Mag's Magnetize alt doesn't work. My idea of a rework.

[(NSW)Belaptir]

I've been a Mag main for a while, been playing with her set for long and when I saw the cinematic video and how cool was that new thing she could do, I got very excited to see it in game. When the devs told us that the ability would get that effect in game I got also hyped. Until I tried it. Where do I start?

 

• Blast damage. Just... why? Blast damage is, I'd say, second to magnetic damage in uselessness on this game. It does nothing, and even if it did, when you consider what the ability does, it makes no sense at all. You are absorbing the bullets that are coming to you, and then shooting them back. How does a bullet become blast damage when it was a sharp projectile thought to cause slash damage? Solution:
  • The best thing would be to treat it like Zephyr tornadoes. The damage you return to the mobs should be that of the most absorbed type. If you get a majority of slash damage, the damage you give back should be slash. If you absorb mostly electric projectiles, then it should be electric. And so on. Making it blast not only is useless against most enemies (and scales even worse against armored ones) but makes no sense with the ability. Obviously, the damage multiplier would still be affected by strength as it is now.

 

• Speed: I get it, you are creating a magnetic field around you to attract every projectile and avoid damage. But while you are doing it, you are completely defenseless. This could be solved in two different ways:
  • Give magnetize a 360º radius. Or, at least, make it scale with strength. It would make sense. The stronger the ability, the stronger the pull, at 200% strength, the bubble should be able to redirect bullets that are coming from behind since the pull would have a strength of several meters. She's already vulnerable to melee oponents and to AOE explosions, and she's unarmed when using it. The least should be give the ability a defensive purpose since you can't do anything else.
  • Allow mag to run while using it. If you don't want to make her a potential tank (she can already be one with her shields, but we won't consider that possibility here, as this is a rework of her 2nd), at least give her mobility so she can be a strategical shield frame that can be placed in certain places to mitigate damage coming from that way. Also, as she's unarmed, this would increase her survivability. You keep your mobility and gain a directional shield, but you are unarmed in exchange. Garuda has already a directional shield, she is able to use her weapons while the ability is active and she keeps her mobility, I don't see why Mag should be different.

 

• Damage and damage radius: This is another problem. It's inconsistent and it's not clear at all how it damages the enemies. Specially problematic is how bad the damage falloff is. Solutions:
  • Don't treat it like an uniform wave of damage but like a shotgun buckshot. The amount of projectiles will increase with the amount of projectiles your bubble is absorbing. Instead of just increasing the base damage according to the amount of damage it absorbs, each bullet will have a base damage of 50/100/150/200 * enemy level. The max number of projectiles will be, at base duration, 25/50/100/175 and will increase in proportion to the duration of the ability Example:
    • At level 4, with a 100% duration it will create 175 projectiles. At 200% duration, it will be able to create a max of 350 projectiles.
  • Remove falloff, and make it work like a shotgun. If you shoot it at a pointblank range, 100% of the damage should go to the single enemy you have closest. The further the enemies are, the more enemies will be damaged, like what happens with the dispersion of a shotgun buckshot. Keeping the button pressed when deactivating the ability to launch it, will apply punch through to the projectiles. The charge takes 0.5 seconds and it will apply 0.5/1/1.5/2.2 meters punch through that scale with power.

 

The following are things that would add usability They are not a rework of how it works but added functionality:

• Make the bullets "bankable". I've been thinking of a way of doing this. The ideal would be that a longer press when recasting the ability to launch (0.5s to apply PT, 1 second to bank), will instead "bank" the bullets. The moment you cast a normal magnetize on an enemy, all the bullets you got banked will be added to the bubble to instantly increase the DoT that the bubble does.

 

• The augment will have a secondary effect on the defensive bubble: If you pass over an ammo box, it will add an amount of bullets of a certain damage depending on the type of box:
  • Rifle Ammo will add 10/20/30/40 bullets to your bubble with base slash damage of 50/100/175/300 * strength /10 (a 200% strength build at lvl 4 will add 40 bullets with 300*(200/10) slash damage each)
  • Pistol Ammo will do the same, but with puncture damage
  • Shotgun will add them with impact
  • Sniper/heavy ammo will add same bullets with same damage but from the element the bubble is right now (see first point).

 

Credit where is due. This rework idea came to life while discussing it with a friend, Tamefox, also on Switch. He contributed with a good portion of these ideas.

[Shaburanigud]

I like the idea very much!

And if we're talking frames being more like in the cinematics, I want...

1. Mag's pull to be more slow and suspend enemies as a CC
2. Volt to be able to channel UNLIMITED POWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH. as well.