Xaku ult - debuff and a fashion frame problem

[Samhel]

I know they are not in the game right now, but as we saw Xaku's ultimate ability it has some useful damage mitigating and debuffing capabilities.

However, these attributes of it in that shown version also gives the player the choice to alter between the skeletal and normal form whenever they want without a timer or duration or anything. This will make this ability just as commonly used as for example Gauss's ult, which also gives useful buffs to the player so everyone uses it. The problem (for me atleast) is in Xaku's fashion frame. I know that everyone loves to meme about the little skeletal guy, but Xaku's normal look is also more unique than any other frames' in the game and I would be interested in what fashion frame styles can we figure out of his theme and I'm sure I'm not alone with that. But if we are to only see the skeletal form then his normal form won't even matter and it could be seen in the orbiter exclusively, because the skeletal form is stronger. Yes I also know that the shrapnels do the void damage vulnerability debuff, but honestly, the dmg reduction and evasion sound much more compelling, because those shrapnels probably either won't hit anything or we're gonna oneshot those debuffed enemies quickly so we would need to spam the hell out of that ultimate to keep up debuffing.

With these things said I came to the conclusion that this ult needs some changes before it comes out to make it viable for dmg debuff and to make Xaku's normal look more visible. I suggest adding a mechanic that makes Xaku rebuild themselves overtime after the ult so that their parts start to appear on him slowly after their ult has been casted. The void dmg debuff would affect enemies hit by shrapnel, but it would also be present in a range around Xaku while they are rebuilding themselves.

That would make their normal form more visible, would stop us from spamming his ult for the debuff and it would also add a new cool mechanic to make the frame rebuild itself. It shouldn't be hard to do this on the technical side either. Xaku already has their parts individually attached to their body in order for the animations and their ult to work.

The rebuilding part could be done by just making the parts suddenly spawn back on Xaku's body one by one with some fancy effect (easier way) in the rebuilding phase. The aerial void dmg debuff could have the same effect as his 3. ability's debuff but around the frame itself until the rebuilding gets done.

[PsiWarp]

For all we know it's a channeled ability, let the skellies be and the fashioner do as they please.

[RazerXPrime]

When I saw her fourth ability I was like omg no way... You know using that ability is what people need to do in order to stay alive in high level content. And a frame that looks like that... ugh. You spend all this time designing a cool looking frame and you give an ability that makes it more powerful but also look ugly. That's a poor design choice right there.

[Birdframe_Prime]

Frames are allowed to have abilities that are kept on for preference, and frames are allowed to ignore fashion choices if that's how they actually survive. Look at Loki, Ivara and Octavia, frames that literally enjoy spending their entire time invisible when they can. Your fashion choices mean nothing on them either.

 

[RazerXPrime]

31 minutes ago, Birdframe_Prime said:

Frames are allowed to have abilities that are kept on for preference, and frames are allowed to ignore fashion choices if that's how they actually survive. Look at Loki, Ivara and Octavia, frames that literally enjoy spending their entire time invisible when they can. Your fashion choices mean nothing on them either.

 

Your logic is amazing. Because there are other frames that have an ability that ignores "fashion" it's ok for this one too? You just blew my mind. I'm going to rob people tomorrow, because others do it as well.

Although in the case of Ivara it's actually an improvement.

[Samhel]

49 minutes ago, Birdframe_Prime said:

Frames are allowed to have abilities that are kept on for preference, and frames are allowed to ignore fashion choices if that's how they actually survive. Look at Loki, Ivara and Octavia, frames that literally enjoy spending their entire time invisible when they can. Your fashion choices mean nothing on them either.

 

Well okay but they don't get more ugly or thinner in the process and Xaku does 😞 And yes we would survive with being in the skeletal form, but then again what about the debuff? Void dmg is not as good as many people think... it's unique but not good. 

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

This is just “Invis hides my fashion frame” again, isn’t it?

[Samhel]

9 hours ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

This is just “Invis hides my fashion frame” again, isn’t it?

No. I actually don't mind being invisible even if I worked on my fashionframing for hours. But Xaku's is an entirely different, visible mesh and texture and color change... into a skeleton... And there's also the debuff which only applies to enemies that got hit by the shrapnel of Xaku's body, making it unreliable and energy consuming. 

[GREF_TM]

14 hours ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

This is just “Invis hides my fashion frame” again, isn’t it?

"BUT MUH FASHINFRIM!"

[TheGodofWiFi]

Considering Xaku isn't out yet, we do not know how DE is going to handle the FashionFrame problem, but I would assume that DE are smart enough to have made it so that your attachments and such do not fly off when you use the ultimate.

Not going to lie though, even with attachments, I have a feeling Xaku is going to be a fashion nightmare.

[Birdframe_Prime]

22 hours ago, Samhel said:

Well okay but they don't get more ugly or thinner in the process and Xaku does 😞 And yes we would survive with being in the skeletal form, but then again what about the debuff? Void dmg is not as good as many people think... it's unique but not good. 

Depends on both the level of 'debuff' and how much 'buff' Xaku's 1st ability is.

22 hours ago, RazerXPrime said:

Your logic is amazing.

So's yours... 'I'm going to equate a visual choice on a video game that I don't find aesthetically pleasing with to literal crimes in the real world.'

I'm genuinely impressed, that's bordering on anti-vaxx and flat-earth kind of logic there.

[Jarriaga]

10 hours ago, Samhel said:

 But Xaku's is an entirely different, visible mesh and texture and color change... 

So like Chroma? All fashionframe except the legs are gone when Effigy is active. Even the sigils are gone as they stay with the dragon pelt. Sure, core Chroma is a skinny Excal instead of a skeleton, but it's the same argument with regards to fashionframe.

Don't expect for Xaku's design to be changed on the grounds that it hurts fashionframe before Chroma gets the same treatment for the exact same reason.

[Samhel]

17 minutes ago, Jarriaga said:

So like Chroma? All fashionframe except the legs are gone when Effigy is active. Even the sigils are gone as they stay with the dragon pelt. Sure, core Chroma is a skinny Excal instead of a skeleton, but it's the same argument with regards to fashionframe.

Don't expect for Xaku's design to be changed on the grounds that it hurts fashionframe before Chroma gets the same treatment for the exact same reason.

Who uses that ultimate exactly? Except for the Profit taker I mean... It's weak, defensless and if we want to be tanky we don't build range to buff it up with vex armor. The only Chroma I saw using that ability was me in the last like... year. But that does the same mechanic with an already bulkier frame and it keeps color changes and the chest plate and we can also always see in the arsenal our effigy form, if we want to use the ability of course... But even then it still looks better than Xaku's incredibly thin skeletal form which keeps no colors or attachments, syandanas or alt helmets.

As I said Xaku is still different, it gets from a frame that already has missing parts by design into a skeleton just because of the meme. 

[Jarriaga]

8 minutes ago, Samhel said:

Who uses that ultimate exactly? Except for the Profit taker I mean... It's weak, defensless and if we want to be tanky we don't build range to buff it up with vex armor.

Who uses it is irrelevant to the argument of the outcome of using it.

[Samhel]

2 minutes ago, Jarriaga said:

Who uses it is irrelevant to the argument of the outcome of using it.

And comparing Chroma's transformation (or any frames other forms) to Xaku's won't make fashion or mechanic problems with their skeletal form / debuff any more irrelevant 😉

[Erl-King]

I want to note a completely different thing about Xaku, their skeletal form - it looks really awkward with default animations, like a something from a tech demo that somehow made it to the game.
I think DE should have went with more spectral-ghost theme instead of skeleton. Cut off skeletons feet and give it Wisp floating animation, suddenly we get much more impactful transformation visually and a more appealing void ghost that holds the parts together. We already have Valkyr, whose 4th ability slightly changes her animations (sonic roll on jumps), why not to give something like that to Xaku?

Though it seems a bit unrelated to the original post. Should have I made a separate topic for that?

[Samhel]

9 hours ago, Erl-King said:

I want to note a completely different thing about Xaku, their skeletal form - it looks really awkward with default animations, like a something from a tech demo that somehow made it to the game.
I think DE should have went with more spectral-ghost theme instead of skeleton. Cut off skeletons feet and give it Wisp floating animation, suddenly we get much more impactful transformation visually and a more appealing void ghost that holds the parts together. We already have Valkyr, whose 4th ability slightly changes her animations (sonic roll on jumps), why not to give something like that to Xaku?

Though it seems a bit unrelated to the original post. Should have I made a separate topic for that?

I agree. Not only it's model but the animations also seem really "test version"-ish. Just as I said, they did it for the memes.