Hyrdroid Rework Conecpt (The CC/sustain Sea captain that doesn't make things more difficult)

[DewbzThePanda]

I feel like hydroid in his current state needs some major QoL improvements and adjustments.

 I am in no way saying that hydroid is absolute garbage and there are some frames that need the rework treatment FAR more but I feel that his kit just seems fairly out dated and clunky and is outperformed by many frames on many fronts and his last remaining major role of farm frame #2 was taken by khora.

 

These changes are focused at making hydroid a viable CC frame that makes life easier for everyone with some added effective sustainability to help him and his team survive and thrive in the middle of the fight.

(SIDE NOTE: I wont be incorporating every exact stat IE duration, damage, or range due to the fact that I'm not a game design expert, i would rather leave many of the values to the experts)

PASSIVE

performing a slam spawns a grasping puddle at hyrdoids feet

- Enemies standing in hydroids puddles are considerably slowed

- When Hydroid or his allies shoot the puddles directly, all damage is redirected to all enemies within the puddle 

- puddle from passive only lasts for 5 seconds

- can only have one puddle from his passive at a time

-puddle from passive is around 7.5m

- (25%) of damage dealt to enemies caught in the puddles is converted to healing for hydroid as long as he is standing within 10m from the puddle

1. Tempest barrage

target an area to unleash a barrage of liquid furry leaving behind a grasping puddle

-Instead of random volleys of water like his old 1, The barrage of liquid does a consistent wave pattern ensuring that the entirety of the targeted area is blanketed in volleys

-the puddle takes up the entire targeted area

-The puddles duration is around 1.25x the duration of tempest barrage to ensure it stays for a small amount of time after tempest barrage

-no longer has a charge mechanic, Fixed damage and duration

-projectiles themselves only staggers enemies but with the puddles slow effect it ultimately keeps them fairly held down with small windows to shoot or escape so this cant just be a infinite stun lock with augment

AUGMENT: Viral Barrage

Each projectile has a 100% chance of inflicting a VIRAL status chance and tempest barrage is now a toggle ability that drains energy overtime

-Switched from corrosive to viral due to viral buffs and synergy with puddle damage redirection

-now a toggle ability to ensure you can get as much stacks of viral as needed without having to cast over and over again

 

2. Tidal Surge

Crash through enemies in a ferocious wall of water

-behaves more or less the same however gives you the ability to cancel mid dash and offers the ability to turn during the ability at a diminished turning speed

-augment untouched

 

3. UNDERTOW

Become a water trap and drown unsuspecting enemies while siphoning their life force

-behaves more or less the same

-added a health leech to all enemies caught in undertow around 75% damage dealt by or through undertow is converted to healing

-ability cost of Tidal Surge while in undertow is Halved

-augment untouched

 

4. Tentacle Swarm

Tap to spawn a Kraken that controls the area around it, all enemies caught in the kraken's territory are grabbed by a tentacle, strangling them in the air while draining their health and distributing it to all nearby allies. Hold cast to increase Range and duration.

-Tentacles do not spawn unless an enemy is inside of the kraken's territory

-tentacle will always spawn underneath or around an enemy instantly grabbing them

-holds them up just a few feet off the ground  and keeps them still in the air making them easier targets to hit and within melee range

-if a teammate is within grabbing range of a tentacle while holding an enemy, the tentacle will reposition the enemy it is holding to face the team mate

-around 100% of damage dealt to enemies caught by the Kraken is redistributed to pulses of healing waves that come from the kraken healing all teammates within its territory

-only a limited amount of tentacles can be spawned at a time

-once killed a tentacle will drop the enemy, despawn, and respawn under the next enemy repeating the process

-If a tentacle is in a grasping puddle,the enemy grabbed by the tentacle receives the redirected damage

-augment untouched

 

This variation of hydroid is meant to play out almost like a cross between Vauban, Nidus, and a little bit of Mag to ensure that his CC isn't disruptive and he can bring a little sustain and tanking to the team leaving the majority of the damage be left to others with his Viral Procs and Puddle Damage Redirection.

 

I am in no way a rework expert, this is just my concept on what I believe fits hydroids theme and play style.

[(PSN)Hopper_Orouk]

While i admire the making of this post to improve hydroid, i'm afraid these adjustments did nothing to help him

What's Hydroid's problem? His passive and his fricking puddle!

Passive is useless, RNG based and one of the laziest ideas the DE came up with (it's rebecca's idea so go figure) 

The puddle, or undertow, is clunky, you're stuck there with reduced speed waiting for enemies to die from within, it has no grace, it has no style, and definitely isn't interactive 

Your new passive, is very situational, as it's another low range, short duration puddle that slows enemies

And it's not cool

Undertow still locks you on the ground, it's still boring.

That's it, the rest are unnecessary changes in my opinion, he can already heal allies.

[Danivus]

Puddle really needs a much bigger rework.

My suggestion would be that 'Undertow' is more true to its name. Instead of Hydroid becoming a puddle make it an area around him that causes enemies to stumble and be pulled towards him, so you can guide them into the tentacles or just into easy melee range. 

Have the area grow as Hydroid stays on the ground and the drain scale up as it does, then if you bullet jump have the whole area of effect explode up and set enemies in it to the lifted status. Landing would start the growth of the area again.

For the tentacles they do need to stop failing enemies around yes, but they should also be able to grab enemies that are currently immune to it. If they grab an enemy currently immune that enemy should not be ragdolled but instead just slowed, giving his 4 more universal use and also letting you get extra drops from all enemies (like Nekros can) with the augment. 

[DewbzThePanda]

2 hours ago, (PS4)Hopper_Orouk said:

While i admire the making of this post to improve hydroid, i'm afraid these adjustments did nothing to help him

What's Hydroid's problem? His passive and his fricking puddle!

Passive is useless, RNG based and one of the laziest ideas the DE came up with (it's rebecca's idea so go figure) 

The puddle, or undertow, is clunky, you're stuck there with reduced speed waiting for enemies to die from within, it has no grace, it has no style, and definitely isn't interactive 

Your new passive, is very situational, as it's another low range, short duration puddle that slows enemies

And it's not cool

Undertow still locks you on the ground, it's still boring.

That's it, the rest are unnecessary changes in my opinion, he can already heal allies.

Personally i feel he has more issues to QoL other than his passive and puddle, his 1 and 4's minor RNG aspect causes inconsistency with his CC potential.

I've had many occasions where multiple enemies would just bypass all of my tentacles because the tentacles decided to spawn in a single bunch because of terrain abnormalities, and when the tentacles grabbed an enemy they would often slam them into the wall or ground leading to wonky rag dolls that would cause the enemy to be impossible to hit and indoors his 1 would often slap the ceiling or just miss entirely.

Most of the changes i applied are to bypass the RNG inconsistencies and ensure enemies grabbed by tentacles aren't a chore to hit with a gun.

 

I also feel that his undertow is just too unique to dump entirely, this is just to give undertow a more pronounced purpose

 

His Passive and his undertow are extremely situational sustain abilities.

His passive is a Low, although free and quick, source of healing that encourages hydroid to dive into crowds.

 his Undertow acts as the emergency oh F*** button where you have to dip out and heal a bit more, maybe increasing the possible damage and life siphon of undertow to make the healing more worth the sudden stop to game play.

as for the ranges and durations i leave that up in the air as i said in the post I'm not 100% sure on what would be viable numbers to keep him balanced and viable

 

you are correct that he already has an ability to heal team mates (i over looked that augment when i thought of his ult's change) I feel that his current healing augment is just as clunky as his current puddle maybe i should revise his Puddles augment for increased mobility whilst in puddle form? Or would you completely scrap Puddle for an entire new ability?

 

I made a slight adjustment to his 1 to make diving in and going ham a more less complicated task.

Gameplay around his passive would go as so:

step 1. require some quick sustain

step 2. look for a nice crowd of enemies that wouldn't be suicidal to jump into

step 3. Slam said crowd

step 4.  either step back and unload your preferred fire arm into the puddle spreading all damage to each enemy within the crowd or start swinging with your melee weapon

step 5. Receive the healing

P.S. Some weapon combos also contain slams that are interwoven into the attacks, causing hydroid to gain healing from mashing E with a certain combo on a certain weapon if he so pleases making it less of an intrusive experience to use his passive.

[DewbzThePanda]

22 minutes ago, Danivus said:

Puddle really needs a much bigger rework.

My suggestion would be that 'Undertow' is more true to its name. Instead of Hydroid becoming a puddle make it an area around him that causes enemies to stumble and be pulled towards him, so you can guide them into the tentacles or just into easy melee range. 

Have the area grow as Hydroid stays on the ground and the drain scale up as it does, then if you bullet jump have the whole area of effect explode up and set enemies in it to the lifted status. Landing would start the growth of the area again.

For the tentacles they do need to stop failing enemies around yes, but they should also be able to grab enemies that are currently immune to it. If they grab an enemy currently immune that enemy should not be ragdolled but instead just slowed, giving his 4 more universal use and also letting you get extra drops from all enemies (like Nekros can) with the augment. 

You're Undertow does sound a lot more effective and interactive in terms of gameplay, it would also enhance the effects of his 1 forcing more enemies to be on his grasping puddle thus opening more damage potential and more healing potential in a spread out and chaotic fight.