Inaros Rework Concept

[DeanSpillaBean]

Everyone knows Inaros is one of the best, but also the simplest, tanks in the game. But even with that praise his abilities are greatly lacking. Desiccate and Scarab Swarm are very good, but Devour and Sandstorm are left in the dust in terms of usefulness.  I've got two goals in mind while creating this rework, first is allowing Inaros to be more involved in battles besides sitting around throwing sand at people, and also making Devour and Sandstorm abilities worth using or building for.

One way I thought of to allow Inaros to be more involved in fights is using his Health as his Energy, similar to how Hildryn works. Making all his abilities cost Health, but also allow him ways to gain it all back. Another concept is Over-Health, but this one's more experimental, he gains Over-Health when killing enemies affected by Inaros's abilities. Though this could be swapped out as healing if it proves to powerful. More info on both are in his Passive.

This rework is a small part of a project I've worked on for months, Project Overhaul. Redesigning everything about Warframe, from damage type tweaks and status effects, to Warframe and enemy reworks, to entire story rewrites, and focus remasters. One change was to give Warframe class stats to work off of as well as an actual description of the Warframe instead of why they should be feared, or something like that. For the time being, there aren't any notes on any augments for his abilities as I wanted to focus on his main kit.

Inaros

·        Damage Amplifier (2)

Increases weapon damage and effectiveness

·        Tank (10)

Ability to last longer in deadly situations

·        Support (3)

Healing allies, creating protective barriers, or giving them buffs

·        Nuker (5)

Ability damage

·        Mobility (0)

Ability to cross huge distances

·        Crowd Control (8)

Debuffing enemies with slowness or stuns

 

Description: The Immortal Warframe, boasting incredible vigor through draining the life force of his enemies. Much like the deserts he protects, he too soaks up all the life of those around him, adding to his own. His massive health pool allows them to create cursed sand, draining enemy Health to heal and protect himself and allies.

 

·        Base Stats:

Health: 550 (2200)

Shields: N/A

Armor: 225

Energy: N/A

Sprint Speed: 0.9

 

·        Passive: Soul Siphon

Enemies killed while effected by Inaros’s abilities grant 50 Over-Health, enemies killed with finishers grant 250 Over-Health and restore 10% of Inaros’s Health.

Over-Health has a limit of 50% of Inaros's Max Health, does not decay. Similar to Over-Shields, that being extra Health above the maximum

Inaros has no Energy Pool, instead he uses his Health to cast abilities: Scarab Armor is reduced first, then Over-Health, then his normal Health

If Inaros dies, he forms a sarcophagus around him, siphoning the life force off of a targeted nearby enemy or ally, drains 100 HP/s (True Damage). If Inaros can drain 5000 Health, he is revived. Allies grant an extra 200 HP/s (300 HP/s in total) while being drained, but will only lose 100 HP/s, but cannot reduce their HP below 150. The siphon effect lingers for 0.25s after effecting an enemy or ally.

Damage from scarab swarm also counts, but only 20% of any heal from it

·        1^st Ability: Desiccate |AOE |Soft / Hard CC

Inaros throws out cursed sand in a wide area in front of him, dealing 200 True Damage on hit. If enemies where facing Inaros when hit they’ll be blinded for 8s, opening them up to finishers, otherwise they’ll be staggered for a moment instead.

·        Strength: Effects damage

Base Damage: 200 True Damage

·        Duration: Effects blind duration

Base Duration: 8s

·        Range: Effects range

Base Range: 15m

·        Energy: Health cost to cast

Base HP Cost: 50 HP

·        2^nd Ability: Devour |Single Target |Hard CC

Inaros traps a target enemy in quick sand, stunning them. Holding the ability key draws any enemy effected by Devour closer to you. If an enemy affected by Devour is within 5m, you will start draining its Health, dealing 400 True Damage to that enemy per second, while Inaros heals for 50% of the damage.

·        Strength: Effects damage/s

Base Damage/s: 400 True Damage/s

Base Heal: 50% of damage (Unaffected by mods)

·        Duration: Effects how long the target is trapped for

Base Duration: 12s

·        Range: Effects Cast Range

Base Range: 30m

Pulls enemies at 15m/s (Unaffected by Mods)

·        Energy: Health cost to cast

Base HP Cost: 100 HP

·        3^rd Ability: Sandstorm |AOE |Soft CC |Toggle

Inaros transforms into a roaring sandstorm, granting 50% damage reduction but slowing his move speed by 25% and draining Health while in use. Enemies in a 20m Radius take 500 Slash damage/s (25% Status) and are slowed by 40% while in the Sandstorm. Allies within range also gain 50% damage reduction, but any damage that’s reduced is dealt to Inaros instead

He is able to use weapons and maneuver around as normal

Enemies killed while affected by Sandstorm are converted into Sand Shadows, these Sand Shadows are invulnerable while Sandstorm is active and deal 2x their normal damage to nearby enemies. Sand Shadows disappear after 10s when Sandstorm is deactivated.

·        Strength: Effects damage of Sandstorm

Base Damage: 500 Slash/s

25% Status chance/s

Base enemy Slow: 40% (75% Max)

·        Duration: Lingering time for Shadows

Base: 10s without a Sandstorm

·        Range: Radius of Sandstorm

Base Range: 20m

·        Energy: Health cost to cast

Costs 200 Health to cast, then drains 25 HP/s while active

·        4^th Ability: Scarab Swarm |Self Buff | AOE |Hard CC | Heal

Holding will start draining Inaros’s Health at 30/s to gain 1% of Scarab Armor for each second (3,000 : 100% Max). Inaros gains Bonus Armor based on the percentage. Tap the key to remove 25% of Scarab Armor to launch a Scarab Swarm at enemies, any hit will be swarmed with scarabs, taking 200 Corrosive Damage/s (25% Status), enemies within 5m of those Swarmed enemies will also get Swarmed for 100% of the remaining duration.

50% of the damage dealt with Scarab Swarm is given to all nearby allies as Healing

When casting an ability while having Scarab Armor on while reduce a percent of it before touching your Health Pool

o   Desiccation: 0.25%

o   Devour: 1%

o   Sandstorm: 1.5% to cast, 0.25%/s of channeling

·        Strength: Effects Swarm Damage

Base Damage: 200 Corrosive Damage (25% Status)

Base Heal: 50% of damage (Unaffected by mods)

Base Heal for Defense targets: 15% of Damage (Unaffected by mods)

·        Duration: Swarm duration

Base Duration: 15s

·        Range: Cast Range and Heal Radius

Cast Range: 30m

Heal Radius: 15m

Spread Range: 5m

·        Energy:

Drains 30 Health/s to gain 1% Armor (Unaffected by Mods) 3,000 : 100% Max

Armor bonus is unaffected by mods

25% armor to launch a Swarm, unaffected by mods

 

A part of me knows any of my ideas would likely not become a reality, that I should just fantasize about some cool changes that could be done to the game, but the more I work on them, the more I feel it a crime not to share some of my more complete ideas or concepts. One day a Dev might see it, and one day they might use something from here when updating the game.

[Teridax68]

I like the core concept behind this rework, which seems to be making Inaros's casting entirely health-based. I also like moving the Sand Shadows from his 2 to his 3, and giving the latter a protection boost, as it could make Sandstorm more useful and let Inaros contribute more for his team. My one real criticism is that the over-health passive is kind of redundant relative to just extra health: if Inaros starts at 8000 health and can go to 12000 without it decaying, the only difference between that and starting at 12000 health is that the former needs a bit of charging up first. Simply letting Inaros heal from doing certain things as part of his passive while attaching health costs to his abilities could already generate enough of a gameplay loop, and make for a solid enough passive.

[BahamutKaiser]

Why not just use Helminth? 

[Teridax68]

15 hours ago, BahamutKaiser said:

Why not just use Helminth? 

To do what, exactly?

[Steel_Rook]

Whenever changes to Inaros come up, I typically have one cardinal rule - don't add damage to his abilities. Inaros is not a damage dealer frame, he doesn't need to cheese Slash procs or deal AoE damage to any significant degree. Leave him with a focus on durability, sustain and control. With that said:

I've become convinced that Sandstorm would work best as a sort of large-scale area denial/barrier sort of ability - something like a larger version of Zephyr's turbulence. Allow Inaros to drop a Sandstorm on a location. The sandstorm would deflect enemy fire coming in from outside away from the storm while debuffing enemy accuracy and slowing projectiles inside. That's it - that's all it needs to do. This turns it into a counterpart to a Frost Snow Globe or a Garaa Mass Vitrify or indeed a Limbo Cataclysm. Inaros is, by pretty much any definition, "a tank," yet he lacks any real ability to shield his team-mates. Scarab Swarm works, but that's VERY easily undermined by kill-hungry players just murdering Scarab-affected enemies and it does jack S#&$ to protect defence objectives. As such, what amounts to a solid barrier would help give him a more defensive role, which is what I feel he really ought to have.

As to having Inaros cast abilities from his health bar and building up Overhealth - yeah, that could work. I remember someone recently proposed an entire Warframe made of Kuva with a similar mechanic (Guen or Gwen, I think), so I've gone over similar ideas back-and-forth already. It should work quite well for Inaros since he has easy access to substantial healing. To be perfectly honest, I've always felt that DE ought to play around with systems like that a little more. I'm of the opinion that more Warframes should be designed like Inaros and Nidus - without shields but with large energy pools and access to healing/sustain. Or indeed like Hildryin - without energy, relying on some other resource. Atlas, Grendel, Rhino and more - those feel like they ought to work on resources of their own rather than just reusing the standard health/shields system. But that's besides the point.

One last parting thought - let Ability Strength affect Scarab Armour and display absolute values rather than percentages for it. Also just roll Negation Swarm into the ability and come up with a different Augment. I'm not a fan of abilities costing Scarab Armour, though. Reserve that for Scarab Swarm and Negation Swarm.