Ideas for a Vauban buff

[Yunjuwo]

TESLA NERVOS
The [Tesla Bank] augment is now part of the base ability.

• NEW AUGMENT: Tesla Nervos balls no longer attack enemies but now attach to Vauban and allies. Number of charges is halved but now each charge absorbs an instance of damage for the attached target. When charges expire, that Tesla Nervos ball discharges the ability's electric burst.
  • Only one Tesla Nervos can be attached to a target.
  • Recasting Tesla Nervos will not stack or refresh charges, but will remove the existing Tesla Nervos so that a new one can be attached.
  • Like the base ability, number of charges still scale with Duration.
  • Extra Tesla Nervos will either follow Vauban, or go on to attach themselves onto an ally that does not have a Tesla Nervos attached, if they are nearby.

MINELAYER
Duration increased from 25 seconds to 30 seconds.

• FLECHETTE ORB: The targeting radius of 10 meters can now scale with Range.
• VECTOR PAD: Along with the speed boost, enemies are also inflicted with a Radiation proc, while Vauban and allies gain a buff.
  • The buff can only be obtained while shields are below max.
  • The buff instantly recharges 25% of maximum shields(does not scale with Strength but can add into overshields), which is immediately followed by a constant recharge rate of 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 shields per second(scaling with Strength) if shields are still not full.
  • The buff expires immediately upon shields reaching either max or zero, but until then it has infinite Duration.

PHOTON STRIKE
Photon Strike's targeting beacon can now stick onto the first thing/target it touches. Photon Strike now lasts 3 / 3 / 3 / 3 seconds(scales with Duration) and fires once every second on the targeting beacon. Photon Strike gains a 50% chance to disarm enemies(scales with Strength). Only one cast of Photon Strike can be active at any time per Vauban.

BASTILLE/VORTEX
Bastille loses its armor buffing aspect. Vortex gains armor stripping equal to 5% per second(scales with Strength), and its Magnetic damage now has a status chance of 100%.

~~~

notes: I'm sure any Revenant and Protea fans can tell where I drew inspiration for some of these buffs. Adding the augment onto Tesla Nervos currently serves as both a buff and a fix since the rest of Vauban's kit already does what the base ability does, so I figured "it'll be better if the ability got an augment that actually augments it". Increasing Minelayer's Duration and having Flechette Orb scale with Range are just some optimization buffs I prefer to make it more streamlined in combo'ing with Bastille. Vector Pad... I know the community is split down the middle on whether to scrap or keep this... "ability" lol... so I figured a small buff could help finally bring peace; it should patch up Vauban just fine on its own, while also being a nice supplement in-between casts of the new Tesla Nervos augment. Photon Strike is Vauban's only ability that doesn't benefit from Duration unfortunately, but I didn't want to give it some crazy long Duration since then all of Vauban's abilities could easily last over a minute, making him a true "autopilot" frame which is too boring IMO(and also the reason why no one plays Octavia, despite how strong she is). So instead, I chose to give it a familiar 3-second firing Duration alongside a nice debuff that I hope makes sense(I mean just look at this and imagine trying to hold onto anything).

I opted to remove Bastille's armor buff since all the extra survivability toys I'm giving Vauban seemed much more effective, and also to justify buffing Vortex. I personally don't like the forced activation of Vortex after a Bastille's Duration expires since it negates Bastille's armor stripping. Giving Vortex a little bit of Bastille's armor strip while buffing it's Magnetic damage is my way of turning Vortex into a nice hybrid armor/shield stripper, while also buffing the ability's application against the Corpus.

 

 

 

Thoughts?

[Wyrmius_Prime]

9 minutes ago, Yunjuwo said:

VECTOR PAD: Along with the speed boost, enemies are also inflicted with a Radiation proc, while Vauban and allies gain a buff.

• The buff can only be obtained while shields are below max.
• The buff instantly recharges 25% of maximum shields(does not scale with Strength but can add into overshields), which is immediately followed by a constant recharge rate of 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 shields per second(scaling with Strength) if shields are still not full.
• The buff expires immediately upon shields reaching either max or zero, but until then it has infinite Duration.

 

I'm not a big fan of the defensive buff being slapped on Vector pad. The ability in its core is so incredibly annoying that I'd still want to skip using it.

The rest of the ideas seem nice.

[(PSN)MYKK678]

51 minutes ago, Yunjuwo said:

TESLA NERVOS
The [Tesla Bank] augment is now part of the base ability.

• NEW AUGMENT: Tesla Nervos balls no longer attack enemies but now attach to Vauban and allies. Number of charges is halved but now each charge absorbs an instance of damage for the attached target. When charges expire, that Tesla Nervos ball discharges the ability's electric burst.
  • Only one Tesla Nervos can be attached to a target.
  • Recasting Tesla Nervos will not stack or refresh charges, but will remove the existing Tesla Nervos so that a new one can be attached.
  • Like the base ability, number of charges still scale with Duration.
  • Extra Tesla Nervos will either follow Vauban, or go on to attach themselves onto an ally that does not have a Tesla Nervos attached, if they are nearby.

MINELAYER
Duration increased from 25 seconds to 30 seconds.

• FLECHETTE ORB: The targeting radius of 10 meters can now scale with Range.
• VECTOR PAD: Along with the speed boost, enemies are also inflicted with a Radiation proc, while Vauban and allies gain a buff.
  • The buff can only be obtained while shields are below max.
  • The buff instantly recharges 25% of maximum shields(does not scale with Strength but can add into overshields), which is immediately followed by a constant recharge rate of 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 shields per second(scaling with Strength) if shields are still not full.
  • The buff expires immediately upon shields reaching either max or zero, but until then it has infinite Duration.

PHOTON STRIKE
Photon Strike's targeting beacon can now stick onto the first thing/target it touches. Photon Strike now lasts 3 / 3 / 3 / 3 seconds(scales with Duration) and fires once every second on the targeting beacon. Photon Strike gains a 50% chance to disarm enemies(scales with Strength). Only one cast of Photon Strike can be active at any time per Vauban.

BASTILLE/VORTEX
Bastille loses its armor buffing aspect. Vortex gains armor stripping equal to 5% per second(scales with Strength), and its Magnetic damage now has a status chance of 100%.

~~~

notes: I'm sure any Revenant and Protea fans can tell where I drew inspiration for some of these buffs. Adding the augment onto Tesla Nervos currently serves as both a buff and a fix since the rest of Vauban's kit already does what the base ability does, so I figured "it'll be better if the ability got an augment that actually augments it". Increasing Minelayer's Duration and having Flechette Orb scale with Range are just some optimization buffs I prefer to make it more streamlined in combo'ing with Bastille. Vector Pad... I know the community is split down the middle on whether to scrap or keep this... "ability" lol... so I figured a small buff could help finally bring peace; it should patch up Vauban just fine on its own, while also being a nice supplement in-between casts of the new Tesla Nervos augment. Photon Strike is Vauban's only ability that doesn't benefit from Duration unfortunately, but I didn't want to give it some crazy long Duration since then all of Vauban's abilities could easily last over a minute, making him a true "autopilot" frame which is too boring IMO(and also the reason why no one plays Octavia, despite how strong she is). So instead, I chose to give it a familiar 3-second firing Duration alongside a nice debuff that I hope makes sense(I mean just look at this and imagine trying to hold onto anything).

I opted to remove Bastille's armor buff since all the extra survivability toys I'm giving Vauban seemed much more effective, and also to justify buffing Vortex. I personally don't like the forced activation of Vortex after a Bastille's Duration expires since it negates Bastille's armor stripping. Giving Vortex a little bit of Bastille's armor strip while buffing it's Magnetic damage is my way of turning Vortex into a nice hybrid armor/shield stripper, while also buffing the ability's application against the Corpus.

 

 

 

Thoughts?

My first thought would be that this isn't a buff, but a Rework instead. I don't Main Vauban but i do use him a lot, can't say i thought he needed another Rework though. His current powers work well and well together. I'm not sure people would be happy that a Vauban is randomly sticking Tesla Balls to their Frames too, though i can only speak for myself.

If you really wanted to Rework Tesla, personally i'd have gone down the route of having it interact with Photon Strike. Works as is rolling around hunting enemies, as its own power maybe slows or stuns enemies, but once attached to 4 enemies theres a Counter on the bottom-right of your screen (ala Saryn's Spore Counter), then trigger Photon Strike and it targets the areas around those 4 enemies.

Thats just off the top of my head though, and only if a Rework was needed. Which i don't think it is right now tbh.

A well thought-out Rework though to be fair, props for that.

[lukinu_u]

Better idea, don't buff Vauban because he don't need one.

[Yunjuwo]

44 minutes ago, (PS4)MYKK678 said:

I'm not sure people would be happy that a Vauban is randomly sticking Tesla Balls to their Frames too, though i can only speak for myself.

That's just me trying to bring back the meme from before his rework but having it be useful lol

[Lutesque]

No Tether Coil Buffs ? 😞

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

Literally all he needs is better scaling on his 3 and for vector pad to be replaced by something actually worth the time to use.

[OricSharp]

As a Vaub main, there are some things about this I like, and some...that I really don't think I'm into. Firstly, I don't really think Vaub needs a buff; I think he could use a streamlining - there's some clunkiness in his kit with Tesla charging, Minelayer swapping, Vector Pad existing in its current state and Photon Strike being terrible/not as good as Flechette Orb.

I like:
Tesla Bank as part of base Tesla Nervos ability - I actually suggested something similar before the rework was unveiled, and I still like to use Tesla Bank.
I guess I'm...okay? with Minelayer getting a five-second duration increase. It'd make mental math easier.
The Photon Strike suggestion is...better than the current iteration. Low bar; I'm not super interested in this version, either - it's still not as good as Flechette Orb.
Improving Vortex's proc chance seems fine to me. Gives it more of a specific use, a reason to use it over Bastille in more situations.

I don't like:
While it would be nice to have a more on-the-fly damage mitigation ability than Bastille's armor buff, I'm not really a fan of 'bringing back the meme.' I'd rather see an augment that plays to Tesla's damage and CC. Maybe a variation of Tesla Link, or 'echoing' damage dealt to a Tesla'd enemy to enemies near the original target and other Tesla'd enemies.
Trying to salvage Vector Pad by making it give buffs and procs is just not going to work. If it can be salvaged, it's not so direct or obvious as that. Maybe improvements to its synergy with the rest of the kit would help more, or treating it more like a Turbulence field/Volt Shield.
I really don't like the suggestion for Bastille/Vortex, as I do like and use the armor buff from Bastille. I also am unsure why it's being said that Vortex negates Bastille's armor stripping.