A Valkyr update

[(PSN)sister-hawk]

Ok to get to the point, here's a list of Valkyr changes that are designed, not to rework her entire kit (because I don't think she needs that), but to simply improve the kit she already has.

Ripline: No longer yeets enemies into the void, and instead pulls them directly to Valkyr, opening them up to a finisher attack for 1 second after they are released. Even though it's not as valuable as it used to be before parkour, I don't want to lose the mobility options Ripline provides. But as an offensive tool, this change would make it actually useful for picking out a high value target in a crowd at distance and immediately eliminating them.

Warcry: When cast, the allied speed and armor buff and the enemy speed debuff now exist as an aura around Valkyr that starts at a maximum radius and shrinks over the duration of the ability, reaching zero once the timer ends. Each melee kill increases the radius by a flat amount, up to the original maximum. Many would argue Warcry is the best part of Valkyr's kit, but I think it just does too little compared to the abilities on modern and recently reworked frames. The enemy speed debuff is pointless if they are dead within 2 seconds. The aura would allow that effect to continue to be useful through the entire duration of the ability. This would also synergize well with her Eternal War augment.

Paralysis: No longer expends shields, and the "knock back" strength is now always the same. Duration of stun on enemies can be affected by ability duration. There's really no need for her ability to stun the enemies in front of her to be dependent on how much shields she has left, especially when she will never consistently have any shields active in high level content. She should also be able to lengthen the stun long enough to actually perform a finisher on more than one or two enemies.

Hysteria: New functionality - aiming when performing a heavy attack, while a viable target is within range, will cause Valkyr to grapple the target and perform a ground finisher, like she originally used to before the melee rework. I think Hysteria is fine as is, though some may argue it needs a damage buff. I mostly just miss being able to grab enemies with my foot and stab them on the ground.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

Your suggestion for her 4 gave me the idea that if DE intends to keep Valkyrs 4 at such a low range they should give it a few mobility options without needing an augment.

[(PSN)Twitchh13]

8 hours ago, (PS4)sister-hawk said:

Ripline: No longer yeets enemies into the void, and instead pulls them directly to Valkyr, opening them up to a finisher attack for 1 second after they are released. Even though it's not as valuable as it used to be before parkour, I don't want to lose the mobility options Ripline provides. But as an offensive tool, this change would make it actually useful for picking out a high value target in a crowd at distance and immediately eliminating them.

It would be nice if it didn't launch enemies like this, I agree. Opening them up to finishers is kinda whatever since you can kill them in one swing or a short animation, so I don't see how this helps her. If it pulled a group to you and they were all stunned for a second then you would have something there as it could improve the efficiency if her killing. Pretty much any enemy in this game that we would consider to be high priority and would benefit from being singled out is already immune to being pulled to begin with, everything else just gets cleaved down, and half the time we cant tell what we killed because they all just fall over.

8 hours ago, (PS4)sister-hawk said:

Warcry: When cast, the allied speed and armor buff and the enemy speed debuff now exist as an aura around Valkyr that starts at a maximum radius and shrinks over the duration of the ability, reaching zero once the timer ends. Each melee kill increases the radius by a flat amount, up to the original maximum. Many would argue Warcry is the best part of Valkyr's kit, but I think it just does too little compared to the abilities on modern and recently reworked frames. The enemy speed debuff is pointless if they are dead within 2 seconds. The aura would allow that effect to continue to be useful through the entire duration of the ability. This would also synergize well with her Eternal War augment.

I quite agree that even as Valkyr's "best" ability, Warcry is far from a strong ability in comparison to others and it only shines because of the weak abilities around it. Your idea is interesting as I have had a similar thought for how to make the debuff side of the ability work. The buff side of the ability also needs work though. The armour buff should be higher, something like 150% - 200% would be fair. Frames like Chroma have abilities that give 350% armour at base level and another one that gives an additional 150% armour. So at base Chroma can have an additional 2250 armour and Valkyr only gets 350 from Warcry, not too close I think. Finally the fact that Eternal war is the only augment you use to support your idea further support my thought that the duration of this ability needs to be increase as 15 seconds is a joke, Roar 30 seconds, Ele Ward and Vex Armour 25 seconds. eclipse 25 seconds and the list goes on. We shouldn't have to have an augment just to make an ability useable. Valkyr basically only has 7 mod slot plus 1 aura and an exilus because no Valkyr play worth their weight plays without this augment, there is no really choice which is wrong.

8 hours ago, (PS4)sister-hawk said:

Paralysis: No longer expends shields, and the "knock back" strength is now always the same. Duration of stun on enemies can be affected by ability duration. There's really no need for her ability to stun the enemies in front of her to be dependent on how much shields she has left, especially when she will never consistently have any shields active in high level content. She should also be able to lengthen the stun long enough to actually perform a finisher on more than one or two enemies.

"Prolonged Paralysis is a Warframe Augment Mod for  Valkyr that increases  Paralysis's stun duration, as well as slowly pulling affected enemies towards her." Pretty much does exactly what you are asking for except it pulls enemies to you instead of knocking them away which is better and they lay on the ground so you can do ground finishers  on them. Problem is that it is another band aid mod and the base range of 10 makes this ability pretty much useless because if enemies are that close ill just melee them. Range and pull speed should be doubled and the augment should be added to the base ability.

8 hours ago, (PS4)sister-hawk said:

Hysteria: New functionality - aiming when performing a heavy attack, while a viable target is within range, will cause Valkyr to grapple the target and perform a ground finisher, like she originally used to before the melee rework. I think Hysteria is fine as is, though some may argue it needs a damage buff. I mostly just miss being able to grab enemies with my foot and stab them on the ground.

Valkyr already has a heavy attack where she slams her foot on the ground and does a very high amount of damage, far more than her shiny death claws, and it gives all enemies the lifted effect, like a mini rhino stomp. All enemies will land and you can do finishers on the ground if you are close to them. I don't see how you feel Hysteria is fine as it is. Any enemy that Valkyr can kill with her claws won't be strong enough to kill her when she isn't invincible. Once you get into enemies strong enough to her her, well the claws you are lock into dont do much more than tickle at that point. Which makes the ability kind of super niche or even just for goofing around. Its flashy and fun, just it isnt a  strong or even good ability in its current state.

An option for her first ability could be something like this. An ability that on activation gives you 20% move speed for 30 seconds and and additional activations of the ability during its duration will cause her to charge forward 20m,  if she collides with an enemy than it and all enemies within 5m of it are knocked down. In addition dealing damage to enemies with grant a stacking Crit/Crit damage buff that stacks 50 times and lasts for the duration of the ability. This give Valkyr some mobility, small cc and increases the damage of her weapons and claws making her an option of more endgame content like profit taker or even eidolons.

[(PSN)thegarada]

I do not think these changes are sufficient. The slow need to be moved from warcry to either paralysis or ripline. Ripline needs an additional functionality, however, finishers are not a good idea. 

Rolling paralysis augment into the base skill would be a start. Adding a bit of range would be nice. 

Ripline could have a second functionality as a leap and apply the slow effect in an aoe. We currently can not reapply the slow effect from eternal war.