Upcoming Xaku Changes: Round 2!

[Markk_01]

These are all nice changes and I'm glad you considered one of mine!

I still feel Xata's whisper should do something else besides adding Void damage to my guns only. I feel either giving the buff to teammates or having it apply to the guns stolen from Grasp of Lohk could be a good idea. As it is, I replaced it with Grendel's Nourished Strike. Toxin damage is generally more appreciated, it can be shared with the team AND it heals me. This helps a bit with Xaku's survivability, but doesn't solve the problem. Evasion is fine, but in higher levels (Sorties and whatnot) it means that 2 lucky shots are enough to destroy Xaku.

Maybe making it so Xata's whisper or being within range of a gazed enemy give some Damage Resistance?

Or just give them more HP/armor?

Also, Deny not stopping me sounds great, but having to aim and hold a key still doesn't feel well. If I miss, that's wasted energy and If I hit, the enemies die but that's just Gun with extra steps.

I forma'd them 4 times already and still working towards a 6th!

[SporkMaster5000]

On 2020-09-29 at 11:00 AM, [DE]Danielle said:

Xata’s Whisper (Void Status Effect): 

• Void damage’s Status Effect will now redirect projectiles to the body part it proc’d on. 
  • How it will work: If you shoot at an enemy’s head with Xata’s Whisper enabled and proc, the bubble will redirect all projectiles to the head. If you shoot at the feet, it’ll be redirected to the feet, etc.! It is however possible that even if you proc on the head but then shoot at the lower part of the bubble it might hit the body on the way up to being redirected to the head.
  • This is a game wide change to Void Status Effect! Now that we have a Warframe that can harness Void damage at the click of a button, it has brought much focus to and discussion around its Status Effect. For those of you who are unfamiliar, in its current state it creates a bullet attractor bubble that directs all projectiles to the center of the enemy’s torso regardless of where it procs. Since Xata’s Whisper applies Void damage to all of their weapons, it was increasingly noticeable to Xaku players that the bubble’s current redirecting position prevents any attempt at enemy headshots until its duration expires. This is one of the main reasons for this change. Headshot disruption ultimately limits your damage output by removing the opportunity for headshot multipliers while it is active. Now, you will be able to use your headshotting skills to greater benefit, while also having generally more options to focus projectiles where desired. Note that regardless of where the Status Effect occurs, it will continue to prevent enemies from being able to shoot at you without having their projectiles redirected back to the center of the bubble. 

 

This is fine, void status needed an improvement, I don't know that this'll be enough, but Xata's Whisper's really just on the edge of good or bad.  It's still the lowest self-buff in the game, with inferior numbers to helminth roar, I'm still not sure why.

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Grasp of Lohk:

• Re-casting will now steal weapons up to the max number of affected targets.
  • How it will work: You will be able to re-cast up to the max number of targets that you can steal from. In other words, you can add to the current batch of weapons. For example, if your max target is set to 6, and you have 3 weapons active, Grasp of Lohk can be re-cast to “top up” to the remaining 3 weapon allowance. Newly grabbed weapons from re-casts will have independent durations from the previous batch - similar to Protea’s Blaze Artillery. 
  • We made re-casting available in Round 1 and set it up to replace the entire current active batch of weapons. Our original reasoning was that this allowed for a ‘fresh’ cast to be made if an undesirable pull occurred. But what makes far more sense is to follow the precedent set by Nekros’ Shadows of the Dead. So now you can maintain your current floating auto-cannon sidekicks and re-cast to refill or top up to the max on command. This will give far more control in maintaining the max number of active weapons you can have at once.
     
• Added HUD tracker for active weapons.
  • Following our re-cast change, we thought it would be quite helpful to know exactly how many weapons you have active so that you know how many more you can add on re-cast. Instead of counting them manually one by one as they float and shoot around, this is much easier on the eyes!
    
     
• Stolen weapons will no longer target invulnerable enemies. 
  • Currently, Grasp of Lohk weapons will target enemies with grey health bars indicating that they are invulnerable. This clearly serves no purpose as their health cannot be damaged and ultimately takes focus away from more important targets. Not to mention that this is a poor use of the ability’s duration drain. As a result, we’ve removed invulnerable enemies as target candidates and stolen weapons will now redirect to vulnerable enemies within range. 

all great changes.  grasp of lohk is my favorite ability in Xaku's kit and these are all good QoL, plus the stacking casts should beef it up in practice.

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* Note on Grasp of Lohk’s ‘Target Range’:
    * In Round 1, we made the distinction between Grasp of Lohk’s ‘Grab Range’ and ‘Target Range’. We then increased its ‘Grab Range’ and left ‘Target Range’ untouched due to “firing range experiments being a bit too wild for Round 1”. As we’ve continued testing, this has held true. In any instance where we’ve increased it, even slightly, we neared a state that we had already established was undesirable due to its encouragement of an ‘inactive’ way of playing (Ember’s “World on Fire” comes to mind before it was changed to “Inferno”). As a result, ‘Target Range’ will continue to remain untouched for this round.

This, however, is a bad take.  the base range on the guns begs for help to be practical.  And I'm not asking for an inactive turret frame; One or two more meters, 10m base MAX, that's all I want.  280% is max range on a warframe unless I've lost a mod somewhere, that currently puts grasp's max targetting range at about 22m, I have shotguns that don't hit max falloff at that range.  with a 10m base that'd go up to 28m, which only barely beats out most of those same shotguns.  Give the guns LoS for all I care, I'm a little confused how they shoot through walls and I'm mostly upset about enemies being more capable of shooting me than my power is of shooting them anyway, so if there's a wall between us fair play. This ability feels so much worse every step you take away from max range and I hate that.  I stole a bunch of guns and made void phantom hover guns to shoot guys for me, why do they not shoot guys unless I run up close enough that I could just smack them in the face?  Why would I care about a half dozen guns floating around me if none of them will shoot that guy trying to be behind cover that I can headshot with a shotgun?  It feels bad.  I don't want a huge range, I just want to lose overextended without feeling like I killed the build.

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The Lost: Accuse
* We are following through with our proposed idea from Round 1 and have made Accuse re-castable!
    * How it will work: The same way Grasp of Lohk will be set up in Round 2! You will be able to re-cast up to the max number of targets that can be affected/corrupted. For example, if your max target is set to 10, and you have 5 active, Accuse can be re-cast to “top up” to the remaining 5 corrupted crew allowance. Enemies corrupted from re-cast will have independent durations from the previous batch.
    * Currently, Accuse cannot be re-cast until the duration expires or all affected enemies are killed. Which means that often you find yourself locked into a corrupted crew that is inefficient due to dwindling numbers, poor initial cast, etc. For those reasons and more, this was a highly requested change that we are happy to make happen! 
* Added HUD tracker for active "Accused" enemies
    * This'll look familiar because we added this for Grasp of Lohk and explained above, but just so that we have intent clear here with Accuse as well! We thought it would be quite helpful to know exactly how many "Accused" enemies you have active so that you know how many more you can add on re-cast. Instead of counting them manually one by one as they run around, this is much easier on the eyes! 
The Lost: Gaze
* Increased base radius from 8m to 12m.
    * Increasing the base radius range on “Gazed” enemies was highly requested since its defense reduction applies to enemies while they are within the affected area. As we noted in Round 1, we evaluated Gaze and how it performs with established builds that maximized its effects. Increasing the base radius range hits the spot between improving the ability’s effectiveness and managing what is already established as powerful with focused builds. Essentially, more space for more enemies to have their defenses stripped without tipping the scales dramatically on is an already well performing ability when used strategically. 

Recastable accuse: 👍 I doubt I'll be interested in using it exceptionally more than I already am, but this was one of the biggest usability problems I ran into when testing the last update, accuse stragglers were the bane of the ability.

bigger gaze: 👍 again, dunno if I'll use it.  I still don't know what its specific use case is (unless it's just 100% armor strip in general) but a wider range is an improvement since you're ostensibly trying to affect more than just the one rooted enemy.

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The Lost: Deny
* Increased Deny’s beam width and base range (25m to 40m).
    * Straightforward change to help you target and damage more enemies. More bang for your beam!
* Deny can now be cast while moving.
    * Currently, Deny’s casting animation locks Xaku in place. While we did increase the casting speed in Round 1, it just simply was not enough to fulfill the parkour freedom you’ve become well familiar with in Warframe. Removing the lock brings back the ninja fantasy while also making the most of the synergy between Deny and Grasp of Lohk that we added in Round 1. As we said in our first Xaku Dev Workshop, “more firepower… faster”, but this time we really mean it!

more offensive Deny: meh.  I will keep saying it, I don't want a big damage beam.  Honestly I've been impressed with the damage lohk kicks out in routine play, I don't think Xaku needs a big #*!%off laser on top of it.  The damage from this is whatever in my eyes, but the lift effect feels like where this ability's focus should be, it's very usable CC.  Both of these changes make the lift potentially more applicable, the wider and longer beam will let you hit more enemies and moving around should let you hit more enemies, so it is probably a good change overall, but as long as DE is talking about this power like it's supposed to be some kind of finishing move I think their heart's in the wrong place.

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The Vast Untime:
The changes we made to The Vast Untime in Round 1 have been very well received and we echo your sentiment that it is in a good spot in its current state. With that said, no further changes are planned for this round. Go forth and Untime Vastly!

Agreed in the broad sense, however staying in untime almost constantly once you have some buffs up seems core to Xaku's play and doing something to help energy economy in the process would go very far, though not necessarily a change to this ability specifically. 

[vanaukas]

On 2020-09-29 at 12:00 PM, [DE]Danielle said:

 

• How it will work: If you shoot at an enemy’s head with Xata’s Whisper enabled and proc, the bubble will redirect all projectiles to the head. If you shoot at the feet, it’ll be redirected to the feet, etc.! It is however possible that even if you proc on the head but then shoot at the lower part of the bubble it might hit the body on the way up to being redirected to the head.
• This is a game wide change to Void Status Effect! Now that we have a Warframe that can harness Void damage at the click of a button, it has brought much focus to and discussion around its Status Effect. For those of you who are unfamiliar, in its current state it creates a bullet attractor bubble that directs all projectiles to the center of the enemy’s torso regardless of where it procs. Since Xata’s Whisper applies Void damage to all of their weapons, it was increasingly noticeable to Xaku players that the bubble’s current redirecting position prevents any attempt at enemy headshots until its duration expires. This is one of the main reasons for this change. Headshot disruption ultimately limits your damage output by removing the opportunity for headshot multipliers while it is active. Now, you will be able to use your headshotting skills to greater benefit, while also having generally more options to focus projectiles where desired. Note that regardless of where the Status Effect occurs, it will continue to prevent enemies from being able to shoot at you without having their projectiles redirected back to the center of the bubble. 

I've been testing this change with multiple amps and doesn't seem to be any different than the old bullet attractor, no mater where I aim, the bubble covers all the enemy body

[Krankbert]

vor einer Stunde schrieb vanaukas:

I've been testing this change with multiple amps and doesn't seem to be any different than the old bullet attractor, no mater where I aim, the bubble covers all the enemy body

This isn't live yet.

[vanaukas]

14 minutes ago, Krankbert said:

This isn't live yet.

Oh, I thought this was already added with the tennogen batch, thank you!

[(XBOX)ReticentHope417]

I am not sure of the balance implications but it would be interesting lore wise that; if the the lack of the armor is part of what allows the vast untime to  boost the passive, that dodging also boosted the passive too since the dodge animation temporarily sheds the armor as well.

[kwlingo]

On 2020-09-29 at 10:00 AM, [DE]Danielle said:

But what makes far more sense is to follow the precedent set by Nekros’ Shadows of the Dead. So now you can maintain your current floating auto-cannon sidekicks and re-cast to refill or top up to the max on command. This will give far more control in maintaining the max number of active weapons you can have at once.

Finally DE listen's to me once. TY DE! Love yall :)

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

On 2020-10-03 at 3:13 AM, (PS4)Madurai-Prime said:

It's an ability that even allows your weapons to do void damage in the first place.....

And 1/4 of a gunblades damage with 2 sentient faction mods and other mods is still going to be a lot.....

You're aware that capable players are basically already one-shotting the shield with amps, right? 

You know those amps that people say are weak and "tickle" the eidolon? 

So what do you think 4 people with actual weapons are gonna do? 

If they can already 1 shot with amps what’s the harm of giving people a different way to do that exact same thing?

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

3 hours ago, kwlingo said:

Finally DE listen's to me once. TY DE! Love yall :)

You know you’re not the only one who suggested that. Heck, I suggested it.

[megamino]

My only hope right now, is that void from xaku's 1 affect anything that has void damage only thing like eidolon's shield... it could be game changing though but isn't that eidolon's shield can be damaged only by void? and giving xaku's 1 void damage is not affecting it? I think logically it should be there, whether it's game changing or not it's your style DE... I think this one can be considered to be added in the first place.

Ignore this if i'm wrong about the concept actually... that's so far i remember from PoE stuff... other than that, i don't know. I've using xaku's 1 and kinda not getting any additional damage so far, it's like the same thing but more void... I don't know, i don't use xaku's 1 more often... although i would like to request a little tiny bit additional range on target range on xaku's 2... just because i don't have to put so many range mods on xaku XD

[Mademon]

can you make the duration of Vast Untime longer and make it not scale with duration? so we can just dump duration and focus on range and efficiency 

[LightlessIvara]

While these are mostly good changes, there are a couple issues, namely, the base stats on his abilities are abysmally low and turn him into a power square, he demands too much of every stat while his 1 still isn't good because of its low damage and the fact that the proc is a bullet attractor. Its bad enough in the state its currently in, but making it so the attractor goes where the shot lands wont fix it because the issue is in the concept itself. It's like Mag's old bullet attractor which was really really bad and the only reason Magnetize is good now is because of its damage over time effect and the explosion at the end and the fact it sticks around even after the initial target dies. Void procs do not have any of these features and a lot of the time will end up lowering your DPS because you cannot make use of punch-through. It needs a change to make the proc desirable and maybe a slight increase in damage to make it worthwhile.

As for his 2, this is a mostly good ability with my only real complaints being that the base stats are a bit low across the board. At the very least a small increase in range is warranted because they fall off faster than shotguns which is unacceptable. On top of the low duration and range, with the changes to it coming with this update please for the love of god make it scale like Vauban's turret where the level multiplier is applied as it hits an enemy instead of only applying off of the enemy you stole from, with the changes making it seem like you want him to have them out as long as possible without recasting, in its current state that's a bad idea because they don't scale until you recast. Other than that I might recommend having them spread between both his right and left side and making a few changes to certain weapons visuals when stolen such as the Shedu. Lastly, you should increase the gun cap or do something in regards to the limit because even with insane range, only getting 14 guns is a bit meh and to make him more desirable to play, he shouldn't need as much range as he does to work, even if you increased the range of all his abilities by a lot it still wouldn't be good to not go for max range by virtue of having a tiny max gun limit.

Onto his third ability, starting with Accuse, while it is nice that you can recast and it tells you how many enemies you have under its effect and you can recast it, that doesn't change the fact that it is still too costly, 75 energy for even one of these abilities makes it so actually being able to cast them as you need is very cumbersome because it drains so much of your energy and they are abilities you will need to cast often. Even looking past that, Accuse steps on Revenant's and Nyx's toes far too much and overall does it very poorly and I feel the best way to change that would make it so rather than just making them allied, it should make affected enemies weaker to void damage and explode with void damage on death or when the ability expires to make it more akin to a radial death mark of sorts. If you were to do this change though it would be best to make affected targets now targetable by his 2.

Gaze, this ability is mostly fine save for the low base strip, the thing with armor and shields in this game is that unless you can strip 100% of it, its worthless, its all or nothing and gaze requires a whopping 200% to be useful which is far too steep considering he also has to compete with range which guess what? Overextended makes your strength go down but without it your Gaze AoE would be small enough to make you cry. Just increase the base strip and it'll be fine.

Deny is mostly victim to slow cast times which is something that's being addressed, and the fact it costs 75 energy, holy moly does this create a bad synergy where everything is mostly dead by the time it comes out and it isn't something you can just throw out. Not only that but its a straight line. I would recommend just making it chain between enemies when you hit them and lowering the energy cost and maybe giving it a combo counter like ripline and landslide. Also this is just me being nitpicky but I think it would be better if it did a small radial slow when enemies are hit rather than a lift.

The Vast Untime, as much as I want to like it, it is ultimately a gimmick because the initial burst encourages you to hit enemies with it so they take extra void damage, but what's this? It also wants you to keep it on so your abilities don't go down in duration and so you can evade enemy hits. It's plagued by the fact that it wants you to do two contrasting things where I think it might be better to turn that AoE blast into a radial swarm of his body parts that constantly give enemies the extra void damage debuff. On top of that though dodge chance is anti synergistic with a lot of things in the game, either make it affected by strength and let it go up to 99% chance or turn it into a damage reduction because at the moment the dodge chance is just high enough where you still get hit enough to die, but not enough to proc arcanes or build up a good resistance with adaptation. Overall it needs more synergy with his other abilities and consistency.

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

10 hours ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

If they can already 1 shot with amps what’s the harm of giving people a different way to do that exact same thing?

One shotting with amps requires teamwork and prior investment. Unairu wisps...Void Strike....Proccing Virtuous Shadow...Volt shield...grinding Fortuna and Vox Solaris for the Certus brace....for example....

I could wait for a discount and buy Xaku, put a potato on him with some strength mods....

Do you see the difference in investment....??

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

10 hours ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

If they can already 1 shot with amps what’s the harm of giving people a different way to do that exact same thing?

And if we're going to allow a warframes abilities to magically damage an eidolons shield....why only one of Xakus abilities instead of all of them...? 

You said void damage is void damage, right? 

1 of his abilities imbues weapons with void damage, another 1 does burst void damage, and his 4th will increase said void damage. Clearly you recognize that's ridiculously OP if you have a group of 3 Xakus and a lure healer....

But as I said before....even imbuing weapons with void damage will be ridiculous enough....with the stropha and redeemer example.

What we should be doing at this point honestly is making it easier for people to obtain focus and/or amps. Because I totally understand people think the system is too much and are clearly looking for a cheap and easy way to completely circumvent the system and mechanics. But I dont want to hijack the thread any further I guess.

I'm just saying I understand the Vox solaris locked amp parts and focus abilities not being a simple grind can be intimidating, but letting Xaku damage eidolons is a massive mistake waiting to happen. 

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

13 hours ago, (PS4)Madurai-Prime said:

One shotting with amps requires teamwork and prior investment. Unairu wisps...Void Strike....Proccing Virtuous Shadow...Volt shield...grinding Fortuna and Vox Solaris for the Certus brace....for example....

I could wait for a discount and buy Xaku, put a potato on him with some strength mods....

Do you see the difference in investment....??

All I see if a frame who’s desperately needs a reason to exist. Is already balanced out for 1 specific reason. And is being prevented from said reason by some misguided idea that Eidolons fights need to suck as much as possible.

[quxier]

17 hours ago, (PS4)Madurai-Prime said:

Do you see the difference in investment....??

Couldn't you just buy this amp-thing for plat?
And for standing: not sure about Vox solaris but Fortuna was easy to get, even for solo player.

But couldn't Xaku deals "just enough" void damage to make it killable in reasonable time? Like some max amount of damage?

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

38 minutes ago, quxier said:

Couldn't you just buy this amp-thing for plat?
And for standing: not sure about Vox solaris but Fortuna was easy to get, even for solo player.

But couldn't Xaku deals "just enough" void damage to make it killable in reasonable time? Like some max amount of damage?

You can't buy amps......

And how much is "just enough"? Keep in mind if this is allowed, people will be using 3 to 4 Xakus.....So your "just enough" for 1 Xaku will be enhanced by just using multiple Xakus. 

They would also have to find a way to make this decreased damage not apply to the entire game.....

If you want to make them do more work by creating some way to nerf Xaku while in the plains at night but not anywhere else.....sure.....

[quxier]

34 minutes ago, (PS4)Madurai-Prime said:

So your "just enough" for 1 Xaku will be enhanced by just using multiple Xakus. 

Unless you can buff another player (and Xaku as well) then it's not different than people using another amp.

37 minutes ago, (PS4)Madurai-Prime said:

And how much is "just enough"?

Enough to deal visible damage (not like poking with the first amp) but less than your specific build/amp/etc (I'm yet to beat that guy so... yeah). It's level ~40 (afair) not 100.

40 minutes ago, (PS4)Madurai-Prime said:

They would also have to find a way to make this decreased damage not apply to the entire game.....

Couldn't they just make that certain enemies get less damage by *something*? I'm tired so... I don't remember all enemies.

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

7 minutes ago, quxier said:

Unless you can buff another player (and Xaku as well) then it's not different than people using another amp.

Enough to deal visible damage (not like poking with the first amp) but less than your specific build/amp/etc (I'm yet to beat that guy so... yeah). It's level ~40 (afair) not 100.

Couldn't they just make that certain enemies get less damage by *something*? I'm tired so... I don't remember all enemies.

You can buff warframes and their damage.....Roar, for example. You could actually use 2 Xakus and a Rhino and a lure healer. 

Xakus 1 will add void damage to your gunblades....Roar will increase the damage of those void-imbued gunblades.

There's literally no situation where this doesn't get abused. 

[(PSN)Kaiser_Rebellion]

Any one else thinks acuse is pretty useless? I don’t need a limited nyx. 

[Mademon]

20 minutes ago, (PS4)Kaiser_Rebellion said:

Any one else thinks acuse is pretty useless? I don’t need a limited nyx. 

so something ive noticed is that it might be giving the stealth multiplier (if not the stealth multiplier then some kind of damage boost) when you attack the accused. i can see it being used offensively once its recastable. the energy cost is still really bad though

[(PSN)ThanatosSloth]

4 hours ago, Mademon said:

so something ive noticed is that it might be giving the stealth multiplier (if not the stealth multiplier then some kind of damage boost) when you attack the accused. i can see it being used offensively once its recastable. the energy cost is still really bad though

You are correct, the damage is increased on the enemy under accused...tested...weird and totally worth using an aoe weapon with it to clear mobs...kinda wish if grasp of loch shot accused enemies that they would explode with aoe void damage

[quxier]

1 hour ago, (PS4)ThanatosSloth said:

You are correct, the damage is increased on the enemy under accused...tested...weird and totally worth using an aoe weapon with it to clear mobs...kinda wish if grasp of loch shot accused enemies that they would explode with aoe void damage

How much the damage is increased?

5 hours ago, Mademon said:

i can see it being used offensively once its recastable. the energy cost is still really bad though

I can see it being used for killing toughter mobs, especially with the Gaze.

6 hours ago, (PS4)Kaiser_Rebellion said:

Any one else thinks acuse is pretty useless? I don’t need a limited nyx. 

I don't mind small group of mind-controlled enemies... but if they die instantly then the mindcolntrolness being useless.

[Erl-King]

It would be neat if Void guns from Grasp of Loch could target enemies damaged by other abilities (including Whispers).

This would allow some viability for Grasp to non-max range builds. It is disheartening to see void guns to float in air uselessly while there are enemies around.

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

On 2020-10-05 at 10:39 AM, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

All I see if a frame who’s desperately needs a reason to exist. Is already balanced out for 1 specific reason. And is being prevented from said reason by some misguided idea that Eidolons fights need to suck as much as possible.

Uhm, that's a lot of conjecture. It actually isn't balanced out for eidolons as I've explained with data multiple times, and eidolon fights don't suck....they're actually very fun.

I'd imagine they suck if one had a mote amp and had not progressed in standing with the Quills or Vox solaris, or farmed any focus....but that's more on the player to actually do those things. 

Just like Profit Taker....Eidolons aren't for people that just started the game 2 weeks ago. 

The issue with void damage on regular enemies was the -50% resistance...which was removed.....so since that has been changed you can do way more damage with Xaku now.