Oberon rework - increased synergy and effectiveness

[TenTonneSkeleton]

INTRODUCITON

THE GOOD:

King of the Fae, Oberon is my most used frame. About 18% of play time currently. I like Oberon because I like not dying, and I like playing support. His passive is great for me because I always run with a Smeeta Kavat. His Hallowed Ground is one of the best crowd control abilities in the game while also being a fairly effective team buff. He is fairly good for Eidolons and other boss fights.

Thematically, he really appeals to me, being a champion of a natural world that has no doubt been contorted and abused by technology, hence the radiation damage.

THE BAD:

Some abilities leave much to be desired, especially in higher level play. The functionality of some abilities could be improved greatly, others just need a little tweaking. Renewal is a good example. As is, it works pretty well, however the fact that it is actually a static area of effect is fairly misleading. This ability really should be an aura centered on Oberon that moves with him. This would eliminate the need to constantly recast the ability when allies have fallen off the map, or hit a nullifer bubble.

Radiation damage and its status effect don't currently scale very well. It's good for crowd control, but when it comes to actual damage, it pales in comparison to the likes of slash or corrosive. This is more a short coming of the damage type itself, but one possible solution is to let Oberon be the avenue for a buff to this damage type.

THE UGLY:

When it comes to Steel Path and other high level content, his lack of damage really shows. I'm not saying that he needs to become a Saryn, but I would really like for him to offer more in those settings. His 1 and his 4 are the weaker abilities by far and I would like to see some slight tweaks here so that they perform better on Steel Path. As is, they aren't really even worth casting - doing next to nothing for his kit.

In time, I will come up with some videos to demonstrate this.

THE REWORK

In higher level content, it's simply not enough to crowd control enemies, which is largely what Oberon does. We also need to make enemies easier to kill. At his core, Oberon is a support frame, but I also want him to be able to hold his own when needed. His damage should mainly be seen over time. Not a frame that nukes, but one that clears inexorably given enough time, but more importantly supports his team.

Here are some goals of my rework:

• Increase synergy between abilities. Specifically, all abilities gain additional strength and perks when standing on Hallowed Ground.
• Make all abilities relevant to current content. Oberon can be built different ways to excel in certain settings.
• Make quality of life improvements
• Improve Radiation damage effectiveness
• Generally buff his kit to be more in alignment with newer frames' power level
• Allow damage scaling with higher level enemies
• Reduce energy demand for effective gameplay
• And finally, I'll suggest some augments at the end that each push the frame toward a particular playstyle and would be worth running

Here's how I would rework Oberon:

 

SMITE:

Ability purpose: Smite allows you to efficiently kill heavy units. Small scale crowd control. Sets enemies up to be weaker to other abilities.

• Move blind effect here instead, which would reliably blind the initial target
• Enemies affected by Smite take 30% more damage from Radiation.
• When enemies are standing on Hallowed Ground, they get knocked down. Knocked down enemies take more damage from other enemies.

Spoiler

 

This ablity has a lot of similarities to Breach Surge, except Surge is better. The only real use for this ability is Smite Infusion to give  a radiation bonus damage to your squad, (which has absolutely nothing to do with the original ability.) There is the somewhat marginal benefit of applying Puncture proc for Condition Overload.

I would move Reckoning's blind effect here instead because it doesn't seem to be very reliable as is. Blinding enemies opens them to finishers. This synergizes well if you are going for a finisher melee build and helps Oberon perform a little better with higher level content. Cast on heavy units to take them out quickly with finishers. The blind effect is more of additive effect and doesn't happen to every enemy hit by smite. The more smite projectiles hit an enemy the more of chance that enemy has to be blinded.

Additionally, I think these sorts of abilities should make enemies take more damage from their respective elements, making your other abilities more effective. This increases synergy between abilties and gives you a reason to cast his 1. It helps your damage type scale with higher level content. Enemies affected by Smite take 30% more damage from Radiation. (Which is affected by power strength)

 

 

HALLOWED GROUND:

Ability purpose: Enemy debuff. Ally buff. Large scale crowd control. Armor stripping!

• Add armor stripping over time.
• Visually, the grass grows taller, and sprouts flowers and small trees as it becomes more powerful. (Kills through Reckoning will now "feed" it:
• Due to new mechanics, you can no longer stack Hallowed Ground. Only one instance at a time.
• If you need to move Hallowed Ground to a new location, hitting the abiltiy key again will simply create a new isntance at your current location. The old one will be detonated similar to the augment.

Spoiler

 

Hallowed ground now strips enemy armor over time. Yup, this ability is where Oberon really shines. I would say it should generally take around 10 seconds to fully strip enemy armor (adding power strength will reduce the time). You could accomplish this by adding a Corrosive proc to the ability, but that might be a bit too powerful. Either way, I believe this abiltiy should have the added functionality of making enemies easier to kill, allowing Oberon to add something to higher level content such as steel path. I WANNA SEE THOSE RED HEALTH BARS.

Visually, it would be neat if Hallowed Ground grass grew taller or had added elements like flowers or small trees as more enemies died in it. Maybe little butterflies or bees (of doom!).

 

 

RENEWAL:

Ability purpose: Keeps allies alive, buffs teammates.

• Change Renewal to function as an aura centered on Oberon himself, and thereby allow Renewal to be reapplied from the same instance to allies who have lost the buff by falling off the map/into water or being nullified.
• Provide better visual representation of both allies under the effect of the buff and the radius of Renewal.
• Adjust the energy drain of Renewal to be more in-line with current abilities. Or at least don't increase the drain when replacing lost health.
• Perhaps incorporate Phoenix Renewal into the ability by default, or buff the augment
• Buff the ability slightly to be more in alignment with current frames' power level (*cough cough* Wisp)

Several of these changes are detailed here:

Spoiler

 

I believe Renewal should still synergize with Nekros shadows of the dead, but I think it should have much less effect. Using Renewal should just extend the duration of shadows by 10-20 seconds rather than proloning them indefinitely. The main issue here is that without high efficiency, the Shadows will very quickly drain all of your energy. There should be a bit more demand, but it shouldn't nuke your energy pool. It's an awkward situation to be in when both frames need their abilties to function but one can't use them because of the other frame. This could also be accomplished by simply not increasing the demand on your energy when replacing missing health. Just have Renewal be a constant static health regen with the same energy cost.

It could be argued the Phoenix Renewal augment should be a part of the ability to begin with, albeit nerfed. It's a strong mod, but more often I opt for higher power strength instead unless I'm doing a boss fight where more power strength doesn't help. If it was a part of the ability, maybe it only happened when you were standing on Hallowed Ground.

I also believe that in the current meta, Renewal could offer a tad more. When you compare renewal to something like Wisp's motes, it seems a little underwhelming. I think buffing Renewal would looking something like this:

"When allies are at 90% of maximum health or higher, weapons get a 20% radiation damage buff and 20% status chance."

 

RECKONING

Ability purpose: Main damage dealing ability. Synergizes with Hallowed Ground

• Increase the raw initial damage dealt by reckoning based on power strength. (At 300% PS, it should outright kill weaker steel path enemies if they have no armor or shields.)
• Allow damage to SCALE by massively buffing the Radiation damage that enemies deal to each other.
• Furthermore, enemies affected by reckoning while standing on Hallowed Ground completely ignore non-ally armor and shields, allowing for faster kills.
• We're moving the armor strip functionality from Reckoning to Hallowed Ground.
• Enemies that die to Reckoning while standing on Hallowed Ground increase duration, expand radius, and amplify the damage of Hallowed Ground.
• Change the chance of dropping a health orb to a chance of dropping an energy orb.

Spoiler

 

Currently, Reckoning does next to nothing in higher level content. As an armor stripping method it takes A TON of energy and even with 335% power stength, Steel Path enemies still have yellow health bars for some reason. Yes, they are standing on Hallowed Ground when I cast it. Not sure if this is bug, or what.

Anyhow, the health bars on Steel Path enemies barely move when I cast this, even at such a high power strength. The crowd control elements are pretty negible. Blind effect doesn't seem to happen all that often, and even blinded enemies don't seem to want to take finishers...

So, how would I change this?  I would increase the damage it deals substatially and have it scale. As a support frame, I don't expect him to nuke like Saryn, Volt, or Harrow, but I want enemies to die, at least the weaker ones. Surviving enemies should get buffed Radiation damage to their weapons, causing further choas, but particularly more damage. The catch here is that the Radiation damage that the surviving enemy does is SCALED based on its level. It's not huge, but with enough enemies close together, you can clear crowds with reckoning. Not whole rooms like Saryn or Volt, but I think you get the idea. More enemies close together = more damage. This buff only applies when under a radiation proc, so if they are attack you or your allies, they don't get the buff anymore.

I should clarify that this radiation damage boost to enemies works similarily to Oberon's augment for his 1. The buff makes it so that enemies do substatially more damage to eachother, through radiation, which in turn synergizes with Oberon's 1 (enemies are weaker to radiation) and also feeds Hallowed Ground. Buffing enemies to kill eachother seems realy cool to me, and fits in with Oberon's theme.

Next, instead of a chance to drop a health orb on death, how about an energy orb? Oberon is a very energy hungry frame. Health orbs do absolutely nothing for him because he has Renewal.

Fininally, enemies killed by Reckoning (and the subsequent radiation damage) increase the duration of the Hallowed Ground, extend its radius, and increase its damage and armor stripping capabilities. This one is very important because Hallowed Ground is such an crucial ability for Oberon. I think his other abilities should support it, especially since they depend on it to function.

You could think of Reckoning as a way to effectively FEED your Hallowed Ground. This makes perfect sense thematically since nature feeds and thrives on death.

 

 

AUGMENTS

My philosophy with Augments is that they should increase the power level or utility of a single ablity at the cost of others. It is the pivotal mod in a build geared to do a specific thing. They need to be powerful enough that they are worth sacrificing a mod slot for.

Some of the buffs I've mentioned would also make excellant augments if DE wanted to go that direction.

Buffs as Augments:

Spoiler

 

SMITE INFUSION (Melee Focused Build)

Enemies affected by Smite take 30% more damage from Radiation and have a chance to be blinded and opened up to finishers. Finishers have a chance to drop an energy orb. Hold ability to infuse ally weapons with 20% radiation damage and increase attack speed and reload speed by 20%.

HALLOWED ERUPTION (Stationary Mission Build)

Hallowed Ground strips 10% of armor per second. Enemies that die to Radiation damage while standing on Hallowed Ground increase its duration, range, and effectiveness to a maximum threshold. Hold ability to deal increased damage and strip armor more quickly at the cost of 20 energy per second.

PHOENIX RENEWAL (Boss fights, renewal build)

Taking fatal damage while under the effects of Renewal will instead heal 50% health. This effect triggers once for each ally every 60 seconds. When Allies are at 90% or higher of maximum health, weapons deal an additional 20% Radiation Damage and gain 20% additional Status chance.

HALLOWED RECKONING (Damage oriented build)

100% chance for Radiation proc on affected enemies that lasts 10 seconds longer. While standing on Hallowed Ground, damage dealt by enemies affected by Reckoning deal 100% more damage to other non-ally factions and ignore 100% of armor and shields. Enemies that die while under the effects of Reckoning spawn 5m Hallowed Ground patches that last for 10 seconds.

 

 

 

[Urlan]

Glad to see another "Oberon main" and hope he continues to work out. Personally though, I wouldn't pull too much switching around of Oberon's moves, but rather improve what they do and how well he can fill the role. Generally, Smite is interesting as it gives some form of scaling damage, but on Steel Path enemies have cumulative resistance to abilities as the old Trials had making making it not deal much damage even with the idea of the additional wisps being percentage based, also the damage of the wisp's percentage is not increased via power strength but rather the number each splitting that percentage of scaling - meaning the player would have to hit the same unit will all of them and the ability has been tweaked to try to make this less likely on spammed use.

My best suggestion here would be to remove those tweaks, and allow power strength to increase the scaling percentage of done per wisp instead of making more to split it; if desired make both happen; just don't split among them, and increase the percentage for each. And it would feel quite lethal as a move meant to be used instead of a weapon attack. If specifically talking about Steal Path, any warframe like Oberon for damage isn't going to shine, and his armor/life regen as-is, isn't going to shave most warframes alone; the cumulative ability resistance would have to go to make damage abilities that don't offer massive potential anytime to shine. Part of this also comes up in Oberon's crowd control abilities, as that same resistance weakens repeated effects like duration from the same moves on the same enemies; this makes it quite hard for Oberon to just crowd control as eventually the enemies will reduce even this less direct path of holding aggro to wee worth. Reckoning in kind, due to the armor boosts, and its Hallowed Ground Plus Reckoning armor strip effecting Total armor versus say Base Armor; means that such armor boosts make his armor strip as-is weaker and require even more power for the same level, the way to change this without removing the armor boost for Steel Path would be to make the armor strip Base Armor instead instead of Total.

I am hopeful that your showings with the Deer Paladin will help inspire or improve the warframe in the future; and inspire new kings of the fae in turn.

[Aisu9]

Renewal could also receive a healing buff, 30hp/s is not enought if we take another power who give health regen and Max HP for no energy (energy overtime i mean, wisp's buff pods cost "nothing").
It could also be an aura like mend and maim (apply heal over time constantly inside the aura range, if someone exit the aura range they still receive the healing but they can come back in to recover the h.o.t if they ran into a nullifier bubble)

[TenTonneSkeleton]

I personally haven't had much of an issue with his heal rate, but I have a very high power strength on my Oberon. Renewal heals over 100pts per second. Notably, the amor buffs from Iron Renewal and Warcry are so high that a lot of that damage is mitigated in the first place. I rather like the idea of putting Phoenix Renewal on the ability by default as long as you are standing on Hallowed Ground.

 

4 hours ago, Urlan said:

Glad to see another "Oberon main" and hope he continues to work out. Personally though, I wouldn't pull too much switching around of Oberon's moves, but rather improve what they do and how well he can fill the role....

I tried to keep the spirit of each ability but made slight tweaks that make them more relevent in current content, especially steel path. The way I've changed the mechanics, Oberon isn't outright dealing damge or nuking, he's forcing your enemies to kill eachother... now he just does it better than he did before. I've tried to increase synergy between all of his abilities so they all work together.

I know my first post is wall of text, so let me just summarize my changes in as few words as possible:

SMITE:

Has a chance to blind enemies, opening them up to finishers

Increases weakness to radiation damage signifantly

HALLOWED GROUND:

Strips armor

Enemies that die to Radiation while standing on Hallowed Ground increase its duration, range, and effectiveness

RENEWAL:

Works better with shadows of the dead.

Possible buffs when standing on hallowed ground such as increase radiation damage for allies. Phoenix renewal.

RECKONING:

Does more damage. And kills have a chance to drop an energy orb. Kills made by affected enemies also have a chance to drop energy.

Enemies that survive are imbued with buffed radiation damage when attacking other enemies. This damage naturally scales with level and is able to take out high level enemies.

[Bakahung]

I didn't play much Oberon , but I like those changes and the reasoning behind them with the limited knowledge I have of him .

I'm a little concerned about the 4 changes though,  there is a high chance that enemies that get buffed will kill a player on accident , due to randomly shoot at player ( same proble, with Nyx's Chaos ) or just AOE damage from bombard . 

 

It's not a big problem , but I just want to point it out .

 

Other changes are great.

[TenTonneSkeleton]

 

Quote

 

General

The status effect of Radiation damage is Confusion. It changes the faction of the afflicted target for 12 seconds, allowing for friendly fire between it and normally allied units. It also applies +100% damage dealt to allied units. Subsequent procs add 50% damage up to 550% total, with each proc having their own duration. Additional Radiation procs also appear to increase the effectiveness of an afflicted enemy's slam attacks against another enemy, sending them flying instead of simply knocking them down. Passive auras, like those from Eximus units or Ancient Healers, will stop affecting other units while their sources are Confused. Enemies that are linked to an Ancient Healer can be inflicted with Confusion, which will cause the Ancient Healer to also be affected by this proc, which, in turn, cuts the link.

Against Tenno, the effect additionally reduces weapon accuracy but lasts for 4 seconds. An irradiated Tenno cannot revive fallen allies, including Operatives in Rescue and Sortie Defense missions, even if the process started before the proc, in which case it will be interrupted. An irradiated Tenno can inflict Confusion on another ally by attacking them with an ability or weapon that procs Radiation.

Against Kuva Liches, Confusion will instead increase the damage the Lich takes from allies units, is limited to only 4 stacks (for a total of 250% increased damage taken from allies), and does not change the Lich's faction and thus will not cause the Lich to be attacked by their allies at all unless those allies are themselves afflicted with the Confusion effect.

Enemies affected by a Radiation proc will be covered in a purple-like substance.

 

 

This was actually some new information for me. I didn't realize that radiation procs already increased the units damage. I guess I feel that Oberon's abilities should just make radiation procs more effective somehow at higher levels, because honestly I am not seeing much damage even with the existing mechanics.

[TehGrief]

On 2020-11-14 at 3:24 PM, TenTonneSkeleton said:

RENEWAL:

I believe Renewal should still synergize with Nekros shadows of the dead, but I think it should have much less effect. Using Renewal should just extend the duration of shadows by 10-20 seconds rather than prolonging them indefinitely. The main issue here is that without high efficiency, the Shadows will very quickly drain all of your energy. There should be a bit more demand, but it shouldn't nuke your energy pool. It's an awkward situation to be in when both frames need their abilties to function but one can't use them because of the other frame.

It could be argued the Phoenix Renewal augment should be a part of the ability to begin with, albeit nerfed. It's a strong mod, but more often I opt for higher power strength instead unless I'm doing a boss fight where more power strength doesn't help. If it was a part of the ability, maybe it only happened when you were standing on Hallowed Ground.

You could also just move the augment for his 1 here instead. "When allies are at 90% of maximum health or higher weapons get a 20% radiation damage buff."

An incredibly easy solution to the abundant argument regarding Shadows of the Dead, Renewal could be tweaked to drain more base energy, but not increase drain when healing allies. It's foolish that it does both; several threads have suggested this change - do not increase drain for allies missing health. This solves your Nekros problem without adding in any further code - it's quick and it's easy; it should have been changed to this forever ago.

 

I do agree that Phoenix Renewal would make sense to be incorporated into the native ability, however, I disagree that it should be nerfed. Pheonix Renewal suffers from having a 90-second cooldown, unaffected by mods. This duration is enough of a balance for the mechanic to be included in the base ability. 

 

In the spirit of designing a new augment for Renewal, it should be themed properly and augment the way the ability functions. Here are a couple ideas for new Renewal augments:

 

Empathetic Renewal
Renewal drains Oberon's Shields to restore shields of allies affected by the ability (drains additional energy once shields have been depleted). 

 

Invigorating Renewal
Healing from Renewal is 50%. Allies affected by Renewal have increased movement and attack speed.

 

Furthermore, there are several glaring mechanical issues that Renewal has that need to be addressed:

 

[TenTonneSkeleton]

Your OP in that topic is incredibly well thought out and explained. I will add your changes to my OP and link to your original post.

I've often wondered why upon casting renewal some allies were not affected, then later gain the buff even though I didn't recast the ability. The only explanation is that it creates a static field where it was initially cast! I feel silly for not having realized that.


 

[TenTonneSkeleton]

I am still in process of cleaning up the OP and making it easier to read and understand my reasonings. I added an augment section at the bottom of the page:

Quote

 

AUGMENTS

My philosophy with Augments is that they should increase the power level or utility of a single ablity at the cost of others. It is the pivotal mod in a build geared to do a specific thing. They need to be powerful enough that they are worth sacrificing a mod slot for.

Some of the buffs I've mentioned would also make excellant augments if DE wanted to go that direction.

Buffs as Augments:

SMITE INFUSION (Melee Focused Build)

Enemies affected by Smite take 30% more damage from Radiation and have a chance to be blinded and opened up to finishers. Finishers have a chance to drop an energy orb. Hold ability to infuse ally weapons with 20% radiation damage and increase attack speed and reload speed by 20%.

HALLOWED ERUPTION (Stationary Mission Build)

Hallowed Ground strips 10% of armor per second. Enemies that die to Radiation damage while standing on Hallowed Ground increase its duration, range, and effectiveness to a maximum threshold. Hold ability to deal increased damage and strip armor more quickly at the cost of 20 energy per second.

PHOENIX RENEWAL (Boss fights, renewal build)

Taking fatal damage while under the effects of Renewal will instead heal 50% health. This effect triggers once for each ally every 60 seconds. When Allies are at 90% or higher of maximum health, weapons deal an additional 20% Radiation Damage and gain 20% additional Status chance.

HALLOWED RECKONING (Damage oriented build)

100% chance for Radiation proc on affected enemies that lasts 10 seconds longer. While standing on Hallowed Ground, damage dealt by enemies affected by Reckoning deal 100% more damage to other non-ally factions and ignore 100% of armor and shields. Enemies that die while under the effects of Reckoning spawn 5m Hallowed Ground patches that last for 10 seconds.

 

 

[Yamazuki]

I personally would prefer seeing his utility go up, rather than his own personal damage being increased. Any damage increase he gets should just be in the form of increasing weapon damage (armor removal and Smite augment). Any actual changes to his abilities, in my opinion, should just be changes to how he offers support.

The issue with Oberon at present is he doesn't really do much that other Warframes don't, and he doesn't even do any of the things he does with high efficiency. Without his Smite augment, there would have been less reasons for people to pick him, and well Helminth more or less makes him useless for most people. The are other Warframes that offer equal to or better health sustain, that also provide better defensive buffs to allies, and better cc. Renewal augment honestly doesn't mean much when the defensive buffs of other options and cc combination make it so no one in the group really would die anyways.

Oberon mainly needs Renewal buffs to be altered a bit, rather than armor it should be damage reduction, and the health per second when healing a Warframe should have percentage health scaling in addition to the flat amount, even if it's based on his HP to add more value to higher HP allies. The change to damage reduction also means he offers something to Warframes that don't rely on HP to stay alive or those with already high armor, it's also better for himself too.

Having DR and % HP scaling also means other than for Smite Infusion builds, he wouldn't have to go all out for Strength, which keep in mind, these builds are why some people complain about energy costs on Oberon due to lower duration and efficiency.

When it comes to reckoning, any sort of buffs to this ability, in my opinion, changes nothing. I immediately replaced the ability when I unlocked Helminth. Between the high energy cost and time spent casting the ability, I find it useless. Even if 1 cast did ok damage and stripped armor fully, I still would never use it. I can kill SP enemies quicker than casting the ability and then doing damage. The ability just needs to be replaced with something else. It should be another aura around him and applies to HG that strips armor from targets around him and those standing on HG. Orbs generated should just be energy orbs, even at a lower chance; which would reward him for killing enemies as a means of lowering his energy costs over time.

I personally find Smite fine as is.

As for HG, the radiation chance just needs slight increases, and that's honestly it. Cc and status protection is already pretty good. With the above changes, he would be able to make use of it, and even actually have range, and as long as enemies are dying he'll have energy to continue to do so.

I also think that for gameplay purposes, his passive should apply to Sentinels at this point.

[TenTonneSkeleton]

19 hours ago, Yamazuki said:

I personally would prefer seeing his utility go up, rather than his own personal damage being increased. Any damage increase he gets should just be in the form of increasing weapon damage (armor removal and Smite augment). Any actual changes to his abilities, in my opinion, should just be changes to how he offers support.

I see where you are coming from. When it comes to teamplay, Oberon definitely needs a buff. My rework was primarily geared toward being more effective solo. I use him for Steel Path and his shortcomings became glaringly obvious in that settting.

In most cases, Wisp fulfills the support role much better. This is largely because her buffs are so easy to maintain. They are indefinite for god's sake! I think it would behoove us to compare these two frames in terms of what they offer in a support role.

WISP

Allies can regain buff at will by re-entering Mote's range

Motes are indefinite and take no energy after being initially setup

In addition to healing, motes also offer increased attack and movement speed, and enemy stun (electric proc)

GOAT BOY

Armor buff is fairly substatial, albeit taking a large power strength to make it effective

Phoenix Renewal - but like you said, why should players be dying in the first place? Renewal needs to offer some additional benefits to damage to be useful IMO.....aaaand it takes up a mod slot.

Bleedout timer - again, why are players dying?

 

[AriaSTG]

On 2020-11-21 at 2:08 AM, TenTonneSkeleton said:

Phoenix Renewal - but like you said, why should players be dying in the first place? Renewal needs to offer some additional benefits to damage to be useful IMO.....aaaand it takes up a mod slot.

Bleedout timer - again, why are players dying?

Simply put, most public runs I have entered, they do not have neurons connected that well, spam melee on Noxes even though it works, walks into nullifiers just to melee or accidently jump off maps. When they fallen and cannot get up, u lack speed to help them as they just hold X to revive themselves, I cannot blame them as they are superior in terms of giving pain on enemies, why take pain when u can give pain?

Truly Pain Peko.