Heart of Deimos: Xaku Feedback Megathread

[Aeon94]

 

[Endorphinz]

I have several issues with Xaku's overall ability structure, and a suggestion for how I personally think it should be handled. This is some serious feedback coming from me.

Xaku's 1 and 4 ability are fine and can be left how they are. Here's how I believe the other abilities should be adjusted.

The Lost: Accuse and Gaze should simply be merged into a singular effect. Control enemies while also reducing their defenses within the radius, or somehow have controlled enemies inflict reduced defenses on other enemies. Combine the crowd control with defense strip.

The Lost: Deny should be merged into Lohk's grasp, since both abilities are intertwined anyways: Pressing the key will steal weapons, but holding the key will cast the big laser. With these changes, Xaku would become much simpler to play, while retaining all of their current functionality.

My reasoning for this is because I value simplicity in gameplay, so I'm already heavily biased against frames with "switch" type abilities. You have Vauban's minelayer, Titania's tribute, and Ivara's quiver, forgive me if I missed any. Though all warframes are standardized with 4 abilities, those few warframes are equipped with 7-8 separate abilities. However, with those previous Warframes, their switchable abilities all follow a hard theme that makes them much easier to keep track of in combat. Vauban's abilities in question are all just little gadgets he throws on the ground. Ivara's quiver is a selection of utility arrows that you fire out at a location. Titania's tributes are all buffs you steal from enemies.

Xaku's The Lost, however, is just a random selection of abilities without any clear theme. It causes me to trip over myself in a heated situation at times while I try to remember which ability to use, because Xaku is equipped with what seems like 7 unique abilities. Rather than 4 unique abilities, one of which has several similar but separate iterations, as is the case with the other Warframes mentioned.

I do hope this feedback can help create a better Xaku.

[AvatarShine]

too long farm lich 2-3h, must limit to 45 minutes

Kill mobs stage on small circle, bounties, can be very long during counting what mob a killed in statistic

[quxier]

 

[(XBOX)CaligulaTwily]

Xaku is pretty good for now, but I don't like the ability wheel, scrolling through the abilities and remembering what they do. The names are a lil confusing to me, Gaze makes me think of lasers, Deny makes me think of locking down movement and removing protections. 

Maybe combine Deny with Grasp of Lohk, tap for laser, hold to grasp weapons. 

And also change Gaze and Accuse to tap/hold for their selection. 

That way I wouldn't have to remember names/icons/effects and spend time scrolling through the wheel. I just really don't like the ability wheel 

[(PSN)Vexx757]

Some suggestions for Xaku

 

·       Increase the casting speed of all abilities.

 

1st ability:

·       When activated, make the affect look like something related to the void instead of it looking infested like Nidus` 3rd ability on (it seems very lazy visual design to me)

·       Void changes

·       It can increase crit damage by 0.1

·       It can increase status duration by 1 sec, and 10 stacks it can increase it to 10 secs.

Void improvements:

·       It will increase the crit damage on weapons by 0.1, at 10 procs it will increase up to 1.0.

·       It will increase the status duration on weapons by 1 sec, 10 procs will increase it to 10 secs.

 

2nd ability:

Note: I think deny and grasp of lohk should swap place due to the fact that the laser as a hols while targeting a enemy is very clunky but gol having a hold is not an issue plus the amount of energy it takes just for a weak laser is not worth the energy coz of you have to spam it, a ability where you have to target an enemy by holding the button is very clunky, so now deny is the 2nd and gol is a part of the 3rd ability.

·       Give it the combo multi, the more you use it the more damage it does, the less energy it takes.

·       Range can increase the width of the beam.

·       Fix: there is an issue with it targeting enemies due to it not hitting the radical.

 

3rd ability:

·       Accuse

-        Enemies will explode dealing void damage when pressing the ability again or when the duration runs out.

 

·       Gaze

-        When cast on an enemy, it can still move and enemies that end up within the radius will have their defences striped. Enemies are still affected even when they leave the circle. 

-        Enemies affected have an indicator above their head if/when they leave the circle`s radius.

 

·       Gol

-        Make the guns visually be above its heads instead of to the left.

 

4th ability:

·       Increase the damage to 2,500.

·       (Synergy) if the 1st ability is active while cast, it will do more damage.

[SpiderMonkeylord]

Hello!

I don't personally have any major problems with Xaku's kit, and I am really, really into Xaku's design. Very, very cool silhouette and honestly their design in general, from being nb to being put together from multiple Warframes is so awesome.

That said, I am really disappointed that, since The Vast Untime is incentivized to be on pretty much all the time during a mission, all I look like essentially the entire time I'm playing is a *very* silly monochromatic skeleton. None of my cosmetic choices are visible, any cosmetic armor I have equipped disappears along with Xaku's skin, and Xaku's fantastic silhouette is completely ruined. At least other Warframes whose visual design is disrupted during a mission, like Rhino or the invisible frames, still retain their silhouette. Nidus is an exception, but firstly, his "open" silhouette actually looks pretty decent instead of looking like a little spooky skeleton, and secondly, you can actually customize his look with his alternate look in mind. The same goes for Chroma, mostly, but luckily with Chroma, the power that makes him look bad is also a bad power, and can be completely avoided.

The only option I have *at all* to work around this is to not use The Vast Untime, but their kit doesn't allow for that, durations are too short and finicky without that power. So unfortunately, with quite a bit of disappointment, I'm not going to be using them. I don't care how well powers work, if I can't enjoy looking at what's on screen.

I know this feedback isn't very workable, and if anyone reads it, I'm sorry about that. I just hope future Warframes are spared from the fate of being *really* cool but visually ruined during gameplay.

[CoconutFella]

Would it be a possibly beneficial change to turn Deny into a sort of "void wall"? Preventing enemies from leaving the area while also attracting nearby enemies to enter it (not in a radial pull, but more like a subtle guide similar to Ivara's Noise arrow)?

And the laser beam could either be hold to cast on 1 or 2

[quxier]

5 hours ago, CoconutFella said:

Would it be a possibly beneficial change to turn Deny into a sort of "void wall"? Preventing enemies from leaving the area while also attracting nearby enemies to enter it (not in a radial pull, but more like a subtle guide similar to Ivara's Noise arrow)?

So like Gara's Spectrorage?
You said "void walls". What if... we can turn "stupid AI" against it. Let's made a maze. You are making path of "void walls" like Nezha's firewalker but instead of fire you are creating 2 walls - one on the right and one on the left. Players can shoot through walls but enemies cannot. You cannot block exits (e.g. walk touching or going through another "void wall" in X meters).
Like tower defense, but you are building a map.

[(PSN)Grand_Sheba]

This is after 7 formas and use since console release.

^{"Neither he nor she, Xaku is a composite... a Warframe assembly made of others lost in the early Entrati Void expeditions.}Xaku has mastered this power of the Void to terrify and bewilder their adversaries.

^{Forged from the remnants of lost Warframes, they channel the spirits of the Void. This is Xaku, the fragmented, the restored.}

^{In the concert of mayhem,} Xaku is a law unto themselves, ^Tenno."

                                                                                                        Passive                                                                                                         

• Xaku has a 25% chance to cause incoming enemy projectiles to harmlessly phase through themselves. Every time this passive is activated Xaku receives 75energy. (not effected by mods, drops down to 19 energy per activation when using Vast Untime)
• The effectiveness of Xaku's damage to an Eidolon's shields is based on Xata's whispers damage %. For example: 50% will only cause an Eidolon to take 50% of your overall damage to their shields. Put a cap on the overall damage bypass if it becomes an issue you can keep it capped at 50% but the Void frame that has mastered the void yet is unable to so much as tickle and Eidolon doesnt make sense.
• Xaku's Void abilities working on Void required objects such as the gas city doors, the Diemos Obelisk, Otak/loid void healing, Eidolon, Murex walls, Profit taker shields and ect.

 

                                                                                                      Xata's Whisper                                                                                               

"Whispers from the Void infuse Xaku with untold power, by expending 25 Energy, to grant them a 17% / 23% / 23% / 26% Void damage bonus with a 100% chance to reset Sentients damage resistance on all equipped weapons, lasting for 20 / 30 / 30 / 35 seconds. "

Changes needed:

• Works with every weapon in game, including melee weapons projectiles and spawns. As well as Javelins pulse damage. (still does not work with all weapons and wont reset sentients with some weapons since the void status will not proc.)
• Void procs having there status count and show over affected targets heads. Condition overload and similar mods currently doesn't benefit from this status effect.
• Has synergy with Grasp of lokh and The Lost's Deny. (why not have void damage proc void status? why?)
• When subsumed, does not grant damage to Eidolons.
• When subsumed, does not grant Void damage to other abilities on other warframes.
• No longer damages Xaku or Allies that are in or near the void proc bubbles. ?(this may have been fixed last patch still needs testing)
• Proc bubble is relative to the size of the target. (on larger targets the bubble is often inside the body making it useless, making the bubble scale in size with the target removes that issue of ineffectiveness.)

The potential of Void damage against none sentient factions is huge in that the proc Bullet Attractor redirects all projectiles back to the targets affected by the proc. If the changes above are made this would boost not only Xaku's damage but survival as well, as targets effected by the proc wont be able to shoot Xaku nor their allies. With that comes the damage they inflict on themselves which seems to gain a punch through for double and triple damage per shot(excluding explosives which seem to only deal one tick of damage). this also effects targets that get too close to proced targets as they will also take damage from any projectiles caught with in Bullet Attractor.  The bonus damage will make those hits caught with in bullet attractor count as each buffed hit will get at least 2 ticks of damage.

The synergy will allow Xaku to truly "wield the power of the Void" as their Void guns that shoot Void beams will now have the option to utilize the void proc when ever players choose its needed. this can provide a potential 360`of protection with the 3s Void proc.  With the Lost, using Xata's whisper then using deny on a target will apply the Void proc on them while they are lifted.

                                                                                                          Grasp Of Lokh                                                                                            

• AI tweak to stop guns from focusing on targets trapped in gaze or other trap like abilities i.e. Blood alter, Lantern.[this was stated to come with the next change so im very happy about this being included, thank you]
• Can damage targets that are banished to the rift. (Lore wise, the rift is between the void and the normal plane, the void has no issue passing this threshold to reach the normal plane and affect it. Therefore it should have no issues when dealing with Limbos banished targets.).
• No longer consumes energy if no guns are taken.
• guns can be taken from corpses as well. (allies that kill your targets while you take your time calling the void leaves you with 1 or no guns and less health, also there are times where bug/lag comes in and you get nothing anyway.) [This also seems to have been fixed in the previous changes and i appreciate it very much.]
• Increase gun's base range to 10m.
• Increase disarm base radius to 10m, affected by range mods. [This is already being looked at so im happy about it as well.]
• Synergizes with Xata's Whisper gaining the % damage buff as well as the same % for the void proc chance. This can all be based on Strength. [It makes no sense to not have abilities synergize with each other in a cost effective way with Xaku. the change to Deny and this ability only means more energy cost to make one ability slightly less useless. utilize if for yourself in your play through on lvl 40 and up and tell us how useful GOL and Deny combo really is in live combat. Just add the synergy with Xata's Whisper]

 

                                                                                                         The Lost's Accuse                                                                                        

• Enemies caught in Accuse give Xaku an emergency buffer to prevent death whenever Xaku drops to 2 health. This means that when Xaku drops below 2 hp while accused has at least 1 target the Accused shall suffer the penalty of death instead of Xaku, dealing the damage to one of the accused per lethal damage. If a single attack is sufficiently strong enough to kill in one strike (i.e. damage value in excess of the total available health after armor damage reduction) then the excess damage will transfer over to the next accused. This could potentially kill more than one accused at a time but, provide Squishy Xaku with time to retreat from a one shot kill.
• there is no invulnerability in between the emergency buffer effect which means that while Xaku remains at 2hp they will continue to lose those they accused and will take damage as normal.
• Accused targets do not give refund energy nor health to Xaku, maybe with a future augment.
• Does not work on enemies caught in Gaze and invulnerability type abilities nor within the range of Gaze. This includes abilities from frames like Nidus and Titania. Lets just remove that exploit ahead of time shall we?
• The recast can still be an effect since proper management of energy will be needed.
• Damage abilities from warframes don't seem to affect Accused targets currently, this change would benefit from that. Though all weapons still kill targets and that's fine for dealing with hard to kill targets or trying to revive a squad member, pet, or protected target. Overall providing a level of control over the fight for Xaku users.
• Add a color to each ability on the wheel while also adding a number to how many targets are affected to help keep track.
• If possible change the select and execute triggers via the buttons to the trigger alone activating the current ability and the trigger plus the ability being the change in the wheel. For ex: PS players have R1 and O for the lost, pressing R1 will change the ability selection instead of just executing the ability making you have to hold both R1 and O to execute the ability which decreases reaction time and opens up for mistakes. so to be clear im asking that R1 alone will execute the gaze ability if its selected on the wheel and then holding R1 and tapping O will change the wheel selection. the R1 and holding O can remain to provide quick access while cycling. I really hope that makes sense.

Just about every summons/possession abilities that other warframes have will have an additional function for EX:

Nidus: Spawns 9 Maggots that seek out nearby enemies to feast upon. Once enemies are detected, Maggots frenzy with increased movement speed and leap toward their prey to latch onto them. While attached to an enemy, each Maggot will continuously stun its target and inflict 10 Toxin damage per second until the target dies or Maggot expires. They can also give blast damage upon death reducing the targets accuracy should they survive.

Nekros: Shadows of enemies that summon additional units, like Drahk Masters, can summon Shadows of their respective minions. These can exceed the number of Shadows Nekros can normally summon, and will be reflected in the number on the ability icon. They also contribute extra damage reduction when  Shield of Shadows is equipped. Also Shadow copies have aggro, causing enemies to prioritize attacking copies over players.

Revenant: On death, thralls leave behind an Eidolon energy pillar that lasts for 10 seconds. Energy pillar continuously inflicts 250 / 500 / 750 / 1,000 Puncture damage per second to all enemies within a 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 / 2 meter radius; additionally, pillars generate homing energy projectiles that seek out nearby enemies within a range of x meters, dealing 250 / 500 / 750 / 1,000 Impact damage with a 100% status chance. Enthrall costs no energy when used on an enemy stunned by Mesmer Skin. Reave steals shields and health 5 times more from thralls.Thralls killed by Danse Macabre leave behind pickups that grant 50 Over shields for Revenant and his allies.Energy pillars explode to disperse damage radially when struck by Danse Macabre lasers.

NYX: The mind-controlled target is immune to damage from all sources, but is still susceptible to negative Status Effects. During Mind Control, all damage dealt by Nyx and her allies on the target will be stored and inflicted in full once the ability ends. Damage dealt by enemies on the target is only nullified and not stored. The damage bonus percentage from converted damage is displayed in the HUD beside Nyx's shield and health indicators.

XAKU: Distorting reality with Accuse, Xaku manifests a Void fissure at the targeted location on the aiming reticle over unrestricted range. Up to 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 enemies within 5 / 7 / 9 / 11 meters from the fissure become corrupted by Void energy for 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 seconds, stunning them in place then causing them to fight for Xaku and turn on their former allies.

0 synergy with other abilities, no secondary effects from possession, no boost to the possessed abilities. why waste energy on this when you can use radiation?

                                                                                                             The Lost's Deny                                                                                       

• Enemies lifted by deny have the Vome Obelisk effect applied to them, tethering enemies and pulling them within 15m and preventing them from leaving its 10m holding range.
• Multiple Xakus can not Deny the same targets.
• Deny works on Invulnerable targets i.e. Gaze and ect.
• Deny will work on Accused targets and Accuse and Gaze will work on Denied targets for complete synergy.
• Synergizes with Xata's Whisper gaining the % damage buff as well as the same % for the void proc chance.
• To be clear, the tether does not deal damage nor drop extra loot.
• The tether is not effected by ranged mods.
• The amount of targets effected is 5 per lifted target which is affected by the duration of Deny.
• In order to tether more targets Deny must be recast.
• Tethers work on Sentients.
• Do note that the Tether will work on spawned enemies which may allow nemesis to bypass the tether with their spawns (i.e. spawned leeches, Boiler spawns, Hyekka kavats and ect.). Making this ability well suited for Veteran and high MR players that utilize effective tactics in mission.

This Denies the targets of their freedom to move as they would like, restraining and restricting the movements of those who survive the initial "Void beam".

[MrFrog9]

Xaku is amazing now. Thanks DE for not forgetting about our gender-neutral skellie boi. The expanded range on Gaze is much more comfy and less subject to enemies refusing to enter the circle, and I'm loving the stackable effects and per-part Bullet Attractor.

Some oddities:
Grasp of Lohk can no longer be cast when your guns are maxed. Possibly intentional to avoid mass-disarming entire rooms by spamming it?
If GoL fails to grab any guns you immediately lose any you do have. Probably not intentional, lol.

It took a while to get here but I am beyond pleased with how Xaku has turned out. They're perfect. Every change has made them more fun and fluid to play without compromising their identity.

Hats off, DE.

[quxier]

3 hours ago, MrFrog9 said:

Grasp of Lohk can no longer be cast when your guns are maxed. Possibly intentional to avoid mass-disarming entire rooms by spamming it?

I think it was more omission than intentional thing. Other ability from the Lost is similar so they just "copy pasted" it.

 

However if it were intentional then this kind of anger me.

With 90% range you can have 11-12 enemies disarmed. Set negative duration and it's almost the same thing. And if you want to sustain Grasp of Lohk you can just spam the Vast untime.

However for more active gameplay where you have neutral range (meaning only 6 targets) this is more problematic. My gameplay (against enemies with guns) consisted of:
- roll to group of enemies, disarm them with Grasp of Lohk, and as soon as GoL allows me to move I roll so I take less damage
- I'm using Mutalist Cernos to proc a void status so enemies cannot shoot me. It's especially useful when enemies are not close.
It's very hectic gameplay. Now with this change less active gameplay (holding many guns with Grasp of Lohk and disarming many enemies at once) is more favorable than more active gameplay (constantly disarming enemies... in general doing something).

My suggestion for Grasp of Lohk: let Xaku disarm enemies but don't add guns above "max target" (It's 6 enemies at 100% Range).

 

I will still rarely use The Deny. It's very fun to spam it... however it costs a lot.

The accuse change: it's nice. I'm not sure if sustaining it will be good.

The void status change: Great! The void bubble is still big (covers whole body). Addition of "can proc a body part" is nice.

4 hours ago, MrFrog9 said:

I'm loving the stackable effects

Is it stackable? I don't even see "status icon" above enemy.

Sadly no changes to the Vast untime.

[Colyeses]

Honestly, I liked Grasp of Lohk better before the second wave than I do now. It is cluttered and harder to read, and has even lower skill expression than it used to. The way the individual weapon timers are shown also make energy colour weigh less, as it all fades to black anyway. 

Gaze is doing better with the extra range, which is a nice touch, but I think I'd prefer having Grasp of Lohk reverted to its previous state.

[Vipermagi]

I'm really all about these Xaku changes, feels solid. Didn't think Gaze needed a range buff but hey I'll take it! I had at best expected 10m base radius. My only gripe at the moment is, Grasp of Lohk is no longer perpetually recastable, as others have noted too :( It was a defensive tool that I used fairly aggressively in Steel Path; Elite Shield Lancers just need to be dealt with, and Grasp was normally my answer. Plenty targets in SP so it'd always be a fairly solid Grasp, plus it prevented the MD objective from being two-shot. Being able to stack up casts is great for non-Steel Path missions and it's a very welcome addition though. 

[(XBOX)Deqino]

I’m not on PC, but from what I’m reading, it looks like Grasp of Lohk needs to be reverted to how it was before the round 2 changes.

Or at least let Xaku recast it’s 2 irregardless of weapon cap. I just knew changing it’s functionality to mirror Shadow’s of the Dead was gonna be a bad idea.

As someone who avidly mains 2 Xakus with 8 and 6 forma spread across each, please don’t ruin this frame. (:

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

So, Xaku is still heavily dependent on range and strength to be at 200% in order for her abilities to be effective. This makes build variety practically nonexistent on her and is ultimately just not satisfying to play. I have a build with much more evened our stats that I enjoy playing with a lot more, but there’s no reason for me to do so because all of Xakus abilities don’t really do anything unless she’s at 200% strength and range.

I don’t understand this new limit on GoL that you can’t recast it now if you’re at max guns. It just comes off as counter intuitive and conflicts with the individual guns having separate timers. As I think we were all under the impression that grabbing more guns when at max would just replace the oldest guns.

GoL targeting range still needs to be buffed. The ability has absolutely zero potential of reaching World on Fire levels of AFK. And if the targeting range won’t be buffed then I highly recommend replacing the ability entirely as there’s no point of a frame having an ability in which there’s intent to not improve it.

Gaze’s base defense reduction should be 70%. Again, the dependence of 200% strength just to make this ability good is a massive hinderance to build variety.

Casting cost of The Lost needs to be reduced.

Vast Untimes Damage evasion needs to be replaced with Damage reduction. Titania was the last frame that tried to use Evasion as her defense option. And she needed damage reduction added later down the road because evasion is so unreliable.

I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the choices made to try an improve Xaku. It feels like there’s an active aversion to simple changes in favor of finding more convoluted ways to try and improve her. And all it’s doing is making balancing her out an even bigger mess, and still not address core issues with the frame.

 

[HunterDigi]

My two issues with Grasp of Lohk since arcana:

 

- Recasting with no enemies around removes all your ghost-weapons. Either is it additive or is it not, which is it?

Because right now I'm being tricked into casting it near a few enemies and before the animation finishes they might get killed, leaving me with less ghost-weapons than I started, zero, just like before the update... but at least then I knew it was going to reset to 0 so I was only doing it in a room full of enemies and rarely.

Maybe hold to discard the ghost-weapons and tap always tries to add, even if there's nothing to add.

 

- Can't recast when at max ghost-weapons, which means I can't refresh duration and I also can't disarm enemies.

It should replace the lowest duration ghost-weapons with the ones from nearby enemies, updating their duration, regardless of how full you are.

 

EDIT:
Also, this has been an issue since Xaku released but I wanna mention it regardless: Grasp of Lohk adds your primary weapon model as a ghost-weapon if the enemy doesn't have a weapon model, but the problem there is it can get really crowded if you have like bramma for example.

The little ball model from grasping drones would be great to use when the enemy has no weapon model.

[(XBOX)Deqino]

26 minutes ago, HunterDigi said:

- Can't recast when at max ghost-weapons, which means I can't refresh duration and I also can't disarm enemies.

It should replace the lowest duration ghost-weapons with the ones from nearby enemies, updating their duration, regardless of how full you are.

Yes, this would actually be much better than how it functions at the moment. 
 

Currently, the Vast Untime synergy with Grasp of Lohk is broken in missions with scaling enemy levels. 
 

Why they made this change is beyond me, but it can be fixed with your suggestion.

[HunterDigi]

Oh yeah and then there's also the disarm part, maybe it should always disarm the max amount of targets regardless of how many ghost-weapons you already have. Independent effects of the same ability.