My take on Hydroid rework

[(PSN)DidacoJack]

I've always criticized how bad is Hydroid in the current state of the game, but I've never really contributed with ideas to make him better. Not that anyone cares, but still, I'm gonna do that here.

The though process behind this rework is to generally try to reuse existing assets and mechanics, without really driving away from Hydroid original concept.

Ok, maybe some ideas I'm going to post are a little bit over the lines, but who cares, I like to dream.

I'm gonna preface that this rework idea does not contain means to turn Hydroid into a damage dealer Slash&Viral-procs-8-digits-damage-numbers everywhere, cause, as I said, it's sticks to its original concept of a CC frame. So if you're that type of player, you won't find anything pleasing here, I'm afraid.

I'll just report some stats of these abilities, in order to give the general idea of their use. All values at max rank.

 

Passive: All the status proc'd by Hydroid abilities have their duration 3 times increased. Melee slams have a 100% chance to spawn a tentacle (that will act as the 4 ability tentacles in this rework, of course).

 

First ability

Asphyxia: Hydroid shoots a water projectile, enveloping the head of the enemy hit in a bubble, making them unable to breathe.

This ability has two modes:

Tap button: shoots a projectile that has no punch through, no AoE capabilities. It's single target.

• 25 energy cost.
• Enemies hit are CC'd, they stand in place unable to attack until for X seconds (affected by power duration)
• The bubble encasing the enemies' head functions as a bullet attractor (like the void damage proc), it forms around the enemy head regardless of the part the projectile initially hit.
• The bubble has a 1m diameter, not affected by power range.

Hold down button to charge the shot, increasing the bullet size. Characteristics of the charged projectiles are as follows:

• They have a 2.5m diameter, affected by power range.
• They have 2m punch through.
• They obviously affect all targets hit with said CC properties.
• 1 sec charge time, if the charge is interrupted before it completes, the normal projectile will be shot. Affected by casting speed.
• Low duration, expiring after 20m.

Both the uncharged and the charged projectile have a 300% 500% chance to proc Impact and 300% 500% chance to proc Corrosive, affected by power strength. This means that each status is proc'd three five times in a single shot (granted power strength is at 100%).

Enemies killed during the duration of this ability do not die and are instead left with 1hp, in a kneeling position (like capture targets do when you kill them) for 5 seconds before eventually dying for good. It's still possible to hit them in order to proc status, to make it easier to build up Impact procs and use the Parazon on them. In terms of mission objectives, they count as dead.

Comments: the thought process was to provide a quick first ability in line with Hydroid's theme, with CC properties and some added goodies in order to not make it feel monotonous, while also providing a much more reliable way to make use of the Parazon (that's why enemies affected do not die immediately), since I've always found it difficult to get to use it because of the target either dying too fast or just bad RNG. This skill would be the subsumable one, to enable all frames to use the Parazon much reliably, as well as having a somewhat good CC ability. Enemies would kneel in order to disrupt line of sight as less as possible, along with other players' playstyle and patience.

 

Second ability

Tempest Form: Hydroid imbues his parkour skills with his favorite element, increasing their effectiveness.

This ability is basically my attempt to merge his current 2 and 3. While active, Hydroid gains an ephemera-like water effect. Ideally, these effect wold be slightly more visible than what most ephemeras are, but are not as invasive as, per say, Ivara's Prowl. We want our fashion frame to stick out, and that deluxe coat isn't gonna flex in front of our non-pirate-plebs-teammates on its own.

• Toggle ability, 50 cast cost with a 2 energy/s once active.
• While active, gain a 75% Damage reduction (applied to shields too).

BJs (Bullet Jumps obviously, what did you expect?) will have the following effect 

• Bullet jumping through enemies has 300% chance to proc both Impact and Corrosive and will replenish 80 shield point per enemy hit (affected by power strength). The typical AoE explosion at the start of the BJ (teehehe) shares the same effects. Can build overshields.
• Bullet jumping will gain the same animation as his current 2.
• Bullet jumping through enemies doesn't ragdoll them.

Roll dodging will have the following effects:

• Roll dodging through enemies will replenish 40 shield points (affected by power strenght) and will knock them down, thus opening them up for ground finishers. Can build overshields.
• Roll dodging will have some other fancy animation. I mean, you don't wanna hear the squirt sound that many times.

Other effects:

• +6 seconds Glide time (can stack with mods), -50% gravity while gliding (also stacking up to 100%, obviously).
• Hydroid can perform an addition jump/BJ after the double jump/BJ. So basically: Jump > Double Jump/BJ > Triple Jump/second BJ. Or 2 consecutive BJs and a Triple Jump after.

Sliding for 1.25 secs will turn Hydroid in the puddle we all know. Characteristics as follows:

• Movement is increased to be as fast as jogging (you can't sprint).
• Puddle dimensions are current ones.
• Bullet jumping while in this form allows Puddledroid to move faster, just like we can currently do in the game by using his 2 but in shorter bursts of speed. The idea is to have the same travel distance of a BJ.
• Moving doesn't consume energy. It's already ticking down because Tempest Form is active.
• You can grab enemy with Fire Button, like we can currently do.
• Allies can't shoot the puddle to hurt trapped enemies, they can see them and shoot them directly.
• Enemies trapped do not disappear for no human eye to see, they'll instead lie on the ground, wriggling hopelessly (like capture targets used to do when killed, before I don't know which update). [Or maybe it'd be better for them to float with their upper part visible while the lower is in the void, but I have no idea how hard it would be on DE to make this].
• Upon leaving puddle form (by either performing a normal jump or deactivating Tempest Form) all enemies captured are attracted at a point on the ground 3m in front of Hydroid. The ideal attraction speed is the Vauban's Vortex one. The are kept attracted for half a second, in order to prevent them to ragdoll into the void. All enemies will also suffer an Impact proc.
• Puddledroid is NOT invincible, but he obviously has the DR from Tempest Form.
• Puddledroid hitbox is situated at the center of the puddle. Enemies know that and will attack there.
• 8 captured enemies max. Any other enemy hit by the puddle while at max capacity will be knocked down and suffer Impact procs.

Comments: As I said, an attempt to merge his current 2 and 3 in a way that, as far as I remember, no other frame does... By imbuing the typical parkour moves we have with added effects. Added some aerial capabilities in order to make it feel more like both tsunami and storm (next skill will enhance the storm feeling). 75% DR and not 90% because, frankly, the latter is bonkers, plus at that energy cost... Taken away Puddledroid's invincibility to avoid promoting bad habits like AFK leeching/farming etc. and easy cheesing of enemy damaging mechanics.

Ideally puddle form would be like Nidus' Larva or Vauban's Vortex, but the catch is that YOU are the attracting factor and are supposed to be hunting for your preys. I used the bold in some parts to emphasize the importance that imho these QoL tools would have: that way you don't have to turn around to look for the enemies you just caught, they're just in front of you, ready to be hit by your melee weapon, or to be "bullet jumped" through to gain Shields back, or for a easier way to hit them all with a charged 1... You name it.

The double BJ capability is there to emulate the current distance travel with Hydroid's 2, that now also has a vertical component. 

Impact procs are recurrent, to make the ability synergize better with his first ability gimmick.

 

Third ability

Rain Gatling: Hydroid calls forth his element to rain violently down on his hapless foes.

This is where his current first skill is, with the added "gatling" part which is basically a wet dream of mine. Two cast modes.

Hold button to basically sort the same effect we currently have, but each hit has a 100% 200% chance Impact proc, 100% 200% chance of Puncture proc and 200% 300% chance of Corrosive proc (affected by power strength).

Unrealizable part:

Tap button to activate Gatling mode, a huge,violent torrent with the following characteristics:

• Toggle ability.
• Fire rate of 30, affected by ability strength.
• 3,5m diameter not affected by range.
• 1,5m punch through.
• 50% status chance (affected by Power Strength), damage equally shared among Impact, Puncture and Corrosive.
• DPS is meant to be somewhat lower than Wisp ultimate.
• 10 energy cast cost; 2 energy/sec.
• Hydroid can jump, glide and slide during the animation.
• Shooting your weapon and using melee interrupts the ability.

Comments: the rain part of the skill doesn't require to much explanation. It's basically his current 1+Augment with added procs. The idea is to use the skill as a form of armor stripping and Condition Overload primer, and that's why puncture got added in the mix: all three status are not meta (Corrosive is good, but not that good) and are not something players usually mod their loadouts for, thus providing a way to add more damage with melee.

The feeling of the gatling part must be the one we experience when switching from melee to fast fire: snappy and fluid. The skill is meant to be more akin to a status firearm in the way it merges with the gameplay, so casting animation is faster than Wisp's 4.

I was leaning toward putting Magnetic instead of Puncture in order to make it effective against shielded enemies, to make it an overall defense stripper. But I don't know how it would feel, thematically speaking.

Damage is low because we all know that Warframe abilities either have to be stupidly OP in terms of damage or they are neglected, that's why I chose to go for a utility flavour.

I even made a quick sketch to help you visualize what it should look like (it's exactly as you're thinking: today I had nothing to do)

Spoiler

 

Fourth ability

Kraken: what's there to say? Hydroid summons his Kraken.

It's basically the same as the one we have now, but instead of flinging captured enemies about, once a tentacle captures an enemy it curls down to terrain level and it sits still, allowing you to take the kill. Who's a good boi?

Unrealizable reload button next to the Kraken to mount it (like we've seen at tennolive with the infested dragonfly):

• The kraken moves at 2.0 Warframe sprint speed
• You can shoot while mounting, just like DE showed us at tennocon
• You can tap crouch to make the Kraken spin and, if there are free tentacles, capture the enemy hit. If there are no free tentacles, the enemy is ragdolled.
• Mounting the kraken stops the remaining duration of the skill and resumes when Hydroid dismounts. 5energy/s cost when mounted.
• Pleb non-pirate teammates can't mount the kraken. Noobs.

Comments: not much to say, pretty much just added a long time needed QoL.

The mounting part is just a dream that'll never happen. Like this whole rework, after all.

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Well, if you managed to make it here, congratulations and thank you for the patience. Hopefully my poor english and formatting skills didn't drive you crazy.

 

Edit: corrections. I'll surely get back to it multiple times for the same reason, lol. Added info that I forgot to put, and changed some others.

Increased some % proc chances to not penalize too much not investing in power strength. Specified that DR from Tempest form applies to shields too (unlike Nova's DR).

[killerJoke66]

As a somewhat hydroid fan i must say thi is very very good , it not only makes it more engaging to play but giving the tools for high level play coupled with the capture animation thingy for using parazons and for enemies to not float like deflating baloons , i really really like it although im not so positive on DE taking this as in consideration but we all can hope  .. 

To be fair i would just take anything rather than his current kit honestly , im okay with him being a cc focused/utility frame but atm his cc is very lucklaster and rng based unless you go min range and thats a bad design in my opinion .

Last reworks that DE made like vauban or ember was really promising for the future reworks , i hope they follow the similar path for our void pirate .

[AzulMage]

As a current Hydroid main... I love this. I like the fact that he is a CC frame and this keeps that spirit. On top of that it actually makes his CC REALIABLE at doing its job which is my biggest complaint with his current kit. My other complaint with his current kit is not just that it lacks damage but that it does not allow you to deal more damage with your weapons (that kraken sure loves making it so you cannot aim) and this addresses that perfectly. The abilities you chose are not so much about direct damage but allowing Hydroid and teammates to be able to do more damage. Good stuff. A pipe dream but good nonetheless. Might actually be my favorite rework concept for Hydroid I have seen ina while.

Also, nice drawing. 

[(PSN)Ozymandias-13-]

I generally like this. Mobility and utility with some scaling potential.

On 2020-08-03 at 6:08 PM, (PS4)DidacoJack said:

Fourth ability

Kraken: what's there to say? Hydroid summons his Kraken.

Does this change make it no longer deal damage on grab or over time?

[(PSN)DidacoJack]

Omg, there's actually people in here!

32 minutes ago, (PS4)Ozymandias-13- said:

I generally like this. Mobility and utility with some scaling potential.

Does this change make it no longer deal damage on grab or over time?

No, that remains unchanged from current version.

Basically the only change is that tentacles now keep the target still. I wouldn't dare to change anything else from what we currently have for this ability, since it's the only one that gives Hydroid a little bit of usage thanks to Pilfering Swarm... That has to remain unchanged.

[(PSN)Ozymandias-13-]

4 minutes ago, (PS4)DidacoJack said:

Omg, there's actually people in here!

Hydroid is one of my top 5 most used frames, so where he goes I'm there. lol

5 minutes ago, (PS4)DidacoJack said:

No, that remains unchanged from current version.

Basically the only change is that tentacles now keep the target still. I wouldn't dare to change anything else from what we currently have for this ability, since it's the only one that gives Hydroid a little bit of usage thanks to Pilfering Swarm... That has to remain unchanged.

That's great. The biggest complaint with the ability was that it's always too erratic to be able to hit your targets once they're grabbed. I suggested being able to shoot the kraken head to be able to spread the absorbed damage to all grabbed targets (like similar abilities - Tornado, Undertow and Strangledome w/ Whipclaw). Having them just hold still is also good.

[AzulMage]

Hopefully DE sees all the recent Hydroid posts and takes it to heart that his current state is not okay for the current game. I do wish they implemented something like having the players decide which frame they use during streams. They never use Hydroid during them and I think if they did for high level content, they would have to really see what we mean by it and other frames just not being up to par.