The Zenistar is not a combo weapon but the disc change implies it is

[Zahnny]

I've been a fan of the Zenistar since it was introduced, and honestly I wish we had more unique weapons or abilities like it. With the Melee changes, my biggest concern was that it was going to have its range be severely reduced, luckily that wasn't the case but the Zenistar was still subject to a change. Before it had a duration of 45s by default that was unchangable by mods or other factors. After the change it is affected by the combo count. By default it only lasts 10 seconds, including the time it takes to deploy before it properly activates. This was also a problem the original suffered with but with 45s it wasn't a huge concern. At max combo it's about 120 seconds I believe.

Upon first learning of the change I had a reaction of "Look how they massacred my boy" unaware that it was affected by combo count.

It's been a while since then and I'm more accepting of the change but I do think it is hugely flawed. I understand DE's intention to prevent it being an AFK farming tool and change how the weapon is used but I feel if this was the case the weapon deserved a few more tweaks besides just the inclusion of combo counter. I also dislike how with the way the Combo Duration works in Warframe, you have to be constantly using the blade which prevents you from laying down a trap and switching to your secondary or primary. That was one of the biggest appeals of the old Zenistar. I have a few solutions and tweaks the weapon could use.

1. The most lazy, and my least favourite is to simply allow the Disc to build up combo hitting enemies inside it. While this would see it much wider used and more casual friendly I think such a simple change is unfitting.

2. Give the Zenistar some more innate passives regarding combo counter, such as the Naramon passive where you lose combo in stacks, rather than fully. Give it an innate Combo Duration of say 20 seconds that can have others included or Zenurik's Combo Efficiency (Combo Efficiency does exist as mods but that only brings you to 40% without the 60% given by Zenurik's passive, which hardcaps at 90% anyway)

2.5 similarly to above, the Zenistar uses its Combo stacks both releasing the disc, and recalling the disc. A quality of life change to any of these ideas would be that recalling the Disc doesn't consume combo stacks.

3. Similar to 2.5, perhaps recalling the Disc would give you Combo based on different things, such as how long did the Disc still have left? How much damage did it cause while out? What was the Combo when you released it? Instead of giving you combo slowly while the weapon is out, you are given it all at once which would enable you to use it without feeling the need to use melee all the time to keep your combo up.

4. Introduce a Status-based Universal melee mod version of Hunter Munitions. As you probably already know, Hunter Munitions has a chance of causing a slash proc when dealing crits to enemies. As the Zenistar is a primarily status based weapon, this would work wonders on the Zenistar, and pairing it with another melee Mod.

Relentless Combination as seen here gives Combo count when a slash proc causes bleed damage. If this was paired with a status version of Hunter Munitions for melee, the synergy would be amazing, allowing the disc itself to build up large amounts of Combo by its status causing slash procs. This is similar to 1. except it requires a bit more effort put into the build for potentially better results.

 

I'd like to hear if there are any other suggested changes the Zenistar could be given.

Spoiler

Fun Fact: The Tennogen Heavy Blade Mithra skin was originally intended for the Zenistar to use, and replace its disc with the one shown on that weapon.

 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Zahnny

[RAZORLIGHT]

tbh. they killed the zenistar with their disc change completely.

[ChaoticEdge]

4 minutes ago, RAZORLIGHT said:

tbh. they killed the zenistar with their disc change completely.

this one I totally agreed.  It is just sad really to see a good weapon is thrown into the trash bin because the dev think it is necessary to nerf much you can then again this is all created out the mad house so basically trying rebalance the game that means they should also rebalance their the enemies again to make it fair and equal again.

[Brynslustafir]

11 minutes ago, RAZORLIGHT said:

tbh. they killed the zenistar with their disc change completely.

Yeah, It's pretty much worthless compared to the other Heavies now. 

[(PSN)ForNoPurpose]

Its damage is basically broken.. doesnt hit all enemies in range either.

[Voltage]

The only way to recover Zenistar is return it to the state it used to be in before the melee update. There's no way to make it "more engaging" and still useful because the moment you are required to upkeep that disc, you will just say "nah I will go use Bramma/Mutalist Cernos/insert way better AoE here".

[SayikVindal]

...and if they haven't done it by now, I think it is likely they never will. This change caused me to quit the game, haven't been back since. Very disappointing.