Alternative to Helminth Nerfs

[Vinnile]

[I originally posted the topic in General Discussion, thinking it may not count as feedback if it's not in the current build of the game yet. I have been convinced to take that risk anyway, as I'd like my ideas to potentially be seen and have a positive impact.]
So, Subsuming was nerfed before it ever arrived. Ouch. I won't add to the storm of complaints about it right now, I figure there's enough of that, so instead I've decided to try and offer something constructive: I've come up with a list of tweaks and buffs to the base abilities on offer, using the chart from the workshop. I think buffing the less favored abilities beats ruining the point of using the good ones.
Original Dev notes will be in [brackets,] my thoughts are in plain text. Some tweaks might be better to outright give to the base frame too, but that aspect is a bit more complex.
I doubt it'll get noticed, but I figured it was something to put out there, maybe give someone at DE some ideas, or just give the forum something cool to think on and discuss for the time being. I'll revise the chart if someone has a really good idea or change that others seem to take to.
 

WARFRAME	ABILITY	AUGMENT	NOTES
Ash	Shuriken	Seeking Shuriken	This one seems pretty alright as-is, at least in my book.
Atlas	Petrify	Ore Gaze	[We will not create Rubble.] Maybe let it health and/or energy orbs instead of rubble? Perhaps a 30-50% chance for one or the other upon killing a petrified enemy.
Banshee	Silence	Savage Silence	Silence as it is now isn't the best, coming from an era where stealth was considered part of the game. Savage silence improves it a bit, but without the ability to open enemies to finishers or run around invisible to easily perform stealth finishers, I don't see this having much utility. Maybe if it were a toggle that made you and allies within a set range silent, and/or extended your wall grab as to also be able to stay out of sight while shooting, it would become tactically viable?
Baruuk	Lull	Endless Lullaby	Now this one has potential, as it opens enemies up to finishers while providing some CC. Since there's no restraint, maybe offering a small 2% ability strength boost based on enemies effected or finishers done would spice things up?
Chroma	Elemental Ward	Everlasting Ward	Surprised this one wasn't nerfed. Should be fine as is, then.
Ember	Fire Blast	Healing Flame	Healing flame is an alright augment, though to some frames the amount healed is rather weak, could be fixed by making the healing done a percentage. Though will the ability have the armor stripping capability of the max heat level on Ember, or the minimum heat level? Or in the middle? That factor will play a serious role in how strong this choice is. Letting us maybe hold it to charge up could work.
Equinox	Rest & Rage	Calm & Frenzy	[We will use Rest or Rage depending on your Energy Colour. ] This one is alright, I think.
Excalibur	Radial Blind	Radiant Finish	Also an excellent ability, though I'd love to see it get some extra little benefit when used with exalted weapons on specific frames.
Frost	Ice Wave	Ice Wave Impede	This ability even on Frost isn't very good. If the augment just became innate and we received a new augment to replace it, we'd be approaching true viability. Even making it a radius instead of just a few lines in front of the user, or a very wide cone, we'd be onto something. If cold statuses were adjusted to make armor viable to impact damage or something (as if metal were more brittle,) it would help Frost and Cold damage altogether.
Gara	Spectrorage	Spectrosiphon	Not a fan of this one, even on Gara. However, if it had more luring power, or did a sort of Nyx's Absorb thing of collecting and releasing damage in a blast, it could become quite the useful tool. Or even include the damage also turning enemies to glass for a time. Enemies effected limited by the number of spinning mirrors.
Garuda	Blood Altar	n/a	This one should be pretty great, no changes needed.
Gauss	Thermal Sunder	n/a	It's okay. This too could be improved if cold got tweaked, or blast got improved in some way as well. 50 energy is also a bit much for this ability, though I guess with most people using Zenurik now, that's hardly an issue.
Grendel	Nourish	n/a	[Keeps the heal and give Nourish Strike only. ] Not super into Grendel, though for this ability on other frames, I had the idea that maybe it could come with a small duration where melee damage you do is given extra lifesteal?
Harrow	Condemn	Tribunal	A fairly approachable support/CC ability. All I ask for this one is that it allows all frames to have a thurible matching their own colors, even if they're using Harrow's Idle animations.
Hildryn	Pillage	Blazing Pillage	[Drains 50 Energy instead of 50 Shield. ] Reliable support skill plus armor/shield stripping? Probably perfect the way it is, but I wonder how Blazing pillage would even work on other frames. Maybe anyone effected by another ongoing ability? Or just in range of Pillage?
Hydroid	Tempest Barrage	Corroding Barrage	A flat buff to this one would be just fine, the damage/effect radius, or even making this one's augment innate as well. It also lacks Hydroid's Undertow synergy, so that also reduces its subsume usefulness.
Inaros	Desiccation	Desiccation’s Curse	This one's not bad. Blindness and finishers are reliable, but in the grand scheme this is a low cost, conical radial blind with a little health return. The coolest gimmick is from his augment, but I don't see many frames justifying a whole mod slot just for it. A flat buff would help, or just make more of its aspects effected by mods, like the lifesteal. Making the health recovery go rom 25% DoT returned as health to 50% could be a nice change, given it does so very little damage in the first place.
Ivara	Quiver	Empowered Quiver	[Tap Cloak, Hold Noise. Augment only affects Cloak and Dashwire.] Cool idea, but I only see people using cloak on this one. Noise needs to either be replaced or just given some use. Could tie into a rework for Banshee's ability, maybe give Sound a unique status type? Glass and Petrification are basically their own statuses, wouldn't be far fetched to have sound playing a role. Reducing enemy accuracy, perhaps, and causing disorientation?
Khora	Ensnare	n/a	For this one, maybe force the enemy(s) effected to become your companion's target and do more damage to them, much like Venari normally would? Plus, since it can't be refreshed, without Whipclaw, apply some damage vulnerability to the enemies?
Limbo	Banish	Rift Haven	[Base Ability Change: Add ‘Cancel ability on Hold’ to let enemies out of Rift.] Could knock the energy given to applies up just a tiny bit, from 2 a second to 3. Or maybe boost allies' shield regen while in the void? Something to sweeten the deal with this one. Could make it so that more enemies being stuck in the void provides more energy regen to the user? Hard to imagine with this one, Limbo's got a very synergy-centric kit.
Loki	Decoy	Savior Decoy	Just... why? I used to be a Loki main, starting waaaaay back when I first played the game, he was my starter frame. He has 2 good abilities, Invisibility and Radial Disarm. Decoy is something that is done better by plenty of other frames. Nyx has Chaos, Mirage has Hall of Mirrors, Octavia and Resonator, and Titania has her Lanterns. Maybe just forget about this one and give Loki a whole rework, yeah? I'd start a thread on that idea if I thought anyone cared about poor Loki.
Mag	Pull	Greedy Pull	Alright, first off make that augment innate. The ability sucks bad, granted, it's an antique. But it needs more than that. If one handed abilities could be cast while on K-drives, that could be fun for humor. Maybe if Pull could yank armor off enemies, shrapnel style, and even let Mag or the caster pick it up temporarily? Or Mag could just use it like she does for Crush. Maybe the user could cast it at the ground or an enemy while airborne, and yank themselves to the ground to do an enhanced melee slam? That trick would work for Rip Cord on Valkyr, too.
Mesa	Shooting Gallery	Muzzle Flash	Sorta okay, but the randomness of it swapping from person to person makes it unreliable. Augment suffers from it too, within reason. Perhaps if there were 2 buffs, a small one given to everyone in affinity range, while the major buff does the random hopping? I could see that adding some value.
Mirage	Eclipse	Total Eclipse	[Diminished Damage increase and cap Damage Reduction .] Just leaving it as is would have been fine. Offering a way to better control which buff is received might be good, but that's something of a more nuanced problem with the ability, and maybe even with lighting itself.
Nekros	Terrify	Creeping Terrify	Also an ability that just needs a rework. Hell, most of Nekros's kit needs work. As for Terrify specifically, the armor reduction is nice, but it's weak, and harder to take advantage of with all your enemies fleeing. Maybe if the user got some kind of buff as well, like damage to the enemy's back? Or make it sort of a toggle-able aura, making enemies flee within a certain range, after a couple seconds' influence. I imagine an effect similar to Lull, where you see it build up from their feet upward, hitting full and triggering the status.
Nezha	Fire Walker	Pyroclastic Flow	Has potential. Again, for this one a flat damage buff couldn't hurt, though fire is sort of nice now. Maaaaybe include an armor reduction? Or just the ability to inflict the status multiple times, or speed up the tick rate.
Nidus	Larva	Larva Burst	[Radius reduced ] Just leave this one alone, playtest it around. That statement might be applicable to plenty of these honestly, just try some fixes and test them a while.
Nova	Null Star	Neutron Star	I really like this one, Although I wish there was an augment that keeps the stars from flying off when you don't want them to. Making it re-castable would fix that.
Nyx	Mind Control	Mind Freak	I don't see why people hate this one so much, though I suppose it's always paled in contrast to other abilities. Maybe let people control up to 3 enemies instead of 1? Perhaps let the controlled enemy inflect Nyx's Chaos effect as a type of status.
Oberon	Smite	Smite Infusion	This one will be beloved by Eidolon Hunters. If the orbs that flew out of enemies could cause chain reactions of them among enemies, that might help. Though that could get a little crazy. Would demand further testing. Another possible solution would be having enemies who die under the influence of smite potentially drop orbs more, much as Reckoning does.
Octavia	Resonator	Conductor	Needs something to fill the void left by Octavia's natural Synergy. Potentially related to power strength?
Protea	Dispensary	n/a	[Duration reduced.] Again, just leave it alone. It was, and still sorta is, viable on just about any frame with a weak link in its kit.
Revenant	Reave	Blinding Reave	Without the Synergy involved with Revenant's thralls, this ability is really lacking. Plus it's not helpful at all to Frames without Shields. Maybe if it could return energy or Health, either in addition to or instead of Shields, it would be more useful.
Rhino	Roar	Piercing Roar	[Diminished Damage increase ] Ah, Roar. The nerf people are most upset over, not that I blame them. I might personally find the ability boring, but nerfing it may have been too blunt a solution. It should be the example of a desirable ability, methinks. If the damage nerf must stay, maybe just buff the duration? Or add in a boost to status chance/duration? Or toss in a boost to the effected's armor, just something more to give it some personality. If a nerf is absolutely needed, maybe add a type of cooldown that causes diminishing returns if cast with too short a gap in between.
Saryn	Molt	Regen Molt	This one intrigues me. Especially with the regenerative angle. Make the regen effected by strength and/or duration mods, and we could be looking at a promising get out of death free card. Could have the regen boosted by damage enemies do to the molted decoy, perhaps?
Titania	Spellbind	Spellbound Harvest	This one is alright. Range could use a little tap upward, maybe. But otherwise, alright.
Trinity	Well Of Life	Pool of Life	[Base Ability Buffed - Now does small amount of heal over time over a large range. If you hit the enemy, a % of the damage dealt gets converted into AoE heal. ] I like what they've done with this one, though it might be stealing some of Garuda's thunder. Not sure how to differentiate them, maybe they don't need to be different.
Valkyr	Warcry	Eternal War	[Attack speed increase reduced] Bit of a Loki Problem with this one. The whole frame really needs going over, and Warcry exemplifies this. As a melee user, it sucks to see this one take a hit. I say leave it as is, possible include a similar solution to Roar's above? And hopefully get around to reworking the whole frame. Valkyr's still loved, she's just in a rough place, right next to Nyx.
Vauban	Tesla Nervos	Tesla Bank	Eh, I could take it or leave it. Making the augment innate here would work, or offering some debuff on targets, aside from the obvious CC.
Volt	Shock	Shock Trooper	I heard a lot of people being interested in this one for the augment. Could make it alright, though I personally never really get behind one handed single target abilities, even if this one can chain. Also lacking in Volt's synergy takes away some of its potential (Yeah, you've been reading mention of synergy a lot, it's a running thing I'm concerned about with a lot of very synergized frames.)
Wisp	Breach Surge	n/a	A perfectly viable ability, even without the helpful ability synergies. I say just increase the change of Surge Sparks on hit, maybe to 50% at most, and call it a day? That and/or adjusting the radiation proc chance, to give it some CC.
Wukong	Defy	n/a	[Armor capped.] I get why this nerf happened too, but it's an armor boost with a set duration before it vanishes. Maybe make it decay, or just decay with damage, but not fully cap it? Honestly, it depends on where the cap is. If it's like rubble, it's too low capped to be of much use at higher tier content. Some use, but not a lot. If such caps were raised in relation to your armor value, maybe then it'd at least be possible to mod it to a higher tier.
Xaku	Xata’s Whisper	n/a	No idea yet.
Zephyr	Airburst	n/a	Base Ability Buffed - now has a HOLD or TAP functionality. HOLD to receive original functionality. TAP to suck enemies in a wind Vortex.  Needs to be buffed a bit further, so enemies ragdoll and land essentially at your feet, instead of just falling over in your direction. Like how pull can be, I suppose.