerating not-energy (at worst, you're looking at 25 seconds between castings. But what caught my attention the most was that 3/4 of his abilities appear to be based around a strict "effect/damage" system, in which each ability was centered around a simple shape and the kind of damage.

But I do see lots of potential.
suggestions:
reduce his energy pool slightly, change his passive- he can now gain 100 overcharge, much like overshields. Abilities cast using excess energy gain extra ability strength.

-ability 1: mystic projectile (25 energy)
'Frame lobs an orb of arcane energy, dealing slight damage and a guranteed random status proc of fire, ice, toxic or lightning. At higher levels, this ability can be charged, removing elemental procs from Frame and adding them to the orb.

-ability 2: spirit rush (50 energy)
'Frame converts itself into pure energy, rushing forward in a line. Each enemy hit restores energy (5/10/15) and refreshes elemental conditions. Hitting allies with this ability removes their procs, storing them on 'Frame.

-ability 3: sorcerous sigil (75 energy)
'Frame sets an invisible sigil on the ground within n meters. Enemies that walk through the sigil will find themselves trapped inside a cylinder of magical light. Casting 1 at the cylindrical prison causes the mystic projectile to affect all enemies and dispell the sigil.

-ability 4: eldrich fury (50 energy, some degree of channeled drain)
'Frame saturates the air with violent energy, repeating and exasperating procs on nearby enemies. 'Frame is immobile for the duration.

this way, you can still make a show of having a varied elemental tool kit without combining the sum total of three different frames into one. This can also provide synergies between your own abilities and even your squadmates. Is it broken? Almost certainly. But what warframe doesn't start out a little broken?